Year ago there was a great variety of stores in every town. There was a bookstore, a bakery, a milkman etc. That's not the case anymore. Now there are large stores who sell it all. There is no place left for the little store. The reason for this is that clients don't have so much time anymore. They like it when everything is under one roof. Big store can sell for a lower price because they sell more.
On the internet there are other rules. Most of the webshops are one issue webshops. Bookstores, clothing, perfume, CD's every item has its own store. The reason for this are the way people shop on the internet. They use Search Engines like Google to search for a certain product. If you want to be number one in a search result you need a website with focus. The better the focus on your site the higher it will be in the results.
So it is easy the make a one man store on the internet. You focus on one product type like balloons or jewellery and you make yourself an expert on that product. Or maybe you are an expert already. There is no risk involved. Wait until you have your money, keep your stock low and when you have an odd request you run to the shop around the corner and buy the thing. Nobody knows that you work on your own when you have a great looking website and handling of site is easy.
The trouble starts when the site is growing and you sell more and more. Then you have to organise things, manage stockings and people, control the cash flow.
Whenever you start a webshop we give you this advice: Start small but think big. Think about how it will work when you sell a hundred times more than you do now. Will everything run as smoothly as it does now? Can you split up the work into several departments? Can all future employees logon to the system and have their own view and functions?
When you don't prepare yourself for the big bang there will be no big bang, at least not a big bang you can tell about to your successors.
