It's first and foremost a course on dropshipping with some sections on business lessons that Sara has learned along the way.

It covers a lot of stuff that really stumps many dropshippers.

Namely:

The majority of the course covers the usual dropshipping elements:

However, there are new and refreshing new strategies too:

Admittedly, I was skeptical at first.

In other words, I wondered how much could a 19-year-old realistically teach about business and dropshipping?

Firstly, Sara doesn't pretend to know it all.

Instead, she demonstrates a bit more humility than some of her male peers of the same age.

To her credit, she's read up on business/money and then gone to work applying it to various entrepreneurial avenues.

Secondly, if you believe the sales pitch, she was getting so many messages asking for mentoring that she decided to produce this course in response.

While there isn't a Facebook group or official mentoring, Sara offers an email address if 'something needs adding' to the course.

Let me tell you something here.

Following along with a bunch of videos and expecting everything to fall into place is pretty unrealistic.

It's important to realize that building a business comes with significant challenges.

Having a true mentor or access to people who can offer legit guidance when you're stuck is absolutely essential!

Unfortunately, with Sara's course, you're all on your own. 

I wonder what % of student will give up before they even get close to recouping what they spent on the course?

All things considered, if you're really committed to making life-changing income and escaping the 9-5 grind, it's crucial to be surrounded by people who will push you and help you when you're stuck.

There is a MAJOR difference between following along with a video and having to make real-life decisions that result in profits or losses.

The key is having someone who's already succeeded who can direct you to the right answers or solutions based on your specific situation.

2. Who is Sara Finance?

That's a great question for someone pretty new on the block.

Sara Finance aka Sara Rosalia is a 19 year old Canadian entrepreneur.

She's best known for her Sara Finance TikTok channel with millions of views for her money-making reels.

But how did she get started?

Growing up in poverty, her mom always encouraged hard work and self education.

Sara credits her reading habit, particularly about finance and business, for the meteoric rise in her financial circumstances.

Realizing that college wasn't a good fit and hating her job at Canadian Coffee chain, Tim Hortons, Sara started putting her wealth education into practice.

It's important to note that Sara doesn't deny that she has, and still does, pour a ton of time and energy into her businesses.

She even states she's obsessive about it!

AND it's taken her a few years of struggle to get to where she is.

With the first 2 years of dropshipping resulting in failure.

In other words, those clickbait videos about going from broke to millionaire are painting an unrealistic picture (but hey, she's getting paid for views so that's all that matters).

Now, let's give credit where it's due because she put in the time to hone her craft.

The thing that stands out with Sara's success so far is TIMING and hitting a once-in-a-lifetime event.

The pandemic and lockdown altered the shopping habits of millions.

Add to this the stock market crash in March of 2020 and how anyone with money to invest was able to buy premium shares at a fraction of the cost and watch them soar.

Both factors no doubt have been a major contributing factor to the level of wealth she's been able to accumulate in such a short space of time. #GoodForHer

Speaking of wealth, Sara is generating most of her income through the following income streams:

She has numerous affiliate links related to dropshipping.

This seems to be the trend for course-sellers & YouTubers these days to leverage more income.

In addition to income from these affiliate links, Sara is also raking in more money from YouTube views than some people will make from their jobs.

Sara also has a course on Stock Trading too. 

With the frenzy around all the Meme stocks and new traders on Robinhood, I'm sure she's making bank there too from people who see her on TikTok or YT.

Again, hats off to Sara for being in the right place and the right time to capitalize.

3. How does Dropshipping Work?

Dropshipping eliminates the need to hold inventory or handle the product yourself.

This makes it a feasible business model to get started without needing a lot of upfront capital.

* but you do still need a good chunk of money to get started with dropshipping.

As the middleman between the supplier and the customer, you get any profit left over after paying your supplier and covering any additional expenses.

Those expenses are where wannabe dropshippers get caught with their pants down.

Realistically, you need money to pay your supplier before they ship the item.

- imagine selling 100 items at $15 each: you'd better have $1500 ready to pay your supplier or you'll have a lot of pissed off customers and major issues with Shopify and your merchant who's taking those online payments on your behalf.

And remember, you won't be able to touch the money from your customers right away. In fact, it can take up to 3 months when you're a new seller.

Plus you'll need to pay to get eyes on your store. 

Most stores use professionally-made creatives which cost $$ to get.

