starting a business

[joe52985]

my family is uber-strapped for cash and me and my mom have been thinking of starting a small buisness for some additional revenue/college funds. We both have no clue what we are doing when it comes to this. I was thinking of going the computer route, considering i already fix everyones computer under the sun, and get good word of mouth advertising already. coupla questions:

1.How would you become a reseller of parts?
2.Apex, how did you start? and how did you start making money?
3.What kind of funds would i need to do this?
4.B&M, or internet, We would love for it to be a run-in-the-house kinda job, but is that worthwhile?
5.How do you advertise?

well those are pretty big questions but any kind of advice is welcome and needed

TIA

[TERRIBLETOM]

The only problem with working out of your home and dealing with repairs and retail you will have to warranty everything you fix or sell. I know you don't want people knocking at your door at all hours because something doesn't work. Then when shipping parts your going to want a PO box, for a return address. I would think it through carefully before you decide to do anything from your home address, you never know who your going to be dealing with in the future.

[eSDee]

Joe, you should probably research it by doing google searches for the questions you are asking. Apex is a cool guy, but if he were to start divulging all his secrets there would be (insert number of G|A members here) businesses out there competing with him. The key to it is hard work, which starts by you doing some of the footwork yourself.

Here's one piece of advice though: its business ;)

Good luck to you.

[K2]

how about real estate? i don't mean selling... but renting.. maybe u guys can rent out ur basement? or buy a house and rent that out :)

[Speedfreak]

I just started a computer repair business in Oct. with 2 of my friends. We do onsite repair and/or upgrade. We plan to become resellers once we get more into the upgrading part of it.

I will answer your questions based on my experiences.

1.) Get a reseller's liscence for your state/city and get an account with a distributor.

2.) N/A

3.) Unless you plan on building up an inventory to start reselling right away It is not very expensive at all. If you get hooked up with a distributer you can also sell through them and not carry inventory. KEY POINT: Only buy something if it will make you money.

4.) If if is going to be computer repair, well then it would be B&M either on-site or from home/office. If you want to sell stuff, the internet is a very good resource. i.e. Ebay. Check your local laws and make sure you have all the legal papers filled out. Also check the laws about the type of business you are starting. For us in California, we can not have a Partnership from home. You have to have an office address. Luckily for us, one of my freinds has an extra room in his office the he is letting us use.

5.)Start cheap. Local paper, Pennysaver (if you have there), letter to family and friends letting them know you have a new business and asking if they know anyone whou would need your services.

[Tommy Boomfiger]

incorporate yourself or your company. this will limit your liability to your investment and not your personal belongings. for example if something happens and your company is sued, the suit will cover anything you have under the business only and will protect your personal belongings like your house and car or other private possesions.

a class s corp (correct me if im incorrect, it might be class c) doesn not cost very much, under 200 bucks and also can protect you from double taxation (taxing both you and your company).

[ufcrusher]

To become a reseller, you need to get a tax id. If you are going to run under a fictious name, you will need to comply with your states law. Most require you file a form with them and then take an ad out for the general public for a while...I cant remember how often you have to do it, but its more than once a year and the paper has to be of a certain size.

Then after you have your tax id and fictious name license, you would want to contact suppliers. My friend used to use Techdata among others, that I cant remember. There are certain rules and restrictions that the you have to comply with, such as only X amount of personal purchases per year and some have minimum number of orders.

Hope this helps.

[hoey222]

topane and i have done something very similar to this.

to resell, you need a business license. you must be set up as a biz FIRST. because no matter what you do to make extra money for yourself, UNCLE SAM WILL TAKE HIS SHARE.

There are websites you can link up with once you have a license. You can act as the reseller marking up items that you sell. Or you can sell directly from a website, and make commissions off the sale. These sites WILL NOT deal with you WITHOUT a biz license. Depending on which state you are in, you will need a specific RESELLERS license.

one of the nice things about these sites is the fact that you only order what you need. with tech changing every 5 minutes you don't want to get stuck with a garage full of inventory that you cant sell.


i'll pm you the sites we use so you can check it out.

good luck :D

[oblongmelon]

HERE ARE SOME ideas that have worked for people I know and work with-

one started up a mail courier service. You know-delivering messages,mail from company to company-picking up packages to be mailed,etc..they charge so much per mile, plus a bit extra-

another started selling bagels!
she would go and buy about 8 dozen assorted bagels every morning (and Sam's club individual packs of cream cheese and jelly)-she put them on a cart with napkins, cream cheese and plastic knives and would deliver them from floor to floor of various office buildings every morning-she worked out a deal with the bagel maker to buy them at a discount and then sold them for 2 dollars each-after a while,she started added other fillers-flavored cream cheeses that she made at home,some breakfast meats that she pre-cooked and had in a thermal container to keep warm. etc..
she is doing a great business!

[joe52985]

thanks guys, this stuff is really helpful. I even got my mom on the forums checking the posts lol.

[CarolinaGal]

.......depending on where you live.

in Texas you can open a fire works stand outside the cities for only two week a season - and the seasons are around January 1, and July 4. Potentially, you can really make so pretty good cash if you are willing to work your b*tt off for two solid weeks. My SIL has a stand she owns, rents a patch of parking lot from a dry cleaner, and hires folks to work during the day and she and her husband stay there at night. She clears about $12,000 each stand in both July and Jan - in fact it's how she stays at home during the year.

It's not easy work, and has a pretty big cash outlay, and it can be dangerous. For them it's worth it, so she won't have to go back to work......... Just an ideab