 So in this video, I want to talk to you about starting a Shopify business in 2021. So whether that's a drop shipping business, whether that's print on demand or whether you're going to be importing some products in bulk, times have changed due to the coronavirus. Things are definitely different to what they were, say, 12 months ago. So in this video, I want to take you through three really key kind of important points you need to consider that you need to know about if you're going to be starting a Shopify business in the next few months. Before jumping to the first point, though, I just want to say a very quick thank you to everybody who watches these videos. I really do appreciate the support the channel has grown very nicely. So please do keep subscribing if you want to see more of my content. I do have loads of videos pre-recorded, which I will be uploading over the course of December, including different product ideas, including different strategies for 2021 and Facebook ads and things like that. So please do make sure you subscribe. If you enjoyed the video, please do, of course, hit that like button as well. And as always, any comments, questions, video suggestions, whatever it is, just comment them down below and I will answer every single one. So with that being said, the guys, thanks for tuning in. Hope you enjoy it. And let's jump straight into point number one. So point number one is before you start your business, you need to decide your goals. A lot of people get into dropshipping for the wrong reasons. I think they watch a few videos on YouTube or perhaps see some screenshots in a Facebook group and think this is a really easy way to make money. It's a business at the end of the day. So before you get into it, you need to know that number one, it's going to be hard work. Number two, it's definitely not an easy way to make money. And number three, it's definitely not for everyone either. And what you need to do is picture the kind of lifestyle you want to live. If dropshipping gives you that lifestyle, then by all means go for it. Because last thing you want to do is get a year down the line, two years down the line. I think this just isn't for me. And I think a lot of people do that for jobs, or at least I did anyway. I didn't really care what the job was. I was always looking at how much money it was. And then six months in it, just the money wouldn't be worth it because I disliked the job so much. So just picture the kind of lifestyle you want to live, how much free time, where do you want to work from, and then reverse engineer. It does dropshipping, does e-commerce, print on demand, whatever it is you decide to do, or which one of those if you like actually suits that lifestyle you want to live. Will it earn you enough money? Will it give you enough free time? And so on. When it comes to the actual type of business then that you want to start, then there's typically two routes in which people go down. Number one is probably the most popular one, which is just trying to sell those trending products. Everybody wants to see results really quickly, which is great. And to do that, in my opinion, there's no better way to do it than sell trending products, products that are in demand from day one. Because if a product is in demand today, then obviously you can start making sales today, assuming you've done everything else correctly as well. The downside to doing this is trending products are called trending products for a reason they're not popular throughout the entire year, which means when it comes to testing products, depending on how you choose to do that, whether it's Google or Facebook, you need to be really good at that. Because you need to be on top of finding those products, getting ahead of the game, knowing which products are going to come into season, which products are going to come into trend, and then be able to build out your pixel and your Facebook campaigns in time for those times, obviously so you can capitalize on it. The second way is if you want to start building a brand. So results sometimes when you build a brand can come a bit more slowly, because building a brand is expensive, it takes time, unless you can afford to pay a huge influencer to come on board and start advertising and promoting your products. And then obviously you have to build that brand slowly over time by building your following on socials, by posting content every single day. It can be done and there are many advantages to it. So for example, if you had say a million followers on Facebook, a million followers on Instagram, then you wouldn't have to spend much on advertising because you'd have such a large following anyway, to reach a huge amount of people, you could just simply post on your socials. I won't get into it too much though. I could do a separate video perhaps on the two different types of e-commerce businesses you can start. You can have the trending one or you can start building a brand. If you want a video on that kind of subject, just let me know in the comment section. Point number two is suppliers. So because of the coronavirus nowadays, it's much more important or much more vital that you do your research and do your kind of vetting of a supplier before you go ahead and use them. So 12 months ago, to be honest, I didn't use to sample my products very often, especially if it was kind of like at the beginner stages. As long as a business had been in business, I say a supplier had been in business for over 12 months and they had good reviews, I would just simply go ahead, put it on my store and start. Just I'll be on my way if you like. Whereas nowadays, because the reputation, the reviews, the time they've been in business today is built off the back pre-coronavirus. So what you have to be careful of is even though a supplier may have good reviews, they may not necessarily be giving you the same service and same quality of product today. Same quality of product today. So what you need to do basically is just vet your supplier and make sure you do actually test the product itself. And when I say test, I mean order a couple of products to a couple of different addresses in the UK, if you can, whether you get one delivered to yourself and one delivered to work perhaps, or one delivered to your parents' house or family members, just so that you can check a couple of different things really. Number one is how long delivery is going to take. And number two, the biggest thing for me over the last few months has been the quality of the products as well. Because of the coronavirus and because of being short staffed and increased demand coming into Q4, then what I've found is some of the