Although it would not be acceptable to answer “It depends”, the reality is that it would really depend on a lot of factors. For starters, the answer would be a strong No. For those with enough experience and capital to run the business, it can be a Yes.
Dropshipping is the use of an e-commerce platform to conduct retail or wholesale business without having to worry about product inventory, storage, logistics, depreciation, maintenance, among others. It is simply a business model that allows you to leverage on the available products that can be posted and sold to your customers online. You do not need to maintain an inventory of these products because there are sellers and/or partners who are willing to have their own products marketed by you and you’ll earn from either your mark-up or a commission, depending on the agreed profit generation scheme.
The e-commerce platform that allows dropshipping normally maintains its own warehouse with employees that are hired to do the order preparation activities and packing. It is also in charge of the logistics concerns involving deliveries or shipping. With the amount of work needed to fulfill each and every order, the traditional retail or wholesale business can be too taxing and rigid. However, with a drop shipping model, the drop shipper no longer need to worry about these details. What is important is to maintain the store and fund the orders as necessary. The return on investment (ROI) is higher because you are free from the overhead and direct costs tied to maintaining the traditional business. This is the reason why some employees are tempted to leave their jobs and focus on growing their business.
Jobs may be considered stable no matter what the salary is, as long as there is a need for your services for an 8 to 5 job, you are guaranteed to receive your monthly compensation. However, drop shipping revenues may be dependent on the products that you sell. There are cases when profits can be higher than your salary but there may also be cases that the store may not perform.
Your risk appetite, perseverance, and the amount of time that you will spend running a drop shipping business are factors that can affect the business turnaround. If you are no longer happy with your job and you need a venture that you can put your heart, strength and mind to, you can try to replace your job with a drop shipping stint.
Maintaining a job is challenging especially if you have been doing a repetitive work from the day you were hired. If there is no professional development opportunity in the workplace, people think about leaving their jobs. The work environment and culture are also factors that influence the decision of an employee to stay or leave. When employees are happy, the tendency is for them to stay longer in the company.
The question of whether to have a dropshipping business replace a job can come from a point where the employee is ready to retire or if he or she is already burnt out. It can be a decision that can be thought of when boredom strikes. It is however, normal to consider this option especially when there is stability in the platform that is used and there is a good experience that serves as the basis of the decision.
There are many choices to implement drop shipping. Technical skills are no longer a requirement to setup your own e-commerce store. There are available platforms that can basically set up a store for you in a few steps. There may still be a requirement of entering some settings and working on some aesthetics but there are a lot of tutorials that can assist you in doing those. Even the platform that you will choose would have available step-by-step instructions for starters.
Being Your Own Boss
As this has been a cliche for those running their own businesses, we cannot help but emphasize that indeed, when you run your drop shipping business, you are the boss. You make decisions. You act based on the data available to you. You work when you like to. You can work anywhere and anytime. These are the merits of running an e-commerce business. You can also just use your mobile device to check on your orders and sales. More importantly, the opportunity for your income to exceed your monthly pay becomes higher with your e-commerce business. The results depend on your commitment and determination to make your business succeed. Further, as a business owner, your capital can determine the level of income that your business can generate, given that you have a good marketing and promotion strategy.
Also, you can control the manpower costs to those that you really need. If you are just starting with your business, you may be able to handle it on your own and just outsource the skills of people that you may need from time to time. When you reach a point when your business already grows, your attention will be needed and this is the time to think of whether you can give up your full-time job or not. When the benefits outweigh the cost of not having that stable monthly compensation because of higher profits coming in, you need to make that decision.
It is only at that stage that you can say that dropshipping can replace your job. For starters, it would be better to maintain that stable monthly salary while you navigate the drop shipping business requirements, the ins and outs, the business model and the opportunities. It is your safety net in case you realize that dropshipping does not work for you.
Your job is where you can apply what you have learned in school. It is a place where you can have opportunities to excel. It may even be an opportunity for you to go up the ladder and eventually be able to gain the financial benefits that you may be aiming for. Stay in the employment lane while you try out a drop shipping side hustle that will not affect your performance.
Maintaining a business entails high risks. If your risk-appetite is high, it is time to take that step and do it. Otherwise, you can maintain your job and cautiously learn from a small dropshipping venture. You can control it. You can have the taste of both worlds. When you are ready, it is easy to dive in.