Do you know someone who is doing dropshipping as a side hustler? Well, today you meet one.
This is the ordeal of Karolis Rimkus, a young man from Lithuania. Before he started dropshipping, Karolis had also worked the regular 9 hours like other marketers for media companies as himself for over seven years.
Karolis’s trip to the US was almost entirely financed by the money earned from his dropshipping store.
The incredible thing was that he ran this store as a supplemental income while working full-time.
For Karolis, using his skills to build other people’s businesses was difficult because he had nothing to show for himself.
Karolis has spent the last eight months touring the world with his wife. A plan he made with his wife in 2017 to travel around the world and save enough to be financially free.
They have quit their jobs, and things look better than they used to be.
With his dropshipping business, he has saved enough to change their three-month planned tour into eight months.
So far, they have visited Malaysia, Philippines, China, Laos, Indonesia, Thailand (twice), Cambodia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, and Hong Kong, and they rounded it off with a road trip from Los Angeles to New York in the US.
Table of Contents
Exploring Online Money Making Options.
When it became clear that Karolis and his family just needed a break from work, he started looking for alternatives to earning money outside his regular full-time job.
He was still looking for an option to employ his marketing skills; his choice was online.
The first option he tried was affiliate marketing, which wasn’t so easy. It was time-consuming and had little output, so he just forgot about it with time.
One day, he stumbled upon dropshipping on Facebook.
He had just seen a friend’s post about drop shippers who were making a lot of money from their online stores.
Anxious to learn more, he started researching and reading to learn more about dropshipping and how to make a living with it at minimal risk.
After going through the module, he realized he didn’t need to invest in his store inventory as a drop shipper. He could get orders from his store and send them to his supplier, who, in turn, ships them to the customer directly while he keeps the profits.
Dropshipping was the best option for him because it works well as a side hustle. You can easily open your store and stocks without losing money, so he dived into It as a side hustle.
Finding a Side-Hustle Routine
As a brand manager, he had all week from Monday to Friday to his full-time job and dedicated his Sunday to dropshipping alone.
He would return to the office on Sunday and build and organize his store from morning to evening, which turned out to be a good routine for him.
As a side hustler, I know satisfying all the pressing priorities can be challenging. You must fulfill all your obligations to friends, family, and yourself, and, most importantly, balance the gap between your side hustle and your full-time job.
Even Sunday seemed like not enough time to commit to working on his store. “When I got hooked on it, I was thinking about it probably 24/7,” he says.
And to give, giving out such an amount, sometimes was just so hard to handle.
The Choice of Product and Setting the Store up
When he started, he realized that they were so tiny that he knew how to do well in his new business, primarily how to source his products and what to sell.
He knew that selling a product that he didn’t like or have knowledge of would be very hard for him to go around, so he chose an interest he said would wake him up in the morning.
And that would be his hobby, “running.”
He knew a lot about running gears because he raced and went out to train almost every day of the week; who wouldn’t know so much at this level?
With this idea, he could get the best products for his store.
Making the First Sale in a New Store
It was easy to grow initially, as everything seemed to go slowly. I tried everything I could think of that would work.
And the truth is, I’m so happy it paid off anyway.
With time, everything gradually became more unmistakable by day; he sometimes focused on adding products to his store and making the store look better.
Next was his advertising, where he set up accounts on Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram.
He suggested his products at running forums where people complained about their experiences with inadequate gear.
“I was going through runners’ forums with my profiles, reading people’s concerns about their situation with bad shorts or terrible headbands, offering suggestions on what to improve, and sliding in my products here and there.”
With time, he started getting visitors to his store.
Two months after launching his store, and yet no sales!! But he didn’t give up on advertising.
Though it felt very frustrating for him at some point, most of his online businesses failed.
Ultimately, he realized that he needed to focus on what he knew how to do, so he increased his Instagram channel. And that was when his first sale came.
“It was a gratifying moment!” he says. That was enough to keep him motivated.
At this point, he focused on doing his best to grow his store, increase his social media presence, and improve his customer care services.
He said he had so many influencers to reach out to in the beginning.
So he could give people with at least 8,000 followers his item for a giveaway or trade it for his product to be featured on their page.
Somehow, it worked; with time, his page had grown to over 15,000 followers, so he could do anything with his audience.
Influencers now trouped into him on their own accord. Sometimes, they order gear from his store, snap with it, and post it on his page.
It sure turned everything up for him, increasing his relevance and the confidence his clients had in him.
Hitting His Highest Ever Sales Month
It knows that the weather always seems hotter during springtime and that people need gears to run on.
It was indeed the best time to give his advertising strategies the best.
He started by reaching out to more influencers outside the running gear niche, posting more often on Facebook and Instagram.
For Karolis, he would say, feel free to try a new idea; you never know what you might get.
It was due to one of his influencers that left him very dazzled in surprise; he noticed a blogger mom from the suburbs was rapidly gaining a presence on Instagram.
Though she wasn’t a fitness blogger, she had many followers, so Karolis offered to send him a product for free to review.
When she received the package, she posted a picture of her children opening it on her Instagram story. This was a big boost for Karolis’ store, as her followers bought the recommendation ideas and thus flooded to patronize his store.
Towards the end of spring, he made over $5,000 in sales with this Instagram strategy.
Mobile Business Idea: Traveling the world with my office.
Since starting his drop shipping career, he has always gone everywhere with his business.
So when Karolis set off for his trip with his wife in September, he took his business along.
He had always spent a few hours on it now; after all, it gave him over $2,000 in monthly sales.
He could work from anywhere in the world, sit by the beachside, feel the environment, and still make money.
Funny enough, he had converted their hotel bathroom into an office while on their trip to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, as that was the only place with adequate internet reception and a working power outlet.
Though he finally listed his store for sale on Exchange Marketplace in February, it sold for the equivalent of his five months’ full-time salary.
Karolis dropshipping changed his travel life, widened his idea of life, and helped him learn more.
“It fully changed how I live,” he said in conclusion.
He has been able to work on his terms and bid the regular 9-5 work hour goodbye.
He can now work on his terms from anywhere around the globe.
Karolis’ Key Takeaways as a Side-Hustling Entrepreneur:
1. Enjoy your Hustle.
It is easier to make time for a hustle you enjoy. So, go for something you are passionate about; it will help me dedicate more time to it.
You can make your experimental process very fun to go through. Try every marketing strategy as a spot.
2. Find the Best Dedicated Working Space.
You should find somewhere you can concentrate and work. It could be your home, an eatery, your car, or anywhere you can just be sure to focus and do your work.
The reason is that as the day goes by, so does your plan timeline. If you don’t get somewhere to focus seriously, you might not achieve anything by the end of the year.
3. Your Working Time is critical.
As the saying goes, “Time is Money.” And as such, you need to plan well for everything.
It would be best if you got your priorities right. You don’t have time for everything. Use your scale of preference to know what goals take a specific amount of time and maintain that.
It is possible to do Dropshipping As A Side Hustle living anywhere in the world, and one can travel and have fun simultaneously.
Comment below if you have questions about how to do Dropshipping As A Side Hustle.
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