Looking for side business advice
Background:
I'm 39, married with 2 kids. I have a good job, director of engineering at a manufacturing company, and no financial worries, but I am terribly bored at work and looking for more.
To shake things up, I recently decided to start an apparel company that does car giveaways. I did all the legwork: designs, website, LLC, bank accounts, legal, etc. I am at the point right now where I just need to pull the trigger and spend the money on the prize car and inventory.
But now that it's real, I’m having a lot of doubts. There are more companies doing this than I realized. Am I going to be able to generate the interest needed to make it work (I don’t do a lot of social media)? Am I going to have the time to stay on top of inventory and operations? Honestly, even though the apparel side of things makes me nervous, I am generally confident I can figure out any problems that arise along the way. However, my wife is pretty worried about the idea of starting a business, and I think her hesitation might be affecting my mindset, too. If this failed, losing that chunk of money would suck, however, it wouldn't affect my family's livelihood at all.
At the same time, I’ve come up with another business idea that is much more in my lane. It’s a physical product that I would design and fabricate myself. It would need about 6 months of R&D, but I think it would be highly viable and carry much less risk than the apparel business.
My question for you: Do you think I’m just coming up with excuses out of fear to avoid launching the apparel business? Or should I trust my gut, cut my minimal losses now, and pivot to the fabrication idea?