How to start your own business?
- Thread starter Zoom
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I ran an online store a few years ago for upscale dog products. It sounds like you're looking for drop-shippers, companies that will ship a product out to your customer after they order it, so you just take the order and forward it to the company. No need to ship the items yourself.
The majority of my business was based on drop shipping, but it can be hard to find companies that will to do it. Everyone wants a big order and for you to stock their products yourself, but it can be done, you just have to keep contacting companies you like and eventually you'll find ones that will drop ship for you.
Net-30 might work for you two if you're sure you can sell the items within a month.
Taking a buisness class will certainly help.
The one thing I did wrong was not account for how much advertising would cost. I had to pay for Google Adwrods just to get my website noticed, because it can take weeks if not months to get listed high up on the search engines...if you make it at all. My site was optimized very well and it took months to get google to notice me. Hence the gobs of money tossed out the window on Adwords.
If you can afford to pay for advertising, a couple hundred a month if possible then you can do fine. You'll also want to have a niche, something that makes you different from all the other online pet stores, I offered upscale products, that's what set me apart from petsmart and such, i offered 400 dollar dog beds and people actually wanted them.
If you start as a generall pet supply shop online it can be daunting as the market is very saturated. Not saying it can't be done, but it would take a lot more work than finding a smaller niche, and there are plenty of pet niches to cater too.
I still have my vendor list from my online store if you decide you want to try upscale doggie products I'd be happy to share it with you.
Honestly, if I didn't spend a truckload on adwords in the first few months I'd still be up and running, but cost far outweighed the profits. Adwords can work though if your smarter about it than I was, but there are better and more cost effective ways to advertise.
The majority of my business was based on drop shipping, but it can be hard to find companies that will to do it. Everyone wants a big order and for you to stock their products yourself, but it can be done, you just have to keep contacting companies you like and eventually you'll find ones that will drop ship for you.
Net-30 might work for you two if you're sure you can sell the items within a month.
Taking a buisness class will certainly help.
The one thing I did wrong was not account for how much advertising would cost. I had to pay for Google Adwrods just to get my website noticed, because it can take weeks if not months to get listed high up on the search engines...if you make it at all. My site was optimized very well and it took months to get google to notice me. Hence the gobs of money tossed out the window on Adwords.
If you can afford to pay for advertising, a couple hundred a month if possible then you can do fine. You'll also want to have a niche, something that makes you different from all the other online pet stores, I offered upscale products, that's what set me apart from petsmart and such, i offered 400 dollar dog beds and people actually wanted them.
If you start as a generall pet supply shop online it can be daunting as the market is very saturated. Not saying it can't be done, but it would take a lot more work than finding a smaller niche, and there are plenty of pet niches to cater too.
I still have my vendor list from my online store if you decide you want to try upscale doggie products I'd be happy to share it with you.
Honestly, if I didn't spend a truckload on adwords in the first few months I'd still be up and running, but cost far outweighed the profits. Adwords can work though if your smarter about it than I was, but there are better and more cost effective ways to advertise.