And let's not forget the various platforms, plugins, and merchant fees that will take a bite out of any revenue.

In fact, most stores end up losing money or barely making any profit when all is said and done.

As you can see, dropshipping is a real gamble and only getting harder. 

4. Is Dropshipping Legit or a Scam?

Here's the deal.

As a business model, dropshipping is legit, but it's considered low quality for products and service.

One of the golden rules of dropshipping is to make sure you don't look like a dropshipper!

WHAT???

That in itself should be a screaming red flag not to get involved.

In addition, there are other problems at hand here.

For starters, most of the people making good money are applying more of an eCommerce model.

They have partnered with a supplier to create branded products and built a solid relationship that required investment of time and money.

This requires buying in bulk, and that comes with high risk if those items don't sell.

In many cases, the more prominent players have their own channels for production, storage, and order fulfillment.

Plus teams of VAs for product research, store creation, and customer service.

It's a far cry from the 'dropship model' most of these courses teach.

All those Youtube videos claiming to show you how to dropship for just a few hundred dollars and see a profit fast, it's all total BS & usually a bait & switch.

Yep, they're trying to sell a course, some mentoring, or get you to click on an affiliate link.

Even Sara Finance has free dropshipping courses on there (again, she's not learning dropshipping from scratch).

But wait.

That would drastically reduce how many people would be in the marketing wanting to buy a course 😉

Overall, dropshipping tends to hook people looking to make a quick buck without too much time, effort, or investment.

This mentality is why most folks fail and give up after throwing their money down the drain.

These days, it's far MORE profitable and a LOT LESS WORK to sell a course on dropshipping than it is to actually do dropshipping!

It makes sense if you think about it. 

Once you produce the course and set up the landing page or funnel, it has the potential to keep generating income.

Unlike dropshipping where you constantly have to find the next fad product and drop new ads everyday to generate sales.

And there's a lot of people making a plenty of dough from promoting various dropship-related affiliate links; Sara Finance included.

When you start to see how much $$$ these Youtuber are making from views, affiliate links, and selling courses....let's just say it's a lot more than you will make from dropshipping.

5. How much does Sara's Course Cost? Any Specials?

There's the corny 'discount' if you purchase now.

(Keep in mind the price has NOT changed since she launched the course - despite the banner saying the sale ends this week)

I'm not a fan of this gimmick.

But, let's be honest here. It's what dropshippers do with products to encourage impulse buys.

I guess it doesn't come off as tacky to them, and maybe people will fall for it - but hopefully not you.

6. Uses Alternatives to AliExpress

Okay, so Sara breaks the mold from most budget dropshipping courses by not pushing AliExpress as the go-to option when sourcing products.

Instead, she promotes Zendrop and Spocket for quicker shipping.

Both aim to solve the painfully long shipping times through AliExpress.

AND Sara is an affiliate marketer for both of them.

It's always questionable when someone makes a recommendation for something they get paid to promote.

Now, I'm not saying you should avoid them.

Just that you should do your research because an affiliate partner has a financial motive to get as many people signed up as possible.

Zendrop, rebranded from Silkroad (not to be confused with the illegal drug-running Silkroad), hasn't had the most favorable reviews from users in the past.

Now, finding a good supplier has been a constant problem ever since dropshipping began.

I'm sure an alternative to AliExpress or having to buy in bulk from Alibaba is bound to be appealing.

What's not so clear is whether Sara's is recommending platforms that are sourcing their products from AliExpress, and you're just adding another middleman into the mix.

Like most things online these day.

You should do your own research and validate what you're reading instead of blindly following.

7. Explores New Strategies by Using TikTok Traffic

One of the biggest gripes in dropshipping is relying on Facebook ads.

It's refreshing to see a course chart a different path.

Her experience at building a TikTok following and knowing what makes a viral video has enabled Sara to drive people to her stores.

While some of the traffic is free, she relies heavily on paying other TikTok Influencers to showcase her products.

In this course, Sara walks through finding Influencers who are a good fit for what you're selling.

There's also a section on building out a Pinterest profile that can potentially provide free traffic for the right niche.

Not to feel like you're missing out on the usual stuff, there are tutorials on:

Despite her relative lack of experience, there's more options here for advertising channels than most courses offer.

With the looming IOS14 disaster for Facebook Ads, you're going to need some valid alternatives.

