Armory Sponsor
Posted: 11/17/2010 9:52:08 AM EDT
|
I've had my FFL a few years now and I'm doing primarily transfers. However I'm looking to establish an online presence selling a few select lines of reloading supplies oriented mainly towards benchrest & tactical shooters. But scouring prices across the web I see that I cant complete with many of the larger websites.
How do the big companies get their prices so low? How do you know which products to purchase for inventory and what will sell? The best I can do at this moment is 20k to get my inventory started. My business goals are fairly simple, IMO. Year 1 I want. to break even at least. Year 2 I have to make at a minimum 1k profit a month for it to be worth my time, because I work a side job bringing in that much with a lot less effort. I'm just getting started with my business plan and I've contacted some of my old college professors about some financial advice, got my BBA back in '02. However my questions are very market specific. What should I focus on? I'm primarily orienting these questions towards owners that do this full time or at least make a decent amount of money doing it part time. |
|
Spend some time studying prices. There are some things you can compete on and some not. There is wholesale and then there is wholesale. As an FFL you have already know that. For me I use my capital (all cash) and grab deals as I see them come along. To be honest 20k is not a much when you start doing stocking inventory. When you say reloading equipment for benchrest and tactical guys you are targeting a very specific market. That can be good and bad. My advice would be to talk to the distributors and reloading company itself and see how much better pricing you could get on a large order. As far as knowing what will sell and what won't, that comes with tons of research both personal and online. If it were me I would look for deals and test the waters. Spend a few k here and there and see what people like. When they come by for the transfers have a small product line out and see if there is interest. If it sits on your shelf for two months you will know. If you have people calling you every other day asking about it, then buy more. My personal business plan is for quick sales. I try to make a profit for a week or two and then I sell at a breakeven and move on. I do not like having my capital tied up on stuff that sits. I would start with more of a shotgun approach and then narrow it down a bit as you find what you can move.
|
|
Quoted:
Spend some time studying prices. There are some things you can compete on and some not. There is wholesale and then there is wholesale. As an FFL you have already know that. For me I use my capital (all cash) and grab deals as I see them come along. To be honest 20k is not a much when you start doing stocking inventory. When you say reloading equipment for benchrest and tactical guys you are targeting a very specific market. That can be good and bad. My advice would be to talk to the distributors and reloading company itself and see how much better pricing you could get on a large order. As far as knowing what will sell and what won't, that comes with tons of research both personal and online. If it were me I would look for deals and test the waters. Spend a few k here and there and see what people like. When they come by for the transfers have a small product line out and see if there is interest. If it sits on your shelf for two months you will know. If you have people calling you every other day asking about it, then buy more. My personal business plan is for quick sales. I try to make a profit for a week or two and then I sell at a breakeven and move on. I do not like having my capital tied up on stuff that sits. I would start with more of a shotgun approach and then narrow it down a bit as you find what you can move. Thanks for the advice. The only reason I targeted tactical and benchrest shooters to begin with is because that's a market that I'm familiar with as I've been shooting short range Benchrest for a couple of years now. In that arena there is a pretty good demand for guys that keep running orders of barrel blanks with companies like kreiger, shilen, brux, etc. So that may be a possibility as well. And you're right 20k isn't much but its about the best I can do right now unless I go for some type of SBA backed bank loan. |
Armory Sponsor