Jess

A: Of course there are a lot of things that go into creating a successful business, but one of the most important, and one that is often under the radar, is the need for a great recipe, or two.

Huh?

Think about any great recipe that you like. Why do you use it? I bet the reasons are essentially two-fold. First, you like the result, that is, the tasty food. Second, you probably like it because you can count on it – you get the same basic results time and again.

Well, the same should be true in your business. To succeed long-term, you need a success recipe that you can turn to which consistently cooks up new customers.

When I first started my law practice, I tried a lot of ways to generate business, and finally settled on putting on legal seminars for the public every other month or so. I learned that whenever I put on one of these free seminars I would create enough new business to keep me busy for the next few months. After some trial and error, I had figured out a way to make money consistently. I had figured out my recipe for making my “dough” (I know – groan!)

That is what you have to do. Your recipe could be almost anything:

• An ad that consistently pulls
• A sale
• A viable social networking presence
• A weekly e-newsletter
• A killer e-commerce site

The important thing is that you try out various ideas and find one that works, again and again. Creating a great recipe will give you a sense of calm, knowing that you can always count on this recipe to keep you in business.

And then, down the road, if you really want to succeed, what you will do is create yet another great recipe, or two or three, and here is why: When an investor invests in the stock market, he or she knows not to buy only one stock or sector. That sector or stock may go up, but it also may go down. By diversifying their portfolio, investors create a hedge against failure.

Great businesses, large and small, do the same thing. Take Apple for example. No, they are not the biggest computer maker out there, but they are vibrant for many reasons, including the fact that they have created some additional great recipes: Computers begat laptops which begat the iPod, iTunes, and the iPhone (among others.) By creating additional recipes – additional profit centers in music and telecommunications in additional to computers – Apple continues to be a growth leader.

The best small businesses do the same thing. To be a long-term success, you need to add more profit centers. Here’s how:

1. Make a big list of additional ways to make money or create customers that is a natural outgrowth of what you already do. It should not be too much of a stretch.
2. Winnow the list down, and then go over it with some people’s whose judgment you trust. You are looking for the best two or three ways to create additional revenue.
3. Again, it could be almost anything – a new product, a new location, an additional service, whatever.
4. Test the ideas out and see which one has the greatest potential.
5. Roll it out.

The important thing is that you test and find new profit centers that make you money consistently while reinforcing your brand. Avoid being like those restaurants that advertise “Chinese and American food.” Well, which is it? A great recipe makes logical, intuitive sense.

And they should also yield some yummy results.

Today’s tip: I am sent plenty of business books and read a lot of them. Over the next few weeks, I would like to share in this space some of the best that I have come across recently.

To start, for a couple of reasons, I highly recommend the newest edition of Barbara Winter’s classic, Making a Living Without a Job. This great book shows anyone how they too can become “joyfully jobless.” In a different life, when I was the unhappiest lawyer in the land working for the big firm, this book helped me plan my escape. It changed my life, and it can change yours.

In the years since, Barbara Winter has become my friend and I was privileged enough to be asked to write the Forward to the new edition. Steve says check it out!

Linda

A: There are so many great things to be said about e-commerce that I am not sure where to begin, but let’s start with this one: E-commerce is, even today, a fairly new market; it has really been around for a little more than a dozen years.

Being able to tap such a huge market at the relative start won’t happen again in our lifetimes.

There remains a world of opportunity and untapped e-potential. Other benefits include easy access to global markets, having an automated and additional profit center open 24/7, a low cost of entry, and the ability to compete with larger companies.

Here’s how to jump in – 7 Steps.

Step 1: Notice what works: Whether it is eBay, Amazon, or your own favorite, e-commerce sites that succeed tend to do the same things right:

• They are attractive, intuitive, engaging, and easy to navigate
• They offer plenty of inventory
• They are easy to shop and check-out
• There are discounts and specials (coupons, free shipping, etc.)
• They offer great customer service

Step 2. Consider the competition. Who else sells what you want to sell? Take a look at the players both big and small. Buy some merchandise from them and ask yourself – what do they do right, and wrong, and how can it be it be improved?

Step 3. Pick your products: If you are in business and have products that you already sell, then adding them to your online store is easy: Take pictures of them, add them to your online catalogue (see below) and write some great copy.

If you don’t know what you want to sell, then consider your options. There are tons of wholesalers and distributors from which to choose. If you don’t know of any, I would suggest you surf over to my site – MrAllBiz.com – and check out the wholesale product search engine we offer. You can find wholesalers for just about any product you are looking for.

