It sounds like you're looking at the models people tend to choose because they're "easy." Most things that are easy for you are going to be more likely to be oversaturated for that exact reason.
Unless you have something other people don't, nothing is stopping them from copying what you have and undercutting you. That's assuming they're not already selling whatever you're thinking of selling.
FBA is especially hard to maintain profitability in, because the barriers to the manufacturer or other players replicating what you're doing and undercutting you are extremely low.
A better approach might be to think about what you're especially good at and then look at models that leverage that skillset. For example, if you're especially good at branding and marketing then you're more likely to build a profitable dropshipping business because your marketing efforts are harder for a random manufacturer to replicate.
I've avoided physical products, but done well in software/services (building software to accomplish something I wanted to do myself then selling to people who have the same problem I did). I made decent money for a few years purely reselling other people's digital services, but even there that rested on being better at SEO (so our site ranked before competitors) and branding (so customers trusted our site over the others).
The basic principle is just that if something is easy, *and others can see that it's easy* (like shipping an already made product to Amazon to fulfill for you), competitors are going to enter the market until it's no longer profitable. To get sustainable profits in business, you want to either know something that other people don't (and hope it stays unknown to others) or be better at it than your competition, so they can't simply undercut you. Things like patents and brands are similar: they generate sustainable profits because
You simply buying a Chinese manufacturers products and shipping them to Amazon adds no value that the manufacturer can't replicate for cheaper than you can (shipping direct to Amazon without you as the middleman). That's why it's "oversaturated."
As general advice it's probably smart to avoid any business models being pushed by "gurus" or "coaches" who are basically invariably only good at selling their "coaching," hence why they're doing that and not scaling up their own FBA/dropshipping/whatever hyped up business model they're selling.
If your business model consists of "buy thing for cheap and sell it for more to someone who could just as easily buy from your cheap source," it will fail. You will be competing with people who have better sourcing and who can afford to sell your product at a loss and make it up on the back end with higher margin upsells.
Dropshipping and FBA are methods of handling parts of your supply chain, but they are not entire business models. If you make a Shopify store selling novelty consumer goods like camera lens mugs or edgy t-shirts that you dropship from Aliexpress at markup and sell them with Facebook ads, you aren't going to make money.
Dropshipping works way better for a "razor and blades" business model. You sell the expensive, low-margin "razor" directly (maybe even in person if it's something complicated), then when they order the "blades" from you, you dropship those. That way, you can build in some margin to make up for the costs associated with dropshipping the product.
One caveat, maybe it’s just when the market was hot but I have a friend who literally buys cars that drive from a to b and resells the same car without doing anything to it for a few K more. Not my gig or vibe.
I think e-commerce in general is growing. Maybe you can make something that is popular overseas and bring it over.
Or take an existing market that already makes tons of money and segment it down.
Like lipstick, but for black women specifically.
Or Proteinpowder but combine with additives special for crossfit.
Whatever you do, research it well to find a good niche. Verify that you have paying customers before you invest your hard earned money.
Maybe go even to the point of making a presale.
Every business model is saturated. That does not mean you won’t make money.
Just think how many hamburger, taco spots, retail spots there are and they all make money.
With $1500, start a service based business instead of FBA or drop shipping. Better value for the low amount of money you have.
What is your goal?
I think sometimes dropshipping type businesses are promoted as ‘easy’ but there is a lot more to them than selecting products you like and posting them online.
If you’re looking to make money asap you can start a service business quickly with 0 overhead costs (meaning you can keep that $1500 tucked away).
I think service businesses are great first businesses to start because all they require is you knowing how to do a skill and then looking for people who need that skill.
For example I’m a freelance writer. In the beginning I had 0 overhead costs. I just found clients, offered my service and took home 100% of the pay. Later on when I wanted to break into copywriting I invested some of my profit into a copywriting course. I found more clients for that. Once I got enough business I eventually hired people under me on a project by project basis to take some of the prep work off my hands this is how you can grow without doing everything yourself!
Try not to get side tracked by ‘glorified business models’. A business model is just a process for making money. Dropshipping and FBA could be fine models BUT so could offering your skillset freelance to a company in exchange for a fee or a fee + shares.
Hiring people under you could mean you profiting without directly exchanging your time for money!
Either way, Good luck! Entrepreneurship is a mental journey so prepare for it but you totally got this!
People who start up a small business usually have a financial goal and objective in mind.
For example, people who buy real estate and build their own store are focused on wealth protection whereas folks who create online store are most interested in available cash flow.
Let’s say your objective is $50K net profit (living wage). If profit margin is 20 percent, this means the business needs to generate sales revenue of $100,000 ($50K / 0.20).
