Guys, let's get some hard cores today. Talk about foreign trade. How to sell things from a white boy to a foreigner and earn money back。
You may feel that foreign trade is far away, that you want an eighth degree in english, that you have to understand a complex set of customs regulations, that you have to have a background to play. Honestly, i used to think so. But it wasn't until i walked across the river that it was actually a piece of window paper. The essence of it is to sell your home to people who need it abroad. That's it。
How do we do that? Don't worry, let's just break up and talk。
Step 1: get yourself straight and don't go naked
A lot of people think they're foreign-trade companies when they have a license. I advise you to slow down。
You have to hit the bottom before you do it. If there's a list, you can't get it in, you can't get it out。
So you have to do three things。
First, your “identity card”, which is the company's operating license. That's a good thing. A few hundred bucks for an agency. But one key point to note is that you must have the word “import/export” in your business. You can't do anything without those five words。
Secondly, there is the right to import and export. With this, you can declare your own customs, collect your own money and refund your taxes. In the past, this was complicated, and now the country has simplified the process by directly accessing the “china’s single window for international trade” website, so that you can complete customs registration and obtain a 10-digit customs registration code. This code is the identification of the goods that you'll be carrying out the sea。
And third, and most importantly, you need an account that collects dollars。
It's stuck a lot of people. A lot of starters started with relatives and friends hitting their own personal banker, kari, but the road didn't work. Because the state strictly regulates the collection of individual remittances, the bank freezes you as soon as you receive a large sum of dollars from your personal accounts。
So you have to open a company's dollar account at the bank. You need a business licence, a stamp, a corporate id card and an application to open a foreign exchange account. Some of the banks are more stringent and may need to provide some business certification, which can be communicated to the bank manager, indicating that you trade normally。
Of course, if you think you're too busy with these qualifications, there is also a “saving model” where you find a formal foreign trade agent. You're just talking about customers, you're taking orders, you're throwing them all at customs, you're collecting money, you're going to pay them a percentage of the service. This is a good option for a friend who wants to start a light asset with a small number of prior orders。
Step 2: selling what? Selling to whom? — selection and customer-developed “dumb solutions”
Okay, i got the papers, i got the account. Now the question is: what am i selling? To whom
A lot of rookies make a mistake in their selection, which is, "i think this is good for sale." don't ever! What you think is good is not good for the foreigners。
I'll teach you one of the dumbest and most effective ways: go out and look more。
You open the ali baba international station, the chinese manufacturing network, and even you brush the amazon, tiktok shop abroad. Look what the foreigners are buying. What's their product fire now? What's the big deal
The selection actually has a track record. Freshmen try not to touch things that are too high a threshold, such as medical devices, precision instruments, lithium battery products, which involve a large number of complex qualifications, such as exports to the european union requiring ce certification, exports to the united states requiring fcc certification, and, in many places, specialized hazardous goods warehouses, with special requirements for logistics, which can bypass you through the process。
First of all, i suggest you pick something that's light, light, small, little. Like what? Small commodities, household items, pets, mobile phone accessories, simple hardware tools. These products, you get low cost, you don't get out bad, and you have a low probability of returning the goods。
Especially now that a lot of foreigners are on tiktok, the platform of tiktok is characterized by the delivery of short video, which is very well suited to fast-forwards and creative small goods that stimulate the eyeballs, read them and use them. The funny little things that you've been brushing in the country, you can actually use a different language on a foreign voice。
So, where are the clients looking
I have a few suggestions。
First, make good use of the b2b platform. Now the mainstream is the ali baba international station and there are some vertical platforms. You use these platforms as a tool to put up pictures of your products, detailed parameters, price information, and then do a few things every day: optimize product titles, respond to queries, report rfq. Rfq is where you go to rob clients every day。
Second, google search. This isn't about searching for you without purpose, it's about skill. For example, when you're selling pets, you go google "pet collar buyer" or "pet poppies i"Mporter (importer of pet supplies) or direct search for “wholesale pet collars usa”. Instead of just looking at the first page, sometimes turning to the next few decades, you can find some treasure customers. Then write down the name of the company you found. Go to lInkedin looked for contact information for the procurement manager in this company。
Speaking of l..This is the key tool. You change your head to a proper picture, write your career experience, and then add the procurement managers of the foreign companies. And when i do, i'm going to say a sincere greeting about what you do. When you add it, don't come up and throw it out, and put out some more stuff that makes people think you know the business。
Thirdly, there is also a method that is particularly appropriate for newers to understand market demand, namely, to check data on asycuda. You know which countries are in high demand for the import of certain types of products, and find companies that are buying your own kind of products and contact them by various means. That's accurate marketing。
Fourth, more participation in industry fairs. The expanse, the china expedition, including professional fairs in some vertical trades, are excellent scenes for face-to-face clients. There you have access not only to buyers with real purchase intentions, but also to the latest developments in the industry and the situation of competitors。
Step 3: negotiation, quotations and deposit payments — how do foreigners get their money out
When you worked hard to find an interested client, they sent a message. How do we get it back? What's the price
Don't rush back! Ask yourself, "do i know what he needs?"
