🗣 Hosts Lewis Smith and James Eardley delve into the critical topic of navigating the first 90 days of your dropshipping journey.
With their experience of building successful e-commerce businesses, they outline the essential steps and mindset needed to lay a solid foundation for long-term success.
★ Mindset and Strategy: Lewis and James emphasize the importance of mindset and strategy during the first 90 days.
★ Strategic Approach: Rather than reinventing the wheel, successful dropshippers learn from others' experiences and follow proven paths to success.
★ Actionable Steps: Lewis and James outline actionable steps for navigating the first 90 days, including niche selection, market research, supplier relationships, and community engagement.
★ Community Support: Surrounding yourself with a supportive community of like-minded individuals can provide valuable insights, motivation, and encouragement.
🗣 Hosts Lewis Smith and James Eardley delve into the critical topic of navigating the first 90 days of your dropshipping journey.
With their experience of building successful e-commerce businesses, they outline the essential steps and mindset needed to lay a solid foundation for long-term success.
★ Mindset and Strategy: Lewis and James emphasize the importance of mindset and strategy during the first 90 days.
★ Strategic Approach: Rather than reinventing the wheel, successful dropshippers learn from others' experiences and follow proven paths to success.
★ Actionable Steps: Lewis and James outline actionable steps for navigating the first 90 days, including niche selection, market research, supplier relationships, and community engagement.
★ Community Support: Surrounding yourself with a supportive community of like-minded individuals can provide valuable insights, motivation, and encouragement.
Thank you for listening to the Dropship Unlocked Podcast! Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform.
Lewis Smith:
If you can model what the people we see get success time and time again are doing, there's a high likelihood that you will also see that same result.
James Eardley:
You can just realize what other people have done, what are the mindset? What are the steps they've taken, and just replicate that and see the same success, who scaled
Lewis Smith:
his business to 52,000 pounds in just the first 90 days of starting, and then went on to do 100k. And beyond very, very quickly after that,
James Eardley:
you need to actually enjoy the pursuit of the success that you want. Because that makes you turn up every day and improve 1% Every day. It
Lewis Smith:
can seem like a very long amount of time, because you've got so much done in that time is can't believe how much we've accomplished in just 90 days. I've
James Eardley:
been through experiences where I've got the mindset, right. And I've also been through experiences where I've got the mindset very wrong.
Lewis Smith:
Everyone gets the same 90 days, but it all depends how you. 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, and h t 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. Today,
James Eardley:
we're diving deep into what it takes to navigate the crucial first 90 days of starting a dropshipping journey. After building multiple dropshipping businesses, it's become clear to us that the actions that you take within your first 90 days will often determine the success of your entire business journey. So in this episode, we broken down the first 90 days into the exact steps and the mindset that you need to have going into those 90 days. And I know that Louis toward the end of this episode of you want to share the one most important task, the most important action for people to take on day one. So let's dive in Louis, the first 90 days can really make or break a dropshipping business card. They can
Lewis Smith:
Yeah, absolutely the first 90 days are crucial, but at the same time really exciting. You know, it's like that kind of high stress, high stakes, like what you put into it will be what you get out at the end of it. And I think the strength of what you eventually build depends on the groundwork that you put in within that first 90 day period. So it's like if you're putting together a house, you know, you're building the foundations, if you rush those foundations, you're building something on shaky structure, it starts to wobble over time. And so it's the same as setting up a drop shipping business, you've got to go into it with the right foundation. So by that we mean things like the right mindset, the right strategy. And also just taking the right actions as well. It's all very well having a great plan and having the right mindset. But if you don't do anything, you'll find yourself three months down the line no further ahead than if you had moved in and taken action from the outset. So focusing on the products and the niche selection initially is going to be key for building one of these types of businesses. So whether that's looking at market research, whether it's looking at the different trends, the demand, the supply, availability, all of the different criteria that we look at when it comes to selecting an E commerce niche to go into when building a high ticket drop shipping business. And then once you're up and running with that building a store, but also building those relationships with suppliers, if you can get that right, those build relationships that will last you for many years into your business. And years later, you might find yourself in these great unique scenarios where you've got great supplier relationships all because you put the effort in initially with those suppliers in the first 90 days. So it's it's amazing to see like the sky's the limit with what you can achieve in the first 90 days. I know Phil, one of our members from dropship unlocked who we had on the podcast, actually, I think it was episode 43 and scaled to 52,000 pounds in just three months. And then after that the sky is really the limit with where you take it. You know, we've seen dropship unlocked members like Phil, one of our members who joined us actually on the podcast we had him on in Episode 43 of the podcast, I think it was who scaled his business to 52,000 pounds in just the first 90 days of starting and then went on to do 100k And beyond very, very quickly after that. And I think it just shows what's possible with that right mindset, that right approach and taking the right action going into it right? Exactly.
