Get your copy of Lewis’ new book - The Home-Turf Advantage ➡️ http://htabook.com?el=podcast
🗣 In Episode 36 of the Dropship Unlocked Podcast, hosts Lewis Smith and James Eardley unravel the secrets to achieving consistent profits in dropshipping faster than ever before.
They explore the delicate balance between speed and strategy, emphasising why it's essential for success in the ecommerce realm.
👉 Prefer to watch this on Youtube? Check it out here ➡️ https://youtu.be/wFX580GwakA?si=om0ydWGTBEdnXaUL
---------------------------------------------------------
Topics Discussed:
★ The importance of balancing speed and strategy in dropshipping.
★ Common mistakes that can cost entrepreneurs time, including product and supplier selection and cash flow management.
★ Effective marketing strategies for achieving quick results in dropshipping.
★ The impact of mentorship and proper training on success in the ecommerce industry.
★ Why having a clear direction is essential in business and how it can prevent costly mistakes.
---------------------------------------------------------
Links and Resources Mentioned:
For Aspiring Business Owners or Side Hustle Seekers Based In the UK…
New Book Reveals How To Launch A Low-Maintenance High-Profit E-Commerce Business Using The UK "Home-Turf Advantage”…
While also enjoying more time with your family, being free to travel, and setting the hours you work.
Click here to get your copy >>> http://htabook.com?el=podcast
---------------------------------------------------------
Key Takeaways:
★ Speed and Strategy Fusion: Finding the right equilibrium between speed and strategy is pivotal in dropshipping.
★ Common Time-Wasting Mistakes: Entrepreneurs often fall into the traps of choosing the wrong products, suppliers, and neglecting cash flow management.
★ Effective Marketing Strategies: The episode delves into marketing strategies that yield rapid results in dropshipping.
★ The Power of Mentorship: Mentorship and proper training significantly influence the success rate and speed in dropshipping.
★ Direction Trumps Speed: While speed is crucial, the hosts stress that having a clear direction is even more critical.
---------------------------------------------------------
FOLLOW:
Thank you for listening to the Dropship Unlocked Podcast! Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review on your favourite podcast platform.
---------------------------------------------------------
★★★Dropship Unlocked - Lewis Smith★★★
How to Launch a UK Dropshipping Business Offering Next-Day Delivery...
...Even If You Don't Yet Know Which Products To Sell
🌏Watch Our Free Training ➽ https://www.dropshipunlocked.com/training?el=podcast
Get your copy of Lewis’ new book - The Home-Turf Advantage ➡️ http://htabook.com?el=podcast
🗣 In Episode 36 of the Dropship Unlocked Podcast, hosts Lewis Smith and James Eardley unravel the secrets to achieving consistent profits in dropshipping faster than ever before.
They explore the delicate balance between speed and strategy, emphasising why it's essential for success in the ecommerce realm.
👉 Prefer to watch this on Youtube? Check it out here ➡️ https://youtu.be/wFX580GwakA?si=om0ydWGTBEdnXaUL
---------------------------------------------------------
Topics Discussed:
★ The importance of balancing speed and strategy in dropshipping.
★ Common mistakes that can cost entrepreneurs time, including product and supplier selection and cash flow management.
★ Effective marketing strategies for achieving quick results in dropshipping.
★ The impact of mentorship and proper training on success in the ecommerce industry.
★ Why having a clear direction is essential in business and how it can prevent costly mistakes.
---------------------------------------------------------
Links and Resources Mentioned:
For Aspiring Business Owners or Side Hustle Seekers Based In the UK…
New Book Reveals How To Launch A Low-Maintenance High-Profit E-Commerce Business Using The UK "Home-Turf Advantage”…
While also enjoying more time with your family, being free to travel, and setting the hours you work.
Click here to get your copy >>> http://htabook.com?el=podcast
---------------------------------------------------------
Key Takeaways:
★ Speed and Strategy Fusion: Finding the right equilibrium between speed and strategy is pivotal in dropshipping.
★ Common Time-Wasting Mistakes: Entrepreneurs often fall into the traps of choosing the wrong products, suppliers, and neglecting cash flow management.
★ Effective Marketing Strategies: The episode delves into marketing strategies that yield rapid results in dropshipping.
★ The Power of Mentorship: Mentorship and proper training significantly influence the success rate and speed in dropshipping.
★ Direction Trumps Speed: While speed is crucial, the hosts stress that having a clear direction is even more critical.
---------------------------------------------------------
FOLLOW:
Thank you for listening to the Dropship Unlocked Podcast! Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review on your favourite podcast platform.
---------------------------------------------------------
★★★Dropship Unlocked - Lewis Smith★★★
How to Launch a UK Dropshipping Business Offering Next-Day Delivery...
