Six Tips for Buying and Selling Overseas

If you want to put your company on a trajectory that will lead to rapid growth, you're probably already considering both buying and selling (BusinessWeek, 4/16/08) in large quantities overseas. But how do you start planning if you haven't done much business outside the U.S. before? And what are key problem areas to keep in mind when it comes to shipping and logistics? To help you strategize, I reached out to Jordan Colletta, vice president of customer technology marketing at UPS, who prepared six tried-and-true tips. Edited excerpts of Colletta's tips follow.

1. Look before you leap. Little things count. Before you ship a single product, you need to fully understand the rules and regulations that apply to transporting your products outside the U.S. You also need to understand what all of those involved in the shipping process are responsible for, and you must know the total cost of delivering your product across borders. Don't commit and then be surprised by ballooning shipping costs.