Mail-order businesses can be started with little money if it's done properly.
Mail order is a type of business that operates over distances between the seller and buyer. Mail order once only dealt with sending items and funds via postal mail; today, it can also be conducted online. A mail-order business can be started with little money if it is done properly. The most important part of starting a mail-order business with little money is researching the products and marketing along with the business plan.
Instructions
1. Create a business plan. Regardless of whether you are a small sole proprietorship operating from a table at home, you need a business plan. This will help identify your market share, your customer base, the start-up costs and the potential to make this a viable operation. Having a business plan will help not only your advertising, but also your planning for future events.
2. Look for products that you can create or assemble yourself. Examples include information products, crafts, packets of seeds and plants. Each of these products can be put together at your location and by one person. This cuts out any outside manufacturing costs and reduces lead time for the product to be shipped to you; it also eliminates employee costs.
3. Create a multi-product line around the central product. Selling various related products can lead to multiple-item purchases from a single customer; this raises the effectiveness of marketing while reducing the per-item cost. Examples include selling various gardening products related to planting and growing seeds; or crafts for different holidays as well as kits customers can assemble. Selling craft idea books or recipes can lead to selling related products such as supplies, kits, booklets from others or instructional videos.
4. Identify low-cost or no-cost marketing and promotion for your products. Small classified ads in newspapers and magazines related to your product line are the most effective form of paid advertising for small mail-order businesses. Other low-cost methods include selling online from your own website or at sites such as eBay, Etsy and Amazon; these sites charge a percentage for each sale. No-cost methods include writing articles or press releases about your product with contact information at the end. Get the email address of your customers for sending newsletters, offers or specials related to your products.
5. Start part-time. Keep a continuous income source while starting your mail-order business. It takes up to three years for any business to break even; it takes five years for the business to turn a profit. Keeping an available income source while building the mail-order business allows you to better manage the business. When the income from the business matches the income from your main source, you can then evaluate the potential for making the business full-time.
Tags: business plan, mail-order business, little money, done properly, Examples include, from your