Doesn’t it seem like a brilliant idea – starting a home business? And it is – after all what could be easier than sourcing some buy ace killer og strain online from a wholesaler, reselling them at a profit on the internet to a worldwide audience and enjoying a comfortable standard of living whilst working flexible hours from home.
Unfortunately, the truth is, that for many would be entrepreneurs, they get left at the starting blocks having failed to realise that whilst it is indeed relatively easy to set up a website these days or advertise products through popular online venues such as eBay or Amazon, the actual product sourcing part of the process is the real challenge, and without products it’s difficult to get very far.
How do you know what to sell? How do you know where to get it from and at a competitive price? How can you avoid being scammed? What about import duties and taxes if you are sourcing from abroad? These are just some of the challenges facing every newbie reseller and I think I have lost count of the number of times I have been asked: “What should I sell?” or “Can you find me a supplier for X or Y or Z?”
I can totally empathise with this though, having been in this position myself when I started my own home business and I do understand that with so many online wholesalers to choose from it’s very easy to assume that the sourcing process is an simple one – just choose some stock and sell it – fantastic if you don’t really care what you are selling and whether you actually sell anything or not, however, if you want to make a profit then your sourcing methods will require a little more time and effort and that’s the reason I have created this exclusive special report for you.
The challenges ahead
The hardest part of product sourcing where a home business is concerned occurs in specifically nailing down what your market is, who your customers are likely to be, and just what it is you are going to sell. And this is where many, many would be home businesses go wrong before they have even started. It’s a common misconception that you can order a cheap job lot of any product from a wholesaler, advertise it online whether it’s on eBay, Amazon, Craigslist, eBid or through your own website and it will sell.
If only that were true!
The reality is that if you’ve ordered a wholesale lot of a particular product without first checking that there are plenty of people out there who want to buy it, how will you know if it’s going to sell or not? Well you won’t is the short answer.
First you must decide what to sell and this will obviously require some research to ensure that you choose not only the right niche but also the right product for that niche. Don’t forget that even if a particular niche is hot right now, there will be some products within that niche that are hotter than others so you need to weed out those products from within the hot niche – that’s the sure-fire way to make excellent profits.
So in deciding what to sell, you need to find the market first, the product second. That should be your mantra when sourcing products from now on – market first, product second. You must find what’s known as a ‘hungry crowd’. This is a group of people, constantly increasing in size, that really, really want the product that you have available and by purchasing it will benefit in some way. Preferably, your product is a solution to whatever problem they have so when you find your hungry crowd, this will guarantee that your business is a success because you want people exactly like your hungry crowd as your buyers. You want them to be clamoring for your products and buying them repeatedly. What you really want is a product that you can source and sell over and over again so that you do not constantly have to re-source and replace products that no longer apply to a hungry crowd.
How to find a ‘hungry crowd’
Well, you can’t stumble around waiting for a hot niche or hot product to present itself to you. This won’t happen. First you must make a definite decision regarding the niche. This could be something that you know a little about such as a hobby or interest that you enjoy, or you could browse the magazines at your local newsagent to pick up some ideas. You must choose an overall niche before you find your hungry crowd because otherwise you have absolutely no direction and things will become complicated.
So, lets use the example here of the ‘Photography’ niche. It’s not something that is of huge interest to me personally in this case, but there are loads of magazines out there for photography enthusiasts such as ‘Amateur Photographer’, ‘Photography Monthly’ and ‘What Digital Camera’ to name just a few and so I know that it’s a popular hobby and so will make a good example. The photography niche covers a wide spectrum from cameras, lenses and accessories such as tripods, cleaners, flash systems etc to courses on how to become a better photographer and so you need to discover exactly what all those photography enthusiasts are looking for right now, if they have any camera or photography problems they want solved or if they have a real need for anything, and if so, what it is. This is where you start to find your ‘hungry crowd’.
