Business planning

A trade mission is simply an activity in which a business from one country goes to seek out potential trade or investment partners in another country.

Getting paid is often the hardest part of your international trade transaction. Even if you are used to taking payment up-front in your domestic market, you will find that much harder in an overseas market.

You will quickly discover that there is no shortage of information on international trade and investment.

Many firms, especially those that focus on design and problem-solving, sub-contract the manufacture, and maybe other functions as well, to specialist contract manufacturers.

It is important to consider the logistics of moving your merchandise to your customers. For businesses considering international trade, however, it becomes a crucial part of their decision making and planning process.

This note outlines the questions to consider when appraising a business. You will find this helpful when you are looking at other businesses with view to investing in the business or buying it outright. You may find some of the questions appropriate to ask yourself if you are thinking of launching a new company in your target market.

When you make a capital investment, whether in equipment for your existing business or by investing in another business, you do so because you expect to generate income in the future. If this were not the case, you would not make the investment.

It is often helpful to split up funds within a business to show sources and applications. Sources show from where the money has come; applications show to where the money has gone.

The documentation required when sending goods to customers in other countries can seem complicated to a new exporter.

Certificates of origin (CO) verify a product’s country of origin and state where the product was manufactured, produced or processed, though this can become more complicated when raw materials come from one country and a product is then manufactured in another.