In today's ever-evolving wellness industry, generating passive income is a game-changer. Whether you're an acupuncturist or an esthetician, incorporating product sales into your practice can boost your revenue without additional hands-on work. You’ve already built up your audience and your clients trust you. Product sales is another way that you get to benefit from the hard work you’ve already put in. TOMA offers two different ways of supporting your clients with at-home skincare, both with little to no investment or risk on your part. Let’s explore how you can leverage these strategies to grow your business.
Traditional Retail
TOMA offers a very low-risk solution
A traditional retail model involves purchasing products at wholesale prices (typically 50% off of retail) and selling them at retail prices to your clients. Often times the wholesale company puts a minimum dollar purchase on this relationship - for example you must buy a certain number of products to qualify for this or your opening order needs to be $X. This model is particularly effective for wellness products, where clients trust your expertise and recommendations and want "instant gratification" of leaving your treatment room with something to continue their at-home care. At TOMA, we have a standing 50% wholesale discount for all TOMA partners and no minimum purchase.
Benefits of Retail
Adding retail products to your practice offers several advantages:
- Additional Revenue Stream: Boost your income by selling products you already believe in and recommend.
- Client Trust: Clients prefer buying products directly from their trusted practitioners rather than from unknown sources.
- Big gross profit: Your wholesale price is 50% off of the retail resale price. Buy a product at $24 and sell it for $48. That's 100% mark-up and it adds up quickly!
Setting Up for Retail Resale
Registering Your Business
Reselling products means you have to collect taxes, which usually involves your state. Check to see if it is necessary to register your business in your state and what you need to do to collect and pay sales tax:
- Business Registration: Requirements and registration can typically be found on your state’s tax information website.
- Sales & Use Number: Obtain a sales and use tax number, allowing you to collect sales tax on the products you sell. This sounds hard, but is actually very easy and can often be done with a few mouse clicks.
Is this right for me?
Sales tax aside, this is a very straightforward, low-risk way of earning extra income and feeling confident your clients go home with the safest, most effective skincare. Even though we have no minimums, sales tax registration and payment of the tax to the state is essential to avoid tax issues, so often we find this the best choice for practitioners who sell enough to make the tax process "worth it." That is a very objective call on your part, but generally we think you are ready to resale products when your total monthly retail sales projection (not just TOMA) is $300+. Paying the sales tax to the state takes about 10 minutes every quarter, but is an extra step you need to be prepared to do.
TOMA Affiliate Commissions
What does it mean to be an affiliate?
Affiliate marketing is a business model in which you earn a commission for promoting and selling products from other companies. You likely come across examples of affiliate marketing on a daily basis through social media, product review sites, promo code websites like RetailMeNot and Honey, and email marketing. It's a great way to generate passive income with minimal effort. And it’s a great way to connect your clientele with products you believe in without having to worry about holding inventory in stock and paying retail tax to your state.
Benefits of Affiliate Marketing
- Passive Income: Earn money without the need to manage inventory. Your clients buy from TOMA and that sale is credited to you, earning you 10% in cash. One esthetician increased her service earnings by 20% and earned $1,205 in commissions within a month by joining our affiliate program!
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Easy tracking: Our software makes affiliate marketing super easy. You get a link that your clients use to purchase off of the TOMA website that tracks the sale and gives you credit.
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Earn commissions within your professional networks: We offer affiliate commissions when your colleagues take TOMA courses and buy equipment, treatment room products, and wholesale for resale. This can add up to BIG commissions for you spreading the word about TOMA to other professionals.
- Easy payout: You get monthly earnings through Zelle or Venmo automatically.
How It Works
You have a client or a colleague to whom you recommend and promote products, and provide that audience with a specific link. Your link, which can be customized, tracks purchasers on the backend through cookies and has a unique identification token linked to your affiliate account. They make the purchase; you get the credit and the commission. It’s that simple!
Understanding Cookies
We all understand cookies in the context of fresh-baked deliciousness you can dip into a cold glass of oat milk. In affiliate marketing, cookies are less tasty and more important. Cookies are small data files stored on a user’s computer that track their activity. In affiliate marketing, cookies track when a client clicks your affiliate link and makes a purchase, ensuring you get credited for the sale. As an affiliate marketer, you do not need to become an expert on cookies or anything technical, for that matter. All you need to know is that they've been working in the background to give you credit for your referrals.
Making Sure You Get the Credit
Using your link is the only way for us to track the saleTo maximize your affiliate marketing success, your links need to be easily accessible to clients for purchases. Therefore communicating electronically is the only way to make these sales:
- Text Messages: Send you affiliate link via text messages for direct access.
- Emails: Include links in marketing and other client emails.
- QR Code: Use a QR code in your office for easy scanning and access.
- Linktree: Utilize Linktree or similar tools in Instagram to manage and share links.
Important fact: If your client opens your unique link on their computer, gets distracted and later completes the purchase on their phone, their purchase will not be tracked unless they went back to your original link on their cell phone. We find our most successful affiliates are communicating electronically on a regular basis with their link in their correspondence.
A Little More on Affiliate Marketing
Distinguishing from a MLM
It may be important to differentiate between affiliate marketing and multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes. Affiliate marketing focuses on selling products and earning commissions, whereas MLM often involves recruiting others to join a network, which could be ethically and financially problematic. Affiliate marketing simply rewards you for your referral to our business.
Ethical Considerations
Transparency and ethical practices are key. Always disclose affiliate relationships and ensure the products you promote genuinely benefit your clients.
Get Started Today
The first step in becoming an affiliate is to become a TOMA Partner so that you yourself can access generous practitioner discounts on products and equipment. TOMA Partners can apply to be an affiliate here and start earning commissions today. Learn more about that process in the you tube video above.
Have additional questions? Schedule a complimentary 1:1 call with Marla to have your affiliate and retail questions answered.
