- •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
16. What will you do for an office, office equipment, and supplies?
There are advantages of working in your own home – economy and you do not have to travel to your job. There are also disadvantages, such as unexpected business visitors, distractions when the kids come home from school, and an alarming tendency to run to the refrigerator whenever you get bored with your work.
Equipment is a fairly straightforward matter*, although buying wisely takes time* and you may end up spending a few thousand dollars. The biggest outlay will probably be for a photocopier*, and once you have one you won't know how you ever got along without it.
17. What will be your postal and telex addresses?
I suggest using your place of business as your postal address rather than a post office box, if at all possible. It saves time and trouble. It does not matter much which of several options you use to obtain a telex address, but you should definitely have one.
18. Which phone number will you use, and how will the phone be answered?
You should have a business phone, on a separate line, answered in a businesslike way, and equipped with a good quality answering machine.*
19. Who will be your bank, insurance company, accountant, lawyer, customs broker, and/or international freight forwarder?
You may not need all these in the beginning, but you will need al least a bank and a broker or forwarder. Both should be chosen mainly on the basis of their experience with transactions similar to the ones you are planning.
20. How much will you invest? How much will you earn?
These two questions should be answered by developing pro-forma (forecasted) balance sheets and profit and loss statements. If the amount of investment is greater than the funds you have available, you will have to consider how to raise the additional capital. Some possible sources are supplier credit, bank loans, friends, and relatives.
Are you right for the business?
Starting a business is a major step requiring nerve* and a certain amount of faith. But nerve and faith need to be supplemented by sensible preparation – not just the purchase of desks, chairs, and typewriters, but a rigorous examination of the reasons for wanting to enter this particular field, an evaluation of the personal qualifications to make it a success, and development of a clear understanding of the business activities in which you will participate.
Studies show that most new businesses fail within a year or two. Of every hundred businesses formed, there may be 20 or so that are marginally successful and only one or two that are highly successful. Of course, nearly every entrepreneur hopes and expects to be the one to make it big. Although there is no magic answer that will ensure success, it certainly helps to be as sure as you can that you and the business you plan to enter are a good match. Here are some of the required attributes to become a successful importer/exporter.
Business Skills
Import/export is a business, and any kind of business acumen*, education, or experience will be helpful. Two of the major causes of business failures are inadequate planning and insufficient management ability.
Salesmanship
Import/export is fundamentally a marketing and selling business. Many people do not realize that they cannot make money importing or exporting unless they can sell their products. Even if you sell indirectly through commission agents, you will have to find the agents, sell them on carrying your lines and continually seek ways to help them to do a better job for you.
Persistence
The import/export business is not like a fast-food franchise for which you can pay a company a large sum of money to find the location, build the restaurant, put in equipment, train you, do the initial promotion and hand you the key, after which you may start making a profit as of lunch time on the first day. If a person starts an import/export business without a base of suppliers and customers, it usually takes about six months to do any business at all, and about two years before the profits are great enough to support a family, and that assumes that the business in question is successful.
To start this kind of business, you should commit yourself to it for the long term*. It is not usually a road to immediate profits.