Admon

Hi All,
Information asked!

I currently own a business in the UK, which is fairly low turnover but
high profit in the sales of specialist academic books, which i would
like to take to the US to increase sales.

In the Uk, turnover for the business is only in the region of $400,000
per annum with 4 employees. This would continue to run and the turnover
would undoubtedly increase to over $600,000 as it would partly supply
the new US based business.

With the potential size of business available in the US, I would
envisage a first year turnover of around $400,000 with a likelyhood of
this becoming an $800,000 a year business within 3 years.
I understand that one of the key issues would be employees for the US
based business.
I would envisage 4 employees by the end of year 1, with around 8-10 by
the end of year 3.

The Uk business has been established for 8 years, but is not currently a
Limited Company. Would it be advisable to make it so and would this help
with the consideration of setting up the US business.

Cash wise, I would probably be able to fund about $100,000 in cash,
which would be used for intial premises set up (only about 2,000sqft of
warehouse space required in a low rent provincial location) a lot of the
initial investment in the new US based business would be in stock (to
the value of around $200,000 at cost) that the UK business currently
owns. In all fairness, that is all that the business would need to start
- any more money would only be used to buy stock.

A lot of questions there, but this is a serious enquiry. Advance thank
you's to anyone offering their advice.

Ian-Mstm

> Hi All,
> Information asked!
>
> I currently own a business in the UK, which is fairly low turnover but
> high profit in the sales of specialist academic books, which i would
> like to take to the US to increase sales.
>
> In the Uk, turnover for the business is only in the region of $400,000
> per annum with 4 employees. This would continue to run and the
> turnover would undoubtedly increase to over $600,000 as it would
> partly supply the new US based business.
>
> With the potential size of business available in the US, I would
> envisage a first year turnover of around $400,000 with a likelyhood of
> this becoming an $800,000 a year business within 3 years.
> I understand that one of the key issues would be employees for the US
> based business.
> I would envisage 4 employees by the end of year 1, with around 8-10 by
> the end of year 3.
>
> The Uk business has been established for 8 years, but is not currently
> a Limited Company. Would it be advisable to make it so and would this
> help with the consideration of setting up the US business.
>
> Cash wise, I would probably be able to fund about $100,000 in cash,
> which would be used for intial premises set up (only about 2,000sqft
> of warehouse space required in a low rent provincial location) a lot
> of the initial investment in the new US based business would be in
> stock (to the value of around $200,000 at cost) that the UK business
> currently owns. In all fairness, that is all that the business would
> need to start - any more money would only be used to buy stock.
>
> A lot of questions there, but this is a serious enquiry. Advance thank
> you's to anyone offering their advice.

I'm afraid I can't answer any of your questions, but I do have one of my
own. I ask because I work at a US medical school which, I'm sure you'll
agree, is a "specialist academic" arena. Have you done the requisite
market research to discover whether or not there is a need for whatever
type of books you sell? I'm not trying to be belligerent or anything,
but the US is a bit funny that way... they seem to prefer books written
by US authors and published in the US... especially with respect to
academia. Good luck though.

Ian

Admon

> Hi All,
> Information asked!
>
> I currently own a business in the UK, which is fairly low turnover but
> high profit in the sales of specialist academic books, which i would
> like to take to the US to increase sales.
>
> In the Uk, turnover for the business is only in the region of $400,000
> per annum with 4 employees. This would continue to run and the
> turnover would undoubtedly increase to over $600,000 as it would
> partly supply the new US based business.
>
> With the potential size of business available in the US, I would
> envisage a first year turnover of around $400,000 with a likelyhood of
> this becoming an $800,000 a year business within 3 years.
> I understand that one of the key issues would be employees for the US
> based business.
> I would envisage 4 employees by the end of year 1, with around 8-10 by
> the end of year 3.
>
> The Uk business has been established for 8 years, but is not currently
> a Limited Company. Would it be advisable to make it so and would this
> help with the consideration of setting up the US business.
>
> Cash wise, I would probably be able to fund about $100,000 in cash,
> which would be used for intial premises set up (only about 2,000sqft
> of warehouse space required in a low rent provincial location) a lot
> of the initial investment in the new US based business would be in
> stock (to the value of around $200,000 at cost) that the UK business
> currently owns. In all fairness, that is all that the business would
> need to start - any more money would only be used to buy stock.
>
> A lot of questions there, but this is a serious enquiry. Advance thank
> you's to anyone offering their advice.

