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Better_Than_Sliced_BreadDrop_Shipping_The_New_Home_Business_Craze
| Better Than Sliced Bread...Drop Shipping The New Home Business Craze
Many of you will probably remember the days when the only way to
start a successful home business was to join some sort of
multi-level marketing program or sell makeup at parties. In
those days, people would have to buy a membership in the
‘program’ along with an inventory of sample products that they
would then sell to friends and coworkers at ‘parties.’ Most
people were not very successful at this and made very little
money and usually alienated their friends and family. In the
1990’s however, all of that changed for the better with the
advent of the Internet and a retail delivery method called
wholesale drop shipping.
Wholesale drop shipping is when a wholesale distributor or
manufacturer agrees to send out single unit products to
customers for a retailer. Many will also even include the
retailers name on the invoice so that the customer is never even
aware that they got it from anyone else but the retailer. This,
along with the Internet has changed the whole dynamics of home
businesses in America, making it easier and more cost effective
to start your own business.
Home business owners are now able to launch a business without
purchasing any inventory up front and are able to open a ‘store’
without ever having to find a place to setup shop. Millions of
Americans have setup ecommerce sites on the internet selling
everything from Personal Computers to lawn care equipment all
using wholesale drop shipping. As a matter of fact, according to
eBay over forty thousand people make their full time living on
their auction site alone; many of these are using drop shipping
as their main method of product fulfillment.
The only problem for today’s small business owner is how to find
wholesalers to drop ship. In general wholesale distributors
don’t make it a habit of getting out there and advertising;
obviously the whole reason they are in wholesale and not retail
is to get away from doing all of that work. So it makes it very
difficult for someone who has little or no business experience
to make contacts with distributors when they aren’t even sure
where to start looking.
To help out those small business owners I’d like to offer some
advice for finding wholesale distributors: §Look for trade
organizations and magazines to help you make contacts. Many
trade organizations out their produce some sort of listings of
their members, many of whom may drop ship. §Contact
manufacturers. People don’t realize that if you call the
manufacturer they will provide you with a list of their
distributors; so if you are looking for a particular product,
ask the manufacturer. The down side of this route is that they
may have hundreds of distributors that you may have to contact
before you find one that is willing to drop ship. §Find
wholesale chat rooms and message boards. There are many message
boards on the Internet today that are devoted to a wide range of
discussions. You may find boards on wholesale, distribution,
supply chain, etc. All of these may lead you in the direction of
a wholesale distributor.
However, if you want to get up and running fast, or just don’t
have the time to go on a search for wholesale distributors much
less ones that drop ship, then the way to go is drop ship
directories. These are usually pay services that search out drop
shippers for you then give you access to their contacts; there
are many of these on the Internet today, and many are very good.
As with anything on the Internet you must be very careful of the
scams out there. Many drop ship directories will end up giving
you an outdated list of wholesalers, or when you contact them
you will find that they are a true wholesale distributor but
they do not drop ship.
Here are some pieces of advice when looking for a quality drop
ship directory: §Stay away from the cheap ones! Obviously with
everything else in this world you will get what you pay for. If
you find one out their for three dollars, you probably are not
going to get a good product. In general the one’s that offer the
best information are charging $60 or more for a six month
membership. §Look for one’s that will do specialty searches! If
you get into a drop ship directory and find that they do not
have any products that you would like to sell, or think you can
sell, then make sure they will go out and find it for you. If
they do not do specialty searches then you will end up being
stuck with whatever listings they have no matter what. §Find one
with a Satisfaction Guarantee! There are several drop ship
directories out there that offer a guarantee that all of their
listings are true drop shippers, but in my opinion this is not
enough. If you get into their directory and find that they have
five hundred listings for widget suppliers and they are all real
wholesalers you are out your money and only have access to one
product. Make sure they guarantee your satisfaction with their
product no matter what, especially if you are going to shell out
seventy dollars of your hard earned money. §Look for ones that
are going to help you out as well, not just give you a list. Do
they offer articles and help material on starting your business
or are all they just going to give you listings and nothing else.
However you choose to find wholesale drop shipping, keep in mind
that as with anything else in this world knowledge is power. Try
and find out as much as you can before you jump in to get your
feet wet. It will make your startup smoother and help you get
the profitability stage much faster.
About the author:
Tony Keeler is the founder and publisher of The Drop Ship
Connection – www.dropshipconnection.com - The web’s only drop
ship directory with a step by step guide for the home business
owner. He is also the owner of MAR Services which publishes
these great sites: §2DollarSoftware – www.2dollarsoftware.com -
marketing, advertising, and internet software. §DingleHopper.com
– www.dinglehopper.com - Funny Name, Cool Products.
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