By all accounts, things are about to get painful for anyone who doesn't have a back up plan - especially those with smaller spending budgets, such as dropshippers (1).

8. More Up To Date Than Most Courses

Sara 'dropped' the course at the beginning of 2021.

Meaning it's going to be more up-to-date than some of the more 'brand name' offerings produced a few years ago.

Why should you care?

Well, with the speed of change in the world of eCom, things change fast.

There's no point trying to follow material produced years ago and expecting the same results today.

Sara also states that she will keep the course updated, but there's no guarantee.

10. Targets a 'Get Rich Quick' Mentality

Sara has tapped into a specific audience with her social media channels.

For example, many of her videos and reels are around making lots of money in a short time frame or flash images of fancy cars, stacks of dollar bills, or screenshots of vanity metrics in the thumbnails.

To be sure, these are more likely to get views than something that talks about it taking years before seeing a profit - more the reality of the situation.

Remember, Sara was dropshipping for years before she started to see significant sales numbers.

At the same time, I can't help but wonder how many people will buy this course and be disappointed when they don't start making a healthy profit for months or maybe a couple of years.

11. Sara's Has Some Unique Advantages That You Don't Have

To begin with, let's point to the most obvious advantage:

Sara's already established herself as a TikTok Influencer and a Youtuber.

Why is that an advantage?

I bet other Influencers treat her offer a bit differently from yours.

Her notoriety gives her leverage to get attention and bargain with other Influencers?

Where are you starting from?

Also, Sara's been able to take advantage of a unique once-in-a-lifetime event.

The pandemic forced countries into lockdowns, turning the world upside down.

Once consequence has been forcing more people to rely on online shopping.

There was a big push for products in self-care, gadgets to improve quality of life, and anything to keep the kids happy.

Admittedly, Sara talks about how it took her a couple of years before she learned how to be profitable with dropshipping BUT boy, did she take advantage of all that experience when the time was right.

By the same token, the entire stock market crashed during March 2020 and skyrocketed back by the end of the year.

Consequently, anyone who was able to buy stocks after the crash saw unsurpassed growth in such a short space of time.

Especially in common stocks like Tesla, Apple, and Amazon which are staple favorites for investors.

Which leads us to...

12. Learning From Someone With Limited Experience

Like I said earlier, Sara is 100% open about the fact that she doesn't know everything and has a lot to learn.

This course is just what she's learned so far.

For some people, dropping $297 for a bit of training with some new ideas might not be a big deal.

For others, maybe it is.

Still, think about the time and how much money you'll be giving up to see if it works for you.

(Btw, that's not the house that Sara bought - it wasn't that fancy.)

When it comes to building a long-term income that you can count on, it's a safer bet to look for a mentor who has several years of experience and has dealt with various challenges over time.

My concern here with this course is how much of Sara's success could be down to timing, aka luck and the years of grinding away before she hit the 'jackpot'.

I'm sure she will figure out how to be successful moving forward as things change.

BUT to believe that you're going to be able to replicate her results?

That's unrealistic.

13. High-Risk Business Model: NOT Recommended for 2021

Truth be told - the best days of dropshipping are long gone.

Pre 2018, it was much easier to find a product and generate some exciting sales figures.

Sadly, the current climate looks very different!

Dropshipping has such a low barrier to entry that it has become incredibly saturated, leading to diminishing profit margins.

As with online-related industries, it's become a breeding ground for fraud & scammers.

People are looking to rip you off at every step.

Criminals such as scammy suppliers who'll take your money and disappear, fake influencers on Instagram, or people using stolen credit card info to buy your products.

Not to mention various people selling courses, done-for-you services, or offering to run ads for you.

Which brings us to one of the biggest issues with dropshipping - PAID Ads.

Paid ads are likely to be your most significant expense.

And one that continues to increase in cost year after year.

And TBH, there's enough evidence to suggest the likes of Facebook do just enough to keep you on the hook but let's be honest, Facebook design their algorithms to maximize their profit, not yours.

Facebook is expecting the Apple IOS14 update to destroy the effectiveness of their audience targeting capabilities.

After all, they rely on tracking people's every move online to learn what buttons to trigger to get you to make those impulse purchases!

And dropshipping revolves around impulse buys - before someone can do any research to find it cheaper elsewhere or change their mind.

With Apple's update, people will have to opt in to being tracked online.

