Business Question

Starting up a marble business.

What's form is it better to import it in, slab or tile?

Also what sells more?

Those are the right questions to ask before you start a marble business.

Do you know the answer to the questions?

Um I would think slab....I have tile granite counters and they're great and just as functional but most people want slabs..

Tile guy here.

My good friend and business partner is in the countertop business. I know just about everything there is to know about countertops and tile.

I can answer pretty much whatever you want to know.

As for your first question, you are way better off getting in the countertop business and bringing in slabs.

What's your previous experience in Marble?

Thanks for the input!

I don't have too much experience with marble but I'm looking to import them and sell it on the market.

I'm guessing you can also sell slabs to tile makers?

Also what's your experience in marble?

Is there a way to keep in contact with you?

You don't want to be in the tile business. There's 3rd worlders mining that shit, stamping it into tiles, then shipping it here. You will never be able to compete with their prices.

Countertops are another story, plenty of money to be made there. Granite and Marble slabs are mined then shipped in slabs to warehouses where they have machines and equipment to cut out and polish massive slabs that can then be installed into people's homes.

So you need a warehouse and the equipment to cut and polish the stone, and a staff to do the work. It's profitable cause the marble and granite is so cheap, but expensive to have the warehouse and the equipment to prepare the stone.

Installation is probably your best bet, or a good place to start. Look at a countertop company and ask if you can work for them for a while.

I've worked with every kind of marble tile and countertop there is. Installation of the tiles, and polishing of the countertops.

give me an email address and I'll email you.

Thanks for the professional advice, it is greatly appreciated.

My friend and I are starting up this business and he's importing the marble from his home country for super cheap. He also has a large quantity and selection (colours/styles) of marble to choose from. I've relayed the information back to him in terms of choosing slab.

He also wants to sell the stock of marble slabs he imports to clients for some serious cash. Where would he sell it to? Where would he find his clients?

In terms of warehouse and equipment, I believe he has that already.

He's not looking into the installation part, from what I at least know.

I'll give you an email in a bit.

Okay, so what does your friend need you for?

It sounds like he has all the pieces he just needs to get customers?

Well assuming you guys don't do the installation, then your only customers will be the countertop installers. Usually every major suburban area has at least 20 and closer to 100 people/companies that install countertops. Those people really only care about one thing: price. As long as the stone is decent quality and not too many chips or cracks, they will just buy the lowest price stone.

So you would be contacting all those people and pitching them.

That's exactly my role in his business.

I'm a custom broker for him.

I'll be trying to find him clients, contacting them, setting up a business meet and then selling them the marble.

Who else would I be selling to? I was thinking the people who cut the marble into tile?

Any other tips and suggestions?

Okay now it makes sense.

Well you'll just be knocking on a lot of doors and calling a lot of people.

People you want to meet:
>builders
>contractors
>plumbers
>carpenters
>cabinet people
>flooring people
and most importantly:
>countertop installers

You need some business cards and flyers if you don't already. Find out what these people are paying per sq/ft for granite or marble then undercut them. Get as many countertop installers to sign with you as possible.

If you can show them the shop, show them the stone ready to go, and can beat the current price they are paying, they'll buy from you.

I know 90% of the installers have a billboard. Not sure if they would work for you as a supplier but I might look into it.

Not saying you can't make money with tiles, but I doubt it. Like I said above it's already being shipped in ready to go mega cheap. The Counters on the other hand have to be cut and polished here, and then sold to the installers, and that's where the money comes in. The margins are crazy.

I think on the typical counter job my buddy will do a one day install for a whole kitchen and profit about 1000 bucks.

The only risks to stone are: cracks, chips, and the guys dropping the stone on the way into the home.

Is there an easy way to find these companies and people?

Email me at [email protected]

One more thing, I would not be calling these people.

Just show up. Have you done door to door?

Just walk in, "hey I'm _______ with _______ stone company. We supply quality marble and granite at low prices. Here's some info on our company. Give us a try some time I think we can get you a better deal on stone".

Boom go from there.

I got to get to bed. I'll email you tomorrow.

What state you in?

Gotcha, wrote all that down.

That is a lot of people. Is there a faster way to do that, especially big business clients? Not trying to knock on doors all day. I may be also travelling across the province or the country to get big sales with big clients.

I would be able to show them samples and pictures for sure.

When we sell them the slabs, do our company polish it and cut them or the people we sell it to does it?

You can make millions in 6 months to a year easily.

I live in Canada.

Email me to that email because its a 20 minute expiry email. From there I can have your legit email and email you from my legit email.

Yea I have done door to door.

But I'm looking for big business clients. I'm great interviews and talking with people.

>[email protected]

okay sent.

I'll tty tomorrow.

Sent

How about you do some fucking real research instead of asking a bunch of Antarctican whale semen harvesters how to build a supercomputer.

Do some fucking research.
This doesn't count.

This can be a form of research.

Thanks fuck face :)

this is probably answered somewhere here, but is there an infographic or something on how to build your credit score quickly? I could've sworn that I saw one on here a few years ago. Pic unrelated

Bump

Just use faux marble/granite.

I just got granite installed, didn't even consider tile. The place I went to was a fabricator, so they had the slabs in the back and cut them themselves. They beat the corporate price (Cabinets and More) by a few hundred dollars for a nice stone.

Seemed like a quick $1300 for them. I'm sure cutting is pretty quick, and the install was half a day or less.

If you can't even answer this yourself, what makes you think you can successfully operate a marble business?

Uh no. Nothing says "don't buy me" like a home that does not have real stone counters.

pics of the Granite?

Yeah my buddy in countertops said he can make $1k in a single work day.

An UHP water jet likely costs close to $100k the warehouse, trucks, hoists, forklift are expensive too. Probably looking at $200k conservatively.
You might not have to pay all of that upfront, but the biggest obstacle still remains startup cost.

Which country are you buying the stone from?
Just out of curiosity.

My family is in real estate development and for a while we imported marble and terracotta tile from Italy and Spain for use in our projects, and for a very short time even owned a marble quarry in Spain. The quarry was never in operation though.