How to Dropship from Aliexpress with 50 Dollars or less

Learn how to dropship from Aliexpress with as little as 50 dollars investment — How to Dropship from Aliexpress

Drop shipping is business model where a seller obtains a product from a manufacturer and sells it to the buyer without necessarily keeping inventory. The manufacturer is the one who delivers the product to the final buyer.

It is one of the easiest ways to start an online shop. You pay nothing to your product supplier until you make a sale.In this post, I will be teaching you how to dropship from Aliexpress with 50 dollars or less, so hang on with me as I take you through.

*there are affiliate links in this post, please see my disclaimer policy*

To learn how dropshipping works, please read my post on 5 easy steps to running a drop shipping business. In this fresh post, I will be writing about how to dropship from Aliexpress.

Aliexpress is an online marketplace much like Amazon, except that it is for Chinese sellers. In Aliexpress you get a congregation of manufacturers or big-time whole sellers who sell products to you at the manufacturer’s price, which means they sell at a lower price than you will get at your normal everyday store.

If you want to start selling online without holding inventory, to drop ship from Aliexpress will be the best method to follow.I have been part of forums where people do not understand how to dropship using Aliexpress, hence the need for this post.

The first thing about selling online is that you have to determine what you want to sell i.e defining your niche, if you don’t know what to sell then it will be difficult for you to know how to market or sell your products.

Defining your niche will help you narrow down to what you want to sell and hence decide where you want to source for those products from.

To read more about discovering your Niche please get my free ebook: From stay at home mom to Mompreneur, I dedicated a section to write about finding your Niche.

The next thing to do when you discover what you want to sell is to find suppliers.

For the purpose of this post, I will only be treating using Aliexpress as a supplier to your Business. There are other ways of finding suppliers, you can read that up in my earlier post.

How to Choose a Supplier when you want to Dropship from Aliexpress

The first thing to do before you start searching for your suppliers in the Aliexpress platform is to register on the site.

Register on Aliexpress

Your registration on the platform will give you the opportunity to send emails or messages to your supposed suppliers, you will also be able to Follow a store, this helps you save your suppliers so that you don’t keep searching afresh each time you want to make a purchase.

I suggest that once you have adjudged your supplier to be the one you will use, you follow the store immediately so it is saved in your account. Anytime you want to use that supplier you just check your account and click on the store to go directly to that store without necessarily searching for the store again.

Please note that you cannot search for store names, you can only search for products.

Registration does not take more than a minute, it’s no different from registering on Amazon.com

Before you start choosing a supplier for your products when you want to dropship from Aliexpress, there are certain key metrics that you must look out for.

Metrics for Choosing a Supplier

1 How long has the supplier been open for Business:

Before you choose to order from a supplier the first thing that you should check out is how long has this store been selling on this platform. This will give you a sense as to how reliable that supplier is. It will do you no good to pick a newcomer on the platform who is still trying to get off on his business. There will not be enough reviews for you to know if that person has been consistently delivering to her customers. I will normally go with someone who has been in business for over two years.

How to Dropship from Aliexpress

2 Check for Feedback scores:

On the Aliexpress platform, all shops have a feedback score attached to them which are usually graded in percentages, this feedback score is a sum total of an average number of people who returned a good feedback on the products they bought from the shop.

How to dropship from Aliexpress

Most times, the shop owners are always encouraging you the buyer to leave a good feedback. In fact, they often remind you via emails to come back and leave a feedback so that they will know you were satisfied.

Your feedback is often in form of written notes, star ratings and perhaps even pictures to show that you received the item. This score is perhaps what Aliexpress uses to grade a particular seller. I will go with sellers that have a 98% feedback score and upwards. Sometimes you will see a seller who is considered a Top brand, such sellers may not have a feedback score percentage attached but they have a top brand badge on their platform, this indicates that Aliexpress trusts the quality of products sold by that store.

3 Number of Orders

Before selecting a supplier for your products, you need to check for the number of orders they have processed, it may be for your particular product or for another product from the seller. This is because you want to know that the person you are going to buy from is really selling products consistently. You want to check out the hot selling products and the number of orders that product has sold out.

How to Dropship from Aliexpress

Most times, you will see that the hot selling products for that store have a lot of reviews, you should take your time to read the reviews not just the good ones but the bad reviews too. You want to know how the seller handles bad customer experience. It’s not enough to say that we will refund your money if you do not like our products, but do they actually do that? Of course, Aliexpress offers buyers protection but you may want to buy from someone who has integrity.

4 Check for shipping options:

What shipping options do they have? and do they offer epacket? I will always go with anyone that offers epacket because it gives you the opportunity to offer free shipping to your customers which will make the customer happy and encourage repeat sales.

5 How long does it take for your Product to arrive

Depending on where you are selling in, perhaps in US or UK or maybe you are shipping worldwide, you have to check what time it takes for your order to arrive. Orders that are shipped to the US take from 12-20 days to arrive via epacket. I sold an item during the Christmas period to a customer and my order reached my customer in 10 days. I was quite impressed. The time it takes for your customer to get their order is important since you dont want an irate customer that did not get his or her orders on time. I will suggest that you add a little lead time to your own product shipping time, this will give you leverage for any delay in shipping from your suppliers.

6 Communicate with your supplier by sending him a message.

Contact your intending supplier to find out if they dropship from Aliexpress. It’s important not to assume that every seller on Aliexpress must want to dropship. Some may not want to, so it’s important to check out with the seller and let them confirm to you that they are willing to dropship for you, should you make a sale.

