Dropshipping Business Seven Thing You Need Before You Start
Are you interested in starting an e-commerce business? If so a dropshipping business should be at the top of your list. Dropshipping is a low cost and easy to start business model. Dropshipping has proven time and time again to be a success for those who take the time to learn and build their business right.
If you’re new to dropshipping, I suggest you choose a field to sell in that you’re somewhat familiar with. Building an eCommerce business in a field that you’re comfortable with makes it easier for you to relate to any issues your customers may have with your products.
Also a dropshipping business in a long term business model, meaning you will have to put in some work before you start to see some life changing money. Expect to work in your dropshipping field of choice for at least 3 to 4 month before you start seeing the big buck start to roll in.
Keep in mind your profits highly depends on your niche and your marketing strategy. True there are many people using this business model who has seen crazy results in less than a month. I know several entrepreneurs personally who made a killing with this business model in less than 30 days and I was one of them. However, if you’re new to drop shipping just expect to put in the work before you get the process right. Once you have one successful online store. Just rinse and repeat the process in a different niche.
For those of you who do not know what dropshipping is. Dropshipping is a business model where you do not store products. You simply partner with a drop ship wholesale supplier and list their products for sale. Once items sale you then process the order with the supplier and the supplier ships the item directly to your customer. You profit of the difference in the marked up item price. With this business, your main goal is amazing customer service and product selection. Because you don’t have to worry about storing items packing or shipping merchandise. Your time is free to fine tune your virtual store front and most importantly market your store.
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By now you’re probably fired up to get your dropshipping journey started. However, there are several things your need to know before you get started on your eCommerce journey. Below are 7 must haves before you start your dropshipping business.
1. Dropship Business Training
With anything new there is some learning involved and if you want to be successful at building an online e-commerce business. You want to set yourself up to win right away.
The most successful people in the world win by learning from other successful people. When successful entrepreneurs decide to invest in a new business they don’t blindly jump into the business model hoping to recreate the wheel.
Here’s what successful entrepreneurs do. They will find industry leaders and industry consultants and say I want to learn what you do, teach me everything you know about building a business and becoming number one in this space.
If you’re new to eCommerce you should take the same approach. Why try to reinvent the wheel and make a time-consuming mistake when you can learn from the success of other who have come before you.
Click Here for the top Udemy courses on dropshipping Business training.
I have personally taken several Udemy courses. I’m always doing my best to stay on top of industry trends and marketing. And these courses have surely added some new golden nugget to my business.
2. Start up money
Honestly, every business on earth takes some form of start-up capital and dropshipping is no different. However, the start-up investment to build a successful online store is much less than the traditional brick and mortar store. Here’s what you will be spending money on in the early stages of your new dropshipping business.
*Shopify starter business plan, domain name, or Amazon Professional account, Ebay monthly fees.
*Marketing (Facebook, PPC, Email responder) Paid Marketing is Optional. I recommend paid marketing, the reason being free marketing sources such as word of mouth, craigslist, Youtube and Facebook fan pages just take too long to see any result, however, it can be done because I did it. The quickest way to sales and growing your dropshipping business is through paid marketing.
*Investment in products: depending on the payment gateway you use. You may have to pay out of your pocket for your first-month transactions. If you use PayPal and PayPal knows your a dropshipping business they could hold your funds up to 21 days. The hold is to assure your business is reliable so do your best to process orders quickly and be professional handling any returns.
So in terms of the actual amount of money to have on hand. Well, it depends on the price of the item your selling. I have a buddy who selling cheap Fidget Spinners and finger toys. Those items do not cost much from the wholesaler, so his start-up money was super low and he makes serious profit on the price markup.
However, I have a store dropshipping furniture that can cost thousands of dollars if you start a business like this your going to need some serious money on hand during business startup just incase PayPal holds your funds. Here a number to go by because I know all my blog reader love having solid numbers to scale by. As a rule of thumb, $300 to $500 should be a nice starting place for most people new to drop shipping. However, you may not even need that if there’s never a hold on your accounts.
3. A Dropshipping business bank account & email account.
This is a most have, you want to keep your business money separate from your personal money. Having a business bank account makes it easier for you to calculate your profits. And it makes filing taxes so much easier.
You need a business email account so that you can keep track of orders and communication with your customers and any other business opportunities that may come your way.
4. Aliexpress account
Aliexpress is a must have for new dropshippers. It allows you to find hot products to sell within your online store. Aliexpress also connects you with wholesale and dropship suppliers that are worldwide. You can also use Aliexpress to do you niche research. An Aliexpress drop shipping store is one of the simplest and least cost effective ways of creating a dropshipping business.
5. Oberlo
Oberlo is another most have tool. The Tool is an Aliexpress browser extension and Shopify Store app. Oberlo allows you to import thousands of items into your store easily. You can also set Oberlo up to process orders and keep track of your Aliexpress inventory levels so you never sale items that are out of stock. Oberlo is the best thing to happen to dropshipping since the business model was created. If you not using Oberlo as new dropshipper your already starting out behind the curve.
6. Tax ID Number
Tax ID number is optional however, I would suggest you get one. Most of you will start out using an Aliexpress supplier. Aliexpress suppliers don’t require a tax id number to use. However, for those of you who may want to partner with other suppliers they may require you have a tax id number. Honestly, you can even partner with Aliexpress suppliers and get a better rate outside of Aliexpress. Also, many USA based suppliers and for sure all the top rated wholesale suppliers will require you to have a tax id number. Here’s a short Youtube video I created on how to get a tax id number.
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Best Udemey eCommerce Courses For 2017 Review.
How To Choose A Dropshipping Niche
7. Patience
Starting a successful business take some time. Dropshipping is not a lottery ticket and you’re not going to strike it rich overnight. However, you can seriously build a real business that brings in thousands of extra dollars a month if you put in the work. I have made well over six figures dropshipping and there no reason why you can not do the same.
You can seriously build a dropshipping business. I believe you can do it. You just need to start. Most people spend to much time in the researching phase and never get to the starting line.
If you are one of those people who is reading this post and have not started a dropshipping business. Stop researching and start doing. Click the link below get the training and build your store along with the instructor. The research will not create any money without action. 5,4,3,2,1 Take action click below.
