How Dropshipping Kitchen Appliances Allowed Francisco To Earn $4500 Daily And Quit His Sr. Analyst Job
Francisco Cabasag Jr. • Published November 5th, 2023
Francisco's e-commerce side hustle turned into his full-time business.
SIDE-HUSTLE STATS
40
Hours Worked Per Week
$4500
Revenue Per Day
3
Founders
5
Employees
$1000
Startup Cost
1
Days Before Profit
FaceBook Ads
Main Growth Strategy
4-6%
Net Profit Margin
Table Of Contents
Working As A Sr. Operation Analyst + E-Commerce Store
Hi! My name is Frenzo Cabasag. I used to be a Senior Analyst for a logistics startup here in the Philippines, but now I’m a full-time entrepreneur. I started two e-commerce companies (househacks.store and modfactory.co). One in the consumer electronics space and another in the decorated apparel space. My business partners are brothers, and one of them was my close friend from high school! We’re averaging around 4,500 USD in sales per day.
We started out as a dropshipping company but we eventually evolved to becoming a distributor for large appliance brands.
Coming Up With The Idea
What made you start a business in e-commerce and dropshipping?
When the pandemic hit the Philippines, people had to buy their goods online, and this led to a huge boom in e-commerce.
My co-founders and I decided to capitalize on this trend by selling appliances online.
We mainly built it by creating our own website and running paid ads, but eventually we focused more on online marketplaces such as Shopee and Lazada. We were lucky because we were able to ride the e-commerce wave, so we saw success from day 1.
First Steps To Starting
What were the first steps to creating your e-commerce store?
Our first step was selling the products on Facebook and then creating our online presence. We quickly had to learn how to market the products and manage operations. It was tough because we had to pack the orders ourselves at the start, but eventually we learned to delegate and build systems.
Growing Your Side-Hustle
How did you grow your online store?
Our main growth tactic was paid ads on facebook and on Shopee and Lazada. Shopee and Lazada is basically the Southeast Asian equivalent of Amazon.
Revenue + Earnings
On average, how much do you earn from your side-hustle each month?
Francisco's e-commerce businesses earn $4500 in daily revenue.
Revenue growth was explosive at the start. Honestly, this was mostly luck because we were able to ride a timing wave. We went from $0 to $20k USD in about a month and then from $20k to 100k USD per month within a year.
Startup Costs + Tools
How much did it cost to start dropshipping?
It cost us nothing because we were able to get the products on credit (Note: Francisco and his co-founders spent about $50k in PHP or $1000 in USD to start their e-commerce business).
Tools used: Google sheets, Omnirio, Canva
Side-Hustle Lessons & Advice
Would you recommend dropshipping or e-commerce as a side hustle?
I’ve learned that creating a business is not supposed to be complicated. You have to think very much like a beginner and focus on satisfying a need. I would recommend my side hustle only if you work from home. This is because at the start you have to physically handle the packages. My best advice would probably to focus on finding a need that you have the advantage to fulfill.
This is my experience in the PH market, but I would guess [dropshipping today] is viable but the probability of success is extremely low. I think other similar models would work better like affiliate marketing, print on demand, and private labeling.
Career Tips
Would you recommend being a senior operations analyst as a career?
I would recommend that you get a job that is more project/output based rather than something that requires you to do something on a daily basis.
Advice For Getting A Job As An analyst
Any advice do you have for people who want to be an operations analyst?
Take advantage of the resources that your university offers. I got my job through my University’s placement office. E-commerce has always piqued my interest, so I wanted to work for a company in that industry or at least adjacent to it. I would say it takes a lot of project and process management.
Where Can People Find You?
Where can we find you?
Websites: househacks.store and modfactory.co
Instagram: @thelifeoffrenzo
LinkedIn: Francisco Cabasag Jr.
Twitter: @FCabasag
TikTok: @frenzocabasag