...Even If You Don't Yet Know Which Products To Sell
🌏Watch Our Free Training ➽ https://www.dropshipunlocked.com/training?el=podcast
If I have the right strategy as well, that's great. But then if I don't do anything with it, and I don't execute on it, then with the right speed, then obviously that also leads us to going nowhere. The campaign that I run is the most profitable campaign that I run, it's got a return on adspend of like, 40 that I've had other situations were assigned a brand and thought, I don't know about them, like, yeah, I guess I'll add them to the store, but I'm not sure that they're going to be that popular. And then, you know, it's like six sales per day and they're just flying off the show how much time you should spend to sharpen your axe before you start swinging. So when you start swinging, and you start to apply the speed that you've got anxiety, then that's when you can really apply the action that you need to take to get to where you want to get as quickly as possible. Even more like Ninja tip that you can do is retargeting list search ads as well, so you can add when I first started, I was probably tip the balance towards the speed being more important than the strategy. And I was just so keen to get started, I was desperate to make money from an online source of any nature. With business. We don't just want to charge into the fog of confusing strategies and just suddenly end up we've done so much work we've worked so hard and we become a busy fall which I've fallen into the trap of so many. Welcome to the dropship unlocked podcast your key to unlocking the secrets of high ticket dropshipping. I'm Lewis Smith, founder of dropship unlocked and with me is our Client Success Coach James Eardley. Now when we're not recording podcast episodes, we're running our own e commerce businesses and helping aspiring entrepreneurs launch their own high ticket dropshipping businesses. So if you're ready to learn how to build your own six, or even seven figure business, pick up a copy of my book, the home turf advantage, whether you're looking to replace your income or launch a side hustle. I wrote this book as a roadmap to help you launch a low maintenance, high profit e commerce business that gives you the freedom to spend more time with your family, travel the world and work on your own terms, ready to join us visit HT a book.com To get your copy today. Now sit back, relax and let's unlock your potential with a dropship unlocked podcast. Have you ever wondered why some entrepreneurs seem to skyrocket their dropshipping profits almost overnight, whereas others stay stuck in a rut? Well, today Luis and I are going to be pulling back the curtain on one of the most sought after secrets in E commerce, how to not only drive consistent profits for your business, but how to also do that as fast as you possibly can. And faster than you ever thought possible. So Louis, are you ready and excited to dive into the world of speed and strategy? Yeah, absolutely. This should be a great topic. James. Looking forward to this one. It's an essential topic and subject for us to cover. So yeah, looking forward to diving into everything that we both learned over all our years of experience. dropshipping Yeah, let's try to bring as much experience but much stories as we can alongside this because it is important to think about not only the strategy that we've gone through our many episodes, but how to also do that fast. So let's start with the basics. Why is it important to cover a topic where we talk about both strategy and speed? Yeah, I think for me, it's always been a combination of both of these things, right? Because without the right strategies were very well going fast. But you know, where are you going fast too, right? You need You need that map, you need that guide of where you're actually going in the first place. So yeah, if I have the right strategy as well, that was great. But then if I don't do anything with it, and I don't execute on it, that with the right speed, then obviously that also leads us to going no so with the right strategy, and the right speed, then every move can kind of become intentional. And it reduces the number of revisions and reworks that we have to do because there's less trial and error, because you're not just saying, Okay, I'm going to move fast, but I have no direction and no guide, and I'm just going to continue to fail and trial and error it through to my way to success. Of course, that's one approach that you can do, it might be quite difficult to feel like yeah, smacking your head against a brick wall for a long time. And it starts to get quite frustrating because you just keep failing. Whereas if you have a strategy that you can continue to move ahead with. I mean, I guess the best way to liken this to is imagine you're back at school, right? You're preparing for one of your exams, you've got like a biology or history exam coming up and you're thinking, How do I prepare? You don't just think, Okay, I've got five days to the exam. Let me just go and study history, you know, and just like, let me just learn history, and then I'll take the exam and that would do it. Like that would be an example of moving fast with no strategy. Instead, you try and focus the mind, don't you say? Okay, well, I'm not going to have to learn the whole subject. There must be a syllabus for this exam. So let me study the syllabus. Let me look at past exam papers. Let me kind of focus the mind in and then I'll move quickly. So you got the right strategy, the right speed of execution. You're not just randomly picking up books on history being like okay, let me just absorb as much as I can and how For the past, that's, you know, it's unlikely to succeed. So it's the same in business, it's speed, and direction that will get you there. Because speed without direction will often lead to burnout or eventually business failure, because you're just kind of spinning around in circles. And if we're just watching every piece of content out there that's related to e commerce, you know, and then we're building a store because someone on YouTube video showed us how to build a cool store. And then a different YouTube video or podcast said, Hey, use this app. It's really good. It's what I keep my bad app into a store. And I know I've fallen, you know, foul to this as well, like it's easy to do. Then you see all this new type of suppliers just launched this new supplier network. Okay, let me try them. Maybe they're really good. And so you've got got this kind of mishmash of like, jumbled up information coming at you. And then someone says, new themes really high converting, so you think, okay, I'll put that theme on my store as well. And then someone's like, oh, yeah, tick tock ads are the new thing, or Facebook ads, or Instagram ads. So you start running all this stuff. And it's like this jumbled up mix of influencers, shoutouts ads, suppliers that aren't proven a theme that might not be right. And so we could do all that very quickly. We could have speed, we could be fast. But if it's the wrong strategy, and