Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

During the last 5 years I have been working in product sourcing and work outsourcing in mainland China. Recently some of my friends are doing whosales in some online marketplace. They wholesale products from China to Ebay seller to make a profit. This business would work because a lot of products which are sold on ebay and other stores are made in China, there a lot of mid-men in product distribution chain and finially to end user. Buying wholesales online can save a lot money, and the savings can be someone's real profit.

my business will be up to offer product/production sourcing for small business,homebased business,startup, and niche marketer. my idea is that small business also needs sourcing, it would not be millions usd business, i would be hundards of usd. for example, a home based sew worker wanna his work done, i will help her with product sourcing.

is this niche be prossible to be a money making business? any ideas and advice is appreciated.

Sounds like you're looking to become a wholesale importer. There are other businesses doing that so yes it is possible to make money doing that.

Regards, John

 Thank you for your reply John.  Do you think small business and home based business needs product sourcing?

Hi there!

I think a lot of small business shy away from overseas manufacturing because the minimums are so high.  Are you factories you work with in China willing to lower their minimums for you?

Yes they do. However as Leslie points out being small business they'll need relatively low minimum order levels. Which might give you some logisitical problems.

Regards, John 

It will work out if you order in bulk and then sell small quantities to multiple small businesses requiring the same products. Since minimum requirement to source products from China will be one shipping container, small businesses would shy away considering their requirements would be less than 1/10th of a full container. This is what you need to work out. Otherwise the plan is quite good and people do need product sourcing all the time.