Business Ideas

Wholesale Distribution Business Review: How to Start a Refillable Lighters Distribution Business from Home.

This article will show you all the highlights of how you can start a wholesale distribution business selling refillable lighters to supermarkets and convenience stores.

Lighters are one of the easiest things to wholesale and distribute. Stores buy them like crazy!

I started selling lighters when I had my route in San Diego with about 600 stores. Other distributors told me about how much money they were making with lighters so I decided to give them a try. They were right. Since the first day we introduced them to the stores they were best sellers and they have remained best sellers for years.

The first thing you should know is that I’m not talking about disposable lighters or even name brand lighters like Colibri or Zippo. I’m talking about Novelty or Collector lighters. The kind you see in convenience stores and liquor stores. They are butane refillable lighters.

For example, the top selling lighters were lighters in the form of a gun, torch lighters and chopper motorcycle style lighters.

The lighters cost about $1.25 to $1.50 plus shipping, depending on the style of the lighter. Some of them are regular flame lighters, some of them have a torch, and some are double or even triple wind resistant torch lighters.

Lighters come in a small cardboard counter display. You get all of the same kind in every display. You get from 12 to 30 lighters in each display, depending on the size of each lighter.

When you distribute the lighters you sell them for at least $2 all the way up to $3 or even $3.50. It all depends where you are in the USA or in the world, the size of your town, the size of the stores, etc. You learn how to price them quickly from the first time you go into the stores.

So how much can you make? Well, if you leave an average of 2 displays per store containing an average of 25 lighters each, you’ll sell 50 lighters at an average of $3.00 or $150 sale. If you paid $1.50 per lighter including shipping you made $1.50 per lighter or $75 profit in one store. If you sell to 10 stores that day you are selling $1,500 and pocketing $750.00 minus your gas and other expenses. That’s not bad for a few hours of work. In my business all of my salespeople have to visit at least 20 stores per day, not 10 stores!

Let’s go over the numbers of our example again: -Your cost per lighter including shipping= $1.50 -You sell the lighter to the stores = $3.00 -Each display has an average of how many lighters = 25 -If you sell just 2 displays to the store how many lighters did you sell = 50 lighters -How much was the sale? = $150 -How much was your profit? = $75 -If you sell to 10 stores in a day how much do you sell? = $1,500 -How much do you profit minus gas and other expenses? = $750

Again, your business will vary depending on how many stores you have, how often you visit them the price you sell them for, and many other variables.

Let me tell you what I like and don’t like about the business. What I like is that you go through a lot of lighters really fast. They are small and easy to store and carry. They come in their own display so you don’t need to buy racks or displays (although you can if you want or if the stores like them). I also like the fact that lighters are small and you don’t need a truck or extra storage to sell them.

The thing I like least about the lighter business is that the margins are not as high as with other products. I think it’s a fair trade because of the volume you can sell. The other thing with lighters is that people like to choose them. Instead of you selling whatever you have in the car people like to play with them before they buy them, they like to test them, to look at every one. It’s a novelty, so they want to buy what they like, not necessarily what sells.

All and all I think it’s one of the best businesses to be in.

Increasingly manufacturers have outsourced production overseas, leaving the distribution and warehousing function with increasing importance. Unlike other staffing organizations, 100% of ProLogistix recruiting efforts are centered around warehouse and distribution positions. Branch staff is trained in logistics, and they understand the intricacies of the industry. Staff is not spending time testing and interviewing bookkeepers, data entry clerks, and construction workers. ProLogistix is fortunate to have built a reputation in the communities served as the “go-to” company when seeking a job in a warehouse or distribution center.

According to Brian Devine, division vice-president of ProLogistix, “The staffing industry was doing a poor job servicing warehouse and distribution companies with talented employees. At ProLogistix, we created the most comprehensive application process for logistics employees in the industry. We use our selection process to evaluate a candidate’s specific knowledge and experience, and we then match qualifications to the positions for which we are recruiting. The combination of an exclusive focus on logistics, screening tools utilized in the application process, and the experience of branch staff makes ProLogistix the leading provider of logistics talent in the country.”

