Anyone have any experience/comments re import/export business?

> I was aware of this book - my only concern
> was it might be too "americanized"
> if you know what I mean...some time ago, I
> emailed Jim and asked him if his information
> could be applied to the Australian market.
> His reply was along the lines of "It's
> been written primarily for an American
> audience"...

> ...so I wanted to hunt around a bit more
> before I jumped in and parted with any cash.

> You recommend this (and Dennis' stuff too -
> also American) so speaking as a fellow
> Aussie are you confident in saying that this
> information can easily be tailored for the
> Australian market?

Can the info. be tailored to the Aussie market?

Yes.

Go over to the link Jim posted and have a read. That's it in a nutshell in Australia too. Oh sure the departments might go by a different name, but it's pretty much the same.

You can find Freight Forwarders online and in the Yellow pages. They can handle a lot of the stuff for you. Think of them like the post office. What would you do to send a parcel from your place to mine? That's what the frieght forwarders to. Bless their hearts.

I imported some stuff from India. The documents that came with it were quite similar to what Jim has in his export course (I was importing they were exporting). So it is even applicable in India... and they don't speak English like we do.

> Good point and one I have already
> considered. To be honest, I don't have
> *anything* in mind at this point...that's
> why I was hoping that the resource that I
> chose would show me how to this, research
> the market for potential products and so on
> - looking over Jim's sales page again, it
> looks like he covers this - my concern is
> that this information might be too general
> (I need specifics) and again not suitable
> for the Aussie market?
> who did just that......)

Specifics? Like, for this product go here, for that product go there, kinda specifics?

That's unrealistic. For instance, when I last chatted with the British Embassey's trade dept, they gave me the website which lists all the British companies who desire exporting because they have something like 100,000 of them on their list. And they aren't going to do my research work for me. And even if they did, can I honestly expect them to maybe fax or email me info. on say 100 companies?

Such a book would be forever long. And that would be for each country.

> Regarding importing, what you say here is
> exactly what I had in mind. ie. pre-sell
> *before* importing...I definitely would not
> go down the path of importing product unless
> I had a committed buyer who has paid cash
> up-front.

If you're going to only import after you have someone who has paid cash upfront, you will be a long time before importing anything.

Think about what you would be asking them to do... pay you money NOW and then wait three months plus product manufacturing time before they get what they paid for.

Get a filled out order with a small downpayment, sure. But total upfront payment isn't going to happen.

In this regard, take a lesson from the builders of the new apartment building. The ones who pre-sell off the plan. Often, the pre-selling is a condition of the financing - we will only lend you the money to build after you have pre-sold X% of the units. It might not be what the builder wants... but the availability of the money is the important thing. SO he builds, pays interest, and then settles nearly all the units on the same day - or within a short period of time depending on how many he pre-sold.

> Any more info on the sort of products this
> guy in Melbourne was importing?

A variety of products. All related to electronic stores - the kinds of stuff you might find in a Jaycar store.

You might ask.... why don't these people import the stuff themselves? Because they are retailers. They don't have time to source a product and muck around with importing.

Personally, though. I would opt for exporting. Less headache. Less running around finding out the legalities of the product - such as CAS Numbers, and other maybe prohibited items - and so on. Not to mention the cash you will be outlaying. Yes you will get it back if you follow the advice Jim gave in the report he linked to. But you still need it to do a deal. And our weak dollar should make our products more attractive to overseas buyers.

And along the lines of what Jim wrote... a company I helped create operations manuals for used knives in their warehouse imported from England!

Also, speak with the customs department too. They do have a wealth of knowledge and can pretty well tell you what kinds of duty and tax you will pay on certain items.

With regards to Jim's course... if money is an issue... and lets face it, our dollar is pretty well down the crapper when compared to the rest of the world and US and UK stuff is like twice as much, and Jim's course could cost one third of the average Aussie weekly pay packet... then put away $50 a month until you have $150A. Then get it. You would have to wait three months for any shipment to arrive anyway.

Yes we want to jump in and do a big deal yesterday. It's exciting thinking about the possibilities. But it is also fantasy land.

What if I approach 100 stores and they all buy so much stuff I make $10k from each? I'll make $1,000,000 (one million dollars) and be set for life. What if they buy that much stuff every month? I'll make a million bucks a month! Woo Hoo! What if they do better than that? Oh my... my calculator doesn't go that high.

A dose of reality is... what if no one buys or all the people who said they would buy change their mind - even forgoing their goodwill deposit of a few hundred bucks? How will I get rid of the product I have just brought into the country. How will I survive? Even for the three or four months it will take to arrive by ship (because ship is cheaper than air by a mile), while my money is tied up?

There is lots to consider and go through. And fantasy in your head is not one of them.

There's a related story on this board - a search should find it - of Cossman selling (exporting) railyway bits to South America. Yet, the company he worked for did not make any railway bits at all - they just knew a good source.

Hope this helps as well.

Michael Ross


Other people do grunt work you get money