🗣 Hosts Lewis Smith and James Eardley dive into a crucial topic for aspiring entrepreneurs: confidence.
Recognising the pivotal role confidence plays in pursuing entrepreneurial dreams, Lewis and James discuss four simple steps to build confidence and take the first steps towards starting your first business.
★ Understanding the Importance of Confidence: Confidence is the fuel that drives decision-making and action in entrepreneurship.
★ Lack of confidence can act as a barrier to turning ideas into reality. Research shows that confidence levels can significantly predict entrepreneurial activity.
★ The 4 steps to build the confidence to grow your own business.
★ Step 1: Change Your Inputs: Curate the content you consume to cultivate a positive and empowering mindset.
★ Step 2: Surround Yourself With Success: The company you keep influences your confidence levels.
Immersing yourself among achievers and like-minded individuals strengthens belief and resolve.
★ Step 3: Embrace Continuous Learning: Knowledge is empowering and removes the fear of the unknown. Learning from those who have achieved your goals provides insights and guidance.
★ Step 4: Take Action: Action is the antidote to fear and a catalyst for building confidence. Start with small, manageable actions to gain momentum.
🗣 Hosts Lewis Smith and James Eardley dive into a crucial topic for aspiring entrepreneurs: confidence.
Recognising the pivotal role confidence plays in pursuing entrepreneurial dreams, Lewis and James discuss four simple steps to build confidence and take the first steps towards starting your first business.
★ Understanding the Importance of Confidence: Confidence is the fuel that drives decision-making and action in entrepreneurship.
★ Lack of confidence can act as a barrier to turning ideas into reality. Research shows that confidence levels can significantly predict entrepreneurial activity.
★ The 4 steps to build the confidence to grow your own business.
★ Step 1: Change Your Inputs: Curate the content you consume to cultivate a positive and empowering mindset.
★ Step 2: Surround Yourself With Success: The company you keep influences your confidence levels.
Immersing yourself among achievers and like-minded individuals strengthens belief and resolve.
★ Step 3: Embrace Continuous Learning: Knowledge is empowering and removes the fear of the unknown. Learning from those who have achieved your goals provides insights and guidance.
★ Step 4: Take Action: Action is the antidote to fear and a catalyst for building confidence. Start with small, manageable actions to gain momentum.
Watch as the amazing ideas start to grow. And your confidence in yourself starts to build lack of confidence. I
James Eardley:
think it's fair to say it is a big obstacle. And it does seem like many people suffer with it and it holds them back from getting started with an entrepreneurial pursuit. Most people out there whose minds are just a mess, they're
Lewis Smith:
filled with this, like,
James Eardley:
how can our listeners begin to overcome this hurdle?
Lewis Smith:
If you can change what you're feeding your mind, you'll start to notice all of these feelings dissipate.
James Eardley:
That if you know that there's somebody out there that has achieved what you want to achieve, then there's no reason why you can't achieve that as well.
Lewis Smith:
You know, you've got to move towards your your destination in some small step. Otherwise, you just sit there thinking about it, rationalizing it, contemplating it, and fear takes over. Welcome to the dropship unlocked Podcast. I'm Louis Smith, the founder of dropship unlocked and with me is our Client Success Coach James Eardley. Now, when we're not recording the podcast episodes, we're running our own e commerce businesses and helping aspiring entrepreneurs launch their own high ticket drop shipping businesses, keen to build your own six or even seven figure business. My book, the home turf advantage is your blueprint for launching a profitable online store, grab your copy at HT a book.com to date, and let's get you started. Now sit back, relax, and let's unlock your potential with the dropship unlocked Podcast.
James Eardley:
Today we're addressing a crucial component on the path to entrepreneurial success. And that is confidence. For many, the lack of it is a significant barrier to pursuing their dreams. So Lewis, why do you think confidence plays such a pivotal role for aspiring business owners?
