Being Self-Supporting with my own Business

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

:D I am trying to get a home-based business off the ground and my family just thinks of it as a hobby. I have made some inroads with
some companies that are willing to work with me. I have a company out West that is willing to put my specialty documents I do on their websites when one software program gets fixed and then in 3 to 6 weeks I will be on their site.

I am also looking for full-time work to pay the daily bills while I am building the business. I have members of the business community who have more faith in my business ideas than my own family does.

I am an authorized dealer for one of my software developers who believed in an idea I had and turned into a software program.

I have been working on this business for two years now part-time by doing people’s first name meanings, Anniversary documents, New Baby
Documents, The Day You Were Born. I can now send them over the Internet as Adobe Acrobat 6.0 pdf. files.

I just opened an ebay store to sell these documents to bring in some money.

I just feel like they keep belittling me by calling this a hobby all the time
when I am a registered business with the State of Illinois.

Are there any members of this forum who are trying to become self-sufficient by being self-employed but because of LD not being taken as a serious business person?

I am not trying to use this forum to sell what I do but just to share my frustration that I am having with the family over what I am trying to accomplish.

Submitted by bgb on Fri, 08/06/2004 - 3:59 PM

Permalink

You know, I don’t think this is strickly an LD thing. I’ve several non-LDers friends who started small businesses and the family didn’t take it seriously.

Prove ‘em wrong!

Barb

Submitted by victoria on Fri, 08/06/2004 - 5:01 PM

Permalink

It is always hard to get people to take you seriously when you do something different. In my own case, I run around tutoring students fifty weeks of the year, am out on the road anywhere from four to six hours five days a week, and then come back and work on the house, not just normal cleaning but renovation projects — and one of my tenants who had benefited from this for nearly a year said to my face that I “don’t work”. When you earn some money go buy yourself something nice and tell them you got it from your “little hobby”.

Submitted by Sue on Mon, 08/09/2004 - 2:13 AM

Permalink

I also make money w/ PDFs — it really is a viable business, but it’s new and not a “traditional” thing and it probably just seems too “easy” to them. Yea, right. The idea is easy, the marketing and fulfilling orders, OTOH… and I bet they expect you to be able to drop your “little hobby” whenever soemthing “more important” comes along.
I’d play my Broken Record (you know, those things that were made of vinyl, and if they got a scratch, would repeat the same little phrase again and again and again) about having customers and feeling obligated to doing a really good job on the customer service part of my source of income, so please pardon my eccentricity, it’s just hte way it is.
There are people who think musicians don’t work, either…

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 08/11/2004 - 9:01 PM

Permalink

:D I just wanted to let you all know that I just got my first order from my
listing on ebay at Michele’s Novelty Documents and I have relisted it for anther week. It is an ebay store listing under everything else.

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 08/21/2004 - 9:29 PM

Permalink

:D Well its been a couple of weeks since the first sale but someone else
has just ordered a first name meaning from my ebay store Michele’s
Novelty Documents.

My family wasn’t too impressed but every that I can get on my own with this little home-based business. Is money that can be used to pay bills and get me independent.

I have read that a journey of a 1,000 miles starts with the first step well I think I have made some progress on that journey.

Submitted by morty on Wed, 09/01/2004 - 5:02 AM

Permalink

msg,

I wish you success, but you should know that starting a home business can have serious reprercussions with your family if they don’t approve. My dad has run a printing business out of his house since 1988. My family clashes with him all the time about everything from his printing equipment in the garage to the messiness of the “front office” which my mom wants to be a dining room.

There is also the constant stress of making it work. Not to discourage you, but this could be one huge fight/headache.

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 09/07/2004 - 12:57 AM

Permalink

:D I finally went ahead and went to www.godaddy.com
and I got myself a domain name which is: www.noveltydocuments.us.

At the Ebay Store it is: http://www.ebay/michele’snoveltydocuments.us.

Now all I have to do is get a website to go with it but I am moving closer to getting one.

I am trying to make my site more appealing to the eye and I am learning how to make enhancements to the store.

I know it is going to take time for this to become a money making venture but then it again it took some big companies like Sears, Amazon.com and others just to list a few to make a profit.

I once read that someone asked Walt Disney how much he was worth and he replied” Well I owe the bank 10 Million Dollars” so if he can have a sense of humor about his financial affairs back in the early days of his business then we should take a page out of his book. In fact Bob Thomas
did write a good Biography of Walt Disney and all the struggles he went through to become successful.

So please check out my Ebay Store and tell me what you think.
My e-mail address is: [email protected]

Back to Top