We Ended Our Retail Operation, Should You?

We used to be a big huge sellers on Amazon. Big. We had a basement warehouse and bought by the pallet fulls. We used FBA on Amazon... sending in shipment after shipment of product. In fact, at one time we had more product in the Amazon warehouse than in our own stock.

We also sold direct to consumer, which was a bit of business. We sold locally by delivery and nationally by mail.

It sounds like we should have been rolling in cash but we were not. Amazon was tricky because we sold a commodity product that others could also be selling. Lowest price wins, and many sellers would sell for a loss. So we took a different tactic, we started selling items that were soon to be discontinued or were already discontinued, buying up a large portion so we could outlast the other sellers. Sometimes we won, sometimes we lost. We gave away a lot of product that our buyers did not want.

Retail sales is filled with risk. You have to be really good not to lose money doing it. But it is also addictive because there can be a lot of activity. When you end it, all that activity goes away, making you feel like you have no business. Or making you feel like you are not profitable. But I have news for you: We are just as profitable without retail sales as we were with it, because we were only breaking even.

What we got back from ending our retail operation is time. Time to write, time to plan, time to do paperwork, time to have a life. Our business is not overpowering our life now, we have time and options.

In network marketing, the dream is to have that commission check coming in month after month and being able to live your life on your own terms. Yes, you still have to work but you can take a day off anytime if you like. You can work from a beach in the Bahamas if you like. You can do things big and small. If you sell retail, whatever you do, your business limits your options.

If you do not sell retail, how do you build a business? In network marketing, you buy product from your company for yourself and you find other people to sponsor, who will buy product for themselves and also find other people to sponsor. Your commissions go up as your group gets bigger. Again, there is work, but there is also options. You can go on vacation without planning for a month about how do deal with your business while you are gone.

Is network marketing without retail right for you?

Adapted from an article on The SplashPlan Blog at http://splashplan.net.



 By Brian Satterlee


Article Source: We Ended Our Retail Operation, Should You?