A reseller, as the name implies, is someone who purchases products (usually in bulk) or offers
services that are not originally theirs, with the intent of selling them to their own pool of
customers.
In its most basic sense, you purchase the products or services at a lower price from the original
business and sell them with markup to gain profit. While anyone can be a reseller of any
products or services, building your network to gain significant profit through this method may
take time and a lot of sales talk. Finding a great source of what you resell is also a huge
advantage, especially if you’ve already developed a good working relationship.
Say you want to start a web hosting company, for example. You lay out all the plans and the
things that you need to get a decent business off the ground. But then you realize that you’ll need
a large amount of capital and a lot of other things to do so.
This is where reseller hosting makes sense.
In a reseller hosting plan, you get a chance to buy hosting in bulk. This not only gives you a lot
of hosting space that you can divide into your future clients’ needs. At the same time, you also
gain access to a lot of different tools that would otherwise cost you much more to acquire on
your own. As a startup, that is not ideal, and most especially for a side hustle.
Also, one huge advantage of being a reseller is that you can brand everything under your own
business. That’s why a reseller program does not actually force you to do something entirely
different, because the way of doing business is just about the same as with a traditional one.
Pros and Cons of Reselling
With a reselling business, your startup costs are relatively low, since you don’t have to invest in
most of the things that you would otherwise need to get it off the ground. As a reseller, you don’t
worry about things like manufacturing. All you need to think about is how to get a steady flow of
customers and orders.
Reselling should also facilitate growth in your business. You can keep a consistent flow of
products and services, as long as your source does not encounter any issues themselves.
A couple of disadvantages though when it comes to reselling is that you do not have total control
over the products or services that you’re going to render, since you don’t do the leg work for a
lot of aspects in the business flow. When it comes to quality, you are dependent on your source.
Also, there is a possibility of being unable to resell at a competitive price. So, expect to not have
a staggering amount of profit upfront. Reselling might sound easy, but depending on the profit
that you want to gain, you will need to put in a lot of work.
What is an Affiliate Program?
If reselling sounds like too much work for you, then you might want to try being an affiliate.
While being a reseller allows you to run your own business, as an affiliate you are essentially
working as a sales rep for the business you are affiliated with.
How do you become an affiliate?
Join an affiliate network of the niche you’d like to be in. You
will be given a unique link just for you with a tracking code to embed on your website, content,
etc.
When someone clicks on your affiliate link and makes a purchase, you make a commission.
Affiliate programs work because it generally puts all actors involved in a win-win situation.
This is a great way for businesses to get a steady flow of leads and sales and at the same time,
allow smaller businesses to earn off of those sales. The most widely utilized affiliate program is
that of Amazon.