James Eardley:
inspiring to hear other people's stories, especially when they go in with the right mindset. And then they can have incredible success within a short space of time. Really, I mean, 90 days is no time at all really when you think about it. So in terms of setting up foundations, I think there's two types of foundations that we need to Set up both tactical and Emotional Foundations and the emotional foundations that you set up a largely determined by the mindset that you have going into starting a new business. And I think the mindset that we have is largely under our control. Here you can choose after listening or watching to today's episode, what your mindset is going to be. Part of the mindset is obviously a personality and the environment and the people that you're around. But a large part of it we have control over. So we'll dive into the mindset that you need Louis Minh, firstly, how important do you think mindset is, during these initial stages?
Lewis Smith:
Is everything? Yeah, because without the right mindset, everything else falls to the wayside it crumbles it mindset is the difference between seeing the obstacles that you will inevitably face as these insurmountable hurdles, versus just seeing them as challenges that you have to overcome to eventually achieve success as an entrepreneur. If some people will go into business without the right mindset, hit their first hurdle, which we're all gonna hit them. And they just quit at the sign of it and think, Oh, well, you know, I wasn't willing to overcome that I wasn't willing to take that risk or something went wrong, or I couldn't figure this out on my site, or I got a few rejections from suppliers, or I ran my ads for a month and they weren't profitable, or whatever it is that whatever hurdle or obstacle you hit, if you choose to quit after that initial first month, then or first month, you know, or the first hurdle, it's you, you probably need to adjust that long term vision, I know that if I didn't have a long term vision of success, and what I wanted to achieve beyond just the initial results, and the success of the first few months, I'd have never continued past some of those hurdles, because it's not rational to do. So. You're like, I'm putting in so many hours here giving up so many evenings and weekends, and I'm earning nothing from doing this, like any rational person who didn't have a long term vision driving them would would think out loud, just go back to working, it was much more straightforward. I worked and I got a salary. And it was all very simple. And so it's a guarantee that you are going to face these obstacles as you go. And because of that, the question becomes, well, how are you going to react to them? And how are you going to prepare for that, because that's what makes the difference. One great hack is to get around other people who've already faced and overcome the challenges that you're perhaps about to face. And that's where a community can come in. It's why communities of people who have achieved and are achieving what you're aiming for, are so valuable recently, I've realized that, I think part of the satisfaction of the process for me, is the process is the journey. When it comes to entrepreneurship, I've learned to embrace that process of building of growing of overcoming those challenges as one of the most enjoyable parts, because otherwise, what happens and this has happened to me too many times now that I'm realizing, okay, I keep making the same mistake, you set your eyes on what you think is the destination or the goal, you you get to the point where the business allows you to achieve it. And then it's really an anticlimax. And you realize, oh, like, I hit my first 100 grand, or I hit my first million are not like, you know, they will say like, where's the marching band, where are the fireworks, like, there was no celebration, it just, it just kind of happened. And you realize was the thing I was aiming for the whole time. Mirage, you know, it never really existed. But if you can reframe that and be just grateful for, for what you have grateful for the fact that you're on the journey, that you get to do these things on a daily basis. That point you don't become disappointed when you do achieve those results. And then there's no fulfillment. It's kind of another checkbox exercise, and you realize that the game is growing. And the game is that pursuit of the next challenge. That's the fun bit.
James Eardley:
Exactly. And I think we often get caught up on the pursuit of happiness as the, the American Dream teaches us. And we're always looking for, for that happiness in the future. But actually, you need to flip that around. So instead of it being the pursuit of happiness, it's the happiness of pursuit. And you need to actually enjoy the pursuit of the success that you want. Because that makes you turn up every day and improve 1% every day. And I've been through that, where I've been through experiences where I've got the mindset, right. And I've also been through experiences where I've got the mindset very wrong. When I start a new business, I mean, my first dropshipping business, I went in thinking it was gonna be quick and easy millions. And I could just set up a few Facebook ads, watch a few YouTube videos, and I'd be rolling in it and laughing to myself wasn't the case. But by going in with that mindset, when things didn't go right, you feel dejected, and I felt really dejected. I was so much more likely to quit, because I thought it'd be easy because I had that mindset. So instead when I went into the next venture on your head to get my mindset right, so that I would continue for the long term. And that's what I did with my second dropshipping business now obviously, I had the benefit of being in the dropship I'm locked masterclass program. And Louis you may If it's so clear from the start, that mindset is so crucial. So I knew that, you know, it wasn't an a get rich quick scheme, I knew that I had to be not dabbling, I knew that I had to be really committing from the start. And that just made all the difference. So we've talked about the Emotional Foundations. Now let's move on to the more tactical side of things, and really the actions and steps that you need to take in that first 90 days. So what steps would you recommend for listeners to take in that first 90 days of starting a dropshipping? Business?
