Recently, one of my suppliers went under. This has turned out to be bad and (possibly) good. Part of our business model has always been to not stock inventory. Small stuff that we use all the time, yes but nothing like building materials or greater.
Well an opportunity has just presented itself to us to become a distributor for some of the materials the old supplier used to carry. I'm wondering if anyone has some stories or advice about actually selling a product they use often.
On the good side, there is definitely a market for this. I know our old supplier was on pace to sell a substantial amount, even during these lean construction times. Also, we would now be able to get these items for ourselves at around an additional 25% discount. Our competition could not beat our prices!
On the bad side, we'd become a "store". A boat-load of additional paperwork, phone calls, bills, invoices and a new employee awaits us.
I don't see how this can really be a
bad thing....as long as we except the additional amount of work necessary with the territory. The manufacturer understands the trying economic times and is willing to work with us to become an establish distributor for them. We are not locked into any kind of contract. We don't have a minimum sales number that needs to be reached yearly.
My hope and our 3 year business model has us getting in on the ground floor of an opportunity that may lead to us being a successful and hopefully, very busy distributor once the construction industry turns around. I don't ever expect things to be like they were 5 years ago but things
will change. Even a 15% increase in sales over 3 years would be huge for our little company.
Am I not thinking about something?

arty: