Starting a business can be a daunting process when you have limited resources. If you own a computer and a healthy internet connection, that is all you need to get started. Dropshipping is a type of business that you can start with just that. You can easily build an online store and start selling products without touching a single bit of inventory.

Pros:

  • Easy to Start
  • Little startup costs and overhead
  • Work whenever you want to (just be sure to reply to any customer service inquiries in a timely manner)
  • Sell whatever products you want
  • Eventually can be automated (hire marketing agencies and a virtual assistant to handle tedious tasks)

Cons:

  • Lots of learning curves (website maintenance, managing advertising, social media, customer service, etc.)
  • Over flooded markets (Lots of competition)
  • Usually needs full time attention to make great profits

How to get started:

NOTE: Before you start your business, you should read the page on this website entitled “things to think about before you get started.” After you have taken the preliminary steps for starting any business, you can take the specific steps outlined below.

The dropshipping business model is a popular one for a reason. Anyone who is tech savvy enough can start a dropshipping company. It is up to you to set yourself apart from the others with a good niche, great customer service and an ambition for success.

Think of yourself as a middle man between the manufacturer and the customer with this process:

  • Build a dropshipping website 
  • List products at a higher price than wholesale
  • Advertise those products through blogging, pay-per-click ads, email and social media
  • Customers purchase the products through your website
  • You send the customer order information to the dropshipping wholesaler
  • The dropshipping distributor will process the shipping and charge you wholesale price
  • You keep the difference as profit!

You can get started with Shopify dropshipping. They provide an online store builder, website hosting and connections to wholesale distributors who are ready to do business with dropshippers. You can also do the same thing with WordPress and the WooCommerce plugin. 

If building and running your own online store feels like too much work, you can opt for trying eBay or Amazon drop shipping business. These are great options because they are already popular retail sites that processes millions of orders. 

Dropshipping is extremely competitive. So it is really important to pick a certain niche of products to sell. Do you like video games? Maybe you can sell gaming mouses, keyboards, console accessories, etc. Perhaps you want to sell pet products and donate some proceeds to your local animal shelter.

This article here tells a story about a teen who built a successful business selling Art.

Taking it to the next level:

The possibilities are endless when it comes to running a dropshipping business. You can work part time or full time. But keep in mind, making a lot of money with dropshipping takes a lot of dedication and hard work.