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Hi everyone!
I’d love to hear from people with more experience running a business, especially in e-commerce.
For about two years, I’ve been selling biological treatment products for septic tanks and domestic wastewater treatment systems. I started by reselling existing products, then developed my own brand, formulation, and production process. I created the product from scratch, including the formula, label, and packaging.
More than 1,500 people have bought my product so far. It has received around 60 reviews, all rated 5/5. I currently sell over 300 units per month and have returning customers. Monthly revenue is approximately $9,000, with about $2,000 in profit. For the first time, I’ve reached a point where the business consistently makes a profit month after month, rather than requiring me to keep putting money into it.
However, I’m wondering whether this model has the potential to become a larger business. I do everything myself: manufacturing, packing, shipping, and managing sales. That helps me maintain my current margins, but my time and production capacity are becoming a bottleneck. On my own, I can produce up to around 1,000 units per month. Even if I reach that sales volume, further growth would require hiring someone or outsourcing some of the work.
That’s my biggest concern. Advertising costs and marketplace fees already eat up a significant share of my margin. I’m worried that even with higher sales, I won’t generate enough profit to afford help, or that outsourcing production or order fulfillment would leave me with too little profit. Orders can come in around the clock, but someone still has to make the product, pack it, and ship it.
My current plan is to expand the range with two or three complementary products. I have ideas for them, but developing formulations, testing them, and getting them ready for sale takes a lot of time, especially while handling existing orders. It feels like progress is too slow.
I’m also considering contacting other manufacturers that could supply complementary products under my brand through private labeling. This could help me expand the range faster without having to develop and manufacture everything myself. On one hand, I see an opportunity for growth. On the other, part of me wonders whether I’d be taking the easy route and whether this would give me enough of a competitive advantage. There’s also the issue of lower margins. Could the additional sales volume and time saved make up for earning less per unit?
After two years, I still haven’t reached a level of income I’m happy with. At the same time, the business is profitable, covers my taxes and mandatory contributions, and has satisfied customers who come back. That makes it difficult to decide whether I should give it more time, change how I operate, or look for a different business model.
I also keep thinking about moving away from this model, learning something new, and building something that offers customers more value while having greater potential for growth and profit. But I find it hard to tell the difference between a situation where I should change direction and a stage that simply requires patience and more work. I don’t want to walk away from something that’s starting to work, but I also don’t want to spend years building a business that won’t allow me to reach my goals. These doubts become particularly strong when I calculate how many units I would need to sell to reach my target income. I have even more respect now for people who have built larger businesses, because I’m starting to understand how much work and how many difficult decisions it takes.
Has anyone here been through a similar stage? How did you move from doing everything yourself to running a business that could afford employees or outsourced services? Has combining your own manufacturing with private-label products worked for you as a growth strategy? How did you decide whether to keep building the business or change direction?
I’d love to hear from people with more experience running a business, especially in e-commerce.
For about two years, I’ve been selling biological treatment products for septic tanks and domestic wastewater treatment systems. I started by reselling existing products, then developed my own brand, formulation, and production process. I created the product from scratch, including the formula, label, and packaging.
More than 1,500 people have bought my product so far. It has received around 60 reviews, all rated 5/5. I currently sell over 300 units per month and have returning customers. Monthly revenue is approximately $9,000, with about $2,000 in profit. For the first time, I’ve reached a point where the business consistently makes a profit month after month, rather than requiring me to keep putting money into it.
However, I’m wondering whether this model has the potential to become a larger business. I do everything myself: manufacturing, packing, shipping, and managing sales. That helps me maintain my current margins, but my time and production capacity are becoming a bottleneck. On my own, I can produce up to around 1,000 units per month. Even if I reach that sales volume, further growth would require hiring someone or outsourcing some of the work.
That’s my biggest concern. Advertising costs and marketplace fees already eat up a significant share of my margin. I’m worried that even with higher sales, I won’t generate enough profit to afford help, or that outsourcing production or order fulfillment would leave me with too little profit. Orders can come in around the clock, but someone still has to make the product, pack it, and ship it.
My current plan is to expand the range with two or three complementary products. I have ideas for them, but developing formulations, testing them, and getting them ready for sale takes a lot of time, especially while handling existing orders. It feels like progress is too slow.
I’m also considering contacting other manufacturers that could supply complementary products under my brand through private labeling. This could help me expand the range faster without having to develop and manufacture everything myself. On one hand, I see an opportunity for growth. On the other, part of me wonders whether I’d be taking the easy route and whether this would give me enough of a competitive advantage. There’s also the issue of lower margins. Could the additional sales volume and time saved make up for earning less per unit?
After two years, I still haven’t reached a level of income I’m happy with. At the same time, the business is profitable, covers my taxes and mandatory contributions, and has satisfied customers who come back. That makes it difficult to decide whether I should give it more time, change how I operate, or look for a different business model.
I also keep thinking about moving away from this model, learning something new, and building something that offers customers more value while having greater potential for growth and profit. But I find it hard to tell the difference between a situation where I should change direction and a stage that simply requires patience and more work. I don’t want to walk away from something that’s starting to work, but I also don’t want to spend years building a business that won’t allow me to reach my goals. These doubts become particularly strong when I calculate how many units I would need to sell to reach my target income. I have even more respect now for people who have built larger businesses, because I’m starting to understand how much work and how many difficult decisions it takes.
Has anyone here been through a similar stage? How did you move from doing everything yourself to running a business that could afford employees or outsourced services? Has combining your own manufacturing with private-label products worked for you as a growth strategy? How did you decide whether to keep building the business or change direction?
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