The Internet accounts for an increasing share of small-business sales activity. It presents huge opportunities, as well as many challenges. If you start receiving enquiries from overseas, are you ready to start exporting?
Most exporting businesses set out with a clear sense of the markets they’re going to sell to and when and how they’ll go about it. But thanks to the Internet, an increasing number of businesses find themselves having to start exporting before they’ve had time to develop an export strategy.
What should you do if overseas customers start placing online orders with you? You can always refuse to accept overseas orders, of course, but you should consider carefully whether doing so would sacrifice a potentially lucrative source of revenue.
Assuming you want to accept and build on your first export orders, you’ll have some planning to do. There’s a link to an introductory guide to exporting below, but for the moment here are some of the key things you’ll need to consider:
- Paperwork: your exports need to be recorded on your VAT returns, and exports to outside the EU need to be declared to HM Revenue & Customs.
- Logistics: you’ll need to consider how you’re going to have your goods transported overseas.
- Finance: depending on your level of export activity, you may want to talk to your bank – exporting may alter your cashflow patterns, for example, or expose you to foreign exchange risks.
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