This year I got diagnosed with fibromyalgia after dealing with this pain and disease for 12 years. I’ve been suffering hard with depression and anxiety for the past 3 years and I find it debilitating enough to keep me from a job and haven’t had luck getting remote work. However, my husband and I are not doing well financially and I’d like to help. So, I am considering opening an online shop with things to help with pain.

The shop would be an arsenal of things I’ve learned to use to help fibromyalgia pain like epsom salts for baths, heating pads, Turmeric supplements, specialty teas (like for painful periods) and a flagship product of an herbal lotion that helps provide immediate relief to painful mucles. (Plus more products- this is just for example.)

I’m wondering if I put the effort into the shop, would a store like this work? I know most stuff is just bought off of Amazon, so I don’t want to open a shop and get left in the dust. I’ve had businesses fail already and am ready to succeed. Thanks for your help.

  • d_sakamoto@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    I don’t know the financial circumstances of the OP. Will this make $1B? No. 2% of adult population, 4M Americans, 330k users on PatientsLikeMe (guessing 10% with fibromyalgia), buying private-label consumables at a 40% gross margin. Sounds like an easy way to $1M EBITDA. $4M in a few years may not be a lot to you, but it’s a lot to a lot of people.

      • d_sakamoto@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        Well the nice thing it’s up to the OP to decide what to do with our advice: take your advice and do nothing, which may be more valuable than trying again, but it’s definitely $0. However, there are lots of people making millions on Shopify because they have a captive audience that relates to the founder’s story. If you know 1,000 similar patients to you, you can make a living.

        • travelguy23@alien.topBEnglish
          1·
          11 months ago

          The OP won’t make millions from this. That is very clear. The average person can not earn that much from products like this. You’re deluded. Yes, some make millions but 99% fail.

          • d_sakamoto@alien.topBEnglish
            1·
            11 months ago

            Now you’re just making up statistics or providing statistics from your deal flow. Shopify survivorship is 51.6% at 5 years (published by Shopify). BLS average survivorship at 5 years is 65%. Maybe your experience is 99% fail, which would mean you would have done/seen 100 deals (unlikely), or you just want to be right and beat down on people on the internet.

            • travelguy23@alien.topBEnglish
              1·
              11 months ago

              That data is BS. What does survivorship mean in this context. Making $5 a month in sales?