How to Start a Successful Ecommerce Business Without Sacrificing Your Family Time

In 12 seconds, everything changed. 

It was late 2013, and the ecommerce business my wife and I had been growing for several years was being featured on NBC’s The Today Show. 

The mention was brief, a 12-second spot, but almost instantly, our orders exploded by over 700%. It’s a scenario most entrepreneurs dream of, but the stress piled on as soon as the initial excitement wore off. 

Our company is Bumblebee Linens, and today it’s an incredible success story — a 7-figure ecommerce business that sells embroidered handkerchiefs and linens for special occasions. 

But success didn’t always come easy. 

We started our company almost on a whim. My wife and I had a large box of handkerchiefs left over from our wedding that we’d ordered from a Chinese manufacturer. Not knowing what to do with the excess product, we decided to sell the handkerchiefs on eBay. 

To our surprise, they sold like hotcakes, and we realized we were on to something. After all, no one in the U.S. was selling high-quality ladies' handkerchiefs. 

When we started our ecommerce store, my wife had modest aspirations. She wanted to make $5000/month that we could use to pay the bills. But I had bigger goals. I knew my wife wanted to leave her financial analyst job, and I saw Bumblebee Linens as a way out. 

In our first year, the business we started for $630 made a $100,000 profit. We hustled hard. For the first several years, my wife embroidered every custom handkerchief. We were so busy that I did embroidery myself in the evenings after coming home from my job as an electrical engineer and putting the kids to bed. 

Business was booming, and we were approaching $1 million in sales and growing in the double and triple digits every year. But the hustle was beginning to take its toll. My wife had reached her breaking point. She no longer enjoyed the work. It was becoming repetitive and never seemed to end. 

We could both see that the pace of growth we were trying to maintain was harming our marriage. I was reluctant to hit the brakes on our business, but I wasn’t willing to jeopardize our marriage or time with our kids. 

My wife and I both realized that something needed to change.

Re-evaluating Our Priorities

We could see that making more money wasn’t improving our lives, so we went back to basics. We did away with setting crazy income goals, and my wife stepped back from the daily operations to focus more on the creative aspects of the business. 

We made an effort to enjoy and appreciate what we’d already achieved. We realized that we could continue growing the business while putting our family first and not killing ourselves in the process. 

Today, Bumblebee Linens is a 7-figure business. But it doesn’t consume our lives. My wife now has the freedom to work around her schedule. If she wants to spend time volunteering at our kids’ school, she can take the time to do that, and I left my full-time engineering job long ago. 

I spend about 20 hours a week running our businesses, which include an ecommerce store, a 7-figure ecommerce blog called MyWifeQuitHerJob, a YouTube Channel, a podcast, and an annual ecommerce conference called The Sellers Summit. I spend my time coaching basketball and volleyball and haven’t missed a family dinner or bedtime in years. 

Becoming a Family-First Entrepreneur

Opting out of the hustle culture that traps so many entrepreneurs saved our marriage and our business. But it meant doing things differently. We reordered our priorities, built better systems, and learned to let go. 

Here are five steps you can take to start an ecommerce business without sacrificing your family time. 

1. Stick To Your Strengths

Too many entrepreneurs believe that they need to start a business based on what they’re passionate about. They worry that if they don’t love the product or industry, they’ll eventually get sick of it. But pursuing your passion is bad business advice. 

Instead, understand where your abilities lie and focus on your strengths. That’s where you will be most effective. Remember that skills will almost always trump passion. The things you enjoy will come and go, but what you’re good at will stick with you. 

I wasn’t passionate about selling handkerchiefs when my wife and I launched Bumblebee Linens. But we quickly realized that we’d found a niche where we could be successful, and the more I learned about the industry and the different products, the more I appreciated the business.

Ecommerce wasn’t even our first choice – I dreamed of opening a brick-and-mortar store until I realized it would cost over $500k to get up and running. Instead, we went with plan B and started an ecommerce store for $600, and I'm so glad we made that decision.

2. Don’t Focus on Income Objectives 

It might seem counterintuitive to start a business and not make income your number one focus. After all, a company needs revenue to survive and grow. The problem is that you’re setting yourself up to never be satisfied by only focusing on profit. 

Ask yourself this question. How much is enough? 

It’s been proven that businesses that place all of their focus on profit are less successful. Instead, set objectives that will help make your life better. Create systems that free you up to spend time on the things that matter the most. 

Here are some business goals that will grow your business while freeing up your time: 

• Improve the quality of your products 
• Implement technology and tools that will improve efficiency 
• Improve your customer service (happy customers require fewer contact points) 
• Provide leadership opportunities to your strongest employees 
• Increase employee engagement (and reduce turnover)

3. Align Your Priorities to Your Values

As you establish your business objectives, make sure they align with your values. If your goal is to only work 30 hours a week and have weekends off, make sure your systems match your goals. If you dream of owning a remote business that you can manage anywhere in the world, don’t tie yourself down to a physical location. 

As long as your business objectives and priorities align with your values, it will be easier for you to stay committed to them. Like building habits, it can be easy to fall back into old ways of doing things. 

4. Delegate Responsibilities to Avoid Burnout 

Entrepreneurs tend to want to do it all themselves, but as your business grows, performing every role is unsustainable. Your business and your family will suffer. 

Instead, delegate routine tasks to your employees or a virtual assistant. This will free you up to focus on things only you can do, such as product development, marketing, managing, thought leadership in your industry, etc. 

For example, because my wife no longer spends hundreds of hours embroidering handkerchiefs, she can focus on more creative aspects of the business such as making product decisions, and spend more time with our kids. 

One note of caution: it is possible to over-delegate. If you outsource yourself right out of your business, it will fail. Never delegate the critical tasks that require your unique skills and knowledge.

5. Hire Well 

Delegating is critical, but so is hiring well since an excellent employee is like a godsend. However, the wrong hire can be a nightmare. Instead of freeing you up to do other things, a bad employee can force you to spend more time in your business, managing their performance and fixing their mistakes.  

Also, be strategic in the way you schedule your employees. Always ensure the right person is doing the job at the right time. This will set your employees up for success and help your business run more efficiently. 

If you have an employee who is shy and not great with people, don’t have them handling customer service inquiries. Don’t be afraid to give your highest performers more responsibility – it will keep them engaged and make them feel valued.