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The Critical Mistakes New Dropshippers Make — Transcript

by Nick Dahlberg · 6,317 words · 947 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00A very common issue I see with so many
0:02beginner drop shippers is them just
0:03being so overwhelmed and paralyzed and
0:05overthinking they don't actually end up
0:07seeing any progress. And I completely
0:09get it. There's so much noise in this
0:11space. You don't really know where you
0:12should be spending your time, which
0:14levers you should be pulling that are
0:15actually going to lead you to start
0:16generating sales versus what's really
0:18not that important here in the very
0:19beginning. So, in this video we're going
0:21to draw a crystal clear line of what you
0:23should be focused on in the very
0:25beginning to start generating consistent
0:27sales as quickly as possible versus what
0:29can wait. to explain exactly why these
0:31things can wait and I'm also going to
0:32explain exactly why we need to be
0:34pulling these levers over here to start
0:35generating those sales. So, with that
0:37being said we're going to jump right
0:38into the iPad and I'm going to break
0:39this down in the clearest way possible.
0:40So, let's get into it. So, you can see
0:42that we have a clear list of what
0:43matters and what doesn't matter. And
0:45we're going to start with what does not
0:47matter. We're going to rank these from
0:48top to bottom with where I see beginners
0:50spending the most time on [ __ ] that
0:52really doesn't matter. So, the first one
0:54is the setup plus aesthetics.
0:58And with that comes theme selection,
1:00store design, logo, colors, and brand
1:04name. And then also one product store
1:07versus general store versus whatever
1:10other type of shiny object adjective
1:13people put in front of a store to
1:15convince you that it's the new best
1:16thing to do. So, now let me go over
1:18these specifically. Themes.
1:20Nowadays it is very difficult to choose
1:23a shitty theme. All themes are great and
1:25they all meet modern standards. Now, if
1:27you go back to when I started in 2015
1:29themes were nowhere near where they are
1:31today. Matter of fact, most of the
1:33themes that you hear about today and see
1:35today
1:36they're spectacular. To get that same
1:39type of theme implemented 10 years ago
1:41when I first got started, you had to go
1:43and get a Figma designer to design that
1:45entire page, then you had to pay a
1:46developer to actually lay it all down.
1:49It was very expensive. There are a lot
1:52of modern day great themes out there.
1:54And my personal preference is the Elixir
1:56theme.
1:57Okay? But you shouldn't be spending
1:59weeks debating which theme is going to
2:01help you convert better. They all work.
2:04The theme does not matter. If you're
2:06debating and need someone to make the
2:07decision for you, I'm going to tell you
2:09go with the Elixir theme. It's hands
2:10down one of the best themes in my
2:11personal opinion. Next, store design.
2:14You shouldn't be spending hours, days,
2:17weeks debating on the design of your
2:19store. Keep it incredibly
2:20straightforward. With Elixir it comes
2:22with a bunch of pre-made templates in
2:24there. You can't mess it up. All you
2:26have to do is swap the photos, change
2:27the copy, and change your colors. The
2:29clearest direction in terms of what you
2:31should do in terms of store design is
2:33once you've identified some products,
2:35how are the competitors laying down
2:36their store design? That will get you
2:38closer to the action that you actually
2:41want, which is a conversion, i.e. a sale
2:44or sales plural. What are the
2:46competitors doing that actually have
2:47traffic going to their store? That's how
2:50you should design your store. You can
2:52design your store the same exact way as
2:54they designed theirs. You don't need to
2:55overthink that. Next, a logo.
2:58Look at what modern day logos look like.
3:00They're all text-based logos, sans-serif
3:03fonts. You don't need an illustration.
