Start a Promotional Products Business

In this day and age, small and big business owners alike, compete against each other to cut a niche in the marketing world. Aggressive advertising is one way companies put forth their business image to build awareness of their company’s name to their target market.

The companies hand out products to their established and potential customers to boost their sales. These promotional materials come in various useful items, such as calendars, pens, coffee mugs, t-shirts, caps, and even mouse pads; all with the company’s name and contact information printed on them. Every time a customer uses that product what do you suppose they’ll see? The name and contact information of the company, of course.

So, where do the companies purchase these promotional products? Well, they can get them from the huge dealerships or possibly printing companies, but they would have to do all the footwork in the ordering process. That’s where you could come in. You can offer a more personalized approach; be more like a middleman who organizes the whole process for them, so all they have to worry about is explaining what they want and paying for it. You do the rest.

There are a couple of options for you, but the least costly one is signing up with a distributorship. You would have to pay a membership fee, but you’re provided with training, and all the resources needed to the best suppliers of these promotional materials.

What supplies are needed to start this type of business?

The only items you need for this business, besides the resources for the suppliers, are a computer with an internet connection, phone and a website. Sometimes you are even provided with a website that you can personalize. You should also have a few Promotional materials of your own to give away to get your business name out there.

The most important skills you should have are to be comfortable with sales and marketing activities, exceptional organizational ability and good people skills as you’ll be working closely with the businesses and the suppliers to make sure the orders are done as they were intended and they’re received on time.

Representing a promotional products line can be a great way to build an independent business from home.

Selling items on eBay

Pretty much everyone has items within their home, garage or storage shed that they don’t want or need anymore. We all would like to get rid of the “stuff” we’ve accumulated over the years, but we would also like to make some money from it in the process.

Have you considered this as a home business? A person could sell unwanted items on eBay -- the most popular internet auction website. Some clever entrepreneurs have even started a business selling other people’s items on eBay.

How does one start a business selling their stuff on eBay?

Set up an account with eBay. The site will help you step-by-step with how to do this. Then, begin by selling some small items you have lying around. Each time you buy or sell on eBay, you build your ranking within the eBay community and you become more trustworthy to potential buyers.

Once you get the hang of selling on eBay, you can research which items are popular and how much they’re going for – and build from that.

Does it cost a lot to startup a business like this?

No. Besides the items to sell, you only need access to a computer with an internet connection and a digital camera to take pictures of the items you are selling. If you already have access to these things, it won’t cost you anything.

When selling your items on eBay, you incorporate the shipping costs into the selling price, so even that won’t come out of your pocket.

Do you need a lot of skills to do this?

Auction sellers who take the time to write good product descriptions and take many photographs sell more products than those who do not. You’ll also develop research skills as you learn your way around eBay and dig into other auctions to find ideas for items that sell well and command a good price. Beyond that, it’s pretty simple to get going.

Once you have gotten some experience selling your stuff on eBay, you could start checking out garage sales, flea markets, etc. Some items could be picked up cheaply and sold on eBay for a nice little profit.

And finally, you can look into wholesale sources for items to sell or delve into the arena of drop shipping.