The basic ingredients of a nappy cake are relatively easy to buy in bulk at reasonable prices, but the items that really make a nappy cake special can be very difficult to find at realistic prices.

If we had to pay retail prices for everything in the cakes, we’d have to sell them for 50% more than we do now, just to make any sort of profit at all. I don’t imagine many people would be interested in my products if they could make them themselves for a substantial saving. Obviously, I had to find my products cheaper.

I turned to the internet, and as long as you know specifically what you want, it generally isn’t all that hard to find what you are looking for. Getting it, on the other hand, is another matter altogether.

If you’re like me, when you’re starting a business, you don’t have a whole load of spare cash laying around. I knew I’d need some stock, but I also knew I wouldn’t be able to buy months worth at once. Unfortunately, most suppliers seem to think small orders are not worth the effort to bother with, and they often have high minimum order values, anywhere from $200-$2000!

If everything you need is coming from one supplier, a $500 minimum order might be perfectly fine, but we need items from many differing suppliers and it becomes unrealistic very quickly. I personally don’t understand why these companies need us to place such big orders – I’m grateful for every order I get, big or small.

The only real solution I could come up with was to seek out the smaller distributors who will accept smaller orders. Although their prices aren’t as good as the big companies, at least I could make some profit and still sell my products at reasonable prices. I hope as I get more turnover, I’ll be able to place bigger orders and get better pricing, so I’ll make more profit, but time will tell I guess.

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