full

full
Published on:

13th Jun 2019

62: Drop Shipping Unboxed with Vova Tess (Part 2)

Find a cheap product on Ali Express, find some awesome looking images, stick the product up for sale on Amazon for 15X the price and you’ve got an awesome business running, or have you?
In this episode, Vova Tess and Estie Rand thrash out the business of drop shipping, the meaning of building a brand and the purpose of loyalty and providing high value to your clients. Is drop shipping a legit and moral way to make money in 2019 or is it not much more than a sophisticated scam? Tune in to find out!

 

My Guest: Vova Tess

Vova is a young 17-year old multi 6 figure e-commerce entrepreneur, social media influencer, and speaker.

Vova has created multiple online businesses that ranged from making multi 5 to 6 figures in sales. He gives speeches at his very own high school showing his fellow peers “Look I can do it, so can you!” He has also been featured by many articles including the “New York Journal” and “Buzzfeed”

 

Episode Highlights:

[1:39] – Vova: At 10 years old, I was selling everything in my house on eBay.

 

[10:00] – Estie: So we’ve got a great business model here. We create a Shopify store, we get a VA in Pakistan, we pay 10 bucks a day, we link the two stores, we pick products on AliExpress. And people look at it like, “Oh, genius”. Except, as you just said, you kept pouring money into Facebook Ads and nothing was happening.

 

[14:20] – Estie: Can I be super blunt? This goes against everything I believe in business, which is serving the customer and building loyalty. I always believe in building a brand, even if it’s not from a branding perspective, but from a trust perspective. And this feels to me, I’m not trying to be mean, but it just feels so dishonest and sleazy.

 

[26:15]- Vova: We’ve got to be always on the next trend.
Estie: Gotcha. So it sounds like drop shipping mostly capitalizes on a trend. It’s a quick money checkout thing.
Vova: Sort of.
Estie: Okay, fair enough. So you’re going to test what’s trending and build a store around that. But then how do you know it won’t die in three months?
Vova: I don’t.
Estie: So how does that become a lasting brand?
Vova: They might not. And then I’ll create more and more and more and more.

 

[30:17]- Vova: Facebook is always updating their algorithm, so you always got to be on the quick. Maybe this worked six months ago, but it doesn’t work now. That is a real thing. People that could have built something six months ago, and they haven’t touched Facebook ads since, they would suck at it now. They can literally call themselves an expert a year ago, but they might completely not even understand the platform anymore and what works. You have to keep up with the strategies.

 

[36:52]- Vova: Like, during Black Friday, we have, a “Black Friday sale”. If we’re selling something for $40 and let’s say it was 80% off. But instead of lowering the price from $40, we just upped the Compare-Our-Price. During that week, we made $112,000 in sales, in one week.
Estie: I believe you. And what I was doing on Black Friday was giving a class to high schoolers on marketing manipulations, explaining to them that on Black Friday, all that happens is that people jack up the prices, and they tell you it’s a discount. So don’t be fooled and wait until February to shop.

 

Resources & Links:

 

For Part 1 of this episode, where you can hear how Vova started his business at the age of 16, go to estierand.com/62-1


Did you enjoy this episode?
Then
subscribe to my podcast on iTunes, so you can get automatic updates whenever another episode goes live (and you will be helping me get to #1 on iTunes, making us all cooler in the process!)

Listen for free

Show artwork for Create Your Own Salary (previously Business Breakthrough)

About the Podcast

Create Your Own Salary (previously Business Breakthrough)
Humanizing business and businessifying humans.
We're humanizing business, and businessifying humans.

Join us as successful business owners talk about the PIVOTAL MOMENTS that got them to where they are AND what they still CURRENTLY STRUGGLE WITH.



My dream always was, and still is, to help small business owners live their dreams. I've noticed that ALL BUSINESS OWNERS STRUGGLE SOMEWHERE. Even those that look so shiny and perfect on the outside are hurting somewhere on the inside.

Many of the podcasts out there feature rags-to-riches success stories with the promise that you can do it too! Ever felt that you really can't?

That's why I've started the Business Breakthrough Podcast, FEATURING STORIES YOU CAN RELATE TO, SHARING STRUGGLES YOU CAN LEARN FROM. The show features business owners- from those just starting out to the super successful - and in addition to exploring previous TRANSFORMATIONAL BUSINESS MOMENTS, together we reach a Business Breakthrough live on air.

About your host

Profile picture for Estie Starr

Estie Starr

Estie Starr is an award-winning business consultant, exceptional marketing strategist, avid speaker, and founder of Strand Consulting, a multinational business consultancy that’s focused on helping small business owners scale their businesses to make big profits. She believes very strongly that people can build professional and profitable businesses doing what they love, and she’s here to guide them so they can bring their vision to life with a lot more ease.