Should I give up my business website?

Post date: 2023-03-14 21:39:40

I'm considering whether I should terminate the hosting of my business website with integrated shopping cart for financial reasons.

I ran a small craft business pre-pandemic selling both through my own stand-alone website and through Etsy for years. However, I was thinking of winding it up because maintaining profit was always a struggle due to lack of manpower, capital and economies of scale.

Then Covid happened. I had to close my shop due to lockdowns, shipping and other issues. I started freelancing in an unrelated field in order to make ends meet while my shop was shut.

The pandemic really drastically changed my worldview in many negative ways and made me question a lot of things in my life. During this period, I lost interest in my passion and crafting altogether. I've decided that I no longer wish to be a crafter professionally or as a hobby because it's only resulted in a lot of clutter in my tiny apartment and not much money.

I've been feeling pretty bitter and stupid about the time, money and energy I invested in my passion which I will never get back. However, it will be dumber if I continue to invest more time and money into this.

Post-pandemic, my business is less viable than ever because shipping and supplies costs have gone up permanently and so on. I've reopened my shop post-Covid recently but after two years of being shut and not being active on social media, I'm not seeing enough sales on my personal website to justify the expensive monthly hosting fees. I'm skint and could use the money.

To drum up sales, I would have to spend time and energy promoting my site on social media again and in my old hobby communities but I'm totally burnt out on my hobby and have lost all interest in it. I would rather focus on my job hunt for a regular job. I plan to keep my Etsy shop and rely on platform traffic to sell the remaining stock. I've always gotten more sales from Etsy than my stand-alone website anyway because driving traffic to a personal website is so difficult.

The current plan is to terminate my hosting, keep my domain name for now and set my url to redirect to my Etsy shop. I do hope to terminate my domain name eventually as well and wonder how long Mefites think I should keep it. One site suggested five years. I do hope to start a new business in the future but I'm not sure I will continue using this domain name because my new business will probably have a different focus and market.

On the surface, everything seems decided but pulling the plug for good is a big step for me given all the work I've put into it over the years. My business has been a big part of my identity so closing the website means admitting my failure and it's breaking my heart. I feel great regret and sorrow that things didn't work out so I've been putting the termination off. I enjoy the freedom and flexibility of running my own business and hate the thought of becoming an employee again at my age but I have to do it for financial reasons. It's true that I have learned a lot from running my own business but at what price? I've lost so many years when I could have been making more money doing other things.

I paint and have been hosting my portfolio (traditional fine arts paintings, not digital) on my website. I'm not a pro, just a weekend painting though I would love to be a full-time artist. If I close down my website, I will have to find a free website to host my paintings somewhere so that I have a portfolio ready to show others. Instagram? Does anyone have any suggestions?

I've been feeling terrible lately as I wrestle with my decision. I feel like a total loser in life. I dread starting all over again in middle age from the bottom in some new field and have no idea what I'm going to do next. I have no idea if I will ever start and own a successful business one day.Does anyone have any practical advice about the website termination issue and dealing with grief over letting my business go?

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