- •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
2. What makes you think you will be successful?
Very few people would start businesses if they thought they were going to fail. Entrepreneurs naturally expect success. But what makes you think you are likely to achieve it? Do you have some knowledge of international trade or will you make a serious effort to learn? Have you had relevant experience, such as in sales and marketing? Or any business or management experience? Will you have adequate financing?
3. Do you plan to import, export, or both?
Most persons start out by either importing or exporting, and sometimes go on to develop the other side of the business. Importing is the more common way to start, probably because buying is almost always easier than selling. In importing, the foreign (distant) part of the transaction is the buying, and the selling is done in more familiar surroundings.
4. Do you plan to work as a merchant, agent, broker, or some combination of the three?
Getting involved in the international brokerage business – arranging major deals between two parties, neither of which has a permanent relationship* with you, and collecting a commission from one or the other or both is such a difficult business to get into that it is omitted here. That leaves the options of merchant and agent. If you want to spend most of your time selling, and have limited funds, you should be an agent. If you want to perform all the import and export functions, and you have the means to finance the acquisition of goods you will sell, you should work as a merchant. That way you will have more control of your business and have more profit potential.
If you neither like to sell nor have a substantial bank account, you should probably not try to start an import and/or export business.
5. When you start, will you be working full time or part time?
If you plan to keep your job and start this business part time, you can afford to work slowly and experiment with different approaches. If you plan to start full time, you will probably have to be making a profit within a few months. If this is the case, you should develop a detailed plan and pay a consultant to discuss it with you and make suggestions. This assumes*, of course, that you are willing to accept advice. Every business consultant has clients who want only one thing – for the consultant to tell them how good their business plans are. They are predisposed to ignore criticism and suggestions*, even though they are paying for them.
6. Who, if anyone, can help you with the work in the beginning?
This is especially important if you are going to work as a merchant, and if you plan to start the business part time. Remember that there are various functions to perform, and if you drop the ball on any of them* it will hurt your business. If you are counting on help from your spouse, as many persons do, try to determine whether he or she has the time, the ability, and the inclination to help you adequately.
7. Which type(s) of product(s) do you plan to trade?
You should select products that you understand and enjoy working with and that are available, saleable, transportable, and legal to export or import. These criteria are often conflicting. You may find a delicious ice cream in Sweden, but be unable to sell it in your country because of transportation costs and quotas. You may have an order from Africa for a well-known brand of staplers, but be unable to obtain them except from a wholesaler who charges a price too high to allow a profit.