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Selling products as part of your computer consulting business is an option you should consider. Products can offer an additional revenue stream but you must determine if the extra expense and overhead associated with selling products are a good fit for your business model. You need to sit down and think long and hard about whether you want to be a reseller or if you want to be a pure consultant.
As a consultant you will be specifying what products you recommend your clients purchase. You may actually do the purchasing on their behalf. The time you spend doing this is billable hours. Selling products for resell products will make some product margin. The margin for most of these products, however, is not that large.
A majority of products you recommend will be available just about everywhere. Your clients know this. You might be able to add a small factor for convenience but if you try to reap huge margins selling products, your clients won't buy from and no one else will either.
Selling Product Drawbacks
Things you need to consider before selling products:
carrying costs and capital tied up in inventory;
product return issues;
carrying receivables;
merchant account administration
Essentially selling products makes your business model more complicated. There is also not a lot of money to be made through selling products. You won't have sufficient buying power to enjoy low purchase rates so your product margins aren't going to generate a lot of profit for you.
The Bottom Line On Selling Products
When you open your business you have a choice whether you want to be selling products and services or just services? You should consider selling products as an option but make sure you understand the pros and cons before committing to adding product selling to your business model.
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