After Placing the Order

After payment goes through, there seems to be a long wait before the manufacturer starts working on your order. They usually already have other orders in their production line and have to schedule your order when they can. This depends on the size of the factory.

I have an agent who organises this - China Shine. In some ways, it is good having an agent as they will make sure you get the order and seem to be able to move the order between factories. When I was selecting manufacturers, I decided to have an agent and someone who worked at the factory!! My agent only charges 3% which is very small but to me well worth it.

Because I have organised all of this online, I asked for photos to show them making my underwear!! That was quite interesting and gave me a real feel of what was happening! I am very curious and loved seeing this!

I will go and visit the factories that make my underwear! But this will be in the future!!

Customs Broker and Importing

Very early in my business, I decided I had to find out about importing and what I needed to know. There is lots of information from the Customs website but it still takes a bit of digging and checking. Checking is really important. I would probably talk to a customs broker before I had ordered from the Chinese supplier.

I found that any clothing has a 17.5% import duty. GST is 10% but this is refundable on BAS statement. Labels are really important on clothing. The company name, size and country of origin needs to be included on the label as well as washing instructions on clothing.

I live 4 hours from Brisbane so I decided to check out a few customs brokers when I was there on a trip. I found 3 names and rang them first to make an appointment. To me, a phone call tells a lot about the company. All 3 seemed good.

Then I organised to visit them. Some were a long way from the docks so that influenced my decision to an extent. Prices were similar although one company was twice the price of the others!!

I only had one question and that was what do I need to do to import my products. One company seemed disorganised and the other expensive. Customs and Forwarding Services really impresses me. They were very professional and I left with information about their business. They answered the questions easily and I went away feeling like I had found the company that I needed.

This company - CFS - has been fantastic. Everything goes without a hitch. They organise my shipment to get to a transport company and delivered to Bundaberg. They are totally in control of each shipment and I never have to worry about anything! I have full confidence in them and couldn't recommend them highly enough!

I cannot emphaisis enough how important a good customs broker is. They do this each and every day - I assume - so know exactly what to do. They give great advice and this makes the process easier. It is worth doing some homework on this though. Get a good one and stick with them.

Finding a product

Many years ago, with time to spare (while my daughter was at a week long music workshop), I cruised the shops of Brisbane. Would you believe Myer were having an underwear sale? Great sale and I needed some new underwear!

I couldn't see any cotton underwear sets, so I asked the sales girl. I could not believe that there were only 2 pants of hipster knickers available. No bras to match!!

But the Bendon sets and Twisted Sista sets looked great. I bought 2 sets - a red floral and a blue floral! Gorgeous!

I think I wore them about 3 times each and then didn't wear the briefs again. I did wear the bras, though!! Very disappointing!

I continued to look for several years, but never did find lovely cotton sets.

When I made the decision to start a business selling cotton underwear sets, I spent hours looking for shops with cotton underwear! No luck!

There were no cotton underwear sets anywhere online or in shops.

So, the next problem became.... where would I find a product to sell?