First steps in doing business here
The question I am asked most often is where to begin. My answer has never been a single piece; it has been this order. Form of presence, distributor, payment, disputes, logistics and compliance — in the order they actually reach you in the first six months.
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Step 1
Entering the Ukrainian market: the checklist
The questions a company should answer before committing to Ukraine, in the order that actually matters rather than the order they usually get asked.
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Step 2
Agent, distributor, branch or subsidiary
Four ways to sell into a market, with different costs, different control and very different legal consequences. Choosing wrongly is expensive and common.
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Step 3
The registers a foreign company needs to read
Before signing anything here, a company can check who owns the counterparty, what it owes, whether it is in litigation and whether it actually owns the land. All of it is public.
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Step 4
Choosing a distributor without regretting it
The most common expensive mistake a foreign supplier makes here is appointing the first enthusiastic distributor they meet on exclusive terms.
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Step 5
Getting paid: terms, instruments and reality
The most common commercial failure in a new market is not losing a sale. It is making one and not being paid, and the instruments that prevent it are well established.
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Step 6
Where to argue: courts, arbitration and the clause nobody reads
The dispute resolution clause is agreed in the last ten minutes of a negotiation and decides everything if the deal goes wrong.
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Step 7
Getting goods in: the routes and what each costs
There are four ways to get a container into Ukraine and they differ by a factor of several in cost and by weeks in time. Choosing badly is a common and expensive error.
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Step 8
Technical regulations and the CE mark question
Manufacturers frequently ask whether they can put a CE mark on a product made in Ukraine. The answer is more interesting than a simple yes or no.
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Step 9
Sanctions compliance for a company trading here
A company trading in this region needs a screening process, and it is neither expensive nor complicated. Not having one is the risk.
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Step 10
What a foreign company actually does when a country goes into crisis
The sequence matters more than any individual decision. People first, then cash, then contracts, then the strategic question — and the strategic question should never be answered in the first fortnight.
Once a month, new pieces only
One email a month: what was written that month, and one older piece from the archive. I send nothing else.
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