Note: The culture of the Web is one of discounts, keep that in mind, and remember that selling expensive items online is more difficult.

Step 4. Create a great site: You have about five seconds once someone finds your site to impress them enough that they will decide to poke around a bit and maybe buy something. That means your site must be graphically pleasing to the eye, unique, and useful.

Step 5. Consider drop shipping: What if you just want to get your feet wet and don’t want to spend a lot of money discovering whether this online universe is for you? Then check out drop shipping. Drop shipping is an arrangement between you and a wholesaler whereby you offer their products on your site but you don’t actually physically stock any inventory. If someone clicks and buys, notice is sent to you and the wholesaler, the wholesalers ships the product using your labels and logos, and you split the profit.

If you think this is a great way to get started, you are right. There are no products to buy and stock, no huge up-front costs, no labor expenses, etc. You can find drop shippers for most any product by doing an online search, or again, by typing “drop shipping” into the product search engine at my site.

Step 6. Build your store: There are two parts to your online store – the front end and the back end. The front end is what the world sees – your products for sale, specials, policies, and so on. The back end is what you see – inventory control, reports of what sells, etc.

You will need to find an online partner / Web host to help you build your store. Their software will create both the front end and the back end. It will allow you to create thumbnails of your products as part of your overall online catalogue.

What you want is a partner that offers

• Pre-designed, customizable templates
• Inventory support
• Easy acceptance of credit cards
• Search engine optimization
• Easy adding and subtracting of products
• Up-selling tools, coupons, gift certificates, etc.
• Real time stats and reports
• Secure transactions, and
• Plenty of support

Step 7. Handle sales: To be able to accept online sales, you will need a merchant account (an account with a credit card issuer) and / or the ability to accept PayPal payments. You will also need to be able to handle inquiries, returns, exchanges, and refunds. Don’t underestimate shipping and related costs either.

Plenty of other small businesses have made the leap to online success, and if they did it, so can you.

Today’s Tip: If you would like to know more, I recently did a webinar with my friends at AT&T called E-Commerce Essentials. You can watch it here.

In other words, you won’t be making any money and at best you’ll find that you’ll be lucky just to break even!

This is a common email I get from people that are looking into buying wholesale.  One of my readers said this…

“I know that the market gets saturated.  But not to many people were selling these.  What I would like to know is, does your information steer me in the right direction to buy products that will sell for a profit, or is it just another list that shows products that I can buy that sells for the same price that eBayers are buying it for?  I am getting very frustrated at this point to find a true person to get this info off of and I would like to hear more from you personally.”

Now, if you’re from another country, one of our former American President’s said; “I feel your pain” ; )

Seriously though, I’ve had numerous correspondences with people just like you dealing with frustrations in product sourcing.  I totally understand as I’ve been there.  I had the same problem when I first started out.  I scoured the internet and called all over the country looking for legitimate wholesale suppliers to supply products so I could resell on eBay.  Unfortunately, every time I thought I found something great, it was going to be too difficult just to make my money back if I sold on eBay because there were already too many of them being sold for far less than what I could get them for.

Not good for the pocketbook right?

This is my response to these e-mails: Don’t give up – you can still make money on the back end even if your initial sale is not profitable!

Many people think they have to make a profit on the initial sale of a listing on eBay.  That would be nice, but I can tell you about a guy who listed his PS3 on eBay for $1.00 and made enough money on that one auction that he was able to donate $1000.00 to the Salvation Army!

This guy had it figured out.  I would strongly urge you to pay special attention to what’s going on here because this will give you some great insight to how to get around these frustrations and problems of not being able to compete or make a profit on your eBay listing because they are already being sold for less than what you can get a product for.

First, here’s my response to the reader’s email:

“Unfortunately, there a couple of things that lead to frustrations with “these lists”.

What many “wholesale lists” are is just a collection of someone doing a Google search and typing in url’s, calling it a product and selling it.  These are more likely a bunch of middlemen who are robbing you of profits because they are hiking up the cost of the goods.  Not good for you.

Or…

the situation is that even though these might really be legitimate wholesale liquidators, most people do not understand the fact that there is quite a difference between wholesale, liquidation and surplus merchandise.  This is a common misunderstanding, but it is very important point to learn the difference if you plan to be successful in the game.

If you’re finding products at wholesale, most people on eBay are not selling wholesale merchandise, they are selling liquidated or surplus merchandise.  There is a large difference between these categories and it is very important to understand what theses differences are.

