Start Yours

We're sharing some of our favorite episodes from the Start Yours back catalog.

A few years ago, Ryan Carroll was unemployed and living at home. Not ideal for an ambitious 20-year-old. But after a few fails, including an Amazon refund fiasco, Ryan stumbled across dropshipping – the first step toward launching a swimwear store that generated $300,000 in revenue. In this episode, Ryan talks with us about his dropshipping journey, including where he found the courage to ignore conventional wisdom – and ignore what he was hearing from his family – and choose entrepreneurship over college. 

You can read more about Ryan’s journey on the Oberlo blog: http://bit.ly/2kEE8i4.

If you want to reach out, shoot us a note at [email protected]

On this episode of Start Yours, we delve into the ins and outs of print on demand, from production to product sourcing, customer service to making sure that your products arrive on time to your customer. Done right, print on demand can be a great way to run an e-commerce business without having stock on hand.  

Today I am speaking to Sarah Chrisp the founder of the very popular Youtube channel, Wholesale Ted. Her content focuses on case studies on successful eCommerce stores, tutorials, product sourcing strategies and focuses on lots of hints to launch your own enterprise. She’s an absolute gun when it comes to print on demand and in this episode, she shares everything you need to know to start or improve your print on demand store.

Start Yours is a podcast about what it’s like to start your own thing. Whether that's a side-hustle, an ecommerce store, a blog, or walking away from your day job! You'll hear from people who have done it themselves, and learn what to expect (and what to avoid) when you start yours.

You've probably heard the saying, "If at first, you don't succeed, try, try again."

Well, William Edward Hickson wasn't talking about e-commerce or drop-shipping when he coined that expression, but it definitely still applies.

As you'll hear in this week's episode of Start Yours, with each experience, or in this case, with each fail, your knowledge and understanding of what works and what doesn't work grows and grows each time.

Our guest is Ahmed Hadi, who we have featured on the oberlo.com blog recently, joined us from his native Finland to explain how he built a successful online business from the rubble of a handful of unsuccessful ones.

What's great about this chat is hearing Ahmed talk about the highs and the lows, the profits and the losses that come from launching new ventures. Wherever you may be at on your business or side-hustle journey, we know you'll be inspired by Ahmed's story.

As always, if you enjoy the show, tell someone who you think might find it valuable. And if you have a question or a topic that you'd like us to cover, be sure to get in touch by shooting us a note at [email protected].

With over 320 million monthly active users, Pinterest has the potential for helping both local and global companies build a big audience and get the clicks to make a sale. The problem for most business owners is that they just don’t have enough time to manage one more aspect of a business and yet another social media platform.

Our guest in this episode of Start Yours is Pinterest expert and podcaster, Kate Ahl who has been helping small business owners grow their business using Pinterest. She teaches Pinterest marketing that helps business owners move forward successfully instead of feeling overwhelmed with the hugeness of Pinterest as a platform. In this interview, she shares how you can build an audience that is ready to buy using Pinterest marketing and how to format your images and copy to keep a potential customers attention and get them to take action.

It's a must-listen for anyone who wants to take advantage of a platform that is filled with eager to buy customers.

In this week's episode of Start Yours we bring you an amazing story of a couple who used their creativity and strength to launch two print on demand side-hustles in the hight of the COVID pandemic and also during an incredibly challenging time in their personal lives.

Laura and Albert have 3 kids and 11 animals. In early 2020, just before the lockdown was declared, massage therapist Laura suffered a severe seizure, fell and broke her neck and back and had to be hospitalized. The family received a $30,000 medical bill. As well as being the sole carer for Laura and the kids, during the crisis, Albert also lost his job. They were at breaking point but instead of giving up, Albert decided that this was the opportune time to put his research and skills to the test and launch their first print on demand Shopify store.

This is an incredible story of hustle and teamwork. Albert and Laura are optimistic and driven and share many great tips for launching a side-hustle and working and how to stay motivated during tough times.

Creating memorable products and an impactful brand will not only keep your business top of mind for your customers but as you will hear in this episode of Start Yours it can change lives.

Today’s guest, Yelitsa Jean-Charles, created Healthy Roots Dolls, a start-up toy company that was founded with a goal to make a new, positive beauty standard for young girls – especially for those with curly hair.

A recent tweet that featured Yelitsa and an image of her Zoe doll went viral with over 900K likes! The success of the dolls means that they are currently sold out but they are accepting pre-orders.

This is an incredible story about how one product can inspire and empower. Join us as we chat with Yelitsa and learn more about creating a meaningful brand and the early success of her business Healthy Roots Dolls.

As an entrepreneur, podcasts can be a powerful medium to reach new listeners and customers, share stories and get your message to a wider audience.

How hard is to start a podcast for your business and will it bring a return on investment? What gear do you need to host a podcast or be a guest on a podcast and what are some creative ways to market your product or brand via popular podcasts? 

Our guest this episode is Rachel Corbett, who was the Head of Podcasts for Mamamia, the largest women's podcast network in the world. She’s the founder of Podschool, a comprehensive course about starting a podcast and as you’ll hear in the show, what she doesn’t know about podcasts isn’t worth knowing.

If you like what you hear, there are plenty more episodes waiting for you in the Start Yours back catalog, as well as new episodes dropping every week.

We also got you covered for all things e-commerce, dropshipping, and entrepreneurship over at the Oberlo blog – oberlo.com/blog

As a business owner, how do you decide when it is time to consider outsourcing tasks in your business or upping your skills and doing it yourself?

In this episode of Start Yours, we share the best tips and advice from merchants, Shopify and Oberlo team members about taking the leap and investing in hiring experts that will help to increase sales and productivity and decrease stress.

From social media to video content, our best practices for learning to value your time vs investing in freelancers, to hiring tips, this episode will inspire you to take the leap and explore how outsourcing can increase revenue and also help you see your business in a new light. 

If you enjoy the show, be sure to subscribe to not miss an episode and check out the blog oberlo.com/blog for more information about outsourcing and time management.

Starting a dropshipping business with a friend during a pandemic is a challenge that many new entrepreneurs may avoid, but Australian teenager dropshippers, Lachie and Taylor, saw a chance to run a month-long dropshipping experiment during COVID lockdown. 

They chose to launch a store selling non-medical items that would be helpful to families during the lockdown and while doing so, use the time to test ad audiences, customer service techniques, as well as hitting their goals and embracing their failures along the way.

In this episode of Start Yours, we talk bro-marketing, how to launch a store in an evening and what it takes to turn dropshipping from a hobby into a full-time career.

As always, if you like the show, we’ve got a back catalogue full of episodes to listen to, so be sure to subscribe and check out Oberlo.com for blogs and updates.