I got back into eCommerce...This time in Ukraine.

I never thought I'd get back into eCommerce again after successfully selling my dropshipping stores, especially not here in Ukraine...during war, but here we go again!

With the money I've been getting renting out my apartment in Kyiv, it goes into a separate account that I had decided to reinvest back into Ukraine. Yes I bought it with my own money, and would love to live there and enjoy it, but if I can rent it out for $1,600 to someone who needs the location and space, while living somewhere cheaper for $400 a month, why not have that difference go into something else potentially worth while. 

Stanislav is from Mykolaiv and when the war started, he lost his business, home, and had to relocate to Kyiv with nothing. I was introduced to him through my ex-gf Tanya who I trust. In Ukraine, there are scammers, like in many countries, but here, also no one will ever recomend someone or vouch for someone that they can't 100% trust.

There's no guarantees in business or life, but sometimes you just need to take the chance on someone. And with this money, earned from my real estate investment in Ukraine, I wanted to keep it within Ukraine to help grow their economy and lift up local entrepreneurs.

A few months ago, I sent $1,500 to help him start. He used that money to buy a laptop, connect the wifi, and buy his first round of inventory. It's been successful but now he wants to grow and needs more working capital, so today I invested another $5,000 making my total investment over 270,000uah about $6,500usd in total. 

Almost exactly 10 years ago, I was also in a bad financial situation and was barely getting by and had less than $200 in my bank account at my lowest point. You can read about it here in this blog post here.

Luckily I met a guy named Anton who helped me get into a dropshipping business, and while it was taking off the ground, my cousin Larry offered to me bail me out and buy me a plane ticket home to SF if I got stuck and completely ran out of money before it was profitable. Luckily it ended up working out for me at the end as if you've followed my journey, you'll know. 

Ironically, it was my time in ecommerce and the sale of my stores that allowed to me buy my apartment in Kyiv and renovate it in cash. So in a strange way everything has gone full circle again. 

Honestly, I don't know if i'll ever see this money again, but if it can potentially pay off and change his life from scraping by living off of $200 a month like I was when I was in his position not so long ago. Maybe I can be the Anton in his life and help him become successful again, at least in a passive investor way, I'm happy to take that gamble. 

Let's wish Stanislav and our new venture the best of luck. Whatever money I get out of this, I plan to reinvest again into Ukraine. I hope this keep this ball rolling! 

 I never thought i'd get back into Ecommerce, especially not in this country during these crazy times, but here we go again!  

 

With love fro Kyiv, Ukraine

Johnny FD