Even if eBay sellers do sell wholesale products they often don’t make much of a profit because they have to compete with similar offers selling for less.  They are often competing with people selling below wholesale cost.  They can sell them this way because they’re not wholesale products!  They are usually from a totally different product category which is purchased at below wholesale costs!”

Alot of people have ended up being burnt in the process because they did not know this type of critical information.  I have personally used inside industry information and resources to sell full time on eBay, and it is profitable IF you learn how to do it the right way.  Without knowing this important information, you will probably end up learning these lessons the hard way: and that will usually cost you time and a lot of money that you don’t want to lose!

I know frustration can lead to disappointment, but don’t give up.  Trust me, it can be done!

I have people ask me, usually men, how do you do it all?  How do you take care of the family, and your business, and be so management oriented?  Did you study business management in college, get an MBA?  No sir, I did not even finish high school.  I even worked at McDonalds as the French fry girl 10 years ago, now I run a multi-million dollar company.

Shhh, my Secret!  I had to work really hard, re-train myself, be willing to admit failure, be willing to change what was not working, and develop skills that I never knew I had.

It is not easy!  Let me tell you, however, once you have the skill set, anything is possible.  Here are my 5 tips and secrets that I use EVERYDAY, to do it!

1) Make sure you have a very clear to do list. I cannot function without it jotted down, even on a scrap paper.

2) Enlist people to can help you do these items, or that can do them for you.

3) Do not overload your schedule. I know that after I drop my kids at school, I have from 9 AM to 3:30 PM to get my things done. Because as you know, once the kids get home there is a host of activities going down i.e. dinner, homework, chores, and don’t forget you and daddy time! That is a whole other blog to write about. I have been successfully married for 20+ years, so I guess I can claim to be an authority on how to make it all work.

Get the next two tips

Sales are slow at the major retail outlets and stock that sits too long is being liquidated.  This is our chance to purchase overstocks, shelf pulls and customer returns and become creative in our marketing to the hundreds of thousands of people who love to find a bargain.

For a small investment of $500 – $3,000 you can start your “side business” reselling merchandise on Craigslist, through eBay or even at the flea market.

I grew up in a family of business owners and have always felt that I could make a living without receiving a paycheck.  Even though I do not like the idea of having a boss, I am happy in my marriage taking orders from my wife.  The orders stop with her; I do not rely on anyone else for my income.

What about you?  Are you looking to start some sort of business on the side or maybe full time?  Does the thought scare you in any way…are you uncertain about profit margins, taxes or a myriad of other issues?  I thought it would be a great time to dig through my personal bookmarks and offer a few websites that just might give you the answers and confidence you are looking for.

The following links are in no special order, but they do have one thing in common, they offer great information for those looking at starting a small or large business.  Please understand that no matter how small your venture might be planning and organizing will insure success as your business grows.

12 Helpful Links to Get your Business Started

1. Business Liability Insurance - Here are a few scenarios that will prove “protecting the bottom line” is one of the most important issues to consider.
2. SBA Business Intro Videos - Taking your idea to the next step
3. SBA Resources – The Small Business Association has numerous resources to get you started on the right foot.

See the remaining nine helpful links

]]> http://www.gowholesale.com/content/2009/08/04/planning-for-success-with-a-liquidation-business/feed/ 0 http://www.gowholesale.com/content/2009/05/28/number-of-veteran-entrepreneurs-reaches-5-million/ http://www.gowholesale.com/content/2009/05/28/number-of-veteran-entrepreneurs-reaches-5-million/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 18:34:31 +0000 Steve Strauss http://www.gowholesale.com/content/?p=4042 Q: I am a combat veteran and am having a hard time finding work. I have thought about starting a business but am not sure. Do a lot of vets go the small business route?

Bill

A: I met Bill when I was in D.C. last week for the Small Business Administration’s Small Business Week. As I am writing this column on Memorial Day weekend, I thought it would be a good idea to answer his question here because there are a lot of vets in the same boat.

• There are 25 million veterans in the United States. 8 million are from the Vietnam era, and the vast majority of the rest are from the Gulf War to the present. More than 1 million men and women have already served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

• 22 percent (about 5 million) of those veterans are either purchasing, starting, or at looking at starting a new business.

There are many reasons why veterans make great entrepreneurs – they tend to have the leadership skills, planning ability, and stick-to-it-tiveness that go hand-in-hand with small buienss success.

