Try to measure the success of your Business by evaluating the Business Plan. See how far your Business has reached in terms of the Business goals that were already set. Always set short term goals and a deadline to achieve them. This would really help to reach your long term vision. Make sure you have enough liquidity in hand to meet emergency expenses. Evaluating your liabilities and assets will help to check the financial health of your Business. Based on your sales figures try to increase or decrease your production or purchase activities. If it is overstocked then you may end up in losses.

Market Research

Conduct a Market Research and find out the prevailing market conditions specific to your product/ service. If your Business does not have enough resource to conduct a Market Research you could seek the services of a Market Research Agency. You may also find reports (maybe available for free) which reveal the supply and demand stats specific to your products.

Cost-cutting efforts
Cost cutting methods help a Business to reduce expenditures and increase the profit. Try to buy the raw materials or office stationeries in bulk as you may get a better pricing. Make use of the cost-cutting technology rather than conventional methods. For instance you could develop a website for your company which would naturally reduce the phone calls related to general enquiries about your products/ services.

Value your Employees
It is your employees who interact directly with your customers, so it is important that you honor their services. Motivate your employees thru team work as it would yield better results. Attract your Employees financially by offering incentives and paid holidays which would help them to put forth their best efforts in their area of work.

Listen to your Customers
Listen to customers and try to improve your services/ products based on their feedback. Always acknowledge and respond to the customer’s queries in an acceptable timeframe. As the saying goes “Customer is the king of any Business” you can’t successfully run a Business without happy customers.

Increase your Sales
Increasing your Sales would naturally result in more profit. Try to find out ways in how to improve your sales figures. Some examples are stated below:

a) Effective advertising about your products/ services
b) Offering periodical discounts
c) Price Reduction (if possible)
d) Launching new products
e) Franchise Opportunities
f) Affiliate Marketing

Business Expansion Plans

A Business can be further expanded by increasing the production, workforce or setting up a new Branch Office. If you don’t have enough capital to invest for the expansion, try to avail some loans if you are confident it would yield good ROI (Return of Investment).

Here is a list of the fee’s charged by UPS to you or your customers. Why do they charge 7 dollars on a 20 dollar item and then 63.75 on a item over $1000? If it was just one item at that value it would be the same amount of paperwork right? Something is not right… Well lots of people would agree with the unfair fee’s of UPS that currently have a on going class action lawsuit.

Now how do you avoid paying UPS’s brokerage fee’s? In the meantime, if you have an item on the way via UPS and want to avoid brokerage fees, get the tracking number from the seller, call UPS, and tell them you want to broker it yourself.  When the item arrives, pick up the waybill and paperwork from UPS, Head over to your local Canada Customs (usually near by), they’ll process it, stamp the forms, and you can return to UPS and pick up your package. 

Quick List of What you will Need:

1. WayBill
2. Invoice of Goods (to prove the value of your delivery)
3. Some ID
4. Don’t Forget Money ( You will still need to pay tax/duty charges)

Thats it now you can avoid UPS’s brokerage fee and bond fee… and whatever else they tack on. Get all your paperwork stamped at customs, head back to UPS show them and away you go. Do not wait until UPS delivers your package to you!  Also, make sure your seller knows that the declared value is ONLY the amount you paid for the item (not including shipping), and take your proof of the amount you paid with you to ensure you aren’t overcharged on duty and taxes by Canada Customs. From what i understand this only works in some provinces but i don’t know that for a fact. Some of it has to do with where it enters the border. I was told a few years ago by UPS that in Halifax, Nova Scotia you can not self clear. Something about the package going through Quebec and i would have to clear it at that customs office. I don’t know if that was just a bunch of bullshit or what. I don’t use ups anymore and try to avoid them.

Now if you have to deal with UPS since thats who your American supplyer uses and they are drop ship everything direct for you. As a business you can setup brokerage account with UPS and have the charges sent to your account. This way you can give your customer a all included price and they won’t have to pay a 60/70 dollar brokerage fee at the door plus taxes etc. I find myself this is the best way to go. Even if you have to tell your customer a bit higher price somewhat hiding the brokerage and taxes. Atleast you won’t get a nasty phone call or email from them complaining about the brokerage fee’s when you can’t do anything about it. This is a way better system and saves a lot of headache in the long run. I am pretty sure you can use another bonded broker to do the same thing but it may slow things down a little.

I will covering next on doing your own brokerage when using truck freight companys. So don’t worry i did not forget that route. This was just to more or less just to cover small packet brokerage and using drop shippers located in the usa. On another note I was wondering if anyone knows how much someone in the brokerage department of UPS makes? I would guess around 15/20 dollars a hour myself and i would think they could clear about at the least 10 items a hour. What do you think are we getting hosed?