it's not conducive to where we want to get to eventually, if it's not focused, then that can be just as ineffective as having no strategy at all. So yeah, I think for me, it's always been about finding that balance, making sure that I know where I'm going, and also that I'm executing intentionally towards getting there, and that I'm not kind of, you know, sitting on my hands and just thinking that okay, well, I've got the strategy and hope it comes together, you have to take the action to get there, right. Yeah, and is about balance. I know, when I first started, I was probably tip, the balance towards the speed be more important than the strategy. And I was just so keen to get started, I was desperate to make money from an online source of any nature. And so I wasn't focused on picking the right strategy. Initially, I just wanted to work and do something, and the speed was my focus. But then that led me into different troubles. Because if you just focus on speed, and you leave a lot of room for having to make mistakes and lots of trial and error before you make eventually the money that you want to make. And so in the long run, if you just prioritise speed, I believe it actually ends up taking longer, because you don't follow the right strategy. Initially, you have to make lots of mistakes before you focus on something that you do know, will work. Because they lose. That's an example of one of the mistakes that I made when I first started my E commerce journey. What would you say are some of the biggest mistakes that you've seen when other people start their own dropshipping journeys? Yeah, one major pitfall that I've definitely fallen into time and time again, when I was starting, my journey was just not choosing the right products to sell or the right niche group of products to sell. What this does is it causes secondary problems, which then disguise the fact that actually the primary problem was not choosing the right products to sell. So you end up with wasted marketing efforts and wasted ad spend, or you end up with customer service headaches. And you think, why are all these problems emerging? And the root cause of it, if you trace it back, is that we didn't just choose the right products to sign, you know, we signed any old suppliers that we thought our these suppliers would, would be amazing. And I found out that just signing any old suppliers, sometimes it just doesn't cut it because I've had stores before where I was running ads. And I had a nicely designed store and thought it would be really high converting the ads were great, you know, I was, maybe I was starting to make sales, but they weren't profitable. Or, you know, maybe I'm not making sales at all, I'm getting lots of clicks and impressions and add to carts. But for some reason, they're not converting. And I just start to think well, what's going on here? Like what, what is it and it always comes back to this lesson that I've learned time and time again, and I try to warn our members of now is that it's really difficult. And actually, I don't think you can force unpopular products on the market, the market will tell you what they want to buy. And if you do succeed in doing that, you're likely then hit the secondary problems that come from it, ie bad reviews, lots of returns lots of chargebacks. So it's like you don't want to bait and switch and sake make this incredible ad for a product that's actually quite underwhelming. So the if I'm ever in a position where that's happening, and I'm seeing like the ads are running, but we're not making sales, it's always been because I didn't use a clear strategy to decide on which products or which niche to sell in originally. So I didn't validate the idea first using data and maybe I fell into the trap of thinking I'm passionate about this product, I'm going to sell it you know, I'm going I think I can make be the one to change this. And I became blind to the data, which is a dangerous trap to fall into. So that's definitely one of them. Another big mistake that I've made personally many times which is closely related to choosing the wrong product is just choosing the wrong supplier. So you might have the right kind of niche the right products, you know, category that you've decided you want to focus on and it meets all the right data criteria. There's like nine different data criteria that I go through in my book. And so in the past I've signed some suppliers and so that's it. I've hit the jackpot. You know, I get off the phone with the supplier I think that's it, this is going to triple our business. And so I'm ready to go. I'm like, up late at night, excitedly uploading all of the new products that they've sent us through. And I'm thinking that, you know, they're gonna fly off the shelves metaphorically from our, our store, and I'm ready to go and I set the ads live. And then it's like, Okay, what's what's going on? Why is no one rushing to buy this? What's happening? Like, what's causing this to not sell? And yeah, maybe we get one or two sales per month from those brands coming through, but for some reason, it just doesn't click. And it's because I assumed that that that brand would be really popular, but for some reason, it's just not resonating with the market. And then I've had other situations where I assigned a brand and thought, I don't know about them, like, yeah, I guess I'll add them to the store. But I'm not sure that they're going to be that popular. And then, you know, it's like six sales per day, and they're just flying off the shelves. And you think, wow, I didn't expect that. But I think, again, whenever I learned this lesson, again, it just reminds me to try to take my own emotion out of the equation and just let the data guide me if I allow these products to be there and serve as ads to the market, the market tells me what's popular, and I just, I'm like, Okay, well, whatever you want to buy, from our store, we're happy, we'll happily fulfil those orders, and our suppliers will happily, you know, fulfil the orders, it doesn't really make a huge difference to us, whether I thought one brand would sell or another will let the marketing kind of guide us. So in the past, I've worked with drop shipping suppliers as well on the other side of the world. So things like AliExpress, where you find suppliers, often in China. And then that causes a whole raft of secondary problems as well, you end up stuck with the long delivery times that I know you've experienced as well and the poor quality product. But it also then leads to like tertiary problems as well. Because not only are those issues, but then you've got the suppliers themselves who are unhappy, or sorry, the customers themselves who are unhappy, poor performing ad campaigns, because they're not high converting because they're not that in demand, then you get refund requests coming through or disputes and chargebacks. And suddenly, your dispute rate gets too high, and your merchant processor gets shut down, or they start withholding funds from you. And so you've got a rolling reserve on your account. And they're like