hello every one
Im living here in Ticino since about 10 month , married to swiss , have B permission and working already,
i would like to start my own business by renting a small shop getting stuff from my home land Egypt ship it and sell it here, hand made stuff like carpets lamps, tea tables, gold silver jewelry, shishas, and so on, but i have no idea about shipping coasts , paper work , customs and so on .
does any one have an idea about where to start ? or prices, or can help me with some ideas , i heard that sea shipping is much cheaper than air shiping any ideas about some companies ?
thanks

* shipping stuff not staff lol

Importing and exporting of people is frowned upon!

Well actually it's against the law

yes i made a mistake i wrote staff instead of stuff, what i will import egyptians for to build a pyramid ! lol

Before you import anything, take a good look at middle eastern shops in your area. We have plenty of shops already selling the stuff you are proposing. And is it at all fashionable? You are about 30 years too late my friend.

Shipping costs are easy to work out - just do a google for several freight companies ( both Egypt and Switzerland based ones) and ask for a base quote on sending the same sized shipment ( eg a 20 or 40 foot container, or x cumecs or y kilo) to be able to figure out the best company. Ask for both sea and air rates. I have found that sometimes, air is actually the cheaper option.

You will probvably need a professional to get you through all the incoming paperwork, so ask for door to door costs, which will include customs release work being done for you.

My friend is thinking also to open new business but buying used electronics here in bulk quantities and selling to Egypt.
Maybe we can use scale effect to negotiate better shipping rates toghether

Not here. Very few, in fact.

Tom

My suggestion would be to find a country that has the best trade agreements (lowest tariffs) with Egypt. Im guessing this is either Italy or France. Then ship the stuff there first to limit the amount of duties you will pay on it shipping it directly from Egypt to Switzerland.

The other thing most Turkish merchants do here in Switzerland is set up a holding company that is set up in Cyprus. This company buys your goods at cost and then sells it to your company in the EU that is a duty free entity, for the price you wish to sell it for in CH.

So you buy $1Mn worth of goods from Egypt. Well it to a company in Italy for $2Mn. Then the tax free entity in Cyprus pockets the profits immediately. Then you resell the stuff to the Swiss SA for $2.01Mn. Then when the inventory is all sold you can do it over again.

Most Turks typically trade their stuff through Germany though. I think thats because of the import tax system there but some also import Brazilian Chickens through Italy. So you need to find out who has the lowest import duties first.