Thoughts about drop-shipping as a part time business

Posted on November 19, 2008

As you know I’m a great fan of part time entrepreneurship - I’ve started my company almost 4 years ago and I’m still moonlighting. Working for your own company after the 9 to 5 job is not easy, unless is something you could do from home, without having to meet customers very often and stuff like this. That’s why I had a look at starting a drop-shipping business as part time with Shopster.

As initially I wanted to write something on Shopster, I thought how on Earth could I write something that is meaningful and to provide a real value? After all, drop-shipping is not really spread in Europe, and not at all in Eastern Europe where I come from.

I’ve started looking around on the Shopster site, reading the blog and understanding what’s all about. Funny thing, for once a very complete site like Shopster raised a challenge: I could understand very well how stuff works, but on the other hand, plenty of content meant that I didn’t have so much anything else to write about.

Then it hit me. Drop-shipping is a business that you could start as a part time business. Even more, you can start small, on a bootstrapped model. And starting small, without investments and moonlighting is what my Small Business Entrepreneur blog is about. This means I have plenty of things to say.

To start I think we could go over an articles I wrote some years ago about starting a part time business: 5 reasons to take the part time entrepreneurship path. Let me list the items below (adapted for the Shopster model)  then I will give you the links to the original article so you could see they are for real.

5 reasons to take the part time entrepreneurship path (and not the full time entrepreneurship experience)

  • Fear

There is no secret that entrepreneurs have doubts before starting a business. They ask themselves if the money, time and resources they are going to put in the new business will pay back. There is no saying if you are going to make it, and that’s why part time entrepreneurship is an opportunity to keep the fear away. Even if you fail, you only half failing.

  • Lack of investment funds

With the current financial turmoil finding investment funds it’s really hopeless. You will need stocks, money for employees, office and all the rest. If you want to start a regular business, you will find that even if you start small, you will at least need enough money to keep you running for 6 months to a year, until the business will be able to generate enough income from the regular cycles. But hold on, with Shopster you don’t have stocks, neither an office. And in the beginning you could be the only employee!

  • Doing it just for fun

Everybody has a hobby. If you do it, and you are doing it well enough, it might be a good opportunity to make it a business. Let me put it this way: I’m not a very good PS3 gamer. But if I would be, then, I think, I could do a good job selling PS3 games. Because this is what I like and know about it.

  • Extra income

Well, sometimes a business if not meant to make a full income, or it takes time to provide enough. But until then, some extra cash, never hurts!

  • Pride and self accomplishment

You know you can do more than you’re doing at your regular job. Your ideas are refused, or you have an impossible boss that don’t want to let the business grow. Of course, you could change jobs, but you will soon realize that it’s the same everywhere. Why not start a part time business where you could be your own boss?

Shopster is $69.95 per month if you sign up monthly. At $69.95 per month you should be able to avoid fear and you don’t really need investment funds. You could do it just for fun and extra income. If $69.95 per month is my (almost) free pass to being my own boss, even for the evening hours, then I can’t wait to have this here in Eastern Europe.

And here is the link to the original “5 reasons to take the part time entrepreneurship path”

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Opportunity to present business ideas at Pitch George competition

Posted on November 19, 2008

On November 22, ideablob is sponsoring the “Pitch George” competition. It’s an opportunity for young entrepreneurs to present their business idea and get great feedback from an impressive panel. The event is open to high school students, undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni. The judges will include metropolitan entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and GW alumni. In the final round of judging participants will receive their final ranking along with cash prizes up to $1,500.

Ideablob is a site designed to help small business people share great ideas, and vote on the best ideas. The winners get $10,000 each month from Advanta, a company that issues credit cards to small businesses. Advanta as well has a really interesting history. It got its start loaning money to school teachers to tide them over during the summer months and during strikes, something that at the time was unheard of in banking circles.

I had the chance to interview Ami Kassar, Chief Innovation Officer of Advanta and ideablob.com about the “Pitch George” initiative.

Cristian: You are sponsoring an event at George Washington University called “Pitch George”. What is the Pitch George competition?

Ami: “Pitch George” is an opportunity for high school students, undergraduates, graduate students and alumni of GW to pitch their business ideas to a panel of professionals. It is a great way for young professionals to get feedback from a panel of successful metropolitan area entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and GW alumni. Not to mention, a great way to sharpen up their pitching skills.