holding back 20,000 pounds, you know, so you can't then pay your supplier because you can't get that money until the items have been delivered. And all kinds of wasted money, wasted time, lots of admin. And it's just very tough to make it profitable from the start with ads. So that's definitely been one as well that I've experienced. Yeah, we've had to learn these mistakes firsthand, a lot of them, I know that I've ran off with just the idea of getting there as fast as possible. And it reminds me of it. If you've ever watched the London Marathon on TV or the Great North Run, you get somebody that's not an athlete, not a professional athlete, but they start at the front of the race. And they decide right, the first 500 metres, they're gonna absolutely done it. And they go in front of the athletes, and for the first 30 seconds of the race. They're leading the London Marathon. And he says it's hilarious, great fun. But what I can liken that to is me starting a dropshipping business and thinking it's all about speed. And let's go for it. And I didn't pace myself, I didn't set up with a strategy that was going to make me win for the long term. So in the case of the marathon runner, brilliant, you're ahead for the first 30 seconds, but you're never going to finish the marathon if you're going to try and keep up that pace. So instead it's about having the right strategy, and prioritising getting that right. And then you'll actually ended up finishing the marathon much quicker instead of having to sprint, and then you end up walking the rest of the way. So yeah, some good lessons in there, Louis, and thanks for sharing if you got any any more. Yeah, I think another mistake that I've made is not keeping a close enough eye on the numbers and the cash flow. I've definitely had times where my top line sales revenue looks incredible. And I'm thinking we're making loads of cash here, like loads of money coming in, this is fantastic. And so I've reinvested a lot of that into my business or into other ventures like connected to my business. But then I've not accounted for unexpected expenses, you know, or actually expenses that should have been expected. But I was just too naive to realise that that I should have planned for those things. So things like taxes owed, you know, and when the taxman comes knocking is scary, if you haven't set those things aside, I've learned those mistakes, learned from those mistakes and those lessons. And I try to relay those lessons to other people earlier in their journey than I am now because I wouldn't wish that horrible feeling on anybody where you don't have the cash available. And a supplier comes knocking on the taxman comes knocking anything, it's gone. It's spelt like we've used it, I don't know what to do. And you're looking at the option of like, you know, high interest business loans and things like that. And it's just not a route that I'd want to go down. So now, because of those lessons, I keep a very close track of the corporation tax owed in my businesses, like each month rolling them out. I'm like, okay, yeah, we know how much that's gone up to so that at the end of the year, we could choose to try to offset that by reinvesting in some things within the business to bring down that corporate tax liability. But yeah, I mean, we just have it set aside if we have nothing we want to reinvest in then it's just they're ready to pay that tax. Right. Also your personal tax, if you're withdrawing money from your company as dividends, just making sure that you've what you've taken out, you've, you've then set aside money in a separate account is the way I'd like to do it, to just make sure that it's there so that when your self assessment tax bill comes through, it's just that you don't have to think about it, you don't have to worry about it lose sleep from it, you know, and the big one, as well as VAT. You know, that's something that in the UK, you've got to watch out for, you got to make sure that you're prepared. I had a nasty phone call from the accountant a few days ago, where they said, you've got a VAT bill through for this quarter, just this quarter of nearly 100,000 pounds. And I was like, I mean, the initial, you know, repulsion reaction for that is like, Oh, wow, that hurts like, that's more in a quarterly tax bill than I used to earning in a year, double what he's done in a year. But then you kind of realise, okay, but I've actually planned for this. And it's set aside, it's in an account. And it's like, it's not even there for me, but it is there this time, you know, because I've learned from my mistakes before. And that would have led to real panic before. But although it still hurts to pay that now. At least I have it set aside, I know it's there. And it's that peace of mind, I can, you know, sleep easily knowing that it's is there ready to pay? Yeah, it's so important to have those mistakes reminded in at certain times. And thanks for sharing those with us Lewis as well. So other people don't have to fall into the same traps. And that reminds me of a podcast episode that we recorded not too long ago. So episode number 28, of the dropship unlocked podcast was all about how we can maximise the profits that we're making, and not just looking at the top line revenue. So that's episode number 28. And that really goes into depth about how to make sure we're profitable as early as possible, and not just looking at the revenue numbers. So now something that we need to speak about to ensure that we get the results that we want as fast as possible is marketing, and how we market our drop shipping store. So what methods have you found that yield the best results for marketing a drop shipping business? Well, for my model, the home turf advantage model, I've always found that using Google Ads strategically can place your product in front of the right customers who are actively searching for the product. So I call it search intent to marketing. And it's because people have a search intent, they have an intent to buy. So we'd much prefer to put those products in front of those people put our products in front of those people, rather than trying to like wave our products in front of people who might not be interested to buy, you know, it's like you set up your shop in the busiest alley of the market where you know that that footfall that traffic is guaranteed already, people are already coming to our store, they wouldn't be in the market unless they had an intention to buy. So it is a bit like that. So assuming that you're using the right marketing approach, and you're bringing the right kind of qualified traffic into your your world into your store, the next thing that you can do to really boost your marketing efforts is to increase your conversion rate. So we call this conversion rate optimization or CRO. Now one way that we do this that works really well is building trust through reviews and testimonials. You know, some may call it social proof in the online space, and even in the offline space as well. But that will drive sales faster for us than any sales pitch ever