If you are desperate to create a business, but you don’t have a particular product that you want to create and sell, then you will be forgiven for believing that you stand no chance of creating a successful company.
However, thanks to the internet age and the ability to rapidly curate a large, responsive online audience, you no longer have to produce a product yourself in order to sell it in vast quantities.
While this ‘middle-man' business model has been around for a long time, it is only now becoming a truly lucrative industry in its own right, with everyone from celebrities like Kim Kardashian to internet marketers creating multi-million-dollar empires from advertising and selling various products.
There is no set path to create a business like this, but there are certainly guiding principles and tips that are worth considering when you are starting out.
This is what you need to know:
Sell someone else’s products
If you want to start a scalable business but you don’t have the desire or ability to produce any products yourself, then you will certainly need to sell someone else’s products. Indeed, there are many businesses that allow you to apply to become an accredited dealer. For example, if you wanted to supply conveyors, then you could get in touch with a conveyor producer and strike up a deal.
However, it is best to have a list of potential customers in place first, before you agree upon a deal with any brands.
Cultivate a large audience of potential customers
To do this, you will first need to pick a market to focus your attention on. In order to sell another company’s products on their behalf, you will need to have a strong, responsive customer base.
To stand the best chance of attracting a considerable customer base, undertake some market research to find out what is currently being offered in your niche, and how you can find your own USP to stand out from rival suppliers.
For example, if you wanted to build a business around supplying hardware to manufacturing businesses, then you could build a social media following based around the analysis of different hardware items, offering prospects a useful hook in order to get on board.
Once your prospects are interested in the information or service you are offering, you can encourage them to join your email list, for example. When your prospects are on your email list, you can begin to reach out to potential suppliers about becoming an accredited dealer.
Learn a high-income skill
While it is certainly possible to create and build a profitable business without producing your own products, it is not easy. There is no simple, effort-free way to build a company from scratch, and you will need to develop a range of skills to be able to grow your company successfully.
For example, you will likely need to learn copywriting, in order to market the products to potential customers and to attract them onto your list in the first place. In addition, you will need all the necessary admin skills to run a start-up, including basic accounting, marketing, sales and legal knowledge.
