How to Start Your Own Supplement Company

Monday, July 1, 2013

How to Start Your Own Supplement Company

You can start a supplement company from the comfort of your own home. The first step is deciding what types of supplements you want to sell, including vitamins, diet aids, protein, sports nutritional products or herbs. Go online and search for companies that sell supplements online. Notice which products these companies features and how much they cost. Obtain doing business as and vendor's licenses so you can collect sales tax from customers.

Step 1

Find a manufacturer or wholesale supplier for your supplements business. Check with the National Wholesalers Association. Go to Tradepub.com and look for publications that deal with nutritional supplements and wholesalers. Check the Thomasnet.com website that lists a myriad product manufacturers. Look through business opportunity magazines, such as "Business Opportunities" and "Home Business" for a potential supplements distributor.

Step 2

Call several of the manufacturer and wholesale suppliers. Find out which ones offer drop shipping, which will prevent you from having to stock a large inventory of products. Study the product costs of various drop-shipping suppliers. Choose the wholesale or manufacturer supplier that provides you with the lowest per-unit product cost.

Step 3

Apply for a merchant account at your bank. Sign up and use PayPal.com, Alertpay.com or Clickbank.com as your payment processor, especially if your bank turns you down.

Step 4

Create a website for your supplements business, or hire a web designer to create one for you. Order product samples and take pictures of them for your website. Help your web designer create descriptions for your online products.

Step 5

Place your supplements website on various search engines, such as Google.com, Yahoo.com and Lycos.com. Hire a search engine optimizer to help you get a high ranking in these search engines. Think of three- to- five-word phrase that best describe your supplements business. Make sure you use keywords that are located throughout your website, according to the Business Insider website.

Step 6

Obtain brochures and catalogs from your supplier on different products. Create your own brochures and catalogs if your supplier does not offer them. Order business cards with your website and phone number.

Step 7

Contact businesses in your area, including health clubs, independent gyms and martial arts studios. Leave a business card and brochure with the various health or fitness establishments. Try to get these fitness clubs to order products for their customers.

Step 8

Order products through your supplier when you customers send you money. Ship products out to your customers using a self-addressed printed label.

Step 9

Maintain a database of current customers. Send catalogs or special deals out to these customers every month or two.

Things Needed

Tip

Become a wholesaler yourself if you can get at least a 200- or- 300-percent markup on products. For example, if you sell a product for $25 and purchase it for $10, you can sell the product to retailers for $12 or $15. Keep in mind that they will be ordering in large quantities. Therefore, the small profit per product can really add up over time.

References (7)

Resources (1)

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About the Author

Rick Suttle has been writing professionally since 2009, covering health and business for various online and print publications. He has worked in corporate marketing research and as a copywriter. Suttle holds a Bachelor of Science in marketing from Miami University and a Master of Business Administration from California Coast University. He is author of the novels "Hell Year" and "Suicide Peak."

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Easy Tips and Ideas to Start Business

Although anyone can start a business, many people fail because of a bad product or improper research. If you want to start your own business, you can improve your chances for success before you even begin. In order to make your business successful, start strong and make sure that your idea will hold out for the long haul.

Have a Good Product

Ensure that you plan to sell something useful. Although you may think that your product is important or special, that doesn't mean the general public will agree. Ask friends, family and strangers what they think of your product. If they don't seem that interested, ask them why. With their suggestions, you can either improve the product or scrap the idea completely. According to Brad Sugars of Entrepreneur magazine, most small businesses fail because they sold a product that didn't have an adequate market. This also applies to small businesses that provide a service. A lawn-care business might be useful for part of the year in a northern state, but it is in-demand year-round in the south. Consider whether people will actually want to use your service and get constructive advice from those not afraid to give their opinion.

Research Local Businesses

Research local companies before starting up your own business. This will not only give you an idea of the amount of competition you will have, but it will also help you price your product or service. If you're looking to start a wedding photography business, you may find during your research that the market is over-saturated in your area. If not over-saturated, you should contact each business and ask them for a price list. Alter your prices so you can stay competitive with the competition in town. Researching similar local businesses will also help you decide where to locate your business location. Try not to start up a store or office close to another business of your type. If your small business is located away from similar business types, this will cause locals to choose you over businesses that are farther away from where they live.

Get Professional Advice

You may know someone who has started their own successful business. Ask him for advice and listen to his stories of how he started his company. You may gain useful advice on the good and bad ways to start a business. Local entrepreneurs can also introduce you to local product providers or advertisers that you may not have met without their help. Accept any advice with open arms, especially if the advice is coming from someone successful in the area.

How to Calculate Business Start Up Costs

Starting a business in no easy endeavor. It takes a great deal of research, perseverance and hard work. While sweat equity will make your small business more successful, you will most likely need real capital to get the business started. Before you start raising capital and/or investing your own funds, the first thing you need to do is determine the total start-up costs.

Step 1

Determine your costs of sales. For most small businesses this means inventory, the cost of raw materials, manufacturing equipment, shipping, packaging, and warehousing. However, not all businesses sell products. In this case, the cost of sales is primarily the direct labor involved in making the sale. For example, to open a small shoe business entails purchasing enough inventory ($10,000) to stock the store.

Step 2

Determine professional fees. Planning your business structure, i.e., limited liability corporation or general partnership, means hiring an attorney. There may also be the need to pay an attorney for help with establishing trademarks, copyrights, and patents. In this scenario, that puts total professional fees at an estimated $20,000.

Step 3

Determine technology costs. Technology can greatly reduce the cost of labor for small business if used effectively. Most small businesses require computers, printers, cell phones, website development, Internet access, software applications, information security, data storage, and outsourced information technology (IT) consulting. If the cost of technology is $10,000 to start, add an additional $5,000 a year for maintenance (hint: maintenance is not included in start-up costs).

Step 4

Determine administrative costs. This varies with business types and may include items such as business insurance, office supplies, product packaging, parking, rent, express shipping, desks, chairs, fax machines, phones, or anything else necessary to operate the business daily. A good estimate for start-up administrative costs would be $5,000 for the first six months.

Step 5

Determine initial sales and marketing costs. Now that you have your product, you need to let folks know about it. Sales and marketing costs generally include marketing materials for presentations, printing stationery, business cards, advertising, trade show events, and public relations. These initial sales and marketing costs can add up to $3,000.

Step 6

Determine the wages and benefits needed to secure a staff. This includes employee salaries, benefits, workers compensation, and payroll taxes. Let's put the cost of wages and benefits estimated at $20,000 for the first three months of business.

Step 7

Add all costs associated with starting the business for a total. Be sure to only include business start-up costs that will be incurred in the first three to six months of operations. For this example, the calculation is: $10,000 + $20,000 + $10,000 + $5,000 + $3,000 + $20,000 = $68,000.

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Monday, July 1, 2013