I’ve learnt a lot by starting a business. Recently I’ve come across many issues that I would never have foretold. From clicking the wrong boxes on Amazon so that I made no profit due to unforseen costs and commissions, to running out of everything from envelopes to printer ink. Yes, I’ve come across all of these. Only recently did I start this business, and here is a list of problems I’ve already encountered;

• Making a loss on my 2pks due to miscalculating Amazon costs.
• Not expecting quite so many “Lost Items” in the post.
• Running out of Paper to print my inserts.
• Running out of ink for my printer.
• Running out of envelopes so I had to use 2nd hand ones.
• ..finally – RUNNING OUT OF STOCK!

When we ran out envelopes we searched high and low for any old envelope in the house. We slipped a note in apologising for the tatty packing and explaingin my problem, so I hope all the customers understood. On the bright side, Reduce-Reuse-Recycle came into action.

These problems all occured one after the other. My dad agreed that the Amazon charges are confusing, anyone could make this mistake when starting out, then tried to fix them. It’s not just Amazon though, eBay fees are well hidden too.