Small business opportunities you might typically come across

Typically, as an entrepreneur, you will come across a few small business opportunities that you would consider exploiting. Typically, these opportunities you encounter could be classed into the following categories.

Distributorship

As the name might suggest, you will enter into an agreement to sell a product but cannot use the trade name of the manufacturer as your own. It is perhaps the most popular of small business opportunities and the details of the agreement vary from one set of circumstances to another. You can be limited from selling a competitors products or not, for instance.

Rack jobber

Through several strategically located store racks, a rack jobber will market goods through a number of stores. The businessman takes on the inventory, juggles the books and shuffles merchandise as needed. The store takes a commission and passes on the rest of the earnings to the distributor in question. It is a simple and efficient business model.

Vending machines

This is actually not that different from rack jobbing. You will have to invest more money into it since you buy the merchandise and the machinery needed, but the procedures of payment will differ from that of rack jobbers too. Let’s say you place a vending machine inside a motel. You will pay the location owner a percentage of the money you generate from sales and so to recover your money fast it becomes critical to place the machines in high traffic locations. Also consider keeping the distance from one machine to the other short; you will save servicing expenses this way.

Dealership

This is not that different from a distributorship, but there is one fundamental difference. While a distributor will sell to any number of dealers, a dealer will typically find that only retailers or customers are his target audience.

Trademarks

If you have a trademark, the licensee uses the name, methodologies and products of the seller in order to further his own interests.

Network marketing

This is a very broad term that encompasses direct sales and multilevel marketing. You sell on products through your own personal contacts and networks and you can also earn commissions by recruiting others for the network, but this is looked upon with suspicion by many.