 What's going on guys? Welcome to a new video. So today I'm going to be discussing whether you should start a dropship of business in 2021. Obviously, we've kind of come into the end of COVID. There is some light at the end of the tunnel. Things like shipping times and things like that are reducing down and we're returning to some normality. Obviously, there's been some big changes since Brexit too with the VAT rules and that. So people, there seems to be some confusion around whether dropshipping is still a viable business. So in this video, I've made a list of all the kind of most popular questions. So I keep getting asked and I'm just going to run through them now to kind of answer them and hopefully help you make that decision then, whether you want to take that risk of starting a business in 2021 dropshipping on Shopify. So the first point that I want to address is one of the most popular, probably the most popular question factor to get asked all the time is dropshipping easy. And it's really easy question to answer and it's just kind of it's a flat no. So it's not an easy business, but it is a low risk business. And I think people often get the too confused. So if you think that by starting a dropshipping business and getting a Shopify store up and running within space for a couple of days, sticking a load of AliExpress plastic rubbish on there and then running some Facebook ad campaigns and expecting to see some money in return, that's not going to be the case. You're not going to be able to make money doing that. Maybe four or five years ago, then, yes, you probably would have been able to. I did. I sold some pretty cheap rubbish products back in the day, but things have changed in terms of how competitive Facebook ads are. And I think just in general, the consumers have become a bit more savvy into what a professional site actually looks like. The next video in which I'm going to be uploading tomorrow will be kind of like the three keys to every successful Shopify store in which I'll go into more detail on those things. So if you want to see that, make sure you hit that subscribe button now. Going back to the question in hand then, then, no, it's not an easy business. If you think that you can make ten grand in your first month, yes, it is possible 100 percent, but it's unrealistic. If you're a complete beginner and building a Shopify site is brand new to you, running Facebook ad campaigns is brand new to you, picking products is brand new to you. Then to expect to make that sort of money in your first month is completely unrealistic. If you're essentially starting from scratch and this is 100 percent new to you, then I wouldn't even worry about the first three months of being in business and making a single penny. I would just kind of dip your toes in, start by running some Facebook ad campaigns on really small budgets of two, three pounds a day, get all your mistakes out of the way, learn everything there is to learn in that first three months and then start to ramp it up, especially if you're thinking about starting a business in the next few months. It gives you plenty of time to get your site looking really crisp, really professional, gives you plenty of time to test products and then capitalise on Q4. So personally, I think Q4 in 2021 this year is going to be absolutely ridiculous. Obviously, because of last year with most people being furloughed, not being able to see family on their birthdays and at Christmas and kind of special occasions as people go back to work and the furlough scheme ends, more people have got more money in their pockets and they're making up for that lost time. I think the amount of money spent online is going to increase dramatically this year. So in my opinion, between now and the course of the next few months, it's probably the most ideal time to be starting to drop shipping business because shipping times have come drastically down. They've become a lot cheaper, too. So six months ago, if you wanted to get something sent from AliExpress to the UK, so China to the UK via AliExpress, then if you could get two weeks, then I would say you were probably quite lucky. But as things stand now, things have improved quite a lot. You can consistently get things only two weeks and around a week, depending on who you're using, what kind of shipping methods you're using. I know CJ has been pretty reliable throughout as well from what I've heard from some of the members of the academy. And recently, through the kind of samples I've ordered through them myself, you're looking at about seven to ten days China to the UK, which isn't bad at all. So if you are wondering about whether drop shipping China to the UK is still viable or not, then 100 percent, yes, it is. Now, the flip side of that is the VAT rules have changed. The point at which VAT is charged and the amount of VAT is charged or the value in which it's charged on, sorry, has changed, which there are some good and bad points to it. I'll give you a couple now in this video, but there is there will be a separate video. It's quite an important topic. Everything needs to be kind of explained really slowly and clearly to make sure I put across the right information for the right reasons. Obviously, so there will be a separate video on that. But basically, the bad part of it is we have to pay more taxes, more VAT on the products we bring in if we drop shipping from China to UK. There are lots and lots of different workarounds, by the way, in which you can use to take advantage and actually make your business more profitable. But then the flip side, one positive aspect to this is where we were kind of restricted to products 15 pounds and under before Brexit. It really limited the kind of quality and the profit margins we could make because if you were buying something for 10 pounds, then you can only sell that realistically up to about maybe 30, 40, even 50 pounds. But now, because it doesn't matter and VAT is charged on everything, we can buy something for 30 pounds and drop ship it for 100, 120 pounds. Obviously, so the profit margin is going to