Subscribe to our newsletter above we will be delving deeper into starting a business with little to no money
A broker or agent is essentially a middleman that connects buyers and sellers. Think of it as a salesperson working on commission only. That alone should let you think of ideas: if you can’t find a job maybe work on commission only for companies that don’t want to add more bloat to the payroll. Any company sitting with stock will be open to this with a few caveats (don’t look dodgy leave the Uzzi hoodie, floppy hat and Converse All Stars at home).
In this business there are informal (anyone can sell on commission), semi-formal (loose relationships) and formal relationships (broker has a legal mandate from seller)
Part of Starting a business in 2024 with little to nothing
Let’s look at broker / agent ideas you can start right now.
But first building trust. Most of phsicaly broker/agent trading requires an element of trust, the seller or owner of goods must trust you. Why? Because you are going to be working with them in one or another capacity, you might be taking interested parties to their premises. In other cases they might front your product and give you a deferred payment option, 30 or 60 day or whenever you get paid. Sometimes they might give you a more flexible credit line to put together multiple deals. But there will be trust involved. Which is why first impressions matters. In a country like SA, where people have been divided by race or where different religions work together, the colour of your skin or religion may advantage or disadvantage you as people are more likely if help their own “kind”. If may not be obvious at first but I can assure you, most people will judge you by your race their first time they see you.
But first broker agent industries
There are industries, in which they model is the predominant model. Yes, some of them take ownership of the goods (pay for it up front). But not all. Let’s look at the most common one: commodity traders: most commodity traders don’t own farms or mines or plantations. They simply connect the buyer and seller. Why money is often required here is what they do in terms of adding value is “derisking”. The seller want to relinquish responsibility the moment it leaves their gate, the seller wants it to magically end up on their shop floor so the broker / agent / trader takes responsibility of the logistics. The seller and buyer don’t want to worry about trucks getting hijacked and other drama so the trader “derisks” the both of them, this you often need some money for.
Common broker businesses in SA
The most common broker / agent business in SA is probably property. Accredit agent finds someone willing to sell a property, put it on Property24, PrivateProperty or both and twiddles their thumbs waiting for interested parties to show the property to. Interested party makes offer, seller accepts signs offer to purchase and if the seller has the money or gets a bond then the matter is send to an attorney/conveyencer. Agent gets their cut (usually around 5%). The thing is you can be a sub-agent. You do not need accreditation. You can work with an accredit agent, sourcing sellers and then split the commission 50/50 the commission is high enough to make even a 2% commission worthwhile (that is R20 000 per R1m).
I have spoken before of vehicles. Trucks for example it is common for multiple agents to be repping the same trucks especially on the coal belt where Eskom contracts flow like gravy.
Specialised niche broking
Other industries in SA where brokering is prevalent is specialised and niche industries. Such as logistics, print and graphics equipment etc.
Starting at the bottom
I will look at the lowest point I started to get the creative juices flowing. As a teenager I used to sell odds and ends that was left over from the auctions of a well-known auctioneer. Only I did not have the money to take ownership so he allowed me to find buyers and bring people to his premises to buy the items. These were the stuff left over once the auction was over and the main assets, shop fittings and shelving was sold and it wasn’t worth his time. For example he had VHS tapes left over from a video shop liquidation and I advertised in the classifieds (with my markup attached) and the owner of a videoshop came, and I took him to the premises, I gave the auctioneer what he charged me and took my cut.
I had also sold printing machines on behalf of a guy who bought them on auctions, he didn’t like dealing with classified enquiries, so I would handle that, once a serious buyer makes contact I take them to the premises to conclude the sale. In both instances trust was established first.
Subscribe to our newsletter below we will be delving deeper into starting a business with little to no money
