August 17th, 2009
arnold
Suppliers to manufacture or supply US consumers can be obtained almost anywhere. The favorite sources for suppliers are often China and India. There is an inherent advantage in labor and material costs when outsourcing to China and India. In recent years what some business have not noticed or not paid much attention to is the rise in fuel costs. The rise in fuel costs is directly related to the cost of importing goods from other parts of the world. China and India are by far much farther away than Mexico and the costs associated with transportation would be very high, such that any savings obtained on the labor and materials would be insignificant if at all. In contract when product is imported from a Mexican supplier chances are that transportation costs would be minimal. Many Mexican companies also keep warehouses or distribution centers around the bordering cities in the United States and therefore transportation could in theory be cheaper. For example a delivery from Chula Vista to San Diego would clearly be cheaper than delivery from Long Beach to San Diego. There are also other factors to take into account, when you order product A you do not expect to get product B. On occassion you just may get product B from an Indian or Chinese supplier. What if you want to actually inspect the product for yourself or tour the facilities ? Would you really want to travel for 12-16 hours to inspect the product ? From San Diego you can be in Mexico in under 1 hour. The same is true from many border cities in Texas. In reality Mexico is much like another sister state. The biggest barrier being culture and communication, but the number of bilingual individuals in the US that speak Spanish and English is enormous and not a real drawback. The culture is a little different, but not as radical as the Indian and Chinese cultures where little is shared in common. When you cross into Mexico there are many common things and it is not unusual to run to English speaking communities where the language and culture is not much different from the United States.
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Mexico Companies
Author’s Yougler Profile is at arnold.
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Tags: china, importing goods, india, manufacture, materials, outsourcing, suppliers
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August 13th, 2009
arnold
In deciding what business to start whether it should be an import or export business the first thing you need to know is your market. Chances are that you are in a better position to understand your own culture in your own country, but if you happen to have ties to other countries from such experiences as significant travel or working abroad you may be in a position to understand several cultures and norms. This is critical in determining which route to take in starting a business. An import business generally does better, because you understand the needs in your surroundings are lot better than in a foreign country. Once you know what your market wants or needs then you can begin to offer the imported product to your customer base. Coming up with what you might thing is a terrific idea for a product to export, will likely fail if you don’t know what the needs and wants of that particular country or countries is. If it happens that you already have a product that you want to export then the next step is to find a means of distributing that product abroad by contacting someone familiar with that particular country. It could be an existing business organization that may distribute products similar to your own or may be someone that specializes in marketing products in that particular country, but don’t assume success in your country will result in success in other countries.
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Mexico Companies
Author’s Yougler Profile is at arnold.
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Tags: business, countries, export, import
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July 21st, 2009
arnold
One of the great things about a recession is that it stimulates the entrepreneurial spirit. People use their intellectual power to create goods and services to employ themselves. It is a matter of surviving and when everything goes to hell there is not much you can do but start your own business. These business also tend to be very good businesses, because these business that survive during a recession will blossom during a period of stability. There are many fantastic ideas among the masses of the unemployed and many of them revolve around import product. The exact idea in reverse would be the export of product. There are many resources available for would be import export entrepreneurs usually through government agencies. A country benefits from the export of goods and services, so governments are eager to help entrepreneurs export product. Excellent sources of assistance are available at many government facilities. When importing in the United States, foreign governments would be very helpful, when exporting then the United States is likely to be very helpful as well. Sometimes the United States has an incentives to help lesser developed countries develop their economies through trade and will likely have assistance available to help develop import relationships with these countries.
Usually the best places to obtain suppliers for an import business are countries that are nearby and reasonably stable. Mexico and Canada would be good places. Canada does not offer a significant labor advantage, but it has a lot of natural resources which are consumed by U.S. Markets. Mexico on the other hand offers resources and cheap labor, as well as cheaper transportation when fuel costs are real high. Mexico can compete with Chinese goods when the fuel costs go through the roof. The disadvantage is the language barrier, but at the same time it offers an advantage for the would be entrepreneur that speaks Spanish or secures Spanish speaking assistance or is effective in finding sources with English speaking personnel. Generally speaking Mexican exporting companies have English speaking personnel, but these companies many not necessarily offer the best prices, service or even want to deal with small start up businesses.
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Mexico Companies
Author’s Yougler Profile is at arnold.
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Tags: business, export, import, mexico, price, service
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July 8th, 2009
arnold
Enter a supermarket and chances are you will go past the produce section. It is a rather small section. It is often a beautiful colorful section. There bright red tomatos, colorful purple eggplants, maybe some purple cabbage, a few exotic pieces of fruit or vegetables. Maybe some cacti, maybe some bok choi. Sometimes it smells really nice. You can smell the fresh apples, the fresh strawberries and the onions. It is one of my favorite places in a supermarket. The sad part is that it is always just a small section. Most of the store will have dry, canned, and processed food. The same is true of the meat section. Stores limit their selection, because consumers limit their selection. Every once in a while there are some nice guavas. Guavas are not consumed much in the United States, but they should be. Guavas are powerful foods. There are also other power foods such as blueberries. These foods are loaded with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. Guavas are probably one of the cheaper power foods available, because they can be imported from Mexico, Central America and possibly Asia. The exchange differential gives us a competitive advantage and these foods are cheaper to us. Blueberries, though very tasty and excellent power foods are local. They come from colder climate states and generally not imported. Perhaps down the road blueberries can be imported from Chile wher the weather is opposite to us and would therefore be available at different seasons, but the distance is significant and would therefore make the import of these berries more expensive than import of other foods such as Guavas, mangos, and avocados from Mexico. In any case there are many power foods that we should include as part of our every day diet since, they are affordable and delicious.
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Mexico Companies
Author’s Yougler Profile is at arnold.
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Tags: avocado, cabbage, egg plant, guavas, mango, mexico, produce, tomato
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