Lewis Smith:
Well, it's it's the bedrock isn't it, it's the is the foundation it I guess it's the fuel that powers the decision making and the action. You know, without it, it just remains ideas. You know, you can have the best ideas in the world but without confidence to actually execute them with conviction. They just remain exactly that ideas. So think of it like a sparkplug in a car in an engine, right without it, the engine could be pristine, it could be the perfect car engine, like ready to go ready to roar and you know, in a race car, but it's not going to start when unless you have the sparkplug Right. Or if you if you've got an electric car, maybe the analogy is better on that front is like the power to the battery of the electric car, you know, the car could be perfectly set up, it's clean, it's ready to go. It's brand new, but it's got flat battery, it's got no power, you have no confidence, you can't execute anything. And I think that you can have the best business setup in the world or the right systems or the right software, you know how to code that everything's set up, you're a pro, you've done so much research, but you're just not confident in your own abilities. Therefore, you're not going to execute it or act with enough conviction to see it through. The other thing is, according to a study by Global Entrepreneurship, monitor confidence levels can significantly predict entrepreneurial activity. So it's, it's a clear predictor of whether you will become a successful entrepreneur, if you have that confidence. Now, I think that building confidence comes through repetitions, it comes through a gaining knowledge and it comes through trial and error. If you've got a falsely inflated confidence to start with, that can become a dangerous thing. Because Ignorance isn't necessarily bliss when it comes to creating an E commerce business. But just like in the gym, if you're going to go there and train every day, you come in feeling more confident to take on maybe higher weights or to you know, increase your load that you that you lift. And so it's it's the same with like the muscle of entrepreneurship, if the deeper your knowledge becomes, the more prepared you are, the more failures you've encountered and overcome, the easier it is for you to be confident the next time around. And yeah, it's just it's exactly the same with entrepreneurship, we see it time and time again, it's training that muscle,
James Eardley:
it isn't it comes from taking action. And it's like the car analogy that you're using, it's such a waste of potential, if you don't have that missing piece that gets the car into action. And with entrepreneurship, if you don't have that confidence, you have all this wasted potential. And you don't take action on that. To become an entrepreneur, I think there's a real feeling of not being qualified. And I had that before I started. And it just holds you back. And you have to give yourself that confidence have to give yourself that permission that you are qualified to start because no one's qualified initially. Really, you just have to give yourself that confidence to get you over the edge and have that activation energy that you need to get started. So lack of confidence. I think it's fair to say it is a big obstacle. And it does seem like many people suffer with it and it holds them back from getting started with an entrepreneurial pursuit. So let's go through some steps now. How can our listeners begin to overcome this hurdle?
Lewis Smith:
Yeah, well, I've boiled it down. into probably four steps ready to build confidence and enough confidence to get you up and running with your first business. Now, the first step that I had to take and this is my opinion as to as to probably other ways of doing this, but the first thing I did was, I had to just change my inputs. If I look back at what the biggest needle movers well what the biggest actions were, that took me from 95 employee who'd never really considered becoming an entrepreneur, through to full time business owner of multiple businesses, the first change that I made was the inputs into my mind into the default inputs of most people. Now in society who aren't entrepreneurs like us, like those listening to us, it's just to allow their minds to be fed a constant stream of consumer marketing, whether it's adverts on TV, or billboards or magazines or whatever, then sensationalized news. So you turn on the evening news, and it's full of fear and uncertainty and you know, all kinds of drama. And then the political propaganda and the arguments and the kind of the back and forth nonsense that fills the the media and the news, and it's, it's designed offensively to catch attention, because obviously, the more attention they get, the more money they get that the system is kind of rigged so that the people doing this are not necessarily doing it maliciously, with intent, they're doing it because to succeed at their job, they need