Is US Exporting Climate Worse/Better Or About The Same

This blog has been in existence since February 2006 and contains important posts you do not want to miss - be sure you check out the archived posts listed by Month/Year on the lower right side navigation area and bookmark so you may reference later.

OK, to the Question for this post:

Do you think the climate for US exporting is worse/better / substantively any different than when you wrote that blog answer Jan 2009? - Here is a link to that post: Import Export Business And The Economy

The question was sent as a follow up to an email that asked: "Your best guess on how this could affect / not Exports from the US?" - Specter of trade war looms as G-20 nations gather

My Answer To The Follow Up Question that is the subject of this post:

Every exporting business is different. Each deals with different products, each exports to different parts of the world. Each exporting situation has been affected differently.

1. I believe it is easier today to establish yourself as an export agent or broker or to get manufacturers to deal with you than it was two years ago because US manufacturing, what's left of it, is desperate, whereas before they were fat, dumb and happy and now they are competing with India, China, Brazil, Vietnam, you name it.

2. There is a car exporter who has advertised on our site for about 3 years now. I do not recall the exact numbers but when he first started advertising the Euro was about 1.60 to the dollar and he was exporting 20-40 vehicles a month (i believe that was the number) at a markup of $1000 per vehicle or a pro-rated basis if they purchased 5 or more down to $500 a vehicle.

In February of 2009 he called me to renew his ad and asked me if I had any idea how many cars he exported the previous month - I said 5 or 10 thinking it would not be that bad and he responded ZERO/NADA/ZIP.

The market in Europe had dried up not only because of the dollar improving somewhat but the fact Europe's economy was (and is) in a shambles.

In the interim, he began getting inquiries from China. Guess what? His business with China is booming. They want both new and used "luxury" cars and because he has been an established exporter, with exposure in the marketplace, they came to him. I have not really asked him about his Europe business but I know if it has come back at all it is a fraction of what it was.

Adapting. Exposure. Doing something and not allowing the government to freeze you in place waiting for them to save you. They won't, they screwed it up and business is what will bring it back.

3. In all the years I have worked with various vitamin manufacturers (about 12-13 now) the very best "long-term" customer for any of them came from a lead I generated from our website about 15 months ago during one of the worst parts of the past 24 months in the current economy. I mention in my blog post about adapting in dealing with 'how to pay' - this customer is in Thailand and they use 5 different credit cards to pay the manufacturer - whatever works.

4. I just received an email today from another company we work with for sourcing manufacturing in China. One of the leads we sent them, I cannot disclose their name but you would definitely know it as they are a old, long time brand name in a particular industry, has sent a sample to sourcing company's office in Beijing and for review of their engineers for pricing and they are very seriously working with the company on pricing the units out.

TRADE moves on and will find a way to adapt and there is always indirect exporting, meaning you do not need to export from the USA, you can export for a manufacturer in another country.

I think there was another post I did but I cannot remember the date in which I cited the number of LARGE brand name businesses that were started during the depth of the 1930's depression which are still in business today. International trade is either in your blood or it isn't and all I can say is move forward, adjust and continue to move forward, that is all there is to it.

Have a good evening.

Ron

Import Export Business Do's And Don'ts

I have to post this while my thoughts are still fresh on the subject - the do's and don'ts of this post apply not only to the Import Export Business, but ANY business.

1. LISTEN TO YOURSELF ON A VOICEMAIL MESSAGE - DO IT TODAY!

Now I readily admit I have a hearing problem that has taken about 90% of my hearing from my left ear so I often have to play voice messages back 2 or 3 times to get all the information someone is relating, however, when I have my wife stand there and listen 2 or 3 times and she too (who has no hearing loss!) cannot understand what the person is asking or especially what their telephone number is, then the caller is clearly at fault of not speaking clearly and concisely.

Most voice message systems allow you to speak 2-3 minutes, so right NOW, go leave yourself a message of up to one minute and do so in the small tone of voice, rhythm like you normally do, don't think about it, just do it. Then have someone that you normally do not speak with listen to your message.

If that person cannot understand what you are asking, stating or the phone number you have recorded, you need to begin practicing speaking more clearly, concisely and making your point as to why you are calling or you will not do well in ANY business!

If you are at work and you do not want everyone to know what your business is, go outside during your break or lunch and make your calls or wait until you get home. Trying to talk low so no one else hears you simply does not allow you to leave a coherent and understandable message.

