869, RE: Need some Ideas Posted by DBeavers, Mon Oct-20-14 07:18 AM
One idea you might consider is promotional advertising sales. It's a niche market to many, that allows the home-based worker to compete with the "Mom & Pop" distributors as well as the national corporations.
I stated my dealership 30 years ago, strictly working from home. it's been my full-time occupation since 1987. I do a mix of internet, phone, and in-person sales, usually spending two to three days a week making sales calls in my area.
By choice, I also make an overnight sales trip to Houston, TX, but the drive allows me to attend the Houston PPA meeting each month for my on-going education in the industry.
With other 4000 suppliers, offering 900K+ products from around the world, we literally have something to fill the needs of any business.
The company I sell for is looking for additional dealers, but limits their market to people living in the U.S. only. If you live elsewhere, you will likely find similar opportunity, just not with Kaeser & Blair.
Four great aspects of my business -
Portability - Using a laptop with WiFi and and iPad, we can continue serving our clients while driving down the road. Our mobility has allowed us to take 3 to 4 trips a year to visit our oldest son and his family in SC over the past two years, while keeping the business flowing.
If we relocate, we can keep a good number of our clients using us as their source, with online and telephone orders. (I'm already serving customers across Texas and as far away as Kansas and Utah!)
Volume sales - Instead of selling one to five items per sale, we're selling 48 to 7500 pieces at a time. Regardless of whether it's ink pens & pencils, or calendars, umbrellas, coffee mugs, or embroidered shirts, caps, & jackets, our average sales is $500+, providing much more commission than typical direct sales products.
Repeat orders - This is one of the best opportunities for repeat business, both for new and different, as well as repeat of previous orders. The only industries I can think of with higher repeat sales is grocery stores and restaurants.
Flexibility - I can work more hours when I choose, and fewer when needed to fit my business into my lifestyle.
Most of my sales come during the 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. business day, and I can do layouts/artwork after hours when I have more uninterrupted time available.
My business could match both your needs for home-based work, and the future relocation.
Let me know if I can answer any more questions.
Dennis
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