I think there’s no reason why anybody -even if you’re brand new- cannot start a dropshipping business that can get sales within only 3 weeks by putting in a few hours of work per day. So in this article, I’m going to explain how those 3 weeks are broken up and kind of how where I think you should put your time each day, to be ready to go and start your own dropshipping business that’s ready to make sales in only 3 weeks.
Days 1-2
Niche Selection
Days one and two are all about niche selection. What I want you to do is make a list. Honestly, this could be like in your phone and the notes app. I use Google Sheets. But I want you to make a list of 50 possible niches that you can sell in.
Now key point here is they should meet my niche selection criteria. The price point has to be right, they have to sell to the right type of demographic and there cannot be brand loyalty. But again, I want you to brainstorm 50 ideas. And yes, I really want you to take two days for this. I’m assuming you’re going to do this a couple of hours a day.
There’s a ton of ways to get ideas. You can look around your house, you can go to the shopping mall and just look at like different items in different stores, or different items in the middle of the mall. I mean, there’s opportunity everywhere. Maybe you’re walking in, and you see a car drive by with, huge rims on it. That’s something might work.
Days 3-5
Market Research
What we’re doing here is taking that list that we just put together, and we’re putting each of them through a series of tests to see, do these actually make sense? Is this actually a good opportunity? Because remember, in the beginning, it’s just getting those ideas out and having them listed. Now, we’re diving deeper.
So we’re looking into things like a demand, can find at least 20 possible suppliers, how much competition is there. Of course there’s going to be competition. If it is like there are a few brands, and everybody sells the same stuff, it’s not going to pass our tests.
So those days, you’re doing your market research and you’re making sure that when you actually pick one out of those 50, making sure that when you pick one and you’re giving yourself the best chance.
This is also why I don’t recommend thinking of like three ideas and picking one. Because three ideas would be very limited to look for. Give yourself more opportunity, so on days three, four, and five when you’re doing that research, you can actually have a better chance of finding a winner.
Don’t think there’s any limit to this, like how many you can find. I have hundreds of posts about niche ideas in what to sell category.
Now, what I want you to do on the end of day five is actually choose which niche you’re going to proceed with. Keep your list, but pick one, and that’s going to be yours.
Days 6-10
Build Your Website
Yes, I want you to spend five days doing this because If you’ve never built a website before, it’s going to be painful. If you don’t have an experience to create and e-commerce website, Shopify would be great platform to start with. Also, Shopify’s building guide will be helpful for you.
Now what I want you to do at the end of day 10 is remove the password from your Shopify store. The way it works, when you first make an account with them is they have it locked behind a password. So if somebody goes to your URL, they can’t see it. That’s because they know you’re going to be building and it’s not going to be, ready for the public. But by the end of day 10, it should be ready for the public, and you should remove that password and have it so everybody in the world can see it.
Days 11-15
Find Suppliers
The reason we build the website first is because the suppliers are going to want to see it, right? You can’t just call them and say, “Hey, I’m thinking about selling tripods. Can I sell your stuff online?” They’re going to say, ”Okay, where are you calling from?“ And if you say, ”Well I don’t have a website, I’m thinking about building one.“ They’re going to say, ”Sorry, we’re not working with anybody right now.“ So we call them after this, right?
Days 11 through 15, we have these conversations. We tell them who we are, where their calling from. We tell them why we would like to sell their products, what we know about their company. What we’re doing is trying to get them to send us applications so that we can legitimately sell their products.
Now what we do is, as soon as they send those applications, we’re filling them out, we’re sending them right back. As soon as anybody agrees, then boom. Then we stop making calls, we start working with the people who we can work with.
You can also use Spocket app to search for products and suppliers from US and Europe. Finding suppliers from US and Europe will reduce your shipping times. And it will increase your customer satisfaction ratio.
So hopefully you have at least 20 different companies you’re reaching out to, but you want at least five of them on board within 15 days. Paperwork signed, you want to get back from them product photos, descriptions, pricing, all those things you’re going to need to upload those products to your website.
Days 16-18
Optimize Your Website for Conversions
At this point, nobody has been able to buy from it, you don’t have real products for sale. So what you’re doing on these days, 16, 17, and 18, are uploading those products from the five suppliers you get approved with.
You’re enabling Shopify payments so people can actually buy. You’re removing the demo products that you had. And really what’s so important is you’re going through every page of your website and triple-checking it.
Make sure your checkout process works.
Make sure when somebody clicks the contact us button on your webpage, it goes to the contact us page.
Make sure all the links that you had put on, back when you built your website, actually work.
You’d be surprised how many people just never do this. It’s really ridiculous because like even though businesses are simple to build, they are real businesses.
The way I can kind of compare this to something in the real world is let’s just say, somebody was opening like a pet supply store down the block from your house. And you wanted to go and buy dog food or something. And they opened, right? It said open on the door, and you walked in, but the register didn’t work, so they couldn’t accept credit cards. There were three aisles of products that were completely empty. They had nobody in there to answer your questions about why nothing worked. How long would that business last?
It’s funny because people build their websites like that. Because they think like, ”Oh, this is just the internet, so I don’t have to put care into anything,“ but you do.
So in these days, again, 16, 17, and 18, you’re uploading products. You’re setting up Shopify payments so you can accept money. And you’re checking everything just like a real store owner would do before their grand opening. You’re getting it ready for the grand opening day.
Days 19-21
Drive Traffic
First thing first, get Google Analytics on your website. Enable e-commerce for analytics so you can actually know where sales are coming from when people buy. Then you’re setting up a Google Ads account and you’re setting up your first Google Shopping campaign. You’re also setting up your Facebook Ads account, and you’re making sure that the Facebook Pixel is on your website. And you’re setting up a very very simple Facebook campaign for remarketing using dynamic products ads.
What this means is you’re going to have the two, probably the most profitable campaigns you could have, one in Google and one in Facebook.
Google is in Google Shopping, and then people are going to find you. They’re not all going to buy right away, unfortunately. But they’re going to go on Facebook, and you’re going to have your Facebook dynamic product ads set up so the people come back to your website and can buy.
Now that’s 21 days. That’s a few hours a day. You can figure that out. You can get that working. Does it mean you’re done and you’re set for life? No, it means you now have your foundation. It means you actually can get visitors and sales and be profitable. But now you get into building mode where you’re going back. You’re adding more suppliers. You’re adding more traffic channels. You’re optimizing your website even more. You’re optimizing your Google campaign. Maybe you’re adding in more Facebook campaigns. But you don’t need all that from the beginning.
If you want to know how long does it take to build a dropshipping business? The answer is you could definitely do it in 21 days, working only a few hours a day, even if you have no experience.
Conclusion
If you’re reading this because you’re not sure if dropshipping’s the right model for you yet, but you do want to build a business.
There are a few reasons to start dropshipping business:
1- Flexibility
Like you could run these businesses from anywhere. You can be a digital nomad. You can work few hours a day and travel the rest of your time.
2- Inexpensive
You can get started for a couple of hundred bucks. It’s easy to start. It’s not rocket science; it just works. So if you have a good work ethic, there’s no reason why you can’t succeed. If you’re lazy, then guess what? Nothing’s going to work.
3- It’s yours
You don’t have to work 9-5 for a boss. It is your business and that’s mean you are the rule maker. You can customize your business as you wish, and you get the all profit you made for the business.