I would like to talk to someone who knows anything about exporting goods from the U.S. to a foreign nation and importing goods from that nation back home to the U.S.? Can anyone help?
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During the time I was an importer....about 30 years...I had the best results with Asia. Great profit margins. Go there. I would suggest Taiwan... they have a safe banking system and a rule of law. They use their "cousins" in Mainland China as the factory floor. You can use Taiwan for the final quality control. What you do not want to do is send an un revocable letter of credit to an OEM you have never met...just on the Internet...and get a container full of junk in Long Beach, CA. Take your pick: Electronics, hand tools, spotting scopes, sun glasses. All you got to do is work on a business plan that makes you the middle man on what people are already buying. Ports and customs agents are plentiful...make sure to negotiate hard with everyone. Your respected for that in the International market. Contact direct for more info.
Completing a business plan will tell you if your idea is viable. In the business plan, you need to determine target market, retail outlets, wholesale margins, cost of goods and services and the like.
A walk through your local grocery store, ABC store, or Wal-mart may help you realize that the margins on the products you mentioned are very small.
Your Q-1 - "Is it possible?" Yes.
Q-2 - A government embassy has little to do with your proposal.
In general, you would hire an attorney to form corporations or other legal entities that provides shelter for your liability in both countries. In other words, you don't want to run this as a "DBA". Once your legal taxable entities are formed, you contract with carriers (ie. shipping transport companies) to accept your shipments and provide an acceptable service level (means you want your good delivered in an acceptable time, not years from when you tendered them for transport).
Third-world countries do not have the disposable income that the US population has. What would be an easy impulse buy here in US would not fly in Chile given the fact that 98 percent of the population lives hand-to-mouth, and not very well at that. In the US, even our poorest people have disposable incomes, just look at all the population on government assistance that have color TVs , smart phones, and prescription drugs that they dont pay for out of their own pocket. In third-world countries, this is not the case, their government does not subsidize lifestyles like we US tax payers do.
When you take your tour of the grocery store here for wine inventory, pay attention to the dust on the bottles. The rate of inventory turn-over for that product is very very very slow.
Do your business plan before you do anything else.
Hi David. I have experience from the perspective of a trade compliance guy with the federal government (formerly US Customs Service) and a short run with a dot.com startup that focused on facilitating exports to South America. In that last private sector job, I became aware of the huge duties levied on imported goods by most of the governments in Latin America, and pretty much most developing counties. In short, import duties are a major revenue source for many governments and can double the price of many goods after pricing in the duties. You need to be 100% certain of the receiving country's duty treatment of what you want to export and any paperwork required: a mistake can result in your shipment getting seized upon arrival, costing you big $ only to pay for it to be shipped back to US. I suggest you contact a reputable Customs Broker/Freight Forwarder in Chile who will let you know what you are up against and can facilitate your shipments should you choose to go ahead. Freight Forwarders in the US that specialize in shipping to Chile would be almost as good a source of info. Feel free to contact me offline if you like.
I just have an idea right now. I lived in Chile for one year. Thats where my girlfriend lives as well. Anyways I keep seeing things that I think would be a big hit down there that the Chileans dont have. So my first question is,
1. I dont manufacture these things myself, how do I become the middleman for the company that produces these things and make it profitable for myself? Is it possible?
2. Once number one is answered then I would ask where do I begin? Call the Embassy down there? I have no idea how all the logistics would work.
I would also like to import wine from there to be sold here in the U.S. What do you think? Whats your background with import/export?
I can help you. What did you want to know ? Do you have a business plan ?
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