Business
The Basics of Getting Started With Drop Shipping (E-Commerce Store)
Drop shipping is defined as a business model where products are sold from a sourced supplier on an e-commerce website. The drop shipping business model existed long before the internet, but it became more accessible and popular in recent years. In other words, drop shipping means selling products at a slightly higher price from the supplier.
How does drop shipping work?
With drop shipping, you don’t have to own stock, all you need is to look for reliable suppliers of the products you want to sell on your website. When looking for reliable suppliers, it is always better to get those that sell their products at competitive prices. Upon sourcing products from a supplier with low prices, it will be easier for you to earn a reasonable commission without having to overprice the products on your site.
To get started with dropshipping, you have to find a niche (theme) for your store. For example, this could be technology, animals, or even food products. The more specific your niche is, the more efficient it will be to build a brand alongside your business. Ultimately, your e-commerce site has to be unique and well built. The goal is to earn customer trust, having a unique and simple name such as “Petswelove.com” instead of “Petsproducts4sale.store,” can make a huge difference with results!
Secondly, you have to decide which e-commerce platform you want to use for your store. Some of the platforms that can help with your drop shipping store’s launch include: Shopify, Bigcommerce, and 3dcart. From experience, I would recommend Shopify since it has an easy to use platform and a considerable user base, which makes finding solutions (in case you run into issues) more efficient.
After all that is done, you have to set up your store and decide which suppliers you want to use. One of the most popular suppliers is Aliexpress, an online retail service based in China and owned by the Alibaba Group. This is where you will find your products at a lower price straight from the manufacturers and suppliers. Most e-commerce websites come with plugins that make it easier to export products right into your site. Take Oberlo, for example, a Shopify program that allows you to add products and change information within seconds.
The last step is marketing your products. This can be the most challenging part of drop shipping. There are tools such as Facebook Ads where you can “train” your pixel and start building an audience to market your products to. Taking advantage of social media marketing can be very useful in helping you become successful. However, this might take some time and money.
What are the pros and cons of drop shipping?
Pros:
- It requires little capital to get started since you don’t need physical stock.
- Since there is no physical inventory store to look after, the operational costs involved are very minimal.
- It is easy to diversify. The fact that you don’t have to purchase the actual products makes it easier to deal with a wider range.
Cons:
- You have limited to no control over the shipping processes, which may lead to bad reviews for your website in case of delays.
- Inventory management is complicated. Not owning the inventory makes it hard for you to know what is available and what is not.
- It’s very competitive. Since drop shipping involves little capital to get started, many people are doing it, which has led to more competition.
- Small profit margins. Beating the competition may require offering competitive prices, which in the end, reduces your profit margin.
What are some drop shipping tips?
- Don’t sell products that everyone else is selling. Try to look for products that are a bit unique but with ready demand. These are often called “winning products.”
- Make sure you’re in touch with your suppliers. Close contact with your suppliers will make it easy to deal with shipping delays and inventory level monitoring issues.
- Deal in products that you clearly understand. This will help you source products that are of good quality since you understand them well enough. That is why you should start a store that you are passionate about.
- Take advantage of influencer marketing. Sometimes it may be harder for starters to optimize Facebook ads, so taking advantage of this could help give you a boost in getting started. Instagram pages such as @Techineer and @Gadgetings are some great examples for technology-related products.
- Customer support is crucial. Always make sure you respond to all the customer queries as soon as possible if you want to build a good relationship with your customers.
- Make your drop shipping store SEO friendly. If you are not familiar with SEO, you may have to hire an expert to help you out. SEO will help your drop shipping store to get free traffic from search engines quickly.
In conclusion, drop shipping can be exciting and fun. However, you would need to put in a reasonable amount of time into researching what works best. The internet has a ton of valuable information that is available for free. While the risks are minimal, the work can seem daunting. In the end, dropshipping is a perfect outlet for aspiring store owners or teenage entrepreneurs.
Business
Bitcoin Hits An All-Time High Above $66,000
Bitcoin reached its all-time high earlier this week, hitting the $66,000 mark last Wednesday– the highest price we’ve seen the cryptocurrency achieve since April.
Bitcoin has been gaining value since the beginning of this month. On October 1st, the price of Bitcoin was $48,159; the current value represents a 37% increase in just three weeks. However, it’s not the first time we have seen such a sharp increase in Bitcoin’s price. We already saw a staggering 50% increase between March and April.
However, for those planning to buy Bitcoin at the current high price, it may not always be a good idea–at least according to expert Anjali Jariwala. “Usually, when an investment hits an all-time high, that is the least ideal time to buy,” Jariwala, certified financial planner, public accountant, and founder of Fit Advisors told CNBC in an interview. She further said it makes more sense to wait for prices to drop before you can buy Bitcoin.
