WANTED NEW DISTRIBUTOR U-Beaut Products - Newcastle Area

[Old Hilly]

For some people, 30mins is just down the road, for a trip they might make 4 times a year to get what they otherwise can't get, that's not too bad. I wouldn't drive to Newcastle but I would drive from Port to Taree two or three times a year and stock up.

[ubeaut]

How about a parcel-locker type thing? No customer touchy-feelyness I know, but a couple of electronically-coded lockers in a sheltered spot, order goes in the locker, customer gets the code and they pop around to collect at leisure. Order and payment side could be dealt with by U-beaut Heavy Industries; collection locally from the locker.

Good thought Bern. However and there's always a however, that's no different to having mail order to a post box which would be less convenient than mail order to the door and would cost the same.

What we really need is someone who has the goods stored and can fill an order for anyone who wants to come and pick it up. If it's not like that we might just as well stick with online orders and having each individual order shipped out by mail or courier.

Three good things about having a local distributor are:

1. Gives the distributor a bit of extra income.
2. Saves dramatically on freight costs by freighting in bulk instead of individual items.
3. Way more convenient to all who don't want to pay for the freight component of online orders, which can vary dramatically depending where it's coming from and sometimes WHO it's coming from.

Drawbacks for distributes would be:

• Have to pay wholesale costs up front.
• Having to hold an amount of stock.
• Time it would take to sell stock to recoup outlay and profit.
• Having to find customers (not too hard if you let and Google, Woodwork Forums, local knowledge and maybe friends find them).
• Having to deal with people if you're not that way inclined.
• Knowing what would be best products to stock.... (We'll help you out with that to the best of our ability and knowledge).

As I've said previously we're not out to load anyone up with thousands of dollars worth of product.

Cheers - Neil

[ubeaut]

What Old Hilly said...

I was actually thinking the same, given at least one of us is here 9-5 running our other business anyway.

However, we're about 30 minutes out from Newcastle, and that is likely to put people off

Might not be a silly idea.
It has taken me up to 20+ min to drive from Show Grounds to Charlestown and 30min to Warners Bay.

Cheers - Neil

[Old Hilly]

On a slightly different matter but still related to Ubeaut, does anyone have any idea as to the real costs of using a wireless credit-card/EFTPOS machine? What are the ongoing fees and charges like as well as the merchant fees? The Old Hilly brain moves slowly these days, I reckon I'm just getting out of the 20th century and just worked out how rare cash is. People always seem to want to pay for things, large and small, with a card not cash and places like community markets don't have an on-site ATM so they either bring a heap of cash with them or they don't buy anything.

[ubeaut]

We have a 1.5% surcharge on all credit card orders to cover costs of wireless/mobile credit card machine. Almost all of our sales are bulk wholesale so don't have a massive turnover in sales or usage as most sales are bank transfer or direct deposit.

We use Bendigo Bank and have done so since it was Bendigo Building Society some 28 years ago. When we started we pay 3.5% on each transaction but a call to the bank about 12 years ago when they went to wireless/mobile got us down to 1.5% as we don't do massive monthly usage of card like a big shops do.

I would look into using your mobile phone for paying and receiving payments. No idea of costs but it means you can take and pay pretty much everywhere you have phone reception.

Most tradies and even stall holders at weekend markets, etc seem to use their phones now.

Cheers - Neil

[Bernmc]

On a slightly different matter but still related to Ubeaut, does anyone have any idea as to the real costs of using a wireless credit-card/EFTPOS machine? What are the ongoing fees and charges like as well as the merchant fees? The Old Hilly brain moves slowly these days, I reckon I'm just getting out of the 20th century and just worked out how rare cash is. People always seem to want to pay for things, large and small, with a card not cash and places like community markets don't have an on-site ATM so they either bring a heap of cash with them or they don't buy anything.

I'd look at Square - Square POS Pricing and Fees | Square . You can take payments with card details (so no hardware required), and their card reader talks to your mobile phone or tablet. It's only $59, and available from Amazon, JBHiFi etc. Pretty simples.

(Disclaimer: I own shares in square. But that's because I think it will succeed because it's less of a rort than the banks)

[Old Hilly]

Thanks Bern, this modern lifestyle is anything but simple. Profit margins for many businesses are fairly slim and with some banks taking close to 4% of the gross amount and sometimes holding the payment for days one needs to go into things with both eyes open.

[ubeaut]

Check this link for phone compatibility:

Devices Compatible with the Square Magstripe and Chip Card Readers | Square Support Center - US (squareup.com)

Seems like a good thing.

There is also the option of PayPal, EFT, Direct Deposit

[ubeaut]

Still looking.

[delbs]

Do you find many hobby woodturners offer to stock it at all ? if they had an ABN/ACN but werent a brick and mortar shopfront like Carols or Carbatech, timberbits etc?

Just wondering what the pain could be for an individual to hold product for you abiding by the guidelines, im moving to northern NSW near Coffs and ive heard from people around the Newcastle area and above in this thread so wonder if individuals are able to hold stock to onsell to people that cant get down to sydney or up to brisbane.

Probably not viable for some people, but just has me curious

Cheers,
Nathan

[ubeaut]

Hello Nathan

No reason why an individual can't do it. Happy to have anyone and it will put a few extra dollars in the pocket of whoever decides to have a go.

Only a couple of drawbacks for an individual:

• Would have to pay for goods they want to keep/sell. Years ago I would have given them on consignment. However we lost many thousands of $'s over a few years from those who wouldn't pay. Had a number of people get product on consignment, sell it then spend all the money thinking it was theirs and not paying us.
  
  Everyone from our smallest to our largest distributor has to pay up front before we will dispatch goods This came about by us being ripped of, not just by individuals but also some of our bigger distributors, who would hang us out for up to 120 days and more before paying. Not to mention the 2 that went bankrupt without us getting a cent. Sorry for the whinge but a 2 person business trading on a shoestring (as we were then), just can't survive if they don't get paid.
  
  
• I have to insist on full cartons or we can't guarantee the items arriving in good condition and being as how most of our products are liquid, it's not a pretty site when one or more break in transit. We can do mixed boxes of same size bottles or same size jars to fill a box which can help a lot.

Examples below:

A box of 12 x 250ml jars could have EEE, Shellawax Cream and Traditional Wax in it.
A box of 20 x 250ml bottles could be made up of Shellawax (250ml), Aussie Oil, and FoodSafe Oil.
A box of 12 x 500ml bottles-could be made up of Shellawax (500ml), Shellawax Glow, Sanding Sealer, Hard Shellac, White Shellac.
Most other items can be purchased individually in a mix n match box as they're not liquid.

Hope this gives anyone interested or contemplating a wee bit more info.

If more info is needed re payments and costs etc, etc, please PM me.

Cheers - Neil

[barnsey]

Could The Bundaberg Central Men's Shed be a potential distributor for Fraser Coast/ Central Queensland
Jamie Barnes
Committee
Bundaberg Central Men's Shed
(barnsey)

[delbs]

I’m a member of my local mens shed up in Nambucca heads also. Might he worth mentioning to them as there’s a few turners and other craftsmen there that could be interested

[ubeaut]

Still, still looking.



The 2 above delbs and barnsey have been responded to via PM.

[johknee]

Hi Neil.

Have you managed to find someone in the Newcastle area to stock your products?
I'm in Newcastle and I have just recently joined Woodturners of the Hunter. I could have a chat to them about stocking product.
Alternatively, I'd be interested in chatting about personally holding stock. Thinking how it would be nice to have a local stockists as I need some shellawax for some turning this weekend!