to get more eyeballs on the content. But the byproduct of that, is that it's designed to make people feel inadequate, you know, the marketers using billboards and using TV ads want to make us feel like we need their products to achieve a certain status. And so you end up with this underlying feeling of inadequacy and being like, my life's not going to be good enough unless I get that car or unless I go on that holiday, or unless I buy that new phone or whatever. And there's the other side of things, which is kind of from the news, as well as the fears, you know, if we're scared, then we won't step out of our lane and we'll just be good 95 employees and, you know, keep doing what we're supposed to do and not question the the system that we're in. And then there's anger as well. It's that, you know, a lot of this content is created to be quite divisive, it's, it almost turns this on each other designed to make us argue and blame each other and point the finger and say, well, you're, you know, doing this or you're taking our jobs or like this, this kind of, you know, it takes the focus off really, you being able to control your own destiny and your own future by just instead pointing the finger of blaming someone else for your the situation you're in. So if you can change what you're feeding your mind, you'll start to notice all of these feelings dissipate. Which is amazing. If you change what goes in, and it's like the quality of seeds that you plant in the soil in your garden, it's going to determine the beauty in the health of the garden that grows there. Eventually, it's the same with your thoughts and ideas that will grow out of your mind, if you're planting the right seeds in your mind. Now, this is a big part of our programs. But we'll dive into a little bit here. I mean, if you neglect this part, if you don't say the right seeds, what are you gonna get in your garden, it's going to be like weeds growing everywhere. And it will look really messy was the same in our minds, most people's minds outside of the the listenership of our community, because I think everybody listening to this probably takes their own development more seriously than the average member of society. But most people out there, their minds are just a mess, they're filled with this, like, go from one crisis to another one piece of fear, then they feel inadequate, and they're just scrolling on social media for hours. And they kind of let social media just take the reins on their day, because it just feeds in a steady feed of dopamine drips and plays with their emotions and toys with them and keeps gamify as the process of retention keeps them in there in that app, because obviously, they get marketing spend every time you go in the app. So if you can cultivate your mind instead with positive and educational content, just to watch what happens if you do that for 30 days. And you stop watching the news from today. You delete the news apps from your phone and the social media apps. And you just absorb educational content, self development, books, podcasts, just watch what happens to your thoughts and the way your mind works. Watch as the amazing ideas start to grow. And your confidence in yourself starts to build.
James Eardley:
Yeah, it's a great point, I think our minds are like sponges, and they will absorb whatever inputs we decide to put into it. And that is the key point when you start we can decide what inputs we put into our minds. And if we accept that our minds are open for brainwashing in a way, depending on the different inputs that you choose to feed to it, then wouldn't you rather choose to expose yourself to inputs that will make you feel more confident?
Lewis Smith:
Absolutely. Yeah, if I'm going to be brainwashed either way, if my mind is going to be manipulated, I'd rather it be manipulated by me and the inputs that I decide go into it because then I can do it for my own benefit. You know, I can control the positive thoughts and the rise in confidence and self esteem that comes as a result of that. So if you're more Mind is going to be impacted either way. We're all fallible to impressions from from outside sources. So choose what those sources are choose what those inputs are. But this is an ongoing process. It's not something that you do once and then forever. You're a confident entrepreneur that only thinks positive thoughts like, of course, you're going to have ups and downs. When I started, when I initially first stopped watching the news. I remember it was weird. Like, I just thought it was after reading The Four Hour Workweek book by Tim Ferriss, and I just deleted all of them, like the Sky News or BBC News. It got rid of all those apps off my phone, got rid of Facebook, or an Instagram got rid of Twitter, LinkedIn, like everything that was sucking up my time, every time I went down a scroll hole, you know, you go into these like, scrolls, and you're just like, suddenly an hour has gone by