In what types of business is it better to be an intermediary? Intermediary business: the most profitable and promising options. Next, look at the activity of potential clients

During a crisis or when business activity declines, the most promising direction for building a business is mediation. You can achieve high results with minimal investment. There are a large number of examples of intermediary business; let’s look at the most striking of them.

Specifics of intermediary schemes

An intermediary is a person who acts as a link between the seller of goods or services and the person who is interested in purchasing them. By bringing these people together, the intermediary receives a commission. Like any other type of business, intermediary has a number of pros and cons. The benefits include low investments at the start, the ability to quickly reach the payback point and earn income. Disadvantages include the risk of the deal being disrupted and one of the parties refusing to pay for mediation services.

The intermediary business is multifaceted. It can develop successfully in everyday life or on the Internet. It is based on the offer of finished products that were produced by another company. Each such proposal is aimed at the client. To negotiate with him, the intermediary can use.

Who can become a mediator? Absolutely any person who has basic knowledge of marketing, management, and financing. He must also understand the specifics of the products he plans to sell. The key issue when implementing an intermediary business is the choice of direction. It is extremely important to focus on a promising and profitable vector, which is primarily of interest to the intermediary himself.

note: all examples of intermediary business have proven that instead of large investments, energy, perseverance, communication skills, organization and activity are needed.

Examples of intermediary business

Organizing any type of business on your own is always difficult, for example. Requires capital, hired employees, rental premises and the purchase of commercial or industrial equipment. But there are examples when all organizational issues can be simplified. These include the intermediary business. Let's look at the most effective and profitable examples.

Nanny and caregiver agency

A good nanny is always in short supply in any city and even country. This is an example of an intermediary business in which success depends on the human factor. There is practically no legislative framework in this area; the market itself can be called “black”, and the competition is enormous. Money is needed to rent premises (a small office for meeting with clients), recruiting staff and advertising. When selecting personnel, you need to focus not only on education and love for children, but also on recommendations from other clients and work experience. To do this, you need to conduct a personal interview and psychological testing. A mandatory requirement is the availability of the results of a medical examination.

Event agency

Those who know how to generate creative ideas and give others a good mood can use the example of opening a business organizing holidays.

There are no actors, dancers or musicians on the staff of the event agency. All of them are involved in organizing a specific event. The goal of the event agency is to offer a creative idea for organizing a holiday and organize the process itself. Based on the examples of such agencies, for holding small children's parties the intermediary takes 10-15% of the commission from the total budget spent on the organization, and 3-5% from large corporate events. If you organize your intermediary business correctly, another 10% commission can be collected from the artists who have been attracted.

Delivery service

Until recently, paid delivery services were considered a high-class privilege, but in recent years the format of the services provided has changed, prices have become more affordable and accessible. There are many examples of successful intermediary delivery business.

For this option, a small office with a telephone, a minimum set of computer equipment and a vehicle will be sufficient. Companies with a low budget generally make do with delivery using public transport, and set up an office at home.

Typically, courier services provide standard and express delivery. If an entrepreneur who wants to start an intermediary business has limited financial resources, he can perform the duties of a courier independently. In small companies, their role is often filled by students who work on a part-time basis.

cleaning company

The initial investment for opening this intermediary business may be minimal and limited to the cost of purchasing cleaning equipment and cleaning products.

If we analyze examples of the activities of cleaning companies, we can divide them into three types:

one-time cleaning of objects (general, after construction, garbage removal);
daily service in commercial properties;
narrowly focused companies (for example, carpet dry cleaning).

In order to engage in this type of service, you can use two ways: open a company for a specific client (conclude a deal with a shopping or business center) or focus on a specific niche. For example, cleaning apartments or caring for hard floors.

A small company can present itself to clients as a highly specialized specialist who provides modern cleaning products, high-quality equipment and specially trained personnel. At the first stage of work, you can save money on opening an office. It is enough to hire a person who will take calls and send workers to the site.

Organization of joint purchases

When identifying profitable examples of intermediary schemes, one cannot help but think about Internet business. This includes online trading and opening, dropshipping, buying and selling websites, etc.

