Don’t Let Your Full Time Job Get in The Way of Your E-commerce Dream
Statistics show 62% of billionaires in the United States are self-made (fitsmallbusiness.com). Having a full-time job was never an obstacle in the path of achieving their dreams.
A side hustle can get you closer to your dream life, earn extra income and be your own boss.
You might hesitate to give up a job that secures your living and lifestyle, to put efforts into a side hustle. What’s great about starting an e-commerce store is that you can easily do it along with your 9–5 job. The dropshipping model allows you to start your entrepreneurial journey at a really low investment AND you have a steady income to support you till your side-business doesn’t take off. You will need to give up on your leisure hours to put this plan into action, but the fruit you reap in the long run will be worth the entire struggle.
How does dropshipping work?
As a dropshipper, you do not stock products nor do you package or ship orders. What you do, is create an online store and display your supplier’s products for sale. When you do receive an order, you forward it to the supplier who delivers the order directly to the customer.
You save time and cost that you would have otherwise spent on buying and stocking inventory. If you already have an idea or a product, you can work on developing it and offer that to your customer, you know what is best for your e-commerce business.
Tips to help you start e-commerce as a side business
- Prioritize
Set your priorities right! Your business will need all the time you can give it. That’s not to say, don’t have fun or give up on family get-togethers, trips, movies and dinners. These things are important to your overall well-being.
Prioritising tasks will hold you in good stead. Let go of things that you can. Reduce your screen time or gossip sessions. Ensure you eat well; you will need the extra energy. Above everything else, make sure your job is not affected by your side-business.
2. Create a Business Plan
Having an idea isn’t enough, how you take it forward will determine its success. If your goal is to come out of the 9–5 routine, you will first have set timelines and estimate the time it will take for your side hustle to make you enough money to support yourself.
Your business plan should address the following questions AND have measurable solutions.
How much investment do you need to make? Where will you get your capital from? How will you choose your suppliers? How will you go about shipping and payment?
Get answers to all these questions and plan your to-dos accordingly. Have a solid plan ready before you move forward.
3. Automate
There is no dearth of automation tools online. Research and find ones that you could use. Automate as many processes as you can. There are tools available for scheduling social media posts. We at VARStreet Inc use Hootsuite for our social media. You can dedicate a day over the weekend to schedule posts for the week.
Use tools like Mail Chimp to send automated emails to your subscribers. Automate processes with your supplier. Manually handling supply data and payments will get exhausting once your business picks up. Integrating with supplier systems will take a huge load off.
4. Outsource
Plenty of side businesses are started in the United States every year, and many die in the first few years. You surely aren’t in the race to die.
If you are not good at something, outsource it, instead of providing your customers with mediocre data. Hire professionals to handle your social media, write product descriptions, click product pictures etc.
You can increase the value of your business and brand with good quality copy, images, videos and content. Outsourcing might seem a little expensive in the beginning but will fetch you higher returns in the longer run.
5. Get E-commerce ready in a week with VARStreet
Although you have a business plan ready and have decided on automating and outsourcing, you can make your life a lot easier by getting an e-commerce platform that will provide you with a one-stop shop solution.
VARStreet is a great tool to start dropshipping IT and office supply products. Our aggregated catalog has millions of products from 40+ IT and office supplies distributors in the United States and Canada.
The product catalog is updated in real-time; you do not have to worry about constantly updating the price and inventory. Once you get an account with the suppliers you want to partner with, you get access to their products on VARStreet. You also get all the rich content, i.e. product description, tech specs and high-quality product images. Concentrate all your energy on marketing, leave the rest to VARStreet.
Read the full article here for a lot more tips on starting your own e-commerce store.
