Is SMC For Me?

I just got off the phone with my friend - the one who's in the process of starting a business - and I got my super businesswoman update from her. It's really interesting to me to watch her try to build something new from the ground up, and I'm always happy to give her advice or do a little research for her when she needs it.

Today she was telling me about a new avenue that she's exploring as a possibility for her business. It's called Specialty Merchandise Corporation or SMC. Basically, SMC has wholesale quantities of specialty products, and you can create your own catalog (and/or web) based business to sell them. SMC handles the warehousing and drop-shipping, so you can just focus on the sales and marketing side of things. This isn't something that my friend wants to do right away, but she's looking at it as sort of a "phase two" option for when she's ready to expand into other types of related products.

Of course I've heard of businesses like this before, but never really looked into it closely, so I've been doing a little research since I talked to my friend. From looking at this SMC corp review, it definitely seems like a concept that has potential if done right. It does cost money to join, but there are different levels of membership so it seems like the type of thing where you could start at a level that you were comfortable with. And if you stick to selling online, you won't have many other costs to deal with. Of course, there are some SMC complaints out there too, and while some are valid it also seems like some stem from people who just weren't cut out for this type of business in the first place. It's definitely an intriguing concept for anyone who wants to be their own boss.