03suzuka...s2000

So my best friend just inharited an undisclosed amount of money from his dad who just passed. He wants to start a buisness and said he'll throw $300k towards a buisness of importing cars (skylines, supras, basically any enthusiast car over in Japan)

He wants to bring me along for the ride and said we can be 50/50 partners in exchange for me doing all of the leg work as far as getting the buisness lic., dealer lic., finding a freight forwarder, finding a place to store the cars, etc...

Then we will fly to Japan buy the cars and ship them over and sell them for profit. Your basic R32 GTS-T and GTR, for example, goes for about $4k-$15k over in Japan. Then sell for around $15-29k in the states. Similar price difference with the older rare Hondas like a CRX glass top, just on a smaller scale.

We would go over and buy the cars together and sell them together. But I'm kind of confused on where to start. I've never started a buisness or anything of that sort, I just have a union job that pays decent for me being 26 years old but I know that's not what I want to do the rest of my life and this seems like it could be a way out.

Any advise on where to start and what contacts stateside I will need to acquire? Any ideas or advise at all really will help.

Thanks in advance.

hirev

See if you can find someone who already does this, study what they have online. look into what it takes to import, and Americanize the cars once here. it's been done before and it's a hard thing to make money on...you will also need a TRUSTED person to buy the car for you in Japan, check them out before they are sent to you, etc...and a trusted shop to fix them plus a place to store them. Bonds and licenses are probably needed if you wish to be a dealer and not have to pay tax for dmv while these things are in your custody. i would think just off hand that expense wise you are looking at 100% cost above what you pay for the car just to get it here and get it legal to sell...then there is profit.

I would start with one car, make your mistakes, it's a learning curve and take it from there, minimal investment and as a person, not a business, you would have less risk and expense at the get go....

hirev

Also, if you want to get into the car business, specialization is probably a good thing....you can start out easier with no import or compliance work by choosing a brand
you want to learn about and buying good examples of those, fixing them up and reselling them. easier by far.
It took me a month to learn enough about the jaguar xk8 to feel like i have a good one and learn all the stuff needed to keep it going, that's after I bought it!