Story: Service and product
As a freelance designer, we sell design as services. in my case, it’s design and consultancy. We exchange skills(time) and fees. This is simple and basic business model. Help others always make feel better for everyone.
The problem is the scale. We cannot scale business if you provide a custom design service to each customer. You have to develop a structure or template that you can use repeatedly. If you cannot make it, you can think about an alternative idea. It’s a product, physical goods or SaaS(software as a service).
Revenue sources example:
Design Service
– Direct client
– Through design agency and marketing company
– Government, organization
– Online service (UpWork, Fiverr etc.)
Product
– SaaS
– Online store (APP, design stock or totally different goods)
– Design education(YouTube, Udemy etc.)
– Workshop
I have kept thinking of ideas both goods and SaaS for a while. I could not make it in 2019. I am going to develop it in 2020. SaaS requires a team and investment. I cannot start it right now. Therefore, I take action for Ecommerce first.
Shopify: Ecommerce Business Blueprint: How to Build, Launch, and Grow a Profitable Online Store
Sebastian Ghiorghiu: How I Became Successful In 34 Days (Ecommerce)
What is dropshipping
©Dan Dasilva: WHAT IS DROP-SHIPPING?
©Darrel Wilson: What Is Dropshipping – How To Start Dropshipping
Jack Ma often explains about Alibaba’s business model. “We’re not BtoC. We’re BtoB.” I don’t know how many people recognize the difference between Alibaba, Amazon, and eBay. This is good to explain how Alibaba works. In 2020, these giant companies may have similar services. They are alway learn from others.
When we want to start Ecommerce business, the inventory always makes us a headache. We don’t want to invest a lot of money in a product which we don’t know whether we can sell it or not. The dropshipping solve this problem. We can also easily find other benefits below:
– Start small and relatively easier than brick and moter.
– We don’t have to take care of shipping. I don’t know how much we need to follow up.
– Real business experience for a graphic designer. We usually focus on development. We have to determine the price, manage sales and marketing, take care of a customer.
I’m a little confused about the first video whether I have to buy first or not. I will open the shop as an experiment by the end of February. I will experience it shortly.
Shopify: What Is Dropshipping?
Choose a product
First step, what do we sell? Fashion items, home appliances or dog food? If you have something really like it, it may your products. However, if you don’t have any specific preference, let’s think about nitch. I won’t choose cool, fancy or luxury products.
My viewpoints:
– Consuming. People need to buy repeatedly.
– Need daily. (or every day happens)
– Nitch and sober. (not like fashion items)
– Easy to ship. (even though it’s dropshipping)
– Make people fun.
– Something for special day. People open wallets.
There is a WP plugin. It calls AliDropship. You can find manufacture of products. You can see how to use the plugin in the video below, How to create an Ecommerce website.
What we afraid of is fraud, phishing when we buy product from China. We don’t know the manufacturer is deserved to trust. We have never seen them and their products on real. This is good to know how to evaluate manufacturers in Alibaba.
©GOODLIFE WARRIOR
What we afraid of is fraud, phishing when we buy product from China. We don’t know the manufacturer is deserved to trust. We have never seen them and their products on real. This is good to know how to evaluate manufacturers in Alibaba.
Who they are?
– Supplier name
– Business type
– Number of years
– Company cert (ISO)
What they do?
– Main products & product categories
Where they are?
– Address (80% factory is located coast.)
How to communicate?
– Factory tour (Video call)
Research industry and competitor
You can find websites that sell what you want to handle in your shop. Tons of shops already exist. You can get some ideas below
– Products lineup
– Category
– Keywords and SEO
– Tone and voice.
You may not need to consider competitors too much. It may be influencing your motivation negatively. Everyone fails for the first time somehow. You will succeed if you don’t give it up.
Pew Research Center: World’s population is projected to nearly stop growing by the end of the century
Setup business
When I started freelance work, I registered my business name, Open Bookmarks Co.. Under $30,000 was unnecessary, but I didn’t know it. How do we know how much make money per year during the first year? Anyway, I wanted to completely separate myself and business. If I started dropshipping, it’s going to be a dropshipping department at Open Bookmarks Co..
