Episode 124: How to Master eCommerce and Become a Successful Dropshipper – with Sam England and Sean Colman

Episode 124: How to Master ECommerce and Become a Successful Dropshipper – with Sam England and Sean Colman

Mike: Hi there everyone! Welcome to Episode 124 of The Mike from Maine Show, the place where we do daily interviews with successful online entrepreneurs. This is your host, Mike Thomas. And today on the show, I have Sam England and Sean Colman on to talk about ecommerce, and specifically how you can get started with making money doing ecommerce online. Now, one thing that’s really come up for me in all these interviews that I’ve done with hundreds or I guess hundred online entrepreneurs, is that so many of them get started doing things like Ebay or selling a Craigslist. It just seems like the first thing that comes to mind when these people get started is okay, let’s go in the house, let’s go to the garage, let’s go to a yard sale and find something physical to sell online. And I don’t know what it is or why it works but I felt this is a great way for these people to get their feet wet into trying to get in understanding of how business works online. So today, Sam, Sean and I are gonna talk a little bit about ecommerce and how you can get started selling products online. Here’s Sam and Sean.

Mike: We are here today with Sam England and Sean Colman. Gentlemen, welcome to the show.
Sam: Welcome, everyone. Welcome.
Sean: Hey, Mike. Welcome guys.
Mike: Let’s start right off first by having each of you kind of introduced yourself to us. So, Sam why don’t you go first.

Sam: My name is Sam England. I’ve been in the internet marketing since about 2000. I went full time with ecommerce in 2003. At the time, I got started. And I still do up to this day, I’m still running my team Ecommerce Stores. A lot of people know me from you know, launching software and info products you know, off Warrior Forum, ClickBank and some other areas. But you know, I’m still actively doing my ecommerce, I think for almost ten years now.

Mike: Okay, so you got quite a history with doing ecommerce.

Sam: Yeah.

Mike: Cool, cool. Okay, Sean.

Sean: Yeah, I’ve been doing the same — I’ve been working on ecommerce websites in mainly Ebay, as well. I worked since 2004. I got into the internet marketing space around 2010 and yeah, I connected with Sam not longer.

Mike: Yeah. How did you guys end up getting connected to put out your WSO?

Sam: I think I did not reach out — I think I reach out to Sean first a few months back when I see him talking about how he does ecommerce in ebay, that type of thing. You know in this market, you don’t see a lot of people actively doing you know, ecommerce full time. So, I just reached out to him, become friends and we started talking basically and you know, he came out with this product and I outlined it and I said, hey we can take this right here this product you know, and some step two. You know, we became friends first.

Mike: So Sean, when Sam reached out to you and kind of proposed that you guys put a product out, was this something that you’ve been thinking about doing already or was this something that you’re like okay, why not. Why don’t we just give it a shot.

Sean: It was in the back of my mind for a while and because I kind of doing ecommerce Secret of League, you know. I didn’t really wanna talk about it. But you know for me, people should know a bit more about ecommerce. Yup, we connected and created this product.

Mike: When you say ‘Secret of League’, you mean you didn’t wanna give away kind of you don’t want the market to be saturated?

Sean: Well, Secret of League because not that it’s gonna be saturated, I just felt that I was making from it, why do I have to share it with anyone. It’s a selfish thing, you know.

Mike: No, I totally understand. Back in 2006-2007, I was making quite a bit of money with CPA ads and it didn’t even really cross my mind to start teaching it to other people of what I was doing but in retrospect, I wish — I actually wish I had because it would have

opened up a whole another aspect of my business and I would have been able to make a lot more contacts with people and when things do go sell with a lot of business and internet marketing, there can be changes in the way that things work, Google updates or terms of service changes. So, things go as well all know up and down. So yeah, I think it’s definitely a good idea to kind of branch out and start teaching people in order to make that happen. So, you ended up putting out your product that — the reason why I wanted to have you on today to talk about ECommerce Mastery. So, people that go ahead and purchase that, what is that? What is this all about? Go ahead Sean.

