Depends. A few quick questions to help:
… Why are you looking to create a similar marketplace… ? How will you differentiate?
Are you balking at the shipping costs or are your potential customers not buying from you because of the high costs?
Can you ship quantity in bulk to a US distribution partner who can then ship individual items cheaply in country?
Marketing is a huge part of running a business and that’s clearly something you know how to do that they don’t. The real question is: Do you want to do marketing and graphic design or do you want to own and run a brick and mortar business? Those are VERY different paths…
You absolutely can build a business solo. You can even run it solo.
A team can help you to scale. And cofounders are nice - but not necessary.
It all comes down to what you want. Do you want a large company? Do you want to be able to step away from the business for weeks to months a year?
100%! Thankfully (some of) the world is moving back from toxic hustle culture and towards anti-hustle. Remember why you got into business in the first place. Was it to work more, make less, and take on all the risk? Or was it to gain back freedom? Not just “financial freedom”, but freedom of time and choice?
You may make mistakes, and that’s okay. You may say the wrong thing. You might look low quality. You might appear to not know what you’re doing. That’s all fine. Just get started. Imposter Syndrome is SUPER common for us founders and entrepreneurs, and sometimes gets worse before it gets better.
A paid newsletter subscription is only that, i.e. you pay to receive information in print or online. A MEMBERSHIP, however, has all sorts of other perks beyond just info. For example a membership site login, weekly calls, videos, course access, community, etc.
There’s zero downside to having a checking account. Savings accounts typically have a limited number of transactions allowed since they are, well, savings accounts, and not operating/checking accounts.