Thinking of setting up a business selling used sheet metal machinery? In many ways, it’s a bankable investment. Contraptions such as bending rollers, press brakes, guillotines or folders are far from cheap. However they’re also a necessary commodity for many factories and areas of industry. So by providing used machines to these outlets via a company such as Clarence Jones, you could stand to make a decent profit, provided of course you play your cards right. Here are two essentials to consider before setting up business.
Know the Market
Perhaps the solitary, most fundamental rule of business is market knowledge. Without it, your business can fail in a matter of months. You wouldn’t set up a toy shop in a town populated predominantly by over 60s would you? Nor would you erect a nightclub in a sleepy, sparsely populated village. These are extreme examples of course, but you they illustrate a point. If you’re going to be setting up as a used metal machinery distributor/supplier, ensuring that you have a solid, reliable and guaranteed customer base is step number one.
In an ideal world, you’ll probably be looking for an area where industry and metalwork are prevalent, but where the economy is perhaps not at its strongest. This way you have an identified target market: companies who need metal machinery, but can’t necessarily afford new.
Know Your Competition
Knowing your competition means looking very closely at what your potential competitors are offering in nearby areas, and for what price. If you’re thinking of setting up a used sheet metal machinery business, ideally your business should be entirely unique to the local area. That said, it’s by no means impossible to co-exist with another similar business about. But you had better be sure of one of two factors: either that there is enough custom to support both businesses in the area (this is more likely if it’s an industrial region) or that your service is so superior that you’ll be able to drag business away from your competitors.
Vital Knowledge for any Business Start-Up
A business selling used metal machinery could be your ticket to a sizeable profit. However, like any business venture, you need to think before you invest. And the most vital knowledge you can have before starting up, is of the market and your potential competition.
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