7 Make a test order:

You could test order the product you want to sell so that you can check out the process, as this will enable you to know what the whole process will be like. It will also give you an idea of how the actual product looks like. Pictures don’t always tell the whole story. You may need to handle the product and packaging to know if its worth using that person as a supplier.

8: Take advantage of the App To Dropship from Aliexpress

Aliexpress has an app which you can download on your phone to use. I have noticed that goods are often cheaper on the app. You can take advantage of the app to get cost savings on your product sourcing.

After you have completed these preliminaries, you now want to start your online shop.

Complete supplier solution for your Dropshipping business — Salehoo : Vetted suppliers for your dropshipping business

Cost of Setting up your Online shop

There are basically two options you can go with when you want to start drop shipping a product. You can choose to sell on an online marketplace e.g Amazon, Bonanza, or you can choose to sell on your own hosted ecommerce shop using such deliverers like Shopify, Big commerce or Wix.

I wrote a post on Online marketplace versus ecommerce shop, you can read It up to check out the pros and cons of using any of those methods.

Selling on Amazon as an individual seller is free while selling on Bonanza is free except for charges which you only pay when you make a sale.

If you choose to use an ecommerce shop deliverer as I noted above, it will cost you the following amount

Shopify- basic- $29

Wix -$16.50

Domain name registration through each platform is – 10 dollars.

So the big question that is still hanging now is how to add these products to your e-commerce shop.

How to Add Products to your Ecommerce shop

You can choose to do it manually- quite time-consuming- you have to cut and paste each picture to your online shop. Plus you will have to manually maintain your pricing, ordering, and tracking.

or you can use this very important Plugin Alidropship which takes care of the following

Product Automation: This includes search and importation of products to your shop, pricing update, epacket filter options, Order fulfillment, auto tracking and also the auto update on product information. For more on how this plugin can change your dropshipping business, click Here.

Customization: This includes Free themes, built in product customization, unlimited products addition, woocommerce support, product variation.

Marketing: This includes, email lists, cart abandonment, discount coupons, product reviews.

Managing: This includes Live statistics, cashback system, payment gateway integration.

If you chose to go with hosting your shop on Wix, you may find that you have an extra 23 dollars which you will use to set up your first Facebook Ad, in other to attract your first customers.

Please note: Aliexpress is different from Alibaba.com. Most people think they are the same but they are not, Alibaba.com caters to people who want to import physical goods and then distribute or ship themselves and they often require a minimum order number for you to use them.Alixpress selles to anyone even if it is one article you want to buy.

Other alternatives to Alixpress could be joining online directories who curate and qualify manufacturers. An example of such online directory is Salehoo. You pay an amount yearly to have access to suppliers in their database who are prequalified by them. The only thing is that you still have to do the due diligence of reaching out to each one supplier and creating a relationship.

Do you want me to help you do all the written due diligence above? contact me for consulting.

I will help you set up your first shop and ensure all the necessary job is done. I can provide a done for you shop as long as you have picked your Niche. send an email to elizabeth.uchealor@thehomebusinessowner.com

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online marketplace versus ecommerce store

Want to know the best option for your new ecommerce business, read this — Online marketplace versus Ecommerce store

Today I will be taking my time to look at the benefits and non-benefits as it pertains to stand alone online shops versus online marketplaces in the ecommerce business. I have a special fixation for ecommerce because the internet has made it easy for you to start one within an hour if you so choose to.

Selling stuff is as old as man itself, for as long as humans exist, there will always be commerce. Commerce is as old as when man started exchanging money for goods. The difference with the age we live in is the form and shape it has taken. This means that you do not have to own a brick and mortar store and stock up inventory for you to sell. You can now use the drop shipping model to sell.

When you decide to sell goods online, the next dilemma may be what vehicle do you want to use to make this possible. Apart from sourcing for your goods through online platforms like Salehoo, Aliexpress and co, choosing the right platform will be the next most important decision that you will make in starting your ecommerce business.

There are various ways you can sell on the internet, if ecommerce is your thing, you can sell via Facebook or perhaps via your Instagram account or even through your Pinterest account. But the more professional way of selling can be divided into two major types.

Types of ecommerce Platforms

Online Marketplace: This involves selling in places like Amazon, Etsy, Bonanza, storenvy,eBay etc. To learn more about online marketplaces read my post on 10 online marketplaces where you can sell (with high traffic)

Standalone online shop: This involves setting up your own online store using e-shop providers like Shopify, Bigcommerce or having your own website where you sell your goods.

While you can be successful selling on either of these options, the main issue that is the bone of contention is what I like to highlight which is control over your own business.

Many people have always prevaricated on choosing what platform to use in pursuing their dream of owning an online store because they are not sure of what the advantages are of using either of these options.

While some people have tried to hedge the risks for both by owning on both platforms. The issue is that if you are just starting out, it may be too much of a work for you to start your ecommerce business on both platforms because then you may be spreading yourself too thin to give each platform the attention required to make it a success. In the next few points, I am going to be looking at the pro’s and con’s of the online marketplaces versus the standalone online shop in ecommerce business.

Online Marketplace

Pros

Guaranteed traffic: its called a marketplace because they already have a name that attracts buyers to their platform.

Think of your huge brick and mortar bazaars where people open shops or shopping malls where different kinds of people open shops on a rented floor space. The online marketplace is just like that, they provide you with the platform to sell your goods, you pay rent to own it either before you start or as you make sales. Traffic to your shop guarantees that you will make sales which means your business will start yielding fruits faster.

Wider reach: Online marketplaces often have wider reach because they already have built a name and brand which they are often investing to make it better because that’s where they make their money from. You have access to all sorts of customers as long as you play by the rules. Having a wider reach is a subset of having traffic since you only attract people that you can reach.

