The Real Costs of Starting a Dropshipping Business in 2024

[@theecomzone]

Support the channel by signing up to Shopify with a free trial and enjoy your first three months for just £1/pm: shopify.pxf.io/Y9m9AB Watch my videos in order: kzbin.info/aero/PLep-t3wpCPkWSJcyYiFsELQGLn-wzALvX&si=3KMmhSu7__qvmZnY. Schedule a 1-to-1 call with me here: theecomzone.com/

[@thisisjimmz]

Man! What are you sharing is priceless!! thank you so much for sharing your experience! you thank us for watching?, no thank you for sharing this!

[@theecomzone]

Sorry for the late reply, man it was a hectic month! Thank you and I appreciate the love

[@officialgtech]

I've spent about $5000 in dropshipping. But that's from 2 stores that didnt work out, and currently running my 3rd. I cannot stress enough that you need to invest quite a bit if you want to give yourself a comfortable cushion for everything you need to learn. Even $1000 i feel is not enough because the ad spend sucks up so much of your money. Only my experience.

[@theecomzone]

Oh for sure, this year has been super rocky for Meta ads as well. Constant outages and updates since March. I'm hoping they fix their system next year. Yeah $1000 is bare minimum with regular income stream.

[@msgamingbd]

Hire professional Digital marketer and SEO expert

[@caleboudbier]

ok but spending 5000 for 2 product test is crazy you could easily spend like a 5th of that to see if your even going to be close to profitable. but yea you need to have a chunk when starting so you can test.

[@chrissy_light]

Hi Lon, your content on the subject is second to none. Every video has loads of value. Do you have a view on other e-commerce platforms such as Woo Commerce or Big Commerce? I've seen pros and cons of these (not tried any myself as I'm still preparing to launch my business), but would be very interested in your opinion.

[@theecomzone]

Thanks Chrissy 🙏 enjoy the rest of my content! I tried wordpress alidropship 4 years ago and it was horrendous. Never again and I would only recommend WooCommerce if you are really skilled at coding and UX UI design.

[@karugokrg833]

Are these strategies implementable all over the world, or one must be in America?

[@theecomzone]

I sell worldwide.

[@olol2905]

When starting a campaign, does it make more sense to bring customers to the product page or to the homepage?

[@theecomzone]

Product page or collection page if you're advertising a collection of products under 1 subcategory

[@user-ct8by3hi9u]

thank you for video. It was really informative! But I still havent got what is the approximate amount of capital to start dropshipping?

[@theecomzone]

Around £1000 plus regular income stream. Really depends on your skillset and advertising spend.

[@scorpionswarm7150]

Hi I came across your Reddit replies. I have been diving into dropshipping for a while now. I have watched some KZbin like Mikey Again. Do you recommend finding winning products and making like separate shopify shops per product or one big one?

[@theecomzone]

I always suggest branded niche stores and to avoid one product stores, I have a video explaining why. It's a year old but still relevant as with all my videos.

[@MustafaGains]

In UK 🇬🇧 i guess you are not required to register a company and pay VAT if ur yearly income under 70k £ or 60k am not sure but its around if am not mistaken

[@theecomzone]

You have to weigh out the benefits but there are costs of running a business that I never knew about. Claiming expenses and VAT back on expenses is great but there are a lot more taxes and NIC to be paid as a director. You also benefit by shifting liability to your company and not yourself.

[@jingojon]

Heya Lon. Great video btw! We are a UK limited company already, so are used to VAT returns, & charging VAT on our sales on other websites we own. Now getting into a new dropshipping Shopify store. When we finally make the website live, & start placing orders through Dsers, & Aliexpress, I can see Aliexpress would then charge TAX (20% VAT) on each order we place. Can we, or how do we then claim that VAT back when when it's time? Are there invoices through Dsers, or Aliexpress to then show our accountants? Does it give a monthly summary of all sales with VAT breakdown rather than downloading each order individually? Cheers mate, J

[@theecomzone]

Thank you, you need to add your vat number onto the AliExpress platform. I'm not sure how we got access to that feature. I believe you may need to ask them to switch you to a business account via the support chat. Once you add your vat number you won't pay vat on cogs to the uk

[@theecomzone]

You then wanna watch my other video about invoicing.

