If you have considered starting your own business, whether it be a brick and mortar storefront, a formal retail website, or even an Ebay business, you have probably wrestled with trying to get ahold of information about wholesale prices for the merchandise you want to sell. Doing a search on “wholesale” at Google yields over 100 MILLION results, few of which are especially helpful for the average Joe who is just getting into the retail game. You may have also noticed that many websites expect you to pay for wholesale vendor lists. If you are just starting a business, the last thing you want to do is spend money unnecessarily.
The fact of the matter is, networking with wholesalers is much easier than most people make it out to be, so don’t waste money buying lists. If you follow this guide and are willing to do a little bit of free research and leg work, you will find more wholesalers all in one convenient location than you can shake a stick at.
The first thing you will need to do is purchase a business license, which you would already have to do if you planned to open a business anyway. Business licenses are inexpensive and can be purchased at your local courthouse or city hall office. Call the appropriate office in advance to find out what types of information you will have to provide with the application.
Think of your business license not only as a right to do business, but as an event ticket of sorts. In order to do business with most wholesalers, you will have to prove that you are a retailer and are qualified to make wholesale purchases, and a business license is that proof. Wholesalers are not permitted to sell merchandise to the general public at wholesale prices (or retail, for that matter), so having a business license will get your foot in the door.
No, simply obtaining a business license does not help you actually find wholesalers to work with. To do that, you need to attend trade shows.
Trade shows are where wholesalers show their wares to retailers. The shows generally take place in convention centers or other large venues, depending on the size of the city they take place in, and can take place over a weekend or a whole week. The wholesalers that participate in a particular show tend to offer items that fall into a specific theme, such as gift-ware, jewelry, and dollar-store merchandise. Most of the large trade shows have an event two or three times a year.
Trade shows are effective for the retailer because they have done the hard work for you. Instead of you having to pore through hundreds of different websites and trade publications in order to find a handful of wholesalers, you only need to attend a trade show, where they have already gathered the wholesalers into one convenient location for you. Then it only becomes an issue of deciding which wholesalers to work with!
Trade shows are why I mentioned earlier that your business license is similar to an event ticket. You cannot attend a trade show without first registering yourself and your business. Once you locate a trade show that you are interested in going to, you will need to register. After completing registration and sometime before the show, you will likely be sent a packet of materials, which will include an attendance pass of some sort and a publication that lists all of the wholesalers who will be exhibiting at the show and other general information about the trade show itself.. Once you have registered, you may or may not have to register again for future shows, depending on the policy of the producers.
So next time you are Googling for “wholesalers”, try searching for “trade shows” instead. If you have a good idea of the type of merchandise you want to sell, include that in the search. For example, if you are interested in selling furniture, type in “furniture trade shows”. If you want to sell jewelry, try “jewelry trade shows.
If you live in a larger city, another place to contact would be your local Chamber of Commerce. Because these trade shows are usually big events, the Chamber of Commerce is going to be aware of it and can give you detailed information.