Lewis Smith:
Sure. So the 90 days that you first begin from it, if we say today is day one, over the next 90 days, it can be perceived as a very short amount of time, if you end up going down distraction, rabbit holes, and getting sidetracked by things. And before you know it, you're at 90 days, and you haven't really achieved anything, or it can be a very, very, it can seem like a very long amount of time, because you've got so much done in that time is can't believe how much we've accomplished in just 90 days. And everyone gets the same 90 days. But it all depends how you approach it. When we see people dive into trying to learn by doing and they say, I'm just going to kind of jump in build a store make the mistakes as I go venturing down the different YouTube avenues and rabbit holes with the different conflicting business models. Were One minute they're running tick tock ads and influencers shout out ads, and they're selling low ticket products. And then they've signed a new supplier, and then they try print on demand. And then it's like, you know, these models, whilst they all work in their own right, they conflict with each other. And we see people tie themselves in knots very quickly. And they get tangled in this mess of mixed business models. And what that results to is that, obviously, it means that like products are getting the taking a long time to be delivered. So customers are then unhappy. And then they're, you know, buying a cheaper version of the same item from elsewhere and leaving bad reviews and all that kind of stuff. But it means that they the entrepreneur at the end of it often writes off the whole kind of business model, because they applied different parts of it from different models that just didn't didn't make sense with each other. So what we see the most successful people do with this, and we see this time and time again, is before they start before they even dive into anything. They they zoom out. And they look at it from above. And they say okay, what have others done here? And what can I learn from? And how can I model their path to get results. So they don't necessarily have any experience with E commerce, that's not their advantage. So don't feel that if you don't have experience, you're you're at a disadvantage, it's not that they have experience, it's that they know that others success will have left clues that they can then follow. That's the differences. And you can apply this to any aspect of life. So for example, they might follow a product research system that validates the products that they're going to build, or their store around. And then they have a niche store that they can build their store successfully before they even start running out knowing that it's going to work. And that way the whole thing is congruent because it's backed on data. They didn't just dive into building a store. And when it comes to signing suppliers, they already know the suppliers are happy to dropship with this model, because they pre validated that niche ahead of time. And one of the validation points was, Are there drop shipping suppliers in that niche? And are they high tech and do they do fast delivery. So you can see how it would be very easy to see a flashy thumbnail on a YouTube video and go off down that route. Because someone says that you can get suppliers signed up really easily. And then it comes out later that they take 15 days to be delivered. And when they are they're really low quality and you you kind of end up like locked in to part of the business model but doesn't really fit the other parts. And so you have this like Frankenstein business that doesn't quite connect. And so it's I mean, we did a behind the scenes video recently where I did this myself, I started a new high ticket dropshipping store from scratch, chose the niche built the store began the process of contacting and signing up those suppliers. And we released it on the dropship. I'm not to youtube channel so we can link that below in the show notes. Because that's probably quite a valuable journey to watch where if you're looking for a straightforward kind of A to Zed route, without the different shiny objects and going off on tangents, that that really is it start to finish. And I've never seen anyone do that before. That's that's kind of why I created it. So ultimately the people that we see succeed again and again, have some common traits and common attributes. They're patient. They are persistent. They come into it with a positive mindset. And they are like a sponge. You know, they are just absorbing information because they know that it's a marathon ultimately not a sprint in business and they're willing to defer their satisfaction or their delay their gratification, and they know that by doing that, it will last a much longer time once they're up and running, but most stubble they enjoy the journey as they go. That's the key. Yep. And they're really common traits that we see in the most successful people. So you can just realize what other people have done, what are the mindset? What are the steps they've taken, and just replicate that and see the same success. And oftentimes, when you look back at the journeys of people that have been most successful, you see that every step that they took was crucial for the next step. So they always got something in place initially, like the other steps, you've just been through their lives, they had the nice chosen that they knew was going to be profitable for their ecommerce business, then they use that to build a store, then they use that store to then sign suppliers. And they weren't SafeAssign suppliers, they start running ads to those products. And each step follows the next. And obviously, you perfectly laid that out in that YouTube series that you've released, which will definitely link in the description below. So now that you've been through this list, and you've taken the actions for the crucial first 90 days, can you share some tips that you would advise for people that are going to go through that first 90 days? Absolutely. So if you can model what the people we see get success, time and time again are doing, there's a high likelihood that you will also see that same result, because they're not, they're clearly not getting these results by chance, because they're succeeding in multiple sectors. So if you try to zoom out like they do, and like I