Export readiness
Be sellable before you start selling.
The homework a buyer assumes you have done.
A distributor will not say you failed on paperwork. They will say they are not taking on new lines this year. Most of the time the real answer is a certificate you do not hold, a warranty you cannot honour in market, or a price that leaves them nothing. We find those first.
How the answer gets decided
Fail any one and the deal stalls without an explanation.
Why readiness matters
The refusal never names the real problem.
“We had a good look at the samples. The team is not adding suppliers this quarter, but let us stay in touch.”
Six weeks and two shipments later
What they did not put in writing
The declaration your category needs was missing, so legal stopped the file
Your warranty ends at the port, and theirs has to run for two years in market
The label was compliant in China and not in the market they sell into
Your minimum order ties up more cash than the line is worth in year one
Every one of those is fixable. All of them are cheaper to fix before the sample ships than after.
The shape of the answer
Your factory price is a quarter of the story.
Most export plans are built on one number: what it costs to make. The buyer sees a different number, and between the two sit freight, duty, certification and everybody's margin. If the ladder does not close, no amount of selling fixes it.
Your factory priceWhat the buyer pays
Illustrative. Your ladder gets built from your real costs and the shelf prices in your market.
What you get
A list of what to fix, in the order it will bite you.
Certification lead times decide your calendar, so they come first. The price ladder decides whether the plan works at all, so it comes second. Everything else is sequenced behind those two, with the cost and the time each one takes.
What you must have
In the documentCertifications, with time and cost
Trademark filing
Packaging and labeling
Warranty, spare parts, returns
Minimum orders and lead times a Western buyer accepts
What the numbers have to do
In the documentYour factory price against the shelf price buyers already pay
The margin a distributor needs before they will carry you
What duty, freight, and certification add on the way
Where the ladder breaks, and what has to change if it does
Which costs are fixed and which move with volume
How it runs
Find the blocker while it is still cheap to fix.
Nothing here is exotic. It is the homework a Western buyer assumes you have already done, checked in the order that decides whether your first order lands this year or next.
The first call
You tell us the product and the market you have in mind. We tell you what stands between you and a first order, and what it takes to clear it.
The paper audit
Every approval, filing and label your category needs in that market, with the lead time and the cost of each. Certification lead times decide your calendar, so this comes first.
The ladder
We build the price ladder from your factory gate to the shelf price buyers already pay, and check whether there is room in it for everyone who has to touch the product.
The after-sale test
Warranty, spare parts and returns, run against what a distributor in that market expects. A promise you cannot keep from Ningbo is not a promise.
The fix list
What to change, in the order it will bite you, with the time and cost each one takes. Sequenced so your team can start the long items this week.
Who does the work
Cyril runs this himself, with senior people in China and Europe who have taken products through these approvals. You get their judgement on what matters and what is a formality.
Scope depends on your product and the markets in play. We agree it on the first call and quote it firm before any work starts.
The first move
Can you sell there yet?
Tell us the product and the market you have in mind. We will tell you what stands between you and a first order, and what it takes to clear it.
We answer in your time zone.