could, you know, if I'm saying I've got this product is great, honestly, it's the best thing ever. Like, believe me, it's so good. Versus someone saying I bought this product. It's amazing. You should definitely buy it like the tour. Because the first the first angle, people would say, Well, of course he'd say that. But then when you see other people saying it who have made the decision already and have purchased it's it's a bit like the other day I went out for lunch in the West End in London. And obviously there's loads of restaurants in that area of London, right. So we're walking through restaurants, and we saw an honest burger, you know, the the restaurant chain. And there was this whole crowd of people standing outside, almost like queueing down the street on the corner. And it was probably the only restaurant that I could really see where there was this like hustle and bustle kind of crowd queuing outside. And I think they do it intentionally. But it's clever, because when I was walking down there, I heard this people, I think it was someone who was probably entertaining someone else for lunch like a couple of colleagues, or entertaining like a couple of clients. And this lady just said she walked past and she said, Oh, this place looks busy. Should we go in and see how long it would be for a table? Social proof inaccurate. Because she said it looks busy. She decided that that was a restaurant that she wanted to take a risk on because of how busy it was not because of how quiet it was. They didn't say let this place opposite is dead quiet. Should we go there. Instead, she wanted the social proof because it was that validation that the crowd had given to that restaurant by queuing outside. Probably intentionally by the restaurant, they probably make Ebron queue for that reason they know that it's better. It's like when you go into a restaurant is why they always put you first in the window because they want other people to walk past and be like, Oh, let that couple look like they're having a nice dinner. Should we go in there? Social proof in action. You know, it's the same thing. It's that validation that it gives the place and it increased says the perceived likelihood of that lady making a good decision. And not risking making a mistake by taking clients that she's trying to impress into a restaurant. That's rubbish. Hate says the same thing on our store imagine is just digital, right. But this is why it's easier to equate it to the real world, if you like. With digital ecosystems, if someone goes to a website, they're having the same emotional psychological reaction to seeing product reviews on your store to seeing testimonials to seeing case like customer case studies, things like that I'm talking about, I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy X Y Zed product, but I did. And now I'm happier. And now it works really well. And here's how it's changed my life and blah, blah, blah, you can provide that information in the case study, and it has the same effect is really positive. And it's a great way of rather than you having to push your own business, you just allow other people who are seeing the results of it, push it, so it works really well. And this is why strategy is so important, because the only way that we can build up a nice bank of product reviews and service reviews from your customers is if you are delivering the right products from the right suppliers. And if you're able to deliver great customer service, and the only way you can do that is if you are following the right strategy and selling high quality products, and making sure the delivery time is realistic as well. So now the way that the we run our businesses with UK suppliers to UK customers, we can guarantee the product quality because we've met the suppliers. And we can guarantee the delivery time is going to be under three working days in most cases, instead of if we were to go down the model that I used to use, which is the AliExpress Chinese drop shipping model. And often that's like two or three weeks, maybe even four weeks for delivery. And that's never going to be able to build up a nice bank have good reviews, because the the actually experience that you're giving to your customers is not going to warrant a five star review. So important that strategy comes first. And then you've got those reviews, and it becomes a flywheel effect, because then your business can just keep scaling from there. Exactly. Yeah. And when we say the AliExpress model that we talk about, obviously, we're kind of like, I guess, labelling that whole model of like long delivery time. So if you say, oh, no, but AliExpress is not my supplier, that, you know, that's our point is our Express is kind of representative of a model where you're using suppliers, usually from China, and it just takes a long time. But yeah, I mean, even if you have suppliers closer to home, you're gonna run into the same types of problems, right. And eventually, like you say, if the product arrives, and it's terrible quality, then great, you've got it for cheap, but your brand reputation is going to face the consequences when people start to share their experience. So definitely a reason to to use high quality products and have them delivered fast from suppliers who are based in the same country, ideally, in the UK. The next thing that I would definitely look at is email marketing, as well. So currently, I use an app called Klaviyo for email marketing. So that's something that we link up to our Shopify Ecommerce store. And it can kind of take control over the email marketing for us. And it's really something that's like, fairly, set it and forget it in terms of like the automation flows that you can set up, of course, you can still be sending out regular emails to your email list of subscribers, but in terms of like the flows, things like cart abandonment sequences, you know, so we've all had those where you go into a store on a website, and you put something in the basket, and then you leave. But then the next day, you get an email saying, hey, come back, 10% off, 10 pounds off, whatever. So it's just like a gentle nudge to remind customers of what they're missing out on. Which if you think about this, if we take this back into the like, the physical world out of the digital world, imagine leaving a shop after looking around and being like, maybe put something into your basket, and then you go, No, I'm not going to buy it and you walk out and the shopkeeper comes running after you inside now I'll give you a discount honestly, like are, you know, I'd be a bit desperate in the real world. But there are ways of positioning it. So it makes you reconsider, you know, they could come out and be like, before you leave today, would you consider doing it if you've got a discount, right? So it's funny to equate these things to the real world and think, imagine if we had a shopkeeper of every customer ever came into our store that could do that automatically, on demand. 