and you're like, where did that go? That's the algorithm taking over your mind taking the reins. So if you can catch where those apps are sapping your time, and now they have the thing where you can check your screen time by app current you and you can categorize it. Look how much time I wasted this week on that specific app. Get rid of it and just watch, like be conscious what you've replaced that time with, you know, whether it's reading, whether it's listening to podcasts, I've got some recommendations we'll go into in a moment for stuff like that. But But yeah, initially, it's a shock. And I think when you're deciding what to listen to, and what to fill your mind with, instead, if you're in a, you know, a train commuting to work, and you think, okay, what can I listen to, or you are maybe driving to work and you say, Oh, you're out for a walk, start listening to an audiobook or a podcast or something from someone who is already where you want to be in life. But look at people's businesses, look at people's lives, who's happy, who seems fulfilled, who, you know, who do you aspire to be like, at this stage, I'm not saying that you, they become your only role model forever. But like, who's a step further down the path where you want to go? Immerse yourself in their language and listen to their content, like, before you know it, you'll start to adopt their way of thinking. And your, your thought patterns will start to mirror theirs. And before long, it will rub off on you. And you'll start to think and act differently yourself, you start to become an embodied the character that you now believe you deserve to be. It's, it's difficult to explain, but if you can surround yourself with positivity and knowledge by consuming content that uplifts you and educates you, and success stories and things that that that you aspire to be like, the quality inputs, equal quality outputs, maybe you don't yet know what type of content you resonate with, maybe you think all self development stuff is like woowoo. And, you know, it's not for me, too well, there's a there's a really good good podcast for this on Spotify or other podcast apps that I saw it, it's called a motivate, and OT IV and then the number eight. And I think it's really literally just made by one guy, I don't think it's not like a high production thing. It's not some huge company that made it I'm pretty sure it's very, very kind of, like, just thrown together. But it's, it's like a motivation and inspiration podcast. But the nice thing about it is he takes clips from that he kind of intros the content. And then he takes clips from all of the best leaders, inspirational speakers, thinkers, like self development experts, and he puts them into these short clips, like 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 35 minutes. So if I'm on a car journey, and I have a choice of either listening to the bad news for the day, and fill my mind with fear and uncertainty, or instead, listen to something like that, and train it to become better with positive thoughts, then things that will help me grow and become a better version of myself. I know which one I'm going to choose, you know, and the nice thing about that is it's like a tasting menu, you go to a restaurant, and they say, We don't know what you want to have. Okay, here's a platter of like, lots of little bits, and you can try them. And when you find one that you resonate with, and you think, wow, that person really struck a chord with me and that, that that hits home, go and find more as a content, listen to their books, buy their books, read them, listen to their podcasts, watch their videos. And I think that's a great entry point into learning what inputs work for you. Yeah.
James Eardley:
And I was amazed at the outputs that standards come out after you change the inputs that really does make a difference to the thoughts you have. And of course, the thoughts leads to the actions you take the actions you take lead to the life that you live. And it was similar for me, Louis, I first found out about it, you hear this phrase about a low inflammation diet that's referred to in the four hour workweek. So straightaway, I was hooked on that diet. And it wasn't something that was a chore for me. It was nice to know that I had control over where I put my time and deleting apps and reducing screen time. It was a liberating feeling for me. And suddenly I had this space in my mind that was filled before and I could fill that then with podcasts and books that I wanted to read. I wanted to fill my mind. I think it's interesting you you've noted it in this order. You have to make space first i Think Before You can then choose which inputs you can put back in you can't just keep adding to what you're you're giving yourself or you just be overrun, you have to take away first and then you can add in the inputs that you that you want to go with. So once our listeners have started changing the inputs that they're putting into their minds, what would you think is the next step that they should take on this path to build confidence? Sure. So
