By Dan McCue
Staff Writer

Nathaniel D. Hoyt readily admits he didn’t know what path his life would follow when he left publishing and started his own importing business in 2004.

He was working for a trade magazine at the time, one that focused on the home furnishing industry and, just coincidently, happened to be published by his brother.

It was a good life, he said, but one that conflicted with the natural wanderlust that led him to live in such far-flung locations as Columbia, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.

“I knew I had an affinity for those places, but didn’t know how much of a role those kinds of places would play in the life I was considering,” Hoyt said.

“The one thing I did know was that no matter what your relationship is, working for your brother is … well, working for your brother.”

Two years after deciding to jump ship and embark on his own career, Hoyt’s Charleston-based business, Hoyt Trading Co., provides teak and other exotic wood-based accent furniture to a host of major retailers, including Crate and Barrel, Smith and Hawkin, Morris Sokol, Furnitureland South and ABC Carpet and Home.

Difficult path

But it hasn’t been easy, Hoyt said. His story illustrates the trials and triumphs of small business owners trying to feel their way into the global marketplace. Along the way, it has all the twists and turns of an Indiana Jones adventure.

“There’s no question, I backed into my calling,” Hoyt said. “Working at the magazine, I had developed extensive contacts in the furniture industry, and I knew from our market research what some of their preferences were, but other than that, I was coming in cold.”

He knew he didn’t want to be a retailer, and as far as domestic manufacturing was concerned, “the writing had been on the wall a long time,” he said.

Then he ran into someone involved in international trade and the ensuing conversation struck a chord. The problem was deciding what to trade.

“When the world’s your oyster and you can bring in anything, how do you choose what your product line is?” he asked. “Do you try to sell something because you like it or because others respond to it?”

Doing the research

Falling back on his magazine background, he pieced together market research from the six to seven years of reader service cards whose processing was part of his old job.

Furniture companies were interested in acquiring accent furniture, but what kind? Casual furniture seemed to be a top priority, but even there, his recollection of the data was vague, if not blind, alley.

Finally, his memory solidified on a single product style: dark woods from Indochina. With that, Hoyt said, he began creeping around backcountry towns, looking for someone able to produce the kinds of quality products for which he was looking.

“At this point you’re talking about a handful of countries, really. Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia,” Hoyt said. “The problem was Vietnam and Thailand are fairly new to quality furniture manufacturing. Indonesia has been doing it the longest, but the country is notoriously unstable, politically speaking.”

But political instability meant many of his potential competitors were looking elsewhere for their goods. Believing that made for a good pricing opportunity, Hoyt immediately headed to Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital.

“My first several weeks in Indonesia, I saw all the human rights horror stories first-hand,” Hoyt said. “Child labor, dangerous chemicals being dumped directly into streams, and frankly, I was about ready to give up and come home.”

But finally, through perseverance, he found Old Java, a company owned by a Welshman that reminded him of an operation he might find in the United States.

“It was immaculate, relied on skilled, adult labor, and produced several quality furniture products,” he said.

The company specializes in turning reclaimed teak—wood that was formally part of houses, sheds and other structures in Java and Sumatra—and turning it into furniture. In cases where virgin teak is employed in a product, every log delivered to the factory has a tag that corresponds to one on the stump left behind in the plantation where it was grown.

“We also use only nontoxic finishes, making these products truly environmentally friendly,” Hoyt said, before adding, “When you’re an importer, you’re only as good as your supplier.”

A trading novice

But if Hoyt was an adventurer and a gambler, at this point he was also a complete trading novice.

His first proposal was to buy a single cargo container, which has the capacity to hold four or five rooms worth of furniture, and to learn the logistics of trade as it made its way back to the United States.

“A single container costs something like $40,000,” Hoyt said. “I thought that was enough of a risk. After all, I don’t know of many startups that could have withstood that kind of gamble more than once or twice.”

His counterparts at Old Java, however, had another idea. They suggested he represent them, more or less as the middleman, in an operation geared toward selling full container loads of cargo directly to American retailers.

The conversation that ensued was both candid and direct. Hoyt turned them down on the grounds that he could easily be cut out of the picture once he developed markets for the factory. Even if he and Old Java signed an agreement stating that wouldn’t happen, Hoyt said he knew he was at a distinct disadvantage in a foreign legal system that both sides at the table acknowledged could easily be bribed.

Hoyt’s counter proposal was intended to limit his exposure. Old Java would pay all of his business expenses, for everything from business cards to business travel, plus provide him with a commission on each container sold, and he would agree to sell enough containers for the company to recoup its investment.

The figure agreed upon was 20 20-foot-long containers. In the first year, Hoyt only sold six.

“Until you’re in the trenches, you just don’t know what you can do,” he said. “But I had gotten far enough with retailers, that I felt like I could take a gamble and cover my second year.”

The first mistake

Hoyt said his first mistake in importing was that he didn’t realize how long it would take to get his first customers.

“It turns out, importing, and I’m sure exporting for that matter, really is a timing game,” he said.

Hoyt, of course, began to receive orders, and then was just as surprised by how quickly his customers reorder his products. What his customers wanted, he learned, was one container load in their showrooms, another on the water headed for the Port of Charleston, and a third in production.

Hoyt advises companies considering importing to recognize they need not only to know their business, but also to educate themselves about the warehousing industry.

“First of all, if you’re the seller of a good rather than a manufacturer, you’re going to need someplace to store your samples, because no one is going to buy a product sight unseen,” he said.

Getting through customs

Then there was dealing with the U.S. Customs Service.

“Here in the Port of Charleston, there is an exceptionally good level of professionalism among everybody involved in the business of moving goods, but in some other ports, I’ve had some problems,” Hoyt said.

For instance, if Customs officials search your container and can’t get everything back inside, as happened to Hoyt at one out-of-state port, the importer and, ultimately, the customer will have to share in the cost of an extra truck.

“And remember, the whole time that they’re trying to put the container back together, the clock is running and you’re losing money,” he said.

Hoyt said despite some hard knocks—what he calls lessons you learn through the nose—one of the smartest things he’s done is try to educate his customers about the possible problems that might arise.

“Be honest with your customers. Give them the information in advance. Alert them to the potential risks,” he said. “The customer who had to pay for the extra truck wasn’t happy, but they were less unhappy than they would have been if they’d been caught by surprise.”

Hoyt advises novice importers to reach out to the South Carolina World Trade Center, which he said “does a terrific job” of answering any and all trading questions that are brought to them.

Hoyt also recommend that startup traders become acquainted with the Service Corps of Retired Executives, a nonprofit organization that offers free counseling and low-cost workshops to small business owners.

“We all have strengths that keep us afloat in business and weaknesses that keep us striving to move forward,” he said. “But if you realize that there are resources you can lean on, it’ll help you to achieve a balance. After all, you’re professional life is only one part of your soul that needs to be fed. You need time to date, to surf, to live your own life.”

Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@charlestonbusiness.com.

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