24/7 365 days a year, powerful stuff isn't so powerful. And it's automated when it's in the digital world. And online. Nobody has to go out and chase people down the street. It's an automated email, so we don't have to think about it. And we know there'll be emails sent out 1000s a day to our customers that are abandoning carts, and they're looking at products. And that doesn't take any extra effort on our part. So KBOs is a brilliant tool. Another tool while we're on the subject of marketing is Google search text ads. So you mentioned Google has been an absolute primary way that we get customers in, but a tip that we'll share and something that you taught me through the dropship and not masterclass was setting up a search text ad for our brand name for the actual trading name that our store trades under. So what that means is when people have already been to your website, and then they decide they want to purchase a little bit later in the day, and the first thing they search is your brand name to the website name that you're you're trading under. You want to make sure that your website is going to appear at the top Have those search engine results page. And the way we can guarantee that is by running an ad and using our brand name as a keyword, to make sure that those ads appear. And the the campaign that I run is the most profitable campaign that I run, it's got a return on adspend of like 40. So every pound that we spend, we get 40 pound back from that campaign. And it's been consistent like that for two and a half years since I first started running it. So there's a tip for everyone, make sure you're running search text ads to your brand name. And that's something where it'll be a guaranteed profitable investment for you to get that campaign set up. Definitely. Yeah, and it and it also builds the brand as well, doesn't it in it, it means that if because you won't get a lot of traffic on that brand campaign when you first start because your brand won't be known. But eventually people start searching you an even more like Ninja tip that you can do is retargeting list search ads as well. So you can add to that says something different. And just show it to a group of customers who are or group of prospective customers who are searching for your brand name and have already visited your site. And you can change the wording. So rather than saying like, you know, barbecues, online.com, you know, come and get the best deals, instead of that it might say, hey, come back, we missed you or something like that, like something that's more personalised to them, and be like, still shopping around head over here for a discount, like something that calls out the fact that they've already been to your site, and that they can come back and that you'll see us click through rate really increase with that as well. And we've got these tools at our fingertips from day one. And as you mentioned, it's important to get the setup actually, from day one before your website starts to appear at the top of the search engine results page, we can run an ad and on day one, it can be at the top of those search engine results pages and be generating a consistent profit for you ever since. So I definitely owe you Louis, you know, setting that up. And it sort of speaks to the value of mentorship. Because as soon as you learn these little insights in something you can implement straightaway, and generate profit consistently on that ad campaign ever since. So mentorship was definitely a game changer for me. How do you see the role of mentorship when it comes to maximising profits fast? Well, it's got to be the best way to do it. I've always believed that having mentors in all walks of life, not just business is key to success. Because if you could I mean you go right back to your parents when you're growing up, right, they are probably your your first real mentors, they show you the initial ways of how to walk, how to talk those things, you followed other people's lead, then you get to school, and it's teachers that become your mentors, I remember vividly in about year head or 11, I think at school, having this teacher who brought a topic to life for me. And I think that was the first time I really realised like how a mentor could inject like the the human personalisation to bring us to a topic to life you because the you know that it was the subject of biology at school, right? I'd had biology teachers in the past, I was like, yeah, just another science, you know, it's kind of like, it just blends into the rest of the school curriculum. But this one teacher was like, funny, like he really pay attention, he he would help, we would write if you didn't understand the topic, he would bring it to life really help kind of break it down. And I just found that he brought my passion for human biology to life. And I'll forever be grateful to him because he then like, he probably doesn't know it now. And I wish I could go back and thank him. But he probably steered me through to studying medical microbiology at university and then going on to work for seven years in the medical devices and healthcare industry. And it was all because of a very passionate mentor that I had in a subject that changed the course of the next decade of my life. So yeah, I think when you then progress out of university, you get to work right here in a company. bosses at work are kind of like mentors, if you have the right one. I remember at my old company, you kind of have a mix, don't you but some bosses that I had there, there are a couple of key figures who I'm eternally grateful for, because they showed me like how to conduct myself in the world of business. They showed me how to be a leader how to lead a team how to lead with empathy, and inspire and rally up a team and, you know, create that sense of like value and passion that a team need something which I now subconsciously use and model every day when I'm leading my own team, even years after leaving that industry in that job. I'll always be grateful to those people because they were mentors to me at that time. I didn't realise it. Maybe at the time, I just thought wow, this is a really passionate inspirational person. But later I come to realise Wow, they actually mentored me through that process. So sometimes it's disguised, you might not even realise it. And obviously it's the same in fitness if you've got a gym buddy, someone that you know hold you accountable and makes it more likely for you to stick to your routine in the gym or a personal trainer that you pay, who gives you a strategy and gives you that motivation that the guidance the plan to follow your fitness regime and then again, that's mentorship in a different area of your life, isn't it? But I think in business I've always found that it's even more relevant because in business, the right mentorship, and the right mentor can not only guide you in the strategies, like we talked about earlier, but they can give you the right network access, like the access to the right people, the right tools, the right strategies, the plan, but also motivate you to supercharge that growth. So it's like a combination of they'll hold you accountable of both to