Import

Import and Export Businesses

There are many kinds of importers and exporters:

* 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). The EMC does it all–hiring dealers, distributors and representatives; handling advertising, marketing and promotions; overseeing marking and packaging; arranging shipping; and sometimes arranging financing. In some cases, the EMC even takes title to the goods, in essence becoming its own distributor. EMCs usually specialize by product, foreign market or both, and–unless they’ve taken title–are paid by commission, salary or retainer plus commission.
* 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. It identifies what foreign buyers want to spend their money on and then hunts down domestic sources willing to export. An ETC sometimes takes title to the goods and sometimes works on a commission basis.
* Import/export merchant: This international entrepreneur is a sort of free agent. He has no specific client base, and he doesn’t specialize in any one industry or line of products. Instead, he purchases goods directly from a domestic or foreign manufacturer and then packs, ships and resells the goods on his own. This means, of course, that unlike the EMC, he assumes all the risks (as well as all the profits).

Top American Trading Partners

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the top 10 countries with which America trades (in order of largest import and export dollars to smallest) are:

• Canada
• Mexico
• Japan
• China
• Germany
• United Kingdom
• France
• Republic of Korea (South Korea)
• Taiwan
• Singapore

Other options inclide member countries of the Caribbean Basin and Andean pacts and the new kids on the Eastern Bloc, the former Soviet Union countries. Familiarize yourself with our biggest trading partners and see what they have to offer. Then take your best shot, with them or with another country.

Import

Import

From importing exotic fashions to exporting light fixtures, the international trade business will take you all over the world and into all product niches.

International trade is one of the hot industries of the new millennium. But it’s not new. Think Marco Polo. Think the great caravans of the biblical age with their cargoes of silks and spices. Think even further back to prehistoric man trading shells and salt with distant tribes. Trade exists because one group or country has a supply of some commodity or merchandise that is in demand by another. And as the world becomes more and more technologically advanced, as we shift in subtle and not so subtle ways toward one-world modes of thought, international trade becomes more and more rewarding, both in terms of profit and personal satisfaction.

Importing is not just for those lone footloose adventurer types who survive by their wits and the skin of their teeth. It’s big business these days–to the tune of an annual $1.2 trillion in goods, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Exporting is just as big. In one year alone, American companies exported $772 billion in merchandise to more than 150 foreign countries. 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. And these products are bought, sold, represented and distributed somewhere in the world on a daily basis.

But the import/export field is not the sole purview of the conglomerate corporate trader, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the big guys make up only about 4 percent of all exporters. 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.

Excerpted from Entrepeneur