Don’t spend much time for logo creation and color setting, branding materials. You need sales, on the other word, marketing. Once you build 50 million business, you can develop a signature’s brand with a well-known agency.
I consider some domain name through my past experience. Domain should include keywords even long letters. I don’t recommend the coined word. No one searches it.
OneStopBC: Your OneStop for business registrations across all levels of government
* This is only for British Colombia, Canada. Please find it in your states.
Ecommerce platform
©️WebsiteToolTester: Shopify vs WooCommerce: What’s the Best Ecommerce Platform in 2019?
©️Darrel Wilson
In short, don’t waste your time. Choose any platform quickly. Execution first. I don’t want to use a template design directly. I want to customize it. If you are a designer, you understand my feeling.
Let’s use Flatsome first. It’s WordPress and customizable. You can use own server. You don’t have to pay monthly.
*Update below in January 28th, 2020
I have used Flatsome in 15 days. Woocommerce platform is tricky. It’s quite no flexible. I don’t worry developpong website by WordPress, but Woocommerce is not. This is not only me. Many people already know that. Therefore, I receive some resources when you ask to support. If you don’t know how to customize WordPress by CSS, you will be stuck. I write a blog about ‘how to customize WordPress theme’ shortly. Please check it out. You will see what I mean.
©️WebsiteToolTester: WebsiteToolTester: Shopify vs WooCommerce: What’s the Best Ecommerce Platform in 2019?
©️ANDREW ETHAN ZENG: Which Is The BEST Platform To Sell Online? Shopify vs WooCommerce!
©️Darrel Wilson: How To Create An eCommerce Website With WordPress 2020 [ONLINE STORE!]
Ecommerce plugin
©️Darrel Wilson
A plugin extends default function and makes it easy to manage Ecommerce site. Let’s keep to learn trends and update frequently.
How to create an Ecommerce website
©Darrel Wilson: WooCommerce Tutorial 2020 | ULTIMATE WordPress eCommerce Tutorial
In this tutorial, you can see how different each product categories, simple product, grouped product, external/affiliate product and variable product. Under the simple product tab, you can see a virtual product, downloadable product as well.
©Darrel Wilson: How To Make A DropShipping Website With WordPress 2020
Over 2 hours of a full tutorial video. Completely step by step. I’ve never built Ecommerce, but I knew that I can do it. Just, it takes time for the first time.
Flatsome makes the process easier. You can build your Ecommerce website, today. However, if you are a designer, you may find that you don’t like design elements. You have to learn how to customize WordPress theme by CSS.
How To Use Stripe Payment Gateway | Woocommerce Stripe Setup 2018
©WooCommerce: Setup Stripe – WooCommerce Guided Tour
©WooCommerce: PayPal Standard – WooCommerce Guided Tour
Here is the most important step. If a customer cannot transaction on your website safely, Woocommerce is meaningless. The setting process is very simple and I hope that customers find our website and purchase even $10 asap.
How To Get More Traffic To Your Website
©Darrel Wilson: How To Get More Traffic To Your Website – How To Promote Your Website And Increase Traffic!
You finally launched your shop on the internet. This is a very exciting moment. However, you may not get any orders or inquiries in a week. It often happens to everyone.
How to reach the target audience. How to improve website awareness. I am going to use Instagram, linked to Facebook automatically. If I could hire someone, Pinterest will be a second priority.
Conclusion: Just for a few hours
At the end of 2019, I received an inquiry from local customer. I didn’t expect that it is an Ecommerce project. I know I will develop a dropshipping site in 2020. Before that, I am going to develop an Ecommerce site for the client in 1 month. I didn’t worry about a lack of experience. Everyone can build it if people have enough passion to hassle, willing to stuck, solve a problem definitely. I am.
I found a lot of tutorials above. Actually, we can develop an Ecommerce store for just 1 day. I know we need brainstorming. So, let’s say 1 week.
Year 2020 has passed 10 days. During this time, a lot of shops may pop up and disappear. We will fail in the first shop. Second shop as well, but the third shop may hit. No one knows until do it.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
