Introduction

Hello!   My name is Michael and today is the first day of an experiment I’m embarking on to build an eCommerce business. I decided to blog my journey for all to see with the hope has it might have value for whoever reads it. And who knows, maybe posting daily updates will have value for me too!   😊

I’ll try to keep these posts short and to the point, brutally honest about the mistakes I make (I know there will be many!) and hopefully I can eventually share some wins along the way. Ultimately I hope this is motivational for you and that by documenting my decisions, mistakes and missteps, it may help you make better decisions and save you from repeating the mistakes if you choose to start your own business too.

About Me

I’m 67, retired (healthy and active), I live in Dallas, Texas. I’m a CPA, a pilot, I’ve dabbled in real estate investment and spent most of my corporate career with Fortune 500 companies in technology as a software developer, business analyst, project manager and ultimately senior manager.  As I mentioned I started my career as a CPA but quickly found I enjoyed solving business problems with software more even than analyzing financial data (although I still enjoyed financial analysis).   My father was an entrepreneur though, and I’ve always thought the ‘work for myself’ path was the better one for me but frankly I never had the conviction to pursue that path with the necessary commitment and determination.   Will I be successful?    I guess we’ll see but I’m completely confident that I will succeed, I’m committed to this path, I’m prepared to endure the inevitable setbacks, failures and disappointments and …  win or lose, I’ll honestly report my activities here.  

My Objective

I’ve never intended to fully retire, I just wanted to retire from ‘corporate America’. My objective now is to find something I can do for myself in retirement that is profitable with good upside potential that I can do from home or anywhere I want to travel to, that’s a business that provides legitimate value to the customer, where I have some experience in (software development, analytics, SEO, affiliate marketing) and where the risk is reasonable.   I don’t need income now but I love the ‘game’ of business so want to eventually turn this into a $20k/month profit business that I can sell, or maybe just continue to operate.   If that takes a few years, so be it, but of course I expect to see growth and progress every month.    So here goes…. 

Day1

Day one was actually Sept 23, 2024.  Today is Oct 18.  So a little late starting the blog but I can quickly catch you up.  

I spent my first 2 weeks refamiliarizing myself with the online opportunities available in 2024 in affiliate marketing, becoming an influencer, ecommerce, SaaS software opportunities and leveraging artificial intelligence in software, most of which I had experience with in in the past.   I quickly came to the decision that my analytical nature and lack of a specific area of interest (e.g. travel, hobbies, etc) made ecommerce ideal for me.   It involves analyzing product/market fit to find gaps or niches that are underserved and trying to either (a) bring a better product to that niche and/or (b) making existing products more affordable online, as ways to better solve a problem and find commercial success too.