Kennedy Meek | Director of Marketing of Zendrop - Do You Need a College Degree to Succeed?

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Nine to Never, the podcast all about entrepreneurship, dropshipping, quitting your nine-to-five, and creating the career of your dreams online. My name is Kennedy Meek here with Zendrop, and I'm also the host of this podcast. Today's episode is going to be a little different than normal because usually we have incredible e-commerce empire owners on this podcast every single week. But this week we decided we wanted to be able to answer your personal questions about dropshipping, Zendrop, entrepreneurship, and anything in between.

So I've compiled a list of several questions that we've been asked here at Zendrop, and I wanted to personally answer them for you. So if you're ready to learn a little bit more about the Zendrop platform, dropshipping, and entrepreneurship from the experts themselves, stick around and keep listening. So the first question we were asked is, how much money do you need actually to start a dropshipping store? And if you've known anything about dropshipping up until this moment, or if you've even just heard of it as a concept, what you will know is that the barrier for entry is extremely low.

What this means is it doesn't actually cost a lot of money to start a dropshipping store. This is the beauty of dropshipping in the first place. The whole concept of not actually having to order inventory and hold stock in stores in order to sell it is why dropshipping is so cheap. However, what is the exact number that you should be thinking about when it comes to a realistic price point for a dropshipping store?

Well, let's think of what we need in order to start a dropshipping store. First and foremost, you will need a Shopify account. Shopify usually charges around $25 a month for a basic plan that will work for a dropshipping store. So that is going to be your first expense.

Additionally, you will need to purchase a domain name. Now, domains are fairly cheap. You can actually purchase straight through Shopify or through another source like GoDaddy. And depending on the actual domain name that you choose, it can be fairly cheap.

Usually you have a discount of maybe $2 for the first year with $10 every year after that. And usually you'll purchase it for about three years at a time. So when it comes to a domain name, you're looking at the ballpark around $14, maybe a little bit more than that when it comes to purchasing an accurate domain name. Keep in mind that .

coms are always higher converting than .ios or .cos. So if you found a brand name that you really enjoy, try to work with the domain name a little bit to make sure it's a .

com and the .com is available. So right off the bat, we have Shopify for about $25 a month, your domain names, which is a single purchase for about $15. And then you'll need to think about your fulfillment resource.

So Zendrop is a fulfillment resource, obviously, and Zendrop's pro membership charges $49 a month. So this is another expense to definitely keep in mind. We always recommend trying out our platform for free. In fact, you get a seven-day free trial at SignUp4Pro if you haven't signed up already.

But yes, you need to consider your fulfillment resource as an initial cost for startup of a dropshipping store. So now that's an additional $50 in startup costs right then and there. So now we've covered the basics. We have your Shopify store price point, your domain name, and your fulfillment resource, aka Zendrop.

This is how you will be finding your products in a catalog to sell on your online store. Now we need to consider Facebook advertising and testing prices because in order to gain success on a dropshipping store, you will need to be testing several products specifically in the initial phases of your online business in order to find out what niches and what products within that niche translate best with the audience that you're familiar with. So a typical rule of thumb here at Zendrop, we like to use the lazy man testing method.

And we will do an entire separate podcast all about the lazy man testing method. But basically in short, it is a version of testing where each product that you're selling has a three day testing routine. So you'll want to create advertisements for anywhere between five to 15 products. You'll run each one of those products at $3 a day.

After the first day of running those ads, you will want to come back and look at your statistics. If you've had no add to carts or no product clicks on that product, you're going to shut that ad off. Second day, if you do not have any add to carts at all from any of those products, those products are now going to be switched off. And then on the last day, if you've had no purchases of that product, those advertisements get switched off.

The whole concept behind this testing method is a couple of things. First and foremost, it's pretty cost effective. You're only spending about a day per advertisement or per product And so it kind of up to you how many products that you should be testing on a given day So you really looking at not even you know a week to start using this testing method So that a pretty good rule of thumb. So if we're going to factor that into how much money you need to start a drop shipping store within your first month of drop shipping, you now are looking at $25 for Shopify, about $15 flat single purchase for a domain name.

And then additionally, about $200 to $300 of startup fees in order to start testing your products. Granted, whatever kind of budget you create for starting your dropshipping store, specifically with advertisements, is going to determine how quickly some of your products start to scale, right? But if we're talking about realistic numbers right off the bat, those are kind of the ballpark ranges I would be recommending looking into. So the next question that we got was, isn't dropshipping too saturated to start dropshipping right now?

And the reality is no, absolutely not. If you're only recently learning about the dropshipping space and it wasn't something you were aware of until very recently, I can understand why it might seem very saturated. The reason for this is the more research you're doing on your own about dropshipping, the more you realize, oh my goodness, so many people already knew about dropshipping before I did. This is a far too saturated market.

