Hammocks
The weather has been nicer here lately and is starting to make me think of summer. Lazy picnics and hanging in a hammock whilst chewing at some spare ribs and drinking a cold beer.
Any kind of seasonal product requires some planning before the peak selling time comes around and now seems like a good time to start planning some of those summer products. If you can start to organise your stock now, you may well be in a position to start selling come April when the first barbecues are out.
Hammocks come in a number of shapes, colours, and sizes but essentially they all do the same thing. You can get a lightweight frame to fit one in if you don't have a couple of trees or a porch to hang one on but otherwise they pretty much al do the same thing.
You can buy hammocks very cheap in Asia at retail prices, I have seen them sell for as little as a dollar on the street in Vietnam, so it should be no problem to buy a bunch of them on the internet and start marketing them at 400 -500% profit. At those prices you wonˇ¦t get rich but it might give you some stake money to move onto the next project, or it could just help you pay off a credit card.
Marketing should be simple, and low cost. We suggest the following:-
Ebay
Forums
Website
Local Newspaper
Market Stall, or street pitch
Friends and Family
Ebay is made for products like this they carry more than a thousand. The cheapest I could see was about $8 so if you can find them at about a dollar then you will be truly laughing. Get them on there are $4-$5 and you will be in as the cheapest and still have a healthy profit. Advertise different colours or fabrics if you want to build some presence and make sure you get friends and family to give you positive feedback.
If you are not already a member of a number of forums then you should join. You shouldn't really push your products as it is against most forum rules, but many have an advertising section and it can't be against the rules to mention what you do from time to time can it? If you plan to set up a website then carry the link in your signature.
Given that this is a seasonal product and you will only sell for a short period I would not spend to much time and effort on the website. Get something up and running, ideally with a URL that is easy to remember. Promote your site like crazy, if you are not sure how then both the forum on www.ideas2earn.com, and the blog have articles on promoting your website based upon my experience to date. There are plenty of other materials available on the web if you are prepared to look.
A cheap advert in your local newspaper saying something like summer is coming, get your hammock now at pre-summer prices ought to get you some responses. Run it for a few weeks to build some presence and leave a telephone number so you can be contacted.
This is not the kind of business that warrants a shop, even if you plan to carry a range of hammocks. Seasonal businesses often make use of break leases on shops that have gone bankrupt to get prime market positions, or you may be able to get a market stall at your local market for a few weekends. Think about how seasonal traders were selling Xmas gifts in your area over Xmas. The competition for space will be lower in the spring months and hence the costs will be lower.
Friends, family and your natural network are usually the first place that we tell you to try selling your wares, but in this case with a low cost product there is a danger that everyone will try to wangle a freebie. If you are tough enough then by all means go down this path but remember it may just be easier dealing with strangers when cheaper goods are involved.
Alibaba has 400+ suppliers of hammocks; in fact there is no shortage of them on the internet. Global sources, Google, all the usual places can supply them.
If you are serious about trying this then drop me an email. I am pretty sure I could find a supply in Vietnam through friends of mine over there.
Seasonal products can sell brilliantly when the weather is right, but you need to be ready to make the sale. The minute it goes cloudy you could be left holding stock again.
Many people will buy something like a Hammock as a gift for someone else, even if they donˇ't have somewhere to put it you might want to suggest them as a gift idea.
I am assuming that you will want to buy cheap and sell cheap but there is scope for higher quality products out there.