Sam: I’ll leave it to Sean.

Sean: Okay. So, Ecommerce Mastery. It’s just basically giving you the mindset of putting that some suppliers in there. But personally, giving it a mindset. The mind thing with ecommerce is a lot of people failed to take action in finding a supplier. You know, and going out and putting a product in the market. So, I tried to take note of the way that I started on ebay, which is the easiest way to get started in the ecommerce world. Just to get a feel, to get to feel things. And once you get a control of that or get a feel for that, move on to building your website, gaining huge traffic road. I touched a bit about traffic, getting up on Youtube, finally getting traffic and — yeah, then just putting it to get to sell that product together, help that grow with outsourcing.

Sam: I think it’s a lot about education. If you don’t educate the people, they’ll never know about it. Then, you know part of the course is to just put out and take action. I think a lot of people give up too easily and too soon. So you know, ebay is the best way even though I prefer my own website, I you know still power sell. I’m not really active in ebay like I used to be. I’m still a seasonal advertist. But I still think ebay is the best way to do it, that’s how I got started. But I think a lot of people, they should have an income that’s coming in. If you’re doing info products or CPA like you said or adsense and something happens to your business, something like change, it’s all you have yourself and it takes all your income away, you’re pretty well screwed, right? I found out with ecommerce coz I’ve been doing it so long that I’m still relying on income to pay my bills and so forth. And it’s a really good business, it’s a stable business. And like he does said a while ago, I didn’t start meeting people til like 2008, so I did it for few years without involving anybody and to be honest with you, I didn’t have any help at all. You know, I stuck with it and built my business by myself without any help. I didn’t know anybody online, I didn’t get anything like this. If I can do it, a red neck from North Carolina, anybody can do it. This is one — it’s info product. There’s lot of appropriate tools that you can use now than went back in the day when I first got started. So, I think a lot of people should get into it and even in a small way, right. You don’t have to do it big or full time if you don’t want to, but you can make a lot of money just part time.

Mike: Now, the term ecommerce. I just feel like that’s such a huge term. Like, it’s like ebusiness. Selling something on the internet, right? I mean, that’s pretty much what the ecommerce means.

Sam: Yeah, people take ecommerce in different way. I like to say ecommerce is dropshipping coz I think dropshipping is really what it is. Ecommerce can be an affiliate site with Amazon products on it. I mean, that’s — some people take that that’s the term, right? But ecommerce is selling online. I mean, you see commerce as commerce, not as ecommerce. Commerce would be like UPS serving the commerce so to speak. But yeah, ecommerce term terminology could be translated different ways by different people.

Mike: Now Sam, you said you’re in North Carolina. Sean, I think you’re in Australia? Sean: Yes, that’s correct.

Mike: So, is this something that anyone can do from anywhere in the world or do you have to be in America or Australia or England, like was there a location importance on this?

Sean: You can start ecommerce from anywhere. That is the most common question I get. And you can start ecommerce from anywhere, okay. It really shouldn’t stop you to — the scary part, one scary part I say to people is coz I’m in Australia, I have to open a business code and an ABN number, an Australian Business Number. Now, that only cost $90 and you can open as many as you want. And sometimes, that is all a supplier wants to see, just that number. And you can go ahead and start selling. And people really shouldn’t be scared about in your country, just work out what’s needed for that and get the number and go start contacting suppliers. It’s simple.

Mike: Okay. Let’s say I personally want to start doing dropshipping, doing ecommerce. How much money do I need to have upfront – – like, you talk about this $90 fee if you’re in Australia. So, there’s — okay, we’re talking a hundred dollars there to get started if you’re in Australia. I don’t know what it would be in the States, like you have to buy things, like you’re dropshipping. So, maybe you don’t need to actually buy until you sold it. Sam, why don’t you tell us a little bit about that.

