Steps to Starting a Successful Import Business begins by looking at the significance of importing. It shows you how to find products to import by attending foreign and domestic trade shows; referring to trade magazines or meeting with foreign trade commissioners. It also suggests visiting foreign retail stores to get ideas.
This book emphasizes the importance of a market survey but warns you not to discount "Gut Feel" marketing. It shows you how to gather marketing information by using search engines on the Internet and provides an example. It covers traditional sources of marketing information including statistical material.
It discusses different legal forms for your business. It cautions you not to forget to register for sales taxes and how to protect your trademarks. Consider operating your business from your home or by leasing commercial space. Look at some of the advantages of warehousing and bonded warehousing.
You'll learn about the most popular ways of paying for imports from Cash in Advance, Cash on Delivery; Open Account; using different types of Letters of Credit, Financing with Bankers Acceptances, Forfaiting, Countertrade and Leasing. It reviews some of the companies which are active in trade finance.
Take a look at some of the freight alternatives for importing your goods and what's involved with customs clearance; either by doing-it-yourself or using the services of a customs broker.
There is a chapter on distribution and how to sell your imported products but first a section shows you how to calculate your landed cost. It also cautions you to make sure that you are adhering to local laws.
This book shows you how to create your own Web site and how to register your domain name and select a Web hosting service. You will learn about the use of cascading style sheets as well as the difference between static and dynamic Web authoring software. You are provided with reviews of eleven different software packages that you can use to create your own Web site.
Find out about the essential ingredients of an e-commerce site such as the shopping cart; the checkout, methods of payment and payment gateways. Think about offering your customers alternative ways to order and pay. Consider some of the challenges presented by international transactions, fulfilment and the security of transactions. Finally, you can read reviews on five different e-commerce software programs.
The chapter on online advertising discusses search engine optimization and shows you how to improve your ranking on search engines. It reveals the role of spiders, crawlers, meta tags, title tags and keywords. It shows you how you can use pay-per-click and other methods to drive traffic to your Web site. Finally, it gives you a sobering look at your average cost-per-order and your return on advertising spending.
You will learn about other ways to drive traffic to your Web site by using links to other sites, Web banners, pop-ups, Web rings, permission-based e-mail and e-newsletters.
The chapter on offline advertising and marketing takes you through the steps in creating an effective direct mail piece. It shows you how to develop mailing lists and comments on the use of list brokers. You will learn how to save money by using bulk mail rates. It also discusses print media as a delivery system and shows you how the market is segmented. It covers advertising in newspapers, magazines, trade journals and professional magazines as well as the classifieds.
You will learn about the basics of telephone marketing and fax broadcasting. You are cautioned about the Do-Not-Call List. You will get to read a candid discussion about advertising in the Yellow Pages and directories. Less...
