Starting Business and Shipping Problem.

[AKang47]

Hi, well I'm new to business since I'm only 14 years old, but anyways.

I currently dropship some products to my eBay customers, but I'm looking to increase my profit.

I'm into fixed gear bicycles and they are really popular right now.

I wanted to order some from China and maybe set up a brick and mortar store
(not online since shipping bikes is too expensive) or something on Craigslist, where I can have them pick it up.

However, the bike costs $185 and shipping is $175. With that cost in total, I will barely make any profit. Are there any ways I can negotiate or get cheaper shipping from China to U.S?

Also, can you recommend me some ways to sell my product? I'm going to set up a website and get some SEO done on it but is it hard to set up a small business?

Thanks.

[billbenson]

Wow, that's cool at your age. Since it appears you primarily want to sell online, I'd write a highly informational website on fixed gear bicycles. If you can get a lot of traffic to the site, then you can think about buying products from china. I really don't know anything about buying from china or importing, but that is putting the cart before the horse. Make sure you can sell them, then look for ways to import them. Meanwhile, maybe you can get them domestically and sell them through ebay or whatever and make a few dollars.

I would try to stay away from a brick and mortar store as your costs are very high.