I started entrepreneurship at 21 years old—my entrepreneur uncle has always inspired me. However, contrary to what you might think, I didn’t start successfully. My journey is a collection of lessons and milestones, which I want to share with you.
Let me discuss these lessons in this article. Use this as your guide to building your own profitable dropshipping business. Learn how I was able to build a 7-figure business over the years, from the start until today.
10 Lessons That Helped Me Build a 7-Figure Dropshipping Empire
1. Selling Low-Ticket is Hard
The first business I did was something I bought online—a delivery route that cost me over $25k. It came with an old van and the right to drive to a bakery. This is how I ran it:
This is how soon I realized that it was a bad investment. I was making only about $3 profit per huge box—totally not profitable, and the job was tedious. To earn more, I actually had to go back to a landscaping job I used to do, all while still selling the cookies.
3. It’s Easier to Sell Online
I was able to turn things around after reading a book that was lent to me—The 4-Hour Work Week. From that, I learned that you can create an online store yourself and use Google Ads to advertise online. This stuck with me, so I followed it.
I built my first website, selling New York cookies. It was ugly, but it was back then, so it didn’t matter. My marketing angle was that if people went to New York and missed buying fresh cookies, I have it for them.
3. Google Ads Drive More Sales
It was also with this first store when I first ran Google Ads. I targeted people outside of New York using keywords like white cookies, black cookies, rainbow cookies, etc. To my shock, the ads worked, and orders started coming in within a few days. I was able to make more money with the website and the ads.
This is when I decided to focus only on the cookies. I ran the business until I got into the holiday season, and my website was getting more traffic because of the ads, which resulted in more sales. However, this also meant more work for me as I had to pack the cookies and have them shipped. It got to a point where my family and friends had to help me pack orders.
4. It’s Better to Sell Expensive Items
After that holiday experience, I had to rethink my business. I thought about what I could do with a website and ads to earn more but avoid such tedious work. That’s when I came up with selling more expensive items. What if I sell $1000 items and make $300 as profit?
With this idea, I started researching if high-ticket eCommerce was possible—it is. I picked a product category that sells consistently and looked for companies in China that sell those products. I looked for suppliers as well and contacted them.
5. Build a Store Around a Niche
After figuring out a high-ticket niche, I built another website around that niche. I uploaded products and photos from the supplier I picked, mentioning that the products are made-to-order and expected shipping times. I ran Google Ads, and after a few days, I got a sale for over $500. The sales kept coming after that. That’s when I was assured that high-ticket eCommerce works, especially with the right store and promotion.
6. Take Risks
With the business going well, I was once again facing risks. Since the products came from China, they were shipped in a container, and I had to pick them up from a port. Take note that this is still not dropshipping, so I still had to ship the products myself. This was risky as I wasn’t sure if those suppliers were legit but I still took it.
The cargo ships came in, and I had the orders picked up from the port as I put shipping labels on each box. I felt a sense of satisfaction knowing my customers would receive quality products. Taking the risks allowed me to learn what works and doesn’t. This is how I got deeper into high-ticket eCommerce.
7. High-Ticket Dropshipping Handles Shipping On Its Own
As I started to get more traffic and sales with my store, companies started to contact me. This is where the concept of dropshipping was introduced to me. These companies told me that I could sell their products in my store, and they would be the ones doing the shipping. This sounded crazy to me back then—too good to be true.
I decided to give it a try, and I actually started getting more traffic and sales. I didn’t even know this was dropshipping back then. From that, I started reaching out to other companies as well. This is where I faced an issue.
8. Avoid Building a General Store
Many of the companies I contacted actually agreed to let me ‘drop ship’ their products. But after some time, I realized that I was now running a general store—I was selling everything and anything. My conversion rate started dropping, and that’s why I now recommend avoiding this kind of store.
To solve this, I actually built more stores and broke up all the product types. I started building niche-specific stores. This increased the conversion rates again. This was when I was sure that niche-specific stores work best when it comes to getting high conversions.
9. Don’t Be Afraid to Outsource
I built multiple niche-specific stores for years, and at one point, I decided to sell some. But then I realized that I was still struggling to manage the stores left. However, I didn’t want anyone touching my stores—I didn’t want to outsource.
But things got so big that I had to outsource customer service. This is when I realized that I should’ve done it sooner. If you’re running a store now, outsource as soon as you can. This didn’t just make my customers happier but also gave me more time to focus on other aspects of my business.
10. Suppliers Need Dropshipping Stores
During this phase of my eCommerce journey, I still had my fears. One of them is about my suppliers and the reason why they agreed to this kind of business model. Why are all these companies just letting me sell their products when they can do it themselves?
I only got rid of it after meeting one of my suppliers. It was because their business is different from mine. Their business focuses on finding quality manufacturers and making the best products. Meanwhile, a dropshipping business like mine focuses on building stores and selling those products. Therefore, they need dropshipping stores.
This realization gave me peace of mind, and I decided to share my knowledge and help people get into dropshipping. I started sharing in forums until I built the first version of Drop Ship Lifestyle.
Start Building Yours Today!
I’m now building and helping people build profitable dropshipping stores using my experience. I even got a Shopify award for it! If you still want to learn more about how to build a profitable store, you can join our webinar.
Now you know how I got into dropshipping and what I went through. I would love to know yours as well, so leave a comment below!
