 What's up guys, so today I want to talk to you about the coronavirus. I'm fully aware I'm quite late to the party in terms of putting in some information and a video out on this topic However, ever since it first kicked off then there's not really been any kind of firm Information or confirmed dates in terms of when things will return back to normal until this week anyway So that is why I'm doing this video now So in this video then we will be going through the different time scales of when we can Realistically expect things to go back to normal and we'll also be talking the different options That we have as Shopify dropshippers in terms of how to limit the damage and How to make the best of a bad situation so how we go about sourcing products from different countries and so on and so forth So to begin the video off first of all China is an absolutely massive place So to say that one supplier the situation for one supply is going to be the same for every single other supplier It's not the case because it is such a large place and supplies are based all over the place Then ultimately the best thing you can do is contact your supplier directly and get direct information from them However over the past kind of couple of weeks then I've been speaking to my own suppliers I've been doing a ton of research online just to try and find out exactly what is going on and here is kind of like a Generalized overview of what we can expect in the next few weeks to come So first of all then work is due to resume this week for some suppliers However, it will be limited so it won't just be going back to normal It will still be limited so don't expect your supplier to just go back to normal and be fulfilling thousands of orders every single day It's gonna take time another thing on top of this as well is that some suppliers well some I say all supplies It's different for certain industries So depending on what industries your factories linked to because obviously a factory won't only make one type of products There'll be many different types Then there's certain Requirements of factory a business has to adhere to in order for them to go back to work So there's certain hygienic rules certain cleaning processes Etc, which they have to be adhering to in order for people to be allowed to go back to work Obviously just to try and contain the virus as much as possible now This timeline then of when people will be going back to work is spread out and it's currently spread out from this week Now all the way to the first week of March and basically the way it works Is that depending on where a work force is? Depending on where a business's workforce is located will depend on when that person can go back to work So for example people who live in really densely populated areas Then they won't or they can't go back to work until later on in the month If not that first week of March obviously because there's more people in the area the virus is more likely to spread So they're restricting the transport still of certain areas This is why it is important to contact your supplier directly because depending on where they're located They may have a higher percentage of their workforce back at work this week And therefore they can get back to normal faster than say a factory that's based in a really highly densely populated area Now this timeline is no means guaranteed. It is subject to change It may be sooner But the chances that is probably going to be longer if I had to take an educated guess based on what I'm reading in the news The chat is our as well now I'm not sure how truthful this is is that China aren't fully reporting the extent of how serious the situation is We've all seen stories and the kind of time-lapse videos of hospitals being built in six days Now a country in my opinion wouldn't go to that extent and to those extremes if they weren't Concerned about future Containment of the virus so I think personally that is probably a bit more serious than what they're making out So I would expect that these dates in this timeline gets extended because the virus seems to be spreading now Faster now than ever has been Then if I had to take an educated guess I would say it's probably going to be extended past this period of 1st of March doing research in different Facebook groups and Just watching different YouTube videos and different comments I've seen some people say that their supplies is saying April now I'm yet to speak to anybody in China that has confirmed April as kind of like a realistic date people are gonna start work But just be prepared where we'll be talking about Different kind of things you can put in place or different things you can do later on in the video If it does get put back that far, but at the moment then we're looking at probably late February early March and best case now a couple more things to consider on top of this that Best case scenario even if all the workforce for your supplier does go back to work this week there's going to be a huge backlog of orders dating back to the Third week of January when Chinese New Year first started Plus there's going to be a huge cleanup to do as well if nobody's been at work for three weeks There's going to be the factory will need cleaning so in orders will need cleaning They need to adhere to certain hygiene procedures I've read reports of CJ drop shipping as well spraying each order and different packaging and stuff That's another thing as well that people are concerned about is the facts that the virus Can be spread and contained within a package and then obviously as it gets shipped overseas It releases the virus and somebody can contract the virus from open a package From all of the research I've done I'll pop some articles up now on screen Then there's not a single one that has come back and said yes There is a high Probability of this happening basically