We’re proud to introduce Ricky Hayes, a successful Australian eCommerce entrepreneur who has generated over $5,000,000 in sales. He has helped hundreds of people create a life of financial freedom through his YouTube channel and mentoring. His speciality is building brands from the ground up. 

How did you get into dropshipping? 

I was speaking to a friend at a work function when he told me he was making money online doing print on demand. At the time I had no idea about making money online, took and interest and then on Youtube learned about dropshipping and ventured down that path as it has an infinite amount of opportunity for income.

What was your background before eCommerce? 

I come from an IT background specializing in automation systems to help grow the business without the need for manual work from other employees. I had been doing that for over 7 years when I found out about dropshipping.

How did you get your first sales? 

I got my first sale from selling a women’s baby gyro bowl. It took me over 4 months to get that sale after spending over $2,500 with nothing to show for it. I used Facebook ads to market the product and Shopify to get the sale and then sent to the customer via aliexpress using Oberlo app at the time. I created a simple video that quickly got people very interested and got my sale within 2 hours of my ads being approved.

How did you learn about dropshipping? 

Youtube primarily, joining groups, networking and listening to podcasts and reading articles to gain a deeper understanding into the industry. I also purchased numerous courses to gain a deep understanding from successful entrepreneurs in our industry.

What’s the most revenue you’ve generated in a day? 

My highest I generated to date was $86,900 in a single day during Black Friday 2018.

What is your best marketing tactic? 

I always recommend to people to focus on products that are new to the market and have mass appeal. My strategy and focus is to confirm the product, scale the product using Facebook ads then diversify my traffic through Google, Bing, Youtube, Influencers, email marketing, SMS marketing to ensure I am building a stable baseline for my business to bring in traffic from different sources and brand the business.

If you were starting today, what would you do differently? 

Procrastinate less. I spent too much time worried about spending money that I paralyzed myself entirely and wasted so much time making the perfect store to only realize the product is the most important part and how you market it as there are more websites than humans in the world, so we need to pay for ads to get our website known to people otherwise you will remain unknown.

Why did you succeed where others have failed? 

Perseverance. Dropshipping is not an easy industry, you need to know marketing, store setup, apps, customer service, the list goes on. I love challenges, they make me improve daily regardless of the challenge as the sun will rise tomorrow, I can always make money anytime, but my time only continues to decrease so I take the approach of risking it today for a better tomorrow. Anyone can do this, just keep trying your best, you will learn and become an expert before you know it.

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned through dropshipping? 

Nothing is ever perfect. Do not spend much time trying to perfect everything and instead focus on the fundamentals of building your store, finding products, marketing them and repeating the process as everything else to perfect your store comes as a natural progression to you building your daily sales and branding accordingly.

If you could give one piece of advice to new eCommerce entrepreneurs, what would it be? 

Frankly, enjoy your vacation while it lasts. I am a full-time entrepreneur, and have been for over a year now and still work an average of 15-18 hours a day. If you think dropshipping is you list a product, people will buy from you and you can become rich you are in for a rude awakening. This is most common question I get each day. I can do whatever I want with my time, but I keep working as if I do not keep working the bills will not just disappear. Being an entrepreneur is hard, it is depressing, it is stressful, but passing all those mountains leads you to enlightenment, enrichment and satisfaction that you achieved your goals against the normal ‘society’ rules of being in a typical 9-5 job. Be proud of yourself, of who you are, what you have done and what you will continue to be. We only live once, enjoy it your way!

What are your plans for the future?

I am moving into SaaS(software-as-a-service) applications and public speaking as it is my next challenge for me. They require different marketing approaches, understanding of industries and networking which makes me nervous, but I know when I am nervous and make mistakes, I learn the most. I want to be a known name who creates a book, helps people around the world and enlightens the lives of others to the best of my ability because we all deserve happiness.

Whoah! Ricky really contributed some incredible value in this interview. 

Key Takeaways: 

• Hustle hard. Ricky still works 15-18 hour days. 
• Focus on new products with mass appeal. 
• Diversify your traffic streams. 
• Procrastinate less and develop a bias towards action. 
• Perseverance is key. 
• Focus on solid fundamentals and avoid perfectionism. 
• Always focus on growth over comfort. Ricky is moving into SaaS and public speaking because he knows that’s where he will grow the most. 

You can learn about at Ricky and his strategies by checking out his Youtube Channel here  → Ricky Hayes Youtube