Organizing joint purchases is beneficial because it does not require investment. All that is needed from the organizer is access to the Internet, a mobile phone and a current account. This business involves finding wholesale suppliers who sell quality products at reasonable prices and offering products to potential clients (usually users of social networks or special services). Each of them orders a product, and the organizer creates a minimum order, transmitting information to the manufacturer’s warehouse. After this, buyers are issued an invoice, which must be paid as soon as possible. Then the money is transferred to the wholesale company, and the received goods are delivered to customers in the agreed way. In this scheme, everyone wins: the buyer receives 1-2 units of goods at a wholesale price, the manufacturer receives a new distribution channel, and the intermediary receives commissions from each transaction. In most examples, this is 5-10% of large transactions or 25-30% of the sale of inexpensive goods.

More and more people are thinking about starting their own business and running it successfully. There are many promising directions. However, the intermediary business turned out to be an excellent solution for generating significant profits - its examples are incredibly diverse.

The essence of entrepreneurship-intermediation

Intermediary entrepreneurship is multifaceted. It can develop successfully in real life and on the Internet. Such a business is focused on promoting and effectively offering finished products produced by a particular company.

Each offer is individual, it is aimed at the client. The commercial profit from such business projects can be more than significant. Moreover, the financial resources received are remuneration for services rendered related to the dissemination of information about a product or work.

What can be an example of commercial intermediation? The most striking example is food sales points that distribute:

dairy products;
bakery products;
groceries.

Of course, the services provided by the outlet will not allow its owner to receive maximum profit. The intermediary business in the service sector loses a certain amount of money to the manufacturer. However, he has the opportunity to raise the level of his stated prices and offer potential clients a product or service that is much more expensive. Naturally, the resulting difference in finance will end up in the hands of the connecting link directly.

What is required to conduct

A question that reveals the essence of such an entrepreneurial trend deserves special attention. Who can successfully and efficiently engage in this type of business? In fact, any person who has enough basic knowledge in the field:

management;
marketing;
financing;
specific chosen direction.

By the way, choosing the right vector is extremely important. An intermediary type of business will be promising and profitable only if the entrepreneur himself is well versed in the nuances of the direction. A unique feature of this type of business is that a successful start requires minimal investment. Often the money turns out to be completely unnecessary. Sometimes energy, enterprise, sincere desire, activity and the necessary knowledge of a businessman are much more important.

How is mediation organized?

The intermediary business option is built exclusively on well-established relationships. Receiving an order is only half the project. You will also need to find a profitable contractor who can effectively and competently perform the given type of tasks for a fixed cost.

A natural condition will be that the price levels of the employee and the customer will be strikingly different. That is why direct profit will always be directly proportional to the category of work and pricing features.

Like any other type of entrepreneurship, all examples of intermediary business have a certain structure. For a business to be successful, it must go through several stages of development. The first thing that is necessary is the formation of a base that will include companies with performers. An extremely important condition is that a businessman must be as confident as possible in each company included in the list. If this is not provided for, the manufacturer will simply refuse the services of this intermediary, which will lead to bankruptcy.

In addition to partners, an entrepreneur must consider:

the quality of the intermediary services offered;
clear deadlines for work performed;
other terms of the contract.

If in real life the most striking example of an intermediary business can be called grocery stores, then in the web space such an example is content exchanges. What do they offer? Creating websites, filling them with useful and interesting material, promoting them to the TOP within search resources.

In this area, it is very important to provide a specific customer with competent content. Moreover, the semantic content of the articles should also be at its best. Freelancing, despite all its democracy and loyalty, does not cancel clearly defined deadlines. As for conditions and prices, they are considered individually.

Promising areas of intermediary business

What else can be a successful intermediary business? This is any help. This includes advertising services, distribution of goods, information about the service. Among the various business programs of this plan, the following can be noted as examples:

real estate agency;
delivery service;
holding auctions;
advertising company.

You can also make a significant profit by becoming a link between producers and buyers of animals, computer equipment, and cars.

No less income will come from searching for potential clients for craftsmen of various categories, including plumbers, repairmen, tailors, builders, electricians and workers in other specialties. Of course, this work is not as simple as it seems. However, the income that an intermediary business brings can be quite significant without particularly serious costs.

