11 Merchants Share Their Reasons for Starting a Business
11 Merchants Share Their Reasons for Starting a Business Skip to content Start selling online now with Shopify
While working a full-time job, Chris Wane started opening dropshipping stores in the hope he could earn an extra $200 a week to pay for a holiday or help with the bills. And, although he struck out with his first five stores, Chris stayed motivated and finally cracked the code with his sixth store, Big Red Gadgets. After taking the time to properly learn about Facebook ads, Chris’s store starting making cash – and once he found a winning product it was basically printing it. In nine months Big Red Gadget’s made $500,000 in sales, with a profit margin of 20 percent. https://www.datocms-assets.com/22581/1603954318-chris-wane-motivations.mp3 For Chris, the extra cash was the reason for starting a business and it’s meant he’s been able to travel, buy a car, and make home repairs. But despite this, he always kept his store as a (highly profitable) side hustle, maintaining his full-time job as well.
Matt Riley always imagined he’d open a business – he even studied business entrepreneurship. But he saw it as a plan for a few years down the road. However, once he learned about the potential of ecommerce, Matt managed to bring his dream forward 10 years. After discovering dropshipping and Shopify through YouTube, Matt jumped into creating online stores. Though he’s the first to admit it wasn’t an easy journey. “To be honest it was hard at first,” he says. “I wasn’t profitable for the first four months, and I was struggling.” But, as hard as it was to make his online businesses work, he knew that working his safe and steady customer service job wasn’t a long-term option. “I felt so tied down that I didn’t really want to be there anymore. I just wanted to work for myself.” https://www.datocms-assets.com/22581/1603954314-matt-riley-motivations1.mp3 With this motivation fueling him, Matt powered through, gained skills, and made over $370,000 in revenue in 2018. The profits even allowed him to quit his unfulfilling customer service job to totally commit to an entrepreneurial lifestyle.
While trying to make it as marketing consultants, Jacky and Albert wanted a way they could attract quality clients instead of taking on demanding, poorly paid work just to scrape by. They needed to convince potential clients they had the skills to help them so they went about creating their own case study. The pair had dabbled in ecommerce and dropshipping before, but the discovery of tools like DSers provided a way to take care of the nitty gritty of running a store so they could focus on flexing their marketing skills. And flex they did. After spending over half of their initial advertising budget, the pair discovered a winning product and worked hard to market it, making $780,000 in sales over eight months. Because of their unexpected success, Albert now runs their “case study” store full-time, gaining more and more marketing experience with each day, and Jacky balances running the store and consulting. Better yet, because of the store’s success he’s able to pick and choose his clients, focusing on those he truly wants to work with. “It’s done wonders for my mental health,” he says.
What s Your Motivation 11 Merchants Share Their Reasons for Starting a Business
Article by Allanah Faherty 23 Aug, 2019 There are a multitude of reasons for starting a business. What could provide endless motivation for one person, might not work for another. Maybe you want an alternative to the 9-5 grind. Or just need to earn some extra cash for a holiday. Or perhaps it’s something else altogether. Whatever your reason for starting a business is, it’s going to be your driving force as you navigate the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. But the good news is, you’re not alone in the struggle. Even when running a business can feel like an overwhelming and solitary mission, you can take solace in the fact that others have been there too – and come out the other side. If you’re currently starting or thinking about starting a business, you’re probably researching as much as you can about the nuts and bolts of the operation. But sometimes we need to hear the encouraging human stories as well. The ones that remind us we’re not alone on this crazy journey and leave us feeling reinvigorated once we finish them. After speaking to 11 merchants, we’ve rounded up a bunch of the motivations and reasons for starting a business that led to them to establish their online dropshipping