A lot of clients send an e-mail saying, "pase quit for your protection." at this point, if you're going straight to the top of the price list, you're going to be dead。
What is the right thing to do? Ask more。
You know, is he a final retailer or a wholesale importer? What does he want? Any requests for packing? What's the target market? This information is 10,000 times more important than your direct offer。
Once these are clarified, formal quotations will be issued. This is when you use the trade terms "fob," "cif"。
What do these terms specifically mean? In fact, they are very simple and distinguish between the costs and risks to be borne by each seller and buyer。
• fob: the simple understanding is “delivery on board”. You produce good goods and send them to chinese ports and bear all the costs, including tow, customs clearance, etc., from the plant to the ship. Once the goods cross the shipboard, subsequent freight and insurance costs are borne by the buyer。
• cif: the simple understanding is “delivery at port”. In addition to the costs included in fob, you also paid the shipping and insurance costs for your clients. Your offer will be higher than fob because you've got the money。
In general, for new clients in the first partnership, i would prefer to use t/t (twice transfer) for collection, preferably with a 30 per cent down payment and 70 per cent of the final payment paid before shipment. A 30 per cent down payment is an anchor for cooperative win-wins and can reassure you to arrange for the production and purchase of raw materials without fearing that the client will suddenly turn away. If the client doesn't pay the down payment, you have 30% of the down payment to cover the loss. It is not too late to consider the discharge period once a stable partnership has been established with the client。
In addition, after the customer has confirmed the price and terms, you are required to make a “formal invoice” (proforma invoice, pi) to the customer for confirmation. Pi has clear product information, quantities, prices, trade terms, payment modalities, delivery periods, etc. Pi is not a contract, but upon confirmation by the client, it has legal force and is the basis for confidence-building between the parties。
Step four: production, cabinets, customs clearances, bills of lading — logistics battles you've never heard of
The down payment came in, you and the factory confirmed production. Here's a blackboard. You have to go to the factory and keep an eye on the quality. Foreign trade credit is of paramount importance, and the client is promised when to deliver the goods, even if he stays up all night。
It's finished, the goods are packed, and you'll have to contact the freight forwarder. What does the courier do? This is to help you with a range of logistics, such as booking (positioning of ships), trailers (designing large cars to factories for delivery), customs clearance (declaring your cargo to customs)。
Booking: tell your cargo how much, how many cubes, which port to which country and when to ship。
Trailers: container trucks will be arranged for loading at the factory。
Customs declaration: the shipping agent will help you organize customs declaration information - commercial invoices, boxing forms (what is in each box, how many and how many sizes are to be written), contracts, advance delivery of this information to cooperating customs offices, which will declare it to customs through the single window for china's international trade. Once the customs check has been completed, your cargo will be cleared on the manifest to board the ship。
When you load a ship, you get a vital document called the sea bill of lading. This “bill of lading” (b/l) is legally equivalent to your certificate of rights of delivery, equivalent to the key to the warehouse, and whoever has the bill of lading can collect it at the port of destination。
Step 5: collection, bill of lading, tax refunds — clean-up
When you get the bill of lading, you should remind the client to pay the final payment. Remember, don't send the original bill of lading to the client until the final payment is received. Whoever holds the bill of lading has the right to take delivery. If you don't get the money, send out the bill of lading, then your goods are taken away for nothing。
It is desirable that the bill of lading be scanned to the customer before it is sent, so that he can prepare the customs clearance。
If you can issue a value added tax invoice and have the qualifications of a general taxpayer, then you can do one more thing: export refund. In short, in order to encourage exports, the state will refund to you a percentage of the value added tax you pay when purchasing raw materials and producing domestically. You have to get them to give you the vat invoice. It's pure profit。
I have a little sense of myself
Every step in foreign trade is easy, and every step is difficult to concentrate on。
You send a development letter, 80% of which could be sunk in the sea, okay, relax, and put your mind on "i'm a wide-spread net, and there's always fish hooks," and you're not afraid of rejection。
You're talking to clients with translation software, and it doesn't matter if they see you in english。
You'll meet people from every country in this business, and every country's human personality is strange. Israelis may be fast-paced, indians may be particularly fond of prices, and the british may be very courteous. You have to learn to deal with different people in different ways。
But in any case, there are only two words at the core: “the letter” and “the truth”。
Make sure that the goods are done properly and in good quality, and don't delay when you promise to deliver. That's it。
In 2026, global business was becoming more efficient and compliant, and logistics costs and raw materials prices were volatile. So it's more important than anything to count every penny and keep your profit line. We're not afraid to make any money from foreigners, we're good, we're good, we're good, we're good。
What's up, guys? This idea of foreign trade making money, do you get it
We welcome your welcome and we will continue to talk next time about the “holes” of foreign trade receipts, and we will continue to talk。
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