Lol, nowhere near up and running mate, just decided to do it the other day.
I build PC's for a hobby, nothing special, just a bit of pocket money, so decided the other day to have a go at advertising and such, see if I can get a nice second income.
It is mainly sourcing my goods from online etailers to build ready made computers to sell local to people who are not really into the internet as much as peeps like us. (Basically those who don't know about eBuyer, Scan, Overclockers and such, or those who can't build their own.) Then I would be providing the build service for a small premium. The prices of ready built computers will be close to buying separate, maybe £35 added or so for the fully built system with the peace of mind that I will give the full warranty on the products, unlike online etailers who only give you 30 days then tell you to take it up with the manufacturer. I would accept the component back and replace it immediately with a brand new one, I would then take it up with the manufacturer, saving my customers all the hassle. As long as I can beat places like PCWorld then I should be able to give out a good sales pitch.
After all customer satisfaction is what makes a business, especially if it is locally targeted.
I know my mate does have an account with some kind of company where he usually gets his items a good 10% less than what I can, so I may well look into that to try and bring costs down and give me an edge when I do eventually get the website up and running.
Eventually if things do look good and I get a decent amount of savings I could start to target manufacturers for bulk buying direct, say maybe 10-15 items at a time, this way I can make further savings. If this fails (i.e. I have stock left over and the prices drop below what I paid for them) then I have not lost anything other than profits, I will not be in debt thus leaving me to carry on the way I was.
Anyway it all sound good in theory mate, but putting it all into practice is another matter altogether. But I am willing to give it a go as it is what I enjoy doing.