Live Q&A with Tim Kock, a veteran ecommerce entrepreneur!

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Live Q&A with Tim Kock, a veteran ecommerce entrepreneur!

RutaGanusauskaite

This thread is now closed.

Hey there fellow entrepreneurs!

I hope everyone enjoyed our first Live Q&A session with Tomas Šlimas, co-founder of Oberlo! But the fun doesn’t stop there!

I am thrilled to announce that we will be hosting our next Live Q&A session on Thursday, March 22nd, at 4pm EST (New York time) here at Ask.oberlo.com.

Make sure you are aware of your time zone: 1pm PST (San Francisco time), 8pm in GMT (London time), 9pm in CET (Berlin time).

This time, our special guest will be Tim Kock, a German entrepreneur who recently built a dropshipping store and made $6,667 in 8 weeks.

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More About Our Guest
In addition to building stores, running a blog, and creating instructional videos, Tim works with young entrepreneurs who who are willing to give their absolute best to achieve their goals.

Tim believes that every business journey starts with giving. He will join the Live Q&A session to share his insights about starting an online business from scratch and setting it up for success.

This is an amazing opportunity to learn from a successful ecommerce expert, so don’t miss out!

Cheers!
Rūta

TimKock

Hey everyone! Thanks for joining me on this live Q&A session! I'm super excited about helping all of you starting your own successful online business from scratch! Please don't be shy - I'm here to answer all of your questions!

TimKock

To get this discussion going, I just leave my first thoughts on starting an online business from scratch: starting a business is always exciting! It's probably one of the most exciting things in life - the feeling to be an entrepreneur and to be on your own is like crazy. It's like the next level! For most of us, it's really a life-changing decision!

MartinGrulich

Hi Tim! Thanks for this opportunity and your time and effort! Really appreciate that!!!
I have here three questions rights from the start

1) About the case study and your DM technique on IG...
How many people you sent DM to per day, when you launched the watch store? You mentioned that you spent about 7 hours and got 12 replies.
I contacted now about 70 people in three days, but barely 5 responded, the rest even didn't read the message.
So I am just curious how many people I should reach before I get some results, I am trying now about 25-30 people a day to avoid any ban from IG side. Thank you!

2) When you decide what exact product to choose, what is the maximum number of orders that is acceptable for you? For example 8000 orders might be a bit harder to promote cause a lot of them were sold already.

3) Few Gurus recommend to make a general store first to test a products and when you find a winner, then build a brand around it. What do you think?

THANK YOU!

TimKock

MartinGrulich I have here three questions rights from the start
1) About the case study and your DM technique on IG...
How many people you sent DM to per day, when you launched the watch store? You mentioned that you spent about 7 hours and got 12 replies.
I contacted now about 70 people in three days, but barely 5 responded, the rest even didn't read the message.
So I am just curious how many people I should reach before I get some results, I am trying now about 25-30 people a day to avoid any ban from IG side. Thank you!
2) When you decide what exact product to choose, what is the maximum number of orders that is acceptable for you? For example 8000 orders might be a bit harder to promote cause a lot of them were sold already.
3) Few Gurus recommend to make a general store first to test a products and when you find a winner, then build a brand around it. What do you think?

Hey, Martin! Thanks for your questions!
Let me answer them one by one:

Having such a low opening rate at the DMs are actually very usual. A lot of people struggle with this. The reason for this is that if the one who you sent the DM does not follow you, won't get a notification about your DM. It will be "hidden" for them. In order to increase your opening (and respond) rate, one solution is to leave a comment at their recent post. Let them know you sent them a direct message. Most of them really want to know why you sent them a message and will open it.
You only will get a temporary ban on Instagram if you do copy/paste. Never do this. All the messages you send should be personal. They are your (hopefully) customers - you have to treat them well
I don't think there's such thing as "magic line". A high number of orders can not just mean that the market is oversaturated. You can also see this as some kind of validation, that there is an actual demand.
There are many different approaches on starting and running an online business. Obviously, I can only speak for myself and about my approach. I, personally, would always start niche and then figure out what kind of products could make sense to add to your store.

Hope this helps Again, thanks for your questions! Very smart ones!

Magda

Hi Tim! Thank you so much for doing this.

When getting started what did you find to be your biggest challenge when starting dropshipping and how did you overcome it?

Also for marketing do you find it beneficial to go the route of Facebook or Instagram? This is a big question I see in dropshipping groups all the time and was wondering your perspective. Thank you!

