The Fast-Acting Income Solution That Saved My Retirement

Several years ago, I realized I was coming to the end of my corporate career, but still wasn’t financially prepared for retirement.

I took a hit I never recovered from during the 2008 financial crisis. I had kids at home, college expenses, and other debt.

Even though I downsized, moved abroad, and found a way to extend my banking career, I knew it wasn’t going to be enough to fully fund my retirement.

So, I started educating myself on several different online income models to see what would appeal to me and what I could grow as a side income while I was still working.

After reading dozens of books, taking courses, and listening to podcasts, I identified the core requirements for my retirement business: It needed to be portable, not too technical, scalable, and as hands-off as possible.

Among the options I considered were consulting, creating courses, and ecommerce.

I ruled out coaching and consulting online since I was unsure how my career skills as a private banker would translate into this field. From my research, I knew other business models like creating consulting courses could be successful, but they often took several years to pay off.

I was in my late 50s and I needed this to happen fast. I was looking for an online business model that would last for many years, but generate income sooner rather than later.

The answer lay in ecommerce.

Dropshipping: Ecommerce Made Easy

Ecommerce has grown rapidly over the past several decades—especially in the wake of the pandemic. And the best way to profit from it is through a business strategy called “dropshipping.”

Dropshipping is a way for you to own and operate an online store selling physical goods without the need to buy or store any inventory. Here’s how it works:

Your customer visits your online store and places an order.

Your store processes the order and sends it to your third-party supplier automatically.

Your supplier receives the order and ships the product directly to the customer.

Your customer receives the product thinking it came directly from you.

You make money because you charge the customer a retail price, while paying your supplier a wholesale price.

What You Need to Get Started

First, you’ll need to decide what products you’re going to sell. Some simple Google Trend searches can help you determine what niches are viable and what products are popular within these niches.

Next, you’ll need to find suppliers or manufacturers that stock the products you want to put on your online store. Again, this can be done very simply (I go into the details of this product in my course).

Of course, you’ll also need a website with ecommerce functionality. But don’t worry. You don’t need to learn programming or anything like that.

Thanks to platforms like Shopify, you can build a website with a few clicks of a button. No programming or coding knowledge required. You can even try Shopify right now with a free trial. (I have no link to Shopify… just pointing out a handy tool you can use.)

The Best Sales Strategy

I currently have nine dropshipping stores. I learned that the best sales strategy is selling high-ticket items. These are generally products that are above $500, and ideally $1,000 to $5,000.

There are three reasons why selling high-ticket items is better:

It takes the same amount of time for you to research your niche and contact suppliers.

It takes the same amount of time to upload your products onto your store.

Higher prices mean higher margins per order. You have the ability to make more money while doing less work because you have fewer orders to process and fewer customers to service. (Remember, you don’t have to handle shipping or storing any items.)

Customers who buy high-ticket items value a good customer service experience and they often have a lower return rate. So, if your online store has extra content, like product guides or explainer videos, you can easily create that higher level of customer experience for them. You set it up once and you’re done.

Running a high-ticket dropshipping store is a way to work smarter, not harder, and create a true income engine to secure your retirement.