How much does it cost to start a drop shipping business if I live outside of the US, but want to create a US based store?

Let me try my best to give you a break-down of start up costs of starting a US-based drop shipping store while living abroad. Please note all costs will be in USD:

1) Domain Name - ~$2 to $16: Depends on the provider you choose

2) Hosting - ~$23/month: Shopify has a 14 day free trial, and after the basic plan you will need costs $29/month. However, normally there are promotions that give around 20%-35% off per month. You may have to Google around to find the best one when you sign up. That would would drop your costs to ~$23/month

3) Business Email Address - Free to ~$5/month: This can be done for free with zoho.com or you can choose an email with more features, Google Apps charges about $5/month

4) Logo Design - ~$5.50: We recommend you use fiverr.com, where you can find a good artist to make a logo for about ~$5.50

5) US Based Phone Number - Free to ~$30/year: Google Voice will give you a free US Based phone number you can use to route to a gmail account! From the Google Voice account you can check Voicemails, receive, and take calls. There are paid options like Grasshopper that cost about $30/month.

6) Incorporating a US Based Business as a non-citizen - $238: This will likely be your biggest starting expense. You can incorporate in the "easy" US states like Deleware, Wyoming, or Nevada. Please note: When using this service you don't have to pay to get the US Federal EIN number, you can do this yourself for free! You can use My USA Corp for this task.

7) Advertising - Varies: This will depend entirely on your niche and how competitive it is to advertise. We have members that pay less than $0.10 per click and others that pay well over $1.00 per click based on their niche. However, there is a free $75 Amazon Ad credit and free $100 Google Ad credit for all members. A good rule of thumb though, is to budget about $100/month in advertising to start with, after using up the free credit.

We actually had one of our coaches (Jon Warren from Australia) create a new course that's in the members area of Drop Ship Lifestyle that focuses on how to adjust the techniques in the course when selling in smaller markets.  It's called the Doing Business Abroad Course.  Here is a link to an article he wrote that’s on our blog - https://blog.dropshiplifestyle.com/drop-shipping-abroad/

Check out this link that goes into more detail about the start-up costs associated with starting a drop shipping business outside US and a company that can help - https://dropshiplifestyle.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/212054928-What-are-the-start-up-costs-associated-with-starting-a-drop-shipping-business-outside-US-

Check out this blog article titled "Drop Shipping Outside the US - How much Does It Cost" - https://blog.dropshiplifestyle.com/drop-shipping-outside-the-us/

I hope this breakdown helps you to understand the costs associated with starting a store. Please know that while the upfront cost of incorporating may seem like a lot, the money you can make from a successful drop shipping store can more than cover it.