I have a small business selling bespoke stuff in the UK. I’ve sold internationally before but only through another UK company. I’ve now had an inquiry regarding selling something directly to a company in the USA. Any advice on what kind of extra costs I might need to allow for? Say I would normally sell an item for £10,000 to make a reasonable return what would be a reasonable dollar figure to still make the same return?

Get on to the UK Trade and Investment website and start researching. They are incredibly helpful to any UK business seeking to do work overseas.

Congratulations on the lead!

– you don’t charge VAT on exports of goods (generally)

– you need to decide (agree with client) whether to require payment in GBP or USD. USD will be more attractive/easier for them but GBP will be less hassle for you

– you need to decide (agree with client) who’s going to arrange and pay for shipping, customs fees, US duty/taxes (if any) etc

– you need to think about possible after-sales costs e.g. warranty returns (depends on product) – go through whatever normal T&Cs you have and think “what happens if they’re in the US?”.

In addition to what TooTall says, http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/ may also be useful (if you’re in England) and even your bank might run small business exporter workshops etc.