By skyforbes 
Side hustle Slim Jim here.
I’m on a mission to see if a regular guy with a laptop, a TikTok account, and some AI tools can build a real $500/month profit TikTok Shop dropshipping business from scratch.
Not “screenshots in a Lamborghini” money.
Just a simple, steady $500/month that proves, “Okay, this actually works.”
This article goes with Part 2 of my YouTube series where I show the real process — confusion, mistakes, small wins and all. You can watch the full video here:
👉 Watch the full Part 2 video on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khwqbWVzqlQ
In Part 1, I:
- Set up my Doba account (product sourcing + dropshipping platform)
- Opened a TikTok Shop
- Picked a niche: “Desk Relief Co.” — products to help people who sit at a desk all day (like me)
In Part 2, I try to do the unglamorous but necessary part:
Actually getting my TikTok Shop ready to sell something.
That means:
- Picking a single hero product
- Connecting Doba to TikTok Shop so orders auto-fulfill
- Fighting through settings, shipping, warehouses, and TikTok’s rules
- Using AI (ChatGPT + Comet browser) as my “ops assistant” instead of trying to figure everything out manually
And yes… it was way more annoying than I expected.
Quick reminder: what dropshipping really is (without hype)
Let’s clear the air.
Dropshipping = you sell, supplier ships.
- You don’t buy inventory up front
- You don’t store boxes in your garage
- You list a supplier’s product on your store (in my case, TikTok Shop)
- When someone orders, the supplier ships it to the customer
- You keep the difference between your selling price and your cost
So you’re basically the salesperson + marketer. The supplier is the warehouse and shipping department.
That’s it. No secret. No magic.
Most “gurus” make it sound like you press a button and print money. My experience so far:
“In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.” (Proverbs 14:23, ESV)
There is no easy money. But if we’re willing to put in real work and use smart tools, I think $500/month is very reachable.
Problem: I set everything up… and then got stuck
After Part 1, I had:
- A Doba account
- A TikTok Shop
- A niche: people with back/neck pain from sitting at a desk
And then my brain went:
“Okay… now what?”
Do I just randomly pick products?
Do I spam TikTok with videos?
Do I try to run ads right away?
I felt that familiar “new side hustle fog” — lots of options, no clear map.
When I hit that wall, I usually do one thing:
I go ask ChatGPT for a roadmap.
Calling in AI backup: ChatGPT “deep research mode”
I’m using ChatGPT 5.1 on the plus plan. My favorite thing in there right now is “deep research”.
Normally, you ask ChatGPT something and get an answer in a few seconds.
With deep research, you basically say:
“Hey, go think about this for a while and bring me something really detailed and thoughtful back.”
It:
- Takes more time (sometimes ~20–30 minutes)
- Searches the web
- Breaks down the problem
- Asks clarifying questions
- Then returns a long, step-by-step plan
So here’s what I asked it to do:
“Give me a weekly roadmap to get to $500/month profit with TikTok Shop dropshipping using Doba.”
I wanted it broken down into:
- Week 1: Niche + hero product
- Week 2: Full shop setup + listing
- Later weeks: Posting content, optimizing, running ads, etc.
The plan it gave me was actually really solid. So I dropped it into a Google Doc and decided:
“Okay, I’m going to literally follow this doc on camera and we’ll see if it works.”
Part 2 of the series is me walking through Week 1 and Week 2 of that roadmap.
Step 1: Pick a focused niche and a “hero product”
The roadmap said:
Choose one niche and one hero product to build everything around.
We already picked the niche in Part 1:
👉 Desk Relief Co. — gear for people stuck at a desk all day who are tired of back, neck, and shoulder pain.
Now we had to choose the hero product.
The roadmap laid out criteria:
- Demo-friendly — easy to show on video
- Impulse price range — around $15–$50
- Broad appeal in the niche
- Low risk — good supplier stock, decent margin
So instead of scrolling Doba for hours and guessing, I brought in a second AI helper: the Comet browser.
Using Comet (an AI browser) to choose the hero product
Comet is basically AI plugged into your browser.
It can:
- Browse websites for you
- Click around
- Read your Google Doc
- Help fill forms
- Even edit things directly
So I told it:
“Here’s my roadmap. Here’s my Doba search for ‘desk relief’.
Look through the products and help me pick one hero product that matches the criteria.”
It looked through the listings and first suggested:
- A neck and shoulder relaxer / cervical traction device
On paper, it checked the boxes: demo-friendly, impulse price, lots of stock.
I just didn’t love it. It felt a little too “medical device” for what I wanted the brand to be, and I wasn’t excited to build content around it.
I kept looking and landed on a lumbar support pillow.
That one clicked for me more because:
- I actually have real lower back pain from sitting all day
- I could see myself using it
- It’s easy to demo on camera (chair, pillow, done)
So we decided: the hero product is a lumbar pillow.
At least, that was the plan. Then reality hit.
Reality check #1: Shipping and product location matter
When I tried to list the pillow on TikTok Shop through Doba, I hit a wall:
- The product shipped from China
- TikTok Shop wanted faster shipping expectations
- Some product types and categories are more strict
So right out of the gate, I had to face a basic but important rule:
If you’re selling on TikTok Shop, prioritize products that ship from the US (or close to your customers).
