Archive for July, 2009

Starting An Import Business

Tuesday, 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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Power Foods To Import

Wednesday, 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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