To begin to develop successfully in this direction, it is necessary to carefully analyze the situation in the city and region. It is important to study the specifics of services and goods that are most popular among the population. For this purpose, it will be necessary to explore electronic resources and printed sources.

Of course, a lot of time and effort will be spent initially. However, if the question is posed correctly and the matter is developed correctly, they will certainly bring tangible results and open up wonderful prospects.

Wholesale business from scratch. Mediation: Video

Online stores have long ceased to be a rare phenomenon, and on the contrary, they are rapidly gaining popularity among the Russian-speaking audience. More and more people are buying us electronics, furniture, building materials and much more, realizing that it will cost them much less than if they went to the nearest supermarket. On the other hand, it would be even more profitable to purchase from foreign online stores, but most are hampered by difficulties associated with payment and delivery, or by simple ignorance of the language. And here intermediaries come to the rescue, taking all the troubles upon themselves, asking for an appropriate remuneration for this.

How to become an online store intermediary

Study the topic “from cover to cover”

Otherwise, the work will be at your loss. You need to know the specifics of the goods that you will have to deal with, the methods of their delivery, the conditions of insurance and payment of compensation in the event of a defective product, issues related to customs duties. If at first it all seems too complicated, it is better to find a competent person/people who will advise you at first. Believe me, the purchase of goods in the United States and its subsequent transportation from the village of Kukuevo, Mukhosran region, is tantamount to developing a plan for a military operation.

Make connections

Of course, you can start a business alone by overpaying foreign suppliers for goods, but it will be better if you can make a profitable acquaintance “on the other side of the border.” The second intermediary will pay for the goods directly and send it independently - this is much cheaper and safer (bourgeois manufacturers do not consider it necessary to pay enough attention to the packaging and delivery of purchases, and some, in general, have never sent anything to Russia and the CIS countries and do not intend to ). You can find Russian-speaking partners on special forums and websites, but there are plenty of cases of scammers there, so it will still be better if your partner is a person you know.

Prepare a commercial proposal

Before you start work, you should figure out how to convince potential clients of your usefulness, so that they do not consider you a banal reseller. Try to bring to their attention that the process of purchasing and transporting goods is fraught with a lot of risks, including fraud, defective products, errors by postal workers and other problems, and you, as an intermediary, can provide a guarantee of speedy delivery and safety of purchased items. With all this, your prices should not be “biting”, otherwise most people will ignore even the most tempting offer. 7-10% for delivery is more than enough, although in some cases, if delivery and customs clearance costs a pretty penny, the price jumps to 20-30%.

Find buyers

The best option for this would be to create your own website, properly designed and promoted. Most of the content should be product descriptions with links to order (sales are especially effective if you provide them with review videos that clearly demonstrate the appearance of the product and its performance). Alternatively, you can search for clients in their natural habitat. If you are delivering women's goods, it's time to post your offer and contact information on women's websites and groups on social networks. If you sell car parts, run to the car enthusiasts forum. And so on, in general, you understand.

Prospects for intermediary business

At the initial stage, such a small enterprise requires virtually no capital investment. Five to six thousand rubles will be enough to place a couple of commercial advertisements, get a bank card for payments and pay for hosting services and a domain name for a year in advance. There will still be some left.

Despite the small investment, the profit is quite high. Even without straining too much, in a couple of months it is quite possible to reach a monthly income level of 10 thousand rubles. And if you set up large-scale production, purchasing and selling dozens of items in bulk, the amounts will be disproportionately higher. Of course, in this case you will have to take care of hiring additional staff and paying them wages.

This is what business is like. Do you think it’s worth working in this direction or would it be better to immediately start creating your own online store? Let's discuss in the comments.

Reviews and comments

Mediation is a fairly promising type of earnings - the markup on goods can be set almost the same as in your own online store, and this type of trading risk, when you purchased a product, but it turned out to be of no use to anyone and is simply lying around in your warehouse, is absent in principle . On the other hand, when ordering products from foreign suppliers, you can fall into the trap of scammers who will send you some kind of dummy or defective product. Accordingly, the money will be wasted (if you refuse to compensate the buyer for the loss, you will only make things worse for yourself).

