- Hi guys, Neil Waterhouse.
This week's video is
about starting your own business in 2021.
So let's launch straight into it.
I've been in business now for over 30 years
and certainly online for over 20 years.
A lot's changed over the years,
but the good news is it really is so much easier
to start your own business today than it was back then.
Many of the tools and technology that's available today
simply weren't available just 12 months ago.
Never before in the history of mankind
has any man or woman been given the opportunity
to sit in their home in their favorite chair
no matter where they are on the planet and build a business
without ever needing to leave the comfort of their own home
and never needing to have anyone come to their house.
And you can build a full-time business
using less than $100.
As far as I know,
mankind has never had this opportunity before
and I'll show you now
not only how you can have a business
that meets not only this criteria,
but also help you in your journey to see many case studies
from people who have done this, average people,
who have started their businesses from scratch
and then built up six and seven digit businesses
and beyond from scratch.
And some of them are even single parents
and were working full time when they started.
Now, if you're looking at starting your own business,
the very first thing you should do
is make yourself your favorite beverage,
find a nice quiet spot
and write down clearly your criteria
for what you want from your business.
I will share with you my criteria,
but it's really important for you to document yours.
We're all different.
This is my criteria, but again, this is my criteria
and yours can be completely different and that's fine.
Number one of my criteria has always been,
and always will be, lifestyle.
My businesses are there for one thing
and that is to provide me with enough cash and time
to do the things in life that I love the most.
A good income is useless without time.
And likewise, having a lot of spare time,
but having no money to do anything is again for me, useless.
Pretty much everything in life requires money.
Saving the world or saving the whales also requires money.
For me, a business has to be fully automated
and it has to run by itself.
So the next part of the criteria is asking yourself
how much money do you want to make after all expenses?
Do you want a hobby sized business,
which makes less than the award wage,
or do you want a professional business
which makes more than the award wage?
Now the next criteria for starting your own business
is to follow a proven strategy, which has case studies
from people who have achieved the success
that you want to achieve.
As Anthony Robbins, Jim Rowan,
and every success coach in the world that I'm aware of,
they say the fastest way to success
is to duplicate what is already working.
Now, I'm not waving my own flag,
but I've been told many times
'cause I've been in industry so long,
I'm a pioneer in the industry, and maybe that's true,
but being a pioneer is hard work.
I've had the fastest success
when I've been able to follow or being able to duplicate
what is already working.
So my advice to you is to follow a proven strategy.
Don't reinvent the wheel
and that proven the strategy,
it doesn't have to be my proven strategy
as my criteria for a business might not suit you.
The point is, once you have documented your criteria
if you want fast success, don't try to reinvent the wheel.
Instead, find somebody who's already achieved
the success that you want and model exactly what they do.
And this modeling applies to everything in life.
If you want the fastest success for anything,
duplicate what is already proven and working.
30 years ago I got my pilot's license.
I didn't try to figure out how to fly a plane myself.
I used an instructor.
Likewise, when I wanted to learn to play tennis,
again I could try to figure it all out myself,
which would obviously take a lot of time,
but again, I found an instructor
who could play how I wanted to play
and I had them to coach me.
The next part of the criteria,
excuse the noisy rooster up there.
They seemed to like When I get outside and talk, but anyway.
Anyway, get back on track.
The next part of the criteria is to ask yourself, honestly,
how much time are you willing to throw at the business.
For me, I like to take standard holidays.
So the business must not just run by themselves,
but they also must grow all by themselves without me.
I'm a huge fan of automation.
With today's technology, it's so easy to automate businesses
especially if they're online.
Today, we have loads of software that can automate
so many parts of businesses, and for those parts
which cannot be automated using software,
we're blessed that we can use low cost overseas staff
from a dollar an hour which you can easily implement.
Now, shut up chicken, stop you're distracting me.
The next criteria is to ask yourself again
how much money are you willing to invest in a new business?
If any, you don't have to.
Some businesses require a large capital outlay
for purchasing inventory.
Now others don't as I'll show you.
First of all,
every single business on the planet sells something.
It either sells a product or it sells a service.
There's no mystery business out there that sells nothing.
Every business sells a product or a service.
So first, here's some hard facts.
As a host and founder
of the four largest eBay and Amazon groups in Australia.
I get to see inside many businesses.
I get to see inside, not just my businesses,
but also inside many of the other members' businesses.
I get to see how much money everybody's investing
purchasing products,
and how much money they were seeing back in profits.
And here's the numbers.
If you want to make say $1,000 profit
after all expenses per week,
on average you need to invest, on average,
$35,000 on inventory.
If you want to make, on average, $2,000 profit per week
after all expenses, it requires, on average, $70,000.
Now, if you do not have that kind of cash flow
or you're not willing to invest that kind of money,
the good news is you don't need to.
If you don't want to use your own inventory
you can use what is called the industry virtual inventory.
This is also called drop shipping.
Now I'm not going to go into drop shipping in this video
as I've done that many times before,
but I'll put a link on the screen below.
if you want to know more information about drop shipping.
This leads on to the next criteria, risk.
If you're risk averse, only follow a proven formula
which has many case studies
from people who have achieved the success
that you wish to achieve.
And also don't spend money on inventory that hasn't sold
if you haven't done it before.
The next criteria for me is the business must be able
to be run remotely.
When I started selling online
back when we used to live in Sydney,
we ended up with a house full of products and full of staff.
This used to drive my wife bonkers.
Today, we live on a farm
and we have no inventory on the property
and no staff on the property.
Everything is run remotely.
So when we go on holidays for days, weeks or months
it makes absolutely no difference.
With COVID-19, this has been a godsend
and it really is something that everybody
who is starting a new business these days
should take into account
as it could easily all happen again.
But the good news is
if you're selling online
since COVID-19 online sales have boomed.
So to cut a long story short,
my background was always importing.
I've been importing for over 30 years
and selling those important items through many channels,
including eBay, Amazon, Google product ads, et cetera,
our own independent websites,
but because of the latest development in technology
over the last several years,
we've been moving more and more to drop shipping
as it's much easier to automate, much lower risk.
And with drop shipping,
you get paid before you need to purchase any inventory.
This is the reason that so many people in businesses
have moved to the drop ship model.
So bottom line is, take the time to write down your criteria
what you want with starting your own business.
Then find a proven step-by-step formula
that has case studies
from people who've achieved the success
that you want to achieve.
If you want to know more about drop shipping
and/or see case studies from people
who built six, seven digit drop shipping businesses
and beyond from scratch,
I'll put a link on the screen and below.
I hope this video helped you
with starting your own business in 2021.
If you need any help scaling up your business,
make sure you check out the step-by-step videos below
and while you're there,
make sure you hit the subscribe button
to the no fluff channel
that teaches how anyone can make a full-time living
from their home using eBay and Amazon.
Until next week, stay safe.
List more, sell more.
This is Neil Waterhouse.