TimKock

Magda When getting started what did you find to be your biggest challenge when starting dropshipping and how did you overcome it?
Also for marketing do you find it beneficial to go the route of Facebook or Instagram? This is a big question I see in dropshipping groups all the time and was wondering your perspective. Thank you!

I like that questions! Thanks, Magda!

My biggest challenge was (and is) that I tend to overthink things. I really like to plan every single piece of my life. Whereas sometimes this makes sense (especially if you want to grow a business), it could be a huge obstacle when starting. It took me two years until I made my first sale - just because I planned everything in detail and didn't really start. I overcame this by actually listening to people who are where I want to be. I thought to myself "why not actually execute what those successful people are telling you" - three days later I made my first sale ever. Most exciting day of my life to be honest!

Regarding Facebook or Instagram: I think you should do both. You actually never know where your target audience is before you test it.
The advertising opportunities are great on both sides! If you have a budget for your ads, just split it into two pieces and test both platforms. By just picking one platform you always can miss a great opportunity.

Thanks for your great questions - I think a lot of people will benefit from it! Well thought!

Anieta

Hi, thanks for making the time, Tim. Is the format to just shoot you all our questions or will you give a presentation first?

Anieta

Great- Posting questions straight away it is.
When drop shipping from one country into another, what's the best way to warn customers of customs fees and taxes, when you don't know how much they will be?

TimKock

Anieta When drop shipping from one country into another, what's the best way to warn customers of customs fees and taxes, when you don't know how much they will be?

Thanks for your question, Anieta!
This is a very important and sensible topic. Great that you are aware of this!

The best way is to let them know at the check-out. You can do this by getting a Shopify app for this (please understand that I can't give you names of the apps, just search for it on Shopify's app store) or you can create a simple page at your store where you let them know.

Before doing this, I can highly recommend figuring the actual custom fees out - maybe your customers don't have to pay any.

Hope this helps

mangatabiz

Hi Tim!

Thanks for taking the time for this Q&A.

I am curious your thoughts on the possibly correlations between print-on-demand and drop-shipping. We currently use a few platforms to do print on demand and are looking into drop shipping. Would you recommend combining the two or going a completely different direction with drop shipping?

Also, what are your thoughts on starting up a drop shipping business while traveling? My husband is getting out of the military once he returns from his deployment in April and we are going to be traveling around Europe and I wasn't sure if that would be a good time to get this started or not. Right now I'm in the research phase.

Thanks,
Nikki Rose

TimKock

mangatabiz I am curious your thoughts on the possibly correlations between print-on-demand and drop-shipping. We currently use a few platforms to do print on demand and are looking into drop shipping. Would you recommend combining the two or going a completely different direction with drop shipping?
Also, what are your thoughts on starting up a drop shipping business while traveling? My husband is getting out of the military once he returns from his deployment in April and we are going to be traveling around Europe and I wasn't sure if that would be a good time to get this started or not. Right now I'm in the research phase.

Those are great questions! Thanks!

I don't see any reason why you can't combine POD and dropshipping. This is actually the beauty of dropshipping, you can test everything without having any risk.
If you don't feel comfortable with it, there's always the possibility to separate both businesses. With time you will know which one is more likely to become a great success and then you can close the other one (although you don't have to). I would suggest to do whatever you and your husband feels the most comfortable with

Starting a dropshipping business while traveling is a great idea! I went to Thailand for four weeks (Feb 2018) and run my businesses while traveling. It's one of the most unique and exciting feelings to sit at a pool and work on your business! If you plan your days right and really take a few hours per day out to start and run your business, then it works perfectly. But you have to sacrifice a few hours of vacation time to work.

Hope I could help with this!

johnnieP

Hi Tim,

What is the best way to get an Instagram influencer, how to contact them, It is possible to do it for free?

Thanks

TimKock

johnnieP What is the best way to get an Instagram influencer, how to contact them, It is possible to do it for free?

Hi Johnnie! Thanks for your question!
The best way is to look up niche related hashtags on Instagram and then check out the people who posted the top nine images in the search results (on Instagram). Those are the most popular ones, so the chances are very high that those are coming from Influencers.
In order to reach out to an influencer you can just send them a direct message on Instagram, google their email address or find them on other platforms (Twitter, Facebook, ...) and reach out to them over there. Influencers are making a living out of their social media accounts so they are highly interested in brand collaborations. To make this happen, they all have left contact opportunities so brands can reach out to them.

