New generation of online entrepreneurs are cashing in

Jan 28 2010 By Karen Dent, The Journal

Hundreds of thousands of people have offloaded their unwanted belongings and made a little extra cash via online auction house eBay. But the advent of the recession appears to have created a new generation of e-entrepreneurs who are taking the idea of running their own online business much more seriously. Karen Dent reports.

RECESSION-fuelled fears about job security and income are being credited with causing a boom in the number of people starting up small online businesses, while continuing to hold down their main jobs.

An estimated 170,000 people in the UK have set up internet-based enterprises to resell items, according to PIXmania-PRO which operates an online reselling service.

Seven out of 10 e-entrepreneurs who took part in the survey said they had launched their business while still working in their full-time job and just 3% viewed their online enterprise as part of a long-term ambition to become self-employed.

The study identified few start-up costs and no financial risks as the main reasons why people chose to launch online reselling businesses. The low management costs of this type of business were also popular among the part-time entrepreneurs.

The survey defined reselling – which is typically carried out via eBay – as selling on products direct from a large retailer without needing to purchase or hold any stock first.

But that is just one of the growing online business trends that is taking off as more and more people use the internet to supplement their income or to dip their toe into the water before taking the first step towards becoming self-employed.

Keith Newman, from Ulgham near Ashington in Northumberland, and his wife Lesley-Anne had been selling their own unwanted goods through eBay for a number of years but decided to take their hobby to the next level when they were made redundant from jobs in the gas industry at the same time.

The couple moved into selling vintage collectable items under the All Your Yesterdays business banner.

Mrs Newman now concentrates full time on the eBay business but her husband does so on a part-time basis, alongside his own public relations company Highlights PR.

He said: "She buys the stock and I put the stock on eBay. It’s dead easy to do from home. You’ve got flexibility.

"If, for example, in the recent bad weather, I can’t work with my PR hat on then I can do this.

"You use all the tools in your box and work the hours you want to work."