Advertising: some online marketplaces provide you with free advertising or they may charge you a commission o advertise your products. Often their best bet is investing more money in their platform to ensure that people want to shop with them.

Low cost: Most marketplaces usually have a free version of their offering which you can use to starts as an online shop owner without paying anything. For example, in Amazon you are offered individual seller option where you pay nothing to list your products and sell, the only snag is that you have a limit to the number of products you can sell per month.

With Bonanza marketplace, you don’t have to pay anything to set up shop, you only pay commissions after you have made a sale. Etsy collects a very small listing fee of 2 cents, This makes sit easy for anyone wishing to start selling on their platforms to easily start with little investment.

Another reason its low cost is you don’t need to pay for a special domain name or maintain a website just to do your business, your only stress is to list your products and sell since all that has been taken care of by the marketplace provider.

Cons of Online marketplace

No control over your business: Most online marketplaces have rules which guide them which you must abide by, you do not have control over those rules. If they suddenly change their algorithm you will have no say on how it affects you. For instance, you may be making a huge sale on a platform, and there comes a rule that says your products can’t be accommodated on that platform anymore. You will have no option than to leave that platform.

Sometimes a change in their algorithm may also bury your own products and make it difficult for searchers to find your products. This may mean a huge drop in your sales. Some online marketplaces may ask you to pay for exclusive display of your products on the front line if you want more customers. That’s the case of Bonanza platform, while you may not be paying anything to register on the platform, there are prices for different categories of services that they offer you. Organic driven traffic may be low if you do not have money to pay for such services.

Fierce loyalty to their Buyers: Most online marketplaces have a fierce loyalty to their buyers, that’s why they offer buyer protection. While this is a good thing because people have to trust that they will not be scammed if they are using your platform for purchase, it can also be exploited to the detriment of the sellers who are small business people trying to make a living.

Some buyers exploit that loyalty and cheat the sellers by making spurious claims that may be false hence causing the seller to either be penalized or shut down, sometimes even without a fair hearing from the concerned party.

Competition may be stiff: Another notable con of online marketplace is that competition for sales can be stiff, this is because the consumer has a wide variety of options to choose from when they want to make a purchase. While that may be good for the consumer, it will work against you as a first-time seller.

This is because people are more willing to buy from experienced sellers than from a first-time seller. It’s like a catch 22, you need people to buy from you so that you can have more experience or reviews the currency of experience in such places, people won’t buy from you because you don’t have many reviews.

No Brand loyalty: When you are in the marketplace, there are thousands of other sellers too, so its difficult to build a brand. People don’t search for shops, they are searching for products. Only some online marketplace offers a buyer opportunity to save a shop so as to be able to come back and purchase more form the shop if they so wish. Even though people may like your goods they cannot be particularly loyal to your brand which is what breeds repeat sales.

Same look and feel: You cannot customize the look or feel, of your store because it’s a one size fits all. This means you really cannot bring out your personality on such platforms, hence the reason it’s never about you hahaha. The online marketplace has no place for personalization, although some may offer you some aspect of personalization like your header board or logo or picture, at best, that’s all it can do. You will have at look to a stand-alone online shop to find those.

Standalone Online Shop:

This is popularly known as an ecommerce store or online shop as you may deem fit. This resembles your normal brick and mortar store where you build your own shop to your taste and design.

Pros of a standalone online shop:

Customization: Like I mentioned above with your own online shop, you get to do as you choose, depending on what platform you chose to use, like in Shopify, you can choose what themes you like, upload your own logo, input your own brand colors and generally put your own feel on the store.

Control: You have control over your own inventory, what you sell and how you sell, you don’t have to compete with other stores over your type of products. You also have control over what your brand represents and what you want to be known for.

Brand loyalty and repeat sales: Because you are able to customize your shop to your taste, you are able to send a message about what your brand represents, people who like your products become your loyal customers. They do not have to check other competing products in the same view when they are shopping. You also able to convert them to repeat customers by offering sign up to your newsletter what you cannot do with online marketplaces.

Better Margins: If you are able to get people to come to your shop via an advertising platform like Facebook or Instagram, chances are that the buyer already knows the price of your goods and is willing to purchase from you, hence saving you from sometimes cut-throat competition that comes from operating in online marketplaces.

In the online marketplace, the same product is shown to the consumer at different prices, and the consumer will always go for the lowest price. For stand-alone web stores such choices are not available hence you make better margins and avoid loss of customers.

Cons of Using Standalone Ecommerce stores

Like everything in life there will always be disadvantages to it, here are some disadvantages of using stand-alone shops

Cost: While most online marketplaces often allow you to start with a free registration and perhaps only makes money when you make a sale, for stand-alone stores, you always have to pay a monthly subscription cost in other to keep it running.

This means that even before you have made a dime, you are spending, now if you have limited funds for your startup shop you may find it difficult to maintain it. You also have to buy your own domain name and hosting which you will keep renewing per year, these are additional costs to you.

Traffic: For stand-alone ecommerce store you have to drive your own traffic to your store which costs money and time, you are also responsible for the optimization of your store so as to come up in searches.

This means that if you don’t understand basic SEO principles, it may be a long time before anyone visits your store and the fewer visitors you have the less likely you are to make sales. Kind of worrisome since you have a recurring monthly bill to pay.

Maintenance: You are responsible for maintaining your store, meaning that the site has to be run by you, this may not always be the case if you are using service providers like Shopify or Big Commerce. But all in all, this requires a lot of time and effort.

