Getting supplies flowing in Java

Drawing PDF 417 in Java Getting supplies flowing

Okay, so now you know what your online business is all about If you choose wisely, you probably already know plenty about the field You know all the major suppliers, your competition, and all sorts of little tidbits that outsiders know nothing about You know what other companies in the industry have

tried, what worked and what didn t, and how your potential customers feel about it all Depending on your field, you need to either create your product or line up some good, low-cost suppliers If you create your own product or market your own service, you re already there If you rely on outsiders, though, you must do some research Even if you already have a supplier in mind, you ll probably be able to find a better deal or get more or better services if you ask around

Track down everyone who makes what you want to sell Use search engines to find their Web sites and then print out some of those companies Web pages Make folders for each company (the manila kind, not the hard-drive kind) and arrange the hard copies neatly so that you can refer to them at a moment s notice If a site you re researching offers a Contacts link, follow it to see whether its information is useful to you Different companies provide different amounts of contact data Some companies have confusing and relatively worthless listings or nothing significant at all Others provide fully detailed breakdowns of their operations by department and by significant personnel, including everything from phone numbers, to e-mail and snail-mail addresses, to descriptions of people s job functions You re looking for the director of sales and marketing In the unlikely event that one isn t listed, go for the shipping manager The Contacts link may say something different, such as About Our Company or Regional Offices Be creative and explore the site exhaustively when you re looking for contact info If you can t find the information you re looking for on the company s Web site, you can turn to one of the many business-phone-number databases on the Web I list some for you in Table 13-1

Table 13-1

wwwtollfreeattnet/tfhtml wwwbigbookcom wwwinfobelcom wwwinfospacecom/home/ yellow-pages wwwswitchboardcom http://ypyahoocom

AT&T AnyWho Online Directory BigBook Infobel World Telephone Directories InfoSpace Yellow Pages Switchboardcom Yahoo! Local Yellow Pages

Try the AT&T AnyWho Online Directory that s listed in Table 13-1 before you spend any money on long-distance calls This directory is a source of toll-free business phone numbers Even if the company you re looking at doesn t list a toll-free number on its own site, it may still have one that shows up in the AT&T listings After you get a phone number and/or e-mail address, check with the supplier to find out whether it uses drop shipping (Drop shipping is an arrangement in which you gather the orders and submit them to the supplier; the supplier then sends the merchandise directly to the customer and puts your return address on it You, of course, must pay the supplier for the merchandise, but you pay a wholesale rate and keep the rest for your profit) If the supplier doesn t drop ship, find out the minimum order that you can place and what kind of discount you get for different sizes of orders, if any In either case, make sure that you find out how long the company normally takes to fulfill your orders You need to know this information so you can quote an expected delivery time to your customers (Now you know why so many order forms say something like Takes 4 to 6 weeks for delivery )