Ok, so that's all over and done with

So, I had a blog to promote my business, spent some time in eBay. I had some successes in eBay, and if I were single and never had guests over, I might have continued, but it was a real pain.

It all depends upon what you are selling. I was selling, mostly, used books and DVDs. A few new books, a few self-published books (not my books, but by other authors I know), some other odd things like software, but mostly used books and DVDs.

The books were unique, so I wrote a review for each one. Some I made nice little pages for, and some of the photos I took were pretty good. But the sales prices weren't high enough to justify the time commitment.

I didn't have a lot of time to pursue my other business interests much (like filmmaking), and then there are things like having a life.

I liked to make sure everything was done correctly, and got great reviews from buyers. But keeping up such a reputation can be stressful, especially when you're talking about something that takes up as much space as a used book.

Then a two year old visited the house. Luckily, she didn't touch anything that was currently being bid on or even watched. But she did get hold of a marker, and did start drawing a little.

In order to prevent our home from being blocked off to children, and because the financial (and emotional) reward wasn't big enough to warrant renting out a warehouse, the business was winded down, and I started concentrating again on what children like, my fiction.

Other things, like eBay's continuing changing of terms and conditions (most of which were for the better, but which just meant more time input for diminishing rewards), items supposedly getting lost in the post, and the general low level of profits in the niche that I preferred, must have influenced my decision.

So why say all this well over a year later? (has it been two years?) Well, today I attending a little seminar on business finance and we went over viability (or whether it's worth staying in business or better to wind up).

It just made me think, had I continued with the business, where would I be? I'm glad I got out when I did.