Have you ever noticed that when you do a parts search on google the Bass site comes up? I did a parts search and saw these guys. Who are they? Their web page claims they are "professional". And yet they push Honeywell gear? If you're a "professional" with any sort of reputation with your customer base, how in the world would you find the time to run an on line parts business? Why would you even want to get into that market with such skinny margins if your "professional" business was successful? I can just see quoting a customer and then having him or her say wait a minute, "why are you charging me these prices when you sell the same thing on line much cheaper"? And you get a 24 hour emergency number to call too. Wow.
Think about all the Honeywell products that sell on ebay on a daily basis that are 50+ percent off ADI's so called wholesale pricing...once you open your eyes to whats really going on, only then will it all become all too clear you.
Skinny margins perhaps, but you can make up for it with volume... really. Especially if you can get your vendors to drop ship everything for you.
Seperate the businesses. Even if not, do you really want a customer who is too stupid to understand that a device is worth more installed than in the box on the shelf? I still have guys who buy parts from me, and local guys from time to time stop by my shop to buy parts. Somebody buys a complete system from me to self install I make $100-300 or more in 10-20 minutes. I have to work over an hour installing or trouble shooting not counting travel time to gross the same amount in the field (and that ain't all profit). Besides those looking to buy parts aren't going to pay me to install a system anyway. So its just extra profit.
I never provided 24hr support for on-line customer, and I provide no tech support for DIY installers anymore. If they don't know what they are doing tough. I don't get many, but those I get do seem to have a clue. I almost never get any returns from these guys. When I do there is usually a real problem or DOA on the equipment.
I ran an on-line parts store a few years ago, and its pretty easy stuff. My problem was I got to the point where I would have had to spend some time writing code and writing pages and making some shipping deals. Time I didn't have to take away from my physical customers. I think I could have easily out stripped the profit from contracting with on-line sales if I quit contracting and worked at that full time. The problem I had was loyalty to the customers who have fed me and my family for the last decade+. I could not just walk away from them. When I retire if I don't find a buyer for my contracts, I'll send each customer the information tehy need to find another alarm company who should be able to take over their service with little or no extra cost. Then I might look at on-line or other sales again.
RHC: The market is an ever changing entity. Today, just about anything you can think of is sold on line, including security equipment. While you and I might wonder about the wisdom of people buying alarm panels and then installing themselves, the fact is, some people have chosen to do this on their own. Many do it simply because they enjoy being do- it-yourselfers; others do it because of frustration with the commercial alarm industry and their insistence on long term contractual commitments before they will even talk to you; others do it simply because they have chosen (unwisely I might ad) to not have their system monitored properly. However, that is the real beauty of a free market system - it will evolve to fill every niche there is regardless of what anyone thinks about it.
RLB and other online vendors have simply chosen to appeal to this extremely tiny segment of the total security market. And with a target market of 300 million people in the USA alone, there is plenty of business to go around within the ranks of all the marketeers of DIY equipment. But every market has it's downside. Selling professional security equipment (much of which is not particularily user friendly) carries with it the requirement for a certain level of technical support. But again the market levels things out - failure to provide that by any on line vendor will only serve to erode that particular vendors market share.
Frankly, I don't see why anyone in the professional security industry would care in the slightest about the presence of this market. It doesn't in any way impact on professional companies who cater to customers who only want a system that works properly and can be depended on to be serviced right by that same company. And that is the vast majority of buying consumers ! They have far more important things to do in their lives than mess around with an alarm system.People buying professional alarms know the dealer's presence comes with a price but don't care - that's life (in every aspect of the market).
All this over concern about the DIY market is a "storm in a teacup" in my opinion......
I can imagine it is easy to find Honeywell gear to dump at prices less than ADI wholesale list prices. Since the real price a dealer pays for the gear is determined by the Honeywell rep, and then a special SKU is created in your ADI account, I imagine prices for special SKU is a lot less that the published wholesale price. If you're getting bugged by your Honeywell rep for not meeting volume commitments, then just buy what you have to and dump what you can't sell on eBay. If you are an even bigger national account direct with Honeywell you could sell at 50% off ADI wholesale and still make money on certain items. I have seen the pricing some big nationals pay for certain items. For the guy selling a panel or two a week (thinking he is getting a good deal from ADI) I think he'd be shocked to see what he is really competing against price wise.
It's a small alarm company that also sells stuff online. I did the same thing until I decided to sell the brick and mortar alarm business. They're probably a legitimate dealer.
Cruel, Roland. Very cruel. :^)
It depends on the size and scope of the two businesses. My alarm company was small enough that I could still handle the then fledgling online business. Now it takes two full-time people just to handle phone calls plus one doing database updates. By this time next year I expect to hire one or two inside sales reps.
It's all in the numbers. What some make in markup doing installations I make in volume selling parts online. I have no idea how much these folks sell (their prices are about average and their site is kind of small but it's professionally done). Maybe they're making a killing or maybe they're another "superstore".