all of them said is that the virus won't Survive on a package a parcel for more than two to three days if not two to three hours So chances of somebody contracting it through your parcels is very slim If not no chance at all another thing to consider is that when things do go back to normal Is that these supplies we're working with on aliexpress? They're not all multi-million pound businesses nor are the majority of them manufacturers A lot of them are just middlemen bulk buying from manufacturers storing them in a warehouse or fulfillment center essentially And then shipping them abroad so a lot of them are working on tight budgets The fees are loaned to be a supplier and an express are quite high each month So you have to be prepared for some of these supplies to go under at the end of the day weeks of no work seeing no income That may be just too much of a financial burden for some of these supplies to deal with So when you come back or when things do resume you may have to find a new supplier as well So that being said then in terms of time scales and what's going on at the moment To my knowledge that is currently what's happening And that is when we can expect things to go back to normal in terms of what we can do between now And then then here are a few things We can point to practice to make the best of the current situation So number one is obviously we need to try and source our products elsewhere There are a few places in which we can do this number one is actually aliexpress believe it or not because of If you look at a heat map, I'll put one up on the screen of where kind of the outbreak of the virus has started You may be lucky enough basically the best thing to do is to search for your product as it exists on aliexpress and Contact different supplies selling the same products and just ask them send them a message saying are you up and running? If they are you never know you may get lucky enough to find one that is in which case You may be able to go back to normal sooner than you think The other thing you can do as well is if you just go into aliexpress and search for your niche or your products, whatever it is Make sure you've got the correct country selected at the top here So you are shipping to the right country and then this ship from tab here as you can see We've got all these different options Which you can list supplies in different countries. So if I just go from Spain All of these products on here can be shipped from Spain and therefore we eliminate Those supplies are currently in China and therefore we eliminate Those potential delays the other two places in which I would definitely look before you just kind of refund every single order And write things off all together is Amazon and eBay now You never know there may be your product on there and and it may be being sold for a price in which you can Make it work financially if you have say 20 orders that are currently outstanding again emails from these customers You may be able to take a slight hit just by simply order them from Amazon to yourself Repackaging them and then shipping them directly out to your customer just to keep your customers happy And then you can wait and tie things over until things go back to normal in the meantime If you can't use any of these ways to kind of make the best of the situation Then I would focus your efforts elsewhere. There's always work to be done in terms of work on your store You can focus on self-education and watch some more of my YouTube videos And you can build back-end processes start writing different email processes building email sequences using Clavio or whichever email provider you're using you can also create content to a lot of people and Fail to create content for their store for their blog for their Facebook pages for the Instagram pages Which is a good way just to kind of build up your following Organically seen as you've got nothing else to do why not you could also start selling some print on demand products And perhaps focus on them and that way you can still continue to run Facebook ads And be learning and gaining knowledge that way developing your Facebook and your marketing skills Or finally you can just enjoy the time off if you've been going solid on this Consistently for hours and hours on end each and every day Then sometimes it can be a good thing to actually take some time off relax And then come back with a fresh mind and with that being said then I don't think there's a lot more we can do So that is my guide to how to make the best of the current situation and I want to finish the video off by saying that What is currently being reported in the news and what we see over here is probably very different at the end of the day Being so distant from it will probably never really truly know How bad it actually was so make sure you be respectful to your suppliers send them your wishes I'm sure they'll really appreciate that and you never know as well when they do go back to work They may end up prioritizing your orders because you were the one that actually sent them that message shown that you cared about their well-being I'll talk about it in lots of my previous videos building that relationship and trust with your suppliers It's a huge part of running a successful business The last point is well to finally finish on is that any resources that you've been using to stay up to date with the Coronavirus any messages you've had from your suppliers any current information you'd have I'd love to hear I'm heavily invested in staying up to date in this so the more information you can help me with Then I would very much appreciate it too. So that may set of guys. Thanks very much for watching my video I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please do make sure you subscribe to my channel Please hit that like button and have a good day. I'll speak to you soon