Reason for wanting to add a US arm to the business is because of the
many enquiries we already get.
A lot of the books that I sell are by US publishers and/or written
with the US market in mind.
The problem that we face selling to the US at the moment is a
combination of the delay in time to deliver to the states and the
prohibitive cost of postage for heavy academic books from the Uk.
The US business potential for the exact books we sell is already
there, its just a case of us needing to be 'close to the market' to
be able to exploit that potential.
I appreciate your comment though - for the ill thought out it would
be an issue.

Ray

> Hi All,
> Information asked!
>
> I currently own a business in the UK, which is fairly low turnover but
> high profit in the sales of specialist academic books, which i would
> like to take to the US to increase sales.
>
> In the Uk, turnover for the business is only in the region of $400,000
> per annum with 4 employees. This would continue to run and the
> turnover would undoubtedly increase to over $600,000 as it would
> partly supply the new US based business.
>
> With the potential size of business available in the US, I would
> envisage a first year turnover of around $400,000 with a likelyhood of
> this becoming an $800,000 a year business within 3 years.
> I understand that one of the key issues would be employees for the US
> based business.
> I would envisage 4 employees by the end of year 1, with around 8-10 by
> the end of year 3.
>
> The Uk business has been established for 8 years, but is not currently
> a Limited Company. Would it be advisable to make it so and would this
> help with the consideration of setting up the US business.
>
> Cash wise, I would probably be able to fund about $100,000 in cash,
> which would be used for intial premises set up (only about 2,000sqft
> of warehouse space required in a low rent provincial location) a lot
> of the initial investment in the new US based business would be in
> stock (to the value of around $200,000 at cost) that the UK business
> currently owns. In all fairness, that is all that the business would
> need to start - any more money would only be used to buy stock.
>
> A lot of questions there, but this is a serious enquiry. Advance thank
> you's to anyone offering their advice.

Start looking at a L-1A visa
Google is your friend ...

NC Penguin

> Hi All,
> Information asked!
>
> I currently own a business in the UK, which is fairly low turnover but
> high profit in the sales of specialist academic books, which i would
> like to take to the US to increase sales.
>
> In the Uk, turnover for the business is only in the region of $400,000
> per annum with 4 employees. This would continue to run and the
> turnover would undoubtedly increase to over $600,000 as it would
> partly supply the new US based business.
>
> With the potential size of business available in the US, I would
> envisage a first year turnover of around $400,000 with a likelyhood of
> this becoming an $800,000 a year business within 3 years.
> I understand that one of the key issues would be employees for the US
> based business.
> I would envisage 4 employees by the end of year 1, with around 8-10 by
> the end of year 3.
>
> The Uk business has been established for 8 years, but is not currently
> a Limited Company. Would it be advisable to make it so and would this
> help with the consideration of setting up the US business.
>
> Cash wise, I would probably be able to fund about $100,000 in cash,
> which would be used for intial premises set up (only about 2,000sqft
> of warehouse space required in a low rent provincial location) a lot
> of the initial investment in the new US based business would be in
> stock (to the value of around $200,000 at cost) that the UK business
> currently owns. In all fairness, that is all that the business would
> need to start - any more money would only be used to buy stock.
>
> A lot of questions there, but this is a serious enquiry. Advance thank
> you's to anyone offering their advice.

There may be a huge market in the US for the books that you sell but
have you researched into your existing competition? There are quite a
few online booksellers that sell specialist books.

Admon

> There may be a huge market in the US for the books that you sell but
> have you researched into your existing competition? There are quite a
> few online booksellers that sell specialist books.

Thanks for your input penguin.
Yes we are aware of all the competition online, it is the area where we
sell and get all our US enquiries.
As in the Uk, where we also compete with a lot if US sellers, we only
need a minute percentage of the available business. As we are only
thinking small, the numbers work well. We aren't trying to take a
significant 'chunk' of anyones business, just a few 'shavings' off the
side will do us nicely, just like the Uk.