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Every day, I hear anecdotes about "plague phrases"—the words that infect companies and kill exporters’ time and profits. Whatever you do, avoid these five phrases at all costs...
1. “My business is too small to matter.”
Whether you’re a first-time exporter, a single-person shop, or a multinational corporation, it’s your responsibility to keep your company compliant with export and trade laws. A word to the wise: enforcement agencies won’t give you a break on misclassification because you’re not a major exporting company. What’s the risk of believing your business is too small to be noticed for violations? Customs authorities will question certification by employees who are neither knowledgeable nor authorized to represent the exporter. The person signing the certificate risks both civil and criminal penalties for any misclassifications or errors.
2. “It’s close enough.”
Whether you’re referring to Schedule B codes, ECCN classifications, international product cost structures, or other documents that require precision, there’s no such thing as close enough. Either you’re doing it the right way, or you’re doing it the wrong way.
The idea of close-enough classification is just one symptom of unhealthy business practices. While doing a job half-heartedly in this area is most often due to the belief that mediocrity is OK (laziness), sometimes a lack of product knowledge can have you muttering “it’s close enough.” Failing to dig deep enough won’t just cost you in terms of your reputation—you could face fines and penalties from the government; storage fees at the ports where your (incorrectly classified) goods sit; and, most importantly, you won’t get paid for an undelivered shipment!
Monitoring and updating your goods as necessary takes an effort, but resources abound that make it easier than ever before to accurately and precisely classify items.
The Census Bureau website lists Schedule B codes.
Limited ECCN classification information is available on the BIS website; we also offer a Product Classification Wizard that you can use to identify the correct ECCN.
The Department of Commerce has Export Assistance Centers in major cities across the country that can provide assistance with regulations, markets, and Schedule B and ECCN classifications.
Countless webinars and seminars are available that explain the processes for compliance. Many of these are free, and the rest are offered at nominal cost—-a fraction of what your penalties could be.
3. “My freight forwarder will take care of all of that for me.”
Your partnership with your freight forwarder is an important relationship that you should use to your benefit. But don’t let your forwarder’s expertise make you fall into the trap of using them as a crutch. Your forwarder could have thousands of customers, and they don’t know your business the way you do. Relying on your freight forwarder to take care of all of your documentation and paperwork instead of partnering with them to provide the information in a clean, streamlined form is a disservice to both of you.
Remember, “You can outsource responsibility, but you can’t outsource liability.”
4. “I don't need any help.”
Conversely, don’t fall into the trap of thinking you can do everything from soup to nuts by yourself. Not only will you waste a significant amount of time trying to reinvent the wheel, you could make costly mistakes that you may not catch until it’s too late—and your shipment is delayed in customs.
If you want control over the process but don’t want to risk accuracy, Shipping Solutions software can help. Our simple, precise and five-times-faster solution beats the tedious way you’re doing it now—instead of copying the same information over and over again, you enter information in only one place. That makes you less likely to make costly mistakes and helps to ensure you get paid quickly, so you can continue doing the work you’re great at. Interested in finding out more?
5. “That’s the way we’ve always done it.”
Perhaps one of the most detrimental phrases companies use—and believe—is this one. International shipping is a constantly changing landscape, where regulations, customs, Schedule B, and harmonized tariff information (to name only a few) change regularly. Just because a business has always done something a certain way doesn’t mean it’s the most effective or easiest method today.
We see this frequently with new users to our software who are alarmed when they don’t find a form they’ve been habitually filling out. They nervously come to us, believing they’re missing something, and we’re happy to explain to them that the form they believed they needed was actually just unnecessary extra work. Our experts continually monitor changes in international trade law and legislation to ensure our more than 2,500 customers have all of the paperwork they need (and none they don’t), so they can save time and money.
Don’t limit your capacity by falling into the commonly believed misperception that the way you’ve always done it is the best way—especially when it comes to exporting.
| Product Model | Inside Diameter | Outside Diameter | Thickness |
| LBBR25-2LS/HV6 bearing | 25 | 35 | 40 |
| LBBR20-2LS/HV6 bearing | 20 | 28 | 30 |