Sam: It’s like any business. I mean, if you wanna run a real business, you need to have a business license. I think it’s about $150 here in the States if you do online. But I have three business licenses myself. But you need to have a real business right before you do this. And really, most dropshippers will only wanna know is that you’re a real business, real person coz they’ve been intimidated by people — when dropshopping really got hot back in 2005 at that range, you know everybody just popped and everyone one start just contacting dropshippers and then you know, most of what stirs them and turns upside, so it really took up a lot of time. That’s why most of them require the business license. It doesn’t cost a whole lot to really get start in ebay you know, you have just the small pieces but the best way to start this you gotta come up with, you’re just doing ebay self posting there and ebay hosts it by not doing your own website. It’s still fairly cheap if you have your own website. We all know servers are cheap now. Your domain, there was only 10 bucks a year but just to get started you really need to have a mindset that to you know, start your own little business. See to it that you feel good that you’re a business person, that you have your own business, right?

Mike: And how much money are people gonna be making from doing something like this. Like, I know you can’t guarantee anything but is it something where okay, I start today and if I kinda follow everything and gonna go through the course, would it be realistic to be making a hundred dollars a month within 30 days or a thousand dollars or what kind of realistic expectations should people have, Sean?

Sean: Realistically, if you’re willing to put in the actions — I can say myself, I am same with Sam. I didn’t know anything much about the internet and I’m not a red neck but —

Mike: Maybe, you’re a bogan.

Sean: Oh, no. But I’ve got some bogan friends. But anyway, it didn’t take me long to start building up you know, it’s just $1500 a month and I was happy, you know. I was living at my parent’s house in a bedroom. My mom bugging me to get a job everyday. I say, ‘Mom, I’m making money just let me grow this’. And you know, it’s just — once you get it to work, you can find that it’s really fast.

Sam: Yeah. Let’s say, make a goal and it was to make $100 a month. You know, have that one step to go. And that should come really quickly. A hundred dollars is easy. To be honest with you, like he said $1500 to $3000 should be fairly easy just put an hour or two and you just need to sacrifice a little bit of your time to make it. It take me like about 3 to 4 months back when I first got started to ramp up to $10,000 a week. That’s back in 2004-05 when things were really hot. And of course, I picked up a coupe to get products, you know, that sold very well. So, it was kind of into the sporting and top NFL and that type of stuff in baseball, as the season went to start. So, but you can ramp it up pretty quickly. How much time you want to put into it, how much you want to sacrifice for TV, as definitely as going out and partying. You have to sacrifice a little bit you know, to get success.

Mike: So, I mean $10,000 a week. Is that in sales or is that in profit?
Sam: Just the sale.
Mike: So from $10,000 in sales a week, what would profit look like with that?

Sam: I would say around $35 to $4000 at appropriate time. You pay your fees, ebay fees, PayPal fees and you know, you pay for the product. I tried to market my product at 50% at least. Well, I would say 100%. If it costs me $40, I’m going to sell for $80. Of course, there will be a couple of dollars for fees for the dropshipping fee which is usually 3-5 bucks extra per order. But yeah, it depends on the product. I would highly recommend, and I say this a lot, is to say away from 1995 products, that kind of stuff that you’re gonna be selling for because to be honest with you, you’re gonna be selling hats, t-shirts like the college – NCA college shirts of whatever. To be honest, you gonna want more target than buying things from 1995. So, it’s not really worth your time and head it to just concentrate on lower-priced items and that depends on what demands or stuff you’re talked to. If there’s not that product after, then you can take it over, then go for it. But if that kind of product is already out there, I wouldn’t compete against it. I want more target and I’ll consider my own store, so.

Mike: How are you able to find the right kinds of products to target because I personally would have no idea what I should be selling. Sam: You’re asking me or Sean?
Mike: Go for it, Sean.

