I frequently hear from people looking for advice on how to get started in the retail business with a minimum of expense and difficulty. However, the problem is expense and difficulty are precisely the reasons that everyone doesn’t already have a business and so leaving room for those willing to put up the cash and put up with the trouble of launching and maintaining a retail business.

That being said there are ways to get around some of the problems and at least reduce the costs of getting started. There are growing numbers of wholesalers that are doing their best to encourage and support small retail businesses in the belief that by helping others succeed they will be helping themselves as well.

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A few years ago I was watching one of those 1960s era Bass and Rankin Christmas specials on television with my son. You know the ones I’m talking about, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” and “The Little Drummer Boy” are both examples. They made all of the strange half puppet half animation holiday specials we see every year.

As a song featuring the activities of Santa’s Workshop played on the screen my teenage son told me how he figured out there was no Santa Claus. It was when he realized that no quaint tiny hammer wielding elf-powered toyshop was responsible for all the computerized high tech toys he found under the tree. Also technology is so easily identifiable by its brand name. Did Santa have some kind of deal Microsoft?
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