First of all, let me tell you why I think you can listen to me on this. After all, if someone is going to tell you how to make money, it is good to find out something about them. Otherwise you could be taking advice from someone who doesn't have any real experience.

I have started, operated, and sold two successful businesses in the past; and I have worked with many other people to help make their businesses successful. I have lost money through mistakes in the process; but have figured out most of my mistakes.   This page is here to help you avoid some of them too.

Actually, I got to the point financially where I could have retired before I was 40 years old; but ended up going to Africa; giving away a lot of the money; and using the most of the rest to start this business. I didn't start this business to make a bunch of money: I started doing this as a way of helping people who don't have enough food or medical care for a reasonable existence. And I didn't do this just because I am a really nice guy or anything. The reasons were basically religious; and if you want to know more about that you can go to Wayne's personal site - Click Here.
If you are wanting to know about my work history (I don't know, call it a resume if you want) - Click Here.

But your reasons may not be religious at all. You may just be needing some extra money for bills; a better home; or other things that you may want. Maybe you are wanting to go into an entirely new line of work because your boss is hard to deal with or something. Whatever your reasons, listed below are the steps you can take to build a business with African artwork, jewelry, and clothing.

1. The basics
2. Know the product
3. Know the customer
4. Have a plan
5. Work your plan

Step one: the basics:

Most people that tell you how to make money ignore the legal and accounting side of things. It sounds pretty negative to most people I would guess. As I am writing this, I am thinking I should skip this section too because I am not an attorney; and because I don't want you to make this  more complicated than it really is.

There are a number of legal and accounting type things that need to get done when you start a business with employees. If you don't need employees, you can avoid most of that. I am going to assume that you are not hiring anybody to begin with, so I will tell you only the basics that you need to get started. Otherwise this would be a really long and boring letter.

You need a sales tax number from the state you live or operate in. You can get this from your state department of revenue. If you don't know where they are, you can find out by visiting http://www.taxresources.com/html/taxsites/t-formstat.html.   Call your own State office for whatever forms they say you need, fill them out and send them in. As far as Africa Imports is concerned, this is all that you need for us to do business with you. Otherwise we may have to charge you sales tax on items that you are re-selling and are not required to pay sales tax on otherwise.

In some states a license is required for you to do business. When you call the department of revenue for your sales tax number they should be able to give you that information as well.

There are usually other things that you may want to call an accountant or attorney for. If you want some free advice you can write to askmrtax@concentric.net   more likely though, you will want to call your accountant or attorney to get their personal advice for you.

Step two: Know the product

You don't need to be an expert on African artwork or culture to succeed at this (although more of this kind of knowledge will help a lot). What you need most of all is a knowledge of why people buy your products; and what features of the products will appeal to the audience you are trying to reach. You need to know the answers to the questions that they have about the products (whether they are asking them or not). And you need to know the objections to the products that will come up so that you have an answer to those objections.

There is a fair amount of product information on the website http://www.westafricaimports.com and I will try to keep you provided with whatever information I can to help you with this.   There are several books that would be good to start with as well.  Click Here to see some of these.

The best teacher of all for this however is experience. You will get experience from talking (or better, by listening) to others who are interested in the products. People don't expect you to be extra smart: just honest and sincere. Ask as many questions as you can. Think of questions to ask before you see people. By finding out what different people like or dislike; what kinds of problems and good things have come to them with African products in the past; you will learn what you need to know to best help the people you are working with. By helping others, you then help yourself as people buy from you when they receive a benefit. 

Just think about the things that you buy.  Don't you buy things when you see some benefit for you in it?  By knowing the benefits that different people perceive in your product, you can show them more benefits; sell more; and make more money.  Think regularly about the things people like in the things you are showing; positive reactions that customers have told you about; and the ways you can fit these stories and bits of information into your conversations with your customers.

There are a number of specific questions that come up on individual products. You do not need to know as much about drums as someone who plays and works with them all the time. They may ask you about termites being in the drums however (this is a a rare question, but it does come up). I will give you a response to this question; but it is just an example.  There are far too many questions to go into responses for here.

This is a legitimate concern, because many things come from Africa with termites or other insects living in the wood. The answer to this is that drums are sprayed for bugs before they are shipped out; that it is possible there may still be some when they arrive in the US but it is very unlikely. A small percentage of wood items have termites; and when they do, it is usually noticeable very quickly as sawdust appears on the spot where the item is stored. If someone suspects termites, they can do at least three different things to take care of the problem: they can spray the wood with a product containing diazinon (which can be purchased at most hardware stores); they can microwave the piece if it is small enough; or they can put it in the freezer until the bugs die off.