3:05You don't need graphics. You don't need
3:07to make it fancy and flamboyant. A
3:09simple text-based sans-serif logo will
3:11do. Next, color scheme. This is
3:14something that people way
3:15overcomplicate. And I get it. The
3:17psychology behind certain colors. Does
3:19that actually matter for you? Is that
3:21going to move the needle for you with
3:22your starting budget? No, absolutely
3:24not. If you need advice on this, white
3:26background, black text, choose a primary
3:29accent color that's going to be
3:30congruent with whatever you're going to
3:32sell. White background, black text, pink
3:35accent. White background, black text,
3:38green accent. Brown accent. Doesn't
3:40matter. That's not going to make or
3:41break your sales, I promise you. And
3:43lastly, we have brand name. Pay
3:45attention to some of the biggest brands
3:46in the world. There's no distinction
3:49between their brand name and the
3:50products that they sell. Look at Apple
3:52for example. If we didn't know Apple for
3:54selling electronics, would we have any
3:56idea that Apple sells elect- No, we'd
3:57probably think it's a damn grocery
3:59store. Or for example, Purple. They sell
4:01mattresses. Just by looking at the brand
4:03name and not having any context on what
4:05they sell, you'd have no idea. Most
4:07modern day brand names are not directly
4:09tying to like the niche that they sell
4:11in and I wouldn't recommend that you do
4:12that either. Because you're going to
4:14have to test some products and you don't
4:16want to base your entire store's ethos
4:18and identity around a specific niche
4:19that you might not stay in, that might
4:21not yield results for you.
4:23Keep it incredibly simple. The way that
4:24I always came up with brand names
4:26pre-AI, cuz I've been doing this since
4:272015, I like to go on Google Maps. What
4:30names of streets and cities and
4:32different provinces do I see?
4:34I throw the word shop in front of it.
4:36What do I see out in nature? What are
4:38these mountains called? What are these
4:40campsites called? What is that river
4:41called? It spoken can come from
4:43anywhere, but the brand name again is
4:44not going to make or break your sales.
4:46So, theme. Doesn't matter. Just pick a
4:48modern day theme. We use Elixir. Store
4:50design. What are your competitors doing?
4:52How are they structuring their store
4:54layout? That's how you should do it,
4:55too. Logo. Does not matter as long as it
4:58is a text-based sans-serif logo that
5:00will convert, that will work. Color
5:02scheme. Again, does not matter. Pick any
5:05colors that you like. I recommend white
5:07background, black text, whatever accent
5:09color you think looks good. Brand name.
5:11Again, it doesn't matter. You can name
5:13your store Shop Nick and it would
5:14probably convert. This will not make or
5:17break your sales. Next, one product
5:19store versus general store versus
5:21whatever shiny object mechanism name
5:22people give the stores nowadays.
5:25They all work. One product stores work.
5:27General stores work. The shiny object
5:29mechanism store names that gurus give,
5:31they work. I have always personally
5:33taken an approach like this where I will
5:35oftentimes start with a singular store,
5:38no idea if it's going to turn into a
5:39multi-product store, but I'll start with
5:41one individual product. That will be the
5:43first product that I'm testing under a
5:45store name of like Shop Nick for
5:47example. I'm going to test that product
5:49on a product page. If that product does
5:50not convert, we're moving on to the next
5:52product until we find a product that
5:54converts and generates sales and signal
5:57for us. A lot of beginners will be like,
5:59"Okay, I'm going to sell leggings. I
6:01need to have 20 other products on my
6:03store so my store looks complete with a
6:05bunch of different products in my
6:06catalog in order to look more
6:07trustworthy." Dude, I promise you. And
6:09take this from someone with an over a
6:11decade of experience in this industry
6:12and also someone that has hundreds and
6:14hundreds of students that are starting
6:16out from the very beginning that have
6:17gone on to do Go look at my Instagram
6:19highlights. You'll see what they do. I'm
6:20not going to specifically list off all
6:21the achievements that they've
6:22accomplished. You don't need to have
6:24this full built-out catalog in the
6:25beginning. Your customers aren't going
6:27to go navigate your entire store. You're
6:29dropping them on the product page.
6:31They're going to make a decision within
6:3230 seconds on whether they want that
6:34product or not. They're not going to go
6:35navigate all your different catalogs and
6:37stuff like that. That's a common
6:39objection and a common misbelief that a
6:40lot of beginners have. One product
6:42stores versus general stores versus
6:43whatever shiny object name gurus give
6:46these new store builds.
6:48They're all generating consistent sales
6:50with profits that would change your
6:51life.
6:52There's no one that is the best. They
6:54all work. The approach that I typically
6:56take is I'll build out a store, okay?
6:58And on this store, let's say that I find
7:00three products that I want to test. I'm
7:02going to bring all three of those
7:03products into this store under a broad
7:05name, Nick for example. Now, I'm going
7:09to create individual product pages for
7:11each of these products and I'm going to
7:12go deploy tests on these products. If
7:15they don't convert, cool. We're testing
7:16another product under this same store
7:18umbrella. And again, you can see why I
7:20don't recommend naming your store
7:22something that is specifically tailored
7:24to a certain niche. We drop ship for the
7:27ability to maneuver around the market
7:29and be able to sell whatever. By locking
7:31your store into a specific niche, for
7:33example, Nick's shapewear, I'm stuck
7:35only selling shapewear. What if I want
7:37to sell a supplement or a beauty
7:38product? I'm [ __ ] there.
