Start Dream Biz vs Start New Job
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Over the past month I have been prepping for a big change. The long story behind it is really irrelevant but a number of us split off into a new company and then ultimately took a buy out from the original ownership. This came with a decent stock buyout and I subsequently resigned (under good terms while making myself available as a contractor).
I've always been a penny pincher and a saver and as such I can afford to go a few years without income. Regardless I went to a job interview with a long time customer this morning that would require little travel and offered excellent pay and benefits. I left feeling like that office would be a cage. The penny pincher in me is battling with the "dreamer" who wants to give a shot at this business.
I want to start a distributorship for telecom/network equipment. Resell to resellers and IT managers. I have great connections and I would love to spend my time examining new products, posting how-to's and providing A-to-Z guidance the way distributors in the 90's used to do. (I could start a whole different post on this, but I am sure many of you remember going to distributor workshops and getting good product advise from you channel distributor).
And again, not a brilliant business concept. Just something I know I would enjoy!
So the dilemma is more about whether I should do this in tandem with a new job, or just go all in for the next 6 months and see where its at. I have the savings to do this, and my previous employer will also be using me on a weekly basis until a replacement is found. I also have a tidy job offer heading my way.
Appreciate your thoughts.
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@bigbear said in Start Dream Biz vs Start New Job:
Over the past month I have been prepping for a big change. The long story behind it is really irrelevant but a number of us split off into a new company and then ultimately took a buy out from the original ownership. This came with a decent stock buyout and I subsequently resigned (under good terms while making myself available as a contractor).
I've always been a penny pincher and a saver and as such I can afford to go a few years without income. Regardless I went to a job interview with a long time customer this morning that would require little travel and offered excellent pay and benefits. I left feeling like that office would be a cage. The penny pincher in me is battling with the "dreamer" who wants to give a shot at this business.
I want to start a distributorship for telecom/network equipment. Resell to resellers and IT managers. I have great connections and I would love to spend my time examining new products, posting how-to's and providing A-to-Z guidance the way distributors in the 90's used to do. (I could start a whole different post on this, but I am sure many of you remember going to distributor workshops and getting good product advise from you channel distributor).
And again, not a brilliant business concept. Just something I know I would enjoy!
So the dilemma is more about whether I should do this in tandem with a new job, or just go all in for the next 6 months and see where its at. I have the savings to do this, and my previous employer will also be using me on a weekly basis until a replacement is found. I also have a tidy job offer heading my way.
Appreciate your thoughts.
Huge difference selling to the public versus selling to resellers.
I cannot imagine doing this with only one of those two choices though.
Of course the 900# gorilla of Amazon and their marketplace has to be considered.
Logistics and warehousing are so capital driven.
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@bigbear said in Start Dream Biz vs Start New Job:
... but I am sure many of you remember going to distributor workshops and getting good product advise from you channel distributor).
Sounds nice, but honestly, nope, never seen this in person.
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@scottalanmiller said in Start Dream Biz vs Start New Job:
@bigbear said in Start Dream Biz vs Start New Job:
... but I am sure many of you remember going to distributor workshops and getting good product advise from you channel distributor).
Sounds nice, but honestly, nope, never seen this in person.
Not only that - how does this play into the seller/buyer model?
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@scottalanmiller said in Start Dream Biz vs Start New Job:
@bigbear said in Start Dream Biz vs Start New Job:
... but I am sure many of you remember going to distributor workshops and getting good product advise from you channel distributor).
Sounds nice, but honestly, nope, never seen this in person.
Not in this industry, but yes I have.
Throughout the 90's I worked in the Alarm industry (first a at local shop and then at ADT Security). The big distributors would have workshops a couple times a year each that were designed to teach about the various products they carried.
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@JaredBusch said in Start Dream Biz vs Start New Job:
@scottalanmiller said in Start Dream Biz vs Start New Job:
@bigbear said in Start Dream Biz vs Start New Job:
... but I am sure many of you remember going to distributor workshops and getting good product advise from you channel distributor).
Sounds nice, but honestly, nope, never seen this in person.
Not in this industry, but yes I have.
Throughout the 90's I worked in the Alarm industry (first a at local shop and then at ADT Security). The big distributors would have workshops a couple times a year each that were designed to teach about the various products they carried.
Makes sense. I know that some distributors, like Ingram Micro, have done this stuff during my IT stint, but I've never seen it first hand. Heard rumours, but that's about it. Definitely a neat idea, although somewhat odd because it's "yet another middle man" of training.
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@Dashrender said in Start Dream Biz vs Start New Job:
@scottalanmiller said in Start Dream Biz vs Start New Job:
@bigbear said in Start Dream Biz vs Start New Job:
... but I am sure many of you remember going to distributor workshops and getting good product advise from you channel distributor).
Sounds nice, but honestly, nope, never seen this in person.
Not only that - how does this play into the seller/buyer model?
It's just another stage in the seller's agent side. In real estate terms, this is the broker.