Most of the big influencers won't do it for free.
But so-called micro-influencers (people with less than 30k followers) are more likely to promote your business for free, for a commission or only the costs of a free product.

Just ask them, they all have different approaches on this.

Thanks for your great question!

appacc84

i cant get a link to get into the QnA. Please advise

RutaGanusauskaite

appacc84 I cant get a link to get into the QnA. Please advise

Hey,

This is where the Q&A happens! Post your questions in this thread and Tim will respond

johnnieP

appacc84 Hi there, do you know how it is work?

johnnieP

Sorry for my question but, how it is work, just shoot questions? live presentation? webinar?

RutaGanusauskaite

johnnieP Sorry for my question but, how it is work, just shoot questions? live presentation? webinar?

Hey there!

Just leave your questions in this thread and Tim will answer them all!

Mkcalik

Hi Tim, thanks for sparing your time for us.
I'd like to learn your FB and Instagram strategies for marketing. And as a new starter, what kind of products store would you advise?
Kind Regards,
MK Calik

TimKock

Mkcalik I'd like to learn your FB and Instagram strategies for marketing. And as a new starter, what kind of products store would you advise?

Thanks for your questions!

Let's start with FB and Instagram strategies.
In order to learn FB ads, I can highly recommend watching this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oce_bNA5obM Nicole - who's a very experienced entrepreneur put together an awesome tutorial!

Strategy-wise I would recommend spending a lot of time to figure out what kind of people you actually want (and need) to target. Your ads have to match with the values and needs of your audience. The more you know your audience, the better your ads will be.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as "blueprint". Every business and every target audience is different. But if you put in the work, you will learn everything you need to know about your audience!

Regarding the products: Don't think about that too long. As a beginner, I can highly recommend to just getting started. Although it's possible, you don't have to have a super successful store on your first try. If you are just getting started, pick a product which people use day by day and don't spend too much time on hunting a new trend.

Really hope I could help you with that

scottlimba

Hi Tim, I am getting a lot of traffic to my store, but I am not getting any purchase, and I know most are coming from facebook, so far I have 30 followers but I don't want to keep spending money on ads and not getting any sales. What advice can you give besides the apps that are supposed to help with the checkouts and getting potential customers to actually buy what I am selling.

TimKock

scottlimba Hi Tim, I am getting a lot of traffic to my store, but I am not getting any purchase, and I know most are coming from facebook, so far I have 30 followers but I don't want to keep spending money on ads and not getting any sales. What advice can you give besides the apps that are supposed to help with the checkouts and getting potential customers to actually buy what I am selling.

Hey Scott - great question!

Facebook advertising is awesome! But it's not the only thing you can do for making sales. There are many more options for you as a dropshipping entrepreneur. I can highly recommend reading this fantastic ebook: https://www.oberlo.com/ebooks/get-sales-dropshipping - you will get incredible advice (for free!) what you can do in order to make sales!

It's a marathon, not a sprint! Please don't give up!

mangatabiz

Tim,

Also, curious what your thought are on buying an already established store through Oberlo?

Thanks again,
Nikki

TimKock

mangatabiz Also, curious what your thought are on buying an already established store through Oberlo?

Hey Nikki, I really like this question!

Buying an established dropshipping store can speed up the process!
As I don't know how experienced you are, I just want to remind you that just because the store was a huge success, does not mean that you will have the same results. When buying an established store you definitely should know what you are doing and how to actually make sales.

MartinGrulich

TimKock Thank you for the answers Tim. Very helpful, especially with the commenting their posts. Man that is genius!

marcelo_95

TimKock what if you do 2-3 diffrent messages for dm, copy and paste them and just change the name of the person to make it personal, would this work?

Aljasmine

TimKock Hi Tim, i like your answer, just another one from me in this matter, should i contact these people with my personal profile or my website's professional one that i newly made ?
Thanks

idealdesigns

How much revenue and profit you have made from 2017 till today. from different businesses?
And which business activity brought you the most profit?

TimKock

idealdesigns How much revenue and profit you have made from 2017 till today. from different businesses? And which business activity brought you the most profit?

Hey! Please understand that I won't talk about my personal revenue and profit.

Answering your second questions is difficult because there are two ways to look at it. Most profitable in sense of high profit-margin per sale are definitely Instagram direct messages. Zero ad spent - pure profit.
But - as direct messages are not scalable, the most profit (in total, not per sale), I made with Facebook advertising. The profit per sale is much smaller, but the total outcome due to the possibility to scale it, is much bigger.

Hope you find some value in my answer