[@jingojon]

@@theecomzone Thanks for the reply Lon. I will take a look into that then & reach out to them. Will also take a look at your other video!

[@Per_Seed1]

Hey man enjoy Da Nang sea food! Wondering about Quickbooks/ Xero for bookkeeping-accounting. What are your thoughts on those 2? Are you using one of the other and if so, what makes you pick this one?

[@theecomzone]

Didn't go to Da Nang this time, I went last year though, loved the seafood. Was in Nha Trang this time. I don't use apps, I have a book keeper who does it all with Excel Spreadsheets. Very impressive worksheets. I do have two excel sheets that can help track daily P/L and orders but it's not accurate so can't be sent to auditors. You can find these two sheets on my website www.theecomzone.com

[@lego1bob1brick]

I'm an accountant and used both... For what it's worth I do think Xero is WAYYYYY better than XBO but that may be down to personal preference... I think Xero is easier to use and understand if you start accounting as a beginner

[@seuinglesdozero]

Hi. I'm brazilian and plan to start on droppishiping. Didn't put any money, working through the free plans and testing periods since yesterday. I thought about POD but I couldn't come up with designs, and I really want to stop thinking and start acting. But it seems that it's not realistic and I hate the idea of putting money and effort and ending up with nothing but shame. I'm studying accounting and work as a tax assistant, making a minimum wage. I'm 21 by the way. I think I should start with a side hustle instead of a business, but I don't know. I'm tired of always stopping myself and doing nothing. I have less than 100 dollars in my country currency. And I don't know what to do with it to make more money. I know I am being unrealistic but I don't want to stop my momentum, what are my options if droppishiping needs that much, a 1 thousand dollars, up front investment?

[@drunksadlifter4645]

Had your same problem, you’re a perfectionist and most probably have some sort of addiction (phone/yt, nicotine, etc). You need to lock in bro, do this, in this order. write out everything you have to do(free course whatever, if you choose POD and DS, write out both bc they have synergy), learn and start the process of setting up the legal foundation, cut all the addictions and perfectionism; here’s how, addictions delete social media apps, with smoking/vapes only 1! After you did work towards your business (use as reward to get addicted to work). Perfectionism: do something with 70% effort, try achieve 70% of what you want it to look like (revisit it later, or don’t, it only matters that you did it), and finally you need to change your mindset: your mindset should be “if I don’t do this now, I will die or be in pain and my future will be horrible and I will fail my family” After this, you try, fail, learn, improve, repeat. You’re welcome.

[@Dafebezz]

I just started now and not live yet but I have spend about 3 to 5k which is not fun just build my site and ordering orders

[@Alexandre-k1b]

Any sales at all?

[@theecomzone]

Wait why have you spent £3000-5000 already? What did you spend that on? Have you seen my free course on KZbin on how to build your website? Simple and easy setup guide.

[@aglive-r7099]

He said this cost whole running not before making sales

[@charlenemcgreig3865]

I love your honesty sometimes makes me want to not go ahead! But I'm not gona give up because I'm so passionate about my why and I can see my store and it future in my head. I've decided to hit the valentines market as Xmas is to near for me to be organized I'm going to learn more in mean time 😊

[@Dafebezz]

@ not live yet just finish up website and market research and product testing which take lot of time getting a UI personal cost about 300$ And a developer about 600$ Dsars I paid for 1 year about 420$

[@Travelyoung.]

Hii, your videos are so helpful if you want to start your own dropshipping store. I have a question, if i have my first order from my shopify store which is connected with aliexpress, does the customer pay for the product and the money is directly send to the supplier from aliexpress or do i have to pay for that order first myself and then i recieve the money from the customer? maybe you can make a video of this if you don't have one already?

