As I talked about in my last post, for my birthday in May I bought myself a present- a course to learn how to start a drop shipping business (see my post at https://thesidehustlejourney.com/2zmf).
I had published a blog back in January talking about how I was thinking about drop shipping as a possible side hustle and in May I decided to go with Anton Kraly’s Drop Ship Lifestyle course (see more information at www.dropshiplifestyle.com (see this post at https://thesidehustlejourney.com/jdlt)
Starting in mid-May, I now get up 45 minutes earlier on weekday mornings to take the drop shipping course. Luckily, since I’m not traveling for work due to Coronavirus (although the fact that we have Coronvirus/COVID is not lucky) and my kids don’t have to get up early for anything, I can wake up 45 minutes early and it’s not the crack of dawn. I feel like the pace that I am taking the class is that I’m a tortoise that may or may not win the race but I am slowing but surely making my way through the class and I just need to stay consistent and focused.
Anton is very thoughtful and methodical about the course and I appreciate that. One of the first lessons was on ethics and he states clearly that he won’t have unethical people be part of his community. Way to go. He also gives some basic business lessons. While most of this was a review for me, it’s always good to get a reminder on how profit margins are calculated and what you’ll have to make on each sale to be profitable.
He spent nine videos on niche selection. Although a video might just be 15 minutes, with the homework that is involved in niche selection, it might take you an hour (or more) to complete a video. He made start with 50 possible niches (I ended up coming up with over 100) and then funneling them down to just a few by going through a series of questions about them to make sure they will be profitable businesses. I went in hoping that treadmill desks would make the cut and, although I was open to other things and had a long list to start with, I did end up deciding to move forward with selling treadmill desks. I spent almost two weeks on niche selection and made sure I followed his process as this is the most important step- deciding what to sell.
I spent another few weeks on market research. It was important to see what demand is out there and what my future competitors are doing. There doesn’t seem to be too many competitors in the treadmill desk market so I’m hopeful about that.
The next ~month was spent on building my website. Anton’s sister, Laura Kraly, who is a web designer did a great job with this. The website platform they use is Shopify and I had created two websites (and paid a designer for another) in Word Press so Shopify was new to me. It is easy to use and I think it does make sense for an e-commerce site.
I just completed my fake website so check it out at www.homeofficewellness.com. Email me at julie@theordinarymom.com if you have any thoughts or feedback. Once I sign up with suppliers, I’ll put real pictures and products on the site but their philosophy is that you need to have something to show potential suppliers, which I agree with.
I’m now working on the modules about getting suppliers. I haven’t reached out to any yet but that is the next step. I’m a little nervous that none will get back to me or sign me on but that’s a risk I have to take. If I had to pivot and pick a new niche, I wouldn’t have to go back square one but it would be disappointing and time-consuming. Wish me luck. I’ll update you soon as to my progress and, hopefully, I form relationships with multiple suppliers and I can kick off my drop shipping business soon.
