Full Version: Joining Promotional Products Association

From: Becca (BECLYON) [#28]
 13 Jan 2006
To: LaZerDude (C_BURKE) [#27] 14 Jan 2006

Thanks. I agree.

You sure do live in a place I would love to be right now. ;) 


From: Ken D. (KDEVORY) [#29]
 14 Jan 2006
To: Becca (BECLYON) [#24] 14 Jan 2006

quote:
I've talked to a distributor in the industry and he seems to say I could control what I take and don't take. And, that I have a good product for it. Yet, all of you are closer to fitting in my shoes, and response seems to be directing me to try something else. Needless to say, I'm undecided.

It sounds like you found a niche you'd like to explore, go for it. If everyone were doing it, it wouldn't be a niche market. It sounds like there are two main concerns.

1) too much business. You would need to turn it away, expand, or raise prices. (basic supply-demand curve)

2) too little business. Yes its a niche, but you have contacts telling you your product will sell. If the niche were too big, large competitors would jump in, this may be the perfect size for you. Given the potential and what you already have in place, how much of a gamble is the membership fee?

From: Becca (BECLYON) [#30]
 14 Jan 2006
To: Ken D. (KDEVORY) [#29] 15 Jan 2006

Membership fee is $750 per year. But, you also have to pay for advertising within the organization. I was going to do the trade show in Dallas for $2000 booth fee plus expected $1000 in martketing display materials. So, you're looking at $4000 just to get started.

I'm working on numbers of how much I could possibly produce in a month to see how much it would take to pay it off.

Thanks for the positive note.


From: Pete (AWARDMASTERS) [#31]
 15 Jan 2006
To: Becca (BECLYON) [#30] 15 Jan 2006

I see nothing wrong with what you want to do. The problem as I see it is that you are ill prepared to do it. You need money to be a sucessful supplier in most cases. You generally would need more than one slow engraver.

If you are sure it will work, borrow the money and do it right. If you are not sure it will work, grow your business slowly and take the big step later.

Both ASI and SAGE provide a means for their distributors to rate suppliers. If you are late with your production schedule or fail in other ways to be fast and competitive, the distributors will give you bad ratings and when that happens very few will do business with you. So you have to be prepared to compete not only in price, but in reliability, customer service, and product quality.


From: Becca (BECLYON) [#32]
 15 Jan 2006
To: Pete (AWARDMASTERS) [#31] 15 Jan 2006

Thank you, very good points. I've gotten some very good advice from those who are more experienced than I. I think building slowly is the best idea.

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