What Products Can You Sell?

In my previous blog, I mentioned 7 essentials to starting and running a business. The first and most important of these is having a product to sell.

So in this blog I want to talk a bit about this, and see if I can help you to decide what kind of business you will have.

Here are some of the main categories you will need to consider when it comes to finding a product to sell. Each of them involves a different way of doing business, and often a different level of profit. Some require you to have capital to lay out before you even think about starting a business. Others will allow you to get started right away.

A. You can make your own product, or sell someone else's product

B. You could sell products to end users, or you could sell them to someone who will resell them - dealers or associates.

C. You could sell from a live physical location, or you could sell on the internet.

In my full Basic Business Course, I include detailed information on how to go about finding, creating and selling products. This will be available soon for those who wish to buy it. But here I would like to give you some free advance teaching on the subject.

Before I went into full time ministry, I had a business of my own, which provided our basic needs. But once I went into ministry, this changed. I shared my story of how I began a business selling ministry resource products. But before that I was in a different kind of business.

My work skills were centered in the computer industry, and for many years I worked as a computer programmer and support consultant for a company that sold computer hardware and software. Once I had gained experience in this field, I moved out on my own and started my own computer business.

So I had a bit of experience in selling the following kind of products:

1. Computer Hardware.

2. Computer Software

3. My Time  - as a Consultant and Computer Programmer

In each of these areas I could either resell what someone else had made, or make my own and sell it. And I learned to do this in all fields:

1. I put together computers myself, by buying the basic parts, assembling them and delivering them to customers.

2. I installed prewritten software, which I bought and resold at a profit.

3. I wrote my own software, which I sold and resold over again.

4. I sold my time as both a consultant and a specialist programmer, developing unique software for clients.

In the end I found that I could make more money by selling my time and my personal skills, than I could by reselling products made by someone else. The reason for this was that there was always stiff competition, and I had to compete with other businesses by lowering my prices. That meant low profits.

When I sold my time, skills and knowledge, I could offer a client something that others could not - my own uniqueness, and their own uniqueness. People were prepared to pay for this and there was really no competition in the field.

Ministry Products

When I began to sell ministry resources on the internet, I faced a different kind of product, but actually some of the same principles as my previous business.

1. I could have bought other peoples materials and resold them. This would have meant I would need capital to invest in stock, and once again, I would be competing with others who were selling the same products.

2. I could have tried to sell my services and time. But in this realm, the idea of charging for ministry was totally unacceptable, and went against all status quo thinking. Nobody was prepared to pay for my time and effort in ministering to them.

3. I could produce my own materials and sell them in the form of books, e-books, CD's, DVD's and online study courses.

Experience showed that the only way I could receive money for any form of ministry, was to capture that ministry on video, audio or in books, and then sell those products as a business. While I tried to offer ministry freely and ask for donations, I was starving. When I produced good products and offered them for sale, people were happy to buy them.

Now not everyone has the ability to produce their own products, so if you are wondering how you will ever get going with this kind of business, do not worry. It is very easy today to sell someone else's e-books and online products without laying out any cash in advance.

You simply find a customer for someone who makes these products, and they will give you a percentage of the sale as a commission. We call such a person an Associate. It is something I personally have never needed to do, since I could produce my own products. However, I do plan to make my own products available in the near future to those who wish to sell them and earn a commission as part of their own business.

Here Is What I Will Offer You Soon

It is my intention to help all those who would really like to get going in their own business, including earning money to support their ministry. And under this section of the Basic Business Course, I will be offering the following lessons:

1. How you can write and produce good materials that you can sell online.

2. How you can capture your preaching and teaching on video, to produce quality teaching that you can sell.

3. How you can create CD's, DVD's, and audio/video files that you can upload to the internet.

4. How you can transcribe your preaching and teaching and make them into a resource that you can publish, as an e-book, printed book or both.

5. How you can format, edit and convert your writing into a quality e-book that you can sell.

6. How you can format, edit and print out your writing in a form that can be bound together into a book.

7. How to design and print your own book covers.

8. How you can bind your own books, using equipment that you can operate from home.

9. How you can sell your materials online and receive payments from around the world.

Much of what you need to do will not need you to lay out any cash to start with. It costs you nothing but time to preach, teach, write and publish on the internet. But you will have to lay out some money if you want to do this as a business.

a. You will need space on a web server somewhere to produce web pages that promote and sell your products.

b. You will need some basic software to produce the products that you upload.

c. If you wish to make printed books, you will need some basic hardware to produce these.

d. If you wish to learn using my Basic Business Course, you will need to buy the complete course at the price which I will set for it.

I will help you all I can by pointing you to free resources and software that are available online. But if you really want your business to move ahead, then you must be prepared to do things well, and this will cost you, both in time, effort and money.

That is all I will be saying now on Products. Next time we will look a bit at how to find a market for the products that you will sell. If you have any questions or comments, please post them in the response form below.