How to succeed in business - by making lots of mistakes!

sounds like a good business model; interested
in knowing, if you don't mind sharing, how
do you find new accounts? and if for example
a store owner has more than one k&b dealer
or do you have to find your own accounts and
keep them from being served by someone else?

Everyone's heard about using OPM (Other
> People's Money) to leverage their profit
> margin.

> But have you ever heard of a business
> opportunity that let's the individual dealer
> take advantage of OPM to reduce the dealer's
> overhead and risk?

> The company I sell for, represents over 3800
> manuafacturers, printers, and miscellaneous
> suppliers of promotional advertising. The
> advance the commissions to the dealer at the
> time the order is placed on all pre-paid or
> open-account orders. So I can sell a 2003
> calendar in January of 2002, receive my
> commissions in January, with the customer
> taking delivery 7 to 11 months later, but
> paying me up front.

> On the occasion where the buyer fails to pay
> for their order after delivery, K & B
> charges the dealer back their commision, but
> covers all of the remaining loss on the
> order. Just one bad account can cost the
> independent thousands of dollars in lost
> commissions and the supplier's in

> They also handle all the credit, billing,
> sales tax and collections duties for their
> dealers, leaving us more time free to market
> the products and opportunity.

> K & B also provides order forms and
> pre-addressed envelopes "Free" of
> charge to every independent agent/dealer. In
> addition, every call or fax to K & B for
> whatever department is via toll-free
> numbers.

> Another way to consider the value of the
> opportunity is to compare it to the
> independent distributor in the specialty
> advertising field.

> The independent member earns 100% of the
> gross profit on every sale, but also bears
> all the credit costs and other overhead for
> their orders. They also carry all the risk
> for every order they write.

> K & B pays the highest commissions in
> the industry of any national distributor.

> Their plan is the reason why as a
> 108-year-old company, they were able to more
> than triple their sales volume in the past
> 10 years, from $18 Million in '92 to over
> $61 Million in 2002.

> And, this is partly because every dealer
> owns their own accounts. They work as 'free
> agents', able to take their accounts with
> them if they ever find a better opportunity.
> With such a policy in place, K & B has
> to deliver for the dealers, or see their
> revenues decline if they don't.

> Several of K & B's Top 1% dealers, were
> either independent agents, or selling for
> their competitor, before switching to K
> & B. Having experienced this business
> from another viewpoint, once they switch to
> K & B, there's no going back. The
> enhanced "bottom-line and increased
> respect they experience by affiliating with
> K & B tends to make them associates for
> life.

> It's almost a parallel of
> emigration/immigration to the United States.
> Freedom loving people with the desire to
> have a better life (via capitalism and
> democracy) pour in to the US at a faster
> rate than those who choose to leave.

> So, this is how K & B has used the
> concept of "shared risk" to grow
> their business at a fantastic rate.

> Dennis Bevers