After you have gained enough experience with advertising specialties, you might consider expanding or converting to an advertising agency or service.
For Great marketing products small business advertising
Here, you would size up the client's needs and help design and implement promotions and advertisements for them. You would charge a retainer plus a fee for each promotion and still get your commission on any advertising specialties. Needless to say, some of your specialty sales customers would be excellent prospects for your agency.
Records keeping in this business is very important. In addition to your customer notebook, you should have accurate records of all sales and commissions.
As an independent business person, the government requires you to make your own social security payments and (probably after the first year) pay your taxes quarterly. If you have someone do your taxes, they will let you know how much you need to pay each quarter and provide you with the forms to send in (they are actually short and simple).
The general rule in quarterly payments is to pay one fourth of whatever you owed at the end of last year over what your employers withheld. For business records, keep all your receipts by the month. Consider a single entry ledger, such as that described in Chapter 16 of The ULTIMATE HOME BUSINESS Manual (available for $25.00).
This type of record will let you know how you are doing, and the receipts envelopes will enable your tax person to prepare your taxes efficiently.
There are two important potential problem area to watch out for is the imprinted specialty sales field. The first is getting the orders wrong.
Sometimes, you must THINK you have accurate copy, only to discover there is a misspelled word, incorrect address or wrong date. One sure error can wipe out profits from several sales if it is your fault.
To avoid this problem, write out the copy clearly, completely and accurately on the ticket. Then ask the customer to review and sign or initial it -- signifying that they have checked and approved it. When you forward the order to the company, always keep a copy of the ticket with the desired copy (never send them your only copy).
This way, if there is a problem you can easily show who was at fault. The other potential headache is getting hooked up with a bad supplier. This could be one that overcharges, doesn't deliver on time or gets your orders mixed up. When this happens, charge suppliers -- fast! Of course, we all make mistakes, so if your supplier makes an occasional error and takes immediate corrective action,,, they are probably worth keeping.
To be successful in the advertising specialty business, you must be knowledgeable and reliable.
This means that you know your customers as well as your products. This is the only way you can know how your customers can use your products to their advantage.
Being reliable is essentially keeping your word, showing up when you are expected and giving your customers honest advice.
When your customers expect you each month or week, you have passed a major milestone -- because they will hold orders for you! They could not afford to do that if they weren't sure when you might come around again.
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