4 tips for starting your own importing business
Starting your own importing business can be very exciting, and may provide an immediate additional boost to your brand. Maybe you’ve seen a lot of promise for a certain product you’ve tried offshore, and want to take advantage of its potential in your homeland. Taking a product from a thousand miles away and selling it at home has its own challenges, and though the returns could be much higher due to the equity, the risks are also tantamount to the possible wins.
Make sure to take the necessary preliminary steps before venturing into this kind of business. Here are some of the things you need to consider doing before you start:
1. Conduct market research
You wouldn’t want to get stuck with loads of inventory and not know what to do with it, especially since it took more effort to bring in. You can conduct preliminary market research before deciding to bring in too much of your desired product.
Map out who the competitors are in the market, and check how they are performing; assess your target consumers and see their habits and purchasing behavior; talk to your friends and family and get insights into your product, what they think about it, if they would actually want to buy it. Analyzing these reactions can help you gauge how eager people are for your product.
2. Talk to your suppliers
It would be good to establish rapport with the source of your products. See what terms you can work on, how you can get support in terms of bringing their product to a different country and maybe even marketing it, and assess how their stocks and current supply management can accommodate new demand. It is important to have clear terms with the source of your product because the whole business supply chain starts from them. Starting off on the right foot is vital for any enterprise to have the energy it needs to flourish.
3. Check the needed requirements
Bringing in products from other countries will have their own set of regulations, taxes, certifications, and other paperwork. It goes without saying that you will have to have your own registered business entity or corporation, depending on the rules in your jurisdiction. Make sure these are all things you can accomplish before you move forward with placing your order on initial supply.
4. Get a logistics partner
Getting the physical product from one country or even continent to another will require logistics. Importing has a lot of bureaucracy and manpower associated with it – something that you will definitely need help with and would be wise to outsource. Get a reliable logistics partner who are experts in the industry, such as Portman Logistics who can help you with these tasks so that you won’t have to deal with the details that often accompany this kind of work, and instead focus your time, attention, and energy on growing your brand and nurturing relationships with clients.
When you’ve got these basics down of sourcing the product, bringing it in, and having a good base of people who would want to buy it, you can then move forward with planning your strategy in terms of growing your brand and scaling your business. These will all entail work, but will definitely be satisfying and fruitful for you in the end, especially when you see the satisfied looks on your client’s faces, apart from your growing equity.