7:41I'd have to change up my entire store's
7:42identity in order just to start selling
7:44those types of products.
7:46They all work.
7:47I would recommend this approach right
7:49here. Singular store, import the
7:51products you want to test under a broad
7:53name container,
7:55individual product pages. That's the
7:57most efficient and effective way to do
7:59it. Next, we have legal structure, an
8:02LLC {slash} business license, and then
8:05just like legal
8:11LLC was. I had no idea what a business
8:13license was. Legal formation wasn't even
8:16in my thought process. Taxes weren't
8:18even in my thought process. All I wanted
8:20to do was make money. I can't speak for
8:22people from around the world, but what I
8:24can say is this. If you're over the age
8:25of 18 living in the United States, you
8:28can go and have a Shopify store ready to
8:30start generating and capturing sales
8:32within the next 10 minutes
8:33by setting up your Shopify payments
8:35account as a sole proprietorship. That's
8:36just you simply using your social
8:38security number instead of an EIN that
8:40you registered under an LLC.
8:42That's how I did it. And I know another
8:44question stems from that. Oh, what about
8:45the banking and the tax stuff? How I did
8:48it back then when I was just a sole
8:50proprietorship, I didn't even know
8:52anything about business checking
8:53accounts. So, I just created a brand new
8:55checking account under my personal
8:56checking account and then connected that
8:58to Shopify so the deposits went there.
9:00So, there was a little bit of separation
9:01between my personal money and this new
9:03business money. Is the most
9:04cost-efficient and the fastest way for
9:06you to get started? Absolutely. Should
9:08you change over to an LLC or S corp at
9:10some point? Absolutely, once you start
9:12generating sales. I recommend to my
9:14students when you start generating
9:15anywhere from 3 to 6K a month, consider
9:18getting an LLC, consider getting an
9:19accountant, all those things, but you
9:21don't need to worry about that in the
9:22beginning. The next thing is like taxes.
9:24If you don't have any revenue, the last
9:26thing you should be worried about is
9:27stressing yourself out over projected
9:28taxable income that you're not even
9:30generating yet from a business that
9:31doesn't exist.
9:33You should be focused on making the
9:34money first. And then when you you start
9:36making some money, 3 to 6,000 dollars a
9:38month, you get an accountant, you get an
9:39LLC. You're taken care of there. They're
9:42going to help you all out with your
9:43taxes and some simple tax saving
9:44strategies. But don't waste too much
9:46time on this. If you want to start, you
9:48can start out as a sole proprietor, just
9:50like I did. The next one is strategy and
9:53research.
9:54And with this we have niche obsession,
9:57the perfect products or product
9:59selection, and the best ad strategies.
10:03Okay? So, one thing I want to say about
10:05niche obsession and why it's a waste of
10:06time is because every single niche
10:08converts. Every niche works. Every niche
10:11converts. There's no such thing as the
10:13best. The best is always going to be
10:16subjective. Remember that. Best equals
10:18subjective because it all boils down to
10:20personal preference and personal opinion
10:23based on personal results. There is no
10:25best niche. The niche that is the best
10:27for you is the niche that converts the
10:29best for you based on your results.
10:32Don't spend time obsessing over which
10:33niche is going to give you the highest
10:35probability of results. I'm going to
10:37tell you exactly over here what is going
10:39to give you the highest probability of
10:41generating consistent sales and turning
10:42profitable, but niche obsession is not
10:45it. The next, perfect products or
10:47product selection. People put way too
10:50much time trying to find the perfect
10:51products. Products that are so perfect
10:54that check all these different boxes in
10:56terms of what will sell. Every single
10:58product that you are thinking about
11:00selling, someone else is crushing it
11:01with that product, which verifies that
11:03it is in fact the winning product.
11:04Matter of fact, everything is a winning
11:06product. Anything can be a winning
11:08product.
11:10There's no best perfect product out
11:12there. Nor is there a perfect product
11:14selection. This is all built from the
11:16ground up. Cuz contrary to popular
11:19belief, it's not actually the product
11:20itself that is doing all the heavy
11:22lifting and selling. It's the feeling.
