Seeing our students prosper in the ecommerce industry never gets old. Steve Swiat is the latest example of a student who achieved financial success by continually improving his income-producing skills and learning from our online ecommerce course. Over five years, Steve went from dabbling in ecommerce to earning an Empire Builder Award. From his early days of selling magnetic knife holders to his adoption of sales funnels, Steve saw his dropshipping revenue grow from zero to $50,000 per month.
A Taste of the Wild West
Steve began dabbling in ecommerce in 2014 when he got his start as a Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) seller. The early days of FBA were much like the Wild West of ecommerce. Like many new FBA sellers, Steve faced a vicious cycle of selling products at a reduced rate to earn reviews and trying to boost his status with Amazon. Taking a loss was not uncommon, as he ended up giving away a sizable amount of product in the process.
A New Direction With the Online Ecommerce Course from Ecommerce Empire Builders
Undaunted by his minor losses with FBA, Steve was ready to leave lackluster results behind and improve his income-generating skills. He switched gears and got serious about boosting his revenue in 2018. His first step on his new journey was listening to our podcasts. Then, he enrolled in our online ecommerce course to learn exactly what steps he needed to take to jumpstart his earnings. As Steve put his newly developed skills to work, his income began to rise.
A Pivotal Moment
Hitting the $10,000 per month mark was a pivotal moment for Steve. But along with that milestone came another critical realization: Steve had gained the ability to recognize problems quickly, diagnose them, and resolve them before they took hold and hurt his business.
For Steve, the process of resolving issues typically begins with a look at the lowest hanging fruit. He notes that sometimes addressing the smallest things can have a huge impact on results. Little tweaks, such as inserting the words “Free Shipping,” can make a huge difference in your conversions. Making sure your funnels are succinct is also important, as many of the highest converting funnels say a lot with only a few words.
If minor adjustments don’t alleviate the problem, then Steve suggests reviewing your funnel. See if there’s something in your copy that is confusing to the prospect. Funnels give you a powerful opportunity to use a lot of text. But it’s up to you to make sure they aren’t too wordy or confusing. More importantly, you have to create your copy with care to ensure that your ad, the copy, and your order form are all congruent, which are skills we emphasize in our online ecommerce course.
The Importance of a Changed Mindset
Steve attributes his jump in income and his troubleshooting abilities to his commitment to changing his mindset and routine. Among other changes in his life, he also began making use of the extra time he had on the weekends. By devoting five or six hours on Saturday and Sunday to improving his funnels, Steve’s business really began to take off. Here are some other specific steps he takes to keep himself focused each day:
- Start early by getting up at 5:30 every day.
- Kick off the day with a healthy activity such as exercise.
- After launching your day with two “wins” (waking up early and exercising), start with a manageable task.
Steve shares another confidence-inspiring tip: try putting yourself in an uncomfortable spot each day. For example, Steve would periodically go for a walk in the hot Arizona sun at 4:00 in the afternoon. When you survive this type of activity, your confidence builds, and you can face work-related challenges better.
Never Lose Focus
Just because you hit 50K per month doesn’t mean you are destined to enjoy that same level of success every month moving forward. Success is not automatic, and there are no shortcuts. Steve notes that if you want to continue to attain a large income and make dropshipping your full-time job, you must be willing to invest the time.
Taking care of your body and personal life are also critical for maintaining your focus in the ecommerce industry. Steve notes that if you let one area of your life slip a lot, it’s going to impact your work and the other areas of your life. While a “slip” every now and then is not necessarily bad, you must be careful not to let the “slip” become a pattern.
Data: The Key to Continued Success
While building a funnel and positioning products might be enjoyable, the actual launch can be a bit more intimidating. A quest for perfection can sometimes cloud efficiency and progress. In many cases, your initial creation may already be good enough. But you will never know unless you have data. With data, Steve notes, you can easily view your progress and make adjustments and improvements to your funnel.
A Final Piece of Advice
Jumping into an industry full of established competitors can be intimidating. But you will make progress as long as you are committed to continued learning. Remembering that you CAN enter this industry and succeed is vital to making progress!
If you aren’t seeing success today and feel like there is no hope, Steve offers a simple recommendation: make sure you keep showing up every day. Also, remember that everyone has their own journey, and it takes time to get better. As you move forward on your journey, be sure to work on your income-producing skills. If you keep working hard every single day, you will look back in a year and see that you have made progress.
Looking Back on the Journey
Looking back on his journey, Steve said that his early failures were a big part of his learning experience and success today. He learned how to analyze problems and diagnose them so he could develop good long-term solutions and maximize his productivity.
To discover how you can achieve financial success in the dropshipping industry, we invite you to reserve your seat at our free ecommerce masterclass today. We look forward to helping you make it to the $50,000 level through the Ecommerce Empire Academy online ecommerce course!