It all started about 10 years ago. I was working full-time in my local church as the music minister and had a small, but growing web hosting company as a way to scratch my business itch and supplement our income. One of my older brothers gave me a call and he said something like this:
“Hey man, I’m trying to find some Legos for my son’s birthday. I can’t seem to find them anywhere. I know that you know how to do eBay and I’ve never done it so do you mind helping me find some online”?
I agreed and as I began to search eBay for the Legos I discovered something: every person who listed them sold them. The entrepreneur in me went wild and all of a sudden I’d forgotten about where to buy them for my nephew and all I wanted was to find where I could get them wholesale so I could be one of those eBay sellers.
I began to search the internet with phrases like “how to buy toys wholesale” and I discovered the concept of “dropshipping” which is where you buy from a supplier and they ship it to your customer. In many cases, suppliers would do a “blind dropship” meaning they would put your company name on the packing slip, making it appear as if you’d shipped the item yourself.
Even 10 years ago there were plenty of sites asking for your credit card to teach you the secrets to e-commerce. There were sites who claimed to have thousands of products and other sites who promised to sell you a list of where to find these secret suppliers. Perhaps it was Divine guidance, but I gambled that night and I dropped $99 bucks on a lifetime membership to this supplier directory from a company called “Worldwide Brands“.
Within minutes I’d been given access to their database and I’d found three companies who sold kids games and toys. Fast forward 24-36 hours of no sleep, buying a domain name, setting up a store (does anyone remember OsCommerce?), and opening a seller account on Amazon (does anyone remember the Zshop?). My exhausted, bloodshot eyes worked through formatting a few supplier feeds into the correct spreadsheet format and I uploaded my “inventory” to my stores. Less than 24 hours later, I had my first order. A business was born.
Ten years later, that business has grown to produce millions of dollars in revenue and interacts with dozens of suppliers. The screenshot is taken for the past 365 days from our order integration software. The $99 risk that I took ten years ago generated over $19 million dollars over the past year.
The overwhelming majority of that revenue is through dropship suppliers and vendors.
Yesterday, I received an email from Worldwide Brands that they’d started a Holiday Sale in advance of the Q4 holiday season. The exact same directory (only updated so many hundreds of times since my first login ten years ago) is currently on sale with a $50.00 discount. Over the 10 years, the price went up to $299 and is currently $249 which is still an amazing deal for something with this much valuable information.
Folks, if you are searching for suppliers, whether to dropship or bulk purchase for FBA or arbitrage, this is a NO-BRAINER. Click the link and then click the Holiday Sale banner and see for yourself.
I took a curious hobby in the bonus room over my garage and turned it into one of the larger e-commerce brands online. It’s been an amazing journey and I’ve decided to begin coaching others on how to do the same thing. If you’d like to continue to get updates from me, please be sure and signup for the newsletter. Follow us on Twitter and most importantly, follow our Facebook Page and join our free Seller Support Community.
DISCLAIMER:
We do not have any connection to Worldwide Brands other than being a customer and affiliate. The links above are affiliate links allowing E-BusinessOnline to earn a small % of your purchase. Although the sales figures published are true and accurate, they are not a guarantee of your ability to generate income or succeed in an e-commerce basis. The advice, articles, and discussions posted are not to be interpreted as legal or financial advice as we’re neither lawyers or accountants.
