How many of you want to roll right out of bed in the morning, make a healthy breakfast that is more than a pre-packaged cereal bar or “health” shake and not have to deal with a commute, dress code, or the dread of seeing your boss? Who out there dreams of going back to school, but either is afraid to, or can’t afford to quit their full time job in order to support themselves and pay tuition. Believe it or not, I said yes to BOTH of these questions. My biggest concern was “How can I work for myself from home, go to school, and make enough money to support myself?” Let me tell you it wasn’t easy! It took HOURS of research, discipline, and sacrificing of my social life to figure out a way to get to where I wanted to be. I spent many nights and weekends learning about this process, what I had to do to get started, and what it took to be successful.
I write this article in hopes of inspiring someone in the same situation that I was in who is too afraid to do something about it or things they’re not smart enough to do it. Believe me guys, I’m far from stupid, but I’m not exactly a Harvard graduate either. The main thing it takes is a thirst for knowledge and a willingness to learn about something you may know NOTHING about. And guess what, it IS possible and its not has difficult as you think it is. So by now you’re wondering what the secret is and hoping I’ll stop rambling long enough to eventually tell you what you want to know. Well, the answer, my friends, is drop shipping. Rather than go into great detail about exactly what drop shipping is (there is PLENTY of good information out there that you can look up). I’m going to outline what you’ll need to learn about, what you’ll need to plan for, and when you can expect to see results.
The first step is that you are going to need to start up your own website/e-commerce store. I know what you’re thinking “This guy is crazy. I can barely check my email and this guy expects me to start my own website???? Get real, Mark!” Well, I’ll break it down to you like this. My cousin and his friends were building websites in 5th grade. If they can do it and learn about it, SO CAN YOU! There are tons of learning tool
s and programs out there that specialize in this stuff and that hold your hand every step of the way. One of the best (and the one that I use) is Yahoo! Small Business. But there are other options out there as well. Yahoo! Small Business has the easy-to-use website building tools, tips on getting your website publicity, marketing tools, etc that are very helpful and have gotten me to where I am today. Do your due diligence and research the best option for you. I’m now going to give you a timeline/step-by-step solution to getting to a point where you can feel comfortable about quitting your job.
1. Start saving your money. Most financial advisors suggest having 3-6 months of basic living expenses (NOT SALARY, but LIVING EXPENSES) saved up before quitting your job. By living expenses I mean rent/mortgage, car payment, and necessary bills. I suggest 6 months because sometimes it can take this long before you start generating some real momentum in your sales. In fact, until you get the hang of things and start making enough to live off of each month through your website, I’d advise keeping your job, or at least getting a part time job to help supplement your income. 2. Start devoting your nights and weekends to researching drop shipping, e-commerce, and web site building. I’m going to warn you now…This is not always fun, and there are MANY nuances to each of the 3 things I just mentioned, but once you get the hang of it, you will find that they are all intertwined and the learning becomes easier. Some examples of things you’ll need to know are: a. Choosing a product to sell (this can be one of the hardest things do to) b. Choosing a good keyword to optimize for (research “Search Engine Optimization” or “SEO”) c. Link swapping (I’ll be honest, this is straight up grunt work. It isn’t overly difficult, but it is incredibly tedious and time consuming) 3. Work Hard and don’t give up. I almost quit about 100 times thinking it wasn’t worth it, but I p
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