How To Start Mini-importation Business
In this post, you’ll learn how to start mini-importation business and what’s required to be successful at it. All you need to do is pay attention.
What Is Mini-importation?
Mini-importation is a small scale business that deals with importing from different countries to your country.
Mini-importation does not necessary require huge capital to start. Importation pays because you are importing directly from the manufacturer.
What’s wrong with importation these days. Some importers are not making sales due to persistent rise in dollar. Especially, China as dollar is rising, yuan is also rising.
There is always solution to this. You can still make profit from importation if you know how to about it. Go for light products. Light products does not weight too much. If you’re also privileged to buy in bulk or pair with people the price of the goods will also reduce.
How To Start Mini-importation Business
How to import goods from China?
If you think that importing goods from China is something that requires tedious work, then think again.
Although customs requirements concerning goods from China are strict, there are still some ways for small business owners to do business with Chinese companies directly.
If you want to import goods from China, it is best for you to find the best distributor first before deciding on going to China to inspect their factory.
You or your representative or agent can start calling the different distributors in order to determine which among them can give you the best and most reasonable price.
You can also try online sites that will provide you with a list of small and large businesses in China.
Most businessmen use alibaba site to search for possible suppliers in China.
Most of the businesses that are listed on alibaba.com are resellers. These resellers directly contact manufacturers and distributors in China. Although they are not the original resource persons for China goods, it will be easier to deal with them.
Starting a mini-importation business is not the usual… blah blah! I bet you probably think you need to have hundreds of thousand to start mini-importation business in Nigeria!
But trust me, that’s not the case anymore.
You’ll be surprised that with as low as N10,000 you can start making 6 figures within few months. You just need to be educated about this business and go about it the right way.
I’ve seen a case whereby a product of N200 (33yuan) from China made my cousin over 5million naira in profit. In this case, one of the product was sold for 15k in Nigeria.
One of the things you should be on the look-out for is winning products, or let me call it hot products.
If you can have access to these products you’re 80% successful in your business.
What do you need to start this lucrative mini-importation business in Nigeria?
Well, it’s nothing you don’t already have. And if you don’t, they’re something you can easily get. You will simply need the following to get started:
A personal computer (PC) or mobile phone
Fast internet Network – Modern, Mifi etc.
A valid email address.
Valid and traceable home address where you can receive the item you will order.
Some few cash to get started (as little as 10,000 and no limitation)
Get a PayPal account to buy your products (not in all cases though)
Open a US bank account with Payoneer (It’s absolutely free)
There you have it. With all this, you can start your mini importation business in Nigeria. The best part of this business that I like so much is that 90% of what you need to do can be done on your PC or mobile phone. So you can call it an internet business.
As a matter of fact, you can be in your house and make 6 – 7 figures monthly. Cool, isn’t? This way, you can have orders available that match what you are importing or even more through effective marketing.
Overview of Mini-Importation business
Before we dig deeper it’s important we know the thick of this business. What is importation business?
As the title connotes – Importation business simply means buying products from overseas at a relatively cheap price and resell it at a high price. It simply buying and selling.
In addition, Mini-importation does not necessarily mean small importation. It all depends on the size of your pocket. You can import product as high as 10million and resell it to make over 200% profits.
And at the same, you can buy products as low as 10,000 and make profits of over 50,000, to say the least.
Let’s dig in! Here is your step by step Guide on how to start importation business from China
1. Source for Products
2. Buy from a reliable supplier
3. Pay for your products
4. Product delivery
5. Finally, market your Products
6. Sell your Products and make money.
Step 1. Source for Products
The first thing you need to do if you want to embark on this journey is to source for your product. Here is what you should know. Most of the supplier’s website are China-based.
You probably might be thinking why China? Well, China is the number one source for hot and fast selling products around the world. You can call it an international warehouse or manufacturer.
In the like manner, most people usually thought any products from China are always inferior. Seriously, that’s very far from the truth.
Please look around you I’ll bet 80% of the product around you are produced and coupled in China. Your flat screen, phones, generator, freezers even the popular Apple products are all coupled in China.
Well, I’m not saying they don’t produce inferior products as well, they do. I guess the Nigerian government should be blamed for that for not raising their standard.
So how can you source for your product?
I recommend a few of the popular China-based websites that are very resourceful for that. They include:
AliExpress
Alibaba
DHgate
What you need to do now is head over to the above website and create an account with them. Also, make sure you confirm your registration.
It’s nothing difficult if you can create your Facebook account then you should be able to create one with those too.
Once you are done with the registration, browse around the website and check for products you can buy and resell in Nigeria/Ghana.
Step 2. Buy from Reliable Supplier
This might be the most important part you shouldn’t take lightly. Like I said earlier that Nigerian’s government are to be blamed for lack of restriction placed on China inferior goods.
Because of the above, this makes some of the sellers or suppliers careless of shipping inferior products to Nigeria. But instead of being a victim of this there are ways you can outsmart them.