I practiced for several hours the first time I was going to record an outgoing voice message on a voicemail system I set up back in the late 1980's. I wrote down exactly what I wanted to say and had to record over it several times before I got it right and then I asked others to listen to it and provide me with feedback. NEVER ASSUME you are understood by anyone other than your circle or friends and family who have adapted to your voice, rhythm, tone etc..

2. DO NOT LEAVE VAGUE MESSAGES

If you want someone to take time out of their schedule to call you back, TELL THEM WHO YOU ARE, WHAT OR WHY YOU ARE CALLING and BE VERY SPECIFIC.

There are countless fraudsters out there who leave vague messages trying to get the mark to call them back for their nefarious reasons, there are also telephone numbers that the fraudsters can ask you to call that will rack up $29.00 or more a minute charges by you simply calling them.

More importantly, if you leave a poorly worded message that is difficult to understand without any specifics, why should the person receiving that message call you back?

Some people would say everyone deserves a response -SORRY, not in today's Internet world where people can be calling from anywhere in the world and when you have your product or service information posted clearly on your website and if they cannot understand what you have posted there or are too lazy to read it, then quite frankly, they are not worth my nickle or dime calling back because they aren't going to understand an explanation from me either!

3. STOP HIDING BEHIND A BLOCKED OR UNKNOWN PHONE NUMBER

I use caller ID quite a bit due to my hearing problems. If someone does not speak clearly enough for either my wife or I to understand the phone number they have left but their message "sounds" like it might be important enough to return, I then go to my caller ID to get their number.

If you hide who you are behind caller id blocking or however they make it show up unknown, then you simply are not worth another second of someone's time in trying to get back with you.

As my last post stated GET REAL, you are either in business or you are playing games by hiding your identity.

Most of the time UNKNOWNS or BLOCKED ID's are calls from sales people and the volume of these calls has reached such a high level that I now DO NOT pick up when a call comes in from an Unknown or blocked id caller, I wait to see if they begin to leave a message and "if" they do and "if" it is a legitimate caller, I will pick up, otherwise I simply let the answering machine deal with them which in 90% of the cases they never leave a message.

4. SEND AN EMAIL OR FORM SUBMISSION INSTEAD

If you are calling a business that has a website with their telephone number posted, that is OK, BUT, if you cannot communicate your message clearly on their voice message system, they probably will not call you back.

So, use their email or form submission system on their site and send them a detailed message - THAT IS WHAT IT IS THERE FOR.

If you cannot send a coherent, understandable message then you seriously need to improve your written communications as well.

EMAIL or a website's Form submission IS FREE to use so why not use it. Many people will check their email far more often then their voice messages and if your message is CLEAR, CONCISE and UNDERSTANDABLE AND is something the business receiving it can help you with, THEY WILL CALL OR EMAIL YOU BACK.

EMAIL allows for FAR fewer mistakes since it provides and ongoing WRITTEN record of what each party is asking and the other answering.

I am a strong advocate for CALLING a supplier or potential buyer to establish communications but when I do, I leave a clear, concise message if they do not answer and repeat my phone number at least two times speaking slowly and also tell them what times are the best to call me back so we do not play phone tag.

GET REAL about your business by GETTING REAL about your COMMUNICATIONS, whether they are voice messages or emails (sorry, I don't text so I won't even begin to address that one - simply doesn't make sense to me to text someone what I could talk to them about over the phone in much less time than it takes to type all those little letters and symbols into your tiny phone keyboard).

I hope you find the posts on this blog helpful in your business endeavors.

Ron Coble
International Business Services

Get Real About Your Import Export Business

Getting real about your Import Export business in todays Internet
age involves some expenses, any real business does, fortunately,
with all the competition out there, the expenses are very small in
comparison to starting most other types of businesses.

Getting Real about your business means first and foremost, taking
action once you have made the decision to get off of your ass and
get started. YES, it takes your action, not some "mentor" or
high-priced personal guide - YOU are the key to YOUR success and
YOUR action is necessary to succeed once you have studied and
understand the processes.

But you have heard or read that before if you have been on this
blog for any length of time.

So let's talk about a super, small, baby step action you can take,
if you are serious about GETTING REAL about your business.