Facebook has only gotten away with this for so long because most people don't understand how much data they were collecting nor were we shown how to stop it.

Moving forward, it's going to be challenging to get your product in front of the right eyes.

At the end of the day, dropshipping requires a ton of work with zero guarantees of generating a decent income.

In fact, many dropshippers lose money on their stores.

And it's only going to getting harder as economies struggle with recessions, retail shopping comes back in full force, and shipping keeps getting more expensive and drawn out.

14. Do Sara's Students Actually Make Money?

Hard to say for sure.

Sure there are 'testimonial' screenshots on the sales page, but the course is still relatively new, and I'm not sure if the timelines on the posts really match up if they're supposed to be from students who purchased the course.

When Sara is creating her store, she walks through adding fake testimonials and ratings.

Again, this seems to be part of the dropshipping culture. It's okay to say whatever you need to for sales purposes.

Integrity doesn't seem to be much of a consideration.

IMO video reviews from real students carry a lot more credibility and are going to be more trustworthy.

And again, the problem with the dropshipping culture only showing these vanity sales metrics. Not what their real 'take home' income is.

15. Who's a Good Fit for this Dropshipping Business Course?

It's nice to see a course from a female dropshipper and that might appeal more to the female audience who want to become entrepreneurs.

There are a few out there, but the landscape tends to be more male-dominated.

Overall, I'm sure it will appeal to a similar audience that consumes Sara's TikTok and YT videos.

Especially people wanting to escape living paycheck to paycheck or who dream of making some quick money.

Sadly, there will be plenty who see the 'clickbait' headlines about dropshipping for 1 or 2 weeks and think they can do that too.

Let's be clear, Sara was dropshipping for two years before making any real money from it.

The "I did dropshipping for a week and here are my results" promos are just that.

Promotion to get clicks and views to make more money from YT, selling courses, and getting people to sign up via affiliate links.

16. What alternatives are there to Sara's Dropshipping Business Course?

There is no shortage of dropshipping gurus ready to take your money.

The bigger question should be whether the dropshipping juice is worth the squeeze.

Especially when there are better business models that make more money with a lot less hassle.

If you're certain you want to try dropshipping, here are recommended alternatives:

Many consider Franklin Hatchett's eCom Elites to be the go-to course.

The price-point of $197 or $297 makes it good value for the amount of content.

There are lots of marketing channels including some funnels and ChatBots.

Mind you. It's taught on a paid theme which you'll need to get.

Frank's focus lately has leaned much more toward his Affiliate Marketing course and videos about ways to make money online - none of which recommend dropshipping!

In fact, last I checked, Frank hasn't posted any YT videos promoting his dropshipping course for over a year.

He's focusing elsewhere instead.

Anyway, you can check out my full eCom Elites review here.

If you're looking for another female Dropshipping guru, Sarah Chrisp comes highly regarded. 

Her Wholesale Ted YouTube channel has amassed a decent following.

The Ecomm Clubhouse course differs in that it's a subscription model and you can cancel it at any time.

She's also realistic about how she generates her income from multiple sources.

Chrisp has plenty of experience in digital marketing and shares a few excellent tools and tricks to boost revenues using strategies such as consumer psychology.

Click here for an in-depth Ecomm Clubhouse review.

For a more comprehensive rundown of dropshipping courses, check out my dropshipping course review.

Pros and Cons of Dropshipping Business Course

The Good and Bad of Sara's Course

This dropshipping business course is going to appeal to a particular crowd.

I'm not sure how many of them will stick it out or replicate the kind of revenues that Sara produces, but the marketing will attract people looking for a quick fix to their bank account woes.

That said, Sara shares some strategies that offer a different approach to the run-of-the-mill concepts in other courses.

If you're already on TikTok and spending plenty of time on social media, it could be easier than learning Facebook Ads and certainly less costly.

This course doesn't solve some of the fundamental issues with the dropshipping business model.

The biggest one is the constant stress of finding fad-products to sell before they are saturated.

I hope you found my review of Sara Finance's dropshipping course helpful.

As such a young entrepreneur, I look forward to following her career and seeing what she accomplishes as she gains more experience.

The supplier options will be refreshing to those who are at their wit's end with AliExpress.

Of course, there will still be challenges with these platforms and the same goes for all the other painful aspects of dropshipping.

The problems plaguing dropshipping today are nothing new.