Dropshipping

Internet marketing coupled with dropshipping can offer the small businessperson a solution to both. Dropshipping involves an agreement with one of the many dropship wholesalers that can be found on the internet. These companies provide helpful services to new and existing businesses.

Generally, the agreement involves an upfront payment to the dropship wholesaler for the rights to market their products. This can range from a small number of items to over one hundred thousand unique offerings. Often the cost is not linked to the size of the company, or the number of items offered for sale.

Website Development

It is common for the top dropship wholesalers to offer websites to you that come loaded with their inventory. In some cases, using these sites will create more cost to the retailer. Even when there are additional charges involved, these rarely exceed what it would cost to hire a private web developer.

The websites provided by the dropship companies are attractive, and customized with your business name and logo. They are stocked with key words to help your site get good rankings in the more popular search engines. A good traffic flow to the website means increased sales. Checkout facilities are built into these sites to provide a smooth purchasing experience.

Inventory

Customers will purchase items for wholesale dropship. Most companies are set up so that you receive all of the proceeds of the retail sales. This allows you to set your own selling prices for the inventory. The dropship directory will include your wholesale price, the selling price, and the item names and/or inventory codes.

Customers will only see the retail price and a picture with a description of the product. You may choose to operate with a smaller profit margin to try to increase sales from your site to beat competitors who use the same wholesale dropshipper.

Dropshipping the Orders

The dropship wholesaler will ship purchased items from their inventory directly to your customer. You will be invoiced for the wholesale amount plus shipping and handling. This should allow you pay the invoice and produce a profit. It may take a little practice to get the right combination of price and quantity to maximize your profits.

Possible Problems

Start slowly with a new dropship wholesaler. Plan to solicit friends and family to test the company's ability to ship on a timely basis and provide good products. Remember, you will be responsible for the integrity of the transaction.

Know the precise return policy of the dropship company before starting to sell. This will help you to clearly state these policies before purchases are made. The best way to keep good customer relations is to be up front about these policies.

Dropship wholesaling is an excellent way to keep large amounts of inventory available without purchasing products or warehouse space. You sell the products without ever having to touch them when it works right.

This idea requires a bit of work, but it can also give you fairly consistent earnings and leaves little to chance.

Here's the basic concept: if you knew what people were willing to buy and at what price then all you would need to do is get the product, at the right price, and get in front of those people.

Most people who sell at flea markets have a product in search of a customer. Typically they are making very little money, often barely more than their rental fee for the space, which is usually around $20 to $40.

Testing products

We go to flea markets and very rarely ever earn less than $300, usually more than $500. How do we do it? We test products, we find the products people really want, and we get these products. Our tables always have the most people around them because we understand how to use products that rarely sell or that make us little to no profit to attract a lot of people who then buy our other products.

Here's an example. We buy 200 air soft pistols, we pay $300, we sell them for $5 each, which is half of what they cost anywhere else. We know these things sell because we first ordered a few and tried different prices: we found $10 was OK but products moved slowly and we found that at $4 or less people thought the pistols were junk.

So what's the deal?

So, how can you turn $100 in products into $500 at flea markets?

Buy a few items that are hot sellers and test them. Go to flea markets, try different ones, and see what sells and at what prices. Over a 4-6 week period you may only break even, but you will not lose money and you will have valuable data about what sells in your area at what price.

Think in terms of customers…..

Don't think in terms of products, think in terms of customers. You will have older men and women, children, teenagers, and young couples. Over time, figure out who your customers are. We have found that old men are a big group and we have found that in our area they love collectible toy cars. We know what they'll pay, so we look high and low to find what they want and get it for them at the price they like.

Finding suppliers

As you do this you will need suppliers. That is not easy to find. If you email me at americaforchrist@yahoo.com I can help, but generally it requires a lot of searching and digging. Try simply typing into a search engine things like “wholesale bulk lots knives” or whatever. Don't pay for sources. Use superpages.com and type in wholesale in the search and pick a city, like Los Angeles or a city near you. And make some phone calls.

Make it official

You will need a tax ID from the IRS, a bank account, and a sales tax ID for your state. Don't cut corners here. You will not find good suppliers if you lack any of these things. Getting a federal tax id, EIN, is easy. Type in IRS EIN in a search engine and you will find the IRS site. Same is true for your state, type in “sales tax ID YOURSTATE” and you will find the appropriate location. These services are FREE and you can do everything online.

