Exporting

Anyone who wants to export, can. The world awaits. The essential element needed to be successful exporting is readiness. The rest is mechanics and know-how. Whether you’re a first-time exporter or entering a new market, selling goods and services across borders is easy and just a mouse click away. I’m here to show you how. But before I get to that, let me take you back to a little more than twenty-five years ago.

Congratulations! You have determined you are export ready. You have what it takes to export and have decided on the type of export you wish to launch: a product, a service, or both. Now it’s time to map out what you intend to accomplish during the life of your export business. It’s time to think about your export prosperity in a new and dynamic way. This starts with the global mindset we covered earlier and moves to crafting what’s ahead for your business on the international front. The process, which many dread because it requires a deep dive into strategic thinking, becomes an operational plan for controlling the export business and serves as a guide for growth and export success. The export business plan will become a part of your overall business plan—you’ll see how and why later on.

Now that you’ve set up your business plan, it’s time to delve a little deeper into assembling your export company. The next step is tackling the essential details of a sound legal, fiscal, logistical, and tech operation. You’ll be faced with obstacles ranging from expanding your enterprise, protecting your company, and choosing a product name and other intellectual property to opening a bank account in your home country, sourcing financing, dealing with special tax situations and setting up online platforms. Not all of these issues will come into play immediately, but you will do well to familiarize yourself with the framework in which you will be operating right from the start.

If you have the wrong people on [your] bus, nothing else matters. You may be headed in the right direction, but you still won’t achieve greatness. Great vision with mediocre people still produces mediocre results.

Branding demands commitment; commitment to continual re-invention; striking chords with people to stir their emotions; and commitment to imagination. It is easy to be cynical about such things, much harder to be successful.

I just made my album. I did my best. And I uploaded the video just to YouTube. That was all.

Whether you are like Gina and sell art or you sell hamburger buns or steam engines, using a proven e-commerce platform is beneficial, provided its visitors are in line with your ideal target market, it is easy to use, it has a global reach, and it can help you sell more goods worldwide at a profit. It also allows you to test the salability of your product on someone else’s proven successful infrastructure before making a substantial investment to set up an e-commerce site from scratch. Not all buy-sell platforms will work to your advantage, but with a little effort, you can try out the top ones with minimal risk by creating multiple store fronts simultaneously.

If you want a symbol of how technology is transforming the way we conduct business worldwide, look no further than e-commerce, which refers to buying and selling on the Internet. It’s easy to forget that as short as 15-18 years ago, buying books or shoes online seemed novel. Not anymore. The new digital reality is upon us. Is there anything you can’t buy online almost anywhere? The driving force behind e-commerce growth is the proliferation of tablets and smart phones, technology improvements, greater convenience, competitive prices, global choices, and bountiful product information.

My morning starts with coffee and a check of the news on my tablet. I’ll also check out my social media sites, starting with accepting LinkedIn invitations before heading to Facebook to see what others are up to. As I start making breakfast, I switch from tablet to smart phone to see if anyone has sent an important text message. I scan my e-mail, open a few apps to skim more news, and receive a prompt that my phone has not been backed up on the cloud for several weeks. I turn back to my tablet for the TuneIn radio app, which streams music that I can listen to as I make breakfast.

The twenty-first century will belong to the Internet consumer. So it follows that if content is the soul of an online enterprise, marketing is the heart. Put the two together and you can assemble the next wave of Internet consumers who have unlimited options and freedom of choice. Our digital experience is now about engaging consumers with information, new products, new brands, new movements, and new individuals that they care about. To that extent, you don’t want to just market a product or service to Internet consumers; you want to own or dominate the space you operate in. You want to become, for lack of a better descriptor, an export rebel with a cause. What is critical is to watch and learn as you go, seize the opportunity when you can, exploit it, and inspire others to get involved.

Forgive the directness in the following questions, but we’ve come this far together and now I must test your resolve. Do you know what you will be exporting? If not, how will you decide? Will it be a product your firm already manufactures and sells or will it be someone else’s product for which you serve as a middleman? Or what if you discover a product made by someone else that you think has export potential? How will you approach that firm? What do you do if something goes wrong? Will you need a legal contract to get started?

Once you’ve decided on a product to export, you’ve got to find an export market where you can sell it profitably. At this point, I am assuming you know what you need to do to get export ready based on the results of the export readiness questionnaire you took in Chapter 1. As for market research, it can be a slow, painstaking, and tedious chore, but as you add to your knowledge, by tracking the movement of goods and tapping into the world’s networks of purchasing and distribution, you will create your own living and changing map of international trade that will serve you throughout your export business.

