In this article, I want to share from my own experience how to start a business in a simple way and there are some things you need to pay attention here:
Although simple, it does not mean this business can be run easily.
I will not discuss about capital / money, I think business is as simple as anything would require capital.
There is no guarantee if you run it must be successful and rich, I put more emphasis on “Action” and “Execution”.
Start a business From the 3 points above you need to focus is “not to fail” and “can run with minimal capital possible”.
First of all we all know a lot of the sciences about business / business that exist in various books, seminars, workshops, lectures, or mentors who can teach you about doing business. Here I will not sell the talk that “You must be rich” or “Business zero capital” and so on, but I will invite you to “Start” your own business because just by doing it you can really learn to do business.
Why do some business starters fail in their business, because (they may) think too complex in business but forget the essence of doing business is to give “Value” to others and the most important science in doing business as well as the basis of every business is “Selling”.
You do not need complicated ideas or super-sophisticated business models to trade, all you need to do is:
Looking for products to sell -> Looking for buyers who want to buy the product -> Sell
Looks simple but not easy “to make it really works”, you have to play smart and understand step-by-step to run it. Remember the two things I emphasize here is “do not fail” and “can walk with minimal capital”.
Let’s start first:
Start by becoming a re seller (selling other people’s products)
Drop ship re sellers Start from a product that “saleable” in the market, forget about your passion, remember you sell products for other people buy not for you. Many trading businesses fail because they feel passion / love with the goods they sell then they think others will like it, or because there are some (1 or 2 people) who buy then they feel everyone likes the product. No, the market is different from the theory (that’s why there’s a market research), you have to do your own market research looking at existing trends / markets or start selling your own products.
The next lesson is do not sell the product needs (needs) because the player must have a lot and big (big players). In addition to business needs products then busy is cheap-cheap (price war), there is nothing you can get from a price war in addition to a small profit (of course you also waste resources if competing with big players). The product you should look for is a unique and desired product (want) people, do not sell products that are also sold by supermarkets or malls in Indonesia. Look for a unique product but the market is large enough or the market is small but it needs constantly (there is a repeat order).
Then how to become a re seller? Search on google the distributors / suppliers of the product, start searching for “search something” about the product, where you can find the seller or where you can buy the product, and make sure the supplier you find accepts the re seller. Here the role of the supplier is very important and do not depend on one supplier because if they play the price / quality then you will be very hassle.
There are 2 ways to start selling this supplier product:
Re sellers: You directly buy products from suppliers to stock and you resell.
Drop ship: You do not hold stock, just bring order / order and the product will be sent by supplier directly with your name.
If you do not have the capital then it can start with drop ship with a note you can only do it online (can not COD) and the price you earn is usually more expensive than stapling the product as a re seller, but you will not bear any loss if the product is not sold, and No need to bother taking care of delivery.
If you have enough capital, then start picking up the goods from the supplier (do not stock too much) and start selling online and offline (run both), here you can also COD and profits earned from bigger sales, but there is a risk of those products Damaged / unsold during storage (dead goods).
Do your research as soon as possible
Market Research Once you have found a supplier and a product to sell, immediately research (as quickly as possible) by starting selling to your family / friends, putting ads in forums / marketplaces, selling through social media, or creating an online store / website, do this quickly (Build a reputation), use the name / brand for your store and start selling one by one (all major sales starting from one small sale) of your product, the most important of building this reputation is your service as a seller (your first reputation is yourself ), Serve buyers friendly, polite, quick and most importantly “honest”. Here your main goal is to do research as well as run a business and certainly not be easy when you do marketing, build a reputation, take orders, and do product research all simultaneously, therefore you have to do it quickly:
Immediately looking for suppliers / products to sell (recommended drop ship first and then little by little start the stock of salable goods)
Do marketing offline and online (when drop ship do marketing “Full Online” so start be stock start marketing offline)
Build reputation -> create name / brand / logo for your business, build reputation with “Service” and competitive price)
Do your research as soon as possible -> once you start selling you can see the market response whether your product is selling or not, see your competitors whether they sell well, if competition starts unhealthy (there is price competition or unreasonable promo) leave The product and look for other products (There are millions of products you can sell in this world)
Evaluation -> here you will understand by itself what products you should play and what products you should leave behind, and start focusing to the next stage (step 3).
Do not be a re seller
Not forever you can survive a re seller, the 2 stages above can be spelled out just “warm up”, this is the stage you will really trade do various ways to sell your product.
The advantages of running both stages above are:
Risks can be minimized as much as possible, and you can start business immediately (with minimal capital) as well as learn.
You start learning things from marketing, serving customers, analyzing the market, and most importantly “Selling”
You know what products you need to stock (here you already know what the market likes and what does not) but that does not mean the research stops (remember the market is changing) and this research will never be completed until at any time.
You already have a reputation and stay up / improve your service.
Now it’s time for you as a re seller to level up to “Distributor” which means you are stocking in large quantities and will do various ways (because it has a lot of stock) to sell the product. Of course, the product you should stock is a product that has been proven behavior (steps 1 & 2). Start focusing on the best-selling product and be a distributor for the product, being a distributor means you will immediately take the product from the manufacturer / manufacturer of the product and get a much cheaper price than you as a re seller.
Tips for you who reach the stage of this distributor is to do sales to “re sellers” and “end user / buyer” fairly. Many re sellers are lazy to sell products from suppliers because they do not make a special difference between the re seller and the buyer. Create a fair re seller system both in terms of price and quality, as well as good service to re sellers and users.
Along with the size of your order / sales, start recruiting / hire employees to help you (until this stage of course you can hire employees) and continue to grow every day, keep doing research and business as well, leave products that start not sell and focus on the product That sells.
In conclusion of all that I have to say, the following tips I can give based on my own experience in selling:
Start with a unique drop ship of goods / products (market desired) that are sold on a limited basis, for example: this product is only sold in one store. Drop ship is the product as much as possible (do not sell 1 or 2 types of goods only) because here you do not need any capital then sell as many products as you can find, but still you will need capital to build a name / brand also to marketing product.
Run re sellers and drop ships simultaneously, when you drop ship from different types of products, start stocking (a few) products that start selling steadily and run offline marketing for the products you stock.
Keep marketing and research till you are sure that the product you are stocking is proven to be selling and immediately level up to become a distributor (stock in large quantities).
As a distributor do a variety of ways to sell what you have stock, create a re seller system, create a physical store, and keep doing research to see if it’s time your product began to be abandoned or kept in stock.
That’s the way to do business simply, and do not wait for the right time because there is never a good time if you never start. It’s easy to say but difficult when running it, because it immediately start and good luck.