This is the kind of thing you will learn as you go; and when you don't know the answer, you can call us. If we don't have the answer either, we will try to find someone else who does. Obviously, all of this sort of knowledge comes primarily from just going out and working with it. You don't need to know a lot to get started; but you need to be asking questions and learning as you go in order to serve people best; and to have them wanting to buy from you.

Step 3. Know the customer

Knowing what your customer wants and doesn't want in something. Knowing how much they will spend.  These are things that I can try to tell you; but there is no better way than to spend time with your customers yourself.  You can find them here on the internet; at festivals and special events; and probably right next door to wherever you are right now.

To gain the best knowledge possible of this, just start talking to anyone you can about these products.  Ask them what they think of them; ask them how they think you would do best; ansk them what they like or dislike most about the different items offered.   As you do this, you will gain a tremendous asset that can help produce extra income for you whenever you choose to use it.

Step  4.  Have a plan.

I used to hear this all the time: "plan your work and work your plan" this is certainly a great saying to keep in your thoughts; and can be very powerful in increasing financial or career success.  Coming up with the winning game plan though is almost impossible to prescribe. 

What one person succeeds marvelously at, the next person fails at.  The plan that works for this person who failed before, may never work at all for the other person who succeeded.  What I have succeded in before, many others failed at.  And what many others have succeeded at; I failed in when I tried.  Because we are all so different, having slightly different programs for success is the most likely formula.  

This may sound like  no formula at all; but the idea behind it is to come up with the things that excite you the most.  Your excitement (or perhaps desperation) then motivates you to use all of your mental and emotional energy to come up with ways to be successful at the precise method that you chose or invent.  You then improve small parts of this process along the way until you have a system that is better than anyone elses for what you are doing.

So how do you come up with this formula?  The best way is by just jumping in and getting started.  The best way to  learn to home repairs is by doing home repairs.  The best way to learn a business, is by working in the business.  Work at different methods that you either find here, or come up with on your own.  When you break even (or even come close to breaking even) know that you will probably improve your system dramatically over time.  A system that may not be making much money now, can be adjusted in many minor ways and turn into a very profitable plan.

Step  5.   Work your plan.

You definitely  get paid for seniority in this type of business: that is if you are working consistently and competently.  Just like you shop at stores, and buy from or hire people that you know to be reliable.  Others bring their business to you as they find out the same things about you.  People will start with smaller orders before they make larger ones.  People will need to see you do well with them a few times before they send others to you.

Constantly look for ways to improve your system of connecting with buyers of these products; but keep in front of your customers ( looking for gift giving occasions; home decorating needs;  and other opportunities to help them) as well.  As you keep doing the things that you find work best, those things will continue to work better and better.  As time goes on, your time is spent less in any kind of selling; and more in just processing orders.

As you reach this point, producing your profits becomes much more mechanical.  You can hire others to help you process orders and deal with any established customers; leaving yourself free for expanding the number of people that you can be working with.   You end up with a lot of friendships; as well as the extra money that you probably got into this for.

This are simply some basics to get you started.  For more information on becoming successful in this business, look through some of the other materials available by Clicking Here.

If you want to talk about any of this further, you can contact me personally any time at all. Email messages are nice to africa@africaimports.com , but feel free to phone me if it is better for you. I travel a lot; but in the US can almost always be reached on my mobile phone at 402-689-8899; or you can call our office toll free at 800-500-6120.

If you still do not have our printed catalog, email with the word catalog in the subject line to africa@africaimports.com to receive a free catalog.  

Next, email me at africa@africaimports.com with your name and sales tax #; or apply with your state and still get started now.   There are plenty of things that you can get started with while you are waiting for your state application to be processed. 

Chose a starter kit by Clicking Here.  You can save over half on your initial purchases this way. 

Read through the terms and conditions by clicking here. 

If you are wanting to establish a credit account with us, print out, the credit application form at http://westafricaimports.com/creditapp/ fill this out; sign and mail it in.

But, whatever you do, don't stop now.  Get yourself off the ground by doing some of the things that you have learned here.  If you put things like this off until later, you will still be in the same place; without any progress; until then...or maybe later still.   Start Right Now.