Four Reasons You Should Start A Shipping Business
Online shopping and other forms of e-commerce have ballooned in recent years, thanks to retailers like Amazon. Shopping for all manners of goods – from home appliances to luxury vehicles – has never been easier.
Online sales grew by 50.5% over 2019-21, leading to customers spending nearly $900 billion online in 2021. This uptick in sales also explains the increased demand for packing, shipping & logistics services.
Despite the fluctuations in gas prices and the damages to supply chains wrought by COVID-19, online retailers continue to offer low-cost shipping, resulting in high tonnage of freight moving globally.
All these points lead to the same conclusion – now is a great time to jump on the shipping business bandwagon.
A shipping business is a company that specializes in the transportation of goods from one location to another. They can use a variety of modes of transportation, including trucks, planes, ships, and trains. Shipping businesses can be either small and local or large and international.
Therefore, whether you opt for a more risk-averse path by opening a FedEx franchise or starting a drop-shipping or freight business yourself, you have many viable reasons to do so.
Read on to find out why starting a business today may be the best idea you’ve ever had.
4 Prime Reasons That Are Gonna Make You Start A Shipping Business
1. It Can Help Your Local Businesses Grow
Starting a shipping business can be a great way to support businesses in your community. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 1 in 5 small businesses fail every year due to out-of-control costs.
Far too many companies get bogged down in a logistics quagmire and cannot get products to their clients cost-effectively.
Established businesses have the flexibility and freedom to develop a relationship with a global shipping company, which can return the favor with personalized service.
However, these companies’ prohibitive charges keep them out of the reach of your favorite Mom & Pop store. This is where your shipping startup can make a difference.
By interacting meaningfully with businesses in your community, you stand a better chance of understanding their needs and limitations and can help them find appropriate workarounds.
For instance, you can step in with a custom packaging solution if your local artist is great at marketing herself but doesn’t know how to prepare her portraits for overseas shipping.
You can spend more time than an impersonal freight firm will and explain the ins and outs of customs and tariffs to help her sell her work.
Moreover, you can partner with dropshipping business owners in your area to help them with their shipping needs. It’s an e-commerce fulfillment method where the retailer doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, when a customer orders, the retailer gets the item from a third-party supplier, and the latter will ship it directly to the customer.
However, if you’re interested in learning what dropshipping is and the steps involved, you can check out credible websites and other resources online. Indeed, starting a shipping business can help local entrepreneurs in your area grow and become successful.
The close relationships you can build with other businesses in your community can go a long way towards manifesting success for everyone in the picture.
2. It Opens You Up To Global Profits
The freight industry has never been as profitable as it is now. In fact, 2021 was when intercontinental carriers earned more than $140 billion annually.
Executives at Maersk are celebrating 9-year record profits while those at COSCO are walking home with jaw-dropping bonuses. What could possibly cause this? Surprisingly, COVID-19.
By forcing large parts of the world to scale down their economic activity, COVID-19 ensured that freight rates would skyrocket.
As variants continue to rise and cause rolling lockdowns in different parts of the world, these rates will likely stay high.
These rate hikes have also positively impacted air shipping, with FedEx reporting profits over $80 billion in 2021 and a whopping 3.28 million packages handled simultaneously.
To top this off, research by IHS Markit forecasts an increase of $10 trillion in the shipping sector over the next decade.
This means for shipping startups that there will be an ever-expanding piece of the wealth pie up for grabs. The pandemic will end, and the deprivation of American goods felt abroad will drive demand up in almost all countries.
This rise will also have positive impacts on stock and forex exchanges worldwide. With a little bit of foresight and careful planning, you too will be able to reap the benefits of riding this wave, so make sure you ready yourself for it.
Moreover, starting a shipping business can open you up to global profits by allowing you to transport goods to and from anywhere in the world. This means you can reach a wider customer base and sell your products to people all over the globe. With a shipping company, you can also take advantage of lower shipping costs.
In some cases, it can be cheaper to ship goods internationally than domestically. This can save you money and boost your profits. It can also help diversify your business. By expanding into new markets, you can reduce your risk if one market experiences a downturn.
3. You Enter An Exciting World Full Of Growth
Dissatisfaction and boredom are the mortal enemies of success, as virtually all studies of workplace satisfaction have revealed over the last decade.
Some studies show that as high as 1 in 2 workers regularly report being bored at work, resulting in diminished productivity by a full week every few months.
Perhaps you were, or are, one of these workers, looking to broaden your horizons and get the most out of life. This is why a shipping business can be just what you need.
Shipping is such a vast and multifaceted field that it will require all of your heart and intellect and keep you on your toes.
In addition to market research and competitor analysis that you would do for any business, you will also have the chance to absorb a lot of information about the world.
Whether cultural practices affect professional conduct or international law and finance, you will dive headfirst into an exciting world with endless possibilities.
You will also have the chance to choose between what kinds of goods you want to ship, including perishables, hazardous materials, or just everyday wear.
With deciding what markets to penetrate and who to work with, starting a shipping business will invigorate your creative faculties and empower you with a lifelong pursuit of excellence.
4. You Can Break Into This Business Easily
Although it takes a lot of capital to buy a shipping vessel or set up a multinational freight corporation, you can usually get started with a simpler, more localized shipping business reasonably quickly.
It can all begin with taking stock of where you are and how you can contribute. If your company can fulfill the logistical needs of the people around you, that will be a springboard for your future success.
You will have to find a location and come up with some initial funds to get started, even if it means owning a single vehicle and going around town to scope out prospective clients, shake hands, and make deals.
Almost anyone can leverage their current financial position and a thoughtful business plan to get started.
With the proliferation of freelancing platforms, it has never been easier to put together a professional look and feel for your business, establish an online presence and begin marketing your services.
Especially in a post-COVID world, the brightest minds have made themselves available to solve your needs virtually, and you can leverage these to hit the ground running.
Final Thoughts
There’s no time like the present to start your shipping business. There are big niches available in the shipping world, and all estimates project serious growth awaiting those who bring all hands on deck and get started.
Whether it is engaging the businesses in your community or brokering deals halfway across the world, shipping can help you break out of your rut in any industry you choose. So make sure you plan and do what it takes to present your best self to the world.
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