11:24It's the outcome that product gives the
11:26consumer. So, it's deeper than just that
11:29surface level that you're thinking about
11:30when thinking about these perfect
11:31products.
11:33There's a deeper reason why people are
11:34buying, and that perfect product
11:36selection gets built from that in terms
11:38of upsells, complementary products that
11:41would help that person that just bought
11:43that product achieve their desired
11:46outcome a lot faster and a lot simpler.
11:49Because every single product creates a
11:51new potential problem. And so, there is
11:53no perfect products, and there is no
11:55perfect product selection.
11:57There's pain points that exist in the
11:58world. There's massive problems with
12:00large total addressable markets with
12:02millions and millions of people that you
12:03can sell to.
12:05It's about understanding why these
12:07people have the pains that they do and
12:09understanding where they're coming from,
12:10what they've tried, how they feel about
12:11them, how they speak on them to be able
12:14to position products in front of them in
12:16ways that speak directly to them to get
12:18them to buy the product. It's never the
12:20surface level problem that's doing the
12:22converting, nor is it the features of
12:24the product. It assists and helps, but
12:27for a beginner that's just launching,
12:29you're not value dumping the specifics
12:31of the products, and you should not
12:32overthink the product itself. You need
12:34to become more aware of who is buying
12:36this product and for what deeper
12:38reasons. Who are these people? Who are
12:40these customers? How can you potentially
12:42become that customer in terms of the
12:43context that you have on it? And the
12:45perfect product selection is built off
12:48of complementary products that help the
12:51buyer of that product achieve their
12:53desired outcome more efficiently and
12:55more effectively. Next, ad strategies,
12:58especially advanced ad strategies. I see
13:00way too many people wasting so much time
13:02trying to find the best strategy to
13:04launch and test and scale and all these
13:06other things. See, what people don't
13:08understand, especially people in the
13:09very beginning, is you have to build a
13:11base of principle first. And with your
13:14starting out budget, which I recommend
13:16$50 a day if you're selling a sub $100
13:18product, which the majority of you
13:20watching this are. Whether your strategy
13:22is so advanced or seems so advanced
13:25versus this simple strategy of one CBO
13:27of 50 bucks, one ad set broad, eight to
13:3010 creatives. They're both going to work
13:32the exact same because your budget and
13:35the data that you have. You got to
13:36understand that by you trying to go and
13:39spend all this time learning advanced
13:40strategies and advanced techniques,
13:43it's not going to change your outcome
13:45here at this stage of your business.
13:47Advanced strategies are built on top of
13:50principle, and a lot of the time these
13:52advanced strategies might not
13:53necessarily work for you because these
13:56strategies were built around an
13:58individual operator, store owner, media
14:00buyer, whatever, their unit economics,
14:02their math, their data, which might not
14:05always directly apply to your current
14:07situation. So, you have to take them
14:09with a grain of salt.
14:11So, don't obsess over finding the best
14:12strategy. Focus on what is simple and
14:15what is going to get me my desired
14:17outcome, which is sales.
14:19Now, that's the perfect time to bleed
14:20over to what actually matters. And
14:22there's only two things here that
14:24actually matter.
14:25So, number one is just basic unit
14:27economics, understanding your numbers,
14:30and I can't preach this enough. You have
14:33to know your numbers. This entire game,
14:35drop shipping, is not some crazy art
14:37project. It's not a passion project.
14:39It's a business, and it's very black and
14:40white and very simple. But the problem
14:43is people don't treat it like such. If
14:45you want to run a successful business,
14:46you need to understand the math so you
14:48can actually support it and scale it.
14:50And this starts with understanding your
14:51basic unit economics. What that means,
14:54how much does your product cost and how
14:56much does it cost to ship it to the
14:57customer? Let's say for simplicity that
14:59is $10. Now, how much are we going to
15:02sell this product for? So, the price
15:04that we're going to charge the customer,
15:05let's say we're going to charge $39.99
15:07on this product. Buying something for
15:0910, selling it for 40. You got good
15:11margin there.
15:13But now, the big one, break even cost
15:15per acquisition. What is the maximum
15:17that we can spend on paid ads before we
15:19start losing money on the ad side? That
15:21would be $29.99.
