After nearly an hour I finally had an opportunity to present my case. The documents were a carefully compiled dossier containing every possible bit of information that could be requested from me with regards to the application of import and export licenses. I was confident that the application would be submitted on the first attempt.

My conversation with the official was formal, although my attempt at a handshake was shrugged off in a disinterested manner, “We don’t shake hands here. Any form of physical contact is prohibited between us.” With little dampener to my cheery attitude, I tried to be as humble as I could muster. I was presenting myself on behalf of a client and I wanted to get the application submitted and accepted as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

My official pulled out her document checklist and began going through the requirements, ticking each off as she went along. Lo and behold there were three requirements for which the documents that I had presented were unacceptable. These documents aligned with the suggestions that were posted on the official customs website as being sufficient. I was rejected and told how to make amends for my folly and naivety.

I withheld my intense desire to argue and make the point of how insane and foolish it was that the documents that were presented were not acceptable and the new ones I was being asked to get prepared were of more value. It made no sense. Nevertheless, there was no breakthrough. I was leaving empty-handed and with more paperwork to put together somehow.

The above scenario is a typical experience with the customs office. It is not surprising that with all the patience and time required to make a successful import license application, most entrepreneurs and companies opt to outsource this process to service providers who are able to go through the motions returning to the offices a number of times if necessary. Of course, if you’re willing to go through the pains and have the time to do it, it is technically cheaper for a company or individual to make the application themselves. The time and productivity lost in traveling to the specific office have to be weighed up with the savings made. That calculation and the resulting decision is different for every applicant.

The First Idea
The first idea for forming our company was to source any product from any place in the world for clients and customers that needed them to make the production or their lives easier or more profitable. That idea hasn’t changed, although the strategy for attaining that idealistic goal has.

Dealing With Change
We are all caught up in this world of constant change and that change pushes, urges and encourages us to grow and to adapt to those steps in evolution. In such a world the demands on great ideas, big goals, and idealistic crusades are tenuous. We understand that and as we grow we understand more. This process of continuous evolution in the face of constant changes to our environments requires both quick action and patience to some degree. The quick actions to adapt quickly enough to keep on surviving and upholding a way of life that we are accustomed to. Patience with ourselves as humans is needed because the goal posts can shift and the ideals we sought yesterday and achieved today are no longer the ideals that we are satisfied with tomorrow. To weather the storm of the choppy seas requires a firm commitment to a destination despite the beating waves and the violent winds that beat against us. For us, at TAG-R Global Sourcing and Consulting we have rooted ourselves in an unwavering commitment to our true intentions – that we have to express ourselves clearly in our thoughts, words, and actions in the present moment.

In closing
We are clearer than ever that we say, “Hello World!” with enthusiasm, love, abundance, wisdom, joy, riches, understanding and energy since these are the intentions which give life to our actions and which keep the breath of life within our organization nourished and vigorous. We look forward to continuing to take the opportunities that we are presented with to express ourselves and serve clients and customers to the ends of bringing about a better, more enlightened world.

If that is the way things transpire, how is it that some people get the right idea and make a fortune with it, while others are left dreaming about their castles in the sky without ever seeing them manifest?

The answer may be too philosophical for us to consider here, so we can stick to the practical route of getting an idea that can be made into reality with the correct effort, knowledge, and skills.

The Import Idea
One avenue to explore is the possibility of importing a product, service, system or an entire business from another country into your home country. For the purpose of simplicity, we are going to keep it simple by using the product to mean any form of import, such as money, labor, product, service, system, machinery, or business. The fundamental idea that goods in one part of the world are cheaper to produce than another part of the world. The reasons could be due to:
– The climate is better or;
– Having more available land that is suitable for the product to be grown or,
– The particular skillsets of the population are more aligned to make products more efficiently than anywhere else.

This is the idea behind any trade. The same thing occurs between neighbors. Sue is able to grow wonderful cabbages, while Fred is better suited to growing pumpkins. They each specialize in doing what they are best suited for and we have the makings of efficiency that comes from the focused effort in a given direction. This is the same idea that Adam Smith, one of the early teachers of economics and a professor at the University of Edinburgh, promulgated in his book, The Wealth of Nations.

