How can small and medium-sized enterprises do foreign trade on their own? What should a newly hired novice in foreign trade do when sitting in front of the computer? There is often a significant difference between the theoretical knowledge of international trade learned at university and the specific operations of foreign trade in actual work. This article targets the two common characteristics of SMEs' foreign trade: "no import-export rights" and "doing foreign trade via the internet." It provides a detailed description of the entire operational process of foreign trade, starting from scratch, with practical examples and adhering to the principle of "learn and apply immediately."
Can I do foreign trade too? This question is akin to "Can I start a business?" Look around you; "starting a business" has become simple and ubiquitous. Even students not in school are already doing business, selling everything from instant noodles, small accessories, CDs, to clothing. Of course, these businesses are very simple due to their small scale; sell things to people who need or like them, price them higher than your cost, and the difference is profit. However, if you want to expand your business, the procedures will become quite complex. You may start needing rooms to store and display goods (fixed assets), advertise to attract customers (market development and promotion strategies), and contact courier companies or rent trucks for transporting goods (logistics, external collaboration). As it grows further, you'll probably need to register with the industrial and commercial administration, keep accounting books, use commercial invoices, and pay taxes legally (market supervision, finance, and taxation). See, the essence of doing business never changes: buy and sell goods, earning a margin. It's just that as the scale expands, more procedures and management institutions are involved. Foreign trade is also a form of business, except the customers are foreigners. Like the various businesses around you, it involves both simple transactions and relatively complex large deals that may involve different departments or even departments from different countries. You can make choices based on your own conditions, starting small and simple, then expanding.
The simplest form of foreign trade might be street vendors selling souvenirs to foreign tourists in tourist areas. Additionally, popular online shops on platforms like eBay or Taobao publicly sell various trinkets, which anyone from anywhere in the world can purchase. You send the items to the buyer through international courier services like UPS, DHL, or FedEx in small packages, and the buyer sends the money (usually in US dollars - the most widely circulated currency worldwide) to your account through online payment tools like PayPal, or directly into your credit card or bank account - because the transaction amount is small, the process is this simple. Online shop-style foreign trade is quite attractive for individuals, with profits accumulating bit by bit, sometimes quite substantial. However, as your foreign trade business grows larger, the procedures and involved management institutions will gradually increase:
1. Obtain import-export rights: Only enterprises and individuals with import-export rights can directly engage in import-export business.
2. Prepare the supply chain: produce yourself or procure domestically.
3. Product inspection: many officially exported products require mandatory quality inspections, applying to the National Import-Export Commodity Inspection and Quarantine Bureau for inspection to obtain export permission.
4. Export declaration: declare exports to the customs at the place of export, commonly referred to as customs clearance.
5. Arrange international transportation: entrust international transport companies to ship goods overseas.
6. Receive payments from foreign customers through banks - usually in US dollars.
7. Handle foreign exchange...