In addittion, they also have the desire, and need, to be their own boss. Consider this sobering statistic: According to USA TODAY, “The 11.2% jobless rate for veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and who are 18 and older rose 4 percentage points in the past year. That’s significantly higher than the corresponding 8.8% rate for non-veterans in the same age group.”

So, between their unique skills set and the tough economy, veteran entrepreneurship is likely to be on the rise.

Here is an example: Army Staff Sergeant Robbie Doughty was only 32 when a roadside bomb in Iraq cost him both his legs. Honorably discharged from the Army, the sergeant and his young family faced a very uncertain future as he endured months of rehabilitation, not knowing what he would or could do in his condition, or how he would care for his young family. And then he received the phone call that changed his life.

On the other end of the line was Michael Ilitch, the owner of the Little Caesars Pizza franchise (as well as the Detroit Tigers and Detroit Red Wings.) Having read about Sergeant Doughty in USA TODAY, and even though he had never met the sergeant, Ilitch simply wanted to thank Doughty for his service and give him some words of encouragement.

Yet after a while, moved by the young man, his grit, determination and story, Ilitch offered Doughty a remarkable opportunity: To open his own Little Caesars Pizza franchise in his hometown of Paducah, Kentucky. Amazed at his turn of good luck, Doughty accepted the generous offer and today is a successful entrepreneur, taxpayer, father and husband.

Unfortunately, most veteran entrepreneurs do not have a Michael Ilitch in their lives. But the good news is that there are plenty of other people and resources out there who want to help the new veteran entrepreneur. Here are some of my favorites:

The National Veteran Owned Business Association: Says NaVOBA, “NaVOBA unites current and future veteran-owned businesses by acting as the national voice for the veteran business movement. NaVOBA works to convince corporate America and the government to consider using veteran-owned businesses as preferred vendors.”

One reason I highly recommend NaVOBA is because I know these folks. I write for their magazine (Vetrepreneur) and know first-hand how committed they are to veteran small business success.

The SBA Office of Veterans Business Development: The SBA, and its website, is a great resource, as always.

The Department of Veterans Affairs: The VA also has a website full of useful resources.

You may also want to check out the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Conference held this September in San Francisco.

Today’s Tip: Before I went to D.C. I was contacted by Ford and was asked if I wanted to test-drive a new car that was “designed for small business.” More than one person I mentioned this to wanted to know just what the heck that could be. Me too! It sounded like a marketing ploy to me.

Boy was I wrong. The folks at Ford showed me a great, sharp looking car that many small business people would be wise to check out – the new Ford Transit Connect. It is a small cargo-type car/van perfect for the small business that hauls stuff or makes deliveries: An antique dealer or a bakery for instance.

This car was indeed designed with a small business in mind:

• It’s small enough to get great mileage, but the inside cargo area is incredibly roomy and well designed.
• Unlike a traditional van or minivan, the Transit Connect’s cargo area offers various customizable options, depending on the business. The one I drove was specifically outfitted for a florist with small racks, bins for flowers, etc.
• The car can seat, two, four, or five passengers, has sliding doors on both sides, and two rear doors that open fully.
• The radio area is a wireless screen with full Windows capability. The wireless keyboard turns it into a moving office.

Did someone say American car companies were in trouble? They won’t be with great cars like this.

John

(Part 2 of 2)

A: Last week, I discussed the unique properties of the Internet and why it is so important to use those when creating an online business. This week, I want to drill down a bit deeper and look at what it really takes to create a successful online business.

Note that I am not talking about the business side here. What you sell is entirely up to you. Instead, I want to look at the online side of online businesses, and what makes that work.

I suggest that there are two key components to creating a successful online small business. The first is, you have to have a great site. The second is, you have to market your site so that people can find it.

Now, maybe the preceding paragraph seems self-evident to you, maybe you are thinking, “Thanks for the great insight there, Steve!” But I don’t think so.

Think about how many truly mediocre sites you run across.

So the first secret online is to have a professional, elegant, site. Do that, and the rest is much easier, but fail to do it, and your chances of e-success are diminished greatly.

This brings me to the second factor – e-marketing. I spoke about this subject – online small business success – last week with Jeff Zimmerman, the Vice President of Product Management for Online Marketing and E-Commerce for Network Solutions.

Network Solutions (a company I do some work with, btw), is an excellent friend to small business. It is one of those great Net companies that has been around seemingly forever. For instance, when I got my web address back in the late 90s, www.MrAllBiz.com  it was Network Solutions who helped me. Since then, their services have grown to include everything from web hosting and site design to e-commerce and online security.