products have lacked in quality, probably because factories have been short staffed with increasing demand. So they've probably been rushing things here and there, maybe skimming corners or whatever it is. So the quality has suffered sometimes. So just make sure you do your research into a supplier. You place a couple of test orders and just make sure that you get given the service in which you would be happy giving to your customers as well. If you're happy with the service, then your customers are going to be too. One thing I want to add to that then when it comes to suppliers and comes to logistics and reliability and delivery times and things like that, is perhaps invest in a bulk quantity of products. Now, a lot of people don't know this, but there's been a few times in which I've ordered from my suppliers on AliExpress, 50 units at a time 5-0. It's not a big quantity. You will have to pay VAT and duty on that, of course, when you get it imported. But get in contact with your supplier. Ask them for a price for 50 units, because 50 units, obviously, it's going to depend on what the product is, but it shouldn't take up much space. You could even put it in your own bedroom if you're working out of your bedroom. You could put it in your garage of a certain product. And it's not going to be a huge financial outlay either. Worst case scenario, you could just stick them on eBay to get rid of them if they don't sell. But it's one kind of little way around potential delivery issues if we go into another lockdown or depending on what happens in the future. The third and final point then, something I've spoken about in many videos before, but something I still see repeatedly happening is quality and professionalism is lacking severely, not just in people's products, but more so in their Shopify stores or in their ad creatives. So as we move forwards, as we advertise more on Facebook, Facebook is getting busier and busier. It's getting more competitive. I'm not going to lie. CPMs today versus four years ago are a lot more expensive. Some people see this as you can't make money on Facebook, which is absolutely rubbish. The only difference being is you have to up your game. The quality of what you put out in terms of your products, in terms of your ad creative, in terms of your store just has to be higher. The world is becoming a smaller place. And when I say smaller, I don't mean physically in size. Obviously, I just mean in terms of availability. So it's going to be an example. So back in my parents' generation, before the internet existed, then obviously anything they bought would always be, sorry, in the local town or the local city because they wanted to avoid traveling as far as possible to get something. So when you opened a shop, if you wanted to open a local shop and sell something, your only competition would be in the same town or country because people wouldn't travel much further than that to buy something. Whereas when the internet came in, when logistics and delivery processes and things like that improved considerably. So for example, drop shipping wise, you can source them from China now and ship it to the UK and get it delivered in the space of a week or two. You just couldn't do that, say 15, 20 years ago. It's made the whole world a lot smaller in terms of how fast you can source things. So my competition, for example, isn't just in the town I live in. It isn't even just in the country I live in. If you're sat there now watching this video in America, in Canada, in India, in China, in Russia, we could essentially compete for the same product. We could compete for the same audience on Facebook. So essentially, the more competition there is for something, then the higher the standards have to be. If you go abroad and you look for a restaurant to eat out in, find a restaurant that is on a strip with a dozen other restaurants because unless their quality of food is really high and their prices are cheap, then they won't do well enough. They won't get the custom to stay in business. So the more competition there is, the more businesses have to compete. The more quality the product is, they have to produce the better prices. They have to sell it for in order to survive. And it's the same with any business. It's the same with e-commerce. If you're going to survive nowadays and do well, then you just have to be better than everybody else. So if you have a Shopify store right now and there's no telephone number, there's no physical address, there's no contact form, there's no custom domain email address, there's pixelated images, there's Chinese branding. There's no product descriptions. You're using basic fonts. You're using, again, Chinese videos in your ads and you're wondering why you're not succeeding and these are going to be the reasons-wise. And with that being said, guys, pretty much wraps up the three points I wanted to make. Just a very quick recap. Number one, decide what your goals are in terms of the lifestyle you want to live and find a business that are going to produce that kind of lifestyle and achievements for you. Number two, make sure you vet and do research and place test orders for your suppliers to make sure you have everything from that kind of side of things business-wise in place and is reliable and high quality. And point number three, be professional in everything you do in terms of the product you source and sell, the design and functionality of your Shopify store as well as the Facebook ads and videos and content you put out as well. Apart from that, I think, guys, any questions on any of this whatsoever, just make sure you reach out in the comment section below. I will answer every single comment. Please do make sure you subscribe as well for weekly videos. And of course, if you enjoyed the video and learned something new, please do make sure you hit the like button too. Before you go, if you are looking for a course, it's more of a course, really. I do run something called the Ecom Academy. There's two sides to it. You get the course side, which is the video content which takes you through everything you need to do. It takes you beyond dropshipping as well. But then the other side of it is the support you get from me. So everything is done through email. But any questions, guidance, anything you need, feedback, you can get from me personally all through emails. So it's like an email mentorship in terms of an actual video course too. Apart from that, thanks again for watching. The next video, I believe, is going to be like a step-by-step guide for selling trending products in 2021. So if that is a video you want to see, make sure you tune in and I'll see you then.