ResourceMFG, the sister division to ProLogistix places manufacturing specific positions. Devine explained the differentiation between the two organization by noting, “The way we differentiate between which clients are best served by ResourceMFG or ProLogistix is to ask what the company does. If they manufacture products, then they are best suited to ResourceMFG; if they distribute products, then ProLogistix is the right staff solution.”

The types of warehouse and distribution positions ProLogistix fills include:

• Loaders and Unloaders

• Order Selectors

• Warehouse Associates

• Shipping and Receiving

• Forklift Operators

• Quality Assurance

• Supervisors

• Warehouse Managers

• Operations Manager

It is estimated that by 2010 more than 40 percent of North American manufacturers will have outsourced production overseas, leaving the distribution and warehousing function with increasing importance as product is returned to the U.S. for order fulfillment. Unlike other staffing organizations, 100% of ProLogistix recruiting efforts are centered around warehouse and distribution positions. Branch staff is trained in logistics, and they understand the intricacies of the industry. Staff is not spending time testing and interviewing bookkeepers, data entry clerks, and construction workers. ProLogistix is fortunate to have built a reputation in the communities served as the “go-to” company when seeking a job in a warehouse or distribution center.

According to Brian Devine, division vice-president of ProLogistix, “The staffing industry was doing a poor job servicing warehouse and distribution companies with talented employees. At ProLogistix, we created the most comprehensive application process for logistics employees in the industry. We use our selection process to evaluate a candidate’s specific knowledge and experience, and we then match qualifications to the positions for which we are recruiting. The combination of an exclusive focus on logistics, screening tools utilized in the application process, and the experience of branch staff makes ProLogistix the leading provider of logistics talent in the country.”

ResourceMFG, the sister division to ProLogistix places manufacturing specific positions. Devine explained the differentiation between the two organization by noting, “The way we differentiate between which clients are best served by ResourceMFG or ProLogistix is to ask what the company does. If they manufacture products, then they are best suited to ResourceMFG; if they distribute products, then ProLogistix is the right staff solution.”

The types of warehouse and distribution positions ProLogistix fills include:

• Loaders and Unloaders

• Order Selectors

• Warehouse Associates

• Shipping and Receiving

• Forklift Operators

• Quality Assurance

• Supervisors

• Warehouse Managers

• Operations Manager

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Kodor Electronics gives a boost to the digital cinema initiative today with the release of the KodeKey™ Professional Zip Platform for Windows and Mac OS X computer systems.

Movie studios are expected to make wide investments in digital cinema upgrades in 2009 following a ten-year research and development period starting with the 1999 digital release of Walt Disney Pictures Bicentennial Man. Digital films are packaged and distributed using an industry standard specification called the Digital Cinema Package (DCP). Part of the DCP specification is the digital film MXF container that can range in single file sizes of 60GB to 500GB. Today, digital films are delivered by hard drive or satellite data transmission using fulfillment services from companies like Technicolor, Kodak, and Deluxe. Legacy celluloid reel manufacturing and distribution costs movie studios up to $1500 a print per theater. Digital distribution provides a dramatic drop in initial distribution investment for movie studios but has proven to be a bit costly due to hard drive delivery and expensive satellite rental time. The cost savings reserved from digital versus celluloid distribution is planned for investments into digital projector upgrades for theater vendors by the movie studios.

Delivering a system with an average per film distribution cost of $70, the KodeKey Zip technology is an online powered zip format that replaces the internal data storage of a traditional zip file with the cloud storage infrastructure of the Amazon Web Services S3 platform. By using an upload and download manager, the format can manage hundreds of gigabytes of data in a zip file less than 1 kilobyte in size per movie.

Optionally, the format can create 1,344,000-bit password certificates to add additional access protection as an accessory to KDM encryption keys sent to theater vendors to unlock playback rights for MXF containers.

Broadband delivery of digital films has been a challenge in the past due to poor TCP connections and poor designs of online storage servers required to handle single file sizes above 5GB. KodeKey Zip has been tested and approved for up to 1TB of single file archiving validated by rigorous 12-mode hash string calculation certification.

“KodeKey Zip has been designed to easily deliver 300GB digital films as an e-mail attachment to thousands of theaters simultaneously”, says inventor and Chairman William G. Blanchard, “We are honored to work with the digital film initiative and look forward to provide support to the digital movie industry worldwide.”

More information about the KodeKey Zip system can be found at http://www.kodekey.com

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