Buying is always ideal when the prices go down. Although we don’t know when this will be, Bitcoin may drop soon when you consider the trends of this cryptocurrency. There is also a possibility of the price going even higher than what we saw on Wednesday if demand happens to continue skyrocketing as it has been in the last couple of weeks.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are historically volatile, so their prices will always see a huge change now and then, mainly depending on how much demand they get on the different crypto exchange platforms. The price also relies heavily on speculation. Recently, we saw the prices of Bitcoin skyrocket when Elon Musk tweeted about Tesla adding Bitcoin as one of the accepted payment methods on their website.
For people trying to buy Bitcoin with long term intentions, Ivory Johnson, certified financial planner, chartered financial consultant, and founder of Delancey Wealth Management, argues that buying Bitcoin now would not be a horrible idea because as more people continue to adopt this cryptocurrency, its prices will simply to go up.
The idea is Bitcoin will reach a point when its supply is fixed, and its prices will only be going up as more people continue to adopt it. Thus, a $10,000 price difference will likely not have a significant impact in 5 or 10 years from today.
Business
5 Tips for Starting a Limited Liability Company
If you are thinking of starting up a business, one of the decisions you have to make is deciding which structure you need. Generally, you can choose to operate your business as an LLC, partnership, sole proprietorship, etc. For many, however, becoming an LLC is their go-to option.
A Limited Liability Company (LLC) is a licensed United States company under which the owners are not personally liable for the company’s debts and liabilities. The beauty about LLCs is that they enjoy the tax pass-through of sole proprietorships or partnerships while also maintaining the limited liability of a corporation.
Tips for starting an LLC
- Hire professionals to help you out with some tasks: If you want things to move quicker and smoother, you shouldn’t do everything yourself. You may need to hire a part-time accountant and a lawyer to help you with the quarterly accounting and legal aspects of starting a business.
- Get advice from a taxation expert to avoid making fundamental mistakes that may later lead you to pay excessive amounts of taxes. Being diligent about reporting both income and expenses assures that you won’t have to pay for more things than you actually need to.
- Make sure all the shareholders and other company stakeholders are aware of their responsibilities and benefits.
- Have a clear business plan and a substantial budget for executing it. A business plan may not perfectly predict the future, but it will give your business a sense of direction.
- The location you choose matters, so ensure to consider all factors before deciding the location of your business.
For tax purposes, one may prefer an s-corp structure. s-corp is technically not a business structure like a c-corp or an LLC, it is simply a tax status. To get the s-corp tax status, you need to first register as an LLC or c-corp and then send Form 2553 to the IRS and request your business to be taxed accordingly. Under an s-corp, you can potentially save money by paying employees in distributions and salaries (distributions are only taxed on income, whereas salaries face income and employment tax). This means that s-corps can pay a significant amount of their revenues through distributions, allowing them to save money on taxes.
S-corps, however, do have caveats. They can’t have over 100 members in the company, and all of them must be U.S citizens.
On the other hand, a c-corp is the type of business structure in the USA where owners or shareholders are taxed separately from the entity. C-corps profits are taxed at the income tax rate, which is usually more favorable. However, both c-corps and LLC owners have limited liability, so they are not personally liable for the business debts and liabilities.
So, what is limited liability? Articles usually mention it as a benefit to incorporating as an LLC, but many of them don’t actually tell you what it means. Having limited liability tied to your company protects your personal assets in a court of law, meaning that your company would be the entity that takes on any presented legal burden. If sued, you won’t have to give up any of your individual belongings to cover a debt.
Having a Limited Liability Company provides many benefits. Protection, credibility, and organization are among the most important!
Business
5 Tips To Become A Successful Entrepreneur
One of the reasons why many people want to be entrepreneurs is to get financial freedom and the freedom of not having to answer to a boss. This article has compiled 5 tips that you can use in your pursuit of that lifestyle.
What is an entrepreneur?
Let’s first define who an entrepreneur is. An entrepreneur is simply someone who sets up a business to solve a particular problem in society, bearing most of the risks and enjoying most rewards.
Tip #1: Have a vision
One of the main catalysts of discipline and commitment is having a clear vision. When you know where you are going and what you want to achieve, it is easier to put in the work and dedication every day.
Tip #2: Challenge yourself
If you want to be in your comfort zone, then entrepreneurship is not for you. To become a successful entrepreneur, you have to be ready to do the uncomfortable stuff many people run away from.
Tip #3: Have a passion for your work
Getting up early every day and trying to do the uncomfortable requires a lot more than just having the discipline; you need to have passion for the work you do. In one of his famous quotes, Steve Jobs once said, “the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
Tip #4: Have a great team around you
It is almost impossible to become a successful entrepreneur by doing it alone. One way you can focus on building a strategic direction for your idea and business is by delegating some of the tasks that consume most of your time. Building great partnerships and hiring the best talent are some of the first things you have to do.
Tip #5: Take calculated risks
Entrepreneurship is about taking risks and working on ideas whose success is not guaranteed. However, it is essential to take risks that won’t bring you back to anything. Always have a backup plan whenever you are investing time and money into a highly risky business idea.
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