15:23Meaning, if we get sales that cost more
15:25than $29.99 per customer, we're now
15:28losing on the ad side. Because we're
15:31selling a $40 product that cost us $10
15:34to source. If we spend over 30, we are
15:36no longer profitable on ads. This
15:38becomes your benchmark here. So, we just
15:41need to know at least this simple level
15:43of unit economics, and there's way more
15:44to it. Okay, but this is just the
15:46simplest one for all beginners that are
15:48watching this right now to understand.
15:50So, number one, know your numbers. Know
15:52your unit economics. What is your cost
15:54of goods on the products that you are
15:55going to sell, and what are you going to
15:57price them at to make the math make
15:59sense? Once you have that, then you get
16:01a benchmark of what your break even cost
16:03per acquisition is, the maximum amount
16:05that you can spend to acquire a new
16:06customer before you become unprofitable.
16:09Now, we have number two, which this is
16:11the most important thing about this
16:13entire video. And this is the most
16:15important thing that's going to amplify
16:16your business 10x of wherever it is
16:18right now is just understanding this one
16:20thing. So, that is traffic.
16:23You need traffic. This is the only thing
16:26that is going to start generating you
16:28results. This is the only thing that
16:30matters. Most beginners will spend so
16:33much time and so much money trying to
16:35optimize all of this stuff and get all
16:37this stuff right and perfect so they
16:39feel like they have so much probability
16:41on their side, but they never actually
16:43launch anything. They never actually get
16:45any traffic over to their website to
16:47actually be able to start moving the
16:49needle forward. Think about this. What
16:51is our entire goal of building a drop
16:53shipping business? And we're going to
16:54say this without virtue signal. We just
16:56want to make a shitload of money.
16:58Dude, I'm telling you, obsessing over
16:59the setup and aesthetics, the theme, the
17:02store design, the logo, the colors, the
17:04brand name, one product versus general
17:05versus shiny object type of store, the
17:07legal structure of things, the strategy
17:10and research, the niche obsession,
17:11perfect products, none of these actually
17:13put money in the bank account tomorrow.
17:16None of them do. It makes you feel
17:18overwhelmed and very confused, and it
17:20makes you feel like you have a laundry
17:21list of [ __ ] It feels like now you have
17:22all these prerequisites that you have to
17:24complete before you can even start doing
17:26anything that's going to lead to money.
17:28This right here is the only thing that's
17:30going to start making you money is
17:31traffic. You need to get traffic to your
17:34store, which means you need to test the
17:36products that you're picking. I can't
17:38preach this enough. Beginners will do
17:40everything in their power to avoid
17:43testing and instead spending weeks, if
17:46not months. You're wasting all this
17:47time, wasting all this opportunity
17:49focusing on [ __ ] that's never going to
17:51put money in the bank account. What puts
17:52money in the bank account is traffic
17:53coming to your store because now we
17:55actually have something that we can
17:55build off of. Because with this traffic
17:58here, now we're actually starting to
17:59generate what's really important, data.
18:02So, let me draw out the timeline of what
18:04this looks like. You watch my videos and
18:06you understand, okay, I get it. I need
18:08to pick products. From there, I need to
18:11get quotes on these products from my
18:13supplier to know my numbers. Next, I
18:15need to get these products over on my
18:17store, specifically on product pages.
18:19From there, I need to get ad creatives.
18:22And from there, the big one,
18:24I need to just test these products. This
18:27is all you need to do at the simplest
18:29level, but people they'll get hung up
18:31here, or [ __ ] they even get hung up
18:32over here
18:34of just thinking about this [ __ ] Like
18:37that's supposed to be a brain. They'll
18:38be sitting here thinking about, oh,
18:39should I even do this? Should I go and
18:41find products? Or how do I find
18:42products? And they just overwhelm
18:44themselves, and they run in this
18:45continuous circle before they get so
18:47fatigued out and they decide that this
18:48is not for them. But this is how simple
18:50it could be.
18:51The problem is always you're
18:53overthinking because a lot of the times
18:55it feels so productive to put all this
18:57time and effort into all this little
18:59[ __ ] but again, you have to remind
19:00yourself, I'm only doing this because I
19:02want to make a shitload of money.
19:04This stuff actually does not have a
19:05direct correlation with how much money
19:07I'm going to make. The only thing that's
19:09going to help me make money is just
19:10getting traffic over to my site. In
19:12simplest terms, that means just testing.
