Small Business Entrepreneur Blog

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”