Comments on: business to business office supplies company good idea or not need answers! pleaseeeeeeee? http://www.proofficesupply.com/blog/business-to-business-office-supplies-company-good-idea-or-not-need-answers-pleaseeeeeeee/ Thu, 17 May 2012 21:55:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: COLIN T http://www.proofficesupply.com/blog/business-to-business-office-supplies-company-good-idea-or-not-need-answers-pleaseeeeeeee/comment-page-1/#comment-1508 COLIN T Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:59:35 +0000 http://www.proofficesupply.com/blog/business-to-business-office-supplies-company-good-idea-or-not-need-answers-pleaseeeeeeee/#comment-1508 Your cartridge call was a lucky one so don't count your chickens just yet. The biggest problem you face i think is just how do you undercut big suppliers? They have the purchasing power to get bottom of the barrel prices on the goods they buy, as a start up you do not have that clout. But every big trader started out like you at one stage and the difference between the wage slave and the business owner is that one was prepared to take a calculated risk and the other was not. Your cartridge call was a lucky one so don’t count your chickens just yet. The biggest problem you face i think is just how do you undercut big suppliers? They have the purchasing power to get bottom of the barrel prices on the goods they buy, as a start up you do not have that clout.

But every big trader started out like you at one stage and the difference between the wage slave and the business owner is that one was prepared to take a calculated risk and the other was not.

]]> By: Dub_Station http://www.proofficesupply.com/blog/business-to-business-office-supplies-company-good-idea-or-not-need-answers-pleaseeeeeeee/comment-page-1/#comment-1507 Dub_Station Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:55:33 +0000 http://www.proofficesupply.com/blog/business-to-business-office-supplies-company-good-idea-or-not-need-answers-pleaseeeeeeee/#comment-1507 If you already have experience of that type of business i think it is a good idea, you already know the business and prices. Stationary/packing products are always needed, some of the biggest ebay sellers sell packing products there will be a few other costs like insurance and tax/Ni if you have staff Sales over about 60K will require paying VAT at 15% so you have to include that when working out profit. If you get a website too and after gaining customers get them to order from the site then you won't have to pay staff to take repeat orders. you need to check all your competiors prices first (including ebay/internet), do they give free P&P, offer big discounts for bulk orders, have a wider range than you? are you sure you can beat their prices? I pay 15p for a jiffy bag, if you could sell it to me for 10p I would buy it but I think it would really squeeze your profits. From my experience packing products like jiffy bags, bubble wrap, printer paper take up ALOT of space and storing this may be expensive. ie an warehouse might cost £2000 a week to rent, but you could only physically fit £50,000 worth of packing products in it, if you were selling mobile phones you could probably fit millions of pounds worth of stock in there. good luck If you already have experience of that type of business i think it is a good idea, you already know the business and prices.

Stationary/packing products are always needed, some of the biggest ebay sellers sell packing products

there will be a few other costs like insurance and tax/Ni if you have staff

Sales over about 60K will require paying VAT at 15% so you have to include that when working out profit.

If you get a website too and after gaining customers get them to order from the site then you won’t have to pay staff to take repeat orders.

you need to check all your competiors prices first (including ebay/internet), do they give free P&P, offer big discounts for bulk orders, have a wider range than you? are you sure you can beat their prices?

I pay 15p for a jiffy bag, if you could sell it to me for 10p I would buy it but I think it would really squeeze your profits.

From my experience packing products like jiffy bags, bubble wrap, printer paper take up ALOT of space and storing this may be expensive. ie an warehouse might cost £2000 a week to rent, but you could only physically fit £50,000 worth of packing products in it, if you were selling mobile phones you could probably fit millions of pounds worth of stock in there.

good luck

]]>