Start Yours

In the world of TikTok, genuine content reigns supreme. Unlike other social media platforms, users often favor raw and engaging videos over highly edited and curated posts. This stark difference in content is what makes TikTok special, and gives creators a connection to their audience that would be hard to find anywhere else. Many businesses are thriving on TikTok and their posts are leading to ongoing sales. In this episode of Start Yours, Aleisha is joined by Oberlo TikTok master Neal Chauhan who shares a helpful update on how you can use TikTok to build your business. The biggest creators all started from the same place you did, and over time, we're able to amass an incredible following. Nothing happens overnight, but slow and steady growth can work miracles. To get you started, listen to the episode and take note of ten of Neal's favourite growth hacks to master TikTok.

In this episode of Start Yours, Aleisha speaks with Bryan Clayton, founder of GreenPal. Bryan built his lawn mowing business from the age of 16 to a $10M a year business before a successful exit. Then after a brief retirement, he decided there was more to do and decided to convert his experience and passion for business into a whole new company. Bryan went on to launch GreenPal, a $20M a year business that connects homeowners with local lawn care professionals. GreenPal has been called the "Uber for lawn care” by Entrepreneur magazine and has over 100,000 active users completing thousands of transactions per day. Bryan‘s interest and expertise are related to entrepreneurialism, small business growth, marketing and bootstrapping businesses from zero revenue to profitability and exit.

Taking the leap to start your own business can be exciting, scary and a new challenge for many budding entrepreneurs but how much money do you need to earn before you ditch your day job? How do we plan for success (while also embracing the possibility of failure?) and what a healthy risks when it comes to launching and sustaining a business?   In this episode of Start Yours, Alesha is joined by Certified Financial Planner, Fiona, aka The Millennial Money Woman, who shares her insights and tips about how you can plan for your financial future as an entrepreneur while still feeling spontaneous with your business choices and ensuring that you have a plan and a financial runway to help boost your chances of success and reducing financial and mental stress.

Kamil Sattar went from failing grades and working two retail jobs to making 7-figures with dropshipping. Now he runs a successful Youtube channel, Ecom King, where he helps aspiring entrepreneurs build successful e-commerce businesses. In this podcast, Kamil shares his expert advice for dropshipping on any budget. Whether you’ve got a few hundred dollars saved up, are bootstrapping it with no budget, or are ready to invest a few thousand dollars. Keep listening to learn how to find a marketing strategy that works for your budget, how many hours a day each strategy will take, and how to make sure you don’t waste your investment.

How do the stories that we tell in our advertising and marketing copy lead to sales?  Does putting pressure on our customers by making them feel like they must buy now, actually work against our success? How do we create a brand that has integrity and is profitable?  On this episode of Start Yours, Aleisha speaks with marketing expert Amie Finlayson, an online business strategist and host of the Good Authority Podcast. Amie shares her thoughts on growing an online business that doesn't have to compromise your values or manipulate your audience and how to structure your business in a feel-good way with the tools to make your marketing ethical, effortless and effective.

We're always being told that we should be multitasking to get things done but really is doing 50 tasks at once helping us or dragging us down? In this episode of Start Yours, Aleisha is joined by renowned productivity expert, speaker and best-selling author, Dave Crenshaw. Dave provides a solution for the chaos of distraction that multitasking creates―and a way to combat the temptation to constantly switch between tasks. We talk about remote work and the befits of strategic procrastination, how to harness our attention and Dave provides us with easy-to-follow instructions to start practising better habits...now! A winning episode of the show, no matter your working situation.

If you have ever considered launching a digital product (or an add on product that boosts your physical products sales), then this is the episode of Start Yours for you.  Our guest, Dan Henry went from a broke college dropout who delivered pizza to creating a 10 million dollar online business. Now he is an 8 figure earner and a Wall Street Journal, Amazon, and USA Today Bestselling Author.  During his early business journey, Dan accumulated $250k in IRS debt which in turn motivated him to create his first education program in an effort to pay off the debt but ended up earning 15 million from that business. In this episode, we'll share how to create a digital product, how to choose a price point and how to scale.

In late 2019 one of Emma Cunningham's close friends convinced her to start a dropshipping store. Working full-time for the Australian Government, Emma was unsure if the move from working 9-5 and managing her dropshipping store was sustainable but a few months in, as the sales started to jump, she took the leap, left her job and focused entirely on her new business. Emma is a standout in the industry, committed to sharing her experiences so far and is already moving into creating a new white-label eCommerce business. This episode is a great way to kick off 2021 and Season 4 of Start Yours! Be sure to check out oberlo.com for all of our show notes and links.

Our most listened to episode of 2020...so good we wanted to play it again! In this episode of Start Yours, we delve into the ins and outs of print on demand, from production to product sourcing, customer service to making sure that your products arrive on time to your customer. Done right, print on demand can be a great way to run an e-commerce business without having stock on hand.   Aleisha's guest is Sarah Chrisp the founder of the very popular Youtube channel, Wholesale Ted. Her content focuses on case studies on successful eCommerce stores, tutorials, product sourcing strategies and focuses on lots of hints to launch your own enterprise. She’s an absolute gun when it comes to print on demand and in this episode, she shares everything you need to know to start or improve your print on demand store.

This episode of Start Yours, Aleisha speaks with Mike Zeller — a business architect who strategizes with entrepreneurs on finding your zone of genius, creating an irresistible Offer and how to fuel your momentum.  Mike works with his clients to pinpoint their deepest purposes, greatest gifts, and highest potential to serve and influence the world and in this interview, Mike shares how you can tap into your very own zone of to build a sustainable, highly-successful business while removing unconscious emotional blocks that may sabotage progress. By the end of this episode, you will be searching for a mastermind group to join and reflecting on who you surround yourself with and how that could affect the success of your business goals.

