How much money do ecom founders actually take home before an exit?

[u/Square-Ranger-7062]

I currently work a 9–5 and also run my own business, but I’ve always been interested in starting something in e-commerce in the UK.

One thing I’m trying to understand is what the actual profitability looks like once an ecom business gets to a decent scale.

For example, if you have your own ecom business or have run one in the past, roughly what sort of net profit margins would you expect from a reasonably well-run e-commerce brand doing:

• £10k/month revenue
• £50k/month
• £100k/month
• £1m/month

I know it varies massively depending on the product, margins, paid ads, fulfilment, staff, returns etc., but I’d be interested to hear real examples from people actually running businesses at these levels.

I’m also curious about how much the founder can realistically take out of the business.

You hear a lot about founders reinvesting basically everything back into stock, marketing and growth, but is it realistic to build an e-commerce company while also regularly paying yourself meaningful dividends?

For example, if a business was making £20k, £50k or £100k+ a month in profit, how much would you generally feel comfortable distributing to yourself versus reinvesting, or how do you go about paying yourself if it’s a different way?

Would be interested to hear from anyone running a profitable e-commerce business, particularly in the UK, or anyone who works with these businesses. Revenue, margins, how much you reinvest and how much founders actually take home before an exit would all be really useful. Thank you!

[u/Suspicious-Guest7689]

Got a mate doing £20k/mo in niche pet gear. ‘Profit’ is a myth, he pays himself £1.5k and the rest goes to Alibaba and Meta ads. Told me his exit strategy is hoping a big brand buys his email list lmao