Friday, September 08, 2006

Steps You Need To Take In Order To Be A Successful Reseller - By Gregg Hall

Okay, so you have decided that you want to operate your own close out or liquidation business. There are some things that you need to know as you get started in your new venture that will help you to be more successful.

The first thing that you need to do in order to be successful as a seller or reseller is to identify a particular niche that you want to specialize in. You will be far more successful and profitable by specializing in one area than by trying to be all things to all people in your business. It will also help you with the learning curve inherent in any business as it will be much easier to learn about a particular niche than a broad range of products.

Investigate the competition in the niche that you want to target and get an idea of what they are pricing their products at and how they are marketing them. If you intend to market online, research your competition on eBay as that is the largest collection of merchants anywhere on the planet.

Now that you have identified a niche and researched your competition it is time to find the products to resell. This is the crucial part of your business as it is the price that you pay for the items that will determine your profit when you resell them. Look for wholesale suppliers, search eBay, and frequent garage sales, whatever it takes to get the products at the right price.

Don't try to rush out and be the Walmart of your particular niche. Start small and grow your business using the profits from sales. It will be much less stressful to operate your business in this way and it will not cost you a fortune if you make a mistake. As a hint here, use eBay to test a market. This is the easiest, quickest, and the least expensive way to find out if a particular market will be profitable before dumping a ton of money in it.

Test a few different products in your niche and see which ones are the most popular and the most profitable. Once you have found one or two products target these and become an expert on them, finding the best prices you can and become the best you can be at marketing them. Once you have done this, repeat the process with additional products.

Now, you need to complete a business plan which does not have to be a formal thing like that you would submit to a bank, just an outline for your own use so that you know what steps you need to take to make your business successful and keep from falling into a rut of procrastination and inaction.

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Florida. Find more about this as well as 5 Star Closeouts at http://www.5starcloseouts.com