Geographical Arbitrage
Taking advantage of price discrepancies in the prices of goods in different parts of the world which is the basis of all trade. Coffee beans are able to be grown in Brazil and Vietnam with fewer costs and inputs than in trying to grow them in California. The prices that people pay for coffee in Brazil may be much cheaper than they are willing to pay for it in California. This can be called geographical arbitrage, which is a concept also mentioned by a more modern author, Timothy Ferris, in his book, The Four Hour Work Week.

This same principle has been used by merchants and traders for countless centuries. The idea of merchants traveling through the Arabian deserts on camels laden with silks and spices from the East to trade with populations of Europe might also come to mind. These merchants would purchase or exchange goods on a barter system and gain far more valuable spices at bargain prices. These same goods would be worth a fortune after a few weeks upon arrival on the other side of a sea of sand.

The Risks of Importing
The business model of importing products can be profitable, but like all things, in our physical world, the potential for profit comes side by side with the potential for losses. Let’s explore some of these possible pitfalls briefly:
– Importing a product that has proven to be successful in another market, that proves to be a failure in the home market.
– There could be a huge outlay of capital involved in getting the minimum order quantities as well as storing goods in bulk may be pricey.
– The products could travel great distances and may arrive damaged or may not arrive at all.
– The products may prove to be faulty or defective and not up to the expected quality that had been determined for what is expected in the home market.
– Due to the distances, there may be little or no support to repair or maintain the products.
– There may be no spare parts for the products locally if there are maintenance and repair actions which require those parts. Importing those parts could prove expensive due to shipping costs.
– The shipping lead time for products to arrive may prove difficult for cashflows if there are no products to supply demand immediately.
– The difficulty with understanding the suppliers or manufacturers of the products due to different languages, morals, and business practices.

Each of these pitfalls is very real. Each of them can also be overcome. Every day people are importing goods and are finding success in this avenue. Just as there are people who meet their ruin attempting to follow the same course. The risks need to be known so that plans can be made to overcome each of them. Good planning is always vital in any business. For those that rely on luck and gut feelings to carry them through, I’d like to acknowledge that there does seem to be a degree of luck involved in any good tide of events or any success story. There are events which come across as lucky or fortunate events which have explanations which I am not going to go into here. The point is that luck and good fortune can be harnessed by careful planning and preparation. Now let’s look at some of the benefits of importing.

The Benefits of Importing
The benefits of this include:
– Importing a product that has had a proven track record in another market and has established itself as a viable business vehicle.
– The product is new in the home market and can become popular due to it being a novelty or creating a better experience for its users. Other products that are currently in the market that fulfill the same desire or need may fall short of the satisfaction levels experienced by the new product you and your team have brought in.
– Taking advantage of price discrepancies in the prices of goods in different parts of the world which is the basis of all trade.
– Because there may be a lack of competition there may be greater profit margins to enjoy with the perceived value being much higher than the costs incurred.
– The opportunity to develop relationships with suppliers and manufacturers from other places in the world which bring in different viewpoints and therefore different possibilities for even further opportunities.
– The possibility to travel and meet with suppliers and visit other countries which lead to greater ideas coming to mind to implement.
– Creating a new market of customers or a niche which have other needs and desires that you are able to provide for with products that supplement your imported product. These supplementary products may be imported or locally manufactured.

Like the risks, these benefits need to be looked at realistically to gain perspective. The profits may seem great initially, but are the prices of the product a true reflection of the market and are the costs involved in getting to customers as low as you presume?

We can cover more of these aspects in the next article. The point is however that despite the risks involved, an individual or business can benefit financially through the use of the basic principle of economics, of purchasing goods in one location cheaply and selling them for a higher price in another location. By using importation as the vehicle, an individual or organization can bring products from another country into their own and profit from the deal if they are also efficient and strategic in the implementation.

