Another way of looking at it.

Thanks for the link. The idea for selling locally is not too far fetched, but given our location, Burlington, Vermont, along with a lack of storage space and really no access to capitial to invest in a slow moving product, it makes it difficult.

All in all, I'm taking all this as a learning experience. By the time I find the right opportunity, I'll be better prepared.

Ron

Ron,

I know you've put quite a bit of work into so far to have been asking the question the way you have, but if it isn't working why not look at alternatives instead of tweaks.

What does this have to do with your quest for improving your existing business? It's simple, the more you can earn in a single day the better your earnings will be. If you can do one thing for one to two hours a day and do something else for a few hours a day and both are bringing money then you could afford to expand so that each business would have a higher return on time invested. You do have to ask yourself if jewelry and software are profitable enough to keep on doing it though. It sounds like the market is flooded with too much competition (both from your description and from my experience with ebay). It has also been my experience that you are paying far more to a dropshipper than you would to buy directly from the manufacturer and pay for shipping yourself, though that does require storage for inventory.