stores. Your reasons might be the same as theirs or vastly different, but hopefully they’ll all encourage you to keep on hustling. Post Contents The Side Hustlers Those Who Want to Supplement Their Income 1 Ross Madden 2 Mandie and Aubrey 3 Chris Wane The Dreamers Those Who Love the Entrepreneurial Lifestyle 4 Jordan Bourque 5 Matt Riley The Travelers Those Who Wanted to Choose When and Where to Work 6 Yuliya and Mike The Professionals Those Who Wanted to Hone Their Marketable Skills 7 Jacky and Albert The Curious Those Who Wanted to Try Something New 8 Jeffrey Ho 9 Rodney and Kory The Seekers Those Who Wanted to Pursue a Passion Not a Paycheck 10 Jenny Lei 11 Yuanda Wang Want to Learn More Start selling online now with Shopify Start your free trialThe Side Hustlers Those Who Want to Supplement Their Income
While there are a lot of entrepreneurs who have sought to make their online business a full-time gig, there are also those who just want their store to provide a side income. Having a side hustle isn’t a new thing, but over the last 10 years having a source of extra income seems to have become more appealing (and necessary) as the cost of living has risen and jobs have become less secure. Having a second stream of income could enable you to travel, pay off debt faster, or just live a more comfortable life. You might not be interested in making millions, but a few extra hundred every month could make a significant difference. And that’s exactly why these entrepreneurs started dropshipping.1 Ross Madden
Ever had something suddenly break or need repair, but you just can’t justify the cost? Ross Madden has. After spending hundreds to fix his cracked phone screen, it was broken again the very same week. Being a student, Ross was unenthused by the idea of handing over another $200 to have it fixed, so he decided this was the amount he wanted to make from his newly built online store. Ross managed to balance studying at college with running his online store selling teeth whitening charcoal, and was happy to be making $400 a month. However, it wasn’t long before he scaled his business and made $200,000 in sales in less than a year. Because he was studying, it was never Ross’s intention to run his store full-time, and having an online store allowed him to take a step back when he needed to study for an important exam. And, the money he earned from running his side hustle has given him financial independence most 25-year-olds can only dream of. Not to mention a learning experience college can’t quite match.2 Mandie and Aubrey
To supplement their incomes from their full-time jobs, friends Mandie and Aubrey went into business selling items through their carefully grown Facebook page. With successful careers and families, the pair weren’t looking to get into ecommerce full-time but were interested in seeing how far they could take their side hustle to make a little extra cash. At first, Mandie and Aubrey ordered, processed, and shipped products themselves. But as their page grew in popularity, their side hustle demanded more and more of their time. “I’ve got a full-time job,” says Aubrey, “she’s got a full-time job, we both have kids and it was like, we love the success, but this is taking too much time.” With the passion for their business fueling her, Mandie searched for ways to ease the pressure of the manual processing. And, after the discovery of dropshipping automation helped them automate more of the process, their business was able to grow in a manageable way. These days their side hustle has generated over $100,000 in revenue – and the pair have been able to do it all while keeping their full-time jobs.3 Chris Wane
While working a full-time job, Chris Wane started opening dropshipping stores in the hope he could earn an extra $200 a week to pay for a holiday or help with the bills. And, although he struck out with his first five stores, Chris stayed motivated and finally cracked the code with his sixth store, Big Red Gadgets. After taking the time to properly learn about Facebook ads, Chris’s store starting making cash – and once he found a winning product it was basically printing it. In nine months Big Red Gadget’s made $500,000 in sales, with a profit margin of 20 percent. https://www.datocms-assets.com/22581/1603954318-chris-wane-motivations.mp3 For Chris, the extra cash was the reason for starting a business and it’s meant he’s been able to travel, buy a car, and make home repairs. But despite this, he always kept his store as a (highly profitable) side hustle, maintaining his full-time job as well.