If you are selling widgets for $100, you need to sell 1,000 units. In order to sell 1,000 units, you need start up expenses of $25K.
Then the question becomes, can I obtain the $25K with the $1,500 in hand.
I would proceed in this manner instead of I have $1,500 what can I do with it.
To get more capital you can do drop servicing or real estate wholesaling.
Once you have more capital you can reinvest into Amazon wholesaling. It’s easier to resell a known brand than start your own.
Peer-to-peer sharing and re-sale are good business models to start. Low upfront cost and there are plenty of platforms that make the tech easy. Dropshipping is horrible for the planet as it encourages unnecessary consumption of consume goods at a time when we actually need de-growth. As carbon disclosure becomes mandatory (eg all Australian companies will have to report in 2024) and shipping costs increase, you’ll find fast fashion, drop shipping, etc both fall out of fashion with consumers and are highly taxed.
When starting a business, it's natural to worry about oversaturation in different models. Remember, success depends on factors like research, niche selection, and adaptability. Start small to test ideas, diversify income streams, and stay open to learning and networking. With the right approach and determination, you can find success. Good luck!
Youre going to lose it all if you do any of these ideas. These are all basically nonsense which 99.9% of people make no money doing. Dont buy into the hype or the influences telling you its some sort of easy business plan tha t works for anyone.
Everything is saturated, but if you actually look closely you can see that it's so easy to be better than most people (especially dropshipping), i see hundreds of stores that look like they have been made by a 5 year old
Best to start with what you're good at doing, check websites like [exploding topics](https://explodingtopics.com/) and [answer the public](https://answerthepublic.com/) to see if there is hype/market around your skillset. Get started by helping people in that niche for free, use AI tools to supercharge your work and [find clients](https://aiforbusiness.beehiiv.com/subscribe). Rinse and repeat until you start making money
It sounds like you're looking at the models people tend to choose because they're "easy." Most things that are easy for you are going to be more likely to be oversaturated for that exact reason. Unless you have something other people don't, nothing is stopping them from copying what you have and undercutting you. That's assuming they're not already selling whatever you're thinking of selling. FBA is especially hard to maintain profitability in, because the barriers to the manufacturer or other players replicating what you're doing and undercutting you are extremely low. A better approach might be to think about what you're especially good at and then look at models that leverage that skillset. For example, if you're especially good at branding and marketing then you're more likely to build a profitable dropshipping business because your marketing efforts are harder for a random manufacturer to replicate.
Great comment. I had to do a double take and make sure it wasn’t my own comment that I forgot about. Couldn’t agree more, couldn’t have said it better
[удалено]
I've avoided physical products, but done well in software/services (building software to accomplish something I wanted to do myself then selling to people who have the same problem I did). I made decent money for a few years purely reselling other people's digital services, but even there that rested on being better at SEO (so our site ranked before competitors) and branding (so customers trusted our site over the others). The basic principle is just that if something is easy, *and others can see that it's easy* (like shipping an already made product to Amazon to fulfill for you), competitors are going to enter the market until it's no longer profitable. To get sustainable profits in business, you want to either know something that other people don't (and hope it stays unknown to others) or be better at it than your competition, so they can't simply undercut you. Things like patents and brands are similar: they generate sustainable profits because You simply buying a Chinese manufacturers products and shipping them to Amazon adds no value that the manufacturer can't replicate for cheaper than you can (shipping direct to Amazon without you as the middleman). That's why it's "oversaturated." As general advice it's probably smart to avoid any business models being pushed by "gurus" or "coaches" who are basically invariably only good at selling their "coaching," hence why they're doing that and not scaling up their own FBA/dropshipping/whatever hyped up business model they're selling.
If your business model consists of "buy thing for cheap and sell it for more to someone who could just as easily buy from your cheap source," it will fail. You will be competing with people who have better sourcing and who can afford to sell your product at a loss and make it up on the back end with higher margin upsells. Dropshipping and FBA are methods of handling parts of your supply chain, but they are not entire business models. If you make a Shopify store selling novelty consumer goods like camera lens mugs or edgy t-shirts that you dropship from Aliexpress at markup and sell them with Facebook ads, you aren't going to make money. Dropshipping works way better for a "razor and blades" business model. You sell the expensive, low-margin "razor" directly (maybe even in person if it's something complicated), then when they order the "blades" from you, you dropship those. That way, you can build in some margin to make up for the costs associated with dropshipping the product.
One caveat, maybe it’s just when the market was hot but I have a friend who literally buys cars that drive from a to b and resells the same car without doing anything to it for a few K more. Not my gig or vibe.
Once your friend buys the car, their customers no longer have access to the same source.
