Do you have or wish to open business to earn an income?
If you live overseas and can access some unique products and items, you can build a successful business selling online in the US. It’s quite easy- all you need is a good partner that can distribute your products in the US as you sell them.
Getting Started with a New Income Stream
Whether you are looking to build a business that can completely replace your full-time income now (with the potential to get even more lucrative than that) or are just looking build up a bit of a side income without having to dedicate a world of time to your new business, generating a new income stream from scratch isn’t something you can sort of “fall into”.
You have to be really smart, savvy, and strategic about the approach you take to building up this new income stream – especially if you are going to sell in the US market, one of the most (if not THE most) competitive business environment in the world.
At the same time, when you’re working with a market as large as the one in the United States the potential to build a business always exists. People are always looking to buy something, markets are always (generally) large enough to support multiple businesses in an industry and a niche, and if you take advantage of the tips and tricks we highlight below you’ll be able to hit the ground running pretty quickly.
Let’s get into it.
Find a Niche
The first piece of the puzzle you’ll want to figure out when you are looking to sell in the United States has to do with finding or niche, that little corner of a marketplace that you can focus on that immediately gives your business, your product, or your service a competitive advantage.
Far too many people come up with a business idea or an idea for a product or service that they want to sell before they focus on seeing if there’s a market that would be interested in that solution to begin with. Be sure that you aren’t putting the cart before the horse this way.
Instead, really focus on finding a group of people that are passionate about something or have a real problem they are looking to solve that you can offer a product or service to that improves their lives – all at a price point that can change your financial future forever moving forward.
Focus on Marketing
After your niche has been selected it’s then time to laser in on your marketing. This is another huge piece of the puzzle to get squared away, but for one reason or another there are a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of business owners that get a little queasy when it comes time to market and sell. Don’t let that happen to you. Nothing in the world of business happens until something gets sold and you don’t actually have a business to products start flying off your shelves.
Your marketing is one of your biggest competitive advantages (when done right) and has the potential to help you scale your offers to create the kind of financial future and income or wealth that you were hoping for to begin with.
Look for Ways to Scale Your Offers
One of the coolest things about the internet really changing the way we do business forever is the ability to scale different offers and different businesses that just wouldn’t have been possible before. Even just 20 or 30 years ago the idea of someone building a global business in their back bedroom with nothing more than a laptop, maybe $100, and a dream – selling to customers all over the United States as well as the world – would have been unimaginable.
Today it’s so much of our reality that we don’t even stop to think of just how special these entrepreneurial superpowers really are. Always look for ways to scale your offer, to sell more while eliminating yourself from the business as much as you can, and to stop making the trade of your hours for dollars. Selling online lets you make money while you sleep when you are doing it right.
Why sell in America
The United States is the world’s largest economy with a GDP of 18 trillion dollars! With a very affluent populace and a strong dollar, it makes perfect sense to sell in that market.
How to sell in the US
You will need a fulfillment/distribution company that will act as your partner to ship your items locally. Because when the orders start coming in, shipping each piece from your country to the US is a headache and pretty expensive! Plus you don’t want to spend all of your time filling out shipping forms or rushing to the Post Office to ship an item.
The Solution is a Parcel/Package Forwarding Company
What is a forwarding company– these are businesses who manage and stock your inventory, then ship it to your customers as you sell it. They will ship like you would if you were in the US – with your name as ‘sender’. The forwarders will also give you a US address which you can list as your business address, and will also handle returned items for you. A US address on your website allows you to market items to people who wouldn’t normally buy from outside the country.
How they work– you sign up for an account with a forwarding company and get a US address to send your items to. Ship your inventory, and when a customer makes a purchase from your website, you send an electronic notification with product information and customer’s shipping choice (for e.g. 2 day, priority mail etc.) to the forwarder. They will pick the items you sold, and ship them according to your instructions.
