7 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Dropshipping!

in this video I'm going to cover seven things I wish I knew before I started drop shipping make sure to stick around for number four because this one literally cost me thousands of dollars hey I'm Paul and I'm committed to teaching you the exact strategies I use to create multiple six-figure businesses on eBay and Amazon these are the same methods that changed my life and I'm here to show you how they can change yours as well so let's get right into this with number one which is that before I started drop shipping I had no idea that it was going to completely

change my life I saw this as just a way to make a few extra dollars a month maybe an extra hundred to five hundred dollars a month and that was all I was looking for and I thought that would be incredible that alone just 100 or 500 extra dollars a month would have completely changed my life and it did at the time it allowed me to enjoy my life a little more to be able to go out a little more just enjoy the simple little things like not having to worry about money so much that was all I was after so I was really pleasantly surprised when I started earning thousands of dollars a month in profit on top of my nine-to-five job because I was doing drop shipping as a side business running it in the mornings during my lunch breaks after work and doing well enough to earn thousands of extra dollars a month I had no idea there was so much potential when it came to drop shipping and especially on eBay and then eventually when I moved onto Amazon as well so I really wish I had known that before I had started so that I could have been you know more prepared for it in a way and you know in a way I'm glad it didn't happen or I'm glad I wasn't aware of it because it was kind of exciting and I think I may have felt overwhelmed before I started if I knew how much my business was really going to take off but it would is one of those things I had no idea about before I started drop shipping number two I have

is that this is a business this is something I didn't realize when I first started I kind of saw it more as a hobby or something to do just for fun and so I wasn't taking it too seriously at first but once I started to take it seriously once I really started to treat my drop shipping business as a actual business I started to make good money serious work results in serious money and if you're just doing it as a hobby you could still make money with it but you're not going to scale to the same point that I've been able to because you're not putting in the serious work to make it a real business and that's something I wish I had known earlier so I could have pushed a little harder when I first started with my drop shipping business so that's number two which is that this is a business number three is that the important the key aspect of drop shipping whether that's on eBay or Amazon is product research

is the key it is so important and as soon as I began to understand that you can't just list any random item and expect it to sell as soon as I realize that there is a formula to do product research that is when my sales really begin to climb up and my store really began to do well so that is something I wish I had known much earlier so that I didn't waste my time just listing random items and could have instead invested in learning these product research techniques instead and if you want to learn about product research on either eBay or Amazon I do have free courses on both ebay and amazon drop shipping I'll link those up underneath this video in both of those courses I go over a product research for eBay and product research for Amazon depending on which free course you sign up for so be sure to check those out so that's number three I really wish I had known earlier that this business is all about product research which brings us to number four is the big one because this is the one that really screwed me up and cost me thousands of dollars and I'll bet the best way to sum

this up is if it sounds too good to be true than it is so I was able to get some very well discounted gift cards for a website Bed Bath & Beyond and I was really excited it was a high discount so I got these gift cards or let's say a hundred dollar gift card for only $85 so huge savings there and everything was going along great I was making such good money with them because you know I would sell an item basically for the same price on ebay as it was on Bed Bath & Beyond but I was making you know 15% margins on it anyway so it was great but then there was problems with the gift cards all my Bed Bath & Beyond orders were cancelled and Bed Bath & Beyond never told me and the next thing I know I'm I have this huge mess of all these orders that were cancelled all these bad gift cards I didn't talk to my bank to try to no dispute the charges it was a huge mess and it was just not a good situation to be in so just be super careful with things if you hear about opportunities like heavily discounted gift cards ask yourself why is someone selling that gift card for such a high percentage off the really unfortunate thing is I'm not saying all gift cards sellers do this there's some really legit gift card sellers out there but there are some situations where there are gift card sellers who got the gift cards through you know illegal means and basically what they do is they defraud people they talk to primarily older people and tell the older people hey I'm a relative and I mean I'm in a bad situation can you send me a gift card and people fall for it so they get these gift cards they rip off these old people it's just a really terrible situation so just be aware that does happen and if it sounds too good to be true it probably is so stick to the more legit websites if you're going to buy this kind of gift cards that's just one example of if it's too good to be true it is but I just wanted to warn you about that because it was a huge mess for me when it happened luckily most of it was sorted out but just knowing that I might have supported this these bad people who were doing these bad things even though wasn't aware of it at the time it's just not a situation that you want to be in so that's number four if it sounds too good to be true it is and more specifically just be careful with those discounted gift cards and that brings us to number five something I wish I had know when I started is that you should

be using a reprice err when I first started I was doing everything manually and I wasn't using a rate Pricer and this software is available basically what it does if you're not aware if the price changes on Walmart goes up or down or goes out of stock this software will make sure that it changes accordingly on eBay or Amazon for you I wish I had known that earlier because I wasn't using it I was spending a lot of time checking the prices or trying to find free or cheap way to do it and it just wasn't worth it you were used to reap ricers they're cheap it'll make your life so much easier you can spend more time adding items and growing your store instead of just spending the time trying to maintain those items and to make sure that the price hasn't changed on them so don't waste your time that's something I wish I had known earlier and so use one those reprice errs because they're really helpful so that is number five and that kind of brings me to number six as well something I had no idea about when I started which is that

building a team to support you is so incredibly valuable and specifically I have a team of virtual assistants that help me with my businesses I have about five now that run my eBay business and I have two that helped me with my Amazon business and this has been so critical to the success of my dropshipping businesses because these das when I first started it wasn't just a luxury so these virtual assistants I hire from the Philippines and they can do basically anything they can list items they can answer customer questions they can fulfill orders and at first I kind of saw it as more of a luxury you know they can take some of the work off my hands for me so that I don't have to spend as much time working on my business but what I discovered was that as soon as I started outsource some of the more routine mundane tasks I had more time to grow my business and that's why I say it's not really a luxury it's really important for the growth of your business and I didn't understand that at first even when I first hired my first VA I didn't even understand it then it was only later that year as I began to hire more of EA's that I noticed that every time it hired new virtual assistants the sales in my store went up and up and that's because we were more focused on individual tasks so that I wasn't bogged down by the kind of routine tasks that are sometimes involved with drop shipping so that would be the other thing I wish I had known earlier which is to build a fantastic team to support your drop shipping business which brings us to number seven the final thing that I wish I'd known when I started which is that

it really does help to have some sort of Mentor or close-knit community to support you and motivate you forward I was part of a community when it started but at the time it was very old community it wasn't very well maintained and there wasn't a ton of support there and I think that was that actually did more harm than good because I was asking questions they're trying to get support and I just wasn't getting the type of feedback in response that I wanted but as soon as I found a friend in this community to help me and to kind of be a part of a mastermind with me that's when things started to really change and I started to feel like there was more accountability in my business and if you are able to find a mentor who can teach you and who can guide you through this that's even better because you're going to learn from someone who's already made all the mistakes it can help you avoid those mistakes and has already been successful and you can model their success so that's something I wish I'd known earlier as well and I have one bonus for you here this is something I wish I had known long ago which is that you should just get started and that's because I had wood I wish I had gotten started way way earlier than I did if I had I would have been able to have many more years of success behind me but I didn't I was too afraid or I didn't even know about it for a time dropshipping I just wish I had gotten started earlier because I've seen such success with it and I just wish I was able to tap into that success earlier in my life so those are the seven things that I wish I had known before I started dropshipping with one bonus tip so give the video a thumbs up for that bonus tip as well and if you love the video make sure to subscribe by clicking down below for more great content about ebay and amazon drop shipping thanks so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video