Marc Nieto is a young university student, YouTuber, basketball player, and entrepreneur from Barcelona. He likes to make the most out of his time and seize every second of his day.
Marc’s a multifaceted person, willing to explore the unknown, which has taken him to the world of dropshipping. Now, he runs his own ecommerce business with sales between €5,000 and €6,000 each month. Read on to learn about his story!
Post Contents
- His Beginnings: From YouTuber to Online Ecommerce Teacher
- Failing to Learn
- Learning From His Mistakes
- From Failure to Success
- Revenue and Profit are Not the Same Things
- His Target Market
- Shipments and Returns
- His YouTube Channel is Now his Side Gig
- Ecommerce: A Part-Time Job for Students
- How to Deal With Costs While Being a Student
- A Bright Future Ahead
- Want to Learn More?
His Beginnings: From YouTuber to Online Ecommerce Teacher
We can trace Marc’s career back to YouTube, where he opened a mobile gaming channel six or seven years ago. He was one of the first Spanish YouTubers in this field, so his follower count multiplied.
But, as years went by, he lost interest in the gaming industry. His curiosity for entrepreneurship and desire to reinvent himself outgrew that world. He was searching for the next step and asked himself: What student jobs pay well?
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Even though he had thousands of followers, Marc realized that if he wanted to earn money on YouTube, he would have to reach between 8-10 million views to make $2,000. These numbers didn’t fit his plans and interests for the future.
“My goal was to grow as a professional. I didn’t want to settle for a student job on the weekends. It wasn’t a radical change, like many people think.”
“I changed slowly over time. In fact, before I even cut ties with gaming, I had already been an entrepreneur for two years.”
During this transition, he realized that the less time he dedicated to his YouTube channel, the better his online business results. Still, it was never an option to stop making content altogether. That is why he slowly transitioned his YouTube channel from gaming to dropshipping.
Failing to Learn
One of the things Marc never put to the side was his creativity. While looking for a student job, he also got into trading, getting involved in financial asset speculation to make profit. But above all, Marc wanted to let his more adventurous, entrepreneurial side shine. That is why he opened the door to the exciting world of dropshipping.
“It all began to discover what truly being an entrepreneur meant. I remember thinking it was the perfect job for an experienceless student. For me, it wasn’t about saying I was an entrepreneur on my Instagram bio. It was about fighting for what I like and to really aim for long term results”.
But, lofty aspirations and the false belief that success would come easy made Marc fail a couple of times.
His first business idea was a backpack store he started together with a friend. Marc used the store to apply all the knowledge he had learned by himself.
“I didn’t know Facebook Ads existed, so I plunged into influencer marketing. It seemed to be working quite well. We were getting a lot of views – but only two people bought from our shop”.
Since both were students, they couldn’t afford to waste time on an unprofitable store, so they eventually abandoned it.
“You have to be patient and not give up on your goals. Fail at least twice before even thinking of quitting.”
A year and a half later –now with more knowledge and a better understanding of dropshipping – Marc opened his second online store. This time, it was an electronics store, which didn’t take off either.
However, he was not willing to give up.
Learning From His Mistakes
At first, Marc wasn’t aware of the mistakes he had made in the past. With time, and after learning and reading YouTube comments from his followers, he discovered that the ads he had been using hadn’t had the impact he wanted.
“In the beginning, I was my own influencer. I was getting a lot of views but no sales. I didn’t know anything about transitions, how to use the psychology of colors, how to keep an audience interested by using specific fonts, animations, etc.
“There’s not just one reason why a dropshipping business fails. It’s the sum of many different wrong decisions.”
As Marc would later find out, many small mistakes combine to make a customer’s experience unsatisfying.
“The purpose of your web page is to keep the client browsing for the longest time possible. Imagine clients with a 100 percent bar of interest. Each mistake on your web page subtracts from that bar.”
From Failure to Success
After some time, a friend of Marc’s suggested starting a third store. He even had a promising niche idea that had the potential to work in the long-term.
“This time, before I even got started, I spent a week comparing products, researching the market, and looking for competitors. I even created a business plan and gathered a list of blogs to understand the potential engagement we could get.”
“When starting a business, you don’t simply jump right on it without a safety net. It may seem like a leap of faith, but the truth is you should make sure your idea can be profitable before even considering trying.”