In the past 10 years, we have received well over ONE MILLION
dollars in fraudulent orders. Some were easy to spot, others have
become more difficult, but in that time we have not lost one
cent to fraudsters and have learned some very valuable lessons
on what to look for, one of which I will now pass along to you.

In almost 90% of the fraudulent orders received, the fraudster
used a free email address such as Yahoo or Hotmail.

So, literally, any order that we now receive from anyone with a
Yahoo or Hotmail account IMMEDIATELY gets the FULL scam screening
procedures, most of which are outlined on our company page at
ImportExportHelp.com under the "due diligence" resources.

In the past 10 years, I have spoken with and corresponded with
thousands of other business people around the world and Yahoo
and Hotmail email addresses have grown into an instant delete
or filtered to spam due to the high incidence of them being used
by spammers, scammers and the business wannabees who are NOT
really serious about success and are nothing but a waste of TIME
for these business people (remember TIME IS MONEY).

Email is a terrible way to try and make initial contact with
any business person to begin with...marketing organizations that
track this kind of thing state upwards of 70% or more of all
emails NEVER reach the intended party and those that do are
often deleted without viewing if they have FREE email addresses.

Yahoo and Hotmail email addresses are an immediate flag to most
businesses that the sender is not a serious contender and will
many time, if not more often than not, be ignored and deleted.

Yes, I have and still do recommend the use of Gmail.com email
addresses up to a point. I believe that they too will ultimately
reach the level of filtering that yahoo and hotmail addresses
receive in the not too distant future. Unfortunately, I am
seeing an incredible level of spam and scam emails in my
numerous gmail accounts, even those I have never made public.

Another BIG reason for recommending you get away from Yahoo and
Hotmail is the filtering issues. They control the level of what gets
through to your inbox and what gets filtered, gmail is not near as
restrictive as Yahoo and Hotmail, but again, I expect that to change
in the not to distant future.

So what are you to do?

You can either set up an entire website that normally provides you
with a huge amount of email addresses that you create or in some
cases Unlimited numbers.

The building of a website does not need to be the very first thing
you need to do but when you are ready, the service I recommend to
beginning website builders that has MORE help and assistance than
any other I have found yet may be reviewed at:

Web Hosting - DIY Step-by-Step Website Building Service

*** Be sure to download ALL of the FREE training materials the
above web hosting/building services provides, including their
great videos - they have the VERY BEST resources available
of any similar service my 17 years of Internet research has found.

Once you have invested in your future by obtaining the appropriate
training course to the type of International Trade business you are
going to "GET REAL" about, your first step to project a more
professional image should be to have a "REAL" Email address and
not be using a FREE one.

Not only does having your own domain name email project a much
BETTER Internet persona but even more importantly, YOU control the
level of filtering and YOU get to see all emails that are filtered BEFORE
they are deleted.

Additionally, many business people have their email programs set up to
filter emails coming from Yahoo and Hotmail addresses either to their
BULK or SP*.AM folder or have them automatically deleted!

You can have your own domain name email accounts up to 10
accounts for a price of less than $20 to a max of $40 per year depending
upon the number of email addresses you feel you need and you can
always upgrade to the higher level is the lower is not enough.

This is should be the FIRST and is the simplest thing you can do to
build your reputation and show you are serious about being in business
and it only takes a few minutes to do - here is the service where I have
a domain specific email address set up - go check them out:

Get A Real (LOW COST) Email Address Service

Quite frankly, if you invest in training and will not invest in
upgrading your Internet personality, you need to GET REAL about your
Import Export business or get out of the way of those who are
serious about their success.

In reality, whether you are starting an international trade
business OR any business, you need a REAL email address - STOP
jeopardizing your success by being to cheap to invest a few
dollars a year to build your online reputation.

REMEMBER, NO ONE CARES MORE ABOUT YOU, YOUR FAMILY OR
YOUR SUCCESS THAN YOU DO (OR SHOULD)!

And if you are too lazy to take the SMALL action necessary to set up a
REAL email address, then you should forget about being in business
for yourself because you are simply TOO LAZY to GET REAL about being
in business for yourself.

Hope you find these posts helpful - your comments are always welcome.

Ron Coble
International Business Marketing Services

More Import Export Business Lessons

Another Import Export Business lesson in the form of an a Question and Answer Post:

QUESTION:

I run a small wine export company in New Zealand and I am looking into exporting wine to Mali in Africa at the moment.