mentioned, take a top down view when before you dive in and get your hands dirty, and roll up your sleeves and start doing things. I'm guilty of this as well I, I like doing I like diving in and doing that sometimes taking a more strategic view of things. And if you think of the other things that you've succeeded in, in life, is nearly always because there was a proven path for you to do it. And that you you could follow, there are no medals or trophies handed out to people who go it alone. With no support in business. It's not that, you know, there's no, there's no reward for it. In fact, it's actually less enjoyable, if anything, because it's much harder. You don't have anyone there to share ideas with or bounce ideas off. And you have no one around you who understands what you're doing to celebrate that with that's why community is everything. So I think everyone has the same 90 days starting from today, we all know that some people will be up and running in the next 90 days, whereas others will dabble. They'll get distracted by different models by shiny objects, they'll end up with this mixed kind of conflicting business model mess, that's all put together and then it will result in them achieving very little over the next 90 days other than wasting a lot of time and energy and money. And then they leave or quit as they'll just say, Oh, it didn't work. Or the cycle starts all over again. And they say okay, in the next 90 days, I'm going to do it and then they do the same again. So it's like that you have to learn from mistakes. And if you've ever felt like that in the past, where you're just like, you're so busy being busy with with trying to start a business, but you feel like you're kind of spinning your wheels, and is it really inefficient, try and zoom right out and like disconnect yourself emotionally from the process. And just observe what others are doing. And if there is a strategy that you can follow, don't try to reinvent the wheel. That's what we see successful people doing all around us is that they are they look for where something's working, then they surround themselves with others in a community of like minded people. And then once they have the strategy, they take direct action, incremental actions day by day. And those are the people that will be up and running and making sales within 90 days from today. So the 90 day timer starts right now, today is officially day one. But it's up to you to decide where you will be in 90 days from today. Which of those two groups will you fall into? I
James Eardley:
love that frame. I love the frame that today can be anyone's day one on this journey. After listening to this episode, you can make it day one and you can look into the future three months, pick out day 90 in three months time and realize that between now and then you can have everything up and running so that you've got a dropshipping business that's long term that will be making sales already. So Louis, for someone who's decided that today is going to be their day one, they're definitely going to go along this journey. And unfortunately, majority of people, they don't do this. But for those who are really serious that really do want to make today day one, what is the first critical action that they need to take to get started on the right foot?
Lewis Smith:
Yeah, so I want to make this as as actionable as possible, because I don't like abstract concepts that you can't apply. But I spoke about that zooming out and looking at the big picture strategy and following a proven process. So whilst there are many models out there that work, we talked about all of the different like print on demand, low ticket, Amazon FBA all these different things. They do work in their own right. But if you're interested in the model that we use, and hundreds of our successful dropship unlocked members will use. Then the way to zoom out and see the big picture and follow the blueprint is I've documented it all inside my step by step book the home turf at Vantage, so you can grab a copy of that at h t a book.com, you can pick that up to date, you could be reading that immediately on day one of your 90. And after the next 90 days, if you follow every single step in that book, you block out the distractions, you don't get distracted or sidetracked by other shiny objects out there all trying to vie for your attention, you will dramatically increase your chances of success by applying that proven business model. And then alongside that, because it's great having the book having the steps, and you can just dive in and start taking action. But the other part of this is not trying to go it alone, I talked about how powerful community is. And so it's it's so important to getting results that actually baked this into the offer that I make with the book. So when you pick up a copy of my home turf advantage book, I then invite you into a group called the dropship unlocked launch pad, which is a community now in there, you can not only read the book immediately, but we also got things like bonus videos, step by step content you can follow and 1000s of other like minded people that are already using and applying the model that we teach in the book. And you can just start chatting with them and asking questions immediately so that you've got those people to bounce ideas off. So the to go hand in hand, the book is great. That's the blueprint, the community is getting around like minded people. And that is the distinct advantage that you can use to achieve results in the next 90 days. I think the final point to mention on that is just around the delayed gratification, you can be prepared to delay your gratification for a bit. Most people don't want to do that. And that's why most people never reach the top 1%. If you're willing to trade a few months, months of hard work, evenings, weekends, working hard putting in the grind, in exchange for never having to work a job again for the rest of your life. And then being free to travel anywhere on the planet and run your business from a laptop and have time freedom, location, freedom, freedom with your family, and earn more than you could have ever earned in a job. To me, that sounded like a better option than grinding away for the rest of my life in a job where I had no control no freedom, low flexibility. Again, the choice is yours between those two parts. So just make sure you choose wisely.
