Soviet ventures: a capital idea - foreign small business in the Soviet Union - include related article on planning a Soviet venture

Nation's Business, Oct, 1990 by William Mueller

* Work out all contractual details, even the smallest, before the joint venture begins operation. If you cannot bargain for payment in hard currency, be willing to accept an arrangement that calls for profits to be plowed back into the Soviet venture for a substantial period.

For firms interested in importing Soviet goods and selling them in the U.S., Alvin Duskin, president of Bering Co., a San Francisco firm involved in several successful Soviet importing ventures, makes this suggestion: "I advise anyone getting started [in Soviet importing] to approach the producers of useful products directly. . . . With them you can make a deal exactly as you would anywhere else."

On the other hand, Duskin says, "the worst thing a company [interested in establishing a trade relationship in the Soviet Union] can do is to go to Moscow and start talking to ministries. Americans spend millions each year and make contacts at the highest governmental level [and] nothing happens. They have wonderful conversations, good lunches, and get driven around Moscow in limos, but this type of business the Soviets consider another form of tourism."

William Mueller is an Iowa-based free-lance writer who specializes in Soviet-U.S. trade and economic issues.