The lack of a reliable legal basis (or status, whatever you want!) is the main headache for such an intermediary. Legally he is nobody. And of course, as a result of this, he is not completely protected from scammers! One can only dream of a solid, stable income in this area. And trust, as it was rightly said, in such areas of activity is earned over years!

I think this type of business is quite promising. Many people are afraid to buy online because they are afraid of being discounted and receiving low-quality goods, especially from abroad. The intermediary will be able to eliminate this problem for the buyer and also earn money from it.

I think that if you sell online, you may encounter low demand, people who go to websites buy a lot on their own in online stores and are oriented in this topic. You can buy goods in an online store with convenient delivery, and sell them in your city.

These schemes will soon stop working, if only because I personally participate in joint purchases in these foreign online stores, not only is the organizer of this collective purchase basically doing everything for me, but I also take at wholesale prices, yes Delivery is also cheaper.

I think it is unlikely that the relevance of mediation will ever go away. Many people do not want to surf foreign Internet resources, study a large amount of information, or take risks. Some people simply don’t have time for this. It is easier for them to use the services of intermediaries than to do everything themselves.

I would still put the “search for buyers” item in first place, because there are groups of goods, the intermediation in the sale of which will lead to practically nothing in terms of profit: it will be minimal, and the risk that you will be “thrown away” will not exist get away!

prolisk, in the latter case, the main thing is not to overdo it with markup, my experience suggests that this markup should not exceed 1/3 of the original cost of the product, otherwise potential buyers simply will not be interested in your product!

And it seemed to me that when discussing how to become an intermediary of an online store, they were referring to affiliate programs. This is when a store assigns you an ID and provides banners that you can place on their website. All you need to do is for the client to go to the store’s website and buy the product there. Aren't affiliates and intermediaries the same thing? Please explain to me the difference.

Yuran123, by the way, here is one of the problems of such intermediation: my experience shows that in 90% of cases the client is a “one-time” client and does not make repeated purchases. According to my observations, customers are most often not satisfied with the price/quality ratio in online stores.

Do you want to say that if you work not through the admintab with online stores, then the clients will not be one-time, but if through the admintab, then they will be one-time? Don't you think this sounds a little crazy?

Yuran123, I didn’t say a word about your favorite admin tab, but outlined a problem common to most intermediaries on the World Wide Web. It’s strange that you, as an experienced intermediary in online sales, did not pay attention to this. The client is looking where it is better, and I didn’t come up with this, but the statistics are as follows!

Well, yes, it also seems to me that the idea is good, few ordinary people will look for something for themselves on foreign sites, and then wait a long time for delivery, people mostly do everything at the last moment, so they will look for something “closer” and more reliable.

Do any of those who responded have personal experience with mediation? Who has already become or was an online store intermediary? Share your personal experience, I think many will be interested.

Following the example of one jewelry online store. I created a VKontakte group, posted a link to the product, a photo of the product and the price. After some time, people began to write themselves. At the same time, some goods (a gold necklace in one copy) quickly sold out and people wrote “can we make it to order?”

One CPA partner. Product: coffee for weight loss. I also sold through VKontakte groups, they asked a lot, they found out how much to take - a pack or more.

For another affiliate program - any goods. I wanted to create products on my domain - fitness mats. Support wrote to me that you can make a good store on the free blogspot platform (diaries from Google), but it didn’t go further than registering a blog.

Great! And the delivery and payments were made directly by the store itself, right? What criteria did you use to choose an online store? Still, before becoming an online store intermediary, you should have studied the reviews or paid attention to some aspects. How did you weed out the “reliable” and the not so reliable?

Create your own business. When you start working as an independent broker, you create your own business. The initial costs will be quite small, so you can get started fairly quickly, but do not forget about the professional and legal aspects of your new activity.

Identify the need. Research the market and find a suitable niche that you could fill. The greatest need will be in the industry where the supply and demand structure is sluggish or does not satisfy consumers and suppliers.

It is usually easier for new intermediaries to penetrate the market for services or specialized goods. Generic products are oversupplied on the market and are often purchased directly from manufacturers, making it nearly impossible to convince a retailer to change a stable design.

Research potential buyers. Identify potential consumers of your chosen product or service. Depending on the nature of the planned activity, consumers can be both local and global buyers.