In conclusion, when starting out as a new business person, if you have limited funds, it’s always better to start with the free platform like online marketplaces so as to navigate the learning curve without running out of funds. As you get better and you are able to make more money you can begin to think of moving to a paid option.

Think of your online marketplace like the mass-produced stuff that you use when you are starting out in life, as you earn more and you have better income, you now develop a taste for the finer things in life and hence you want your own customized stuff.

Everything in life takes time, so be willing to start from where you are, the most important thing is that you are taking action.

To get more articles like this and more tips on starting a home business, sign up for our newsletter.

Do you have more contributions to make to my post?, drop a comment below.

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January 2, 2018January 2, 2018

10 Trending Home Business Ideas in 2018

It’s a brand Newyear, and the Newyear resolutions are flying up and down, a lot of people have made decisions on how they intend to live their life this New year.

For some people, they are looking for Trending home business ideas in 2018 to tap into, while some already have their own business idea and are thinking about how to start it, for some it may be a change of job or even starting a new job

I am sure you have also made yours, perhaps you are a stay at home mom who has been longing to start a home business but has not found the guts to start one. This may be the year for you or maybe you are a new mom who is on maternity leave and you are beginning to think about how hard it will be to leave your baby and return to your workplace.

You may even be someone who is tired of the daily grind of the job that you are doing, you are in a dead end Job, you get up, work and pay the bills and the cycle continues, you have no joy in what you are doing. The prospects of you moving up is not on the horizon, and you feel stuck.

If any of this scenario applies to you, this year is another year to make a decision that will change the course of your life. The decision you need to make is to start a home business that works best with your lifestyle.

If you are working full-time somewhere else, then start a side hustle that you can build a business with. Whichever situation you are in, don’t make the mistake of ending this year the way last year ended, liberate yourself and use this post to start your life all over again.

Join my email list and get weekly posts that will encourage your journey and give you the needed boost and fresh ideas to explore.

To help your journey, today I will be talking about the 10 Trending Home business Ideas in 2018.

1 Online Restaurant

The first on my list of Trending Home business ideas in 2018 is the Online restaurant business. It is a type of Home business where you get to partner with local restaurants that you love and who provide good food.

You curate such restaurants and you partner with them by marketing their food to your audience, once you make a sale they will be responsible for the delivery of the food to the consumer, kind of like restaurant food drop shipping business.

This is a good business you can do from the comfort of your home, once you are able to develop the partnerships you can then go ahead to market to your audience.

You can make money by taking a percentage of the sales of each meal sold or by marking up the product. Any way you look at it, you can run a good side business with this idea.

All you need to do is to be sure of your delivery times and time to process it. This will work perfectly for you if you are a foodie and you already have an audience around you that share the same likes. A quality camera will be of use as you take pictures of what you hope to sell.

Statistics posits that there is also a high demand for the on- go meals, especially for busy professionals who value good and healthy food. They are also willing to pay extra for the convenience of having such meals delivered to them.

Take a look at the trend below where 55% of people surveyed looked to ordering online takeout restaurant meals as their way of eating.

Online Restaurant Trending Home business Idea in 2018 — Culled from Luxresearch

Be sure to know the rules guiding the business before you get into it.

2 Professional Organizing/Decluttering:

With many people wanting to go minimalist in their ways of living, being a professional organizer can be a lucrative business. According to Abc News, lots of Americans are choosing the minimalist living and also making it a movement.

You can offer professional organizing as a consulting service where you take a look at the entire home and you design a decluttering plan for your clients to help them move into minimalism.It will surprise you how many people do not know how to declutter their lives, they also do not have an idea where to begin their minimalistic journey.

Sitting down and consulting with such people can make a huge difference as they work towards getting rid of the clutter that their homes have become.

The Newyear is often the time when people make such decisions so now is when you can get your clients signed up. You can structure your services to be a one time service or an ongoing service where they get to pay a subscription to get your professional advice or in-house consultation.

3Virtual Recruiter ( A Trending home business in 2018)

The American economy is on the rise, this creates availability of new jobs especially as the Tax cuts occasioned by this administration will be encouraging a lot of startups and new businesses and also onshoring of funds. This article posits that the only thing that will slow this growth down is the paucity of people to man the jobs that are being created.

This creates a huge opportunity for anyone who has some level of experience in Human Resource or Recruitment. You can start a Virtual recruiting service that provides talents for new businesses. If all you have is just your skills and no money to own start a company of your own, you can sign up with a company like Relode, that is offering a hefty commission for helping them to recruit medical professionals from your network.

There also a lot of recruitment agencies who are looking for Virtual recruiters who will deliver the needed professional talents for their business to outsource to their businesses. Therefore you have no excuse not to use this as a side hustle if you work full time now and are looking to make more money in this new year.

4 Social Media consulting:

We can’t talk about the world we live In right now without talking about social media, it has become the melting pot that connects a lot of buyers and consumers to the sellers. The only issue is that companies and businesses are often struggling to learn the best strategy to reach their own consumers if you have skills in social media marketing, this is an opportunity to start a consulting business form the comfort of your home.

You can offer your services to companies who will pay you a handsome amount for your service. If you are business minded, you can develop strategies for them that will enable them to win in the marketplace. I believe that this is one business that you can start with and work towards not just running it a home business but a full-fledged consulting firm as time goes on.

5 Resourcing Talents for Homecare needs for the Elderly:

As the American population ages, more and more services are required to keep the elderly comfortable as they live longer and longer. This has thrown open new business opportunities as the companies who run the facilities for elderly care are in constant need of skilled talents who will provide the services they require.