19:16Nothing else matters. You just need to
19:17test because with the outcomes of these
19:20tests, then we can go back and make
19:22optimizations and modifications to the
19:25things that we already have. For
19:26example, our website. For example, our
19:29ads. And we can build strategy off of
19:31that. It doesn't work the other way
19:32around where you spend all this time
19:34trying to be perfect because perfection
19:36does not exist. Because regardless, and
19:39you know this, at some point you're
19:40going to have to optimize your website.
19:42You're going to have to optimize your
19:44ads. You're going to discover new things
19:45in your data that you can refine on.
19:48That's a part of growth.
19:50So, people spend all this time trying to
19:51be perfect knowing that it does not
19:53exist, just to have to optimize later
19:55on. Instead, keep it incredibly simple.
19:57Just focus on understanding that I need
19:59to get traffic to my site. As a matter
20:00of fact, I'll give you a bonus one here
20:02on how to analyze all this. Okay? You
20:05get traffic over to your website. So,
20:08immediately you start getting data on
20:10your ad account dashboard. So, you got
20:12like things like CPM, CTR, CPC, clicks,
20:16they're like video plays,
20:193-second video plays, hook, hold, all
20:22these other metrics. And these are
20:23what's known as like soft metrics, and
20:25that's what we'll call them in this
20:26video, soft metrics.
20:29But, there's metrics that are way more
20:30important, especially here in the
20:31beginning, that you actually need to be
20:33analyzing on.
20:34Those metrics being add to carts,
20:36initiate checkouts, and purchases. Just
20:39those three right there.
20:40A lot of beginners would be doing
20:42everything in their power to try to
20:43optimize for the best metrics out there.
20:45Oh, the best CPM. I heard so-and-so say
20:48my CPM needs to be this benchmark. My
20:50CTR needs to be this. My CPC needs to be
20:52that.
20:53Dude, you got to think about it. With a
20:55$50 budget on a brand new test, Meta has
20:58no data. They haven't optimized around
21:00[ __ ] So, the probability of you being
21:03able to drop your CPM from let's just
21:04say 100 bucks down to 30, is so
21:07difficult statistically to do with the
21:10budget that you have, and also the lack
21:12of context that you have, the lack of
21:14data that you have on the customer. But
21:16again, beginners spend all this time
21:17trying to hyper-fixate on these things
21:19right here,
21:20and they'll make decisions based off
21:22these soft metrics,
21:23and they'll completely be oblivious to
21:25the money metrics,
21:27or the purchase intent metrics. You
21:29could run your test, and I would
21:30recommend running every single test for
21:32at least 48 hours on a $50 budget. You
21:35got to ask yourself, how many people are
21:37adding to carts? As a matter of fact,
21:39I'll give you a prime, crystal clear
21:41example.
21:42I had a student the other day on a
21:44one-on-one call, and he had over 500
21:47sessions in one day, meaning 500 people
21:49went to his product page in a singular
21:51day.
21:53And he was obsessing over CPMs and CTR
21:56and cost per click and all this other
21:57[ __ ] And he was disregarding what's
22:00over here, the money metrics. He had 12
22:03add to carts.
22:04He had six initiate checkouts, and he
22:06had three purchases.
22:08Okay, he wasn't profitable.
22:10But, there were things that he could
22:12have done to amplify up his profit. So,
22:15let's completely disregard all these
22:17soft metrics for right now. These are
22:18very important, but they're not
22:19important at this stage in our business
22:21probability says there's not much that
22:23we can do this early on with a lack of
22:25data and also our small budget that's
22:27actually going to swing any of these
22:28metrics in our favor to make us more
22:30profitable. And instead, what we should
22:32focus on is the signal that we're
22:34gathering from the traffic that we're
22:37sending to our website. So, let me draw
22:39this out in a clearer way. We have add
22:41to carts. We have initiate checkouts or
22:43checkouts initiated, and we have
22:45purchases. And again, he had 12, six,
22:48and three. And he had 500 people that
22:50went to his site. Okay? So, it's like
22:54looking at it like this. And by the way,
22:55his the price of his product was $44.
22:58The value of these 12 add to carts at
23:01$44
23:02is a minimum of $528
23:05sitting there in add to carts. Now, his
23:07budget was not 50. It was $75 a day.
23:10But, if these add to carts would have
23:12purchased, he would have been extremely
23:13profitable on the day.
