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Comment by NikolaeVarius | Hacker News Reader

That just makes it seem that the relative was making tons of money and made a "dumb" mistake

I know a few people that claim 100K a month. That's all they claim, they don't say what that 100K a month is. I found out later it was 100k a month in what they managed in the store of a customer. They were the ecommerce middlemen that set up stores for successful brands that wanted to branch into eCommerce. They likely still did make more money then the non-consulting DIY dropshipping middlemen that provide no value.

They will inflate the number by just citing their revenue similar to pyramid schemers. You can write a bot that will generate lots of revenue, and any idiot can generate lots of revenue with dropshipping. The trouble is risk and the cost involved in turning a profit from such a business.

I am confident that any 10 year old could sell $100k+ per month online with about a week of training if that was the only requirement and they were allowed to spend $120k. Actually earning significant profits is the difficulty here, and that only gets easier with the standard toolkit of running a successful online retail business: understanding the products, knowing the market, and understanding all the legal hurdles.

I think the biggest issue here is barrier to entry. The barrier to entry is so low in eCommerce. The required skills are not that difficult to obtain, you don't need years of schooling, you don't need to know how to code, you don't need much of anything. For most people the level of competition is obscene because of how easy it is to get into. It's extremely difficult to reach the top tier because of the unreal amount of competition and very little competitive advantage available to leverage. I look at it the same as I do with YouTube and Social Media Influencers. Incredibly easy to start, incredibly difficult to "Make it".

> I am confident that any 10 year old could sell $100k+ per month online with about a week of training if that was the only requirement and they were allowed to spend $120k.

This 10 year old sounds like they're ready for the next YC batch lol.

with drop shipping literally every penny counts. You are competing against prices that are identical to yours, so shaving a few cents off your prices actually matters. He forgot that taxes are needed and shaved those cents off only to be hit in the face.

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