One of the realities of starting a business is that while getting it up and running isn’t difficult, being successful involves dealing with frustrations and failures.
It’s a crucial hurdle and one that only those with enough grit and perseverance overcome.
One of the recurring themes from the success stories we’ve produced here at Oberlo is the trend of successful entrepreneurs going on to create multiple businesses.
It’s something we’ve noticed from not one or two, but many of those who have gone on to set up other entrepreneurial ventures – after having gone through the pain and exasperation leading up to their first success.
Why do they, after such an arduous journey, not hang on to that success and dedicate all their effort to it?
Why do they, instead, move on to start other businesses?
While motivations abound, in this article, we’ll explore the most common reasons some entrepreneurs go on to become serial entrepreneurs.
Don’t wait for someone else to do it. Hire yourself and start calling the shots.
Get Started FreeFuel Their Passion
As the saying goes: Find a job you enjoy doing and you will never have to work a day in your life.
That’s an adage that certainly resonates with many successful merchants, especially Suhail Nurmohamed.
A self-declared serial entrepreneur, Suhail gets a thrill from embarking on new business ventures.
Though his first success did not come easy, he’s eager to replicate it because as it turns out, he’s got an entrepreneurial itch to scratch and he’s going for it.
“If I set up one store and it does amazing, I’m happy with it. But then I need to do something else like I would want to open up another dropshipping store in a different niche,” says Suhail.
Suhail’s desire and passion have even extended to him helping family members start ecommerce stores, including a cousin who’s on an entirely different continent.
Right now, he’s working on building another store of his own and has spent months on end researching and gathering data. But because it’s what he enjoys, it no longer feels like work.
In fact, one piece of advice he has for new dropshippers is to dedicate at least one year to the process.
Commit for a minimum of one year or you’re wasting your time. – Suhail Nurmohamed.
Own Million-Dollar Companies
Likewise, after dropshipper Harry Coleman found success with a general store, he pushed on to create more. Now, he’s not only the owner of three different general stores but is also working on starting niche stores – several of them, too.
His goal? To own a troupe of multi-million dollar online businesses.
For Harry, it’s also a matter of practice makes perfect. Though it took him years to master the process and get his first taste of ecommerce success, the journey has gotten much smoother since.
“Once you kinda have success with one store, and once you’ve got your customer service in place, once you’ve got your email systems in place, you know how to run your adverts, it’s easy enough to replicate success over different stores,” says Harry.
Generate More Income Streams
For others, it’s about the financial stability that having multiple streams of income offers.
Despite making more than $236,000 in four months with his first successful store, entrepreneur Vlad Gasan refused to submit to complacency.
He knew, from experience, that markets are volatile and sales can fall at any time. And 2020 sure has offered more than enough proof of this.
As eager as he was to scale, Vlad was aware that it wasn’t going to be easy and that he might have to call it quits on some of his products or even the store itself.
That’s why even as his first store continued to generate sales, he went on to build a second one. He knows that having multiple stores and diversifying his focus on different niches translates to a steadier income and more financial stability.
Build a Legacy
While the same proves true for Kamil Sattar, the young entrepreneur’s motivation stems from longer-term goals.
At just 21 years of age, he has established five consistent and different streams of income.
Kamil comes from a humble background. When he was younger, his family was living in a social estate and didn’t have much money, which gave him the determination to secure a better life.
Even though he’s currently bringing in more than $8,000 a day, he’s not stopping. For him, it’s not just about being able to live more comfortably in the now, but also to be able to establish stability for his future family.
“So it’s all about legacy building, thinking of the future future [sic], my grandkids, and their grandkids, and that’s why I’m still today trying to build as much as I can for the generation of my name and keep it going,” says Kamil.
Conclusion
Despite its ups and downs, entrepreneurship can be extremely rewarding. As we’ve seen with these examples, it also spurs you on to achieve more.
These are just some of the reasons many successful dropshippers have gone on to create multiple businesses and there are definitely others who do so with different end goals in mind.
Aspiring dropshippers, we’d love to know: What are your short-term and long-term motivations for starting an ecommerce store?
Drop your thoughts in the comments below!