Lewis Smith:
the inputs are things that you can have, wherever you are, right, you can have them when you're in the car, you can have them work whilst you're out on a walk or run the gym. But the next step to that, and I'm almost like a level higher than that is surrounding yourself with success. So actually getting around the company of successful people, the company we keep has such a huge impact on our confidence levels. And I know that that's the topic of today's episode, Jim Rohn says, We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. Just think about that. And then try and picture in your mind the five people you spend the most time with. And you often usually will become the average of those five people. So you get to choose who those five people are. That's the nice bit about it. You know, when you're not operating on default on autopilot, you can be intentional about who those five people are. So immersing yourself among those who have achieved your goals or are just perhaps on the same path as you can massively strengthen your resolve and your belief. It provides a living, breathing example that what you're aiming for is achievable. Because you are around other people who have achieved it, it normalizes the results that you're aspiring for, you might be looking up at them thinking, How on earth am I ever going to do that? And then suddenly, you're around a table with other people who are doing that right now? And you think, oh, okay, well, we'll figure that out. And I'm kind of the odd one out here. Now I because I haven't yet, maybe I need to up my game. And it is a nice, let the kind of push and pull in the right direction. I remember initially running my first e commerce business alone, and it's quite an isolating experience. You're like, you're running it alone, you think, Well, you know, I didn't know anyone else. Certainly not in the UK running businesses like this. And I was like, why? I think I'm doing okay, you know, I think I think I'm doing well like, Have I hit the limit? Like, where am I I went to a Shopify meetup, they had a meet up in London for people who run Shopify businesses. And I went there and met a few people. And this like, surge of enthusiasm from this co working event space in, in London, was amazing. And I just remember being on the train on the way home from London thinking like, so fired up. And just thinking, that was amazing, like I was around other people who do what I do. And it was the first time ever that I'd put human faces to, to these ideas. And later on in my journey, my wife, Becky, and I moved to Thailand, we moved out to live in Chiang Mai, and running the E commerce business. And I met a group of incredible entrepreneurs out there. Some of them running e commerce, businesses, some of them running other types of businesses. But they, it showed that I'd only been scratching the surface, you know, there, I was coming over to Thailand thinking like, you know, I don't know, 20 30k a month or something like that. And then you learn there, and there are like 100k per month. And you think, oh, okay, right. Now, that's what's possible, maybe that's the new normal that I need to aspire to. And I think it the danger is, if you ever feel like you're the smartest person in the room, as they say you're in the wrong room, change rooms keep growing, I'm always doing this, I pay 1000s of pounds per year just to be surrounded by people who have their lives and businesses at a point where I aspire to take mine. And so when I get there, and I'm like, Okay, I think I've made it, I haven't made it, I'm just in the wrong room, I just need to then change rooms again. So I think that this, this cycle continues and repeats it's part of entrepreneurship.
James Eardley:
It is I love that reminder about not being the smartest person in the room, that person is the one that doesn't grow. And it's similar to the point about choosing the inputs that you expose yourself to, perhaps the biggest input that we expose ourselves to are the people that were around to look at that think about those people. And I had to think about who did I want to get around what communities did I want to get around to really show myself what was possible and give myself the confidence that if somebody else can do it, then why can't I? That's a good belief to have, I think I think if you know that there's somebody out there that is achieve what you want to achieve, then there's no reason why you can't achieve that as well. You can see what actions they've taken and replicate that for yourself as well. And the community that we now surround ourselves in inside the dropship masterclass program, that community is full of action takers, and people pushing each other along supporting each other through challenges and celebrating each other's wins. And that is so powerful, such a powerful place to go into every day, just to pick up on that energy. So getting around people in person, of course and also in a digital environment as well. It just really gives you the confidence that you can achieve what others are already achieving. So moving on to the third step in the process to build confidence. What would you say that is we