Why it makes sense to use a forwarder– so you don’t have to spend international postage on shipping your items, and your customers feel better knowing they are dealing with a local company. The forwarders will also accept returns on your behalf which can then be relisted for sale or shipped back to you. You can leave the hassles of the back-end post sales operations and focus on what is really important – running your business and selling your products!
What to look for in a forwarder
- Reputation– how long has the company been around; what is their BBB rating? (BBB is an independent organization in the US that rates businesses on ethics, customer service etc.)
- Cost would be an important factor as some fulfillment companies can charge an upwards of $500 per month! Starting with a smaller, stable company will offer you the best value.
- Service– look for answers to questions such as: is the provider willing to work with your requirements? Do they have an online system for you to verify inventory easily to keep track of sales and returns? How quickly will they ship your items once you place a shipment request?
- Additional Benefits– will they let you receive mail at the same address? If you use their address for your business, you can also use it for your US mail, for buying any items you may wish to get from the US and for any official mail you may receive.
- Additional Costs– many forwarders will charge you a small fee per item when you ship and also when they handle returns for you. Most forwarders will also charge a storage fee on your items. These are common practices but it’s best to ask about these and any additional charges up front.
- Transparency– it is important that all fees charged by the forwarder be listed clearly on their site so you can make a good comparison. If there is any confusion, ask! There are companies out there that show very attractive prices up front but have a lot of hidden fees once you sign up. Ask for pricing details in email if anything is unclear.
In general, you should be able find a good company for about $100/month with all the forwarding services included, except any per item fees and shipping fees.
Picking the Right Partners to Grow Explosively
Of course, a huge part term and your success or failure when building a business – a full-blown business, a side hustle, or something in between – is the partner or partners that you choose to move forward with to help you grow.
Some partners are set up to help you dramatically improve your business operation, help you optimize your workflow and your sales process, and really help you achieve the kind of financial future most people only ever dream of by adding their expertise and their specialized skills into the mix. Other partners, though, are going to drag your business down, handcuff and handicap growth, and really find ways to sort of cripple your ability to succeed through absolutely no fault of your own whatsoever.
You’ll obviously want to choose the right partners to help you light a fire under your business, especially if you are going to be selling physical items that need to be shipped and delivered to addresses in the United States (or anywhere else in the world, for that matter). But that’s what makes companies like US Global Mail so special. These kinds of partners are very much geared up to help you hit the ground running business, taking care of the logistical side of shipping your products so that you don’t have to worry about any of this heavy lifting.
On top of that, though, you’ll still remain complete and total control of the overall shipping process in a way that might not have been possible with other shipping partners. Through your administrative dashboard you’ll be able to control and command a lot of the shipping components, enjoying the kind of flexibility and freedom through US Global Mail for Small Business not accessible anywhere else.
These are advantages that cannot and should not go overlooked, especially since we live in the midst of the most competitive business environment that has ever existed. You’ll need absolutely every edge and advantage you can get to succeed in today’s super cutthroat business world. Anything you can do to improve the results or experience of your customers will be much appreciated, will help you win more market share, and will help you solidify the business that you have dreamed of building to begin with.
All the partners that you bring on board to help you transform this business from a dream to a reality are hugely influential when it comes to your success or failure. The accountants you hire, the attorneys you hire, the employees you hire, the vendors you partner with, the shipping and fulfillment agents you work with – everyone plays an important part in your success.
The better partners you choose, though, the better your business is going to work. Everything runs more efficiently, everything runs more predictably, and you’re able to hit that scale that we talked about earlier to really autopilot your financial future and generate the kind of income (and later wealth) that people punching the 9-to-5 clock may never be able to enjoy outside of warning the lottery and cashing in a big windfall.
Those that are serious about taking their business to the next level, especially when you are looking to sell in the hypercompetitive US market, are going to want to have a much closer look at the services and solutions provided by US Global Mail for Small Businesses. These kinds of services and solutions won’t be something that you end up regretting leveraging!