Once you have these numbers, take $50 and shop around for a business checking account. Get the best deal possible, don't just settle for anything because there are LOTS of different programs at lots of different prices!

In your city you may need a business license. Usually you won't have any problems. Just go to the clerk's office and ask them, or just call. Some cities or municipalities charge $25 to $50 for a license, some charge nothing. Make sure you let them know that your business is a home based business and that you do not have customers coming to your home.

Storing your product

At first you might use your garage or attic. Eventually you will want to have permanent storage. Pick your favorite flea market, many of them, but not all, have storage space they rent. We have one where we pay $40 per month for space and since we share it with another vendor who stores tables there we pay only $20 per month. You may want a larger more secure space, so consider getting space at self storage facility but make sure you can access your goods at odd hours and make sure you the location is convenient in light of where you sell your products.

Take it slow at first

Limit your product lines at first. Focus on what really sells or on what really gets a crowd. We use CD's and DVD's. We have hundreds of them in boxes and we sell them real cheap. Even when we put them in the back, away from easy view, we always have a nice crowd of people going through them and when people see you have a crowd they come over to find out what the deal is!

Work well with others

You can do flea markets as an individual but it can be more profitable, and more fun, to work with someone else. A good friend who is honest and reliable or your souse would do just fine. You want two people for a couple of reasons, but here's a few:

1. when you get a crowd it can get overwhelming for any one person and you can lose sales
2. when nature calls, or you get hungry or thirsty, you need someone to watch your stand
3. the energy between two people can keep you on your selling game
4. this work involves a lot of packing and hauling things, and two people can do more than one person
5. if someone does get sick, you won't have to miss the flea market you already signed up for

Conclusion

This is a good work. It can be hard, and often is, but it can be very rewarding. Working 3-4 days per week you an earn $400 to $1,200 per week or more. the better your inventory and the better the site you choose to sell in the more you will make. This is a trial and error process.

Once you master the flea market you have other options to expand your income: start a buying club with a retail store front, wholesale to other vendors or retailers, sell items through classified ads, and sell online through an auction site or your own web site.

For more information

These are just starter ideas. To get more information or learn about opportunities to make money subscribe to my newsletter by emailing me at americaforchrist@yahoo.com and putting “The Liberation Journal” in the subject line.

If you wish to find below wholesale product sources, there are five great ideas to get you started. All of these sources deal more specifically with used items instead of new. For new items, your best bet is to deal with the manufacturers directly.

Product Source One - Thrift Stores

Thrift stores are designed to sell products at super low prices. Their goal is to shift product quickly and make some money for their particular charity. Many thrift stores have weekly or monthly sales when the bulk of their merchandise comes in. These sales might be “Three Dollar Bag Day” or “Buy One Item, Get One Free.” It is a great business move to find out if your local thrift store has regular sale days. You will be able to get a lot of below wholesale merchandise at these times.

Product Source Two - Garage and Yard Sales

Garage and yard sales are great sources of below wholesale cost products. Most people who hold these sales are interested in one thing: getting rid of accumulated junk. If you find several items, or a whole collection, that you are interested in, you should definitely make an offer.

Another great way to get a lot of cheap products from a garage or yard sale is to wait until the afternoon. Many of these sales close up around two or three o'clock. If you arrive as the people are clearing away and make a reasonable offer on a lot of the leftovers, they may just be happy to not have to clean up.

Product Source Three - Swap Meets, Bazaars and Flea Markets

The same method can be applied to some flea markets and swap meets. End of the day sales are common at these events. Also, haggling is a recognized part of most transactions. You can get a bunch of below wholesale items that you can resell for a profit.

Product Source Four - Classified Listings

Perusing the newspapers and online classified can reap great rewards. Many people sell quality items for very small amounts of money just to get them out of the house.

Product Source Five - Pawn Brokers and Consignment Shops

These locations for below wholesale products give another example of places where connections matter. If you can get the pawn broker or consignment shop owner to let you know when new items of interest come in, you will be a step ahead any competition. After all, these people are in business to make money as well. If you offer yourself as a ready buyer of low cost merchandise, they will invite you to come and shop anytime.