the strategy. But also, there may be say, right, and I want to see that you do that. And you action that by next week. That's your first step. Suddenly, we've got speed and strategy, which we talked about earlier, and then the two can start to marry up. And then for me, it's just been knowing that someone else has already walked the path, and that they are where I'd like to be in that they are now showing me the route there. I think when that's the case, why would I not take it? You know, if I see that route laid out, and I know where it leads, and the person who has designed that route is where I want to be? Why would I not take it? Am I too proud to take it do I want to get to that point, but in another way, a more roundabout route and learn by taking risks and failing and potentially not getting there. Like, the reality is, if you want to get to that point where they're at, it doesn't really matter how you get there. So you might as well take the most direct path, and therefore, why not just follow the route that they've laid out, because there's going to save you from falling into a lot of the pitfalls like even ones that we've talked about today. I think it just keeps us on track. And it keeps us focused. And so through the networks, that the training programmes that I've been part of the mentors that I've had, have provided me through those introductions to other amazing people. I've always met somebody who has then shaped the next chapter of my life, however big or small that is, there's always somebody who comes out of a introduction from a mentor, that I think, Wow, I'm now challenging myself to think bigger, because I've met this person. And so I think that's the thing if you resonate with a mentor, and you think this is my kind of person, like I share the same values as them, I share the same why they speak my language, they're like my biology teacher was they bring this topic to life for me, the chances are, that other people who also resonate with them will have congregated in their network. So when you then speak to them, you join their network, you become part of you know, that their group, you're likely to find your tribe. And it's not by coincidence is because you all have the same values that attracted you to that mentor. So when you find that that's something that is precious, you know, you shouldn't just let it go, you should take the action to seek their their guidance, because you might not resonate with the next one that you stumble across. And it's so precious and powerful. As you say, when you're in a tribe, or in a community where you all resonate with the same values. There's so much power in that. I think, today in today's day and age, people more than ever, I think are looking for mentors are looking for communities looking for tribes, where we can really feel like we belong, a few communities sort of break down today's day. And age is not the same sort of communities that we used to have in years gone by. So if you can find one that you really resonate with, and it brings the best out of you, then you can really achieve things that you never thought possible before certainly was the case for me. Now, something I hear a lot, and I think you've mentioned before, Louis is that direction is more important than speed. Now, it can be sort of talked about in many different ways. But could you sort of expand on that? How do you think about direction and speed and you think one is more important than the other? Well, I think both are really important speed, without proper direction can lead to mistakes, because you're just firing ahead, but you don't know where you're going. And it can also lead to wasted resources, wasted spend, and even total business failure. If you just like head in the sand, you know, I'm not listening to direction, I just want to go this way. Like I was driving just this morning, it was really foggy and dark, and I went to drive to get a coffee from the High Street. And yeah, I could have just floored it. And to get there faster in the car, that that speed would have likely sacrificed my safety and the success of the overall mission to get the coffee, right, the mission was get a coffee safely bring it home. And now instead, I followed the road markings because I couldn't see the road that clearly because of the fog. But I could see the lines and the lines kept me focused and kept me on track. And I just thought, well, it's better to go steady, get the job done effectively, you know, so it's a combination of like not too much speed, but following clear directions, ie the road markings. And with business, we don't just want to charge into the fog of confusing strategies and just suddenly end up we've done so much work, we've worked so hard and we become a busy fall which I've fallen into the trap of so many times that the cost of doing that becomes the confusion and the overwhelm. And that's really difficult because then then you kind of get trapped in that area instead thing having a well researched strategy can provide us with clarity, it ensures that every effort that we're putting into our business is propelling it to the next step and moving it a stage forward and you start to feel that positive momentum the feedback cycle working so yeah off And I'll take time to just plan and strategize upfront, even though the the, like, entrepreneur inside me just wants to hit the ground running and start taking action. But I know that unless I put those plans in place, first, I risk wasting a lot of time spinning my wheels. Like they say how much time you should spend to sharpen your axe before you start swinging. So when you start swinging, and you start to apply the speed that you've got inside you, then that's when you can really apply the action that you need to take to get to where you want to get as quickly as possible. So lots and lots of great insights there, Louis about how to get to the profits that we want as quickly as possible by following all of the tips and learn from the mistakes that we both made. But if you had to summarise and put it into the first critical action for somebody to take to get to where they want to go as quickly as possible. What would you say, research, research and educate yourself, make sure that you get yourself around a community of like minded individuals get around your tribe and understand what it takes to run a successful business like this, then once you're confident that you have the strategy that you know, you're not going to hit overwhelm or confusion because it's clear mapped out step by step, then it's time to implement speed and take action quickly. You know, you wouldn't just drive 100 miles per hour in the fog if you couldn't see the road markings, which you hopefully wouldn't do, even if you could see the road markings. But it's better to take a steady path and and make sure that you follow that clear path in the form of education. So that when you get there, you have arrived safely. And that education will then pay you back over time. So yeah, invest in learning, whether that's a programme or a book or