But there are a few statistics I would keep in mind that kind of make this a little bit less scary or daunting. First and foremost, the online or e-commerce industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. Dropshipping alone has made up about $54 million annually year over year, increasing at a 50% rate, meaning dropshipping is not slowing down. In fact, it is becoming far more popular.

It is not saturated by any means. If someone has an iPhone or a computer or any kind of smart device that can get them on the internet, they are a potential customer of your online store. So no, not saturated by any means. Now, what we have learned through a lot of different testing and research and just understanding the dropshipping industry is that it is drastically changing all the time.

So this is maybe why it feels a little bit saturated because there's constantly new information being updated about dropshipping and about the effectiveness of dropshipping and how to succeed in dropshipping. And so all of the information gets a little bit, I don't know, I guess disorganized in your own brain. So with knowing this piece of information, I would recommend going straight to Zendrop for all things education in terms of how to succeed in dropshipping. When you go to one centralized trusted source of information while you're learning how to dropship, it becomes far less daunting and you become far more focused in succeeding.

Another ZenDrop user asked, is dropshipping illegal? And this is a question we get all the time. In fact, I originally thought dropshipping was illegal years and years ago, so I understand the misconception for sure. But in order to, I guess, make it a little bit more understandable as to why it's not illegal, I'll give you a little bit of analogy.

And by the way, this is the analogy I give to my grandparents when I'm trying to explain what dropshipping is to them. So it's pretty simple to understand. Think of your dropshipping store like a corner store or a liquor store, a market, so to speak, a brick and mortar location full of different types of products that are typically related to one another. So your dropshipping store is a brick and mortar store, right?

In order to fill your store with items, since it's a physical store, you have to order those products in advance, pay for all of them, and then you only make money on the products that you actually end up selling to a customer. So if you're buying 20 gallons of milk and only 10 of them sell, you only made money on those 10 sales. Now you have 10 gallons of milk that might spoil or aren't being sold. So definitely this is a reality when it comes to brick and mortar stores, and it's not really something you can avoid if you are a brick and mortar store.

But the beauty of dropshipping is that the same kind of format applies where you are paying for a product that then a customer pays for and you make profit. However, the difference here is you do not have to order inventory ahead of time, and you only pay for a product when that customer on your store places an order. So it is not illegal at all. In fact, it's just a very cost-efficient way of placing orders.

And it's a very cost-efficient way of holding inventory. So no, that aspect of dropshipping is not illegal by any means. Now you can run into definitely some copyright infringement or issues in terms of utilizing other brand names that can get you in trouble However it not necessarily illegal either So you want to make sure that you avoiding any pop culture or brand name items that have a trademark on their name You cannot usually sell those products on your online store. So be very wary of making sure you're not selling any cartoon related products or any large brand name clothing items, things like that.

You want to make sure that you're staying away from that because many times you will receive copyright infringement management notices. Another question we got is what are some ways to drive traffic to your online store other than paid advertising? So there are a couple of great ways right off the bat that we can discuss. First and foremost, social media.

If you've heard me speak on any form of Zendrop social media in the past, you understand how powerful I think influencer marketing and social media in general is for your online store. And if you're not utilizing it, it's time to do so. First and foremost, Instagram and Facebook have a really easy shoppable portion of their app where if you register your online store with your Instagram handle, you can have your customers come directly to your Instagram page and actually place orders directly on Instagram rather than going to your online store.

So it kind of cuts out the middleman in terms of making it easier for a customer to place an order. Additionally, TikTok is creating so much virality for e-commerce stores right now, and it's definitely something you should start dabbling with if you haven't already. In fact, many trending products have actually come from other TikTok users recommending some product that they're obsessed with using. And then so many dropshippers have decided, I also want to sell that product.

So TikTok is also going to be awesome, specifically if you have a very niched product or something that someone in the Gen Z age group would really benefit from. Typically, TikTok is your way to go. Additionally, influencer marketing is a pretty fast way to get your product in front of a bunch of eyes that aren't in your direct audience. Now, we have several YouTube videos all about influencer marketing, and sometimes it can cost money.

My recommendation would be to be gifting your products to various micro-influencers, meaning individuals who don't have a super large following but are definitely clearly pursuing influencing as their career. And I would be gifting your products to those influencers for them to talk about on their socials, therefore guiding individuals back to your store. So these are just a few different ways that I would recommend getting users to your online store or even just cutting out the middleman of needing someone to go directly to your online store.

The shop feature on Instagram and Facebook makes it really easy for customers to just instantly place an order. Another user asked, how can I deal with the long shipping times in a positive way for my online store. So this is a pretty typical issue that many dropshippers have until they decide to start selling US-specific products. And by the way, if you haven't already checked out, Zendrop has a lot of products that ship from the United States on our catalog already, which means far shorter shipping times.

