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One of the hardest parts of starting a small business is getting it going. When you don’t have any profit coming in, you still have to invest in the business supplies in order to have something to sell.

What would you do if your mom decided to start her own small business, but you thought she was going about it all wrong? If she was spending money on supplies for products but wasn’t actually selling anything, would you be concerned?

Would you mind your own business or talk to her about it?

The young woman in this story is in this situation. She’s not sure how to tell her mom her concerns though. She believes in her mom but thinks she’s making a lot of mistakes.

Keep reading for all the details.

How do I tell my mother that she’s wasting money?

I (20F) have been watching my mother (47F) spend a ridiculous amount of money (upwards of $10,000) on her “business”.

Let me start by saying that I absolutely love the idea of entrepreneurship, and I know that she could do it and probably be relatively successful.

She thinks her mother is focusing on the wrong things.

The problem is that she doesn’t have an LLC registered.

She doesn’t have any customer base she doesn’t even have a social media page for her business and she sitting on probably $20,000 worth of product.

How do I tell her without hurting her that she needs to focus on other things before making more product and wasting more money on things that she doesn’t need?

She seems to want to start a lot of businesses.

It started out as a jewelry business.

Then she got an embroidery machine for Christmas and started embroidering things and then she wanted to add that to her business.

Then she started crocheting and wanted to add that to her business.

Then she saw those beeswax food saver things, and decided that not only was she going to make those and add them to her business, but she was also going to purchase beehives and start farming bees to have her own beeswax.

Apparently, her mom just spends money but doesn’t make any.

I don’t know how to tell her that she’s acting ridiculous with this money.

We don’t have a whole lot of money in the first place and my mom is not recouping any of her start a Capitol because like I said she doesn’t have a business.

She just makes a bunch of things and expects to store them indefinitely.

It sounds like she needs to start an Etsy shop but with only one type of product, at least at first, whichever one she enjoys making the most. That way she’s not spending a lot of money on a lot of different supplies. If she makes a profit, then she can think about adding another type of product.

Let’s see what Reddit suggests.

This sounds believable.

Here’s a suggestion about what to say.

Here’s another suggestion about what to say.

But this person can relate to the mom.

Maybe her mom doesn’t really want to start a business. Maybe it’s more of a hobby or a collection of hobbies. As long as she has time for it and can afford it while still paying any other bills, it shouldn’t be a problem. If she eventually decides to turn one of these hobbies into a business, great. If not, no worries.

But if they are struggling financially, and her mom is still spending money on craft supplies, that’s a completely different story.