The Wholesale Forums

[BenDaMan]

Fellow TWFers,

It has been exactly 3 months since the start of my online dropship business for electronics. I would like to thank the many who have so diligently contributed to making this forums the best guide out there for all aspiring online entrepreneurs.

Just wanted to give my thoughts on what has been probably the best time of my life thus far.

Starting a business was always my dream, being naive and abit of a bone head i erred on good advice from many fellow TWFers and decided to go into business dealing in electronics.

The results have been mixed with good moments and bad. Till today however, i can gladly say it has been the most enjoyable and rewarding (ableit not so much financially as yet) experience of my life.

I attribute my success to having my brother as my partner, someone who has been there when the chips were down and someone who has shared the joint vision. We have been selling for 2 months and fulfilled about 10 orders and continually outside of our personal lives, continued to improve what we currently have.

It has not been a cake walk for sure but the feeling of having satisfied customers has kept us going. We realised a dream as consumers before our business that things never had to be so expensive. Today we bring that dream to consumers worldwide who dare to take a chance with us.

You can imagine the profits thus far have not been astronomical, but it is an encouraging start with at least 2 enquiries a day and a growing database of customers who have signed up at our site.

My honest advice to aspiring etailers of electronics or whatever, never drop your hopes and try your hardest in what you believe, because only then success tastes the sweetest.

The key to any successful venture is research research research. Something that has been over emphasized by all senior members of our forum. I am glad to say i have never paid a dime to those magic lists that supposedly deliver all the tier one dropshippers to your doorstep but frankly i am eager to see what they offer. Perhaps i might have been more tempted to if things have not been going so well

Would be glad to help out anyone who has questions about where to start because its still something thats pretty fresh in my head :P

Keep the dream alive!

[JGClifton]

Nice post, cheers.

[microbored]

good luck

[kyrool]

Glad you got yours up and running. Good luck with your venture, fellow Singaporean.

[BenDaMan]

Cheers and thanks for the encouragement!

Just trying to get out of the rat race like everyone else!

[BenDaMan]

Not too long ago i received a PM from a fellow TWFer, who has wanted to walk this same path as many of us have. Some with great success and others like myself with mediocre but improving results Just a few views on searching for suppliers, selling and other issues.

Hi,

As with any advice that you have encountered in the forum here are a few tips I have, hope you find them interesting.

1) What is your niche? (game consoles? mobile phones? computer peripherals? or digital cameras?)
2) What is the market price? You need to have an intuitive price range of how much your goods will cost you and how much you intend to sell them.
3) Suppliers(legit?)often dont sell themselves as drop shippers so try searching out your local business directories for companies that hold distributorships to the products you need and speak with them.
4) Till this stage, finding suppliers is just the easy part! Research selling costs (fees, website?, brick and motar shop? legalities?) The actual distribution of your products is KEY! How you are going to sell and how much to sell will really be the test. The main reason why it is not a glamourous business to be in is largely due to the competitive nature of the industry. Margins are low and competition rife.
5) It is a numbers game, what is your capital? Do not expect to succeed by collecting cash and processing orders, it will be impossible to collect and ship orders. Access your situation throughly! Reserarch, research, research!

Hope you find something helpful in there

Ben

[shipmania]

Great post there tnx

[BenDaMan]

Few tips I thought I might share with the rest of yous.

I strongly believe good customer service is always the basis of a strong successful business. So the question is how are you going to operate this sideline properly and be contactable and responsive?

The obvious and costly way would be to get on a blackberry and service plan that allows you to mind your email diligently.

If you spend your life watching the laptop like the hottest chic in the world (My line of work requires me to) then get pidgin. It is a messenger that allows you to integrate your MSN, Google and other chat programs and emails under 1 program.

Coupled with Gmail you set them all to come to 1 email address. Gmail even allows you to reply from the email account that receives the mail from. For example you have a xx@iselliphones.com email. Gmail allows you to set replys from your xx@iselliphones.com through its server. This will save you heaps of time and effort because you only need to mind 1 email!

Hope that tip was useful. Happy supplier hunting hehehe!

Ben