Once again, as he’d done with his previous stores, he trusted Shopify to start dropshipping. Fortunately, this time, his thorough research rewarded Marc for the extra work he put in.
“I took it very seriously – I wasn’t just thinking about making money. I wanted to offer the best customer support, so I tried to be very meticulous with those small things that could add quality and value.”
With the data he had gathered, he managed to attract even more people through Facebook Ads, influencer marketing, web marketing, and blog marketing.
He decided to invest more time on web design to create something attractive and clear to clients.
Revenue and Profit are Not the Same Things
“There is a lot of information out there at your disposal, but you never know who is behind the source or if the data shown is accurate. So, at the end of the day, it’s your call to make – is this article worth my trust? Is this guy being honest?
When it comes to ecommerce, many entrepreneurs show off with big numbers, but they always mention whether that number is sales/revenue or profit.
When Marc published his video on YouTube, he tried to be completely open about his achievements. As he says, “Dropshipping is not easy money.”
“For example, I have made €60,000 since I started, but that’s definitely not the money I have earned. That’s not my profit.”
“Profit is whatever money is left after you subtract all the costs from the money made with sales. That’s the real deal.”
His Target Market
Defining the market your store is targeting is key in any business. Marc decided to stick to what he already knew, so he targeted the Spanish market.
Although he would like to expand internationally soon, for now, he has set the prices so that the store is profitable at a national level.
However, some of his products have crossed borders to other countries like Italy and the United Kingdom.
Shipments and Returns
Before choosing the shipment method for your products, it’s crucial to research your niche and the market.
“What I usually do is put my customer’s hat on and think: How long would I be willing to wait to get an order? And at what cost?”
A better way of improving customer retention and managing customer expectations is using email marketing – notifications that tell the customer where the shipment is at all times.
“I like to send three emails to inform you about the status of a shipment. The best way to go about it is by using email automation so you can save time and focus on what really matters.”
You also have to consider that the cheapest service is usually not the best for you, for your shop, or your client. That is because the longer a shipment takes, the more likely it is to get lost.
“We usually ship with ePacket, and we like it. Even though it is a bit more expensive, we get better shipping and return service. We know the shipment will get to its destination, and if any problem comes up, it can be solved faster.”
His YouTube Channel is Now his Side Gig
Marc sees a promising future to come in his ecommerce journey, but he’s still not ready to completely move away from YouTube. Instead, he’s repurposed his channel to showcase his experience as an entrepreneur.
Here’s one great example of how he’s stepped up into this niche.
He analyzes celebrities’ stores to prove that even famous people run dropshipping stores and sell products at a marked up price. Pointing out the techniques they used is the first step to replicate them.
“In one of my videos – “Cristiano Ronaldo y el dropshipping” – I analyzed his store and discovered that the product being sold was from Aliexpress. However, the value that the brand adds allowed him to sell it for 20 times the price. This means that a product with a price of €10 is sold for €200.”
Ecommerce: A Part-Time Job for Students
If there is something that Marc knows well, it’s that every minute counts.
He believes that ecommerce is the perfect part-time job for university students.
“I’ve learned that if you automatize some of your store’s processes, you can earn more money with an online store than with any other online job. That’s the real advantage of dropshipping.”
Over time, you will have more income, and you can use it to hire someone else to take over some of your daily tasks. Or reinvest part of it to scale your business, which Marc thoroughly recommends.
How to Deal With Costs While Being a Student
Ever since Marc got started with dropshipping, he’s understood that it’s a long-term project. He knew it was a real business, and that’s why he decided to invest some of his earnings from YouTube.
“I think €500 is the optimal figure to start, test some ads, and play around for two or three weeks. Not making profit right away may be frustrating for some people, but the road ahead is longer than we think.”
“When I started all this, I was just a high school graduate. If you don’t have that extra money saved, you can always ask your parents. Inform them, tell them about the risks and benefits, the business model, the potential it has. I know everybody comes from a different background, but it’s not an unattainable amount of money. You can save it in a few months if you try hard enough.”
A Bright Future Ahead
Though he still has to graduate from university, Marc is already planning his next steps. His idea is to move to Bali for a few months, continue working on his online store, and do some international networking.
Meanwhile, he’s working a full schedule: Youtuber, student, entrepreneur, and even as a producer for Zeus Media, a video production company.
With so much on his plate and still wanting more, who knows the limit for this young student?