Sean: Yup. Okay, so that’s basic. These days, you have tools like Terapeak that tells you exactly what is selling on ebay. What is its sale-through rate, that is important. It tells you a person is listing on a product, a person is selling a product. If he’s selling 90% of it, that’s a hot item. Right there. And you know, that person is selling the product. Let them decide between you and me. It’s not you

know, someone I need to know who he is. He’s just selling a product and he’s selling it. So, you got Terapeak, you got Hot Item Finder. And just go ebay itself and check out the bids. And that’s exactly how I got started.

Sam: Check out the bids. Yeah, check out the bids.

Sean: I sell books. Some books that were going 80 bids and I had some of these books in my closet. And I don’t read books anymore. So, I just went and sell it. That’s how I tell a lot of people to get started. Go to your closet, find a book, find an old video game, you know. And you’ll be surprised what you’re gonna get from it.

Sam: Yup. First step, you dig into your closet, the garage and your sister’s bedroom, your mother’s – nah. But you know, just find stuff and you can actually get started selling used clothes and there’s a lot of different ways, you’re not gonna get stuck to get started. My favorite technique – I got started with trade shows. Small trade shows, free market trade shows, stuff of favorite trade shows, a lot of big trade shows. I like to scale and see what’s happened. They have show rooms in these trade shows, you know. All the different show rooms, big show rooms and if you see a lot of people gathering in the show room, you need to go and look out what gathered a lot of people in there and see why, what’s the fuss is all about, right?

Mike: Sorry to interrupt. I feel like after a while of doing this, you kind of start to get a sense for what is going to sell. Like you said, you go to the trade shows, you know which products — okay, you see something you go okay, I can take a bet that if I get this, if I buy this and I put it up, I can at least get my money back if not make a pretty very profit on. So, is it true that you kinda get a feeling for it after a while?

Sam: Yeah. Oh yeah, you get a feeling for it. It’s not always gonna be the right feel, I mean the right guess either. You know, I actually have some that didn’t work out that well but that’s one of the reasons I like to go after different niches and different products and keep building it up that way. You get a feel of it eventually and I know you said a few times about you know, purchasing products and one thing I recommend and Sean recommends too is never buy anything from any company in which you see people hey well, this company wants a minimum of buy, you know. They want to charge me still. That’s BS coz I never have done that. I have a few companies saying what you need to do a minimum of $300 sales, you can open an order account with us. I’m like, I won’t deal with that. So, my motto is to not buy at all, I have company for dropshopping myself. I have set a platform on my website, it will basically who you on ebay. And then I get the money. I just send the order to manufacturer and they ship it out for me and they just make a drop out of my card. As simple as that. Now, the opportunity does come to buy close up stuff than to buy in bulk and I’ve done – I bought up half a trailer, just for nickels and pennies in a bowl. I mean, it’s so cheap, it’s not even funded. But I had the opportunity to do that because I’ve got in you know to dropshippers, mainly send them email. So, if you know anyone else interested in buying a thousand bulk bottles or 8,000 earring, you know stuff like that. And I get so cheap, I couldn’t pass it up. But that’s where you start building — after you start building another stand of business and know exactly how that feels, that you should go out and start buying extra physical product. If you get a good deal on it and turn around, you don’t have to just sell them once on ebay. You could sell them out to other stores. So, I thought at the end of story, say I could give you a deal and a half, maybe about clubs and tigers products for example, college stuff. I’ve contacted clubs and tigers bookstores to find out what clips university is at and I’ve contacted other stores around that area. It’s not that hard. Google is your best friend. You can find about anything and anything in Google, just search and take the extra time and don’t give up. Just keep doing it, keep pounding, coz you can find your options easier this day. There’s plenty amount of shots that you can play around that’s just amazing, right? We didn’t have this information back when we started. You guys have a lot – the people in today’s generation has a lot more resources than what we did. So, just don’t give up.

