Trade suppliers?

I am looking for some trade suppliers of PC hardware and components. Currently I rely on companies such as Scan and Lambdatek, the latter of which dropships from companies like Computer2000.

I have contacted Computer2000 and their requirement is you are VAT registered, but they will allow sole traders. I have a meeting with my accountant on Wednesday to go over the benefits and drawbacks of registering for VAT.

I have looked around for other trade suppliers who offer a wide range of products but I cannot find any. Many claim to be trade suppliers but their prices are equal to or often over the cheapest retail price.

Does anyone on here have companies they can recommend? All local self employed professionals I know such as carpet fitters and electricians say that parts should be the easiest money you make (20% immediately) and someone I know who is opening a bike shop said the margins are 30-40% on a lot of top end bikes. I am charging little or nothing over cost price even though I spend my time working out which hardware is compatible, does the best job, and where's cheapest to buy from, ordering and receiving.

Cheers

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Originally Posted by evilsatan

I am looking for some trade suppliers of PC hardware and components. Currently I rely on companies such as Scan and Lambdatek, the latter of which dropships from companies like Computer2000.

I have contacted Computer2000 and their requirement is you are VAT registered, but they will allow sole traders. I have a meeting with my accountant on Wednesday to go over the benefits and drawbacks of registering for VAT.

I have looked around for other trade suppliers who offer a wide range of products but I cannot find any. Many claim to be trade suppliers but their prices are equal to or often over the cheapest retail price.

Does anyone on here have companies they can recommend? All local self employed professionals I know such as carpet fitters and electricians say that parts should be the easiest money you make (20% immediately) and someone I know who is opening a bike shop said the margins are 30-40% on a lot of top end bikes. I am charging little or nothing over cost price even though I spend my time working out which hardware is compatible, does the best job, and where's cheapest to buy from, ordering and receiving.

Cheers

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PC hardware has some of the tightest margins in retail. You'll never get rich selling that stuff, not unless you've got massive buying power. The only way to make any money in that game is in niche areas, but I would imagine those opportunities are very few and far between.

I work for Insight and I would recommend going to distribution as the extra margin makes a huge difference.

Here are some distributors you could contact:
Bell Micro
C2000
Ingram Micro
Interface
ETC
MicroP
Northamber
Simms
Westcoast

Hopefully that list of a few will help.

As a side note I would recommend adding software licensing for small businesses as another string to your bow and that would allow you to make some extra margin with no cost or stock.

Dunno about the trade side but I use savastore.com and rlsupplies.co.uk - As has been said the margins are tight these days but those two are the cheapest retail places and may be able to offer you trade/wholesale prices if you speak to them. savastore is based in Luton and rlsupplies is in Watford.

Sorry I should have been more clear. I don't intend to open a component store, it is just so I can get parts cheaper than retail for custom builds etc. If I can reduce costs even slightly that would help as I currently guarantee to beat any like for like quote.

DONT go vat registered....it's a feckin nightmare!

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Originally Posted by TheThingIs

DONT go vat registered....it's a feckin nightmare!

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No reasonwhy it should be a nightmare. As to whether you want to be (assuming you aren't over the £70k threshold) it really depends on your customers - if they are other registered businesses then yes, if it's Joe Public then no as you basically lose the vat % on your profit margin.

A lot to mull over, will speak to some of my customers. I deal with businesses and end users so I will see if the businesses are VAT registered.

VAT is ok so long as you have an accountant to make it work with the added advantage is everything becomes 17.5% cheaper.

I would recommend VIP. http://www.vip-computers.com/uk/

I have have used them for more than 15 years.

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Originally Posted by JonEp

VAT is ok so long as you have an accountant to make it work with the added advantage is everything becomes 17.5% cheaper.

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But your income also drops if you are dealing with non registered customers - they will be prepared to pay a price for something, whether that includes vat is not their concern as they can't reclaim it so if you charge £50 for doing something you would lose 14.89%.

If you deal with vat registered customers then the reverse is true as if you aren't registered any input tax that you can't reclaim you have to build in to your sales price and pass on to your customer which makes you more expensive.

I find Enta Tech very good for component pricing, also Target Components aren't too bad. Ingram and C2K are ok, but Enta always seem to be a few percent cheaper

I've been recommended yoyotech but they didn't want to open an account when I called and they seemed to prefer the idea of collection to delivery which was a dealbreaker for me.

Gem distribution are worth considering. I get cost, but very rarely is it significantly cheaper than retail. So much so, I generally do not use it, and use HUKD to find out whats been on offer recently.

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Originally Posted by gunner

Gem distribution are worth considering. I get cost, but very rarely is it significantly cheaper than retail. So much so, I generally do not use it, and use HUKD to find out whats been on offer recently.

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I thought Gem were more gaming consoles than components, will make sure I check them out mate!

we use micro p
ingram micro
northamber
plus others

as others are saying.not much of a margin.tough bussines especialy these days.
bin at this for 20 years.gone from a turn over of 1.5 mill a year to less a quarter of that.

I have managed to get trade accounts with almost all the mentioned companies, thanks to everyone who helped. As members said above the margins just aren't there. I can get almost all components cheaper from retail stores such as eBuyer/Dabs/Aria etc. I was just trying to cut costs but it doesn't seem possible with hardware.

I have just signed up as a Netgear partner which is waiting approval and I am now a basic Microsoft partner. I have yet to look at these seriously to see the benefits but I know both have training programmes to help keep up with new tech, especially Microsofts major cloud based development.