Choosing the right Freight forwarding agency

Many small businesses (or those who have just started) find it extremely hard to go through the frustrating procedures of documentation, legalities and clearance, that unfortunately, is a must in all types of international trade. There are quite a number of fronts to handle, and more often than not you find yourself trapped in these time-consuming tasks, when you should be working on the more important ones like marketing, communicating with clients and finalizing new business deals. As a small business, you are left with two options, either hire more staff for these jobs or outsource everything to a freight forwarding agency.

Professional freight forwarders have a clear advantage over your newly hired staff, first they are far more experienced, second they have good working relations with many parties involved in transaction and third, they know many cheap alternatives for transportation. A good freight forward agent will be able to assist you from the word go if you have no real knowledge of international trade. Best way is to engage a freight forwarding agent even before you finalize the prices, as he/she can give you an exact idea on how much documentation, insurance or shipment can cost.

While choosing the freight forwarding (or clearing) agent, you must consider following guidelines.

Experience:
The prime reason for you going to the freight forwarding agent is his/her experience for carrying out those tasks. No matter how qualified your freight forwarding agent seems to be, don't close your eyes to the past experience he/she has in the field. An experienced freight forwarder can prove to be a lot more helpful because he/she will be having working relations with relevant parties. Being an "old hand" also reflects that the freight forwarding agency is a long-standing business.

Knowledge:
Choose the one with extensive knowledge of the market, policies, rules and procedures, and more importantly the best modes of shipment. The agent should be capable enough to go through complete process with ease and in a timely manner. An ideal freight forwarding agent will have the knowledge, skills and technology to provide, you and your customers with top-notch services.

Price:
Freight forwarding agent substitutes you for a good number of tasks, plus he/she will provide you with valuable counseling and guidance as well. So, the fees are supposed to be considerably high. Decide all the services you expect to receive and settle on prices in complete details, make sure there will be no additional charges in the future. If you are dealing with a freight forwarding agent from another country, bear in mind the communication problems (because of foreign language involved) that can arise in the future.

Choosing the right bank for international trade

International exporters need the services of banks or financial institutions at many stages of their trading business. They need loan to help with initial setup, they need financing for production phase, and they need the services of banks to make or receive payments (letter of credit, wire transfer, etc), they can avail lots of other services like online banking, small business loans, credit cards, etc. When deciding on your bank you should consider following points carefully, because you can't keep changing your bank often.

Interest Rates and Service Fee:
Normally, there’s not much difference between interest rates offered by various banks operating in the same market and circumstances, mainly because of cut throat competition. However, that doesn’t mean you should completely ignore the small differences at hand. Similarly, banks charge different fees for different services, if you have a clear idea of the services you are going to avail, you can easily decide on the most suitable bank. Banks have to rely on these service charges and fees for their profits, but you must make sure that you are not getting ripped off by your personal bank.

Repute & History:
A well reputed bank of good standing will also speak for your business credibility at international export, so you better go for some bank, which is highly regarded among business circles. If you are choosing a bank for long term relations, you should go through its business history, past performance and achievements. Another question to go over is how financially strong that bank is, especially after we have seen more than 15 US banks failures in first three months of 2009. Just because they deal in money, doesn’t mean they’d never run out of it.


Customer Relations & Customer Service:
Good banker-customer relations are a result of mutual understanding and collaboration. Bank staff normally consists of well mannered and courteous individuals; still some banks go that extra mile to please their customers and establish long term relationships. Customer service can slightly vary on branch to branch basis as well. Don’t get overwhelmed by the politeness and the display of utmost sincerity when going through the procedures of opening an account, instead you should talk to some existing customers to make sure they are satisfied with the banking services and the behavior of staff.

In addition to the points described above, you can look for the quality of products and services offered by the bank.

Checklist for organizing successful meetings

Company meetings are meant to be highly informative, problem-solving and solution-providing events, however most of the times these meetings end without accomplishing any of these targets. That is why many people consider these meetings as a waste of time, for them participating in the meeting is nothing but an obligation that doesn't make any sense to them. For all these reasons, as a chairperson or someone who's looking into the task of organizing a company meeting, you need to take care of these points, in order to turn it into a constructive and valuable experience for participants.

Purpose of the meeting:
As earlier mentioned, all meetings are supposed to have a clear purpose; these are not mere gatherings where some employees spend some time sitting around the table and crack jokes at each other. For example, some meetings are meant for informational objectives like holding a meeting to explain some policy that has recently being implemented, or to pass out instructions for the use of some newly introduced technology. Another likely purpose could be to analyze or get to the bottom of some problem. The person who is named as the chairperson must have an unmistakable idea on what the meeting is all about.

Choosing the participants:
Preferably, a meeting should be having a small number of participants; however that doesn't mean some persons who are closely linked to the meeting agenda are left out just for the sake of having the least possible partakers. Choose the participants according to the nature of meeting; if the meeting has been conducted for instructive purpose, it's quite obvious that you must have an expert speaker who'll brief the participants on that particular topic. If the meeting is taking place because a problem has occurred and some kind of brainstorming is needed, it's better to have managers or representatives from all departments.

Controlling the discussion:
If you are chairing the meeting, your role is of utmost significance. First thing first, don't try to get overly authoritative, that will discourage free flow of information and ideas, once you have started the discussion, encourage everyone to take part, don't impose your ideas on anybody, during the discussion your main role is to keep the dialogue on track. Settle down the situation if participants are getting excessively aggressive, rude or emotional. Once everybody has shared his/her opinions with the group members, it's now your turn to evaluate and come up with conclusions, which will be based on the discussion and everybody's opinion. Last but not the least, prepare the minutes of the meeting and forward the detailed report to higher management.

An insight into the Path Goal Theory for leading your workforce

Company meetings are meant to be highly informative, problem-solving and solution-providing events, however most of the times these meetings end without accomplishing any of these targets. That is why many people consider these meetings as a waste of time, for them participating in the meeting is nothing but an obligation that doesn't make any sense to them. For all these reasons, as a chairperson or someone who's looking into the task of organizing a company meeting, you need to take care of these points, in order to turn it into a constructive and valuable experience for participants.

Purpose of the meeting:
As earlier mentioned, all meetings are supposed to have a clear purpose; these are not mere gatherings where some employees spend some time sitting around the table and crack jokes at each other. For example, some meetings are meant for informational objectives like holding a meeting to explain some policy that has recently being implemented, or to pass out instructions for the use of some newly introduced technology. Another likely purpose could be to analyze or get to the bottom of some problem. The person who is named as the chairperson must have an unmistakable idea on what the meeting is all about.

Choosing the participants:
Preferably, a meeting should be having a small number of participants; however that doesn't mean some persons who are closely linked to the meeting agenda are left out just for the sake of having the least possible partakers. Choose the participants according to the nature of meeting; if the meeting has been conducted for instructive purpose, it's quite obvious that you must have an expert speaker who'll brief the participants on that particular topic. If the meeting is taking place because a problem has occurred and some kind of brainstorming is needed, it's better to have managers or representatives from all departments.

Controlling the discussion:
If you are chairing the meeting, your role is of utmost significance. First thing first, don't try to get overly authoritative, that will discourage free flow of information and ideas, once you have started the discussion, encourage everyone to take part, don't impose your ideas on anybody, during the discussion your main role is to keep the dialogue on track. Settle down the situation if participants are getting excessively aggressive, rude or emotional. Once everybody has shared his/her opinions with the group members, it's now your turn to evaluate and come up with conclusions, which will be based on the discussion and everybody's opinion. Last but not the least, prepare the minutes of the meeting and forward the detailed report to higher management.