It is often said in the field of self-employment that 80% of small businesses fail within their first five years.
Beach glass used to be a way of life for me
Seems like a somewhat gruesome statistic, but it is really hard to build a business, especially from home.
Lately, I have been feeling some nostalgia, as I wind down my jewelry supplies business with "found objects." Of course, this one lasted far longer than five years... I started it in 2007.
For a while, it was allowing me to make about $50K a year doing one of my favorite things: Finding and picking up interesting things on the beach.
Sadly, I don't have access to finding things the way I once had (when I started, there were only a couple of us, now "everybody" wants to do it) and — like a great many fields — the business has also fallen victim to the problem of (this will be "politically incorrect") "Cheap crap from China."
I can't make a living — especially in today's inflationary economic climate — trying to sell something for 50-75% less while my cost of living has become 50% more.
And so, I end up waxing nostalgic for the "old days," like I used to hear elderly relatives do, when I was a kid.
Maybe it's just (possibly false?) perception that "good things" come to an end much faster than "bad things." Sometimes it feels like I have been outsourced and outdated in practically everything I have attempted... even such a thing as beach combing.
No, I'm not angry about it... more sad than anything. Endings do tend to make me sad...
Lately, I have been working a lot on accounting and bookkeeping... perhaps my least favorite thing about being self-employed. But hey, it has to be done.
My once thriving business made the head spinning sum of $1,514 in 2023. So it really is time to call it quits... and perhaps "reinvent myself" once again, at the tender age of 64.
It seems necessary — if not essential — as my work as a book editor is also on its way to be made obsolete by AI and outsourcing to SE Asia.
But these are the times in which we live.
I suppose I could be bitter and angry about it all... but what's the use?
When I was young, one of the challenges I set for myself was to work at — and with — things I sincerely believed in.
If life has taught me much of anything, it would be that I am thoroughly out-of-step with what most people in the world want, and most people are thoroughly out-of-step with what I want.
It simply is, and that's OK.
But today I have been feeling a bit nostalgic and longing for a time when I did pretty well, doing something I really enjoyed doing!
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Created at 2024.10.16 00:12 PST
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I have a similar feeling, only I have never done well for myself, and have never done anything that anyone else valued. I don't think I ever will.
!HUG
I guess it's what happens when you don't really relate to mainstream likes and preferences.
I love beachcombing. What sort of things did you find, other than sea glass, and I'm guessing driftwood? It's sad your business has ended.
Sea glass, old pottery, driftwood, oyster shells, hag stones and pretty much anything interesting I would come across. It was fun while it lasted.