The Dreamers Those Who Love the Entrepreneurial Lifestyle
For some, the idea of being an entrepreneur has always been appealing. Investing time and effort into an idea and watching it come to life is the sort of stuff their dreams are made of. Having this love of the entrepreneurial lifestyle has been enough to keep many business owners passionate for their project. The delight at seeing results rolling in as a consequence of their actions fuels and drives them in a way they’d never experienced working as an employee. For these store owners it was much the same. And even when they didn’t have a product, it didn’t stop them imagining a time when they could run their own business.4 Jordan Bourque
Jordan Bourque has always been passionate about entrepreneurship. Early on in his university days he would use the thought of one day running his own business as motivation to pass his studies. There was just one issue – he didn’t have an idea for a product or service. For Jordan, the thought that he could have total control in his life was the underlying drive for his mission to run his own business. “You get out what you put into it,” he says, speaking about business ownership. “You have no one else to blame.” His entrepreneurial mindset was already there, he just needed to figure out how to make his dream come true. Then he discovered dropshipping. https://www.datocms-assets.com/22581/1603954347-jordan-bourque-motivations.mp3 After learning all about dropshipping, Jordan realized he could live out his entrepreneurial dream and put in the effort to learn and grow both himself and his business. And the results speak for themselves: his online store generated over $100,000 in revenue last year, including $20,000 of sales in just one month.5 Matt Riley
Matt Riley always imagined he’d open a business – he even studied business entrepreneurship. But he saw it as a plan for a few years down the road. However, once he learned about the potential of ecommerce, Matt managed to bring his dream forward 10 years. After discovering dropshipping and Shopify through YouTube, Matt jumped into creating online stores. Though he’s the first to admit it wasn’t an easy journey. “To be honest it was hard at first,” he says. “I wasn’t profitable for the first four months, and I was struggling.” But, as hard as it was to make his online businesses work, he knew that working his safe and steady customer service job wasn’t a long-term option. “I felt so tied down that I didn’t really want to be there anymore. I just wanted to work for myself.” https://www.datocms-assets.com/22581/1603954314-matt-riley-motivations1.mp3 With this motivation fueling him, Matt powered through, gained skills, and made over $370,000 in revenue in 2018. The profits even allowed him to quit his unfulfilling customer service job to totally commit to an entrepreneurial lifestyle.
The Travelers Those Who Wanted to Choose When and Where to Work
While many people work best with a steady, dependable routine keeping them on track, for others it’s a major restriction they’d rather not have. Perhaps they’re night owls being forced to work when they’d rather sleep. Or maybe they just hate being chained to a desk when they could create an office wherever there’s a flat surface, coffee, and wifi. Whatever the reason, being free from a set routine and location can be a huge motivator to make an online business work – as Yuliya and Mike prove.6 Yuliya and Mike
Although she was already working as a health coach and business consultant, and running a subscription box with her partner Mike, Yuliya Chernykhovskaya realized she wanted something more than her current ventures offered. “One thing I’ve always really wanted is just to have time and location freedom,” Yuliya says. And, while she had created several of her own businesses, they didn’t quite allow the level of flexibility Yuliya craved. “I felt like I was more self-employed versus being a business owner.” https://www.datocms-assets.com/22581/1603954348-yuliya-and-mike-motivations-22-08-19-12-51-pm.mp3 With the desire to be more of a hands-off business owner burning bright, Yuliya jumped at the opportunity that ecommerce presented. And, after building a dropshipping store, bringing her partner Mike onboard, and developing a strong brand, the pair have rocketed to success, making over two million in revenue.The Professionals Those Who Wanted to Hone Their Marketable Skills
It can be frustrating to know you have the skills and drive to do a job well, but can’t quite convince others of that fact – especially when you’re just starting out. So what do you do when you want to level up but others won’t give you the chance? Create your own opportunity instead. Jumping into the world of business ownership is the perfect way to fully understand the pain points of fellow entrepreneurs and gain real experience solving them – just like these two entrepreneurs and marketers.7 Jacky and Albert
While trying to make it as marketing consultants, Jacky and Albert wanted a way they could attract quality clients instead of taking on demanding, poorly paid work just to scrape by. They needed to convince potential clients they had the skills to help them so they went about creating their own case study. The pair had dabbled in ecommerce and dropshipping before, but the discovery of tools like DSers provided a way to take care of the nitty gritty of running a store so they could focus on flexing their marketing skills. And flex they did. After spending over half of their initial advertising budget, the pair discovered a winning product and worked hard to market it, making $780,000 in sales over eight months. Because of their unexpected success, Albert now runs their “case study” store full-time, gaining more and more marketing experience with each day, and Jacky balances running the store and consulting. Better yet, because of the store’s success he’s able to pick and choose his clients, focusing on those he truly wants to work with. “It’s done wonders for my mental health,” he says.