• I am new. What should I do? Part 2

Hello all, hope never a day pass without something new and something good for you.

Read the subject of this posting? Yes, i am writing this exactly to answer that question. I appreciate some of you who have contacted me and even asked me to become your mentor. Thank you and it is really a big honor for me.

But pay attention to this. Alibaba is a trading portal and once you enter as a member, and even started to gain benefit from it, you should really be aware of what kind of basics knowledge and skills you should have.

I remember in my early days as a member, i several times got a call from chinese buyer who doesn't speak english at all. I think this member is lack of the basic skill, which english laguage that he couldn't take advantage of what Alibaba is offering as benefit.

Some other time, even recently, some members contacted me what should be done as soon as a buyer aggress on buying our product?

Here, let me remind you that being a trader, is very much the same as being other professionals. It has some basic requirements. Although in this case, you do not need to acquire such certification to become a trader in Alibaba.

Doing trading activity via Alibaba (selling or buying) inherently will promise you some benefit but at the same time will expose you to some risk. If you understand how to do it, then trading profit out of whatever you buy or sell is indeed a material benefit for you. Hoever, if you are lack of what's needed to gain benefit out of whatever you are selling or buying, then it is very possible that you will loose.

The followings are some basics that you need to do or understand before starting selling or buying via Alibaba (in other words, these are basic things that you need):

1. English language. Yes, this should be the very basic. Not only that you are required to understand common english language, but also english terms used in trading activity. Keep in mind that fluency of the language is something different. I know some fellow traders are not really fluent in English, but their basic knowledge of the language is enough to communicate with seller or buyer. I salute the technology recently that program such as Trade Manager will not only ease way of communicating, but at the same time provides a media for practicing english as well.

2. Basic knowledge of international trading (Export and Import). This is probably the harder part. When you are new, i can understand if you are totally lost and don't know where to start. Based on my experience, here are several tips of where to start from:

• Buy books on export and import. In Indonesia, where I live, we have many of these kinds, whether it is translated version of english books or the original english version, and also books written by experienced professional trader. This is exactly where i started it from. From the books, I came to understand also some basic regulation by my government about international trading.
• Surve the internet and find articles of such international trading introduction subjects. I am pretty sure that there are many available.
• Join a training on the subject. I myself joined some training. Not too many. But it did help a lot.
• Talk to the right person. Remember, talking to the experienced people in the field is probably the best way of getting hands-on knowledge.

3. Basic knowledge of product delivery. There are several ways of deliverying the products. You must understand what such mode of delivery is suitable for delivering certain product. Not only the mode, here you need to also understand the documents accompanying the product, shceduling, packing, and other related matters.

4. Basic knowledge of banking and international ****. There are a lot ot master here. Again, books and free internet sources are probably the most easy to access source for learning this. As for me, I even went directly to the bank, ask for direct information from the bank officer of how LC works. I must warn you that some bankers understand even less than you might already know in relation with how LC works. In this case, you can cross check the information you get with those from the books you read.

5. Basic knowledge of the industry of the product you are trading. I am a general trader. The way I work is very simple. I check out what buyer needs, and find if there is any supplier within my reach. This way, i could be selling variety of products any time. However, as an independent trader, I must limit the number of product that i sell for some reason.

• First, so that i can have enough time to learn all about the product that I handle. By handling too many products, it is impossible for you to learn details about it. Remember, even as a middleman, you do nut just make money, but you must also be responsibel for what you offer.
• Second, so that i can become professional in the industry that the products i handle. It takes sometimes to master some technical term of the industry. By not mastering the technical term, you may jeopardise your seller or your buyer due to potential misunderstanding.
• Third, to allow me to concentrate on finding buyer for the products i sell. I find it difficult to sell when there are too many on my showcase. It is true that the more kinds of product you sell, the more possibility it creates sales. But esspecially when you are a one man show company, it doesn;t work like that.

Being equipped with all basic knowledge and skills as written above, is not a guarantee that everything is going to be smooth for you. I always believe that experience is the best teacher. Experience comes along with time. The longer you do something, the more experience you'll be, and the better you are on that subject.

I almost got scammed several times. Lucky because it was just an 'almost'. But i lost some money though not that much for sending 'heavy' sample to those unreal buyers. But it made me better in doing this.

In the end, people will find out if you are a credible trader or not. I believe that in the end, it is not all material things (such as packaging andprice) that always sells. I believe that in the end, your credibility that sells.

Happy safe trading

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