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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;softmentor, post: 2086047, member: 10469&quot;]I am not a dealer but have owned 3 business. The first I just finally quit one day (not making money) the second I sold (not making enough money but enough to sell it) and the third I still do (farming and farmers markets) so, here is my 2 cents</p><p>1) PLAN ! WRITE IT DOWN, PLAN ! WORK YOUR PLAN, Review it, fix it, and work it some more. That means making a business plan (there are templates out there for little or free that will help you think through the questions you need to think through) and make a BUDGET. ugg, yes, a budget. If you have never done one, start with a budget for your home. It will take about 3 months of doing one every month to get the hang of it. It requires significant time, thought and effort but not all that hard really. You can do it. and you need to do it. (Your looking at that coin you would love to buy... wait, do I have room in my budget for that purchase? Buy right and make money!) You don&#039;t build a house without a plan, you can&#039;t build a business without one either. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.</p><p>PLAN</p><p>2) Do NOT borrow money to start a business. Ever. 95% of business fail in the first year, most of them end up owing money and with their credit cards maxed out. Driven by the optimism that got them started, they keep leveraging until it is a really painful end. Please do not be one of those. Things that ruin businesses are the dreaded &quot;D&#039;s&quot; Debt, Divorce, Drinking, Drugs, Depression, Death (of a partner, don&#039;t have partners), Disinterest (its not fun anymore), Delay (on the tough decisions), Disaster (insurance can help but you can&#039;t really predict this one), Dishonesty (this one shows up in so many ways, lying to partners, wife, customers, venders you buy from, embezzling, tax fraud, oh my the list goes on, but in all its forms, it is destructive) and my personal favorite, Dumb. Well that last one we all are guilty of from time to time! <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p>3) plan to loose money at first. Toughcoins already said that but you can pretty much count on it. (And the rest of what Toughcoins said sounded like pretty good advice.)</p><p>4) Remember it is a business, no longer a hobby. Don&#039;t fall in love with the product. It is that, product. When you fall in love you are emotional and don&#039;t make good business decisions. Like what you do, but don&#039;t fall in love with it. When it is time to move a product, let it go.</p><p>5) There is an old saying with many things &quot;You make money when you buy&quot; meaning if you buy right you can make money, if you buy wrong, you will never make it up.</p><p>6) Again I am not a coin dealer but I would think that some professional credentials would be worth working toward. PCGS maybe? I don&#039;t know but find out what is worth having and get it.</p><p>7) Find a niche and work it. Do you want to buy dealer volume from the US Mint and resell their products? (I know they sell to registered buyers who buy a certain volume cheaper than the retail web site.) Do you want to be the silver guy, the cent guy, the (fill in the blank) guy. Maybe you want to have a location where you let roll hunters dump their searched coin at your location and have regular service pickups for a reasonable fee (member fee for those who do a lot or per x$ fee for one timers? Remember they really want it free so it can&#039;t be much) Thereby bringing business to your door? Do you want to go to auction and yard sales and find good buys (sell some retail and move the rest wholesale)? Do you want to build relationships with estate attorneys and buy estates? There is so much to know, buy and sell in a single niche that you can never fill it all or do it all.</p><p>8) measure your time. It is your one constant commodity that you can not replace. Make your time mater.</p><p>9) another member said keep records. I totally agree. Find a simple easy accounting software with Point of Sale (POS) entry that interacts with your inventory (Quicken, PeachTree, and there are others). Learn to use it from day one and keep it up to date faithfully</p><p>10) Are you married? Talk it over with your wife and be sure you are in agreement. Really. Trust me on this one. This maybe should have been number one.</p><p><br /></p><p>That&#039;s the top 10 here are a couple more ramblings.</p><p><br /></p><p>11) Talk to other dealers. and just like you are doing here, talk to people. This is a GREAT first step you are doing!!</p><p>12) It was suggested to sell on ebay. while there is money to be made there, Ebay takes a pretty big slice (and they take it on shipping too) There are sites like WebStore that let you sell for NO FEES, but they don&#039;t have as much traffic either. Of course, you may have to spend on advertizing or rent space at shows. Or you may want to have a web site, but that takes money and maintenance (time) and you have to have a way to get people there to see and buy. What ever way you go, all these things cost money and take from your profit. Just be sure you are able to make a profit, and Ebay makes it pretty tough with their fees.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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