If you have any skills or training that has to do with caregiving, you can start a resourcing company that provides talents for the elderly care industry. This is a huge market that needs lots of eye for details. The need can be for those who provide in-home care or for those who provide care for the elderly care in their facilities. Whichever one it is, you can earn a living just by resourcing fresh talents to this industry.

6 Freelance Writing:

Do you have a skill for writing good pieces that people love to read? then the freelance writing world may be your recourse to starting a business this year. I listed this option as part of the trending Home Business in 2018 because I see a huge demand for content as more and more businesses start a blog for their business.

Many people make a living writing for other people without necessarily having a blog of their own, In fact, in the blogging world, freelance writing is considered an income stream. So if you are seeking a home business that you can start, becoming a freelance writer is a sure way of starting your dream home business.

This is because there are lots of companies out there who require a writer that will consistently write for their blogs. They perhaps do not want to hire a full-fledged writer, of course, so using freelance services means that they can fulfill that need without adding to their payroll.

Some freelance writing gigs pay up to 500 dollars a post depending on how good you are. Here the more popular places you can get a freelance writing gig Elance, Upwork, ProBlogger, freelancing.

7 Online Box Subscription services:

Box subscription business is currently on the rise as many people are buying into the idea of getting boxes of products or services that are curated just for them. The first thing you have to do here is to discover which niche you want to play in if you want to know how to discover your niche, get my free ebook

The reason I wrote online subscription box is that I am actually looking at curating materials which are not necessarily physical but which are digital that can be delivered once the person pays. It could be digital materials designed to train someone in a specific area of their need or it could even a potpourri of courses carefully selected to help someone out of a specific issue. Subscription boxes are the rave now and so you will find a huge market for it amongst bloggers and online business people.

8 Dog walking services

This is a home business idea that is evergreen because for so long as humans are here, the pets will be here too. If you have a love for dogs, you can start a dog walking service in your area to help you make an income from home.

If you have special knowledge which you can deliver to your customers to better take care of their animals then you are well on your way to having a Dog walking service that has a consultation as part of its service portfolio.

9 Virtual Assistance :

Due to the boom in online businesses and home-based businesses, many home business owners now require the help of virtual assistants in the day to day running of their home businesses. I picked this option as a trending home business in 2018 because I am a blogger and I know many bloggers who have become successful because they outsourced some part of their blogging requirements to virtual assistants.

This has made it possible to scale their businesses as they became much more focused on the part of their business that they were exceptionally good at.

Starting a Home business that is into virtual assistance can be a way of making that income that eventually replaces your fulltime work income and hence enables you to get the life you want.

If you want to learn how to become a virtual assistant, then get this Bundle compiled and written by Sarah of sarahtitus.com You will find that She is a champion when it comes to becoming an excellent virtual assistant. She will teach you via her materials and blog also all you need to do to be able to start up and run.

Binders and Planners by Sarah titus — Binders and Planners By Sarah Titus

10 Data mining and Analysis:

With the boom in online business and digital marketing, corporations and businesses are consistently collecting data and churning out data that they don’t know how to use to make their business grow.

Becoming an online data analyst can be a good home business to do in 2018. It made my list for the trending home business in 2018 because Big data is the in thing right now, companies want to make sense of their analytics in other to predict consumers needs and demands in the future, I also know that data analysis is important not only to big businesses but to small businesses as well. Even people who start a blog have to keep track of their data if they want to make meaningful decisions that will grow their blog.

Now you have read all through my trending Home business ideas in 2018, over to you, do you want to start a business? sign up for my email list to get fresh ideas weekly.

The next thing will be to Join a group of like-minded individuals in a Facebook community where we encourage each other.

If you also have other ideas that I have missed, drop your comment below.

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September 17, 2017November 25, 2017

5 Steps to starting an Online Shop on Bonanza

Online Shop On Bonanza Marketplace — Logo culled from Bonanza website

I have this passion to see stay at home moms or anyone who desires to stay at home with her kids to be able to do so without financial restrictions that is why I am always advocating starting a home business to support your lifestyle. You can call it a Lifestyle business if you want. Today I will be writing about how to start an online shop on Bonanza

While researching online platforms that allow you run a business from your home.I ran into the online selling platform Bonanza and since then I took interest in checking out how its platform operates. I actually came to know about this platform when I was writing the article on how to resell used items as a business. Please read that post if you have a lot of stuff you would like to resell or you want to start selling used stuff as a business.

One of the things that struck me about Bonanza is that it does not charge you anything until you make a sale meaning that there are no listing fees. I was really intrigued about it hence I went foraging for more information about this unique marketplace and what I found really amazed me hence my decision to make a post about it.

*Please note there may be affiliate links in this Post, please read my Disclosure policy.

In this post, the online shop is the same as Booth, they can be used interchangeably here so do not get confused. Okay let’s get to it

Steps to take to start an Online shop on Bonanza

1)Register on the Bonanza Platform:

You have to register on the Platform to be a seller for free, with your registration all you have to enter is your name and email address, an email is then sent to your email address to confirm its really you, after that you can then confirm your registration by clicking on the link that will be sent to you, the link then takes you back to the registration page in other to continue with setting up a Booth.

2)Setting up your Booth on Bonanza

Now Bonanza is quite different from some platforms I have seen out there because you have two options for displaying your shop. The first is the Booth, for the booth to be set up you will be required to get a store and username, your username is what will appear as the icon on the booth you have set up.

The second is the web store. The web store is the paid version where you get to pay before you can start using it, while the booth is free to set up, the webstore is not. You are only given some free days trial before you are charged for setting up the webstore. The good thing about the webstore is that you don’t pay any listing fees after you make a sale.

