P. Mito
By now you must’ve heard about dropshipping once or twice. Probably more than that. Also, you’ve probably heard that dropshipping is one of the only businesses that you can start with virtually no up-front investment and make money instantaneously. When you hear something like that, it’s easy to be skeptical, because, let’s face it, how can a business be started without any money in the first place?
Well, we’re here to tell you that your doubts can be laid to rest because you can, in fact, start a dropshipping business without any money in your pocket? If you want to know how, we’d suggest sticking around for a few more moments as we’ll go through the whole process, step by step, until you’ve finally learned how to start your dropshipping career and earn a living for free.
What Do You Need?
Generally speaking, there’s no up-front investment other than time and effort when you’re starting a business like this. So, first of all, you need to invest the time and effort, because just sitting around and waiting for money to start pouring in is just not possible. You’re investing your time and effort into finding an idea. You need a stand-out idea that’s going to make you rise above everyone else – or as they like to call it in this business – you need to find your niche. Once you’ve done that, it’s time to move on to the next step.
So, how do you convert your money-making idea into a money-making business? What are the steps you have to take? Well, let’s find out.
Creating A Store
The first step towards becoming a successful dropshipper is creating a store. That’s where it all starts. A store is the essential piece of the puzzle, because, how are people ever going to buy anything if you don’t give them a space to shop at? Luckily, we don’t mean to go down the street and find a nice, cozy place to set up shop.
Instead of that, you need to set-up an online store. That’s the easy part. There are many platforms dedicated solely to dropshipping and online stores and you just have to take your time, explore your options, and decide on the one that suits your needs the best.
Some of the major players as far as platforms go are, of course, eBay, Amazon, Shopify, but your choices aren’t limited to those only. That is why we suggested that you take your time and explore your options.
The difference usually lies in the way platforms make money off of your sales. Some take small percentages, some take membership fees, and so on. The thing that is great about this method is that it allows new, upcoming businesses to start building the business first and then worry about the expenses later. Some platforms offer free trials and some offer a completely free drop shipping experience, like this website for instance. It’s evident you have a lot of choices, the only thing is picking out the best one.
After you’ve set-up the shop, it’s time to start building.
Finding A Supplier
As we’ve said, setting up shop is the easy part of the process. The next thing you have to do is find a reliable supplier. Since you’re not building inventory or stocking up on products, you need someone you can count on, someone that can deliver a good, quality product so you can focus on the other aspects of the job.
This is where you have to pay attention because a supplier is an integral part of the whole operation. Regardless of what you plan on dealing with, whether it is clothes, jewelry, or tech – you should always look for a supplier that is best at what they do. Like we’ve said, you have a store without a physical inventory, so you’re relying on someone else to provide the products you’re selling. When you look at it from that perspective, it’s easy to see how important it is that you find someone you can put your trust in and you can work with, so that the both of you can grow.
If you happen to need some cash to invest in a new project, don’t waste your time by looking for a job. According to the experts at WorkingCapital, a loan can help you make money and have a steady income without much effort. For example, if you are looking for an opportunity to get quick cash, you can invest in a business with minimal upfront investments.
Build Your Shop
After you’ve created a store and found a supplier – it’s time to transform the online store into a real shop. This is where you come in. Now it’s time for you to invest your time and effort once again and get to work.
It all comes down to design and presenting your products in the best way possible. During this process, you have to pay attention to details and you should never rush this. The picture and the text are what draws in the potential customer. If you just post a single, low-quality picture of an item you’re selling or you’re not providing additional info on the product – that product is not going to sell. It has to look good and it has to draw attention. So, make sure you really put in time and effort into this step, because without it, all of your previous efforts will be in vain.
Marketing
Finally, we come to marketing. Putting the word out there is one of the best ways to generate traffic and start selling large volumes. Even though quality product speaks for itself, you still have to put your store on the map. Here’s where you can really launch your business. you can utilize a lot of things – from paid Google and Facebook ads, to simply running a successful social media page.
Ideally, you’d use all of the tools at your disposal. A little bit of paid advertising, a little bit of social media, some SEO and digital marketing, and so on. There are a lot of ways to market your store and boost your sales – you just have to put in some time and effort. And money, when it comes to paid ads.
When you take all of the things we mentioned so far into consideration, until you come to the marketing portion, you don’t have to spend a dime to make a dollar. As time goes by and the store grows – it’ll be easier to invest money in marketing and additional stuff, but, as you can clearly tell, you don’t need a penny in your pocket to start making money with dropshipping. Hopefully, we’ve managed to show you how you can do the same.