The Last Word
January 2010
The many challenges of starting a new business - but they needn’t challenge you!
EVERY new business starts with an idea, an invention, a new product or the expansion of a successful business into a new marketplace.
The primary focus is, quite rightly, to improve or develop the idea or product to make it a compelling proposition – in other words, to persuade people to buy it. The next priority, usually, is to build a well-trained and committed salesforce to sell the product or services.
The factors that generally and typically slow down the creative minds are usually operational or legal issues, taxation compliance and the like. The list can appear endless and daunting, and the potential pitfalls can slow down the progress of any business or, in some cases, even prevent it from ever getting started.
Direct selling businesses are, of course, not immune from this same challenge; many multinational companies spend several months (and sometimes even years!) preparing the ground to launch in a new market. This will often include relocating existing staff and hiring new people locally. As well as taking time, this can be very costly and even then there is still no guarantee of a successful payback.
Furthermore, small to medium sized start-up companies invariably have no chance of doing everything that is necessary to do properly because of tight budgets and limits to other resources. This can be a real headache for a lot of companies.
In the UK, at least, the headache has been greatly reduced and, for many companies, totally overcome. The UK DSA has a category of accredited ‘Supplier Members’. These are businesses that support members of the DSA in a variety of ways. Many of them exist exclusively to serve the direct selling industry, and many have been providing this support for 25 years or more.
Between them, Supplier Members can organise and facilitate the entire range of support services likely to be required by a direct selling business. Services and advice include: Strategic planning, legal and taxation compliance, logistics, warehousing and transportation, import and export duties, documentation and systems, printing services, Web design and hosting, recruitment and training of key personnel, fi nance and record keeping, pre-launch testing, Data Protection Act compliance, compensation plan design and implementation, commission payment and
genealogy management.
In other words, Supplier Members as a group can take care of the whole nine yards! This then allows the client to get on with the crucial activity of focusing on the product and the consumer and, in doing so, growing the salesforce and sales.
Recently a select group of the most successful, experienced and accomplished Supplier Members have combined forces to form a ‘one-stop shop’ co-operative to provide all the services that any new enterprise or new market entrant might need for a successful launch. Between us, we have well over 100 years’ experience in the direct selling industry alone. We also have extensive and relevant experience in other sales channels, including online and general retail.
Individually and collectively, we have been involved in hundreds of successful launch or expansion projects for clients across the globe from China to Brazil and everywhere in-between!
Our goal and strategic objective is to facilitate the easiest entry into Europe of any direct selling company, large or small, which wants to take advantage of the immense opportunities that exist in Europe right now as a result of the current economic situation.
Our reach, contacts and expertise includes all European countries, west and east and can facilitate a pan-European launch from an American, Australasian or Far Eastern based company.
