My dream:
My dream is I can start a small business that I can make some money for my education and living. Since that I am studying aboard, so that the cost is too much. In addition, I want to learn something about my major, so I think start a small business is a good ideal.
I would like to do some DIY things and put them online for sale. If there are customer, I will consider put more inventories online, not only for self-made products, but also other things. I could be a seller on eBay. I will also try to earn some scholarship, in case of I did not have any profit for a certain time.
This dream can be achieved because today everyone can be an online seller, there are a lot of platforms can provide such function, such as Amazon, eBay, and Taobao. So I can easily set up an online business to help me accomplished this dream.
Other Examples:
I think that if I can find actual people who have done similar project will help me to plan the detail that how I will do mine.
The first site I found called How to Start a Business Online, it indicate that if someone want to start their own online business, there are 7 steps that people need to do. The 7 step include Find a need and fill it; Write copy that sells; Design and build an easy-to-use website; Use search engines to drive traffic to your site; Establish an expert reputation for yourself; Follow up with your customers and subscribers with e-mail; Increase your income through back-end sales and upselling. Fortunately, those platforms I mentioned above can provide most of the functions, and what I have to do is to find products or make product by myself. In addition, I should response for mailing those product to customers.
The second website I found is about The Advantages & Disadvantages of a Business Using the Internet for Business Activity. It is a very convenient way to start a small business, but there are some disadvantages which can be ignore. Since the advantage is outweigh the negative.
Barriers:
The only barrier that I can image is how to balance the time between the study and the business. Based on my term schedule, I have average over 16 credit per term. I have to plan carefully to keep my academic progress while run the small business.
Current Finances:
Budget Projections/Variations:
From the table above, I overspend the budget. Obviously, the largest part is the Tuition. Because the international student has a 12 credit limit per term, so this cost me a lot. I am going to write two different budget. There will be two different ways of income of the online business will give an estimate, so I can plan if I will make money to aid my studying and living.
With this budget for the cheapest column this is based on information on the internet and calculation.
For the invest money there are two separate plan, the cheapest column is based on my estimate. It means that I do not spend more than 200 dollar on prepare the business. I will only sell handmade product, so the cost will be only for materials. The expensive ways is that I do not only sell hand-made product, but also other things. This is the reason the invest money is much more than the cheapest way. I have to purchase some inventory to prepare for it.
The online service part, cheapest way will cost no money, based on eBay service rate information if there were less than 50 items sold, there will be no charge for the first 50 list item for the insertion fee. And 0.03 for per additional item. The reason that I add an additional fee column is that eBay require a final value fee for any item of sale, and it cost 10 percent of each item’s final value, and 750 is the maxima limit. Since that I will not sale anything over 750 dollar, so I do not need to worry about it.
The electricity fee depends on how I use my computer. I have a powerful desktop computer, the total power consumption is over 800 watts. If I followed that way I used to on the computer, it will help me to keep the same electricity bill. However, if I run this online business which means that I have to extend the time of using computer, so the bill will increase.
Transportation fee is also a thing I need to considering. After starting the business, I will go to post office more often. I drive so there will be an increasing in gasoline. Cheapest way is that prepare everything needed in one time, the expensive way will be flexible.
The mailing service cost is based on the USPS rate information. Cheapest way is that I only purchase the box for shipping. The expensive way is that I purchase the box and also share the shipping fee. There will be no more extra cost on this part.
Based on this budget, my plan will work. Based on the profit, I can cover the over spends and I can still get some extra money.