But back to the whole purpose of this question. If you are dealing with long shipping times, which is pretty common for any dropshipper, the reality is you just have to be transparent. You cannot lie and say that it's going to get there sooner than it actually will because then you'll have a bunch of unhappy customers. There are many ways that I've seen other online stores spin this information.

For example, if you're selling handbags and they look Italian made or they look kind of high end, you can easily spin a narrative that these are coming from Italy, which will take a longer to ship too. So there's a bunch of different ways that you can kind of create a narrative that you're waiting for an amazing product by waiting two weeks for your product. But the reality is you'll always need to be transparent on the actual timing of shipping, because that is when you will start getting chargebacks, unhappy customers, refunds, the whole nine yards.

So just make sure that you're transparent about the actual time. The narrative you create with it is completely up to your creativity. I got another question asking, can anyone become successful in dropshipping? Short answer, yes.

However, I have interviewed many different e-commerce entrepreneurs, both who are dropshippers and private labelers alike. And what I will say is a few things stand out in terms of their success. That is the reason they became successful. One of which being mindset.

Yes, anybody can sign up for Shopify. anybody can sign up for Zendrop and anybody can run Facebook ads on a product online. But there is a certain mindset and stamina that is required to become successful in dropshipping. For example, we have a select client here at Zendrop that told me he knew that he had to succeed.

There was no other option but succeeding in dropshipping, so every failure was just a minor setback This is a pretty simplistic mindset if you think about it Sure we can all decide that we not going to give up but it also requires a level of stamina right You know I can try out dropshipping five times and if I fail every single time, why would I go for a sixth time? It's called stamina, perseverance, and mindset. So one thing that really sets successful dropshippers apart from those who are less successful or not successful at all is understanding that there is no other option except succeeding in dropshipping.

The reality is it takes a lot of stamina, like I just mentioned. It's a lot of testing different products. Your first product is not going to be your winner. And if it is your winner, you are one of the lucky few.

It takes a lot of sunken cost theory where you're going to probably be spending money on advertising for products that don't hit and are not winners. And if you take all of these minor failures and you ball them up and you say, great, dropshipping isn't for me, then you aren't going to be one of the successful ones. There's so many internet marketers out there who love to discuss how quickly they got rich from dropshipping. And that might be true for some, but the reality is with how large the dropshipping industry is, it does take a lot of perseverance through some of those minor setbacks and failures.

That was my long-winded answer in basically saying, yes, anyone can be successful, but how much do you want to be successful? That is going to indicate if you actually are successful or not. On that topic, I will end on one last question, which is, do you need a degree to be successful? This is a very interesting question, and it actually was asked to me on a Zen Drop Live several weeks back, and I've been thinking about it quite frequently, so I figured it was a great one to slip in here considering a lot of our users are at a young age.

Do you need a degree to be successful? This is the age old question. Obviously, if you are in generation X or the boomer generation, college was a requirement for any level of success. You needed that piece of paper and you needed that degree to get you in any corporate job.

And the reality of today's society and the younger generations is that we are far more innovative than our older generations were allowed to be. There are so many other avenues of success and financial freedom online. And the internet makes it quite literally at our fingertips to make money so instantly if we work harder and smarter. Right?

So, you know, I don't want to be the person that tells an 18 year old not to go to college. I think college is incredibly valuable and there's nothing wrong with going to college. But if you are going to college on the sole reason to make a bunch of money and get rich and be successful, college isn't going to do that for you. That's the mindset part, right?

That's the part of it where it's up to you to decide how much do you want success? Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule. If you have a very specialized career that you'd like to go into, like the medical field, mental health, lawyers, anything like that, obviously, you'll need some level of a certification and a degree and maybe even a master's to be able to qualify to do that job. But e-commerce can be learned online.

E-commerce can be learned through trial and error. A lot of other online-based businesses or career paths can be learned on the job. So do you need a degree to be successful? No.

Is it valuable? 1000%. I haven't met a single person who regrets getting their degree. However, if your only purpose in getting that degree is to be a millionaire 10 years from now, it's okay to want to take a different route as well.

I've met many individuals who do not have college degrees and make millions of dollars. And I've met many individuals with college degrees and master's degrees who are also equally successful. So I guess the moral of the story is there's no direct path to success and everybody's path is going to look different. Now with Zendrop, your path to success looks like dropshipping and creating an online store to be able to free yourself from the financial and time dependency of a corporate job or anything that's kind of controlling, right?

Our goal here is to give you the opportunity to create the career of your dreams online from wherever you are and continue to be successful without anything holding you back. So if any of that interests you, if you are at all ready to start on your first journey to becoming a dropshipper, click the link in the description below and sign up for our seven day free trial to Zendrop Pro. And I'm promising you, you will not regret it. Thank you guys again for listening to another episode of Nine to Never.

My name is Kennedy Meek. I know this episode was a little bit different than our normal ones, but let me know what you thought about it in the comments. make sure to rate, review, and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, and we will see you next time.