Contact is made, terms agreed on and now my customer says that I would need to open an non-residential account with his bank to enable him to transfer funds into my account in New Zealand. This sounds wrong to me and I have never been asked to do such a thing in the past. According to my customer this is an anti fraud measure introduced by the Malian government.

Could you please advise me whether or not this is true. Your help would be very much appreciated.

ANSWER:

I would suggest that you do a search in google for Mali + Fraud and/or Mali + scam - Mali appears to be yet another African cesspool of fraudulent activity.

My first suggestion is - Find a buyer not in a 3rd world country

One of the key factors that fraudsters play on their marks is the desperation of or greed for the completion of a sale or to get money.

How many things could go wrong with this?? You deposit funds to open an account, your client "supposedly" puts their funds into your account. If the bank is a legit one, how do you know your buyer does not have a friend working in the bank? How do you get your funds back?? The Mali bank is under NO obligations like your NZ banks have to their customers.

How many different ways does this have to sound like a scam before you simply deem it NOT worth the trouble?

Please do yourself a favor and read some of the listings google will give you on the suggested searches above - these people have honed the art of scam.

Is the sale really worth all the hassle if it is legit? Talk to a freight forwarder in NZ that deals with Mali and see if they have heard of this 'new' requirement. But bottom line, is it all worth it?? Cant' you find a buyer
elsewhere in a non- 3rd world country.

Have you done due diligence on your buyer, or the so-called bank you would need to deal with??

See the list of resources we recommend -

http://www.importexporthelp.com/company.htm#DUE-DILIGENCE

My advice goes back to my first suggestion - WALK AWAY.

Ron Coble

Open Letter To Import Export Business Entrepreneurs

This blog contains some of the MOST VALUABLE REAL WORLD experience regarding International Trade and Ecommerce that you will find anywhere and best of all, it is FREE.

You have been directed to this post as a means of helping you make the most informed decision possible about your interest in starting an Export and/or Import business.

Quite frankly, if you will not spend hours and maybe days reading through the posts in this blog, especially ALL of the Questions and Answer posts, you really are not ready to be in business for yourself, especially international trade.

And, if bluntness offends you, you should leave now.

Over the past 4 1/2 years most or at least many of the questions I have received by email or by phone over the past 22 years in this business. My answers to those questions are posted here because it became apparent that many (or most) of these questions were the same, only from different people.

In recent months some changes have come about in our business, website and my health. Assessing these changes, I have decided to put more emphasis on the RETIRED side of the term I normally use of "SEMI-RETIRED" when describing my level of doing business.

In doing so, I also decided that if a person called or emailed questions that I would first refer them to this blog to read everything that has been posted here since most of those questions were answered in the archived posts.

Then if they are unable to find the answer to their specific question, they may come back and ask it, BUT TOO BE VERY BLUNT here, I do not intend to provide you a summary of the import or export course by phone or email when details of the course have been outlined "very" extensively on our web pages.

Also, I am NOT here to provide free coaching, mentoring or consulting - that is why we offer the course and the main courses have a ONE YEAR EMAIL consulting services for any questions that may not be answered within the course.

Before writing this post I tried to think of an analogy for the reason most people never succeed in "any" type of business and I think one came to me.

Let's say you decided to build an addition onto your house and you purchased all of the necessary plans, materials and tools to do so.

If all those plans, materials and tools are still sitting there or the addition is only 1/2 finished after one year, are the plans, tools or materials the reason it was not finished? OR, heaven forbid, would the fault be with the fact the person who had every intention of finishing this addition in 3 months, then 6 months, then 9 and 12, simply was not motivated enough to start or finish it?

If you follow my advice and read the posts within this blog, you may do so by using the links to the archives that are located on the right sidebar area linked to by Month and Year.

Ultimately, if you decide to get the international trade course offered on our website or do not, you will hopefully benefit from the REAL WORLD experience I have put into my answers to the many questions received over the past 22 years.

I will continue to post on this blog as there are still more questions and answers in my files, but again, I am entering a more RETIRED mode of my semi-retired mode of operation.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post and I hope you will find the rest of the blog helpful.

UPDATE (24 October 2010): I realized that the Month/Year Arhive links were not showing up on this page, so just go to the MAIN page of the blog either by clicking here --> http://importexportbusiness.blogspot.com or by clicking on the header title of Import Export Business at the top of the page - the Arhived Posts are then found on the right side by Month and Year.