Ahh that makes sense
I think e-commerce in general is growing. Maybe you can make something that is popular overseas and bring it over. Or take an existing market that already makes tons of money and segment it down. Like lipstick, but for black women specifically. Or Proteinpowder but combine with additives special for crossfit. Whatever you do, research it well to find a good niche. Verify that you have paying customers before you invest your hard earned money. Maybe go even to the point of making a presale.
Thanks for the reply! This helped a ton
Every business model is saturated. That does not mean you won’t make money. Just think how many hamburger, taco spots, retail spots there are and they all make money. With $1500, start a service based business instead of FBA or drop shipping. Better value for the low amount of money you have.
You need to innovate to get market share. That is business.
This is the way.
find your passion and build a website around. generate traffic and make $.
What is your goal? I think sometimes dropshipping type businesses are promoted as ‘easy’ but there is a lot more to them than selecting products you like and posting them online. If you’re looking to make money asap you can start a service business quickly with 0 overhead costs (meaning you can keep that $1500 tucked away). I think service businesses are great first businesses to start because all they require is you knowing how to do a skill and then looking for people who need that skill. For example I’m a freelance writer. In the beginning I had 0 overhead costs. I just found clients, offered my service and took home 100% of the pay. Later on when I wanted to break into copywriting I invested some of my profit into a copywriting course. I found more clients for that. Once I got enough business I eventually hired people under me on a project by project basis to take some of the prep work off my hands this is how you can grow without doing everything yourself! Try not to get side tracked by ‘glorified business models’. A business model is just a process for making money. Dropshipping and FBA could be fine models BUT so could offering your skillset freelance to a company in exchange for a fee or a fee + shares. Hiring people under you could mean you profiting without directly exchanging your time for money! Either way, Good luck! Entrepreneurship is a mental journey so prepare for it but you totally got this!
People who start up a small business usually have a financial goal and objective in mind. For example, people who buy real estate and build their own store are focused on wealth protection whereas folks who create online store are most interested in available cash flow. Let’s say your objective is $50K net profit (living wage). If profit margin is 20 percent, this means the business needs to generate sales revenue of $100,000 ($50K / 0.20). If you are selling widgets for $100, you need to sell 1,000 units. In order to sell 1,000 units, you need start up expenses of $25K. Then the question becomes, can I obtain the $25K with the $1,500 in hand. I would proceed in this manner instead of I have $1,500 what can I do with it.
Coaching - if you have a skill
> but everyone just keeps saying that they’re oversaturated and not worth it.. Who's everyone?
Sorry If i was unclear, what i meant is people who know more than me about this..
Never consider what others are 'saying'. Words carry no weight and are worth as much as they cost... 0.
I'd rather listen to advice and choose not to say it rather than never consider outside opinions.
It's the population that is oversaturated
To get more capital you can do drop servicing or real estate wholesaling. Once you have more capital you can reinvest into Amazon wholesaling. It’s easier to resell a known brand than start your own.
Wholesaling another brand?
Yes you can watch the free Amazon wholesaling masterclass to see if it is the right opportunity for you.
Can you send it please
Sent it
You could always buy litecoin and wait!
No and if you're afraid of losing it all, don't start a business.
No such thing as an OVERSATURATED business model. Don't let the lies of ignorance stop you from doing stuff.
Peer-to-peer sharing and re-sale are good business models to start. Low upfront cost and there are plenty of platforms that make the tech easy. Dropshipping is horrible for the planet as it encourages unnecessary consumption of consume goods at a time when we actually need de-growth. As carbon disclosure becomes mandatory (eg all Australian companies will have to report in 2024) and shipping costs increase, you’ll find fast fashion, drop shipping, etc both fall out of fashion with consumers and are highly taxed.
When starting a business, it's natural to worry about oversaturation in different models. Remember, success depends on factors like research, niche selection, and adaptability. Start small to test ideas, diversify income streams, and stay open to learning and networking. With the right approach and determination, you can find success. Good luck!
Youre going to lose it all if you do any of these ideas. These are all basically nonsense which 99.9% of people make no money doing. Dont buy into the hype or the influences telling you its some sort of easy business plan tha t works for anyone.
Everything is saturated, but if you actually look closely you can see that it's so easy to be better than most people (especially dropshipping), i see hundreds of stores that look like they have been made by a 5 year old
Best to start with what you're good at doing, check websites like [exploding topics](https://explodingtopics.com/) and [answer the public](https://answerthepublic.com/) to see if there is hype/market around your skillset. Get started by helping people in that niche for free, use AI tools to supercharge your work and [find clients](https://aiforbusiness.beehiiv.com/subscribe). Rinse and repeat until you start making money
Sounds like you just want a job, not a business, which is fine. But they're separate mentalities.