Anyone who has moved understands the importance of marking boxes with both contents and location. One of the great things about our online

[starbox] If you are going to make buggy whips, they better be good ones. That is the lesson I took away from reading about hundred-year-old Wis...

Easily one of the central issues affecting U.S. manufacturing is what one might call the exports deficit—the inability of American companies to sell products to, for instance, Asian markets, developing countries and other ports of call—due to what they perceive to be unfair trade agreements and or policies.

Putting one's best foot forward is important for successful business communication. And successful business people know the "rule" of the game, what it say and do in business situations, to make the best impression. However, these rules change from country to country, and what is appropriate behavior here may appear rude to someone from Latin America, Europe or Asia To help you become more familiar with some of the different rules of engagement in other countries, Gear Technology spoke with three businessmen who have had extensive contact in various part of the world.

The object of any business transaction, be it foreign or domestic, is making a profit. That's why you go through all the effort of making and selling your product in the first place. Getting paid in a timely manner is crucial to making profit, but when your customer is in another country, this "timely and convenient" payment can become complicated; hence, your need for a banker with expertise in international markets.

One of the key questions to be answered when exporting is how you are going to get your product to your customer. All the time, effort, and money you've spent to make a sale in the first place can be wasted if the shipment is late, damaged, or lost, or if delivery becomes an expensive bureaucratic nightmare for either you or the buyer.

Exporting. It's one of the hot strategies for helping boost businesses of all kinds, gear manufacturing among them. With domestic markets tight and new markets opening up overseas, exporting seems like a reasonable tactic. But while the pressure is on to sell overseas, there is equal, justifiable concern about whether the move is a good one. Horror stories abound about foreign restrictions, bureaucratic snafus, carloads of paperwork, and the complications and nuances of doing business in other languages and with other cultures.