More Brits are moonlighting alongside the day job as eBay business sellers, according to eBay research. And economic uncertainty might be the reason, they suggest.
Apparently, of the eBay and other online business surveyed by YouGov, over half (57%) said they have additional sources of income or side businesses, heralding a new cadre of ‘DISCO’ entrepreneurs (Double Income Small Companies).
Outside of their primary online business, 36% have one other source of income, 16% have two, one in twenty (5%) have three or four additional sources of revenue. Makes sense.
And the research also examines the reasons why these business owners are spreading their bets:
– Only a third (33%) are confident that the economic recovery will continue at its current pace
– A fifth of small businesses (21%) do it to future proof their finances
– One in five small businesses (21%) diversify their income because their first source of income isn’t enough
Tanya Lawler, VP of eBay in the UK, says: “We are seeing more and more smaller entrepreneurs pulling out all the stops to achieve success. In fact, in the last five years the number of SMEs selling on eBay in the UK has grown by 61% to over 200,000 today.
“Policy makers need to do more to understand this important and growing section of the economy.”
One example is 27 year old founder of Nail Nation UK, Adam Kirby. Adam combines running his eBay with his full time accountancy job. He said:
“It’s tough to fit everything in. My wife helps a lot with the business and I get up at 4.30am to organise deliveries before commuting to my office job. Long term, we want to save enough money to open another business. In Nail Nation’s first five months of trading we made around £60,000. 2015 is going to be a really exciting year.”
5 Responses
And how many of these “moonlighters” are paying their taxes?
I imagine it’s hard when you are branching out in order to revive your flagging business, especially when you realise that unless you have a real profit margin, the scammers mean that you often end up giving items away for free and working for a couple of percent profit
eBay ID nailnation-co-uk = Nail Nation UK, Adam Kirby –
not VAT registered says it all
Spin? Double Income Small Companies = sinking/non viable companies or those who can’t make a living with there day job. zero hour contract workers – entrepreneurs or piece workers?