Starting up as a builder/distributor?

This is hopefully a good place to ask this, its been on my mind for a while.

Say I wanted to set up as a pc builder and/or a parts supplier, then how
would I get good prices to be able to compete? I assume Id get some kinda
trade account, but from who? And what kind of discount are we talking?

I see some traders with so called volume discounts but they never amount to
more than a few quid, 5% if very lucky, if you buy 100 etc. Surely if I
wanted to start up a pc building business id not be still using
aria/eb/komplet for best price? In the long run, where would I find mebee a
white wrapper/b2b account to set up a web site like the kompletts, ebuyers,
pcnds out there?

I mean my local olde pc shope has some kind of account with 'distributors'
because they can order stuff on next day, also, ive phoned distributors that
I have found as contacts on websites, and they tell me that I can join but I
have to have 'a business account' and that they are not allowed to supply to
me as an end user at a home address (why?).

Anyway, how do I find these distributors and how do I find their best price?
bearing in mind if I do go 'full up' all Ill have is a nil score and at
best, a freshly opened account with just whatever working capital is needed
to purchase stock (I dont want any credit, I want max discount but I wont
have much cash to begin).

Im not looking to start up straight away, but certainly this is a problem in
my mental planning. Sorry It seems such a lot of confusing questions, im
very confused lol.

Any help from anyone, insight or words from the pros on starting up would be
great.
Thanks

Ad

(A bit more background - Ive been pulling computers apart since happy chips
arrived for atari disk drives over 15 years ago and have developed a small
round of neighbours, friends and family where I look after their computing
needs and more than once have contemplated advertising and expanding into a
full up business, however while its fun and I have most of the tools and
plenty of experience, I can't see me getting rich off earning what seems to
project to the same amount a day doing peripheral instals and fault finding
than as I earn in a totally non-computing job as an estate manager right
now. Sure there will be good weeks, and bad, however im more interested in
how I can expand and mebee start off as a small builder/supplier (interested
in 2 markets, budget and niche however its a distant dream atm) and work up
over a few years to more of a supplier/builder but I keep coming up against
this sourcing setting up issue.)

"Mad Ad" wrote in message
...
This is hopefully a good place to ask this, its been on my mind for a
while.

Say I wanted to set up as a pc builder and/or a parts supplier, then how
would I get good prices to be able to compete? I assume Id get some kinda
trade account, but from who? And what kind of discount are we talking?

Not much money in PC building I would think. People go for the lowest price
unfortunately and generally offer junk for that price.

I'm guessing loads of dodgy places will be cheesed off with AMD locking
their processors now! He he.

silliness snipped

Here's some questions back at you....

Why do you expect to get max volume discounts and then say you have little
start up capital ? Max discounts come with volume, volume costs money.

Why do you think they don't supply end users at home addresses ? With your
lack of start up capital, you order one case, one motherboard, one HDD
etc......doesn't that make you look just a touch like the average man in
the street ? Why would a trade supplier **** up their trade only status to
supply you ?

To find trade sources, get a copy of CTO and/or CTS, but don't expect
discount bits unless you buy a bit of quantity, even then, the discounts are
small. If you're serious about starting up, form a ltd company and register
for VAT, you'll find the trade suppliers easier to deal with then.

Cheers,

Ally.

"Mad Ad" wrote in message
...
This is hopefully a good place to ask this, its been on my mind for a
while.

Say I wanted to set up as a pc builder and/or a parts supplier, then how
would I get good prices to be able to compete? I assume Id get some kinda
trade account, but from who? And what kind of discount are we talking?

I tried this a few years ago and it was hard to get really competitive trade
prices unless you were buying *a lot* and even then I'm not sure it was that
great a difference. Competing with the likes of Scan and Dabs was hard, in
fact they were sometimes/often cheaper than my "trade" prices.

Looking at things today and it looks even harder. A friend was looking into
bringing pen drives over from Taiwan and he couldn't compete with retail
prices even when buying 10,000 pieces. He wasn't trying to make a fortune
but the trade price was so close to the retail from the likes of Amazon as
to make it impossible. He raised this with the manufacturer and they just
said they knew it was a problem but there was nothing they could do.

e buyer sell q tec 550 watt psus at £20, they buy them for £10 each, my
local store cant get them for £20! and they seel them at £40


"George" wrote in message
...
"Mad Ad" wrote in message
...
This is hopefully a good place to ask this, its been on my mind for a
while.

Say I wanted to set up as a pc builder and/or a parts supplier, then how
would I get good prices to be able to compete? I assume Id get some
kinda
trade account, but from who? And what kind of discount are we talking?

I tried this a few years ago and it was hard to get really competitive
trade
prices unless you were buying *a lot* and even then I'm not sure it was
that
great a difference. Competing with the likes of Scan and Dabs was hard,
in
fact they were sometimes/often cheaper than my "trade" prices.

Looking at things today and it looks even harder. A friend was looking
into
bringing pen drives over from Taiwan and he couldn't compete with retail
prices even when buying 10,000 pieces. He wasn't trying to make a fortune
but the trade price was so close to the retail from the likes of Amazon as
to make it impossible. He raised this with the manufacturer and they just
said they knew it was a problem but there was nothing they could do.

"RS" wrote in message
s.com...
e buyer sell q tec 550 watt psus at £20, they buy them for £10 each, my
local store cant get them for £20! and they seel them at £40

Your local store should buy from ebuyer then, lol

e buyer sell q tec 550 watt psus at £20, they buy them for £10 each, my
local store cant get them for £20! and they seel them at £40


Ebuyer bulk buy 10000+ at a time direct from manufacture unless you do same
you wont get big discounts.

Mad Ad wrote:

Say I wanted to set up as a pc builder and/or a parts supplier, then how
would I get good prices to be able to compete? I assume Id get some kinda
trade account, but from who? And what kind of discount are we talking?

As a lot of people have said in reply to your post, you're never going
to get really good discounts unless you're buying in real bulk.

I run a small PC repair business, and I also do some cheap PCs for some
of my customers. By doing a lot of shopping around, and by offering
added "extras" along with the PCs (a month's on-site tech support,
installation & setup help etc) it's pretty easy to build PCs that aren't
too much more expensive than elsewhere, but are pretty attractive in
terms of added value.

Just my 2p worth.

hi there Ally, thanks for the reply

"Well-Tech Computer Consultancy Ltd" wrote in
message ...

silliness snipped

Here's some questions back at you....

Why do you expect to get max volume discounts and then say you have little
start up capital ? Max discounts come with volume, volume costs money.

Everyone has to start somewhere, yes I realise I wont be prime volume
initially however in a county where prices can vary then naturally I want to
get as far along the volume vs discount line to gain the best margins as
possible, at any given time. It would not be business sense to ignore
researching input costs on the supply side.

If we take a simple 2 line chart with max discount as relative to capital
averaged over the industry then (I assume we will agree) that both would
rise in some proportion to the other (greater volume = greater discount)
however in the real world, looking at a singular trader to one or another
supplier, the variances of price from one part to another across multiple
orders would amount to a step type gain/loss (if charted as whole input
costs) as you move from supplier to supplier. I just want to know how/where
to find the biggest step for the least risk - who wouldnt?


Why do you think they don't supply end users at home addresses ? With your
lack of start up capital, you order one case, one motherboard, one HDD
etc......doesn't that make you look just a touch like the average man in
the street ? Why would a trade supplier **** up their trade only status to
supply you ?

Of course you can see that angle, its natural to assume that in an
individual case, however my question was more along the lines of why dont
they have a direct to the public counter - what prevents that for IT
suppliers? What is 'trade only' status anyway? Is that some pact with the
DTI or a law? What are the benefits of having it? Im the newbie asking Q's
here, I dont know all of this stuff.

To find trade sources, get a copy of CTO and/or CTS, but don't expect
discount bits unless you buy a bit of quantity, even then, the discounts
are
small. If you're serious about starting up, form a ltd company and
register
for VAT, you'll find the trade suppliers easier to deal with then.

Yes I realise being a registered co. and vat registered to boot would help
market presence from all angles, however to achieve that kinda turnover
(what is it, 46,000 pa rolling or something atm?) Id would have already
progressed to a stage 2 or 3 situation with the business plan rather than a
green first year startup. (The initial hurdles are always the hardest to
jump). Finally, Thanks for the pointer to CTS/CTO (not sure what you mean a
copy? cto's a distributor no? Ive just joined anyway.

A big thanks to you.

Ad



Cheers,

Ally.

"George" wrote in message
...
"Mad Ad" wrote in message
...
This is hopefully a good place to ask this, its been on my mind for a
while.

Say I wanted to set up as a pc builder and/or a parts supplier, then how
would I get good prices to be able to compete? I assume Id get some
kinda
trade account, but from who? And what kind of discount are we talking?

I tried this a few years ago and it was hard to get really competitive
trade
prices unless you were buying *a lot* and even then I'm not sure it was
that
great a difference. Competing with the likes of Scan and Dabs was hard,
in
fact they were sometimes/often cheaper than my "trade" prices.

Looking at things today and it looks even harder. A friend was looking
into
bringing pen drives over from Taiwan and he couldn't compete with retail
prices even when buying 10,000 pieces. He wasn't trying to make a fortune
but the trade price was so close to the retail from the likes of Amazon as
to make it impossible. He raised this with the manufacturer and they just
said they knew it was a problem but there was nothing they could do.



Thanks for the reply George, that I guess is the benefits of a free market
economy. Selling by price is only one angle however, if you identify and
service a niche or two (successfully!) you can squeeze a little wider margin
for quality and service, which should support growth. The hard work is in
the transition away from close and personal to a less hands on existance
focusing on the business process more than the customer and trying to
compete as a medium sided entity in in what we both have noticed is a pretty
tight big boy market when it does come down to bulk sales. As a sole
trader, one evaluation I can try make is to investigate if its better
opportunity being a part of the biggest players than going head to head with
all the other small and mediums out there.

Ad