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 unlocked.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 that 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 come in from a listener of the podcast. Remember, if you want your questions answered on the podcast, then all you need to do is comment under the YouTube video version of an episode. And that's exactly what Diana 811 has done. So Diana has asked, I heard in a recent episode, one of your expert guests discussed the benefits of entering a growing market. So how do you approach this and identify an emerging market? Yep,
Lewis Smith:
great question, Diana, and thanks for the support with the YouTube comment as well. So we take into consideration the health of a niche before entering into the market. And we do this during our validation phase of the original kind of business foundations, or even start building the store. So that's something that I talked about. And actually, it's something that we document in the I built a dropshipping store from scratch YouTube video series that I did that we've linked in the Episode Notes for this episode. But when we have a niche idea, we'll always check that niche idea firstly, using Google Trends tool. And on that tool, it will show us a graph to show not only how often is the search term being searched for, but also what types of year is it being searched for, we want something that we don't want something that's going like this, or you know, or like that spikes only at one time of year, like that's not going to be a sustainable business, what you want something that delivers constant cash flow all year round, and ideally is either stable or growing. If the graph shows that it's a climbing trend, that kind of makes it through to the next step of the validation criteria or if it's stable. And then from there, we'd look at the different validation criteria. I think we've got nine of them that we go through inside the home turf advantage book. And you can get those ideas in the first place just by kind of keeping an ear to the ground. Go out look around social media, watch TV shows, go for a walk, go for a drive, and start to look at all of the products around you and think wonder if that's something or like if a friend tells you that they bought something thing that was above 300. Parents, you think I wonder if that would be a viable niche. Before you know it, you've got this amazing list that you can use as your starting point and kind of whittle it down based on the different criteria. So we kind of cast a wide net of different ideas. And then we whittle that list down until we've got our few finalists that we know it'll work. Any of them would work, but we want to go with the one that we want to execute on the best. And that excites us based on the data. So when you notice that trend, validate the niche, jump into that emerging market, and if it is successfully rising and climbing, then ride that wave.
James Eardley:
Absolutely. Great question and great answer there. There. It's I completely agree. It's amazing how quickly you can get niche ideas. As soon as you decide that you will be building a store. Suddenly, all the opportunities you can see around you become possible e commerce businesses that you can you can build. So now let's highlight a recent review that we've had for the podcast as well. So a big thank you to Nana whoa ahead. 88196. I've pronounced that correctly. So thank you for your sharing your thoughts. Nanak said, and I know she's commented This underneath a podcast episode, and it's underneath Podcast, episode 52. Because she said, this is genuinely an amazing opportunity. I'm sharing this because I want to win. But mainly because I have with your book, been able to take action. The model makes sense. And I'm taking action daily to build a great business that serves people. Thank you so much for the value you provide and the eye opener. Wow,
Lewis Smith:
that's an amazing review. Thank you so much for your review. Now that I can I think that it just reinforces the fact that we're really glad to hear that you've been enjoying the podcast and also the book and that you're taking action. And that's that's the name of the game right? It's so great to hear. And yes, what you're referring to there about the amazing opportunity to win refers to our competition we're running at the moment, which is if you'd like the chance to join our elite masterclass community completely for free. We need to do is leave us a review for the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. And if you want full details of that competition, check out episode 52 of the podcast on how to enter.
James Eardley:
Thanks for joining us on this episode of the dropship on lot podcast. We hope you're walking away with insights and inspiration. to
Lewis Smith:
kickstart your E commerce journey. Grab a copy of my book, the home of turf advantage at at 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 unwrapped podcast.