This is an interview with Becky Beach of MomBeach.com
Hey, Becky. Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do.
Sure, Lidiya! Above all, I’m a mom to a wonderful 3 year old little boy named Bryan. He is my world and I strive to work as hard as I can for him.
I consider myself a mompreneur, a mom who has their own business. My businesses include three Shopify stores (two drop shipping stores and a printables store) and my blog MomBeach.com.
I have a free tutorial on my blog and plenty of helpful articles on drop shipping which can be located here.
When and why did you start your online business?
I used to toss and turn all night because I owed more than $100k in debt due to school loans, credit card bills, medical bills, car payments and a high mortgage. That all changed when I started drop shipping 2 years ago on a whim.
I have been able to pay off over $80k in debt now and I no longer stay up at night worrying.
The only debt that I have left is the mortgage and my goal is to pay that off by next year. I been doing the super hustling with my drop shipping business so I know that is achievable.
What does a drop shipping business look like?
My main store is called Beach Sugar and sells women’s purses primarily. I’m going to branch out and start selling swim wear once I find a good supplier.
Drop shipping works by relying on other people to send products to your customers. You don’t have to hold on to any inventory or pay for anything up front besides the cost of your store and creating ads.
It is a great business model for a stay at home mom because it has so little maintenance. You can import items to your store and fulfil orders with a Shopify app called Oberlo quite easily.
If you get more than 50 orders a day then you should go with a dealer, like I have done.
A dealer fulfills the orders for you and you just send them an excel sheet. I found my dealer in a Facebook group for drop shippers that I frequent regularly.
Read also: How to Start a Mommy Blog and Make Money
How did you go about choosing a niche and an online store platform?
If you are just starting out, then choose a one product store or a general store, a store that can sell any item, to focus on.
If you get more experience, then you should begin choosing a niche. Use Google trends to see what niches are popular and look at competitor stores.
I use Nichescraper to look at competitors in order to see what items are their best sellers. Jungle Scout is another great software to spy on competition, but it is more expensive.
How long did it take you to make your first $1000?
The first weekend of the week I began drop shipping I was able to make $1000 in profit.
I had a great drop shipping course that I purchased from Kevin David so it made all the difference.
The course showed me how to gradually scale my Facebook ads so that I didn’t waste too much money. Other drop shipping courses I have taken include King Comm’s course.
You can search for him on You Tube to learn lots about drop shipping for free to see if you’d like to pursue it. There are several other free videos on drop shipping on You Tube too.
What are your best tips for finding products that sell?
There are several ways to find products such as going on Nichescraper and Jungle Scout to view competition. A free way is going on Pinterest or Facebook and checking on competitor’s ads.
What items are they featuring in their ads? Those items must be selling well if they keep running ads on them so you should try selling them too.
Google trends is good too to see what products are currently trending. When fidget spinners were popular, I made quite a bit of money on them in my general store. Now, they are no longer popular. Keep an eye out for the next big item to sell.
Read also: How This Stay at Home Mom Earns $30K/Month from Her Blog
What are the challenges of a drop shipping business and how did you overcome them?
Because I can’t have control over when an item ships, I have run into problems with customers. I have gotten charge backs and bad reviews on Trust Pilot.
What I do to counter this is provide great customer service all the time to my customers. If an item doesn’t arrive or is damaged, then I will give it for free and provide a coupon for a next purchase.
On Upwork, I have hired a virtual assistant to respond to customer inquiries who lives in the Philippines and is a great English speaker.
If you start feeling overwhelmed with orders and customer service, then consider hiring someone as well. I am charged only $7 an hour for my virtual assistant because money goes farther over in their country.
How much do you earn from Shopify on a monthly basis?
It depends on the season really. During Christmas when my first income report was published, I earned over $10k in profit.
Chinese New Years hit right after so it was super difficult for anyone to drop ship. Factories in China close during the New Year season, which can last a month.
On average, I get $4k-$10k a month depending on my hustling and the season.
What other side hustles bring you income?
In addition to drop shipping, I run a blog called MomBeach.com. It is in its 8th month come June and I earned around $200 last month.
I had a sponsored post for the first time so that was really exciting.
Other side hustles include the printables shop that is linked to the blog, phone flipping, doing paid surveys and selling scrap metal.
When did you get into blogging and why did you start MomBeach?
MomBeach was started in 2015 when I was pregnant with Bryan and was staying home from work for 3 months.
There was only one post written on it for years, as I had neglected it. When 2018 rolled around and I was making good money with drop shipping, I decided to use the blog as a way to help other moms learn.
I love to write and help people, so naturally, a blog felt like the right choice.
Read also: How Many Pageviews Do You Need to Make Money Blogging
In what ways do you promote your Shopify stores?
Facebook ads used to be the best way for my drop shipping stores, but now I mostly use Pinterest promoted pins.
You can now do video pins, which helps get your pins more attention.
Pinterest is now a publicly traded company so I noticed my ads are bringing in more customers than they used to. I guess Pinterest wants to increase their revenue from ads so they are giving more bang for your buck.
I also use social media like Facebook groups and Instagram to bring in free traffic to my stores. My printables shop is linked to my blog so I get free traffic and sales from that too.
When did you first discover Pinterest and what role does it play in promoting your products?
When I was getting married back in 2014, I started using Pinterest to pin thing that I wanted to buy for the wedding. It made sense to use it for my drop shipping stores because people on Pinterest are looking to buy.
There has been studies that confirm this. I run Pinterest promoted pins to my store, centered around winning products that are trendy. A great course to learn Pinterest promoted pins is by Monica at Redefining Mom.
Read also: How I Increased My Pinterest Traffic by 778% in 2 Months
What did you learn after spending thousands of dollars on Facebook Ads?
On Facebook, people are looking to catch up with friends and be entertained as their main focus. They are not really there to buy like people are on Pinterest.
I do still run Facebook ads, but not as much since Facebook increased the price of their ads.
What makes Promoted Pins a better investment for bloggers and online business owners?
People on Pinterest buy more often than they do on Facebook, so it makes sense to use Pinterest to promote your store.
I wrote an article for Tailwind, a Pinterest scheduler, which dives deeper in this.
What are the monthly costs involved in running your business?
A Shopify store starts at $29 a month and that’s the plan I am currently on.
There is a $79 monthly plan that gives more benefits, but I don’t wish to use that any time soon.
The cost of ads can run $500-$2k a month, depending on how many people you want to reach. The most in a month I have spent on ads was $3k and I was able to get $9k in profit.
What online courses have helped you along the way?
The best course was Kevin David’s drop shipping course, which helped me get started with drop shipping.
There have been cheaper drop shipping courses released since that are higher quality such as King Comm’s course. You can find him on You Tube and he has lots of free content too. There are several other free You Tube videos on drop shipping too. You really don’t need a course, as there as so many available for free.
A great course for those looking to sell printables is Sarah Titus’ Million Dollar Shop course. I bought that one this year and it has helped increased revenue to my printables store.
For Pinterest promoted pins, Monica of RedefiningMom.com has a very in-depth course. I’m still not all the way through it, but have seen results.
An excellent Facebook ads course is by Millennial Money Man, called Facebook Side Hustle course. It helps you make money by doing Facebook ad management for other companies, but I have learned so much to help my own business.
How do you balance parenting and working?
Currently, I have a full-time job doing UX Design for a major Dallas retailer, but I get to work from home sometimes.
Until the income from blogging and drop shipping becomes more stable, I will need to work the full-time job.
I have my son going to an excellent day care until 4 pm each day during the week. This enables me to get work done and then still have enough time to spend with him.
In the morning and at night, I work on my blog and drop shipping stores.
On the weekends, I work on them while my son is napping during the day too.
Where can people find you?
They can go to my blog MomBeach.com to learn drop shipping for free and other ways to make money online.
I also help people budget, pay off debt, save money and have lifestyle content for moms.
If anyone has questions about drop shipping then feel free to contact me on my blog using the form.
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