With dropshipping, you get to take the top-selling products that were created and manufactured by someone else, sell them yourself, and earn a portion of the profits. That makes this a win-win for everyone involved. The creator gets more sales and you’ve got a ready-made business idea without having to come up with it entirely on your own.

But how do you get your dropshipping business off the ground in a way that makes it more of a cheetah than a sloth? Simple. You follow these four steps.

Step 1. Promote, promote, promote…before you’re ready to sell

The one mistake that many new entrepreneurs make is that they don’t promote their businesses until they’re actually up and running. Because they’re unclear about exactly what their new dropshipping business will look like, they decide to wait until they have all of the kinks ironed out before sharing them with others. Though this may seem logical, the reality is, the more hype you can create around your business before you even open your online doors, the more customers you’ll have standing in your virtual line ready to buy whatever it is you decide to sell.

Social media works great for this because people can easily share your posts. Plus, if you can create something that goes viral, then you’re able to reach a huge number of people whom you normally wouldn’t normally have been interacting with. Three tips for creating a viral post include: make it positive, make it emotional, and make it useful.

Step 2. Select the right products

If you’re thinking about starting your own dropshipping business, then the second step to making it ultra-successful is to select the right products. This requires that you do a little research in your particular product niche to determine which items will likely fly off the shelves.

A good place to start is Amazon. If you have a specific product in mind, find it on their site and see how it ranks in sales. If you aren’t sure which products you want to carry, take a look through their bestsellers and see what comes up as items in this category are a great place to start.

You could also ask consumers within your target market for some of the products they’d be most interested in purchasing in the upcoming months. Set up a poll on Facebook or place your question on Twitter. Think about the responses you get and select your products from there.

Step 3. Create a stellar online shopping experience

Another option that can really get your dropshipping business going is to get a reliable web hosting service. This means that you partner with a company to put your website online. You use their platform and their technology, so you don’t have to create them all on your own.

Web host with the right company and your customers will enjoy a number of benefits ranging from super-fast web page loading to a stellar shopping experience.

Some web hosting packages include free SSL certificates as well, which are vital for an eCommerce business to obtain consumer trust. The better more effortless and convenient you make it to purchase products from you, the more likely it is that’s what they’ll do.

Step 4. Always strive to become better

Once you get your dropshipping business set up, you may be tempted to kick back, put your feet up on your desk, and enjoy the fruits of your labor. However, a successful entrepreneur never rests. Instead, he or she strives to continue to learn as much as possible about how to grow the business, taking it to higher levels.

One way to do this is to take in ecommerce business tips and tricks from someone who has is passionate about, and has mastered, dropshipping. For instance, Tomas Slimas is the creator of the Oberlo dropshipping app and he provides a number of free resources, such as an online book titled The Ultimate Guide to Starting Your First Ecommerce Business and blog posts like this one: The Ultimate Guide to AliExpress Dropshipping. When the information is free, you at least owe yourself a look.

Promote your business before you’re even ready to sell, select the products and product lines your consumers want most, offer a stellar online shopping experience, and always strive to become better and your dropshipping business will be off and running in no time at all. This means that you can live your dream of being a business owner while providing your customers with the products they need to live their dreams. Who could ask for more?