Every so often one of our custom installation clients would find our website and ask about the difference in prices. I explained that if they wanted to DIY they could do so at significant savings but they would have to do the work. Very rarely did the conversation progress beyond that. Most custom install clients want nothing to do with DIY at first. Only after someone like Brinks, Jiminex or one of the myriad "authorized dealers" rips them off do they start searching online.
Now Frank, that's a terrible thing to post on Christmas eve..............Have you no decency? You could have at least waited until the 26th. Let's all chip in and get bass a xmas present. Any suggestions? Anybody?
It may still be subject to business licensing and other restrictions per state, but they are a reseller. I suspect that as long as you operate your business from Florida for instance you should have a business license from your community and a tax license for the state of Florida. Many on-line sellers ignore these things even though thaey may be required, and there seems to be no kind of uniform enforcement.
I don't think it is the nature of the discounts that distribution or manufacturers gives certain competitors that bother me. No, it's the sales guys that work for these national companies that gives me trouble. I can think of one sales guy in particular. This guys heads out the door every day with the company checkbook under his arm and begins to give the company's money away (under the idea he is actually doing business). It's not his shrewd business acumen, his savvy presentation to the customer, his skills in designing a solution, his cutting edge deployment of new technology or anything of that type that worries me. No it's pure ignorance, sloth and refusal to learn anything about the business that concerns me. Example? Recently on one of his jobs he bid 800 feet of EMT. The installers gave up counting after they hit 4000 feet mark and were still at it. This guy will bid 2 hours to install a complete access door (reader, mag lock, REX motion, REX button, and door position switch). But only on the first door. All the other doors on the job get bid at 15 minutes per door because "the installer is already there and set up". If it wasn't for the RMR from the jobs he sells, they would be a total loss for the company. I guess he figures he breaks even in 5 years or so, but I somehow doubt that. Those type sales guys that the big nationals hire (and for some reason retain) are the ones I fear. The ones that are too stupid to ever learn how to bid a job properly. No matter what the application from a large commercial fire job to a small residential job, it's always some flavor of a Honeywell Vista panel that is going to get bid. Fortunately I never have had to bid against him. Unfortunately we've been hired to clean up the mess his designs and his company's "installers" leave behind. Heaven help you if you the poor customer stuck with one of his designs.
"Nick Markowitz Jr." wrote in message news:iGNbj.16041$GV4.5538@trnddc05...
That is correct. You still need an occupational license from the county you run your business in, no matter what type of business it is. But at the present time, you are only required to collect sales tax for any sales or services within your state.
Jim Rojas
Bob La L>>>> If the web-based business only offers DIY parts -- not installation
Items like that we (and I assume most others as well) just send a replacement. It isn't worth the postage or our time to bother returning it. If the warranty item cost more than $10 wholesale, we ask the client to send it back. Less than that why bother? If it's bad out of the box we (or the supplier, depending on which make it is) pay the return shipping and/or send an advanced replacement.
them "special order")...
True. For example, if the client orders a camera from Extreme CCTV and wants to return it through no fault of ours, there's a restock fee. If it's a custom rackshelf from Middle Atlantic it cannot be returned. One reason many online stores don't like taking CCTV stuff back is people buy it just to check out the new nanny and after 2-3 weeks claim they don't like it.
If you do that for a living that is exactly what you should do.
It depends on what part it is. If it's a burglar alarm component and it's in new, resaleable condition, we take it back. Same thing with most audio/video gear. If you already installed it or if you mess up the paperwork, it's still covered under warranty but can't be returned for credit.
Yep. If upon inspection you decide it's not what you want, return it. Once you install it, you own it though.
Most local alarm dealers in the USA don't have a problem dealing with DIYers because they won't sell them anything. That's why there is a thriving online market for alarms.
There is no Florida business license for an online alarm dealer. In most cities there are minor regs but I'm in the county so even the Sarasota city government has no interest.
I don't know what others do. Before I moved here I contacted county and state authorities to find out what was required. There wasn't much to it. A lot of online retailers worry about a national sales tax that would supposedly level the playing field between out-of-state, online dealers and local stores. I personally think it would be a good thing. It should be a boon to local and state governments and it would simplify things for most stores -- especially companies with multiple locations.
Most states have a great deal of interest in retailers. That is where a huge percentage of their revenue comes from through sales taxes, transaction priveledge taxes, and use taxes. Only a few states that don't collect sales or transaction taxes would not be interested in retailers.
Even businesses that do not routinely sell retail are often required to acquire a state tax license so they can be forced to pay "use" taxes on items purchased out of state for their own use in business.
Most states however may not be interested in alarm or contracting licensing for retailers.
-- Bob La Londe The guy who decides who we do business with.
The Security Consultant PO Box 5720 Yuma, Az 85366
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