Cristian: What are the main judging criteria for the contest?

Ami: The panel will evaluate the participants based on their business idea & context, the idea content & quality, and their presentation style.

Cristian: Applications for Pitch George are already closed; can you say a few words about the participants?

Ami: The participants are current GW students, alumni and local high school students. I’m sure it will be a great group of students, and we look forward to awarding the ideablob.com cash prizes to the most promising graduate and high school students.

Read the rest of the interview here.

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AfroTrading Launches AfroTrading.net, a Global Online Marketing and Networking Platform

Posted on November 14, 2008

AfroTrading.net is the ideal site for small businesses seeking to extend into the global marketplace.

Rockville, MD (PRWEB) November 14, 2008 — AfroTrading is an emerging company that provides online networking and marketing platforms for business owners and professionals to explore global business opportunities, expand market base, and maximize revenue potentials at little or no cost.

What people are saying
What people are saying

Powered by a revolutionary internet technology, AfroTrading.net is the new and convenient online community for all professionals and businesses. It is uniquely designed to collect and securely store verifiable professional and/or business data. It offers multiple features and options for users to communicate, network, trade, introduce and promote products, services, and expertise worldwide.

AfroTrading.net is the site to build professional and business relationships securely. Member users are able to authenticate and validate information regarding potential clients and customers.

AfroTrading assists members by offering information and opportunities for growth in the world’s fastest growing economies that practice sound business principles.

AfroTrading.net is featured in several trade publications and is linked on popular search engines.

Joining AfroTrading.net is an opportunity for specialty professionals and businesses from all sectors to extend their market base nationally and internationally. It is a tool to reach markets without boundaries to attract new customers, clients or partners from the Americas to Europe, Asia, the Caribbean Islands and Africa.

To join AfroTrading is free and easy. Register today and start enjoying our special limited time offer of free business profiling and listing or banner advertising

Also, feel free to join the ongoing discussion on our board about the current financial crisis, the outcome and business opportunities around the globe

The mission of AfroTrading is to provide secure and verifiable online data for professionals and businesses to build relationships and maximize growth potential. AfroTrading is a subsidiary of TradeLinkoft a LLC Company registered in State of Maryland with the corporate office located at 1 Research Court, Suite 450, Rockville, Maryland, USA, 2085

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First Global Xpress - an innovative shipping company

Posted on November 14, 2008

You would think that running a shipping company with the current fuel prices and the financial turmoil it’s probably not a very good business. Well, think again: think about shipping for less (exactly what people are looking for in a slowing economy) and shipping greener (in a fuel starved time). I’ve got the chance to talk about all this with Justin Brown from First Global Xpress - a new breed of shipping companies that work on business models better adapted to the new economic situation. Here is what I found out:

Cristian: Hi Justin and Welcome on board. Tell us a little bit about your company, what does it do?

Justin: Hello Cristian, thank you for taking the time to learn a bit about First Global Xpress. FGX is an international air courier company.  FGX competes with larger courier companies including FedEx, UPS, and DHL in the international shipping market.  We have been able to compete successfully because we ship directly from point A to point B (unlike our hub-and-spoke competitors).  By shipping direct FGX saves our clients time, money and even reduces their carbon footprint.

Cristian: You started with FGX in 2002 at the age of 23. A company like yours seems to have a big turnover and probably a big number of employees. Isn’t that scary at the age of 23?

Justin: It’s true that taking risks professionally can be a scary thought, but I think the younger you are, the higher your risk tolerance should be. If I were to give a lecture to a class of young people studying business, I would encourage them to take calculated risks.

Read the rest of the interview.

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Filipino Business publications to follow

Posted on November 2, 2008

If you are looking to see how the Filipino economy is going, or want to start a business over there, reading some online business publications might just be the first step. I can’t emphasize enough the need to understand the way things are going in an economy before actually going there and wondering why you’re not going well.

So I will start a list of the Filipino Business Publications - I will keep coming back and add some more as I find them.

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I'm Cristian Dorobantescu, a part time entrepreneur living in Bucharest, Romania. This blog is about entrepreneurship, start-ups and small businesses.
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