2021 is right around the corner and you're ready to start your eCommerce empire. But, what kind of Shopify store should you build and what should you sell? Some of the best eCommerce business owners swear by the branded-niche model: A Shopify store that sells products in one niche and caters all of it's branding and content to one audience. That's why in this episode of Start Yours you’ll learn about 21 high-potential niches to start selling for 2021.

It took Andreas Koenig and Alexander Pecka three tries before they finally found success with dropshipping and boy did they find success! Their online pet business has just hit an annual turnover of $10 million. In this episode of Start Yours, Alexander and Andreas share their secrets to scaling, how they work together as a team and what it takes to build a dropshipping business and brand from scratch that is now a big player in their niche.

You’ve heard the saying, “you need to spend money to make money.” Is it true? Not today! In this episode of Start Yours, you’re going to learn 15 ways to make your first sale without spending a single penny on marketing or advertising. Facebook ads are the gold standard when it comes to advertising for dropshippers. But advertising on Facebook is hard to learn and costs a lot of money. As a new dropshipper, you’re just looking to get a taste of success before you dive into hour-long Facebook ad courses.  That’s why in this episode, Magda and Jessica will share a bunch of ways for you to learn how to use viral Tweets, Facebook groups, TikTok compilations and more to get your first sale for free without any marketing experience.

Creating your own product is a big goal for many ecommerce and dropshipping merchants but where and how do you begin to speak with manufacturers to ensure that you are creating a quality product that will sell. On this episode of Start Yours, Aleisha is joined by Kian Golzari, who is one of the world’s leading product development and sourcing experts. Kian has personally sourced over 2,500 products for global brands such as Bed, Bath & Beyond, Tesco, Argos, Aldi, and the list goes on.  The relationships Kian built while living in China led him to manufacture products for Proctor & Gamble, Visa, Panasonic, United Nations, Google, and far too many others to list. He was also awarded the 2012 Olympic Games contract to design, produce, and supply official merchandise. Kian shares his best tips for good supplier communication, ensuring you are purchasing a quality product that your customers will love and how to properly vet suppliers on Alibaba to ensure that you are welcoming true experts in your field to work with your business.

Being an entrepreneur means that often in the early stages of running our businesses, we have to wear a lot of job hats. We find ourselves doing everything from social media management, to product photography, customer service outreach to website design. It’s great to have skills and use them but also, so many of us find ourselves stressed and overwhelmed by menial tasks when we should be focusing on important aspects of the business like scaling and product sourcing.  In this episode of Start Yours, Aleisha shares 4 easy tasks that can be affordably delegated and will give you extra breathing (and creating time) and help to make sure that you are focused on the tasks and jobs that matter the most.

What products are the fastest moving, most popular dropshipping items on the Oberlo App? Start Yours host Aleisha presents the top 5 products for the holidays as presented by Oberlo.com team members Magda and Gurj. Is one of these products going to be your viral winner? We hope so! We also talk about white labelling and knowing when the best time to connect with a product manager/manufacturer to build your own brand.  Here's the list of winning products we discussed in this episode. #1: Lotus Bracelet (https://bit.ly/3kYWWl5)  #2: Silicone pet bath brush (https://bit.ly/3l3qWMR) #3: Fleece Owl Scarf (https://bit.ly/3l9Owrv). #4: Modern Crystal Glasses (https://bit.ly/3fGy5ln) #5: Mini Fishing Pen (https://bit.ly/33dgGLI)

Did you know that you can use Facebook as a search engine to source winning dropshipping and ecommerce products? In this episode of Start Yours, we share the easy steps to using Facebook to search for hot products and then we share three easy tips to help improve your advertising listings, that you can update and change your current advertising today, to make a BIG difference. All that and more on Oberlo's Start Yours!

The path to dropshipping success and profits is not always clear and for many merchants who are new to the business, it can feel overwhelming, especially when there are so many 'get rich quick' messages out there that promise easy wins but then often disappoint. Our guest today is Daecian Sparkes-Young, a successful Australian dropshipper who is passionate about educating new dropshippers and helping to change some of the attitudes towards dropshipping and the industry. Daecian shares his philosophy about consistency and how to increase sales, his commitment to building a reputable brand and how his devotion to building a business that he is truly proud of (and that has longevity) is far more positive to him that quick wins.

There are a lot of myths about dropshipping out there. These dropshipping myths can leave people feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, and disappointed once they take action. In this episode of Start Yours, we’re going to debunk the dropshipping myths and lay out all the facts so that you know what you’re actually signing up for in running an ecommerce or dropshipping business. So let’s find out if dropshipping is right for you and bust some of the most common myths.

Many people think starting an ecommerce business has to be a full-time gig.  Sure, there are many things you have to do to get it up and running and even more to maintain it after it's launched. But that doesn't necessarily mean having to ditch your day job. Sometimes, starting small can have its benefits. In today's episode of Start Yours, we're joined by David Gaylord. David's one of the three founding members of Bushbalm.com, a highly successful daily skincare and ingrown hair prevention product line, as well as a Shopify employee on the operations team. David and his partners started small and set up systems and automated where they could. And as you'll hear, there are advantages to their strategy. Last year, they hit their very first million in sales and are hoping to repeat this feat in 2020. If you have a winning idea, are thinking about developing your own product, or maybe white labelling something that's working for you, then this is the episode to listen to because we'll be diving into all of that and getting juicy tips and insights from David. We hope you'll consider subscribing to our podcast and don't forget to check out the Oberlo blog for more content.