Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Here is a little background on myself:

I, for the past few months, have been selling wholesale iPhones and Nokia N95`s, and it has been very lucrative thus far.

I am currently looking to get into the HDMI business. I have contacts in the manufacturing industry, some have long standing businesses and others are relatively new.  All of the businesses which I have I have deemed as "keepers" have HDMI cables which all pass the compliance tests. And the manufacturers are willing to do OEM cables complete with my own branding and packaging of my choice.

I am presently looking for help from my fellow entrepreneurs to assist me in my next phase, selling to retail stores.  I would like to sell to Big Box corporations and am willing to put some one on my team from here who can assist me in this mission.

All help is welcome.

Thanks,

Leon

Hello fellow New Yorker! (well, sort of, out here on the LI coast)

 

Congratulations on your success! I too am involved in wholesale cellular distribution industry.

 

Regarding your new venture, some questions:

 

How long have your OEM`s been manufacturing? To whom do they supply their products to? Do they alreayd have a manufacturer`s rep? What is their QC/fail rate? What are their minimum orders? What kind of margins will you be working with? If they are of prominent reputation (ie Motorola) you may want to reconsider rebranding, or possibly cobranding if that is an option, and create a USP for Leon`s Motorola HDMI cables...

 

If they are lesser known or unknown, consider sending samples from each OEM to the other for scrutiny, testing, etc. If they know it is their competition`s they will look to take it apart, so remember the grain of salt. Perhaps even send their own back to them, disguised as a competitor`s product, if you can clear their branding.

 

Look to your current contacts that you are selling to now, are they all cell phone shops? distributors? Do any diversify into other electronics? Start with a few small stores to work out your branding and product supply, work out the kinks.

 

How did you get into this business? Look to your original suppliers for redistribution. Retail can be wicked and the logistics of RMA`s a nightmare, especially when dealing with big box retailers and overseas manufacturers. If you are comfortable in the wholesale scene, look to supply a distributor that supplies the big box, the margins may be a less, but so may the headaches.

 

Hope this is helpful! Best of luck to you!

Onward & Upward!

 

All the cables from here are certified to the same standards as every other reputable cable company. ISO, UL/CSA, etc...

Gotcha. I see where you are going with the rebranding for the retailers, will the OEM`s back the warranty after you have assembled them, or will you be reponsible for the RMA`s?

 

A good place to start might be to get a part time job doing stock at Best Buy or Circuit City - type big box Start your research asap, pay attention to who the shipments are coming from and how many from each supplier. This will give you a good idea of your competition, market share,as well as insight into distributors that may have agreements with the big box already that you can approach. Keep an eye on how many come back (returned) and the logistics of such. FYI: My husband went through 3 $120 HDMI cables before he got one thast worked. I wonder who they sent them back to?

 

I know it may be hard to be a one-man show, but don`t let "finding a person to work for/with you" hold you up!

 

Keep moving forward!

 

I have some guys working for me now who are handling the deals with BestBuy and Walmart. If all goes well 8 months from now I could begin to see some $$$.

The manufacturer who is rebranding the cables for me will handle all the returns and warranty issues.

BestBuy operates 942 BestBuy Stores, 13 Magnolia Audio Video Stores (specializing in high-end electronics), 7 stand-alone Geek Squad Stores, 3 AudioVisions Stores, and 17 Pacific Sales Stores (in SoCal), all of which operate under the retail subsidiary of Best Buy. 

Walmart currently has 6,200 facilities around the world, 3,800 of which are in the US alone.  I will not discuss Sam`s Club as that operates as a separate entity entirely.

One of the more well known HDMI cables on the market is the Monster Cable brand. This brand is made famous because the companies push them out like crack. The reason for this is that Monster grants the companies up to 80% in markups for the company selling them. Which means the $100 Monster Cable (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8473458&st=monster+HDMI&type=product&id=1188558641926) that BestBuy sells cost best buy $20.  Best buy purchases, on average 25 units weekly per store.

If we were only talking about the 942 Best Buy retail stores then this translates to (942*25=23,550)...

What that means to monster profit wise? Well, the $100 Cable previously mentioned is ~4` long. Those cost me $2 each. Monster is selling them to Best Buy for $20 each. This leaves Monster with a profit of $18 per cable. 18*23,550 = $423,900 in profit.  This happens on roughly a weekly basis. $423,900*52= $22,042,800 in profit each and every year.

It is not a hard job to do single handedly.  Having this run as a one man show is my intent. I currently run a successful iPhone business all on my lonesome. Only the things I cannot, or do not wish to do I outsource, (Warranties, Accounting, Shipping, etc) All the actual business operations are handled by me.

Feel free to email me,

llamle gmail