I have been in business since 1993 when I had a brick and mortar shop in Hillingon and now I am 100% online and would love to give my opinion on the pros and cons of the two ways of doing business.

Shop: Pros

• Love to display the stock
• Enjoyed talking to customers
• Creating the window display every week
• When stock comes, price it and put it on the shelf!
• No damages
• Very few returns if any
• Handling money was a fun part too
• No hassle of packing & posting
• Customers would praise my shop and it was very encouraging
• More profit 
• Less competition

Shop: Cons

• Fixed working hours 
• No flexibility
• Cannot take too many days off 
• Shop Lifting
• Local sales only which was a BIG downside
• High rent
• High business rates
• Have to attend the till all the time whether you have customers or not
• Need a lot of stock to fill the shop

Online: Pros

• Flexible hours
• No pricing of stock
• Can shut online store without being effected much
• Less rent and rates to pay 
• If working from home, less overheads and close to your children
• Sales nationwide and world wide, bringing in higher volume of sales
• Creating blogs, website designing 
• More hours with family
• Have a more relaxed life
• Have more variety and stock 

Online: cons

• Packing and posting 
• Damages and returns 
• Customers want the goods like NOW!! We all can't be like Amazon! 
• People very eager to leave bad feedback and reviews 
• Work more hours then in the shop as business is 24/7 
• Lost items
• Less profit as too many competitors

Overall I really loved my wool and craft shop and my customers loved it too, but unfortunately sales were not promising and everything was trending towards online shopping and I had no choice but to go online.

I still enjoy my online business, its my passion and my baby :)

I have great goals and will hopefully achieve them soon!

If you want freedom, a family life, no bosses to boss you, then I would say one word 'Business'

I love and enjoy my Filoro Crafts business!

Hope you love shopping here too!