be a lot higher and there's a lot more money to make if you do it in the right way. But like I said, there will be a separate video that goes into a ton more detail on this particular topic. The next positive to consider if you are thinking about starting a drop shipping business in the next couple of months is there's going to be lots of new trends following as we come out of lockdown here in the UK. I touched on this briefly earlier on in the video, but think about all the sorts of things people haven't been able to do like birthday parties, go out to the pub, go to nightclubs. When nightclubs open, people are going to be going absolutely crazy, spending their money on things which they otherwise wouldn't have or they're going to be spending more money on those things. And if you can kind of take some time to think about it and use the tools available online like Google Trends and kind of just apply some common sense to what people are now going to start buying. Think of things like clothing, accessories, fashion items, beauty items, people don't necessarily care as much what their hair looks like or whether they have a shave or whatever it is because they're not going out. But as soon as people are allowed to go out and kind of socialize and interact with other people, then obviously the sorts of things, the sorts of products they buy is going to change drastically. And with that being said, then guys, I'll go through a quick recap now. There's no need to make this video crazy, crazy long. So I'm just going to touch on the points just to kind of reiterate them once I've already gone through. So number one, drop shipping is not easy. It hasn't been for many years now. I don't want you to come into this with false expectations. It's good to have big expectations and have big goals, but it needs to be realistic to how quickly you can achieve them. Realistically, try not to think about making any money in the first three months. I'm not saying that's completely impossible. Don't come away from this video thinking in the first three months. I'm not going to make a penny because that's not the case. There's people in the Academy who have gone through the content, applied it super quickly because they've had lots of times on their hand and they've been able to make 5, 10 K in the first three or four weeks because they've had that structure and that plan to follow. And they get that support from myself and the Academy team to kind of point them in the right direction. But if you're a complete beginner, start from scratch, start from refresh, then without that sort of step by step guidance and support, then it's completely unrealistic. So just make sure you take your time, make all your mistakes, spend in £2 a day rather than 20 or 30 or even £200 a day on Facebook ads because mistakes are going to happen. It's guaranteed, as with anything, you always make mistakes until you get better at something. Point number two, e-commerce is going to be absolutely huge. It continues to grow year on year. Covid has kind of accelerated that. And as people come out of lockdowns and the world returns to normal, there's going to be more people with more money as they come out of furlough. And they're going to be making up for lost time, buying bigger and better birthday presents, holiday presents, Easter, Q4, Cyber Monday, Black Friday, Halloween, all those sorts of things. People are going to be spending more as long as you pick it in the right trend. Now, don't go out there and try and sell home fitness gear as an example, because in the UK, this is as the gym started to open up, more and more people are going to be dying to get out of the house and join a gym. So home fitness workout gear is kind of like a dying trend at this point, unless you're thinking about building a brand and doing it long term. If that's your case, stick with what you're doing, put your head down, build the content out, have a content strategy and just build your following over time. And everything works if you do it for long enough and build that brand. But if you want to try and see those results immediately and straight away, then selling or trying to sell within a dying trend or in something that's kind of decreasing in popularity, then it's always going to be an uphill battle. Put in the three then, do your research, pick a trend that is going to spike in popularity as soon as certain kind of events happen. So for example, when festivals come back out, when nightclubs open, people are going to want to take pictures with their friends. So selfie lights and things like that. And then fourth and final point, which a lot of people are concerned about shipping times, shipping times have come down drastically. Yes, we're not part of the EU now. But I'm guessing that as soon as Boris kind of has the time to focus on other things, you'll start looking for trade deals and things like that with China and just kind of streamline in the whole process. Even if he doesn't then shipping times from China to the UK now less than two weeks consistently and typically around kind of seven to 10 days. And I believe they're the same when drop shipping to the US as well. And with that being said, guys, thanks for tuning in. Hope you enjoyed it. Hope I answered all your questions, but of course, not feel free to post them down below and I will see them and get back to you. One final thing then before you go, if you are looking for a program to kind of hold your hand through the whole process of building your store out, finding products and comes with full support and guidance from some from somebody who has experience like myself. Please do check out the ECOM Academy. It comes with all of that and more. There's loads and loads of new content always constantly being added. And there is a free callback service too. So if you want to hop on the phone with me, for example, and go through any questions or hesitations you have about joining beforehand, then we can get that arranged. Just check out the first link in the video description. Thanks again for watching and I'll see you in the next one.