Grex Smallbusiness Conference

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Grex Smallbusiness Item 10: International Business Item
Entered by nsiddall on Mon Mar 10 23:18:00 UTC 1997:

Let's think globally.  Does anyone have experience or questions about
international business?  For example, doing business with non-Americans? 
Designing fixed-floating interest rate swaps to hedge foreign currency
exposure?  I just met a guy who works for the Commerce Department in
Detroit, helping small businesses export.  I suspect that is a huge waste
of taxpayer dollars, but I'm not altogether clear on what they do.  I'm
interested myself in learning about small-scale importing.

8 responses total.

#1 of 8 by mcpoz on Tue Mar 11 01:48:46 1997:

What aspect of importing do you want to know about?  I have imported but I
certainly would not represent myself as highly knowledgable.  I'd share what
experiences I have had if it would help.

#2 of 8 by nsiddall on Wed Mar 12 16:05:47 1997:

Marc, I have in the back of my mind trying to import stuff on my own account,
to sell to distributors in the US.  Probably labor-intensive craft goods from
Asia.  I don't know anything about the paperwork or procedures in this
business--ironically enough, since I used to work for a shipping company. 
But I probably won't have money or time enough to embark on this any time
soon.  I'm going to be busy working on a garden pond.

#3 of 8 by mcpoz on Thu Mar 13 01:37:33 1997:

Hey, I have experience in both importing and garden ponds.  
If you get to the point where you want to get started, drop me a note.  I
researched sources in China, Japan, and Korea.  After picking a source, we
established agreement on the model, quantity, cost etc.  I got a Commercial
Letter of Credit, arranged for a Customs Broker, put ads in a national
magazine.  Additionally, my brother and I formed a partnership,
established a DBA, got a corporate banking account, got a Merchant's Visa
account, a tax number, and we were in business.  
.

#4 of 8 by okuma on Wed Apr 15 00:27:13 1998:

I don't have any experience in international business, but I do have freinds
and relatives living in Okinawa and Japan, being that I occasionally travel
there to visit friends and relatives.   Being Okinawan and active in several
groups that go there doesn't hurt either.

#5 of 8 by keesan on Fri Apr 17 03:25:31 1998:

A Chinese friend of mine living in Chicago has been trying to find something
to import (currently it is herbal tea).  She is an engineer.  Would probably
enjoy working with someone importing from China.

#6 of 8 by gibson on Tue Apr 28 03:57:25 1998:

        There's a guy in Otsego who inports from China and sells over the net
but I'll have to dig out his address. I'll get back to you.

#7 of 8 by shenoy on Fri Aug 11 16:56:39 2000:

hello i am from india and if you want anything from indi will be interested
i and my friend have an exporting business. Exporting rice to bangladesh
however we have now started a company aiming to export software or manpower
in software industry.

#8 of 8 by cmcgee on Sun Aug 13 18:16:34 2000:

Welcome to Grex, shenoy.  What kind of manpower are you talking about
exporting?

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