Lewis Smith:
know the saying Knowledge is power? Well, because of that I think learning is step number three, because knowledge about your business, it kind of like illuminates the path ahead, you know, it turns on the lights, and suddenly you see the part, sometimes it's a path you didn't even know existed, you're standing in the darkness, and you don't even know you're surrounded by a path. And then suddenly someone lights it up, and you realize, wow, that's, that's where I need to go. And sometimes, this is what I mean about like, when we've hit plateaus in our business before, where you hit 10k per month and think, wow, have I made it is this is this ecommerce like, you know, being an entrepreneur, and then someone comes to you and says, I'm at 100k per month, and we're thinking of scaling? And you're like, Okay, right. So I've got a lot to learn from them, what are they doing, get around them and apply those things to my own business. And then before you know it, you're making 100,000 pounds per month, and you think, wow, six figures have I made it now like, and then suddenly, someone there's doing 200k per month, and I was at a dinner the other night chatting to someone whose business is generating 2 million pounds per month. And he's in exactly the same kind of model as I am. And I thought, like that totally shattered my limiting belief about my own businesses. I thought maybe like, Could you take it to 500k 600. And he's at 2 million per month. And I was I was everything I thought was true is now not, you know, and it, it's not like, it's overwhelming, and it puts me off. It just makes me you know, that's why I'm paying to be in the room with him and sitting down and asking him questions and saying like, so how did you do it? Well, I work well, how did you tweak this? When this was a bottleneck? How did you hire for this position, right. And he's doing things differently to have reached that level, and things that I don't yet have knowledge on. But I'm trying to absorb that knowledge, like you said, the sponge analogy, I'm trying to soak that up as much as I can, hence why I paid to be at that dinner with him. So I could ask him exactly what he's doing. And how I can apply that to my own business. It's because the more you understand about the business that you want to run, the more you can see how to achieve those goals. So yeah, I think gaining knowledge is probably the most empowering part. Once you've got your mindset straight. It's it reassures you it removes a lot of that fear of the unknown, and it just lights up the path.
James Eardley:
It does, absolutely, it's empowering. I mean, think about when he first started to drive, your confidence comes from having that knowledge of how to drive and feeling confident that you know what you're doing what just sat behind the wheel. And then that confidence takes you from being nervous to WNC driving in, you could do with your eyes shut, almost I don't recommend that. But you could, because you've got the confidence there to do it. And so that ties into what we're saying with any walk of life, not just driving, but running a business or whatever goal you have, that you're striving for. If you start to build knowledge in that area, you'll start to build confidence that you know what you're doing, and you know how to get to where you want to get to. So finally, then you mentioned there's a four step plan that you have to get to competence. What is the final step for building confidence for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Lewis Smith:
Action in one word, that's the fourth step. You know, they say action cures fear, right. And yesterday I was, I'd been in the gym and I was in the sauna, and boiling hot and I was in there. And I'd probably been in there for 2530 minutes, something like that. So I'm like at the end of my limit, I'm ready to go and like I'm about to pass out. And I looked outside the door, and there's the ice cold plunge pool that's like intimidating, like glowing blue ice pool looks like a little square of Arctic Ocean outside. And it's the same most days. You know, I do this every day. But I also know that if I think about it rationally, I will dread it. If I think about that too much. I'll be like, why on earth? Would you dive into ice cold water? Or what are you doing to yourself? So I don't think about it. Because I know the outcome will be good, I feel amazing all day. Instead, I just take action. And it removes the fear because there's no time for the fear. I just step out of the sauna. And without even questioning thinking about it, giving my mind a second to rationalize it. I just jump in. And before I know it, I the thoughts haven't even arrived and I'm already underwater. And obviously there's that initial physiological shock where you're like, wow, that's cold. But then once you break through that, I feel like if you can conquer that, at the beginning of the day, if you've been able to sit in a boiling hot room for half an hour, and then a freezing cold pool for a few minutes, like bring it on the rest of the day, whatever issues your business or your life throws at you during the day like you are equipped to handle those things because you've already tested your limits, physiologically and mentally that that first thing that morning, and I know as well that it will make me feel incredible for the rest of the day after having done it. So I know that there's this like delayed gratification, like go through the pain because then you'll feel incredible. And so every journey begins with a single step it's that step out of the sauna into the cold plunge. Taking action. However small is like, you've got to move towards your your destination in some small step. Otherwise, you just sit there thinking about it, rationalizing it contemplating it. And fear takes over, and it stops you from progressing. So the act of doing something, anything at all starts to break down those barriers of fear. And it builds up your confidence as well. Action breeds confidence, as they say. So it's not the other way around. It is action, that then shows you, you can be confident, most people get that wrong, and get it the other way round. So
James Eardley:
start small, but most importantly, start. Yeah, and once you've started, you'll be amazed at where that momentum can take you. It just one small step that we need to do to start. And instead of overthinking about what the first step is, what's more important is that you just do anything, just do something. As I reflect on my journey, and how I got started into this world of running my businesses, I just started, I just took some action, even though it was the wrong action. At the time I started drop shipping products from China using AliExpress. It was a poor business model. But I'm still so glad that I did it, I needed to take some form of action that showed me the way and from then everything else can just spiral, you know, in a good way from that position, and then you learn and you learn more, and you go eventually into the right business model. And then you take that from there. So the important point here, I think that you make versus great, it's about taking some form of action, and not necessarily thinking too much about what it is because action will breed more action. And then that will be confidence. And you'll get to exactly where you want to get to, if you keep yourself focused on that. So how can our listeners then who are ready to take the next step, they're ready to get started feeling more confident about starting their entrepreneurial journey? Where would you suggest they start? Well, yeah,
Lewis Smith:
it's like you said, James, if it like what you did first, where you tried to dropship cheap products from China from AliExpress. That was your first action. I'd rather someone take that action, even though I know it's probably wrong, because at least they're moving. You know, you can't steer a parked car, as they say, if you're not moving in any direction, then there's no way of changing. So you need some momentum. And even if you go down slightly, the wrong path and you you have to learn things to be yourself, maybe you're the kind of person that like has to learn through doing yourself. You hit those roadblocks, you realize the problems, the long delivery, the cheap quality products, that bad reviews, the customer complaints, and you realize, okay, now I need to pivot. And so, I mean, if you're the type of person that just would prefer to learn from other people's mistakes first, rather than go down that route yourself, that's where my book comes in. So it's called the home turf advantage. And I've written it to serve as your roadmap so that you can navigate those potholes and not have to fall down the same potholes or pitfalls as we did along our path. So it's available at HT a book.com. stands for home turf advantage. And it ensures that the inputs that you receive are positive. This is one of the great ways about the very first step in our initial plan of building confidence. You are getting to surround yourself through print, but also through the free Launchpad community that you get access to as a bonus for for purchasing the book. So you can do that straight away from today it will teach you about a fantastic business model was really low barriers to entry, and help you hopefully navigate that path with the least resistance to get you up and running. So as definitely a great action that people can take. And you can check that out at HT a book.com.
James Eardley:
Enjoying the podcast, we'd love to hear from you leave a comment or a review, and we might just feature it on an upcoming episode. Also, for detailed show notes and resources, head to dropship unlock.com. Forward slash podcast. If
Lewis Smith:
you found value from any episode of this podcast, please take just 10 seconds to leave us a quick five star review on your podcast app of choice. It helps us more than you could imagine. And who knows, you might just hear your comments on the show. Thanks for being part of our community. Your support helps us keep delivering a new episode every week. Now
James Eardley:
we're going to answer a question that's coming from a listener. Remember, if you want your questions answered on the podcast, all you need to do is leave a comment under the YouTube video version of these episodes. So this week, the question is coming from Manjeet. And Manjeet has asked great content guys. I'm starting my dropshipping business, and I don't know how I will pay for the first order. So how much do I need to get started? Thanks
Lewis Smith:
for your question, man cheat and yeah, for your first order. If you're using Shopify and you're using Shopify payments, and there might be a few working days kind of lag time between capturing your payments so from from your customer making the payment and for you receiving the first payout from Shopify into your bank account. Therefore to pay your supplier for your very first order. You've got a few different options depending on how big the audit is. Now, first thing you can do is you just use your own funds via a direct to loan so you could just put your own personal funds into the business account, and then just pay the supplier from there. Later on, you'll be able to then take that director's loan back out of your company tax free, because you loaned it in there. So it isn't the business's money, so you don't have to pay any tax on it. So that's one way, you can just simply put personal money in there, pay for it. And then after that few days later, you'll get the payout from Shopify, so you can then just pay yourself back for that, that payment, that's one way you can do it. And the benefit of that is by using your own funds, you can keep the delivery time to a minimum, so you can still get customers next day delivery on their order, if you do it that way. Remember, you'd also only do this when you've captured the funds from your order. So you can be confident that you're going to be reimbursed soon. So that's really important, make sure you click Capture payments, once you've confirmed that the supplier have the product, and it's all good to go capture the payment, make sure that it is going to hit the business bank account in say, two, three days, and then maybe just use personal funds to get the product sent out ASAP. If you don't want to use your own funds, then totally understand like some people don't want to do that. Instead, you could just use a business credit card to do it. So you just pay the supplier with the business credit card. And then once the product is gone out and you've received the payout, at that point, you can pay off the credit card, and then you never have to use the credit card again, if you don't want to, or you could use it and hundreds of 1000s of points in air miles every month and travel the world for free. So yeah, up to you in terms of how you want to do that. If you don't want to use credit cards, the other option you could have is you could just let the customer know and just say give them a call and say thanks very much for the order. And it's going to be with you in four to five working days just checking this as okay, that way, you've then bought yourself a couple of days to wait for the payout of cash to hit your bank account. And at that point, you just use the profits that have come through to pay your supplier. And then your business will be self sustaining. And it won't require any Directors Loans or any credit cards or things like that. So further down the line, this is really just an issue when you first get started. And it's not really an issue because I've given you, you know three ways there to easily overcome it. But further down the line, once your suppliers are familiar with you, and they're getting 10s of 1000s of pounds in orders from you every month coming through, they'll probably just agree to credit terms with you. And so with our suppliers now we'll say like, you know, when we hit 60,000 pounds, we'll just pay you in one lump sum. And maybe we'll do that once a month, just pay them 60 grand. And then that covers all of the orders that we had from the last month that were on credit with them. So if you'd like more information about how much money you need to get started, we've broken this down in another episode. So episode 30 of the podcast, which is called How much money do you need to start dropshipping back could be a good one to watch episode 30.
James Eardley:
Yeah, great question, man. Gee, thank you for asking. It's quite a popular question that so check out the episode. If you want the full breakdown of how much money you need to start dropshipping. So thank you, Louis. Now let's highlight a recent review that we've had for the podcast. And a big thank you to Crystal K for sharing your thoughts on Apple podcasts. So crystal gay said thanks for the great content discussed on the podcast, just the information I need to start my business.
Lewis Smith:
Thank you so much for your review. Crystal Kay, we're very glad to hear you've been enjoying the podcast. Do you want a chance to join our elite masterclass community for free? If so, simply leave us a review for the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. And for full details on this check out episode 52 of the podcast on how to enter the competition. Thanks
James Eardley:
for joining us on this episode of the dropship unlocked podcast. We hope you're walking away with insights and inspiration.
Lewis Smith:
to kickstart your E commerce journey. Grab a copy of my book The home of turf advantage at eight t A book.com is a distilled guide based on real experience to help you build your E commerce venture.
James Eardley:
Don't forget to hit the subscribe button for more strategies and success stories.
Lewis Smith:
If you like what you heard a five star review would mean the world to us and you might just get a shout out on an upcoming episode. And finally, thank you for deciding to spend your time with us today. We can't wait to bring you more insights on the next episode of the dropship on Rob's podcast.