Jeff first pointed out that succeeding online is much easier than some people think, and much more affordable, for three main reasons:

1. Marketing online is unique: Offline, marketing often is a shotgun affair for many small businesses. They spend a lot to target a lot of people (in the newspaper, on the radio, etc.) with the intent of hopefully hitting a few. But online, especially with tools like pay-per-click, it is much easier to spend your marketing dollars more specifically and intelligently by buying only those keywords and geographic regions that have the highest likelihood of success.
2. Tracking results is easier: Because of No. 1 above, it is easier with online advertising and marketing to track your results. Offline, it is hard to say how someone finds you and makes a call (signs, ads, networking, or what?) but online, you can see immediately which keywords pull best, which ads work best, which pages convert the most, etc.
3. Cycles are shorter: Quicker tracking means you can adjust your online ad campaigns much more quickly. If a TV buy does not work, it may take months to find out and adjust. Not so online.

Of course, there are no shortage of sites intended to help you succeed in your online business, but I must say that Jeff pointed a new one out to me that I found to be very powerful.

MySolutionsSpot offers the e-ntrepreneur a wide variety of success tools. The articles and forums are nice for sure, but it was the analytical e-tools that I found to be remarkable:

• The keyword suggestion tool helps take the guesswork out of choosing the right keywords for your SEO and your e-marketing
• The search engine spider simulator lets you see what a search engine spider sees. Are your keywords working? Do you have enough homepage content?
• The link popularity check helps you see how many people are linking to your site, a key component to SEO.

It is getting ever easier to start and succeed online because tools like these are making it possible to create a site that can get noticed. If you build it, they won’t necessarily come. But if you build it right, and market it right, you can bet they will.

Today’s Tip: Jeff Zimmerman also pointed me to an interesting study which found that the average cost per acquisition for search engine advertising was $8.50 per customer, as opposed to $20 each for Yellow Page advertising, $60 for email and $70 for Direct Mail. (Source: Piper Jaffray & Co.: “The New eCommerce Decade: The Age of Micro Targeting” 2006.)

Q: I was recently laid off from my job of 10 years. I don’t really have any savings. Could I start a business somehow given my circumstances? Even if I could do something part-time until I get another job would help. Thank you.

Ellen

A: Of course the conventional wisdom is that this is a bad time to start a business, and one thing I know about conventional wisdom is that it is there for a reason; that is, maybe the group knows a thing or two.

No, this is not the greatest time to go into business for yourself, but that said, it can be done if you do it right.

What do I mean by that? One way to succeed right now is to start an inexpensive part-time, home-based business.

No, none of the ideas below are get rich quick plans, but they certainly can help you get some extra dough now, and maybe even more later. Here then are some businesses that can be started without a lot of time or money:

Deliveries / Driver: Especially with the price of gas coming down so much, this might make sense. Businesses of all sorts (in bigger cities especially) need stuff delivered every day. Print up some flyers, charge less, and away you go!

eBay sales: I once had a pal who spent every weekend at garage sales buying old motorcycle parts which he then sold during the week on eBay. He made several thousand dollars a month. His motto? It’s all in the buying. Think of something you know well, hunt it out, and resell it on eBay. Buy low, sell high.

Residential and commercial cleaning: Housecleaning is a tried and true home-based business, and it can lead to more lucrative commercial contracts. The cost to get into this sort of business is almost zero.

Transcription: Doctors and lawyers especially contract out transcription services.

Window washing / pool cleaning / snow removal, etc: Simple service businesses like these can be started with very little time and money and require nothing but some elbow grease. Again, especially in this economy, the secret is to undercut the competition in terms of price.

Pet-sitting and house-sitting: No, you won’t make a ton of money, but these sorts of businesses can be a nice source of extra income.

Hauling: With a truck and a classified ad, you can have a business removing junk for people.

Independent sales representative / manufacturer’s rep: Thousands of companies hire independent contractors to get their products into store and handle their product lines. This job would likely take you on the road for long stretches. Consider handling the products of several different companies.

Gardener: If you have a green thumb this might be the right business for you, but of course it tends to be seasonal work with most of it coming in the spring and summer, along with some leaf cleanup in the fall.

Childcare: Of course this is a business that requires extra responsibility and due care, but it can also be very rewarding and can be started with little money.

This list, of course, is really just a sample to get you thinking. If you have a specialized skill, such as automotive repair or being bilingual, you could parlay those as well into a shoestring startup. The important thing is that you open your eyes to the possibilities.