Get in touch. Having compiled a list of potential buyers, you need to call them. Find out their needs and what you need to do to make them want to work with you.

You can send an email to test the waters, but a phone call is more professional, especially when dealing with companies.
When contacting distributors, try to speak directly with the purchasing manager. Ask him if he is interested in reviewing your list of wholesale prices. If the answer is positive, promise to provide such a list within a few business days.

Research potential suppliers. Find as many potential suppliers of your chosen product or service as possible. Examine each item on your list and then narrow it down to your top ten items.

When dealing with products, always look up the manufacturers. If you are not planning to work exclusively with a local product, then you should look for foreign manufacturers.
When working with services, the suppliers are usually local companies.

Find out the rates. Contact potential suppliers and ask for a quote for specific products or services of a certain quality. Once you have collected price information, compare them and select the best deals.

Consider the overall value proposition. The supplier with the lowest price is not always the best if the product they provide is significantly inferior in quality to the products of other suppliers. The same applies to service providers.

Add your share to the cost. As a reseller, you will earn money by receiving a certain commission on each sale. The exact amount is not constant, but the commission itself is usually 10-15 percent.

Suppliers who already work with other intermediaries may have a set commission. This is something you need to know before attempting to set your own commission.

If you want to organize your own business, but are not in the mood for production or trading, then try your hand at mediation. This is a promising and interesting area in which quite a lot of companies and people are involved, but with the right desire and the right approach, you can always enter this business and occupy your niche, winning a place in the sun. In this article we will talk aboutsales of goods, and we will also figure out how to deal with them correctly.

Introduction

Mediation is an activity aimed at finding and bringing together two parties interested in each other's services. For such activities, the intermediary receives a percentage, a fixed fee from the transaction, or simply inflates the price of the product for the end user.

A mediator is a link between two parties

Mediation is common all over the world - this useful and popular service allows you to sell and buy anything. There are many examples of such activities: real estate services, tourism business, taxi service, dropshipping, etc.

Attention:An intermediary is a link between buyer and seller, which ensures the effectiveness of cooperation and minimization of possible risks. He takes on part of the responsibility and receives compensation for his services.

Minimum investment. You don’t have to purchase goods, build a building or invest in equipment - in fact, at the first stage, just the desire to work is enough.
Wide range of possibilities. There are a lot of prospects for conducting such activities - you can find interesting options in any locality.
Growth prospects. With the right approach, a business can be scaled almost indefinitely.
Stable profit. The predictability of such a business is quite high, so you can always make plans for the future, taking into account possible risks.
Almost instant payback. With the right approach, the funds invested in the business will return to you in a couple of months, after which you will be able to make a constant profit.

Attention:By working as an intermediary in a specific activity, you will gain the necessary experience, knowledge and connections. In the future, this could develop into something more serious.

There are only two disadvantages:

There are certain risks that one of the parties will not fulfill the agreement. For example, a batch of 100 parts was ordered through you, which must be completed by the end of the month. But the manufacturer does not have time to make it for some reason, which leads to contract failure or revision of agreements.
Possibility of loss of reputation and subsequent decline of the business due to serious mistakes made during the work process.

However, the last drawback is relevant for any business.

What types of mediation are there?

So you already know that intermediary business is third party interaction between a buyer or seller. The profession of an intermediary appeared several thousand years ago - already in Ancient Greece and Rome there were special people who worked in the markets, helping visitors buy and sell necessary goods, giving advice and recommending people for cooperation.

For an intermediary, the main thing is information and reputation

In our time, the trends have remained virtually unchanged, except that now intermediaries do not work in markets, but have their own offices or portals to reach a wider audience. The main thing for an intermediary is information. He must know where to buy cheaper and sell more expensive, what exactly is in demand, what and where can be purchased, what people want, etc. Many producers of goods and services do not know how/do not want/do not have time to advertise and sell their offers, spending they have the strength, nerves and resources to do this, so it is easier for them to work with intermediaries who will take it upon themselves.