Real Estate.... Seller -> Broker -> Seller's Agent -> |Demarc|
IT... Vendor -> Distributor -> VAR -> |Demarc|It's just "more people on the seller's side". It's not good or bad, just more granular. It's kind of a resource for smaller VARs to have access to bigger vendors without needing personal relationships with them. It's kind of a "vendor aggregator". But it is all behind the scenes on the seller's side of things. To an IT pro or a buyer or a customer, they don't even exist. They are just part of the logistics supply chain.
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@JaredBusch said in Start Dream Biz vs Start New Job:
@bigbear said in Start Dream Biz vs Start New Job:
Over the past month I have been prepping for a big change. The long story behind it is really irrelevant but a number of us split off into a new company and then ultimately took a buy out from the original ownership. This came with a decent stock buyout and I subsequently resigned (under good terms while making myself available as a contractor).
I've always been a penny pincher and a saver and as such I can afford to go a few years without income. Regardless I went to a job interview with a long time customer this morning that would require little travel and offered excellent pay and benefits. I left feeling like that office would be a cage. The penny pincher in me is battling with the "dreamer" who wants to give a shot at this business.
I want to start a distributorship for telecom/network equipment. Resell to resellers and IT managers. I have great connections and I would love to spend my time examining new products, posting how-to's and providing A-to-Z guidance the way distributors in the 90's used to do. (I could start a whole different post on this, but I am sure many of you remember going to distributor workshops and getting good product advise from you channel distributor).
And again, not a brilliant business concept. Just something I know I would enjoy!
So the dilemma is more about whether I should do this in tandem with a new job, or just go all in for the next 6 months and see where its at. I have the savings to do this, and my previous employer will also be using me on a weekly basis until a replacement is found. I also have a tidy job offer heading my way.
Appreciate your thoughts.
Huge difference selling to the public versus selling to resellers.
I cannot imagine doing this with only one of those two choices though.
Of course the 900# gorilla of Amazon and their marketplace has to be considered.
Logistics and warehousing are so capital driven.
And Ingram Micro who is no Amazon but is... huge. There are four or five truly epic players in the space and they are very hard to compete with. This is a business that I think can be broken into, but it would require venture capital to do so. Getting the expertise, warehousing and other pieces in place is huge money. You need trucks, warehouse space and so forth to do this.
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GO FOR IT.
The longer you wait for your dreams the harder it gets attainable, just dont put all your money it, just your savings. and hope for the best.
Man i Have ton of ideas, actually 2-3 goods ones but cause I live in shit Middle east I cant do anything about it, cause the Gov only wants to squeeze as much money from you. So if you have the chance GO FOR IT.
And if you failed, its not big deal if you live in good country, you can save money again. And it will be much better than thinking all of your life WHAT IF
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Start with figuring out some numbers and goals for your new business and see if it's possible to do. Takes a lot of equipment sales to be sustainable these days, the huge margins of the 90's that supported that business model are long gone. Not trying to be a downer, just want to see you succeed!
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@msff-amman-Itofficer said in Start Dream Biz vs Start New Job:
GO FOR IT.
The longer you wait for your dreams the harder it gets attainable, just dont put all your money it, just your savings. and hope for the best.
Man i Have ton of ideas, actually 2-3 goods ones but cause I live in shit Middle east I cant do anything about it, cause the Gov only wants to squeeze as much money from you. So if you have the chance GO FOR IT.
Much of the world is like that. America has its problems, but encouraging people to start businesses is not one of them. The US is SO good at that, even Europe is pathetic by comparison. The US makes it downright obvious to start your own business.
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@MattSpeller I've done a lot of wholesale level sales with telecom equipment that stemmed from our primary internet/voice business. Looking at distributor to reseller pricing, its actually a bigger margin spread than many would expect.
I have always found when you are a step away from becoming a distributor for yealink or the like, your distributor will bend to meet pricing. Then you are left with no inventory and no overhead.
I have thought about putting best current market pricing online and drop shipping orders, charging a nominal $3 fee per item. This would allow the wholesale pricing to be transparent. Typical wholesale to reseller pricing is over 20% from what I see shopping around, and many times its much more.
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This would require a login, as you have to advertise MSRP.
But the idea would be to create a resources/community you can come to and figure out the best product, see guides on how to setup and order at wholesale while paying a basic upcharge.
If, for example, the community buys a lot of Ubiquiti, its leveraged buy power when the community supports the distributor who is sharing pricing transparently and sharing the fee transparently.
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@scottalanmiller my approach would be more community driven, on higher volume products.
Come here to X organization and buy all your X products. We will go get and share the best wholesale pricing based on that volume and charge a transparent for (or membership?). Spread the word, grow the volume, etc.
One advantage I have, aside from having savings, is an in-place customer base and volume that I can keep. My previous employer isnt interested in this business and so long as I am not selling phone service or competing I can still sell to those customers.