23:15You see how that makes sense? 12 add to
23:17carts at $44 for the price of his
23:19product, that's $528 total. Then, in
23:22terms of initiate checkouts, people that
23:24actually moved from slide cart over into
23:25checkout were 264. He still would have
23:29been profitable.
23:30And then, the total purchase conversion
23:32value, the total number of sales was
23:33around 132.
23:35He wasn't super unprofitable, but
23:38there's a ton of stuff that he could do
23:39right here to amplify number one, this
23:43number right here. Again, let's just say
23:45that he only collected $132 at the end
23:47of the day,
23:48there's multiple different ways to
23:50increase up your average order value.
23:54Post-purchase upsells. You got checkout
23:56bumps, things like that.
23:58He could take his current AOV of about
24:00$44, and maybe even double this up to
24:0488. That would lead to significantly
24:06more money for the same cost of what he
24:08spent. Also, 12 six, 12 add to cart, six
24:12ini- that's not bad. There's also 500
24:14people that went to his website, and
24:15then only 12 of them actually added to
24:17cart. There's a problem here. There's a
24:19gap here between the people that land on
24:21his website versus go to his add to
24:22cart. I'm not going to go and tell you
24:23exactly what to do here in great detail,
24:26but there's different types of things
24:28like we can reposition the offer. We can
24:30also maybe [clears throat] throw in
24:31additional context, additional framing
24:34through a pre-sell page here,
24:36to be able to spend the same amount of
24:37money every single day, $75, to get more
24:39efficiency for it. But, the whole point
24:41is this, he has clear signal. He's able
24:43to validate that his very simple
24:45website, his very simple product, all
24:47this stuff works. There's demand for it.
24:50People are buying. There's people that
24:51are adding to cart. There's 500 people
24:52that went to his website. And he
24:54actually has something that he can move
24:55on and build off of. It took him all of
24:583 days to do this as a complete
25:00beginner. You should not be spending
25:02weeks obsessing over things that do not
25:04matter, that are not going to move the
25:05needle for you now. Again, the biggest
25:08thing here is you need to focus on
25:10traffic, because traffic will be able to
25:12put you in a position like this, where
25:14now you actually have signal that you
25:16can actually start optimizing around.
25:19So, with that being said, guys, we got
25:22what matters versus what doesn't matter.
25:24I'm going to quickly run through it
25:25again. The whole setup and aesthetic
25:27thing, you're not building a passion
25:29project here. You're trying to build a
25:30business.
25:31The perfect theme, the best theme does
25:33not exist. It's subjective. In my
25:35personal opinion, I think a great theme
25:37for every single beginner that's
25:38starting out is the Elixir theme. It is
25:39a modern-day theme that is consistently
25:41updated, and it's relatively cheap
25:43compared to all the other themes that
25:44you will see in the Shopify theme store.
25:47Next, store design, logo, colors, and
25:49brand name. That does not matter. To get
25:52the best idea of the way you should lay
25:54down your sections on your store, what
25:55are your competitors doing?
25:57What is the market doing? That's what
25:59you should model after. The logo,
26:00colors, brand name, your logo, make it
26:02text-based, super simple to do on Canva.
26:05The colors, black text, white
26:07background, whatever accent color you
26:09decide. Brand name, you can name this
26:11the street you grew up on. It's not
26:13going to impact your sales whatsoever.
26:15One product stores versus general versus
26:17shiny object, they all work. Again, I
26:19build a singular store, and I import
26:21multiple products over to that store and
26:23that I want to test, I test those
26:25products. If one of those products
26:27converts, cool. We start adding
26:28complementary post-purchase upsell
26:30products that would help amplify that
26:32product's results for the customer, and
26:34that's how we start building out
26:36multiple products. And as time goes on,
26:38and we start scaling further and
26:40further, we start adding in other
26:42products into the catalog that we can go
26:44and cross-sell on. But, a big massive
26:46catalog doesn't get built overnight. It
26:48gets built with time and data and cash.
26:51And then, the shiny object store thing,
26:52you're going to hear so many drop
26:53shipping gurus come up with fancy unique
26:55names of these new types of stores that
26:57serve one purpose, to literally get you
26:59interested in drop shipping to make it
27:00sound easier or to make it sound like
27:02it's some new fast way to make money
27:04that's better than everything else. It's
27:05all [ __ ] Every type of store works.