Regards,

Ron Coble
Owner - Coble International Marketing Services
http://www.importexporthelp.com

Another Import Export Business Question And Answer

QUESTION:

Hello Ron,

Thanks for the speedy response. I was referring to both actually.
I am seriously considering ordering the "Export Master Package". I am more interested in brokering the deal between buyer and seller. However, my major concern was would I be able to do it from Japan ( I will be leaving in a month). Are there any special obstacle I should be concerned with, like telephone bills, foreign address(Japan), bank accounts? Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Marty

ANSWER:

Marty,

I am of the belief that if you really want to do something in life, you will find a way of getting around the perceived obstacles.

There may be better answers out there than I have for your questions and I do not
know what your situation is, are you in the military, do you still have relatives here in the states.

Basically, for foreign phone you can get a vonage or skype account. In my bonus
materials I reveal a service that I use for my fax messages that only costs $24.95
a year after the first year of $34.95 (a 10 set up fee). Faxes come in, are translated to a PDF document and are emailed to me, I can view on screen, if needed, I can print out, if not, I can file or delete - no waste of paper or $450 a year phone line.

Foreign address - if you have a relative willing to handle your mail and forward
what is necessary (mail is used so little now) with the internet and email and fax.

Bank accounts, if you are a US citizen, I doubt you are giving up your citizenship??

Open of two bank accounts for your business before you leave, look for NO Fee
accounts - have one as your main business account with checking and the other
a small or no balance required checking account for receiving wire transfers.

Where there is a WILL there is a WAY.

I would suggest ordering the exporter master package asap as it will take 3-5 days
to ship to you - our publisher is shut down until Monday, 15 June, will begin shipping again on Tuesday 16 June - they only ship on Tuesdays and Fridays - if you wait until you are in Japan, there is an additional $25 fee for shipping.

Hope the above has answered your questions and dispelled some of the
perceived obstacles.

Irregardless of what you decide, I wish you the best.

Kindest regards,

Ron Coble
Coble International - International Marketing Services
http://www.ImportExportHelp.com
Phone: 717-292-5763

Import Export Courses Now Available Via Online Delivery

We will soon have the information and new LOWER PRICES and
FASTER DELIVERY info posted to their respective web pages, but for now,
we are posting the announcement of the NEW ONLINE DELIVERY of the
Import and Export business courses here in our blog.

Basically, all the course files that were placed on CD roms, packaged in a fancy
looking box and then shipped sometimes taking 2-3 weeks due to the customs
clearance delays in your country are now being made available online via a
password accessible dedicated member website.

You will need a broadband connection to download the files, so please
keep that in mind as you make a decision.

Now, in addition to the much faster delivery, the prices will be changed shortly to
reflect the basic shipping costs being taken off the price.

Here is the link to the combined Import Export Toolkit course (components are
outlined on the web page) -
http://www.importexporthelp.com/trdspx1.htm
*** Note the stated price is $424 and $25 would have been added for overseas shipment - NOW (and this may change to a higher price) you can get ALL the
materials via direct member site download for only $409.00US.

If you were only interested in either the exporting or importing courses, here are their direct links and new online delivery prices:
Importing Course - Price on page is $160 and $25 would have been required to
ship - new online delivery price is only $154 -
http://www.importexporthelp.com/trdspi1.htm

Last, just the Exporting Course - Price stated on webpage is $316 plus $25 to
ship overseas - NOW online delivery price is only $301.00 -
http://www.importexporthelp.com/trdspm1.htm

Now even if you are in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, United Kingdom, Australia or
wherever you are in the world, you do not need to be held hostage to the mercies
of your customs bureau for delivering your course. Within 1 Business Day of
placing your order, you will receive your Password and UserID to use
to get ALL the course materials directly downloaded to your computer.

Ron Coble
Coble International - International Marketing Services

Motivation To Succeed In The Import Export Business

Most of this post is attributed to my old business friend and associate,
Jim Straw, who has over 50 years of success in various businesses and
is considered one of the top marketing gurus who continues to operate
his business while well into his 80's.

This came to me as part of an email and I thought it appropriate to
post here since motivation or "coaching" is a key factor in the decision
of which Import Export Business training course people select.

Jim's post begins here.....

Here lately, I've been reading a lot about *How to Motivate Your Sales
Team* in the multitude of ezines I receive.

As always, the ideas ranged from the ridiculous to the sublime.