[@theecomzone]

I have a video on this somewhere, it might be on one of the AliExpress ones or the videos related to budget and finances.

[@TobiasKryze]

..well..this video sure killed my motivation. I didnt expect to "get rich quick" but i had hoped that by march next year id be comfortable and abke to quit my other job. Now it looks like theres just no point

[@theecomzone]

This shouldn't really kill your motivation to succeed. It's just an eye opener into what the reality is of dropshipping. Check out the rest of my videos as I share the real way to actually make money from dropshipping.

[@TobiasKryze]

@theecomzone i think it is just a bad night for me. I've been putting 12-15 hours into the site and name and design and watching your videos over and over lol since last friday. I think this one was the one that overwhelmed me

[@theecomzone]

@TobiasKryze if you're putting in the work then you'll succeed one day. Check out my Instagram story, I helped one of my subs hit $10,000 in sales today, they are absolutely crushing it. They started back in April and had their fair share of ups and downs but they are killing it now. Running a business is no joke. If you can't handle the truth then I wouldn't suggest it. When you run ads one day and you don't see results you expected then you may feel the same feeling.

[@TobiasKryze]

@theecomzone I agree. It was more of a, bad say at work plus bad day after work then seeing a lot of numbers that look like I need to pay 25000 a year before I ever start selling lol. But anyway, everyone has ups and downs.

[@theecomzone]

@TobiasKryze nah you don't need £25,000 to start. Only £1000 with regular income stream. The costs start adding up when you spend money on ads, sampling and cogs.

[@JustinVoinea]

How are you getting Shopify at $25/mo in your video? For me that Basic - solo entrepreneurs plan is $39/mo

[@theecomzone]

@@JustinVoinea what's your currency?

[@theecomzone]

@@JustinVoinea also, if you sign up with my affiliate link it will only cost you £1/pm for the first 3 months

[@TobiasKryze]

Comes to 51 a month for me lol. Canada

[@JustinVoinea]

@@theecomzone and yeah I'm aware of that, but once these 3 months are gone, I'd love to lock in at $25/mo, sometimes people even get $19/mo but I don't get how that works. weird

[@lindabervoets1361]

The difference is probably in paying per month or per year. For me it's 24 euro when paying annually and 32 euro monthly for the basic plan.

[@user-sk9wh8xm8d]

Now I don’t really wanna do Shopify l lol

[@theecomzone]

Haha the cost does add up with all the apps but it's still one of the best tools out there for ecom.

[@flexinutrition3744]

Amazing video Brother....what is your net monthly profit from your drop shipping business?

[@theecomzone]

Thank you, it averages at around £10,000 monthly plus expenses but recently it's been rough. Multiple income streams help balance it out.

[@infinitewars6373]

15 bucks for a refund lol how da fk does that work ? receiveing money from costumer is less than refund its like 1500%x :DDD

[@theecomzone]

£15 if you lose a chargeback on top of the refund plus cost of goods if you paid for any plus the ad spent to acquire the customer. It adds up.

[@VEZAPRODUCTION]

Hey, i am just doing my research and hopefully start drop shipping within 1st quarter of 2025! Love the video! And i was wondering, i am trying from Hong Kong!I was wondering if you could mkae a guide to sell to uk,usa or different places! And i also heard about zendrop and was wondering whats your opinion about it! Love the content brother! You are the real g❤ you have changed the view and everything about dropshipping This would be great if you could help me!

[@chams7960]

you can acutally start with zero dollar if you start with organic

[@scorpionswarm7150]

Don’t forgot that you have to sign up to your government to pay taxes and such. In the Netherlands that costs like 80 eu to get a business number and be regosterd

[@theecomzone]

Anyone telling you that you can start with $0 is full on capping brother. I have so many videos going through why they're lying and even if it's possible you'll struggle to scale to big numbers.

[@chams7960]

@@theecomzone yo okay maybe it’s not zero but it’s almost zero with organic and yeah it’s hard to scale big numbers that’s true but you can make decent money I guess