In this post, we are going to discuss some ways to get a tangible idea of a product or service to import that is more than likely to be a successful project. Be well advised that this is a process. You are not likely to get the exact product to be successful on the first swing of the bat. There is a possibility that you might just do that and make a fortune. Statistically, though, better to be willing to go through the process and be willing to “fail” in a small way by trial and error and examination and refining the problems and needs of the market and aligning them with the solutions and the benefits that the product provides.

First Things First
To start out there is a whole set of possibilities in the space we are setting out into. This is daunting and there is a great possibility of being completely overwhelmed and feeling hopelessly inadequate when comparing yourself or your business to the giants of the import market. At this point, it is vital to get a clear perspective on what you are looking to achieve within a given period of time.

It doesn’t matter whether you are importing for the first time as an individual or a multi-national corporation looking to explore a market, you and your team need to have a clear understanding of what the goal is going to be. This goal is not going to be specific in terms of product or service just yet. You will get to that level of completing the goal once you decide on the product you are going to use. For now, we are getting down to the portion of the goal involving time-related, financial, intellectual and emotional expectations. I like to look at the goal as a state of operation that I intend to have going in a given period of time, rather than a fixed possession of an item to give a clearer holistic idea of the state of my company should be operating in.

A fixed goal is one in which there is a clear object of desire that is to be attained. Here is an example of a fixed possession goal:

– Fixed Possession Goal: Generating $15 000 in profit monthly.

A State of Operation goal is one in which the ideal working and operation environment is painted as an image of what aspects are important to me and my team. Here is an example of a State of Operation goal:

– State of Operation Goal: Importing, distributing and providing an excellent quality product or service to a certain number of clients that my team and I absolutely love serving in a given area, as well as providing goods to other possible avenues of clients; making a profit of over $15 000 per month within 24 months and enjoying the experience with a great team of loyal, trustworthy, hardworking people who are all well remunerated for their efforts and find the project fulfilling, rewarding and profitable.

This type of goal works well for me since it guides my decisions. It’s easier to make a decision regarding any aspect that affects the project. If I have a doubt about a new potential team member who is ruthless at sales and gets good sales in but is obnoxious and rude to other members of the team who are also productive, it’s easier for me to get perspective. Either that person can be brought around to being more of a team player by gaining an understanding of what is going in their lives and giving them a better perspective of the business or they are off the team. With profit as the only motivation, that person may get good numbers initially but may have a poor overall impact on the rest of the business if not handled early.

Work with what is best for you in terms of goal setting, but do your best make it achievable and doable based on your level of skills, resources, abilities available and the certainty of what can be attained within the time frame.

In this post, we explored the first part of getting a tangible idea of a product or services that can be imported, which is to get a goal in mind that you are looking to attain. In the next post, we will explore the next steps involved in getting a good idea of a product to import into your market.

Assessing Your Situation
Coupled with the goal, there are two other lists that give a good indication to get us to where we need to be in terms of having a clear idea of what to import:

The strong points list
Taking into consideration what it will to take to make the goal possible and achievable within the time frame, make a list of three columns with the following headings:
– Qualities: What character traits do you and your team possess? (Tenacity, Loyalty, Reliable, etc.)
– Abilities: What skills and abilities do you and your team have? (Creativity, Communication, Engineering, etc.)
– Assets: What assets are available to you and your team? (Capital, Property, Networks, etc.)

This is a quick draft. As we get into the actual product there may be other points to jot down on this list.

The shortcomings list
On a separate page, make two columns. In the first column list your own and your team’s shortcomings that will make it difficult or impossible to achieve the goal you’ve set. In the second column, next to each difficulty (or on a new page) write down a plan of action in being able to strengthen each weakness, or overcome each obstacle that you noted down as difficulties.

With this measure of self-reflection done, you may have a better idea of where you are and where you want to get to regarding this “import” project and it’s time to get into looking into the market.

It Begins With Love
Looking at the market place for a good product or service begins with where you are. The best ideas that get us to where we desire to be are often right under our noses.

