Starting a promo distributorship in 2026
Starting a promo distributorship in 2026 is cheaper and less risky than most people assume. Suppliers carry the inventory, decoration partners do the production, and a single laptop runs the whole operation. The barrier is not capital. It is the first ten customers and the systems to keep them.
Week one: the registrations
Form an LLC. Get an EIN. Open a business checking account. Apply for ASI and PPAI memberships if you want supplier-side credibility (most suppliers will sell to you without a membership but ASI numbers help). Get a state resale certificate so you can buy from suppliers tax-free for resale. Pick a domain and email.
Weeks two and three: the catalog
Subscribe to SAGE Connect (about $400 a year for the entry tier with API access). Set up DECADE.promo on the free tier, paste your SAGE credentials in. Adopt 30 to 50 starter products covering the main categories: drinkware, apparel, bags, writing instruments, awards. Add your own photography for the items you sell most.
Month two: the first ten customers
Old colleagues, family-owned businesses you already know, the chamber of commerce. Most distributors start with five orders from people they already have a relationship with. Use those orders to debug your workflow. The eleventh customer is the first one you sold cold.
Month three onward: the system
Process every order through the same workflow: quote, approve, PO, proof, production, shipping, invoice, survey. The discipline of running the same workflow every time is what separates a hobby from a business.
What we built differently in DECADE.promo
Unlimited AI on the GOAT plan
AI mockups, Product Capture (browser-extension AI scraping of supplier sites), AI vectorization, and AI image upscale - all unlimited on one flat-price tier. No credit metering, no per-feature add-ons.
AI Product Capture extension
Browse any supplier website - SAGE, Hit Promo, Koozie Group, anywhere - click the browser extension, and our AI reads the page. SKUs, pricing tiers, setup fees, colors, lead times, and images are extracted in seconds and import directly to your products catalog.
Tightly integrated with SAGE
Bring your own SAGE Connect subscription. Search, adopt products, and pull pricing tiers without leaving DECADE.promo. Sales decks, quotes, and POs reuse the SAGE data automatically.
Transparent pricing
Free tier for solo distributors, flat per-distributor pricing for teams, and no per-seat tax. Customers always free. Suppliers always free.
One platform. Two free accounts. One public layer for everyone else.
The tool you’re using is one feature in a much bigger app. Here’s the rest, by which side of the order you’re on.
- Every public tool on this site
- 5 conversions a day per IP
- One file at a time
- Output dropped after the request
- No account, no nag
- Every public tool, no rate limit
- Batch 10 files at once
- 30-day download history
- AI vectorization (the $50-redraw replacement)
- AI mockup generator, white-label proofs
- SAGE catalog, 1M+ products
- Quotes, POs, invoices, projects
- Storefront under your brand
- Blind-ship POs to suppliers
- Saved thread palettes per customer
- Email automation for every status
- Every public tool, no rate limit
- Every order in one place
- Approve proofs without email tag
- Two-click reorder
- Saved shipping + tax-exempt files
- Real-time status pings
- See and pay invoices online
- Message your distributor inside the app
- Always free. No card.
See it in your workflow
Free tier, no credit card, no contract. Start with one project and decide from there.