This is called the power of feedback. Before you make a purchase from any supplier make sure you check the feedback score and rating for that supplier. You can allow scroll down below the products to read customer reviews on the product you about to ship.
This simple method will help in filtering the bad from the good suppliers.
The feedback rating is a powerful measure invented to protect customers from buying counterfeit products. You can always check if the supplier delivers as promised.
The ratings are usually between 0 – 100% and 0 – 5star reviews. I’ll recommend you always go for 90% and above rating and at least 4star reviews.
In addition, make sure you always go through the product description. Check the delivery methods free shipping are always good if you’re willing to wait.
Also, check the sellers guarantee on the products before you ship them. All these are usually at the bottom of every product page.
Step 3. Paying for your Products
In the past years, this used to be the hindrance of venturing into importation business. This is because there are no easy means of paying it’s always a long procedure. But thanks to the internet everything is now made easy. Back in your house in Nigeria, you can make payment for products in the US or anywhere around the world. It’s as easy as that.
How To Start Mini-importation Business
There are several channels through which you can pay for your products, but they differ with suppliers. Some suppliers allow Mastercard or Visa card payment, some PayPal or Alipay. The point is payment for goods are now easier and this shouldn’t be a barrier to you.
About Fraud or Getting Scammed
You might want to ask, what if you’ve paid and you never receive your products? Or you pay, and the product is different from the description in the websites?
Well, all this are normal questions. These websites have some measures in protecting their customers. You can call it “buyers protection ” or also known as “Escrow ”.
The Escrow or buyer’s protection is a measurement put in place by the websites to protects both buyers and sellers. This is how it works. Once you’ve purchased the products you want to ship, instead of paying straight to the sellers’ account, the websites withhold the money.
The money will then be released once you receive and confirmed the product to be what you order.
In rare cases when your product happens to be different from what you order there is “Dispute form” that you can fill, and your money will be reimbursed.
Mind you, I’m not saying its 100% risk-free but its unlikely for situations like this to arise.
Step 4. Product Delivery
Product delivery usually comes in two ways. This includes:
Free Shipping – usually slow but increase profits (between 14 to 60days) but most time it’s usually delivered between 20 to 30days. The service company can be China Mail Air Post or Hong Kong Mail services.
Premium delivery – these deliveries are usually done by DHL, EMS, and FedEx. Although it might be expensive compared to free shipping but its always faster and safer. (between 3 – 5days)
While the free shipping may be free you should know tracking it might not be entirely accurate compared to the premium shipping.
How To Start Mini-importation Business
In addition, while using the free shipping method you should always endeavor to put your phone number. This is because they are always delivered at the nearest post-office close to you. With this, you can be easily contacted whenever your shipment has arrived.
Extra Tips to Save Cost on Shipping
1. Mess Around with Dates. It’s obvious that the prices will always change with dates and season. Very fast means more money and slow means less money. So, mess around to save yourself some cost.
2. Remove Excess Packaging. After your first delivery go through your shipment and notice unnecessary packages that you can avoid the next time. This will help reduce the size and weight of your products.
Step 5. Market Your Product
This is by far the most important aspect of the business. Its one thing to successfully order your product and it’s another thing to successfully market them. Nobody is going to know about your products unless you take it to them.
And mind you, I don’t mean you literally start walking the street to market your products. You just have to be creative and updated.
There are ways you could do that … they include:
Brick and mortar retail
Word of mouth
Referrals
Handbills or flyers publicity
Local Ads. e.g. Magazine, newspaper
Internet marketing etc.
There are several ways you can choose to market your business but for the sake of this post, we’ll do just the internet for now.
Like I said I rarely go out, so I prefer doing everything on the internet. So how can you market your products on the internet?
This alone on its own it’s a full cause for another day. But for now, the one easiest you can easily grab is Facebook marketing . Facebook is a full marketplace that can never be exhausted.
One of the best ways to make most of your marketing is to create a squeeze landing page for your ads. What I mean by this is collecting their email addresses because some might be interested but not having money when they see your ads.
Collecting their emails will serve as a means of reminding them of your products. You can use GetResponse for this purpose, its free to start with.
Step 6. Sell your Product and Make Money
Finally, once you are done with the marketing, obviously potentials buyers are going to start rushing your way if you’ve done a good job.
You can either create an online store for your products and list them online or do it with the popular method if you don’t want to create an online store.
For the latter part, you need to work with some courier agent to deliver your product and collect your money on your behalf. Among them are:
Ace.ng
Courier plus
Kos.ng
skyNet
Austin Dispatch etc.
Some of them will require you paying a certain fee to get started while some are free.
SEE ALSO : HOW TO START A BUSINESS WITHOUT CAPITAL
Finally, you should have it at the back of your mind that every business has its own ups and down. One of ten of every order might be returns from your customer but that shouldn’t discourage you. The profit margin will definitely cover up.
With this article am sure you have known how to start Mini-importation business.