Start with looking into something that you love. It doesn’t have to be something that you love doing. Those things that you are interested in will have the tendency to be beneficial to you even if you do not make money off it, initially. And that type of interest has a tendency to bring about creative ways of looking at the market which can open the door to finding a good market, or good opportunity or even inventing or innovating a new product that does not yet exist. Keep your eyes focused on the goal you’re after and be open to flashes of inspiration that come to you intuitively, through a “gut feeling”; or a vision or a gentle whisper in your mind. Being involved with things that you like being around will also keep you sticking to it when the business goes through quiet patches.

A Personal Example
As an example, I had studied complementary medicine many years ago because it was something that truly resonated with me. When looking for a new product range to import, I began the process looking into anything in my life that I was interested in. That can be difficult if you have a good interest in life and living in general since almost anything worthwhile is likely to prove interesting. What I discovered were some products that a colleague of mine in another country was marketing and selling successfully in Asia. It was a range of natural supplements that were not available in the market that I am in.

A Famous Example
Steve Jobs had a love for music but disliked using the “Walkman” (a product that existed in the 1980s as a means to play music using cassette tapes). As he explored what he loved he found that there was an area of displeasure he experienced in having a bulky and complicated Walkman to carry around when wanted to listen to music as he walked. As the years passed he had heard of and made contact with a young man in the East who had developed the early version of an MP3 player. Steve made a trip to see this young man, made him an offer and purchased the technology. Apple went on to improve the product using its own expertise in the field of electronics and created the iPod – a huge international success that turned Apple around dramatically, financially.

Now that we have these lists in place it’s time to move on to the next step in the process. This is going to get exciting, so hang on and join me in the next post.

Almost like a camera lens or the lenses in our eyes, in order to get a clear focus, it is sometimes necessary to zoom in and then out and zoom in again to a different focus point and then maybe zoom out again. This is a matter of getting a clearer idea of the landscape.

Part of this zooming in by asking questions and then to withdraw reviewing another aspect of the area and then zooming in again through another set of questions.

The Zooming In Questions
If you have a list of interests start this process of questions with the one that appeals to you the most at this moment. Ask yourself these questions, writing an answer to each of them:

– In this field what do I know?
– In this field what would I love to learn more about?
– What would I love to achieve in this field if anything?
– What is it about this field that intrigues me?
– What do I enjoy about this field?
– What problem(s) do I experience in this particular field? (Problems might be related to finding the time to do an activity or finding products or services that I would like to get more of)
– What do I hate about this field?
– In this field what products or services have I experienced? What were they like?
– In this field what experience have I had with the people who are also interested in it?
– Are there people who have more knowledge in this field in other countries?
– Is there a country in the world where they have more knowledge in this field than anywhere else?
– What raw materials are used in this field?
– What tools are used in this field?
– What products exist in this field?
– Are there any problems or issues that you have experienced with the quality of the product or the service delivery of the raw materials, products, tools in this field?
– Are there any of these problems or issues that other people have also had, that were similar to your own, in this field?
– Is there a country in the world where they produce goods or services that support this field?
– Is there a country in the world where they produce cheaper raw materials that support this field?
– Is there a country in the world where they produce better quality tools that support this field?

Zooming Out Reflection
Once you have this list of questions answered you may find that you have your mind and more importantly your subconscious mind engaged. The next step is counter-intuitive it involves tuning out:

– Have a copy of the goal you had written down with you and read it a few times.

– Then glance over the list of questions and answers that you had written down.

– Then get comfortable and relax by sitting back in your chair or on a couch or even lying on the floor in a quiet, distraction-free place. Use earplugs to drown out the noise if you have to or get some soothing music on.

– Get an idea with the intention to experience the goal.

– Close your eyes and get an idea of the goal for a few minutes and then contemplate the field of interest you had just been looking at with the intention of getting a clear plan of action of a product or service or next action to take. Do not take any actions just yet. Just get the intention to get a clear moment of epiphany.

– Now let go of everything. Relax. Stop thinking if you can. If you can’t let your mind wander, but put no attention on anything that comes to mind. You can place a light focus on your breathing, but the point of this stage is to clear your mind and your space to make room for the inspiration to come in. It is effortless and it is can be compared to letting yourself float like a leaf in a river. Just let go.

