I am interested in selling products! Can you share with me the best way to set up bar coding and shipping for a one-person business?
I'd like to sell educational/training materials. I need barcodes, packaging and shipping, etc. and I'm a one-person firm. I also need to learn how to charge and track and report customer-paid sales tax. Suggestions?
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Nov 24, 2016
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Nov 24, 2016
Firstly I would consider why barcodes and does it have to be right now for your business. As your busienss grows it may well need to incorporate them. If you feel you are at that point now, take a look at all the options and there have been some really good suggestions already made but after you have narowed it down to your selection I would stop and take a step backward first.
Will you be setting up something that will support your busiensss as it grows or just creating a system to suit yourself at this moment in time. You ned to aim for somethign that will be flexible enough to incorporate and grow as your business grows.
Nov 22, 2016
I am going through the bar code thing right now. I will agree with the comment that many manufacturers already have bar codes on their products but if that isn't the case or you are creating your own products then for major retailers to handle the product you do need to generate bar codes. There seem to be two ways to do this.
The proper way is to go to www.GS1.ORG and sign up. They are the official organization that coordinates bar codes for use all over the world. The first digits on a bar code are your company information. The next string of digits are the product identifier and the last number is a check number. The cost to get set up to generate bar codes varies on how many bar codes you need. The more you need the shorter your company identifier will be. As an example we signed up to be able to generate 100 bar codes. The cost to do that was $ 700.00 for the first year and $ 150.00 in the following years. The next jump gives you 1000 bar code ability and is $ 2000.00 for the first year. I don't remember the following years costs. You can generate the barcodes yourself on their site which is my project for today. There are places that will generate the graphics for the label and places that will print them for you.
There are also firms that resell bar codes. This is a bit less expensive if you don't need a lot of them but the company identifier will be their company not yours. You can find these on the internet.
As far as packaging material we use Uline but there are many suppliers. Global is another we have used. If you want to use the post office to ship they will give you free boxes for their one price shipping.
As far as shipping goes your options are the Postal Service, UPS and FedEX. We used to use UPS but found they added some charges without telling us and FedEx has been cheaper for us and more straightforward.
Nov 21, 2016
Hi,
Trust you are doing well !
I had listed below solutions which will be useful if you sell through any online marketplace.
1) BarCodes : https://www.xero.com/my/marketplace/app- function/s/inventory/2?orderBy=LISTING_FEATURES
You will find many apps in this link for Barcodes. You can choose according to your business needs.
2) Sales Tax : TaxJar
TaxJar automatically integrated with all the major online market places and it's automatically calculates sales tax dues and also file the sales tax returns. And TaxJar integrate with Xero , so you don't have to worry about anything with regards to liability.
3) Accounting : I suggest Xero for accounting because for below features
a) It is suitable for one person business to mid size company.
b)Because of usability it can be handled by non accountant
c)It has good 3rd party app ecosystem which connects to more than 500 apps.
d)Inventory set up is very easy and you can do the tracking too.
I hope above brief is helpful. If you required any further help please don't hesitate to reach me.
Regards,
Pranjal
Nov 21, 2016
At first you need to ensure a product saelling software, where you can input all the product /service by categories. Then you fixed a rate of the product or service. After that you need to input all the product or service to the software which call systemeticall your stock.
Nov 21, 2016
Hi Rosanna
These days most manufacturers and suppliers will provide products with their own bar-codes so instate of reinventing the wheel you can use the existing bare codes on the products, also suppliers can provide you with a list of their bare codes.
Alternatively your can buy cheap but very effective bare code software that you can print on a thermal printer.
As for keeping track of what tax your customer have paid the best way is to use an accounting package, in Australia we use MYOB but i know Xero is good bit it is a cloud base service.
Both will keep track of sales, revenue, stock, invoices, quotes and taxes.
Another very good program is True ERP to manage purchasing, vendors, customers and has an inbuilt accounting package and will also do bare-coding for you
True ERP is available world wide
if you need help with True ERP email me
hole this help
Regards
Daniel Legrand
Nov 21, 2016
Quickbooks has an inventory option that can provide the setup for third party barcode printer and scanner (they aren't that expensive. On your goods sold you can also track sales tax to charge and collect and will compile for your tax return.
Nov 21, 2016
I can show you how to do this, No Bar Code, No shipping, No packaging Just money for you.
Scott
Nov 21, 2016
You might look into a Dymo label writer for your barcode needs (http://www.dymo.com/en-US). As far as invoicing or sales tax tracking and reporting, I use Quickbooks.
Nov 21, 2016
Rosanna,
First you need to either buy barcodes from people that sell them or sign up with the Uniform Code Council and register your company to obtain barcodes.
Then you need to find a 3PL provider who can perform all these other tasks for you. I can help you walk through these steps.
Good luck,
Regards,
Bruce Rubin
BHR Global Associates, Inc.
Nov 21, 2016
Without ANY doubts, I would sell through Amazon.
I have been selling training materials for 15 years in just about every way you can imagine from 15k a year up to 750k a year with warehouses, contract warehouses, garage warehouses - just about every which way you can imagine. So I have a bit of experience.
Jana mentions Amazon FBA, which we use as well as Amazon Vendor Express. We still ship some of our own materials and are about 50% moved over to Amazon at this point. Amazon FBA has been great.
I am a BIG believer in selling products. We got our first 1.2 million training contract in 2005 as a result of supporting a customer with a $49.95 product.
That being said, it takes commitment and is a bit like an avalanche. You start with something small, it becomes larger and gets a bit out of control and then almost impossible to get out because you have so much time, energy and $ invested in it.
I would absolutely do it again but be prepared.
Nov 21, 2016
Hello Rosanna! Where would you like to ship your products to? Where is your stock located? Have you maybe considered using the Amazon FBA?
Nov 22, 2016
If you want to use FBA Amazon, they will take care of your bar codes and shipping. You just need to check how much a parcel would cost and how big the products have to be.
Ray, thank you. You've given me a lot of very helpful information. I wish you all the best and appreciate your sharing your own experience with me.