-The webstore is like your average standalone online shop which you can create online, the difference is that you are creating one via Bonanza, you can use your own URL or you can use your Booths URL. The only snag with webstores is that you are going to have to drive your own traffic to it, unlike when you have a booth that you get to use their various adverts options.

Webstores give you the opportunity to create your own brand and customize it as you wish. It also gives your overall ownership of the store and you get to do what you feel with it.

Having itemised the differences between a Booth and webstore, I will advise that as a Beginner you start with a Booth and when you have established your self you can determine if you want to get a Webstore or not.

To complete the setup of your booth before you can list your products, you will be required to fill out the following necessities.

–Credit Card information: Now some people may balk at this information but Bonanza collects this information because they do not deduct their fees before passing on the rest to you like some selling platforms will do rather you get billed every month that you make a sale. So the credit card information is held just in case you fail to pay up your bills they can then charge the card. They are quite sincere and open in the way they deal with their sellers so I should not think there will be an issue with that.

-Phone Number confirmation: Because the online marketplace is changing so fast, Online selling platforms are now requesting for phone numbers so that they can get in contact with sellers should there be a dispute that can not be handled by email alone. So you are required to verify your number before your booth can be updated. If you are uncomfortable with displaying your personal number in a public place, you can make use of Google Voice. A free service from Google for forwarding calls to your local number. Another option is to make use of Virtual number operators.

After getting all these niceties tidied up, you can then head back to your booth to put some certain things in place.

–Choose a Banner: the Platform provides you with different kinds of free banners that you can use for the header section of your Booth. I will advise its best you choose a Banner that goes with what you want to sell on their platform. This will make it easier for your Booth to be optimized and come up during searches.

For example, if your Niche is fashion jewelry, ensure that in choosing your store name and username you get to insert Jewelry in it to make sure that it fits in with the products you are going to sell on your booth. The good thing is that they have a lot of free banners which you can choose from so you don’t necessarily need to create one if you don’t want to.

–Fill in your Shop Policies: In this section, you get to put the policies that will be guiding your shop sales, this includes your shipping policy, return policy, refund policy and also your various discount policies.

-Fill in your Profile details: People like to buy from people they can identify with. So it will be nice to provide your shop with a profile picture they can identify with, this way people know where to contact you and what you stand for. In your profile page, you get to write about your shop and what ideals that your shop identifies with.

-Social Profiles: You also get to fill out your social profiles this includes, your Facebook, twitter handle etc.

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3)List your Products:

This is the best part of having a shop right, displaying your goods, that is what listing is in the online marketplace. I like this aspect because you get to display or showcase the goods that you want to sell to your customers. In listing your products in your online shop on Bonanza, here are things that you need to do:

–Choose a title for your Product: This is basically what comes up when people search for your products, so you have to provide description of what your picture display looks like, the good thing about the Bonanza platform is that it gives you different marks for the different sections of your listing steps so you know how well you are doing. A good description makes it easier to sell your products.

– Upload your Pictures: The second part is to upload the pictures, pictures are the new product samples in the online marketplace, without pictures people, won’t know what your product looks like so they won’t buy. Therefore if perhaps you are selling your own physical products which are to be fulfilled by you then you have to invest in a good camera with a good props and lighting options to ensure that your products come out looking like the real thing on the pictures

If however, you are drop shipping the products you are selling then it’s easier to do because you already have the pictures from the product manufacturer so all you have to do is copy and upload them on your booth.

–Product Description: In this aspect, you get to describe your product via the various categories that are available, this makes it easy to classify your product. In this section, you get to give correct details of your product like if it’s real gold, karat number or if it’s a vintage product when it was produced. All these details are essential to give a buyer a feel of what your product is made of and what they should expect. The quality and what kind of material it is made of. This makes it easier for buyers to make a better decision.

I suggest you take on the mindset of a buyer when describing your products, this is also where a keyword research will play a big part because you store will come up via keywords that people use in searching for a product. So a keyword research is in order before you commence listing of your products

–Shipping Options: In starting an online shop on Bonanza, you get to set your general shipping policies but you have to also choose what shipping options that will be available to the buyer and what shipping rates you will be offering or if you are offering free shipping. This section provides you with all the countries that you will be able to ship to should you choose to or restrict your shipping to a specific country or continent.

–Setting your Price: In this section, you get to choose the selling price of your product. You also set whether that price is negotiable or not. All these boxes will be properly ticked before you can then upload your item for sale.

Because the Platform assigns different scores for the different aspects of the listing process, it’s always better to ensure you get a 100% score on your listing score in other to ensure maximum exposure of your online shop on Bonanza

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4)Advertising your online Shop on Bonanza

The good thing about selling goods in your online shop on Bonanza platform is that they offer you different paid options of advertising your products on the different platforms. For example, they have a plan in which your products get advertised through bonanza affiliates, Bonanza organic traffic, and google shopping. They also have other options for listing your products on eBay so as to increase your options of selling.

They also have different paid packages for attracting traffic to your shop. I love the fact that you are not left all on your own to do your marketing but you are helped to succeed via their different marketing packages. Of course, you will have to read up on the offers to know which one suits you.

5) Sell via the following Methods:

–Drop shipping Via Aliexpress: You can drop ship other peoples product via Aliexpress in the online shop on Bonanza. I have written about drop shipping before, if you would like to read about my first post on drop shipping please read it here

-Feature your own products whether handmade or by someone else

-Import your other products from other platforms such as your own online shop, Ebay Etsy, Amazon.

