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hello it's alan from abts training services london england and um this short video is really an introduction to starting up a business on agencies or to become an agent okay now during the year 2020 we abts and i in particular has unbelievable amount of phone calls emails contact with me from people around the world and it's it's quite unbelievable everybody's asking the same question how can i start a business up in international trade can you give me a few tips most of them i'm thinking of changing my career completely i want to start my own business and i think an agency would be a good stepping stone for a business can you tell me about it could you kind of hold my hand and give me encouragement and tell me the facts so i thought well two things um i think i should just do a small video just to get people a kickstart and uh the second thing i thought is well i think abts should or i should run make a course up on how to become an agent so i did that i did that so now this part is just introducing you to agencies and how they work and as i say it's phenomenal how 2020 have changed people's minds they seem to want to go it alone they want to be their own masters if that's not too a dramatic word to use so here goes um agencies tell me all about it alan okay i'll preempt this small video by saying um i've been in international 25 35 40 years loss of memory i've forgotten how long about 35 40 40 years and um i've run along the way some very successful agencies so with respect and with all humility i say this to you being there done that so when i talk about uh starting an agency it's not that i read about it in a book it's not that i'm telling you it's the easiest thing and the best thing since sliced bread no it's very difficult it has its ups and downs but on a personal level i found it very rewarding rewarding to me mentally and rewarding to me financially so come on you can't get better than that in life can you you know you're earning some money and you're happy and you feel self-achievement out of it all okay so here we go starting up your business as an agency and what really annoys me and this is my little beef what really annoys me is reading these advertisements and sometimes on youtube reading these advertisements about start your own agency and earn five thousand dollars or two thousand pounds a month um all you have to do is work four hours a week and oh all this rubbish how easy it is it is not easy far from it i had premature gray hair from being an agent so please dispel these myths that you read and hear about that you can start an agency from your bedroom devote three hours a week or two hours a night and you can earn so much and you get all these testimonials from joe blogs and he's saying yes i am the local postman and when i come home from work i sit down on my computer and i can earn 500 or 200 pounds or whatever it is come on get real it doesn't happen that way i have a small saying if you start if you have a bedroom business it stays a bedroom business you've got to get out there you've got to invest you've got to um invest time energy and your brain up here so let's start with the clean sheet no you are not going to make a fortune by becoming an agent if you don't know what the heck you're doing and it's hard graph so very very beginning where do we start so i kind of put the breaks on here and say whoa whoa before you even think of being an agent get your act together it's the very first thing you've got to think of and some of these are boring they're not kind of wrong whiz bang entrepreneurial thoughts it's boring laborious things like where do i start do i start as a self-employed person or do i start as a limited company now please bear in mind that these questions i'm asking and answering are questions that i'm asked every week people calling me where do i start so that's a totally personal choice and i kind of short circuit that and i kind of get out of answering you directly by saying to you if i'm for you i'm not a accountant an accountant has an hourly rate and they they will give you good advice for just one hour's rate so money well spent should i become a limited company or should i become self-employed now i could do a total video on that because i've been both about the merits of it so i'm not going to i'm just going to say that's the first stop in your thinking about will i take on an agency where do i start from a legal point of view from the tax man's point of view will i become self-employed um in my case alan bracken trading as enterprise consortium some stupid name like that or will i be um international trade limited it's up to you whatever you do but don't ignore it my advice is to seek a consultancy with an accountant and they will tell you the pros and cons from a tax point of view they'll tell you what what is best for you okay so first thing is will i become a limited company or will i become self-employed now the second one and it's so vital this and people don't give it enough attention how much time am i going to devote to this enterprise forget about the post office the post worker who goes home up to his bedroom and closes the door and works there for two hours and makes money no no so it's vital you look at your life you look at your business life you look at your social life you look at your commitment to your family and you say look this is serious i'm not playing around with this how much of my time can i devote to becoming an agent and running an agency that is really important you've got to sit down and think about it it's like every other business it's like life i suppose in general the more you put in the more you get out now if you do two hours a week you get two hours out of it so very very vital question after how do i start up legally limited company self-employed the next question is how much time can i devote to this enterprise now i'm talking as i say i've had agencies on and off for about 35 years and from my point of view from my experience you've got to put in all the time god gives you it really is you've got to spend as much time as you can starting up your agency and running your agency forget about the bedroom business bedroom businesses start and finish in the bedroom think about it how much time how much time can i give still in the boring bits i suppose i haven't come to where you're going to make your fortune yet so how much time start up costs the next question i'm always asked is which is impossible to answer mr bracken can you tell me i'm thinking of becoming an agent how much will it cost me what's my startup cost it's it's nearly impossible to answer but i'd give you a rough idea you cannot start on a shoestring you cannot start without money i wish you could and i would wish you all the best of luck in the world if you can because you're a better man than i i could never do that so you've got to realistically think how much is it going to cost me my running costs to start up an agency let's go back how much have