Dropshipping - The Shortcut to Success

One of my favorite things to do in life is to travel. I’ve been able to visit some really cool places all over the world and I even plan to live abroad at some point in my life. 

Because of that, it’s a must that I earn a living online. So in 2017, I was looking for a way to start an ecommerce business, without a huge upfront investment, when I started to notice those YouTube videos where some super-hyper 20 year old kid, standing in front of an orange Lamborghini, claims that he just made $1 million and all he did was set up a website, add some products to it, and run some Facebook ads. Boom, bam, bing, cha-ching!

I thought that if there was a shortcut to success, this must be it! I grew super curious about dropshipping and decided to research what it is and how I could do it too. 

If you’ve never heard of dropshipping, I’ll explain what it is for you. Traditional (non-dropshipping) retail stores buy inventory, list that inventory on their website, advertise to attract customers, then when a customer places an order on the retailer’s website, the retailer ships it to the customer. 

With dropshipping, the retail store never buys or holds inventory. The retail store works with a supplier (a manufacturer, wholesaler, or another retailer) that is willing to ship the item directly to their customer. In other words, the retailer sets up a website listing products. The retailer then advertises those products to attract customers, and when a customer places an order on the retailer’s site, the retailer places the order with the supplier, and the supplier ships the order directly to the customer.

So after hours upon hours of research and studying, I was convinced that I could do this too. I mean, they said it was super easy and that I’d be a millionaire in no time. Sounded legit. I set up a Shopify website and a Facebook ad account and jumped right in. 

One month went by. No sales. Okay, no problem. I improved my website, searched for new products, and created better ads. 

Two months went by. Still, no sales. I started to doubt whether this was a legitimate business. Was everybody in the Facebook groups I was in lying about making money dropshipping?

I continued to improve my website, searched for new products and created better ads.

Then month three, boom! I started making sales. Not many, but enough to convince me to keep trying to find the product that would make me a millionaire in record time. So I continued to improve my website, searched for new products and created better ads.

Finally, in month four, I found a product that I knew would sell like hotcakes the minute I laid eyes on it. I listed it on my website, started advertising, and just like I thought, it sold like crazy. In the first 30 days of adding that item to my website and advertising it, I had accumulated $10k in sales. 

For months that one item continued to generate about $10k per month in sales. But my experience was nothing like the guys on YouTube described. 

First, I didn’t make a million dollars. Bummer! Second, I worked extremely hard on my business and I learned that, no matter what people say, there’s no shortcut to success. Any legitimate business takes a ton of hard work and dedication to be successful. 

I also learned the ins and outs of ecommerce, and it’s much more complicated than just throwing products on a website and watching your bank account grow. You have to study the business, know your industry, constantly find ways to improve your business, understand what it is that your customers want, effectively deliver what they want to them, have excellent customer service, and so much more.

So if you’re currently looking for the the quick and easy way to success, I’m here to report to you that it doesn’t exist. If you’re willing to take the long road — meaning work hard, constantly improve, learn your business, know your customers, eat, sleep, and sh*t your business, you’ll eventually find your way to success. 

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