27:07Keep it simple like how I do it. Next,
27:09the legal structure. LLC, business
27:11license, legal formation tax. In the
27:13simplest way, and I'm not a tax advisor
27:15or legal professional, an attorney, when
27:17I started out, I'm just I'm telling you
27:19what I did. When I started out back in
27:202015 when I was 19 years old, I started
27:22out as a sole proprietor. I created a
27:24brand new checking account inside of my
27:25personal bank. As a matter of fact, I
27:27kept it like that for too long, about a
27:28year. My first year I did $568,000.
27:31I should have met with a CPA or an
27:32accountant way earlier and structured
27:34out my business beforehand. But, if
27:36you're just getting started, you can
27:37absolutely start with it as a sole
27:39proprietor, meaning your social security
27:40number and a personal bank account. Once
27:42you start to generate around three to
27:44six grand, then go get yourself an
27:46accountant, go set up an LLC or S corp,
27:48and start that process. But, don't worry
27:50about this stuff here in the very
27:51beginning. Again, not going to make you
27:53money.
27:54Next, strategy and research. Niche
27:56obsession. Every single niche out there
27:58is a billion-dollar niche, dude. Every
28:01single one of them. There's no best
28:02niche. The best niche is the niche that
28:04you're converting in, that you're
28:05scaling in.
28:06Perfect products, perfect product
28:08selection, don't exist. Every single
28:09product is a winning product. What
28:11matters is the underlying problems it
28:13solves, and how the customers, the
28:16people that are buying this product,
28:17what they actually feel about this
28:19product and what it's going to do for
28:20them. It's not about the specific
28:22product itself or the big core problem.
28:26It's what's underneath that. That is the
28:28perfect product if you can exploit that
28:30through your ads.
28:31And product selections get built over
28:33time. It's not something you need to
28:35rush into. Ad strategies. There is no
28:37best ad strategy. Everybody's best
28:39winning ad strategy for this, that, or
28:41the other is subjective. It's based on
28:44their unit economics, their math, and
28:45their offer. It might not work for you.
28:49So, you have to take that with a grain
28:50of salt. Now, some of these could work
28:52for you, but when you're just getting
28:54started, do not obsess over finding the
28:56the best strategy to launch. At the end
28:59of the day, your budget is so tiny, $50
29:02a day. Whether you do this super
29:04advanced setup that takes you a month to
29:06fully process and understand versus
29:08launching a simple CBO with a singular
29:10ad set that's entirely broad with eight
29:12to 10 creatives,
29:13it's going to yield you the same
29:14outcome. And the probability based on
29:17your budget and also just the fact that
29:18your ad account is brand new is going to
29:20prove that. So, don't waste time on
29:22these things. None of these are
29:23money-making activities that you should
29:25be focused on in the beginning. The only
29:27two things that you should be focused on
29:28in the very beginning is number one,
29:30your unit economics, and then, sending
29:32traffic to the products that you want to
29:34test. It goes in this structure.
29:36Products, get a quote from a supplier,
29:38build out a super simple product page,
29:41launch your ad get your ads together,
29:43and launch your test. From there,
29:45focus on the money metrics. Add to
29:47carts, initiate checkouts, purchase.
29:48Don't worry about soft metrics. Don't
29:50worry about creative metrics just yet.
29:52We can come back to those and swing
29:54those when we have more cash flow and
29:55have more data.
29:57I have so many students right now that
29:58are very new. They're complete beginners
30:01that have higher CPMs. I'm talking $100,
30:03$130 CPMs, but are still pulling a
30:06three, four ROIs and are extremely
30:09profitable despite having that. However,
30:11you are led to believe that oh, because
30:13these metrics are so high, it's going to
30:14be impossible for me to generate sales.
30:16That's not the case. It's just how do we
30:18become more efficient with the people
30:19that are actually landing on the site,
30:21that are actually completing actions,
30:22money actions, and how do we amplify up
30:25sales from there? And how do we create
30:26less friction for them? How do we
30:28preframe a little bit better?
30:30This is all it is. It is this simple.
30:32But it's not simple when all you do is
30:34run in circles and overthink because you
30:35think that there's prerequisites in
30:36order to make the money. There's really
30:38not. This game is so incredibly simple.
30:40Choose what you spend your time on
30:41wisely, but I'm telling you, these are
30:44the only two things that matter for you
30:45if you're just getting started.

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