Starting any business can be a challenge, and it you don't get the first few months right, you could be in trouble before you even get off the ground. A dropshipping business is no different, and while most new enterprises have their fair share of mistakes in the first 90 days, it's how you deal with them and what you learn from them, that will decide whether your dropshipping is going to be a success or not.

Not spending enough time on product sourcing research, or choosing the wrong drop ship directory can have disastrous results, so you need to understand how to avoid this happening to you. Here are some of the challenges you will face in the first three months, what you need to do to get past them, and how to go on and develop your business.

The First 30 Days

The first, and some might argue the most important, tasks you need to complete to get your dropshipping business started are;

1. Choose a market
2. Choose a product
3. Choose a supplier

While these may sound simple enough, it's important to get them right, otherwise everything else will be a lot harder. Spending time on your market research is key, you need to find a market with plenty of buyers spending money, and not too much competition. Once that's done, you need to find the products that are selling in that market, and how much they are selling for.

Start with the Right Drop Ship Supplier

Then comes your product sourcing research. You need a supplier for your dropship products, and whether you find them yourself, or through a drop ship directory, you need to be sure they are reliable, and can provide you with the products you are looking for, at a price that will make you money. No supplier should charge you a fee just to gain access to their inventory, and you're probably best starting with local dropshippers, who are easier to verify.

Also, it can be a good idea to use just one main dropship supplier to start with - if you give your customers the opportunity to order goods from more than one, you will lose profit on the multiple shipping charges, than if they had bought everything from one supplier. The importance of good product sourcing research and finding the right drop ship directory shouldn't be underestimated.

Once you have your supply of profit-making products, you need some way of marketing them. eBay used to be easiest place to start selling dropship products, but with so many other sellers, competition has driven down margins, meaning most new dropshippers become disillusioned with the whole idea of dropshipping. A much better alternative, for example, would be to sell your items on Amazon's marketplace. Better still, would be the control and flexibility of your own ecommerce site. You could set it up yourself with any of the cheap hosting packages that are available (but don't get sucked into buying all the extras you don't need), or use ecommerce solutions like Amazon's Webstore, and eCrater.com. A good looking ecommerce site is a great place to drive customers to, using free or paid for marketing methods.

Click Here To Read Your next 60 – 90 Days of Your Drop Ship Business...

Here is the List of Drop Shipping Mistakes that You Should Avoid

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