Which Way Do I go?

The Alice in Wonderland question. Alice asks the rabbit which direction she should take and the rabbit asks her "Where are you going?". When she responds that she doesn't know the rabbit tells her, then, that it doesn't matter which way she chooses.

So perhaps the question is: "Where do I want to go?"

Some real soul searching has to come into play here because just because you want to become Donald Trump or Bill Gates doesn't mean you have the tools to get there.

America is still the land of opportunity - you just have to visit the land of reality before you get there.

If you are going into business you have to decide where your strengths and weaknesses lie.

From a sales standpoint - if you can develop relationships quickly, establish rapport easily and have developed an insensitivity to rejection then you may want to try a home based business. You have to understand that in choosing this method you are swapping $0.00 overhead of a store for a life of prospecting and cold calls and developing a referral base.

If you know that you can't make yourself consistently prospect then you should strongly consider opening a store in a high traffic location - that is going to take some money and some commitments.

I have done both and there are pro's and con's to each. I have trained myself to make cold calls and I can do it - although it is much like physical training for me - I'm pretty sore for the first few weeks but I get re-conditioned for it and I'm OK.

There are always trepidations in opening a store because now you have a lease, you have utilities, you have additional liability insurance, licensing, employees, security systems.... and it takes about $35,000 to really do it properly.

What about the people that fall in between - can someone who has the ability to run a store but not the sales skills to cold call be successful?

(Just a hint - the answer is always "Yes" you just may not like the qualifiers.)

Consider setting up your Gold Buying Operation in an existing store that has similar demographics to yours.

There is no magic answer but you may consider paying the proprietor a flat rent or a percentage of the gold you buy.

This business is simple - it is a matter of eyeballs on your signs. Enough eyeballs on your signs and you have a steady stream of gold sellers. Daily traffic of 3,000 cars will produce less than 10,000 cars, which will produce less than 20,000 cars and on and on.

Look for a location that you can get good signage and a decent traffic count. The rest will take care of itself as long as you take care of the people that find you.

Buy a Bunch!