I started an e-commerce business after years of writing about profitable ones. Here's what I wasn't prepared for.

• After writing about Amazon and Etsy sellers for years, I decided to try e-commerce myself.
• My friend and I created a product, a pickleball paddle, and listed it on Amazon and Shopify.
• I wasn't fully prepared for the time commitment. Starting a business, even as a side project, is all-consuming.

When I launched an e-commerce company in 2024, the main objective wasn't to make money. Though, that would be a nice consequence.

Curiosity was more so the impetus.

After years of writing about wealth-building strategies and interviewing people who have created revenue streams outside their traditional 9-to-5 income — everything from buying rental properties to investing in franchises to flipping sneakers — creating a product and selling it online seemed like the most straightforward way to make a couple of bucks on the side.

My conversations with e-commerce entrepreneurs got me thinking: Can anyone — including a journalist in her early 30s with some savings to play with and a couple of free hours after work — do it? And what does it really take? Is starting a profitable Amazon business or Shopify storefront as simple as some of my interviewees make it out to be?

My gut told me no.

For starters, I was talking to business owners who had already "made it" — individuals bringing in tens of thousands of dollars from their Amazon or Etsy businesses who could authoritatively give our readers advice on how to do the same. For every successful entrepreneur, I'm sure there are 10 who fail.

Plus, it's impossible to understand the entire story of how a business is created in a 60- to 90-minute interview. I wanted the true, full inside scoop — to understand the entirety of what goes into entrepreneurship, including the most unglamorous and underreported details — and starting my own business seemed like the only way to find out.

What I wasn't prepared for: Building a business, even if it's a 'side hustle,' is all-consuming

I'm over a year into the curiosity experiment and have answered one of my original questions: Can I start an e-comm business?

Yes, I can! It took more money than my business partner and I budgeted, but we built a product — a pickleball paddle — and listed it for sale on Amazon and Shopify. We are officially in business.

Anyone can do the same thing with a couple of thousand dollars and a lot of time. More time than you think.

There are the major, monthslong tasks, such as selecting a product to sell and working with manufacturers to actually bring the product to life.

Then, there are the nitty-gritty tasks — the little things you don't always read or hear about: forming an LLC, opening a business bank account, purchasing a web domain, building a website, photographing your product, setting up an Amazon seller account, setting up social media accounts, understanding Amazon FBA versus FBM. The to-do list is ever-evolving and never-ending. With each online form you submit, you're 75% sure you're properly filling in the blanks or selecting the correct button, but you can never be sure.

There are inevitably going to be intangibles — figuring out what to do when your manufacturer misprints text on 500 units of inventory, for example, or dealing with a surprise $2,000 expense — that also require time and brain space.

When you're not at your computer or on the phone completing a task, the business seeps into every crevice of your life, taking up headspace and weaseling its way into conversations. It's omnipresent — at least, it is for me.

I spend the majority of my weekly sessions with my life coach, who I've been working with before the business, talking about how to grow our brand: Peak Pickleball. On my daily jogs, my mind naturally wanders into Peak territory and, when it does, I record a voice memo mid-run to ensure I don't lose the idea of the moment. I literally fall asleep at night thinking about marketing strategies.

It's even seeped into my workday. I'm writing about it now, after all, on a Wednesday afternoon.

The business takes up physical space, too. Boxes of inventory and bubble mailers that I pack the paddles in from my kitchen table encroach on my small, studio apartment.

Like many entrepreneurs I've interviewed, I started this as a "side project." But nothing about it feels like a side. It's a main course.

Here's the thing, though: It's not an annoyance, nor does it feel like a burden. Yes, the business intrudes and invades — but it's also exciting and energizing. And, I have the benefit of splitting the load with an excellent partner.

As I'm figuring out the answer to my original questions — can I start an e-comm business? (yes) and is it simple? (not exactly) — new ones have surfaced: Can I sell my product? Can I turn a profit? Can I even break even?

Perhaps anyone really can get started, with some money and a lot of time and patience, but that's only half the battle.

More from "The eCommerce Experiment":

• My friend and I pooled $10,000 to start an e-commerce company. After months of brainstorming products, we chose pickleball paddles.
• Months into launching a pickleball eCommerce company with $10,000, I'm already over budget. Here are all of my startup costs, including a surprise $2,095 expense.
• I launched an eCommerce company with a $10,000 budget after interviewing top Amazon sellers. Here's everything I outsourced to save time, including a $250 task that was the best money I spent.