Mike: I feel like this kind of business model is perfect for the person that’s really into like Gorilla Marketing and thinking outside the box and willing to kind of get in there and get their hands a little dirty and really try to work for it. And I can also see that as you go on, like I mentioned before you’re gonna learn what sells and what not but you’re also gonna start making connections with people, like you said, you’re gonna have businesses that you can go to, you’ll have a deal with them, you’ll sell to them, then perhaps you can go back to them again, you had individuals that you sell to that you know perhaps that they’re interested in jewelry or whatnot and when you do have great deals, you can send an email out to them and say, ‘Look, I know you bought this before. Perhaps, you’re gonna be interested in this as well’. So, I can see it’s something that’s gonna kinda over time just become easier and easier. Am I correct?

Sean: Yeah, sure.

Sam: Yes, that’s correct. I spent a lot of time building my businesses up to where I understood it very well and now, to be honest with you, I might spend 30 minutes to narrow down my ecommerce business coz I understand you know, when I get an order comes in quickly as I get it, I put it out and process and just have a notepad open in my computer. If I restart my computer, the first thing I

open there’s a couple of notepads that has one thing that I said, I have an order for Mrs. Blank Spot, I just filled it in, put it on my website, copy and paste, boom sent, I’m done. One minute, I’m usually done. Alright.

Mike: Well, I think to be fair, you’ve been doing this for a while. So, people that get started now, it’s not gonna be that easy but after a while, when you know what you’re doing and you’ve got your system set up and you got everything going, then it can be pretty easy.

Sam: Yeah. I can show people exactly how I do it. Most likely, they can do exactly like I do, til they find their own ways, their own techniques and what’s best for them. I recommend people do that. But you get to feel a lot and you get to flow and it just comes naturally. Like you know —

Mike: Sure.

Sam: If it’s like anything, it’s like Pay-Per-Click. You learn Pay-Per-Click and then it just comes, it’s you’re master at it, you know how to understand it. Me, no. I don’t. So, but ecommerce is really easy, guys. It’s just you get your mind and get your mind set that you can do it and then start doing it. Once you get to the part, get the part. You know what I mean. Especially when you start making money on it, it gets a little bit fun.

Mike: Well guys, thank you so much for coming on the show today. I really appreciate it. Sean, do you have any closing comments, remarks, anything that you wanted to mention before we wrap it here today?

Sean: All I have to say guys is once you start getting into this and you got your everyday task down, it is one of the easiest businesses to outsource. I’ve got maybe five things I have to do now everyday and it only involves checking my email, checking my accounts, make sure my work is doing well I think, and it’s giving me the freedom to travel, at the same time building up other businesses which is the most important thing. And I can rely on this extra income coming in everyday.

Sam: Yup.
Mike: Cool
Sean: And I’m sure Sam will say the same. Sam: Yup.
Mike: Sam?

Sam: I just recommend that people take action. If you guys are really seriously wanting to have extra income and you want to pay some extra bill, something like that, start playing around ebay. If you can’t find a manufacturer, start digging into your closet, your garage, your bedroom and it can even be something that’s 20 years old as long as it’s in decent shape or people want the product, right? So, let’s get started and start taking action, take a little time out of your evenings, than watch Survivor or Bachelorette or whatever. And take and dedicate an hour or so you know, when these kids go to bed and your wife goes to bed, you stood and take that on extra hour you lose a sleep, or two hours, it’s not gonna fail you. So, dedicate your time and put your time into your business. This is a business, guys. It’s a real business. It’s not 100% buyer’s estate, but it’s still a real business. So go ahead build it, alright?

Mike: Well guys, thank you very much. We’ll obviously have a link under the show notes to that for anyone who wants to take that out.

Sam: Thanks a lot. Mike: You’re welcome. Sam: Thank you, buddy. Sean: Thank you, Mike.

Mike: I hope you enjoyed the interview today with Sam and Sean. If you’re interested in checking out their ECommerce Mastery product, go to mikefrommaine.com/mastery. That’s mikefrommaine.com/mastery. Thank you for watching, listening, reading. I’ll see you all tomorrow.