mentorship, whatever it is, knowledge will become your greatest asset, your greatest ROI. And for a step by step guide and access to a community of dropshipping entrepreneurs also running these types of businesses, you can pick up a copy of my book, the home turf advantage from HTA book.com, and you could be reading it within the next few minutes. Just a quick heads up. If you'd like to share your questions, stories, successes or challenges, you can email us directly at podcast at dropship unlocked.com. And you never know we might even feature you on the next podcast episode. Also, if you want access to today's show notes or any of the resources we've mentioned in the episode today, then head over to dropship unlocked.com forward slash podcast. We also have a small favour to ask if you if you enjoyed the show so far, you could take a minute to leave us a rating and review on your podcast platform of choice. You wouldn't believe how much your reviews help us grow the podcast, we'll even read out some of our favourites on the next episode. So if you want to be featured on the show, please do go ahead and leave us a review today. Thanks so much for your support. We really couldn't do it without you. And we absolutely love hearing what you think of the podcast. Now let's answer a question that's coming from a listener of the podcast Lewis. So this question has come in from another Lewis. And he got his question in by emailing us is podcast at dropship unlock.com. So I will ask his question to you now, Louis. So he's asked, one of the steps that I'm finding quite hard to figure out is how do I actually add suppliers to my store? I'm just not sure what the process is. Do I just get their verbal permission, then upload their products? Or is it a bit more complicated than that? Yeah, well, thank you for your question, Luis and compliments on a fantastic name as well. So there are a few different processes that it will depend on the supplier that you sign is probably the short answer to that. But the longer answer that details are a bit more is the most common processes that I've encountered with UK suppliers is that you would initially universally agree to work with them over the phone. So they'll say yep, we're happy for you to sign as one of our retailers, they'll then send you across the product information documents, usually the price list, you know, high resolution photos, the assets, the videos, whatever they have available for marketing assets, but also they'll send you across a like a trade agreement, paperwork, usually a contract of some kind. So you check through all of the documentation, you make sure you're happy with the terms. And then once you're both happy, you sign it, and then that becomes your legally binding contract with the supplier. So these are the types of suppliers that we're dealing with. They are serious suppliers that will become long term brand partners with you, you're not going to be signing any contracts with suppliers rally express in all likelihood, you know, in terms of that, it's just ordering it and hope for the best and hope they don't screw you over by never sending the product like that's the reality of it. The trade agreement paperwork will set out the expectations of both parties. So it's all there in writing and you've got something to hold them accountable to hopefully you'll never need it but at least it's you know, peace of mind. And then you can go ahead and start uploading their products onto your store and you can add them into your marketing campaigns, whether that's your performance Max campaigns, search text ad campaigns, all of the strategies we use, usually we'd create a collection page of just that brand on our website so that we start to rank for search engine optimization and we also would send brand search traffic directly to that collection page. So gets a little bit more in depth like kind of the after you've signed them process but those are the basics. If you want the more in depth excellent And along with the supplier contact scripts that we use both when you're speaking to them over the phone, but also via email, then it's all covered in my book, the home turf advantage, which is available at HT a book.com. Fantastic. Thank you, Louis. It's quite easy to overcomplicate that process, I think if you're not aware of it, but essentially, it can all be done, all the agreements can be signed, and you can start uploading the products within a day or two. So it's very quick process. And it means you can start selling their products a few days after you had that initial call with them. And you can start sending sales through consistently from there on. So thank you for the question. And now we're going to highlight a recent review that we've had in from Sam. So Sam, again, thank you very much for your review. I'll read it out now for everyone to hear the review so we can hear your thoughts on the podcast. So Sam left his review in the q&a section underneath a Spotify podcast episode. And Sam said as a member of dropship or not, I can honestly say these podcasts have been a great supplement to an already invaluable course and community. Some great knowledge, bombs, and tips for any listening. So thank you very much, Sam for your review. Thanks so much for your review. Sam, we really appreciate it and really glad to hear that you've been enjoying the podcast. If you found value in today's episode about rapidly achieving consistent dropshipping profits. We'd love to hear from you. It's as easy as just leaving us a quick review on your go to podcast platform. And if you're a visual learner who enjoys YouTube, then maybe just drop us a comment below this video and who knows, your insights might just be highlighted in our next upcoming episode. And before we wrap up, think of someone who could benefit from today's discussion. Perhaps it's a friend contemplating a leap into E commerce. Sharing this episode with a might be the nudge that they need, providing them with the roadmap to fast track their dropshipping success. Thanks for joining us on this episode of the dropship unlocked podcast. We hope you found the discussion both inspiring and entertaining. If you're ready to begin your own high ticket dropshipping journey then here's what to do next. I've taken all of the years of my own experience both of running my E commerce businesses and teaching hundreds of others how to do the same and I've condensed it all into my book, the home turf advantage. It's your comprehensive guide designed to help you create your own e commerce business and you can grab your copy today at H T A book.com. Stay connected by subscribing to the podcast. This way you'll never miss an episode packed with valuable insights. And if you enjoyed what you heard today, please leave us a review. Your feedback motivates us and we love sharing our favourite reviews on future episodes. And thank you for deciding to spend your time with us today. We really appreciate you and we look forward to sharing more high ticket dropshipping insights with you on our next episode of the dropship unlocked podcast.