Today’s Tip: If you own a tech business and are thinking about expanding internationally, you should know about a contest that can help you. Called the Technium Challenge, the contest gives to the winner from the U.S., along with finalists from 12 other nations, a business-class flight to Wales for a week-long “Learning Journey” that will include one-on-one sessions with British legal, business and skills experts.

The overall winner will receive one year of free office space within one of 10 Technium incubators in Wales and ongoing counsel on financing, business planning and technical issues. You can learn more here.

In theory, you can now order a product of a small enough quantity, store it in your house and sell it to retailers in your area. If the products are well chosen and you handle the business well, this can make serious money.

Let us take for instance a product that is below average in potential income to illustrate what is meant by the proposition here – instant electronic thermometers. You can buy these for about US$1.70 to US$1.80 delivered to you depending on where you live and the tax that has to be paid on them. They normally retail at between US$ 9.95 to US$14.95.

The sales can be to existing retailers, fund raising events and people who sell at weekend and night markets. These sales could be priced in the range of US$ 4.00 to US$ 5.00.

In addition, you could sell at markets yourself at perhaps US$ 8.00 per thermometer to make them very attractively priced.

It would be great to help the local school, club or charity organization by selling to them at wholesale prices so that they could resell at the normal retail price. This would extend your income greatly and you would be helping them raise money.

How many of these can you sell on average per week? That is like asking how long a piece of string is.

Sales per year depend on many factors, how big a market do you intend to tap, your commitment and skills and many other factors.
Take a reasonable example of a city of one million people as your market; the likely total potential market for instant electronic thermometers would probably be in the order of 80,000 thermometers per year. Since you are local and you have concentration on one product and if you are committed, it would be reasonable to assume you could sell 20,000 thermometers per year.

How much could you make from that? That again depends on how your sales are distributed. Your margins on sales to current retailers, market sales people and to schools, clubs and charities could average $2.50 each and your own sales at the markets, to friends and neighbors could average $6.00 each.

If the overall average margin is $3.00, you would have an income of $60,000 per year.
How much money do you have to invest in all this? It should be well under $10,000.

How many hours would you have to work on this per day? That depends on you. For the example above, it should not take a well organized person more than 3 to 4 hours average per day.

You could then add a complementary product and double your income.

This is just a basic overall view and there are many pitfalls and things to watch out for and things you have to do. A series of articles are being written to help you step by step to achieve your goals. Watch out for them.

Article source: ArticleCity.com

Find potential manufacturers – This may sound simple enough but it truly is a time-consuming process, as not all manufacturers are willing to take on new wholesale representatives. You will also need to consider how many manufacturers and products you want to get started with. While some wholesalers carry hundreds or even thousands of products from dozens of manufacturers in a particular industry, other wholesalers only carry products (and some just one product) from a single manufacturer. If you have enough money to invest, you may decide to work with an overseas factory and import one or more products to begin your wholesaling venture. You can find manufacturers by searching Google, looking on sites that connect manufacturers and wholesalers, like Alibaba.com , or attending trade shows.

Deciding which products to wholesale – You will find that most manufacturers require wholesalers to purchase a large amount of products in order to qualify for low wholesaler pricing. With some manufacturers requiring minimum purchases in excess of $10,000, you might choose to start with manufacturers that offer lower minimums, thus narrowing your product options.

Finding a warehouse – A wholesaler differs from a manufacturer’s rep in that a wholesaler purchases products, stores them in a warehouse and then ships them out to retailers. A manufacturer’s rep, on the other hand, simply finds buyers for the manufacturer’s products, without ever first purchasing products from the manufacturer. So, as a wholesaler, you will need a warehouse or fulfillment center to store your products. If you will end up selling to a specific region of the U.S., then it would be wise to have your warehouse within that region. If your buyers are nationwide, then you may want to consider a warehouse in the center region of the U.S., to keep shipping costs at a minimum.

Getting retail buyers to purchase your products – This, of course, is the hardest part as many retailers are stuck in their same purchasing habits and have no desire to buy from a new wholesaler. However, that just means it will take some extra effort to convince them that your prices, products and service are better than the competition. With new retail stores and websites popping up every hour of every day, there certainly isn’t a shortage of market potential for wholesaler. You can find new retail accounts by being an exhibitor at trade shows, through email marketing campaigns, contacting retailers directly, etc.

While the steps involved in becoming a wholesaler aren’t difficult, being a wholesaler does require a large amount of start-up cash in order to purchase inventory. In addition, it will take hard work and on-going networking skills in order to gain and keep new retail clients.