by brniiz on Fri May 30, 2008 12:35 pm
Hey D-1, The key to any of this stuff is reading and understanding it all. It takes time. I am someone who is a clearance shopper. And when the prices drop to a price I feel is good, I buy it in retail stores. Here's an example. About 4 years ago, Walmart had these black N decker Edge Hog trimmer replacement blades. I paid $.50 for each one, I bought 4 of them. I put them on Amazon this past month and sold all 4 of them for $7.50 each. Now I got lucky, not everything is able to generate that much proffit, plus look at the time that I had kept these. But I only spent 2 bucks total so there wasn't like a need to recoup my money right away when I made the purchases. Now I have learned that timing is everything, and you have to had product when you sell. Before I list any of my products I always search the current sales that are listed, and check the retail price. Then I figure out what I have invested in the item, and set a price. A very weird way for some but it works for me. I have friends that have their own business, and they allow me to buy at cost from their sources and that helps lots too. Drop Shipping is alright, but your not going to do much with it, cause you have NO control on inventory, shipping and how things are handled. you have to rely on the Drop Shipper to do as he claims. Stay away from a contract, cause that can put you in a situation that you may NOT want to be in like 6 mos. down the road. Everything looks fantastic at the onset, cause we want to make money, but after a bit, we learn of other sources and ideas that are of more interest or similar and because of the contract we can't sell it. You lock yourself into something when you do contracts like those types that makes it hard to succeed without that supplier leaving you paying for stuff that's no longer selling or of interest.
I've gotten burned as well, I bought a bunch of can opener key chains about 3 years back, only paid a nickle for each of them and I can't give them away. But I bought a 100 of them. I know that's only 5 bucks, but still that five bucks was wasted, cause they're of zero interest to anyone.
What I suggest is to first see what your interested in. Dust collectors, tools, Adult items, crafts, etc. Choosing things you like and have interest in gives you knowledge. Knowledge is Power and something that can indeed keep you going. First off, think this way, You all are close to Vermont, noted for Maple Syrup and Candy, now do you all have an interest in homemade candies or syrup? Let's just say you do, and you have the equipment to produce your homemade candy. You want to start offering it for sale, now a hobby has converted to a business. you start making your product, get it perfect (for show and tell) cause you want to show mouth watering items in your listings. A couple things that you'd have to make available with your production is ingredient listing, and shelf life, packaging, etc. Now you need to figure out the cost of everything, Syrup for the candy is 100.00 for a 5 gal bucket, The paper holders for the candy run you about .02 ea., Sugar runs about $2.00 a 5lb., your molds 5.00 each set, etc. etc. These are all the things you have to find out the cost of, Just for the sake of argument let's say that each candy is costing you about .10 each to produce. Now of course your NOT going to sell by an ea. So We now need to figure out the costs for boxing and making them ship ready. Let's say that that will add another .05 for each one. Now we're up to .15 ea. Now what about your time to make them, the gas/electric to use, the extra pots, and utensels you need, the gloves you'll need to handle the product etc. Again for argument sake let's just say that its about 20 cents per candy. Now it's up to .35 per candy, which is about average for the "wholesale" price of ONE piece of HOMEMADE candy. (I have a friend who makes his own, he told me the cost breakdown). Now you figure out the profit part, the overall suggestion is 2.5 times the cost of the product. Now your looking at .88 per candy. So your price is now figured on that, A dozen candies boxed would cost approx: $10.50.
I know that I didn't specifically answer the question, I will chat with you directly about specifics, but this is a general idea of how to turn your hobby into a business for the internet. When I had the bagel Shop, I sold bagels on ebay, and did quite well. But that "hobby" I quickly burned out from, so keep that in mind. But I have noticed that alot of peeps on the Auctions sites start out with their hobby, and move on fromthere. I hope that this idea is a help.
If we are successful at it.
