Sniffing Out The Euros
How may times have we been somewhere only to realise you missed an opportunity by not speaking up. I know I have in the past on many occasions thinking I will come back again. These days I need every dollar I can grab as moving country lock, stock and barrel is not cheap. Most things will be left behind, but there is still a significant start up cost. The need for loads of money is always the case, but this is now paramount.
Yesterday whilst visiting a company where I was returning my solar battery I saw a roll of pallet wrap. This had never crossed my mind up till this point that I could make them into a customer. ow I was curious trying to work out some numbers and then I noticed a roll of branded sellotape which is also part of my packaging portfolio.
This company is so hard to get a foot in the door as you have to be invited and you pass through 2 security check points and have to have a meeting with someone. That person has to send you a security code which security scans and then allows you access. The chances of a sales person coming through are virtually non existent and this was like virgin ground.
I asked my contact a few questions related to the packaging and it turns out they use a decent number which was multiplied by 8 branches. They even had a pallet turntable for wrapping which means they do a decent volume of wrapping to justify this expense of installing one of these automated machines.
It turns out the packaging material comes from Bloemfontein which makes sense as the company was founded in that area 48 years ago. There are no manufacturers that I know of in that region so my guess is they are using a wholesaler. There should be plenty profit available as we supply wholesalers, but also need to take into consideration they are possibly using the same supplier for decades. The price will have to be that good for them to even consider moving so I need to give them wholesale prices reducing the profitability.
This is not that bad and from my experience of dealing in this industry I can already judge the values on offer which I estimate to be worth around $1K. Still this is a good result considering I had no intention of even asking and shows that you need to be vigilant for any opportunity. Sometimes it actually works out better as nothing is planned and this is all just normal interacting with people you know.
I do not know of any company that is not looking to save on their expenses so I do not see any problems with this new account. Each branch manager is in charge of their expense budgets which was useful information to learn and now know it is not controlled by someone who has been doing this role for close to 50 years.
The good news is I have a staff member starting on Monday for the packaging business and she is very well connected. She knows the people in charge and has a list of companies who all use loads of packaging supplies. I have given her some leads but my contacts she already knows, but at least it gave her some direction of where to target first. You just don't know until they start and this is her firs time going on her own as she is commission based with myself only covering her expenses. There are no targets and she is just being let loose as she knows what she needs to do.
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It's amazing to hear you tell how fast you can assess a place and recognize an opportunity. Will the things you build there now still be able to operate when you move? I wondered about that as you tell how you start new relationships for products frequently.
Yes these can be managed from a far if you have the right relationships. I am actually diluting my earnings with certain projects like the packaging so they continue on even if I am not here. The warehouse will continue and would need to find someone to run it like we were so they would have to have some share holding. This is not ideal, but you still need to be earning some how.
I have been lucky in many ways as I enjoy numbers and once I break it all down I can tell immediately if something is viable or not. In the past I was not normally like this and only when I started working for myself with a bit of trial and error I finally found the formula. The thing is you have to have a certain amount of passion and enjoyment in what you are doing or there is no point as I would lose interest very quickly. I knew I was good at buying when I had companies trying to sell me products and my price were better than their costs. I never turned a salesperson away as it then validated my pricings when comparing.