i gotten the bank what kind of a bank loan can i get if i need it you've got to be super realistic if you haven't got any money if you can't borrow any money if you can't get a bank loan i'm i'm sorry to be negative but if it snowballs hope in hell of starting a successful business now please contact me if i'm wrong because that's what i want to hear i want to hear somebody out there saying rubbish allen i started with zero with zuch and i applaud you you're one in a million one in a trillion so let's start thinking about how much do i need what do i need now you need very very very very very fundamental and you've got to think basics don't just go yeah we all have that well yeah you know you've got to think of you need communication so you need your mobile phone you need your computer you need wi-fi i mean just the fundamentals okay and then as you progress you will possibly will make visits to the factory of your principal or your customer base you're not going to do it from your bedroom agencies is very much one-to-one person to person it's a touchy feely industry and you're not going to do it as i say sitting in your bedroom so you got to think is how much have i set aside for travel how much have i set aside for advertising this is assuming you are not getting free advertising from your principal so cost how much you have to work that out on a business plan and a cash flow don't daydream about it be realistic okay the next question i'm always asked i i often wonder do people think i sit down with a crystal ball in front of me or something you know ring alan and he can give you the answer i wish i could um the next question i'm always asked is what products should i be representing now come on how do i know what products you should be representing you know get real get a life i don't know what products you should be representing you only know that okay there's so many some people come up with brilliant ideas they see a hole in the market and they say oh my god i've seen a product and this will fit in this niche they could find it up where they're working they could be working in a factory they could be in an office and all of a sudden they realize wow we need whatever it is and i am going to represent that so what product you should have or you should represent i i think on a personal level is the most difficult one to answer because it's entirely up to you now i'm not going to go on and talk about examples of this but um some people the products will be coming out of a hobby they have i'll just give you one example um one young gentleman was into trains he had a big train layout in his house that's all he could think about was trains and for one reason or another he found himself unemployed and he thought hang on there's nothing i don't know about model railways so he started up an agency bringing in tracks etc etc because that came natural to him it was kind of organic it was a hobby other people are walking along the road and they see something and it brings something to the mind and they think wow that is a good idea so the product is entirely up to you entirely up to you what product shall i represent and bear in mind also you can represent a service you can be an agent for a service as well but i'm concentrating on products on this small video so that's when you sit down and you think what would i like and i emphasize the word like what would i like to represent as an agent the next question is the big one will it sell there's too much there a lot of people and i i i like people who daydream in business i think it's very important very healthy to daydream and business but you should have a limit to your your daydreaming ability a lot of people daydream and they will say oh that'll really go down well and they might buy that item from the supplier wherever it is india china and they show it to their friends hey presto look what i got this is going to sell wow this is really going to sell and they show it to the family now the family love the person they encourage them they're not going to say that's a big load of rubbish oh yeah that's really wonderful john oh yeah i think you could you could you could do something with that you could do something with that or john happens to like it because he drinks from this beaker and he thinks hmm i think i could become an agent for these and make a fortune hmm yeah i'll try that no what you've now got to do is you've thought of something you've got this idea fermenting in your brain and you want to bring it on and you want to represent it and you want to be successful but please put on the breaks go into the next market research that dreary word market research i find it really i find market research to be quite frank with you on a personal note a bit dreary but very very rewarding so you might like this beaker but how about the rest of the population in your country they might think it's a load of rubbish not only is a load of rubbish but the market is full of these beakers it's a no-no for an agency so now you're going to go into one of the most vital aspects and that is market research who else is importing these goods we're assuming they're made outside your country who else is importing so you go to your government stats every country has government statistics that can tell their citizens and anybody who wants to know how many apples go into that country how many pairs of shoes how many shirts so you can get government statistics for a start and it'll tell you so you think well okay i think there's a there's a place in the market for me on that on my initial um market research the it doesn't seem to be that the market is flooded then what else do you do after that well tell you what i do for what it's worth to you what i used to do i would visit wholesalers and i said to them um i've got this mug here what what do you think of it do you think you you could actually sell this now one of the best market research uh conduits is wholesalers and retailers and it's free and they look at it and say wow i like that i like that where's it from not telling you it's it's made in china but that's about all the information i'm going to give you what do you think of it yeah i like it would you buy that from me yeah i would what do you reckon it'll retail for i don't know about 2.50 what kind of prices would you need me to sell it to you for oh 98 p because i'm the wholesaler then i have to sell it to the retailer he's got to make his profit or their profit so you see you're getting you're getting information unbiased information it's not your aunt sally who's telling you you're a wonderful businessman and these things are going to sell like hot cakes no these are professional hard boiled business people then you go around the shops in your district i'm just reiterating what i used to do many many hundreds of years ago go around the shops and you're sure to hey what do you think of this i think it's wonderful that's great so you're doing your market research now how you do your market research is up to you i'm just