Transform Adversity Into Opportunity
by Sean Lee on August 6th, 2007
Family income in the United States has dropped for the past five years and it will continue to drop as higher paying jobs continue to disappear. The American automotive manufacturing industry will eliminate 53,000 jobs at General motors and 38,000 at Ford and yet total employment will increase. Those high paying jobs will be replaced by much lower paying service jobs.
The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) study reveals that 2.2 million American households are likely to lose their homes and as much as $164 billion due to foreclosures in the subprime mortgage market. This dilemma will take all the available ingenuity that the American public can muster to be able to continue the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. It is obvious to me that people need to find new sources of additional income.
Retail trends have greatly impacted American family income. The industry has gravitated from main street stores, to regional department stores, to national department stores, to category killers. Now the world is dominated by Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Best Buy, Pets Mart and every other category has a killer. Walking through a store like Target I doubt you will find anything made in America except consumables. We got the lower prices, and this is not necessarily wrong as our needs were efficiently satisfied. But these low prices come with a cost – the income from manufacturing and distributing these products has disappeared from Main Street and local communities.
Now for the opportunity – the Internet changes everything. I doubt if we can ever bring back dominant American manufacturing, perhaps we can bring back specialty and luxury American manufacturing. Distribution, enabled through the Internet, can level the playing field for the small, independent business person. A distributor or manufacturer who is unwilling or unable to comply with the 40-page vendor application of Wal-Mart, the RFID tags, the net 180 payment terms or the "just in time" inventory can now sell their goods via the Internet. ValueSetters, for instance, provides manufacturers a "virtual channel" of resellers to sell their products. Most vendors do not care how their products are sold as long as they continue to get reorders and move product.
Likewise, ValueSetters serves as a "virtual source" through which member resellers select product that best suits their need for incremental income.
So exactly what is a "reseller"? My definition of a reseller is any person or organization that sells products to earn a profit. Let me review some examples of money-making opportunities for resellers:
Existing Retailers – Convenience stores, dollar stores and rural general stores can increase their assortment where product may not be available from manufacturer’s representatives. Most importantly, they can order big ticket goods on demand without having to inventory the product.
Service Storefronts – Restaurants, hair dressers, coffee shops and anywhere with consumer traffic can display a case of goods such as watches, knives, hardware or apparel. They can also print a catalog and custom order big ticket items such as plasma TV’s without holding inventory. This could be very lucrative in inner-city and very rural locations.
Home Parties – Specialize in luggage, leather, health care or some other product. Again, any individual reseller can also print a catalog and custom order all the big ticket goods.
Swap Meets – Find an inexpensive location with good traffic and specialize in a line of product and custom order all big ticket goods. One recent trend I have noticed is sub-dividing old abandoned stores into 10×10 booths that are being populated with small independent merchants. These are in fact micro swap meets.
Garage Sales – If not prohibited by home owner associations or local code, you may be able to sell from a garage or out building, even the trunk of your vehicle.
Internet Sales – selling on eBay is becoming a matter of price search. He that has the lowest price gets the sale. Margins have been driven down to almost nothing and this method of selling is slowly disappearing. You can however buy something like Whittier Wood furniture and then paint or finish it and resell it at a profit.
Association Sales – Get your school or sports organization, neighborhood association, church group and others together and take orders. I suggest that you not try to sell the world of product but specialize in appliances, music, hardware or other category. You can custom order much of this.
At work – Let it be known that you are a ValueSetter reseller.
Installers and Handymen – Here you can make income from markup on the product as well as installation income.
Innovative Entrepreneurs – The number of different ways to go to market are endless. You are smarter than me so go out there and be inventive!