Friday, August 15, 2014

Start Up Perseverance

On Aug 14, 2014, at 7:35 PM, Steve wrote:


>>>>With respect to why I would not become a formal - legal entity in the form of company yet is understood, however let me ask this - Am I correct that by using my name that there is no real requirement legally to legally form a company as of yet anyway?

***Right, in essence you are in research  mode....****


 I could for all intents and purposes, simply carry on this way for a long time anyhow, correct?

***Yes, with a view to makng money sooner than later...***

 I do believe though that it is not best once the re-orders begin flowing and such to visit a CPA and start getting advice on the legal end (I do know that this is further down the road).

***The legal concern is you pay taxes, pay taxes and you have no legal concerns from the govt...  cpa’s advise you on the legal form given your unique circumstances...***


>>>>Understood, I guess what I was really trying to get at is - I would like to get the price right...but you're saying that the price will simply be what it becomes and then (since we are not competing on price and are offering premium product) we'll see what the market says to the one importing our goods and then we will discover what the consumers want so we can redesign or we will find them reordering what we provided.<<<<

***Perzactly...***

>>>>When you say 10% fee to net, could you help me with how I arrive at that. I am wondering if that is net after FF fees etc. Or is it  after only the supplier's stuff and my costs?

***Well, 10% of say $5000 or $5500?  either way, it won’t be a big deal one way or another...  but biling for time spent billing (10% fee on your costs, loooks greed sometimes...***

>>>>What is interesting is that prior to your writing this, I started asking myself, why not simply produce these patties myself through a local baker to me and then what you taught in your book came back to me 'Where is the best place in the world to produce these pastries?"

***Ultimately your are in business for yourself.  Every baker stole his business idea from every baker before him...***

 Which brings me to the next question. - If I found mexico was the best place to make my pastries to export to other countries then could you explain how that impacts my USA based business financially. 

***You’d be a USA based relatd-party importer who also directs sales from around the world into the Mexican pastisseria you own or co-own or with which you are associated.***

Here is where I am going with this: Since the product is being produced in Mexico and then sold to, say, Switzerland then what are my fiscal responsibilities for income earned outside the US? Let's say I earned 10,000 dollars USA in a transaction between two countries that ends up in my bank account would it benefit me to have a Mexican account in order to maximize my financial benefit and to aid future transactions in Mexico for cash flow?

Yes, because it is legally a mexican sale, not a usa sale.  Why bring it here?  A CPA would help you keep it ll straight for tax purposes,a dn the tax codes are written so google and apple and bowing pay no taxes, so you’d follow those laws too.***

 BTW, my question is not meant to be 'I want to evade taxes' but this is simply a scenario that I could see myself getting into and I want to be savvy to the implications both foreign and domestic from a business mindset.

***I agree never evade taxes when the laws are written so you can pay no taxes...  always thought tax evaders were rather silly.***

>>>>I know that you have experience and knew the answer and I'm glad that you did with respect to where to FOB. However, how did you arrive at these locations? Is it simply just Trader common sense, or Freight Forwarder Interaction, or is there a webpage that allows you to place in the origin and destination and it gives you options?<<<<

***Well, experience mostly, but I always defer to freight forwarder on specifics, since the field changes constantly.  Webpages are too static to catch what has changed in the last 3 or 4 minutes, all that really matters in the world of logistics...  Librarians and logisticians, the two most unsung heroes in the economy.***

Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.


1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Steve - thank you for the questions, and John - thank you for sharing your advice with your readers. I'm interested to see how this all plays out. I'm working on just exporting from the US, so the idea of involving a third country (in Steve's case, Mexico)looks like an interesting spin (for a beginner like me, at least).

Question for Steve - how were you able to determine that Mexico was the best place in the world for pastries going to Switzerland? Were you able to access Mexico's or Switzerland's trade data? Or, did you go through USITC database and found Mexico was #1 exporter to US and are using that as a basis to trade with the Swiss?

Can we conclude that the #1 exporter to the US is the #1 exporter to(most of)the world?

Thanks!

Sasha N.