throwing that out at you you know this simplistic market research this is talking to people sometimes it encourages you sometimes it depresses you because you think oh i really did think that would sell and i've been doing my research now for two months no it's not looking good it's not looking good should i look for something else you see what i mean you're not saying i am going to bring this in and i am going to sell it yes you may i was very very very fortunate many years ago to find a product made in china sourced through hong kong that nobody had it was kind of you know i found the gold mine that nobody had and um i i saw a sample of it in a magazine this is before the internet so i can tell you some time ago and i thought my goodness this is a wonderful product this is brilliant so i ordered a few from the manufacturer ordered a few i forget now it was a minimum order maybe 12 dozen whatever it was i ordered a few and i did what i just told you i went around wholesalers i went around retailers and it was just every time they were saying oh my goodness where'd you get this what a what a brilliant idea that is blah blah blah i secured an agency a soul agency for those a stock estate agent cost me some money but a stockist agent and uh i was very happy i was very happy with it and uh when i see this product in houses and places i said i bring that in yeah i'm the guy who found that so there's a bit of ego trip there making some money wonderful satisfaction inside but then i had a couple of lemons as well they didn't go as well as i do i didn't take my own advice basically i didn't take my universe against all the odds i still became an agent and uh it didn't really go well it didn't go well so this is why i'm telling you now and after all my experience of success and some failures this is the way i figured out now and this is what i want to help you with be realistic be realistic about all this and market research and bearing in mind this is before you even ask for an agency market research once you've got that you've got confidence and you would say yeah there is a chance of selling this now i'm going to finish here but just to let you know what i haven't covered it i haven't covered for instance and the next big question always asses should i become a stockist agent should i become a commission agent but nobody ever asks me should i become a procurement agent so the stock agent very very briefly very briefly a stockist agent is when you become an agent but the principal the supplier says but you've got to stock it you've got to keep so much in stock so you've got money as we're talking earlier on how much money do i have if you become a stockist agent you've got to have enough money to buy stock if you're a commission agent you're a go-between that's all you're an introduction um business you're like a marriage bureau bringing a man and a woman together and they get married and you get a commission for making the life hell for the rest of their lives so that's that's a commission agent is you find a buyer you introduce the buyer to the supplier they do the business and out of that you get a commission from the supplier from your principal okay and then there's a procurement agent which is just general my name is international procurement agency limited and whatever you want i can get you and in that case you have to box very very very clever because in my case i was supplying capital equipment to companies lots of money involved and lots of money i had to buy the item to sell it and i hadn't got lots of money to buy the item for we could be talking in sterling we could be talking about ninety thousand hundred and eighty thousand two hundred thousand pounds now i don't have that in my wallet in my back pocket in those days so i had to box very clever i had to know things like you know using transferable letters of credit blah blah blah i'm digressing i'm digressing but i just thought i was talking about agencies but i never mentioned them and how they function so there you go that's how um agencies were so i'm going to finish off here and i'm going to say to you that if you're one of the many people that want to readjust the work compass i think that's nice readjust your work compass in other words go into another business and you're thinking of an agency as one way of being self-employed of running your own show which i love because i'm a great believer i like to make my own mistakes i don't like to work for somebody who makes mistakes for me so all i want to do is encourage you and say to you particularly in in where we are now in 2020 and 2021 where people are thinking of is my job secure should i go it alone and this is why i'm in inundated with phone calls and i say to each and every person yes go for it go for it but go for it from a realistic point of view and hold that mirror of reality up to your face and don't shun away from it it doesn't matter if i do no money i can i can still do it doesn't matter if they aren't the best beakers in the world i can still sell them no you can't okay so i'm going to leave you i don't want to leave you crying and weeping and saying i'm never going to stop my agency business after alan told me all about it now it's a wonderful life it's a wonderful life international trade is a wonderful life so rewarding so rewarding okay i'm going to finish about three times i said i'm going to finish and i haven't finished i'm going to finish and what i'm going to say to you now is um because of the outpouring from people about i want to start up my own business i want to start an agency can you help us i can't help you on the phone of course i can't so i thought the best thing to do is to write a course on it [Music] um that's all the mistakes i made and hope hope that after reading my course you won't make those mistakes i made okay so there is a course called uh agency course and it goes into great detail on how to become an agent what kind of agent et cetera and all the little questions you never thought you should ask okay it's all there it's all there on our course for those of you who are interested go to our website um and on our website it will show you there it is on screen it will give you the syllabus if you're interested um or if you want any other information contact me i'll be only too happy i'm not here plugging the course per se i'm just telling you i wrote a course um and it might help you i don't know it might help you you might want to do it yourself and all i can say to you is one way or the other best of luck to you best of luck to you go for it but go for it properly don't go floating on a cloud of dreams because what will happen you just fall through the cloud unfortunately you'll fall through the cloud be realistic go for it and all i can say to you is well first of all thank you for watching my video and second of all the best of luck to each of you if you're thinking of going into an agency and if you think my course can help me i'd love to work him on board okay cheers now see you around bye