STARTING AN IMPORT EXPORT BUSINESS SKIN
STARTING AN IMPORT EXPORT BUSINESS PLUS
STARTING AN IMPORT EXPORT BUSINESS FREE

This means, of course, that unlike the EMC, he assumes all the risks (as well as all the profits). Instead, he purchases goods directly from a domestic or foreign manufacturer and then packs, ships and resells the goods on his own.

He has no specific client base, and he doesn't specialize in any one industry or line of products.

STARTING AN IMPORT EXPORT BUSINESS FREE

Import/export merchant: This international entrepreneur is a sort of free agent.

An ETC sometimes takes title to the goods and sometimes works on a commission basis. It identifies what foreign buyers want to spend their money on and then hunts down domestic sources willing to export.

Export trading company (ETC): While an EMC has merchandise to sell and is using its energies to seek out buyers, an ETC attacks the other side of the trading coin.

STARTING AN IMPORT EXPORT BUSINESS PLUS

EMCs usually specialize by product, foreign market or both, and-unless they've taken title-are paid by commission, salary or retainer plus commission. In some cases, the EMC even takes title to the goods, in essence becoming its own distributor. The EMC does it all - hiring dealers, invoicing customers, distributors and representatives handling advertising, marketing and promotions overseeing marking and packaging arranging shipping and sometimes arranging financing or contracting out for a developing a credit card app.

Export management company (EMC): An EMC handles export operations for a domestic company that wants to sell its product overseas but doesn't know how (and perhaps doesn't want to know how).

While you've got your importers and your exporters, there are many variations on the main theme: Related: The 15 Most Popular Online Payment Solutions Types of Import/Export Businessesįirst off, let's take a look at the players. A country with extensive oil resources and the technology of a refinery, for example, will export oil but may need to import clothing. What makes one product less expensive for a nation to manufacture than another? Two factors: resources and technology. Korean toys, Taiwanese electronics and Mexican clothing, to rattle off a few, can often be manufactured or assembled in foreign factories for far less money than if they were made on the domestic front.Īside from cachet items, countries typically export goods and services that they can produce inexpensively and import those that are produced more efficiently somewhere else.

Price: Some products are cheaper when brought in from out of the country.

Even when you can make it at home, it all seems classier when it comes from distant shores. Think Scandinavian furniture, German beer, French perfume, Egyptian cotton.

Cachet: A lot of things, like caviar and champagne, pack more cachet, more of an 'image,' if they're imported rather than home-grown.

Bananas in Alaska, for example, mahogany lumber in Maine, or Ball Park franks in France.

Availability: There are some things you just can't grow or make in your home country.

Why are imports such big business in the United States and around the world? There are lots of reasons, but the three main ones boil down to: Related: The 15 Most Popular Online Payment Solutions Which means that the other 96 percent of exporters-the lion's share are small outfits like yours wil be-when you're new, at least. Department of Commerce, the big guys make up only about 4 percent of all exporters. And these products are bought, sold, represented and distributed somewhere in the world on a daily basis.īut the import/export field is not the sole purview of the conglomerate corporate trader, according to the U.S. Everything from beverages to commodes-and a staggering list of other products you might never imagine as global merchandise-are fair game for the savvy trader.

In one year alone, American companies exported $772 billion in merchandise to more than 150 foreign countries. It's big business these days-to the tune of an annual $1.2 trillion in goods, according to the U.S.

STARTING AN IMPORT EXPORT BUSINESS SKIN

Importing is not just for those lone footloose adventurer types who survive by their wits and the skin of their teeth. More articles on Import/Export businesses »

Starting an import export business