Importing Business Question & Answer

Question: I've been searching for a guide that would show me how to setup
an import business, with information such as taxes, forms, etc. I'm
interested in importing jewelry from Asia countries to sell here in the
U.S. Are you selling any guides like that?

Answer: I assume you are referring to duties on imported products and
this is covered in our Importing Business course.

A lot of the necessary forms can be supplied by the customs
broker or the U.S. Customs office. Our course focuses more on identifying
suppliers and buyers and a whole lot of time is not wasted on supporting
paperwork which is really incidental to the process.

Our importing business training self-study course provides some sample
forms and the like but we really try to encourage new traders not
to obsess over paperwork and to focus instead on the business of
identifying suppliers and buyers. Importers (you) simply need to know how
important it is to check with U.S. Customs in advance of importing. They
will provide the details on quotas, duties and special requirements.

Our course will provide you with a myriad of ideas for finding buyers
for your imports, here is a FREE resource where you can find 16 Electronic
trade magazines that are updated monthly with "VERIFIED" suppliers AND
complete contact details for those suppliers -
FREE Verified Import Product Supplier Electronic Trade Magazines



International Small Business Resources

Many people who visit our blog or website often overlook a
very valuable web page titled
Small Business Resources.

I am bringing it to your attention in this post for two
reasons.

1. There are MANY No Cost and Very Valuable resources for
all size businesses available on this page and you should
really check it out and bookmark it for later reference.

2. About one year ago a long time business friend and
online publisher asked that I compile all of my suggestions
and resources together to help you from getting ripped
off either online or offline.

I compiled and he helped me publish 3 PDF reports on this
subject.

These 3 new resources were recently posted to our
Small
Business Resources
webpage. These 3 reports contain valuable
information to help you avoid getting ripped off whether in
an import export transaction or through your website.

The resources and experiences related in the 3 PDF reports
can be very valuable to learn, keep on hand and refer to if
you are not sure about doing business or accepting business
from anyone anywhere in the world.

The reports are FREE and that means you may download them
and keep them for future reference. Here are the titles:

International Ecommerce Do's and Don'ts
- Keeping Your International Ecommerce Wealth Safe From Fraudsters


International Product Shipping Methods And
Customs Forms
- a short companion report to International Ecommerce Do's and Don'ts

B2B or B2C? - covers some of the reasons whether B2B or

B2C may be better for your business

When you visit our
Small Business Resources web page,
scroll down the page to find these resources hi-lited in
Yellow to help you locate them.

If you have never been to this web page, I encourage you to
look around as there are many more resources that are N0
C0ST which may be of interest and prove valuable to your
business.

I hope you will find value in these reports.


Your comments and feedback on the above reports is Welcome!

Ron Coble

Challenges of Product Choices and Prices in Multi-Sided Media Markets

Commercial media have faced product and price challenges in 2-sided markets for more than a century, but are encountering greater difficulties in getting it right as they try to effectively monetize multi-sided markets.

2-sided and multi-sided markets are ones in which more than one set of consumers must be addressed and there is an interaction between strategies and choices for each set of customers. Prices for one group of consumers affects their consumption quantity and this, in turn, affects the prices for and consumption by the other groups. Optimal revenues can only be achieved by dealing with all groups of consumers simultaneously.

Newspapers are a classic example of 2-sided platforms. The first product is the content sold to audiences and the second is access to audiences that is sold to advertisers. This has been the basis of the mass media business model since late 19th century and the strategy has been to keep circulation prices low to attract a mass audience and then to make the majority of revenue from advertiser purchases.

In this model, success in selling the newspaper product affects ability to sell advertising access because more readers makes a paper more attractive to advertisers; conversely, success in selling advertising affects ability to sell the newspaper to readers because it provides resources that improves content and make the paper more attractive.

Getting prices right in this model is crucial, but most media have traditionally been relatively unsophisticated in setting prices. Few have used demand-oriented pricing, based on what the market will bear, or target return pricing based on achieving a specific rate of return. Instead most have set prices based on what the closest competitors are doing or on industry average price. They were historically able to get away with it because elasticity and price resistance were relatively low because of the near monopolies of past in many markets.

Today, however, product and price choices are getting much more complex because of rising competition and because media are shifting from 2-sided to multi-sided platforms in which relationships among consumers are compounded. This complexity is evident in the difficulties newspapers and magazines are having figuring out effective ways to provide and sell content online.

The problem occurs because there are paying audiences and advertisers for the print edition; free audiences and paying advertisers for the online edition; and some joint audience and advertisers who use both the print and online offerings. If one alters the free price online to create a paying audience, it not only affects the willingness of online advertisers to pay, but affects the willingness of joint audiences and advertisers to pay and thus effects performance of the print sales as well.

Creating the correct combination of content available in print and online, getting the content prices right, generating audiences in both places that are right for advertisers, and properly prices advertising is no mean feat. The situation is made even more difficult as publishers add eReaders and mobile services to the mix.

Those who think they can easily monetize newspapers, magazines, or other information products online ignore the significant challenges posed by multi-sided platforms and need to carefully consider the impact that these factors have on product and price choices.