Is It Possible to Run A Drop Shipping Business By Myself?

You can most definitely run a drop shipping business on your own.

But there is a point at which you will have to decide if you are truly satisfied with what you can manage alone.

Let’s look at this step by step from both perspectives – what it’s like to run a drop shipping business by yourself, and with help.

Run a Drop Shipping Business Alone

When you’re just starting out, it’s actually a very good idea to run a drop shipping business on your own. Any business model and any business niche will always be a learning experience. You want to know what you’re getting into and what it really takes before you think about pulling anyone else in.

It takes a lot to set up a business, even with the drop ship model. You need to find products and suppliers, build relationships, set up processes and backups, build an online store, monitor fulfillment, and manage customer inquiries and complaints. It’s a lot more complicated than it sounds until you actually start and get down to the details. But you can absolutely run a drop shipping business alone.

New Skills

So maybe you don’t have all the skills behind the money-making that are required to get it properly set up. For instance, you may never have even tried creating a website before. Or, you may not be very good at approaching strangers with propositions. You’ll never know until you try. Moreover, you may actually find that there are a lot of sources out there to help you do it efficiently.

Skill building not on your list of top goals? You can still learn about what’s involved so that you at least know the process. You need to know enough about every step to confidently monitor the actual execution before you entrust it to someone else.

When you decide to run a drop shipping business on your own, you are basically deciding to learn the ropes. This choice demands a commitment of time and energy, but it releases you from a huge financial requirement. If you’re ready to flash back to your student years – or are still in school and are willing to absorb even more knowledge – then by all means, run a drop shipping business on your own. If you love learning and have startup passion for your idea, it’s going to be an awesome experience.

Run a Drop Shipping Business with Help

If you’ve done it all before, especially with the drop ship model in particular, consider enlisting some help. Our businesses are our babies, and it’s not easy to depend on someone else to care for them. However, consider that it may not be as beneficial for you or your business to go it alone.

Your time and energy are better spent on things other than mundane research and online shop setups. You know how it all works and what it takes. You can be very effective at ensuring top performance even if you’re not doing it all yourself. Take advantage of outside resources and your own learnings. It’s not a cop-out, you’re not selling out. Leverage your opportunities to run a drop shipping business where you are ensuring greater value.

Look at it this way. You will already have made some good profit from existing businesses. You can reinvest a portion of that in your new business. Use the extra money to hire one or a few eCommerce remote contractors to help you with sourcing, supplier relationships, and customer service. It will be money well spent. These freelancers can give you a few or as many hours as you need, and you can easily scale it to fit your business capabilities and needs. This approach also allows you to focus on growing, which is where you can add the most value.

Startup Collaboration

If this is your first time in either eCommerce or the model, you will be free to run a drop shipping business on your own. But this is only true over the long run if you aren’t interested in maximum growth. I’m not saying that you aren’t a strong, determined entrepreneur with a lot of faith in your idea. You just have to consider a proper balance, and recognize when you’ve reached your limits.

There’s always going to be that point where pushing further starts interfering with your quality of life and affecting the value that you are giving to your business. Again, look at your investment, the results you are getting, where you see yourselfin a year, and where you want to be in 5 or 10 or even 50 years. Weigh the pros and cons of continuing to run a drop shipping business alone. Think about your experience so far and what you can comfortably and happily do by yourself moving forward. Think about the gains and the sacrifices now and in the future. Once you reach a certain level in sales and operations, it will highly benefit you to hire and pass some tasks off.

Ready to Begin?

If you’re leaning towards the choice to run a drop shipping business by yourself, be 100% confident that you can. Many entrepreneurs have done it, and successfully so. Just keep an open mind about getting some help down the line as your business demands and opportunities increase with growth.

When you run a drop shipping business that you started with your own two hands alone, it’s very fulfilling. Remember, however, that your satisfaction can soon wane when it becomes more of a burden, encroaching on your other passions and responsibilities.

You can find more information about drop shipping on my website, ConnorGillivan.com