– Keep this up for 15 minutes or so or whatever feels natural to you.

– Gently bring yourself back to resuming normal mental function.

– Once you get up, write down whatever comes to you. It doesn’t matter if it’s crazy or impossible, write it down. If you have the urge to make a phone call, make it. If you have the idea to leave this field or project alone, then get on to another area of interest.

There may be some real gems. There may be nothing.

Go through this process for each area of interest writing down what comes to mind.

This may seem like an unusual process, but it has been proven to work for many years by many of the most successful people in their fields of specialty whenever they approached a problem that they could not resolve. Once you get an idea of a good product or service or product range its time to move on to the next step of getting it more tangible by doing some research and homework.

We will cover that in the next post.

Creating a Business Case
This project is meant to be a profitable business, and part of a business is providing a valuable product or service to a market that is ready, willing and able to purchase that product for a price that is greater than it costs to produce and deliver that product to that market. In this post, we are going to introduce an actual product as a conceptual idea to assist with giving a better understanding of this process. Let’s say the idea can in the field of vegetarian food. It is something I had been looking into since I decided to experiment with a vegetarian diet.

In order to create a business case, it is necessary to find a market of customers that are ready, willing and able to purchase the product or service that you are looking into. Firstly we are going to have to do some digging and ask many more questions. Most of the answers to these questions can be found online using a search engine or getting into forums of the groups of people interested in the products or services.

What Is The Product Or Service?
At this point, it is necessary to define the product or service in terms of what it is, what it does and where it can be used.

In the case of vegetarian food, I discovered that I wanted to explore vegetarian meat substitutes for sausages, burgers, and other meat substitutes. These products can be used in meals for vegetarian people or people who eat meat as a nutritious meal that gives the same or more nutrition.

Who Is The Target Market For The Product?
Which market of people or organizations can use these products in a manner that brings greater value to their lives? This may be a group of people to which you belong or a group that would clearly benefit from the product.

In the example case, the people who would benefit from these vegetarian products are vegetarians.

Where Can The People Or Businesses In That Target Market Be Found?
Now that we have identified the target market and who they are, it is necessary to find out where they are. Search for groups on Facebook and on Google, Bing, Yahoo or your favorite search engine and make notes about where to find these people or organizations.

In the case of the vegetarian target market, I found groups on Facebook as well as a few religious organizations that subscribed to a vegetarian diet as well as restaurants in the vicinity that were making an effort to cater to the vegetarian market as well.

What Channels Of Communication Exist To Communicate With The Target Market?
Looking at the channels of communication may involve doing an online search for websites and their contact details as well as groups that are in your local city.

I found groups of people in my city on Facebook groups, websites that supported any form of vegetarian meals and of course all local restaurants and even I even got invited on to Whatsapp groups.

In the next post, we are going to explore how to use this information gathered in these questions to get even more in-depth research done that can be used practically to refine your product and market offering.

Having those as a base, its time to make contact with your target markets that you have found channels of communication with a survey about the field you are interested in, to find out what problems they experience and the ideas they have in experiencing the products they currently use. A simple survey can include basic questions such as:
– What problems do you encounter in finding these products?
– Is there anything that really frustrates you the products in this space or anything related to them?
– What issues do you have with dealing with these products?
– What quality of the product is acceptable to you? How do you judge quality?
– What is important to you about these products? (size, weight, durability, speed, taste, etc.)
– How important are these types of products to your lifestyle, health, work, family, etc.?
– What do you think about the prices of the products in the market?
– What brands do you use?
– What brands if any do you think are premium brands in the market related to this field? Why?
– What brands do you consider to be low quality? Why?
– Roughly how much do you spend on this product type per year?

Depending on the way you conduct your survey you may not have a chance to ask too many questions. If you can find a way to have communication with some people in the market that would buy a great deal of the products you have in mind, then it may be worth your while, setting some time aside to meet with them either personally or electronically. With these people, be professional and polite and make sure you have all the questions you want to ask written down and make good notes. Also, look at giving them something of value in return for their time. Sometimes offering to pay them a consultancy fee to share some of their knowledge in the industry works well or offering them a gift voucher or something from your own business as a gesture of goodwill.