To be quite frank with you, I have never tried to "motivate" any of
my sales people (dealers, associates, affiliates, whatever). I always figured
that those individuals who were "real" would take the bull by the horns
and make the sales to make the money, because ...

In the words of Andrew Carnegie:

"There is no use whatever trying to help people who do not
help themselves. You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless
he be willing to climb himself."

Beyond that, as Frank Tibolt said:

"We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a
thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom
generates action."

Rather than wasting my time trying to "motivate" people, I have always
spent my time supporting the efforts of those who were doing something.

So ... please don't wait for me to start
"motivating" you. -- It won't happen. -- But ...

As always, I am here to answer any questions.

Don't be bashful. -- Anytime you have any kind of question, just ASK!

I may not tell you what you want to hear ... like the b.s. artists do
... but, I will tell you the facts of the matter as I know them to be from
my over 50 years hands-on experience in the business community. -- That's
what I'm here for. -- Your success is just as important to me as it is
to you because, when YOU succeed, I succeed, too.

Feel free to pick my brain.

And, remember what Charles Steinmetz said:

"No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions."

I ain't from the government, but I am here to help you.

.....end of Jim Straw's email.

My (Ron Coble's) further comments.......

Although our Importing course and Exporting course and the combo
Import Export Toolkit course offer email consulting for ONE FULL YEAR
that allows you to ask any question you want in that time, many people
opt to pay THOUSANDS of dollars more for the promise of being able
to TALK to someone by phone.

Whether it is an inherent need to have someone "coaching" them or
"motivating" them, they are spending thousands of dollars and untold
hours of precious time on a promise that I have yet to have anyone
tell me helps them reach ANY success in this business.

As Jim mentions in his email text above, the Email consulting that is
offered with our courses will provide you with answers....although they
may not be the answers you are seeking.

For instance, if you submit a question that we know is covered in the
body of the course, then you will receive an answer referencing that
portion so "YOU" may read that section and learn and make your
own decisions accordingly.

Other answers you may not like are when you are so enthusiastic about
a deal offered to you but the answer comes back to stay away from it.
We are not deal killers but if you ask about something that we have
prior knowledge of, that is the answer you will get, we are not going to
tailor our answers to meet your hoped for expectations. Reality is
what it is and sometimes it sucks!

Additionally, you cannot expect someone else to learn ALL the aspects
of a particular deal you are trying to put together so much so that you
are really seeking a confirmation of your decision to move forward or
not. There is NO profit incentive for us to get involved in your deals and
quite frankly we have NO interest in becoming silent partners with
everyone who purchases our "HOW TO" course.

I covered this in a previous post about making "DECISIONS". Making
decisions is what separates the successes from the failures and having
some minimum wage or commission paid rep on the other end of the
phone giving their totally unqualified "OPINION" is a sure recipe for
FAILURE.

It was interesting that I received Jim Straw's email today because I had
been thinking about how MOST people are simply not cut out to get
involved in international trade. They view the business as a "get rich
quick" scheme or "how do I make money" opportunity and it simply is
not suited for that type of mentality, although most purveyors of import
export training would have you believe otherwise.

Hope this post will enlighten those who really have an interest in getting
started in the Import and/or Export business and also help save those
who are in need of constant motivation or who are looking at import
export as a "money making opportunity" from spending their hard earned
money on some useless program that promises to hold their hand while
skipping down the yellow brick road to riches.

New Import Export Business Question And Answer

Question: I'm aware that no specific qualificatons are required for an importing/exporting business, but wont certain companies that i maybe want to buy products from request for some kind of reference number or regestration number?

Answer: Based on the phone number you provided, I know you are not resident to
the USA.

There are so many different governmental organizations in the world that
NO ONE source can give you an answer for all of them. YOU will have to
research this in your country to find out if it is required.

In the USA, "some" manufacturers may request your sales tax ID number,
but here again, not all 50 states have a sales tax (yet). I keep hearing from
a Canadian business we deal with about them being a "numbered" corporation.
Some day, when I have time to be curious, I will ask them about it, but
quite frankly as long as they keep sending us our commission checks, I
really do not care, except out of curiosity.

Each country, province, state, county district may have their own requirements,
you have to do that type of research yourself as that is all part of going into
this business or any business.

Kindest regards,

Ron Coble
Coble International - International Marketing Services
http://www.ImportExportHelp.com