The greatest investments we can make are not monetary but are investments in knowledge. These types of investments are actions that prepare us for the future by equipping us with better decision making processes.
Maybe in the past, you made a decision that didn’t pan out how you thought it would. You bought too much inventory, had a business that didn’t work out, or your customers weren’t as interested as you thought they would be.
An investment recovery program can help you liquidate your remaining assets to reduce your loss. But how can you find the right investment recovery program for you?
Read on to invest in your knowledge.
What Are Investment Recovery Programs?
These programs work by helping you to get rid of the stuff you have left over that you don’t need. Think of it like if Goodwill or the Salvation Army wrote you a check any time you dropped something off.
Investment recovery programs pay you for your goods and then turn around and find buyers who are willing to take it into their inventory. Often your goods will be resold at auctions, in online stores, or broken down for scraps.
Programs like this need to turn a profit too, so your goods are sold at prices higher than the program bought them from you.
Why Do I Need An Investment Recovery Program?
Since your goods are just getting resold for a profit at auctions or online stores, it makes sense to ask why in the world you don’t just sell your junk yourself.
But there are several benefits of investment recovery programs that most people won’t have on their own:
Ease of Transaction
Sure, you could sell your stuff on your own. But if you could sell your inventory on your own without any problems, you’d have already done so.
Investment recovery programs make it easy to get rid of huge swaths of inventory. You won’t need to find the right buyers or price your inventory out. You don’t have to sit around waiting for sales.
These programs make it easy to get rid of your stuff so you can get rid of the most underrated expense in all of business: opportunity cost.
Opportunity Cost
If you do have warehouses full of inventory that you can’t sell, you aren’t just missing out on money. You’re missing out on time. Every second you spend with that warehouse full of junk is one less second you’re spending developing new and exciting products for the market.
Your inventory is costing you money, space, and time. This is called opportunity cost. It means that even if you sell your inventory at a loss, you can apply that money to your honed business skills to develop new products and find new raving customers.
Once your useless inventory is eliminated, you can refill that space and time with the product that your next customers want and need. Manufacture piles of golf clubs, store boxes worth of designer shades, and shop for telecommunication equipment. The world awaits your future products.
Find the Right Investment Recovery Program
The right investment recovery program can be the difference between business failure and repositioning for a better market. It’s important to pick the right one for you.
Here are a few tips:
Find a Company For Your Niche
Not all investment recovery programs take all sorts of products. Some will specialize in metals, designer goods, clothes, or nuclear parts (just probably not all at once).
Finding the company that’s right for you will involve you taking a deep dive into their brand. Spend a few minutes browsing their website, use their contact page, and spend time talking with the program to see if it’s right for your business.
Even if a company has an appetite for your inventory and is willing to buy it, you’ll need to look at this like a partnership. Can you see yourself working with this company? Negotiating with them and walking away happy?
Once you’ve found a company that will take your stuff and that you get along with, it’s time to take a look at what you have to offer.
Value Your Goods
You’re going to be taking a look at a few values here:
- Your cost basis is what you paid for all of the inventory
- The market value of your inventory is what your buyers would pay for it if you sold everything at full price
- How much you’ll take for your inventory will consist of an ideal number you want as well as a bottom dollar that you would sell for
In a perfect world, you would have lots of customers for all of your products. That’s not the case, so it’s important to know what the goods are worth since they aren’t being sold and have that opportunity cost we mentioned earlier.
Knowing your cost basis helps you know what you will take for your inventory. Knowing the market value of the goods can help you in the negotiation phase of the sale (keep reading for our tips on that). Whatever the cost basis and market value of your goods would be, the all-important number is what you’ll take for your goods.
And this is where we get into the negotiation.
Negotiate
Have a starting point that you’d like to get and make this starting point high. You will be haggling down to a middle ground, so it’s important to start with leverage.
Also have a bottom dollar number. This is the “How much you’ll take for it” number. It is your absolute minimum and under no circumstances can you go below it.
The goal of the negotiation is to sell your goods for more than your cost basis. Since you’re the one trying to get rid of your inventory (and the investment recovery program knows this), then you may have to settle for a negative return on investment.
There are a lot of little tricks you can do to make the negotiation better for you. Be likeable, friendly, and communicate well.
If all else fails, don’t be afraid to try another company. There are several programs out there. Finding the right one can be the difference between a negative return on investment and coming out of this with a little cash.
Keep Investing In Knowledge
The right investment recovery programs for you are out there. It may take a little digging, but you can find them. Looking for more personal finance tips and information? Make sure to check out our blog where you can find all that and more!
