“Same work, same effort — and the margin thins out a little more each year.”
You Sell Domestically — And Want to Earn in Hard Currency
Does this look familiar?
- Costs rise with the exchange rate, but you can't raise prices at the same pace
- You have a good month, yet what's left at year-end buys less than it did last year
- Your product is good — you know it would fetch a better price abroad
- Not knowing where to start keeps the whole thing stuck at "we're researching it"
What earning abroad solves — and what it doesn't
Selling abroad ties your revenue to dollars or euros while your costs stay in local currency — a structural move against currency pressure. But it isn't magic: there's competition, commission, freight and advertising abroad too. Hard currency doesn't make a product without margin profitable; it protects a product that has margin.
The common mistake: converting your domestic price
The most frequent error is converting your current price at today's rate and calling it your export price. An international price is built from scratch: product cost + international shipping + marketplace fee (~15% in most categories) + advertising + returns. Our practical threshold: product cost + freight must stay under 30% of the target selling price.
Which products actually travel well
- Light, unbreakable, standard-shippable — so freight doesn't eat the margin
- Genuinely searched for in the target market; "it sells well here" isn't data
- Differentiated by design, material, craft or personalization
- Year-round demand; single-season products swing your cash flow
What the first 90 days look like
The goal of the first quarter is learning, not profit: one channel, one product, small stock, small ad budget. You're collecting real cost data — freight, fees, conversion rate, returns. From month four you make scaling decisions on your own numbers instead of guesses.
Services that fit this situation
If your product is ready, let's talk about the rest.
A free 30-minute call about your market, your product and the first 90 days. No pitch — just a clear roadmap.