Read also: How to start a small business from scratch

Let's look at a few examples of successful intermediary business in the service sector:

Realtor services. There are always people in the real estate market who want to sell, buy, rent out, rent or exchange housing or non-residential premises. Many do not know how to do this correctly, many do not understand legal issues, which is why realtors enjoy deserved popularity all over the world.
Recruiting agencies. They offer their services to organizations and various companies - if you need to find a specialist or entice a top executive, it is faster and more practical to do this through an agency, rather than on your own.
Brokerage agencies. Today, many people want to save money from inflation and make money by investing in securities, stocks, metals or cryptocurrency. Brokers offer this opportunity for those who cannot or do not know how to do this on their own.
Travel agencies. They take ready-made tours from tour operators or create interesting routes on their own, offering them to clients and receiving a percentage of each transaction.
Marriage agencies. A fairly common type of business - clients leave their profiles, and specialists select “pairs” based on common interests, age, wishes, etc.
Online stores. They are often opened by third parties who know where to get a certain product cheaper than the market price (for example, they work directly with warehouses or wholesalers).
Dropshipping. The classic type of mediation - you find a seller, a buyer and sell him the goods at a markup, without buying it from the seller.
Various freelance exchanges. These are a kind of “employment centers” - customers and performers come to them, and you receive a percentage of both for “pandering”.

How to provide a service correctly

Above we looked at the main examples of intermediary business, but in fact there are many more variations of it. Let's now look at how to properly create your agency to provide services. Here, a lot depends on what field of activity you have chosen, what stage of development you are at and what exactly your goal is. At the initial stages, you can not register at all, but simply work via the Internet, reselling other people’s services and goods through dropshipping.

In the initial stages, you can simply work from home

But if you want to do this seriously and work with counterparties officially, then you need to contact the tax office and register. There are two options here:

Register as an individual entrepreneur. Registration takes a minimum of time and effort, but the entrepreneur, according to the law, is responsible for his obligations with his property, so be sure to comply with the agreements so as not to lose what you have.
Register as an LLC. Registration is a little more complicated, but wide prospects open up for LLCs. In addition, the LLC risks only its authorized capital, which in 2018 is equal to 10,000 rubles.

Official registration opens many doors for you - you will be able to enter into official contracts, sign documents, affix stamps, etc. For an online business, registration will also not be superfluous - counterparties prefer to work with an organization rather than with a private owner, who may simply not be found later.

If you are planning a serious business (travel agency, HR agency, etc.), then you will need a full-fledged office and employees. The office should be located in a convenient location, appropriately decorated and equipped with equipment. Workers need to be trained, etc. - you can’t do it without registration.

Stages of creating a company

Above we have already described several key points of what you should pay attention to when planning a new business. Now we will analyze them in more detail, arranging them in the necessary sequence. So, Mediation as a business - step-by-step instructions for beginners:

We choose an idea that we will bring to life. The fate of the entire event depends on the choice of direction, so be careful and think carefully about all the pros and cons.
Create a business plan. Many novice entrepreneurs ignore this point, starting to work “as it goes.” This is a fundamentally wrong approach, because without outlines of prospects, plans and movement, it is very easy to turn off the path and go the wrong way. All the necessary information is entered into the business plan - the amount of investment, planned profit, number of hired employees, equipment for work, etc.
Registration of a new entrepreneur or LLC. Think about how it will be more profitable for you to register, so as not to change the form in the future. Opening your own office if necessary.
Make lists of possible contractors and clients, study the market and your competitors. Think about where you can get goods or services to make money, and who you can sell them to.
Advertise your activities. Marketing needs to be taken quite seriously - the more people know about you, the more potential buyers you will have. Then, when you create a quality distribution network, many companies that need to sell a product or service will approach you.
The working process. Reception of the first orders, their processing and fulfillment. Try to ensure that both parties are satisfied with the cooperation - then they will continue to work with you, and word of mouth will tell everyone about you.
Organizing the work process, expanding activity, capturing new markets, maintaining reputation. Try never to stop there - always go forward, otherwise your competitors will simply throw you out of your home.
Learn and develop. The more qualified you are, the more people will be drawn to you. You must always be in the know, always know what and where to get, how to complete the transaction, what conditions to offer to the parties in order to interest them.

Registration will open new horizons for the intermediary

It might be useful to read: