Start Yours

Many people think starting an ecommerce business has to be a full-time gig.  Sure, there are many things you have to do to get it up and running and even more to maintain it after it's launched. But that doesn't necessarily mean having to ditch your day job. Sometimes, starting small can have its benefits. In today's episode of Start Yours, we're joined by David Gaylord. David's one of the three founding members of Bushbalm.com, a highly successful daily skincare and ingrown hair prevention product line, as well as a Shopify employee on the operations team. David and his partners started small and set up systems and automated where they could. And as you'll hear, there are advantages to their strategy. Last year, they hit their very first million in sales and are hoping to repeat this feat in 2020. If you have a winning idea, are thinking about developing your own product, or maybe white labelling something that's working for you, then this is the episode to listen to because we'll be diving into all of that and getting juicy tips and insights from David. We hope you'll consider subscribing to our podcast and don't forget to check out the Oberlo blog for more content.

Back in 2015, Pierre Emmanuel leaped into the unknown when he and his wife relocated from France to the United States. After discovering some of his clients were dropshipping using Oberlo and Shopify, Pierre decided to try it out for himself. It was a match made in heaven. Over the next few years, Pierre built his store, which is in the problem-solving niche, to the point of making over $1.6 million in revenue. The success has allowed him to provide a more comfortable lifestyle for his wife and his young son. In this episode of Start Yours, we dig into some of his biggest dropshipping challenges, the techniques he used to grow his store, and how he finds his winning products.

We're going to be straight with you: Starting an online store is not easy.  Expect mistakes, frustration, more mistakes, and more frustration. But the good news is, if you can persevere through it and, success will be greeting you at the end of that tunnel. Having spoken to our fair share of successful merchants and heard their stories, we know just how hard it can be.  While there's no easy road to success, there are mistakes you can avoid. In this episode, we're joined by Oberlo's very own social care advisor, Gurj Singh. Gurj has collated a list of the most common things to avoid when you are launching a new brand. Together, we dive into sourcing products, creating a website, customer care, and the importance of transparency and communication. If you're just starting out or aspiring to become an ecommerce business owner, this will be a knowledge-filled and practical episode for you so definitely tune in. We have plenty more of such episodes and if you're interested, subscribe to Start Yours so you never miss a single one.

Sourcing products for your e-commerce and dropshipping store can be tricky and sometimes even overwhelming. Each week, Jessica and Magda host a live broadcast on Oberlo's Youtube channel were they share their top 5 product recommendations and which trends you need to keep your eyes on. We've packaged up their hot tips in this episode of Start Yours and shared the links to all of their recommendations below. LED Plant Lamp $100k GMV, $12-25 average price https://app.oberlo.com/product-sources/459/products/1005001273687503 Walnut Cutting Board $70k GMV, $25 average price (each) https://app.oberlo.com/product-sources/459/products/4000329558074 Massage Gun $5k GMV, $50 average price https://app.oberlo.com/product-sources/459/products/4000416562381 Velvet Leggings $3k GMV, $12 average price https://app.oberlo.com/product-sources/459/products/32840348991 LED Humidifier  $100k GMV, $15 average price https://app.oberlo.com/product-sources/459/products/4000402889944 Oberlo 101: http://learn.oberlo.com Podcast: https://www.oberlo.com/podcast Success stories: https://www.oberlo.com/success-stories

How do I start marketing my business? Is Facebook or Google a better platform? What about influencer marketing? How much do I need to spend? Whether you already have an ecommerce business set up or are looking to start one, you will have asked these questions at one point or another.  In this episode of Start Yours, we go full-on into marketing and cover everything from the basics to influencer marketing and building trust. And to do that, we're joined by Erik Huberman, a premium marketer and the man behind Hawke Media, the fastest-growing marketing consultancy in the US that's been valued at over $75 million. He's got some big names in his clientele list, as well as start-ups and everything in between, including ecommerce businesses. Keen to grow your business? Then tune in now for Erik's marketing tips and information. If you enjoy the podcast, we hope you'll consider subscribing. Also, don't forget to hop on over to our blog for more ecommerce and entrepreneurship content.

Some people are born with a love for the #hustle but like a lot of us dropshippers, Harry Coleman has worked really hard to hit the highs of ecommerce success. In this episode of Start Yours, Aleisha shares Harry's story, from working a day job as well as building his empire (and taking naps in his car at lunch to survive) to becoming the owner of three stores, and the manager of up to 10 staff. His stores combined to generate over $5 million revenue in 2018! Listen to learn Harry's tips for million dollar success and check out the accompanying blog.

The holiday shopping season may not be for another month, but as an ecommerce business owner, whether you have it as a side hustle or are running it full-time, this is the time of the year you definitely do not want to miss out on. To guide you through that, we're joined by Oberlo's very own Magda Kuzminski, a marketing expert on our team. Magda is going to go through, step-by-step, what you need to do to successfully prepare for your Black Friday marketing campaign. She will be dropping valuable, insightful, and practical knowledge bombs so if you're looking to boost those sales, this is one episode you want to tune into. Enjoying our podcast? Do subscribe so you never miss out on the latest episodes.

The holiday shopping season may not be for another month, but as an ecommerce business owner, whether you have it as a side hustle or are running it full-time, this is the time of the year you definitely do not want to miss out on. To guide you through that, we're joined by Oberlo's very own Magda Kuzminski, a marketing expert on our team. Magda is going to go through, step-by-step, what you need to do to successfully prepare for your Black Friday marketing campaign. She will be dropping valuable, insightful, and practical knowledge bombs so if you're looking to boost those sales, this is one episode you want to tune into. Enjoying our podcast? Do subscribe so you never miss out on the latest episodes.

Oberlo has already helped dropshipping merchants find and sell over 85 million products around the world. One of those merchants is Tim Kock. We set Tim the challenge of building a dropshipping store from scratch and making $10,000 in the first month. In this episode of Start Yours, David joins Tim to talk about his journey: from how he selected his product to the biggest challenges he faced and how he overcame them to get his first sale. And then a whole bunch of sales after that. How I Made $8,873 In 31 Days Selling Sunglasses: Check out the accompanying Case Study blog and be sure to subscribe to Start Yours to hear all of our episodes and catch up on the back catalogue.

When most people think about marketing on Instagram, they think about ads or influencers. But not Kamron and Varun. The high school friends and business partners leveraged Instagram in a lesser-known, different way to run their business to success: niche pages. The teenage duo joins us in this episode of Start Yours to tell us how they made $30,000 of revenue in three months using Instagram niche pages. Despite their young age (year 11 and 12 of high school), they have a bunch of entrepreneurial experience under their belts and dropped plenty of knowledge bombs during our chat. The fact that they did it all while juggling school makes it all the more impressive.  If you're looking for tips on how to buy, build, and use Instagram niche pages to grow your ecommerce business, then this episode for you. It's also full of entrepreneurial inspiration as Kamron and Varun also talk about their motivations and mistakes made along the way. We hope you'll enjoy this episode and that you'll consider subscribing to our podcast.