Slica Gel
You know those little white packets of silica gel that come with just about everything? They are designed to suck the water out of the air and keep whatever they are packed with free from moisture particularly in a damp environment. Well guess what? They are not a key part of most businesses and probably add a tiny percentage to the overall cost of any product, and I bet most small to medium business owners are not out comparing prices on silica gel packets.
If you think working with small and medium businesses as opposed to individual (retail) customers is the way you would like to go then this idea is for you.
The perfect product is one where you know who your target audience is, if they won’t come to find you then you simply need to go and knock on the door and show them that you can save them money.
Every time you come across a packet of silica gel make a note of it, make a note of the product and the company that provided it. Do this for a week and you should have a long enough list for the next step, which is to search online for companies in the same line of business. Get email addresses, telephone numbers, or addresses; basically any way of contacting the company is valid at this point.
Remember that in direct response you do not expect to sell to everyone, in fact the opposite is true, you would expect to sell to very few of the people you contact, so keep making those lists every time you come across a packet of silica gel.
Your approach needs to be blunt, short and punchy. You want to get the attention of the reader quickly and have them contact you. Something along the lines of
Dear Mr Jones (or Sir/Madam if you can’t find a contact name)
Through my contacts in China, I am able to provide silica gel to businesses such as yours at a lower than average cost. If you are currently using or considering using silica gel to keep your products free from excess moisture then please contact me for a quote.
Your sincerely
Brad Emery
You can so this by email, fax, and even by phone. Email is the cheapest option but may also be filtered out before it gets to the person you intend it for. You might try using 2 or 3 contact methods for each contact to see whether it increases your response rate.
Note that the trend online these days is for pages of copy that lead you into a sale. I do not recommend that here. Business owners and buyers tend to be able to spot a scam or potential scam from a mile off, a short no nonsense approach allows them to decide whether they are interested or not.
You will get some enquiries, and then it will be up to you to provide a quote which allows you to make money, but which is likely to be cheaper than they can source elsewhere. How will you know where to pitch your pricing? I would contact a Silica Gel provider and tell them that you are interested in buying silica gel for your online clothing sales business, ask about prices and volume discounts. When you pitch, do so below these prices. Note that you should contact domestic supply companies as your edge will come from importing silica gel from overseas.
Assuming that you get to pitch a price, the ideal would then to be to have a meeting or a telephone call to discuss the numbers. You should enquire about volumes, potential growth etc, and if it makes sense then add an increased volume bonus. This will be attractive to small and medium companies who intend to grow quickly. It also means that you get to sell more units albeit at a lower cost. As long as you make incremental profits that should not matter.
As well as going to cold lists you may already know people who are in industries where they use silica gel. Make a point of telling people what you are doing, printing and handing out business cards for your new venture, and more importantly ask whether they know anyone who might need to save money on your product.
www.alibaba.com has 1400 listed items under a search for Silica Gel. You can also search for desiccant, and use other search resources such as www.globalsourcing.com.
Understand pricing, delivery times, and delivery methods. Ask specifically about volume discounts and turn around times on orders. Also ensure that the supplier has worked in your market before and knows how to get through import/export procedures.
Buy a sample block first, even if it costs you a few bucks it may help you to avoid fraudsters and cowboy outfits, and you can always sell it on Ebay afterwards.
Note that Google only lists about 400,000 total hits for a search on <silica gel suppliers> given that I now have more than 600 hits for <ideas2earn> after about 11 weeks this is not a large number. Ebay only has 46 items listed under <silica gel>. Whilst this may sound like there is no demand; go back and make the list I talked about at the start of the “What Should I do?” section above. There is a lot of demand for the product if you can get it in front of the buyers. Don’t be afraid to contact small companies and start ups.
This is not a sexy business but it is an interesting niche and it will expose you to many other industries.
Make sure your silica gel is packaged carrying appropriate health warnings
and try to advise your clients on the safest way to use it. In Asia where there
are less health regulations I have seen packets packaged in the same packet
as a food item, which must be dangerous for minors and even careless people
eating in a hurry.