From my experience, sourcing products seems to be one of the most difficult online tasks auction sellers and small retailers face. In fact, by just browsing around forums I can easily see the most popular topics are those related to locating products for resale.
In my opinion, it’s as frustrating today finding quality wholesalers as it was about eight years ago when I first began looking for them. After all, who wants to give away their secret supplier connections?

Shortly after realizing this, I dedicated the majority of my time strictly sourcing and seeking good, legitimate and valuable product suppliers. Eventually, I gave up selling and began focusing on the research. I still have some difficulty pin-pointing why I did this, so I’m starting to lean toward curiosity. Are decent product suppliers really out there? Even if they are… will they do business with someone like me on a shoe-string budget, no physical store-front and very little retail experience? And, if they are willing to do business with me… can I still purchase their products at good enough prices to make any money? I wanted answers to these questions and I knew others did too.

I dove in hard-core using various search engines and “so-called” wholesale directories. Guess what? It was nothing but disappointment. Now what? No, I didn’t quit… I dove in deeper and more hard-core than ever using different approaches.

Next thing I knew I had Bookmarked (now known as Favorites) a pretty darn good list of what seemed to be credible product suppliers. It was a bit exciting and prompted me to continue researching to see what else I could find. I got in this zone and all of a sudden they were coming in a dime a dozen. There was nothing else to do except organize and categorize. Man, why not build a large directory of quality wholesale product suppliers that other small retailers could access? Why hasn’t it been done yet? Do people just not have the time or know-how to do it? Will people pay for this valuable information? How can I help others and make a little extra money too?

Then the light-bulb went off. I’ll make a free database of respectable product suppliers for small retailers and include advertising options and affiliate programs for making that extra money. Visitors will get lots of free valuable content to keep them happy and coming back… and I’ll still get paid! It’s a win-win! HarrisGuide.com was born!

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Thomas J. Harris, JR
HarrisGuide.com
Small Retailers Product Sourcing Solution