Features of Bonanza Online Selling Platform that are quite Unique and Cool

-You can import your already listed products from other platforms you are using such as Amazon, Etsy, Ebay or your own online Shop.

-You can list your goods for free, you only pay for your listing and advertising when you make a sale

-You can drop ship on the platform from Aliexpress

-The platform is easy to navigate for anyone that is a first timer. There rules and guidelines are written in a friendly way that makes you feel like you are reading stuff made for you alone.

-It was voted the best online selling platform by over 50,000 people in 2016

-It has the lowest selling fees compared to Amazon and Ebay, take a look at the picture below:

How to start an Online shop On Bonanza — Photo credit; Bonanza Online selling Platform

-It has flexibility when it comes to selling on other multiple platforms, meaning that your product can be advertised on other selling platforms depending on the advertising package that you choose.

-Its endorsed by many organizations such as CNN, Mashable, Time Magazine, Bloomberg Newsweek.

-The last Cool thing about this platform is that I opened an online shop there, you can check it out by clicking here: Eleora Fashion Store

Categories that are featured on Bonanza Selling Platform

-Men’s Fashion

-Women’s Fashion

-Home & Garden

-Health & Beauty

-Handbags

-Jewelry

-Others: This includes sporting goods, toys e.t.c

-Collectibles and Arts.

Do you have other ideas on how to start an online shop on Bonanza ? drop your comment below

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July 26, 2017November 25, 2017

How to Start an Online Baked Goods Business

Today, I will be sharing steps on how you can start an online Baked goods business. Because my intention is to get anyone who reads my Blog to the point of starting a home business, I always try to simplify the method of delivery of my posts so that you can get going as soon as you finish reading my post.

I also always try to use the simplest and easiest medium available to propose my home business ideas, so you can understand why I have a bias towards online businesses, it is because they are easy to start and you can start from where you are to grow.

Having said that, I will like to say that Baked goods business is an evergreen business that will be here with us until the end of time. This is because for as long as man lives, we must eat, and if we must eat someone has to do the cooking right?. This is the reason why I know that if all you know how to do is to cook you should never have to look for what to do. For so long as people will eat your food, you are in business.

In this post, I will dedicate my time to teach on the various steps you can follow in starting a Home based baked goods business. I am always for starting a home based business because my primary audience is people who want to run a home business. They are tired of the 9-5 and will like to ditch it for more control over what they can do with their time.

Steps to starting an online Baked Goods business.

1 Assess your Skills

Before you think of starting a baked goods business, you must have an interest in cooking. If cooking does not give you pleasure in any way then perhaps this is not the best home business for you. For tips on determining what home business suits you please read my post on how to find the right work at home business for you.

Your assessment of your skills will determine what kind of baked goods business you want to go into. There are people whose expertise is basically cup cakes, they can whip up all manner of flavors of cupcakes, they are not willing to make birthday cakes or big size wedding cakes, that’s not their expertise.

If you watch food network a lot, you will notice there are people who specialize in different kinds of baked goods, the reason it’s important to note what you are really good at is that it will help you to zero into your target market, kind of like finding your niche market.

If you find that you have an interest in baking but you do not know how to bake, then you can ramp up and watch recipe videos and learn how to make various baked goods, you can learn at your own pace and keep trying out your ideas until you perfect it. If you meet me up in person, I am a doer, meaning that if I want to do something and I don’t know how to, I will find a way to learn it and perfect it until I learn how to do that stuff so well that you will think it’s in my DNA.

Now if this post is the answer to your question of starting a home based business and you are passionate about cooking, then this might be the right fit for you. A little personal story here, my younger sister when in college, needed extra money which wasn’t always forth coming because of the fact that my Dad had to cater for a lot of us, we are 12 in my family, talk of a full house. She got tired of waiting for my dad to send her money each month, so she got together the little funds she had and learned how to bake a meat pie.

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She sold those pies and made so much money that she replaced her monthly allowance which she used to wait so much for. My dad only knew about her business venture when he called her to ask how she had been coping, only for him to hear that she was doing fine, talk of when you want to come out of a bad situation you do what you must.

2 Assess your market:

Since you are not baking for your pleasure, you have to check whether there is a market for what you are about to go into. Baking is a type of cooking, I always feel that there will always be demand for food, but you have to take your time to research what kind of demand there is and what is trending in your food niche at these times. This will enable you to match your idea with a demand that is on hand, once you are able to do that you have a business.

To find out what is trending you can use Google Trends and Google key planning tool to determine the moving trend of the baked goods business you want to specialize in. if you are like me, I like to mix things up a lot, I will probably offer a variety of small-sized baked goods to see which of my offerings got peoples attention better. To learn how to use the Google Keyword Planner, check Backlinko.com . You can also check www.americanbakers.org. For your baking research.

3 Determine which Niche you want to play in

Baked goods just like any other food now have various varieties, paleo cooking, gluten free, nuts free, all kinds of categories, ketogenic compliant and even diabetic friendly cooking. We have various health concerns now when it comes to eating so getting your niche market right from the start will ensure that you know those you are going to serve. For ideas on Paleo cooking, check this Ebook on healthy cooking

Start from where you are; This is my favorite mantra as a home business championer permit me to use that word, it’s a word I often repeat because it helps you cut all the chase and get to doing what you want to do. You can even find it in the bible, remember when Abraham was talking with God when Lot left him to go to greener pastures, he said from where you are, look to the north, south, west, and east all the land you see I will give to you. God wanted him to use his inner eyes and see the possibilities before him.

