Entrepreneur.com is a virtual gold mine of information, but
sometimes it's nice to have all your top questions and answers
in one spot. That's why we decided to create a kind of FAQ
section just for homebased startups, culled from questions posed to
our former Startup Expert, Keith Lowe. Read on to glean tons of
useful tidbits from these, your top start-up questions.
e-Business
Reselling
Products
Q: I have decided
to start a business on the Internet selling computer hardware,
software, books and accessories. Do I need to obtain the products
for sale on my Web site from the manufacturers? Is this allowed, or
do I have to go about it another way in order to sell products
online?
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One of the reasons why I am asking is to make sure this is
allowed or whether I will require licenses in order to sell my
products. I would also like to know if I am too young to do
this.
A: There are a few
ways to go about this. One is to buy some products, store them in
your basement and ship them to customers as you sell them. The
positive side to this is that you can usually make more money if
you do this by taking more risk. The negative side is the
possibility of getting stuck with stuff you can't sell.
That's why you sometimes see department stores having sales for
75 percent off-they are trying to get rid of stuff that they bought
and now can't sell.
Another way to go about this is to use a fulfillment company. If
you go to www.google.com and search on "fulfillment
company," you'll find out more than you want to know about
how they work. Many will handle everything-they'll give you a
list of products and the wholesale prices, you take the orders, and
they do the rest.
I'm not quite sure what you mean when you ask, "Is this
allowed?" If you mean can you buy products, keep them in your
basement and then resell them, the answer is yes, provided there
are no city zoning restrictions that would prevent you from keeping
inventory on the premises. Check with your city's zoning
department on any restrictions, for inventory or otherwise. And
check with your city on any needed licenses or permits.
When in doubt, a good attorney or accountant will be able to
answer these types of questions, and it's always a good idea to
consult them when starting a business. I think you are on the right
track, and I would encourage you to keep trying and keep pushing
until you get this thing going!
Selling on
eBay
Q: I am just
itching to get into the business world, but I have limited
financial resources. Can you give me any suggestions on low-cost
businesses to start that mostly involve the Internet?
A: Well, there are
so many opportunities, I don't know where to start. First you
need to find something that interests you-it is pretty easy to find
tons of services to offer (from Web site promotion to retail to
being a technical writer to you name it).
There are many ways to go about this, and many can be done
without a lot of risk or investment. One way is to start on eBay.
There are lots of people making great money just selling things on
eBay (but you need to pick something you have expertise with).
I've got a friend who sells several hundred thousand
dollars' worth of used golf clubs per year on eBay, works his
own hours and has a blast.
If you wanted to get started with something like that, try
buying and selling a couple of inexpensive things (but be careful!)
just to see how things work. One word of caution: To do well on
eBay, you must sell something you know a lot about-my friend is
very successful, but mostly because he's an expert in golf
clubs.
I've got another friend who quit his job in Atlanta, moved
to a small town in Georgia and became a ghost writer-he will write
articles and books for people and get them published. He lives in a
small town with a low cost of living and works in a local coffee
shop. What a life!
The key here is to find something that interests you, hopefully
something that you can be passionate about!
Originally published in the July 2002 issue of HomeOfficeMag.com