A little update on my progress this week...
Talk about a voice-mail nightmare! I haven't been able to get in touch with a live person at Customs to save my life. I actually got a quicker response from a government agency in Mexico that I contacted about something else.
I wanted to find out the correct Harmonized Tariff Schedule codes for the items I'm importing. The HTS code is a 10-digit number that Customs uses to assess the rate of duty and for statistical purposes. Customs brokers go to school to learn how to determine the numbers, so I didn't think I'd be able to figure it out.
Well, since I'm leaving for Mexico in 6 days, figuring it out became neccesary. To be honest, it wasn't that hard. I found that it's easier to do it through a process of exclusion rather than search and inclusion. I also found out that a mirror is a mirror, no matter what it's framed with. (I think...please correct me if I'm wrong) Just thought I'd share that with you, because some items are not always the same. For instance, a shoe has a different number depending on what size it is, among other things.
I'm going to verify it all with a freight forwarder in anyway, but I like being prepared. According to my SBA advisor, too prepared. She thought I should have left for Mexico three weeks ago, she says I just have to import one shipment and it'll be easy after that. Yeah, that's fine for her to say, but I'm the one who is going to have my entire start-up inventory held at Customs if I do it wrong. And if they have to re-do the paperwork, guess who gets to pay the Customs guy by the hour?
Sometimes I wonder how much of an idiot I must be, to make my first venture into the business world doubly complicated by adding importing into the equation. Especially since I have to act as my own exporter in , because the cottage industries that I'm buying from don't know how to do it. It's not as if I'm buying from an established Mexican exporter.
But then I remember that I'm doing something that I absolutely have a passion for, and helping family-run businesses in a country I love along the way.
Maybe I'm not such an idiot, after all.
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