People are used to Amazon-level delivery.
If they see “2–3 weeks shipping”, they bounce.
So I had to rethink the hero product again and find something:
- In the right niche
- In the right price range
- That ships from the US
- That TikTok will actually approve
This is the stuff the gurus don’t talk about in their “I made $50k my first month” thumbnails.
It’s not exciting, but it makes or breaks your store.
Reality check #2: TikTok Shop categories and probation
Next, I ran into category issues.
Some TikTok categories are “invite only” (especially anything close to medical or therapeutic devices).
If you pick the wrong category, you can get:
- Product rejected
- Listing flagged as “wrong product category placement”
Which… is exactly what happened to me.
We tried multiple categories with the help of AI, got rejected, tried again, got rejected again. At one point we had the pillow sitting in “fitness circles” just to find something that would pass.
Then I discovered something else:
- New TikTok Shops start in a probation period
- To progress, you need:
- At least 10 live product listings
- Pass the probation quiz
- Avoid certain types of violations
- Keep a decent shop score
So now, on top of:
- Picking a good product
- Connecting Doba
- Getting categories right
…I also needed to:
- Get 10 products live
- Pass a quiz
- Stay within TikTok’s policies
I’ll be honest: if I wasn’t filming this as a public challenge, I probably would’ve quit right here.
Letting AI do the boring admin work
This is where AI tools shine.
Instead of me:
- Reading every help doc
- Guessing at settings
- Clicking through a mess of menus
…I leaned on Comet and ChatGPT like they were my unpaid operations manager.
Some of the things I had AI do:
- Help find where to update my TikTok Shop bio
- Walk me through switching to a business TikTok account
- Fill out the warehouse info for Doba’s US warehouse
- Fill in the shipping template in TikTok Shop
- Suggest the best categories it could access
- Optimize my product title and listing
I still had to make decisions, but I didn’t have to stare at every screen and figure out, “What does this mean?”
It felt like having a junior employee I could say:
“Here’s the screen. Here’s the goal.
Fill this out the best way you can.”
Is AI making us lazy? Maybe.
Is it saving hours of my life on stuff that doesn’t require creativity? Absolutely.
Where I ended Part 2
By the end of this video / article:
- I had Doba and TikTok Shop fully connected
- I had warehouses set up (including returns)
- I had shipping switched to seller shipping
- I had a lumbar pillow product live and approved
- I understood TikTok’s probation and what I needed to clear it
It was not smooth.
There were errors, rejections, confusion, and a lot of “Why is this this way?” moments.
But that’s the point of this series: show the actual mess, not just the highlight reel.
And honestly, that’s why I’m using you (the audience) as my accountability.
If I wasn’t recording this, there’s a very good chance I’d have already abandoned this and moved on to another shiny thing.
What’s next: content, traffic, and real sales
Now that the plumbing is mostly in place, Part 3 of this series will be about:
- Posting TikTok videos promoting the product
- Trying to make at least 1 video per day
- Tagging the product properly in TikTok Shop
- Testing TikTok’s built-in promos / credits
- Trying some UGC-style ads using Viral Ecom Adz
Tools I’ll be using going forward:
- Doba for product sourcing and fulfillment
👉 https://www.doba.com?mtic=MT-GNRUCN - Viral Ecom Adz for UGC-style ad creatives (I want to see if they actually work)
👉 https://viralecomadz.com/discount/PELTON15?ref=rxfeyozy
The big question is simple:
Can this one product in this one TikTok Shop realistically get to $500/month profit?
If it does, you’ll see it happen in real time.
If it flops, you’ll see that too — and we’ll talk about why.
Why I’m sharing this publicly
A lot of side hustle content is one of two extremes:
- Hype:
“I made $47,392 my first month with zero effort and you can too.” - Cynicism:
“Everything is a scam. Nothing works. Don’t even try.”
Reality lives in the middle:
- Some things are scams
- Some things are real
- Almost nothing is effortless
- Many things can work if you treat them like a craft instead of a lottery ticket
For me, this is about:
- Testing real, practical ways to make extra income
- Using my skills and tools in a honest way
- Providing for my family
- Staying faithful to what I believe while I do it
If God blesses this and it grows, great.
If it doesn’t, at least I can say I did more than “talk about making money” — I actually tried.
Want to see the full process in action?
If you enjoyed this breakdown and want to see all the clicks, mistakes, and fixes in real time, watch the full video here:
👉 Watch Part 2 on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khwqbWVzqlQ
And if you missed how I set everything up in the first place, check out Part 1 on my channel as well.
If you’re thinking about starting your own TikTok Shop dropshipping store, my suggestion is simple:
- Don’t expect it to be easy
- Do expect it to be learnable
- Use AI as your assistant, not your brain
- Give yourself a clear profit goal (like $500/month) and a real timeframe
And above all:
“In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.” (Proverbs 14:23, ESV)
We’ve all watched enough “how to make money” videos.
At some point, you have to pick one path and start walking.
This is me walking mine.