Okay, enough of the preaching, back to what I was saying, start with what you have, a kitchen, perhaps some baking equipment start. Remember you are starting out small, so you do not need to buy expensive equipment to start. Start with your kitchen and make samples that you will use for your taste test.

Get your baking recipe out and begin to bake, it may be a recipe you have in your family that only your family members eat on special occasions, you may be surprised that, that is what will propel your success, so whip out that recipe and start making your first taste batch.

Writing this post reminds me of the story of Bama Pie that I read while attending Business school. Bama pie went on to become the number one supplier to Macdonalds. That story so inspired me and I bet it will inspire you too.

4 Get your One-page Business Plan done and keep it simple:

The word Business Plan often evokes some shivers down some peoples spine, especially if you hate numbers. Well, you don’t have to worry, I have a post that simplifies what your business plan should look like, get it here. That said, write out your biz plan and figure out ways you can make your business profitable by selling your products at the right price. Remember that because you have to invest in buying your condiments, you have to learn to keep your costs low.

5 Get your licenses and permit:

I am all for doing business the ethical way, I will advise you research ways of getting your licenses sorted out before you start out. A good place to start will be the American small business association. It’s a site that offers a whole lot of small business resources to small business owners.

You will also need to check your state laws to see whats obtainable and whats not. While writing this article, I learned that Wisconsin is yet to pass a law that allows home baked goods sale, so you have to be sure of what is obtainable where you live before setting out. While at it, remember that once you have your permit you are a small business and you will require to file your taxes, for consultations on that you can contact e -file .com, they offer such services.

6 Marketing & Promotion:

Now that you are all set up to go, you have to learn that marketing is the key to getting your business out there. The next thing that matters about promoting especially for your online baked goods business is that your promotions will basically be two-pronged.

-Offline

-Online

For the offline marketing activities here are a few ideas on how to proceed.

Plan a Tasting party and create a Buzz about it

Now because you are going to sell a product which people will eat, you will have to be willing to start by having a tasting party, a tasting party is basically an occasion where you give out free samples of your products and get people to give you their honest opinion about what your product tastes like and what kind of improvements they had like to see.

It’s like a prequel to your launch day for your business, wait a minute you were not thinking that you will start an online business without some kind of launch date, scratch that, not in these days. You have to make people hunger for your product even before you have started selling, that is the new kind of marketing these days, you sell it before the day arrives. Especially if you are planning to have an online baked goods business you can’t afford not to pre- sell your products. Here are a few things to note

-Your ability to presell before your launch date will ensure that the orders come rolling in before your due date. You can post videos of your prelaunch activities on your online platform to ensure your online community is aware of whats going on.

-You can also involve your online community in the tasting party by sending them samples before your party date, that way they can join in and taste and post their own opinions online as you hold it in your physical location.

– Ask them to take a short video describing what it tasted like and their recommendations, you will find that those videoes may become the testimonial you need to draw in sales for your baked goods business.

-Hold a Bakesale in your community or find out the nearest ongoing Flea market near you and find a way of opening a stand for your business there. Even though your business is geared towards an online platform, connecting with people offline is a must since people can relate to what they have tasted before. Getting your bake sale sorted out can help you connect with your immediate neighborhood people who will spread the word about your goods.

While at the baked goods sale, do not forget to hand out your cards with your online contacts or you can choose to collect peoples emails as they approach your stand, this will help you to develop or start up your email list in other to ensure your marketing and promotional efforts are getting to those who already know you.

-Offer free samples to friends and family and ask them to give you their sincere feedback

Get Corporate clients through this means:

Offer free samples to places where there are likely demands like restaurants, coffee shops, schools and Gas stations, shopping malls. The intent of approaching these groups is to see if you can secure a contract that allows you supply to these set of people at certain times in the month.

Online: Marketing online will require these platforms:

–Instagram

-Pinterest

-Facebook.

-Blog.

In marketing to the online media, pictures, videos and words will be used as your marketing tools. Your ability to describe peoples experience with your products will go a long way to help showcase your products. Write the best description for your products to ensure that your site easily comes up during searches.

-Facebook: In considering the above-mentioned platforms, my key advice will be to start with Facebooks groups that engage in sales in your area, join local Facebook groups to market your goods via posting in such groups and your Blog.

-Instagram is based mainly on pictures, so make sure you take cool pictures of your product and leave your details for people who want to reach you.

-Pinterest: Pinterest also deals with pictures and is also a search engine for products so make sure you are able to make pinnable images of what you sell and post it in group boards for maximum exposure.

-Blog: Finally, the killer online medium that ties all these marketing efforts together is your Blog where you get to talk about what you do and how you do it.

For someone who probably has never had a home business before this may sound scary but it doesn’t have to be, remember that blogging can be fun too, and can also be an income channel too. By blogging about your products, you could sell training on how you produce or run your stuff

You can also make it place to connect with your customers not only to take orders but to listen to their preferences and complaints as well. A blog is a platform that unifies all the different aspects of marketing together. If you are tight on cash, you can start with the free blogging platforms like wordpress.com and so forth but as you grow, you may want to move on to paid platform, in moving to a paid platform you can consider using a professional online store application like Shopi fy

If you would like to blog about it, I have got your back, here is a post about how you can start a blog when you are not a techie. You will find in that post resources that can help you start your Blog in as little as 2 hours.

Finally, know that promoting and fine tuning your business strategy will help you run a successful online baked goods business.

To learn more about how to start a home business please sign up to our mailing list here. For signing up you will get a free ebook and a free affiliate check list, plus a 5-day free training on Blogging for profit.

Do you have any other ideas on how to start an online baked goods business, leave your comment below.

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