WholesalerForums started this topic @ 18:35 on 29/05/2007
Getting Help with Wholesale Business
Setting up a business is far from easy and there are many hurdles which you will face along the way. With any new business you should put together a structured business plan, clearly stating what you would like to achieve. You should think are you going to be providing a service or a product. Whether your planning to earn a little extra cash or use this as a main stream of income. Its also important to have an exact idea of how much capital you have to spend on your business and whether or not you will be taking out a business loan - any loaning company would need to see a solid business plan.
If like myself you are dealing with physical products which are being sourced from suppliers you face an even harder task. As the truth is there are many fraudulent 'companies' that will take your money and run in any area of trade. There's little you can do if you have been scammed. Other than make other people aware of the fraudulent 'company'. Luckily a lot of scammers are not to clever and you can usually spot them out. Key ideas being:
* What Payment methods do they Accept? - Credit Card payments are always recommended but always check with your bank that you can do a charge back if the worst happens these can be done via PayPal or Google Checkout. L/C (Letter of Credit) is a great method to use, you don't hand over any funds until you have received the goods and inspected them. You are signing a legal contract and could be taken to court if you don't pay up. Escrow is also very safe method. However, make sure you only use www.escrow.com as some sites are set up by the scammers themselves. * Wh
* What is Pricing Like?little competition.
* How long is Delivery? - A common phrase ases e trade is a 'broker' these are companies/ traders which do not hold stock just use different suppliers to get the goods sent to you. The problem with brokers is if the deal goes wrong its typically the person at the end of the line that suffers. You can usually tell if the supplier you have is a broker if they have long delivery times or if they cannot provide POS (Proof of Stock). If they are not a broker they should be able to send your stock within 24- 48 hours and also provide images of their stock. If not you should start to worry?
* What is there communication like? - You should expect them to have a quick response time to your questions usually 24- 48 hours on working days. Not only that but they should also be honest, polite, and professional if they lack any of those features you should start to question there business and whether or not its really there. Which brings be on to my next point.
* Are they Really a Business? - Any Wholesale company should be a registered company with a Company number that they will happily provide. Which you can check online by going to there countries government website. They should also be VAT registered, so make sure you can get there VAT number from them. If they cannot provide any of the above I personally wouldn't deal with them. Many scammers have came up with a solution to this, which is having certificates on there website - all well and good but make sure they are in English as to most people they mean nothing in Chinese, Japanese. If theyne by gois they should be able to provide a company registration number.
* Website, Email, and Business Address - Scammers will never spend any amount of money, the majority of times. I'd like to think a company that will happily take $20,000 orders off me could spare $70 for a domain and web hosting, at least for email purposes and I wouldn't be worried if your supplier doesn't have a website, but if there using a Hotmail, Yahoo, or any Free email address you should be. Likewise, ask for the address if they are who they say they are, they should have some sort of business premises. Not a house or flat somewhere in China. Software like Google Earth will allow you to verify this.
Its important that you get all of the above information and if it all checks out, then you should be OK. Although its important that you find everything out about them don't constantly nag them with questions. Take a few days to work through the questions. If you keep bugging them with questions they may think your wasting their time. It does happen.
If you found this useful head over to the http://www.wholesalerforums.com where you can get a lot more information about Wholesale and business. We are a small community that will make any new member welcome.