Do as many surveys as possible to get an idea of what the main problems are in each target market is or if there are general issues experienced between all target markets. Sometimes 20 surveys get you to the point, sometimes it takes 100 sometimes 1000. The bigger the sample of the surveys you conduct on you target market the more accurate your information. There is a point that it is just not economical to survey large numbers of people and get quality responses. It takes time and effort. You have to make a judgment call on the amount of time and resources you’re willing and able to put into it.

Review the Survey Responses
Once you have the surveys, review them and make note of every answer to each question. This is usually easiest for me by taking each question at a time and reviewing every answer received to it. Make a spreadsheet labeling each column with a general classification for that question. As an example in one of my surveys, I used the question, “What are the reasons you subscribe to a vegetarian diet?”

My columns included various general answers
– I was born into a vegetarian family and have not considered eating differently.
– For religious reasons
– For health reasons
– Other

Try to use a new spreadsheet page for each question. If your survey had 5 questions you could have 5 separate sheets.

Finding A Sweet Spot
It is important to review the surveys even if you did the surveys yourself and found that there were general trends just from listening to the responses. Sometimes the review process gives some unexpected gems.

By going through the surveys, I found out something that I had missed in the initial interview, but I had noted it down. It resulted in more research, in which I later discovered that quite accidentally, that almost all meat eaters could not tell the difference between meat products and one particular brand of vegetarian product. Which meant that that product had an expanded target market potential.

Some things always surface as the main ideas or the main problems and this is what you can use to your advantage.

Calculating the Percentages Of The Answers
You may have often heard or read about marketing studies which showed a certain percentage of the population does something or other, such as this one, “Less than 3 Percent of Americans Have a Healthy Lifestyle”.

Well, now you have your own study. For each column in your spreadsheet, you can work out the percentage by dividing the number of answers that were aligned to that column by the total number of surveys conducted and multiply that number by 100 to get a percentage.

If you conducted 20 surveys and 3 respondents responded to the question about how old they were with, “Between 50 and 60 years old” then 15% of your respondents were between 50 and 60 years old.

Finding the Market Size
Once the survey is done and you have your answers tabulated, you may be excited to find some gaps in the market that you may or may not have suspected. Maybe your initial hunch was proven right, and it has been confirmed by some hands-on market research. Well done for getting through this. Now just to be sure, it’s a good idea to work out some rough estimates of how many people are in this target market. This can be done by looking at a website like Statista.com. For my vegetarian market there were no stats that I could use. Your case may be different. You can try to get an idea of this by asking people in high positions in councils and organizations or doing some searches for the target market within the areas you are defining. Depending on the amount of budget you have for this exercise you can also pay for a research company to do this homework for you, such as EY Parthenon.

Accurate market research can save you a fortune and can also make you a fortune. The more credible the information the better you can rely on it to make important decisions.

At this point you should a very clear idea of the product that you could or should import. If you do not, it is possible to repeat these steps outlined in these posts. It is a process of zooming in to a product and then zooming out to gain perspective after all. The goal of these posts was to assist in getting a good idea of a product to import. How to import it and then make it profitable will be the subjects and goals of other material.

Adjusting The Goal
In closing it is a good point to revisit your goal and complete it so that aligns with the product that you are looking at importing.

– State of Operation Goal: Providing excellent quality vegetarian products that taste like meat products to over 200 restaurants in and around the San Francisco area, as well as making online sales to individuals and other stores in other states; making a profit of over $15 000 per month within 24 months and enjoying the experience with a great team of loyal, trustworthy, hardworking people who are all well remunerated for their efforts and find the project fulfilling, rewarding and profitable.

In this case I will not be providing these products in San Francisco, but another city altogether. But this serves as an example.

I hope that you have found these posts and would be glad to hear from you and if you have any questions please feel free to write an email to inform@globalsourcingsa.co.za.

Wishing you all the success and richness you deserve.