Finding out what the average person considers to be turn-key vendors can sometimes feel like an exercise in futility. There are so many ways to describe someone’s perception of a vendor, it becomes hard to know where to start!
That is why we have decided to do some deconstructing for you here today. By looking at the different qualities that make up the term “turn key”, we will determine exactly what the mean when applied to software vendors.
So let’s get started by defining the word ‘vendor’ before moving onto the rest of this topic. You already know what a vendor is, right?
Definition: A seller or distributor who provides supplies or services needed to complete a given task. In other words, they give you the equipment or tools to perform a specific job.
Now that we have defined the term ‘distributor’, let us move onto the next part of our definition: What does it mean to say that a vendor is ___________?
Vendor meaning: One stop shop
Wow, that was a lot to take in! Before we dive into the different definitions, let us rephrase the entire concept of this article. A vendor that is not as well known as possible probably means more money to you in the long run.
Why? Because you will likely need less introductions to these vendors than if there were lots of reviews and comparisons online.
As mentioned before, one way to identify a vendor that is not a good fit is by looking at the services they offer. If their offering includes anything beyond what we discussed earlier, it is probably not your best option.
I’ve already talked about why domain names are important so I will avoid going into too much detail about that here but just know that if you pick a poor domain name then you will likely have trouble getting people to visit yours!
Similarly, if a vendor offers additional features like website builders or content writers, there may be better options for you. It really depends on what you want to do with your business and how much budget you have available.
In either case though, knowing the basics of SEO is still very important as most vendors advertise this heavily. Even if you choose to go with them later, making sure you understand the fundamentals can help you as an entrepreneur.
Being a turnkey vendor means having additional supplies or equipment that you offer to other vendors for use in their businesses. These are usually sponsored by your company, but more often than not they are sold independently!
Turnkey vendors typically have at least one thing that they offer buyers- something like paper products, social media packages, or an online toolbox. But what really sets them apart is that they are almost always packed with all of the tools needed to run your business effectively!
They may include everything from software such as Office 365 or Google Apps to web hosting, domain names, and professional looking logos. All of these things are gathered into a kit that is easy to access and simple to put to use.
Most of this gear is designed to help you do your job and give you the most effective way to operate your business, which can range anywhere from offering advice about how to improve your website to helping you find the best phone plan for your needs.
As mentioned before, turnkey vendors are companies that have optimized their business model to offer professional services with no overhead or extra expenses. This includes things such as website design, marketing materials, lead generation systems, etc.
The vendor takes care of everything else! The only thing you will need to do is activate the service and start working with them. There may be an additional small fee for using their equipment but nothing majorly significant.
There are many benefits to being a vendor who offers turnkey services. Chief among these is cost effectiveness. By outsourcing some of your most expensive advertising costs, you can devote more resources into other areas of the company.
This also helps prevent internal conflicts of interest because advertisers aren’t necessarily invested in the long-term success of the company they are promoting.
As mentioned before, being a vendor-villa means that you do not have to work hard to make ends meet. You are given access to all of the resources your vendors require to run their businesses, and you get paid for it!
This is very important as most entrepreneurs find themselves doing more with less money. By having free supplies and products, you can keep up with other sellers and be competitive.
Your income may fluctuate from month to month, but staying in the vendor game will reward you in many ways.
Additional rewards include building relationships with others in the handmade community, getting exposure online, and earning additional revenue via Amazon or Etsy sales.
Being an affiliate for a well-known brand can get you started quickly in this business! Most major brands have their own website and platform to recruit affiliates. This way, they do not need to worry about everything else like marketing, hosting, etc. They handle all of that for them.
Most big companies recruit only top performing professionals or “turnkeys” as they call them. These people already have a lot of exposure, so your job is to promote their product or service.
This is very easy to achieve since most products are marketed through social media, advertisements, and/or influencer gurus. If someone more knowledgeable than yourself has done some great advertising for a product, invest time into reading up on it and doing what makes sense to push it forward.
Your affiliation bonus will depend on how much money you bring in per month via sales or referrals.
As mentioned before, being a vendor means there’s always something you can be doing to improve your business. That could mean writing an article or conducting a research project related to your field, finding and applying new tools or techniques to operate your business more efficiently, developing your marketing strategy, etc.
If you don’t take time off to do these things, then it’s very likely that someone else will! Almost every major media outlet has work need done by people who understand content production, designing web pages, running social media accounts, and other similar skills.
By offering those services as trade-offs for consulting or direct employment, you become accessible to all of this great content creation opportunity. You get benefits from it first hand, which is what really matters when it comes to inspiring others about your career.
At the same time, turning into a paid service provider frees up money in your budget to invest in other areas like starting a side hustle, investing in education, or moving into another area of expertise.
As mentioned earlier, what sets turn-key vendors apart from others is their services. Most will only offer you pre-made accounts or applications that match their products – which are usually expensive!
Vendors with turn-key offerings have taken the work out of starting your business online. They handle all the hard parts for you!
They manage your website, domain name, hosting, email, SEO, social media pages and more! All you need to do is add content and connect with people (social media marketing)!
This way you can focus on other things like building your brand and promoting your site.
The what of turnkey vendors depends mostly on whether you are looking to start your own online store, or need help running an existing one. If the first, then make sure you know how to run an ecommerce site before investing in anyone’s services.
If the second, then make sure you have done your research into the vendor you want to work with. You don’t want to invest money and time into opening a website only to find out that the person running it is no longer offering their service for free.
