- •Unit 1. Free enterprise entrepreneurship: on the upsurge
- •Is entrepreneurship for you?
- •Is owning a small business for me?
- •Unit 2. Choosing the right business and developing your financial plans how to choose your business
- •Three Basic Kinds of Business
- •How to develop your financial plans
- •The stages of a business
- •Unit 3. Building an import/export business twenty questions on importing and exporting
- •1. Why are you thinking of starting a business? What are your objectives?
- •2. What makes you think you will be successful?
- •3. Do you plan to import, export, or both?
- •4. Do you plan to work as a merchant, agent, broker, or some combination of the three?
- •5. When you start, will you be working full time or part time?
- •6. Who, if anyone, can help you with the work in the beginning?
- •7. Which type(s) of product(s) do you plan to trade?
- •8. What will be your sources of supply – countries and/or companies?
- •9. What is your target market?
- •14. Which national and/or foreign government regulations will concern you?
- •15. What will be your company name and form of organization?
- •16. What will you do for an office, office equipment, and supplies?
- •Are you right for the business?
- •Interest in and Knowledge of International Economics and Politics
- •How to start importing/exporting
- •Setting up your business
- •Imports: selecting products and supplies
- •Exports: what comes first, the product or the market?
- •Choosing target markets and finding customers
- •Importing for Stock
- •Unit 4. A short course in management concepts of management and organization
- •The single greatest mistake a manager can make
- •Six skills for new age executives
- •Mastering decision making What Does It Take to Be a Good Decision Maker?
- •The Japanese Decision-Making Style
- •Negotiating agreement without giving in
- •Hewlett-Packard*
- •McDonald's
- •Nine small-business management pitfalls*
- •Unit 5. The nature of marketing what is marketing?
- •Marketing functions
- •The marketing concept
- •Marketing research
- •The marketing mix
- •Consumer vs. Industrial goods
- •Steps in your marketing plan
- •Industry and market structures
- •U.S. Marketing in the future
- •Unit 6. How to do business with your potential partners china
- •Hong kong
- •Singapore
- •South korea
- •Australia
- •Appendix
Choosing target markets and finding customers
This part is a mini-course in marketing, especially for small-scale importers and exporters. It explores ways of getting into domestic and foreign markets on a limited budget.
Why Someone Would Buy from You
In today's world nearly every industry is in a buyer's market. Buyers in U.S. department stores already have access to all the products they need, and they receive dozens of new offers every week. Why then would they buy from you?
You need to be able to offer the domestic or foreign buyer a good product that he can't get from anyone else (remember the concept of exclusivity) or to offer him a better product, a lower price, longer credit, or superior service. Lacking all of these, you need to give a superb sales talk, or find a good friend who is also a buyer. Finally, you must be able to do an excellent job of marketing.
Do not try to bribe buyers*, but you should know that you may be competing against vendors who do. In mid-1985 there was a major story in the press about large bribes being paid by foreign exporters to American department store buyers. One of the foreign exporters "blew the whistle"* because he thought the bribery had become excessive. It's generally considered all right to offer buyers small gifts on important occasions or do small favours for them.
Marketing Imports as an Agent
If you decide to work as a selling agent for foreign products, you'll need to find buyers who are willing and able to handle the actual importing. That means you can contact anyone who imports.
Locating Importers. If you are working as an agent, the best approach is often to identify American companies that are manufacturing or importing products similar to yours and might add yours to their lines. Locating importers is somewhat more difficult than locating manufacturers.
In some libraries you can find the Import Bulletin, a weekly publication of the Journal of Commerce that shows individual shipments with, in most cases, the name and location of the importer.
As an import agent you should obtain orders and forward them to your principal overseas. The principal should ship, receive payment, and send your commission. Except in rare instances you should not work as an agent without having a written supply agreement.
Agenting for Industrial Products. The best definition of an industrial product is anything that is sold to an organization rather than to an individual. If you buy pencils to use in your home, they are consumer goods. If you buy the same pencils to use in your office or factory, they are industrial goods.
Importers of industrial products usually sell direct to industrial users or to industrial distributors or wholesalers including mail wholesalers. It is true for industrial products that can be imported on a small scale. If you intend to work on a larger scale, such as importing buses from Brazil, you will need professional help to work out the financing and other aspects of your business plan.