Fireworks stand

[Sotiria]

Anyone have experience doing this as a way to raise a small amount of capital? I would consider doing so if margins were high enough, but I haven't found much via Google after a brief search session. I did find a commision based site, where you're basically a salesman for a warehouse and keep 20%, but I'm not interested in that at all.

Some questions/thoughts I've had so far:

Sources to order via wholesale? I'm assuming this is competitive just like the whole drop shipping and wholesale biz in other markets, but I could be wrong.

What to do with surplus? I'm assuming if you're the direct buyer from a warehouse you're just going to have to eat the costs.

How to get a location? Hmmm, probably would have to schmooze with owners of strip mall type locations and share some of the profits.

Insurance? Specific type of business license? I'm guessing you'd have to pay some sort of insurance just to sell these things. Do you also need a specific license, or will my DBA license work?

[ImsaKidd]

I dont really have experience with this.

One idea though: Find a location close to the border of a state that outlaws fireworks. Like IL doesnt have stands, so lots of people drive to Missouri to buy them.

[KUJustin]

Are you talking about year-round or like a 5-day stand?

[Sotiria]

Just a 5-day stand...2x/year for New Years and 4th of July. My goal would be to get something like a %40-%50 ROI which I think is very possible if I were importing directly from the factory (just a guess, though since I'm a noob). I've started looking into importing from China, but I'm thinking it would be wise to start off doing the commission deal via a local reseller in order to learn wtf I'm doing and how much profit is possible.

[bluef0x]

Where do you live? In California only non-profit organizations can run the stands as fund-raisers. I'm pretty sure they just receive the inventory and make a profit on each item... whatever isn't sold is returned. Location is pretty much finding a business that will allow your church/baseball team/etc to sit outside for a week. Most companies don't mind, since it draws more people in... but the stands usually end up giving a package to the companies.

Looks like you'll have to find out the stuff on your own (location/how many of the different types you need/etc). I doubt there's a site that states where hot-spots are and what each area purchases. I would probably just do the 20% thing one year and log everything. Then you have an estimate of what to purchase next year.

Border suggestion is eh. Huge bonus if it's going to draw in people from other states... retarded if you are doing a Joe-Dirt and sitting in the middle of nowhere depending on out-of-staters.

[Banditgberg]

the local stands where i live are "branches" of larger fireworks stores.

contact a firework store and work a deal with them to run one of their tents. this has the advantage of returning unsold inventory.

p.s. insurance liablity laws