Many business owners believe it is only packaging that has to be adapted in the overseas marketplace. That’s a mistake. Adapting your product to meet the needs of an overseas market is a considerable undertaking and will likely require a substantial investment of time and money.

You don’t have to be a manufacturer to export. As you take your business into the digital age, you’ll find that keeping ahead of the competition takes more than just getting your product into world markets. You’ll also need to export superior services to cultivate additional strength. In this chapter, I’ll discuss exporting a service and how it differs from exporting a product. In addition, I’ll provide a brief look at services that have the best potential for export success, a list of the best international market prospects, and a couple of case examples.

Why the meteoric rise of the importance of web translation? Because the majority of the world’s population does not speak English. In fact, less than a third of the current Internet user base speaks English as a global language and this percentage, according to Yunker, will only decrease as the next billion Internet users come online over the next several years. If English is your language, as it is mine, you’re out of luck if trying to make, as Yunker puts it, “a good first impression” on the vast majority of international people. Globalizing your Web site offers an enormous revenue opportunity for your business.

Finding customers for your export product and services can be accomplished through a range of programs, largely government sponsored, including trade shows, trade missions, and related trade-networking services. I’ll introduce a number of these services to you and explain how you can take advantage of them. I’ll also revisit how to use social media and networking to attract potential customers worldwide.

There are several factors to consider when determining whether a direct, indirect, or collaborative sales strategy is best for you—the most important are the extent of your resources, the degree of control you wish to exercise over your export ventures, and other in-country issues. The following analysis will help you to make a decision that is tailored to your needs.

People have been trading with each other, between countries, across roads and oceans, for thousands of years. According to the International Maritime Organization, “We live in a global society which is supported by a global economy—and that economy simply could not function if it were not for ships and the shipping industry. Shipping is truly the lynchpin of the global economy: without shipping, intercontinental trade, the bulk transport of raw materials and the import/export of affordable food and manufactured goods would simply not be possible.

Finding customers for your export product and services can be accomplished through a range of programs, largely government sponsored, including trade shows, trade missions, and related trade-networking services. I’ll introduce a number of these services to you and explain how you can take advantage of them. I’ll also revisit how to use social media and networking to attract potential customers worldwide.

The most important thing to negotiate before closing on an export sale is how payment will be made. In this chapter, I outline several strategies so that you can get paid in full and on time while minimizing risks. I also offer a brief overview of other nontraditional ways to finance an export transaction, should you find yourself unable to work out a standard method of payment.

Many US companies lose more business in moving products overseas than in any other phase of the export process. In this chapter, I’ll explain what the reason for this is and take you through the final steps of sending off your large-volume shipment. I’ll also show you how to book your order with a global freight forwarder and how to pack, mark, and insure your cargo for a safe and timely delivery to your customer.

In these past several chapters, I’ve walked you through the somewhat-complex process of getting your export shipment together with the help of your global freight forwarder. In this chapter, I’ll go over another set of painstaking but critical details—the preparation of shipping documentation to coincide with your transport and payment methods. I will also address the often anxiety-producing (but needlessly so!) issue of the exporter’s licensing responsibilities. Finally, I will provide a checklist for a final inspection of your documentation to make sure everything’s letter perfect.

The relationship between you and your overseas customer shouldn’t end when a sale is made. If anything, it requires even more attention. Once you’ve completed the initial export transaction, you must expect to provide a broad spectrum of “free” or “value-add” services in order to encourage repeat business. It’s the kind of follow-up I refer to as the “care and feeding” of customers and suppliers, which is done to keep them coming back, the premise of this chapter.

Whether you realize it or not, thanks to the Internet, everyone is part of the global marketplace. Just look at the billion+ people who use Facebook worldwide. To thrive, all companies must develop a multicultural perspective, cultural intelligence, or cultural literacy. When exporting and using digital platforms like Facebook to support those efforts, you must try your best to understand people, no matter where they are from.

While conducting business across borders, companies need to be mindful of ethics and laws, especially as they relate to exporting. You will have to contend with different cultures, different rules and regulations of each country you plan to do business with, different perspectives, and different end goals. There are so-called right and wrong behaviors, and there are also gray behaviors, which can make things complex. In this chapter, I’ll talk about the impact of unethical behavior such as bribes, unveil how sound ethics are our best competitive advantage in the digital global economy, and discuss why each of us must have a moral compass.

As a fearless exporter, you must be prepared to boldly go where you have never gone before! At the beginning of your export venture, and to help save money, you might use e-mail, Skype, Google+, or Apple’s FaceTime for conversations with your international customers. But at some point, a face-to-face meeting with them is absolutely essential to cement a quality business relationship. The practical aspects of international business travel can make or break your trip. Use this chapter as a checklist of the details you’ll want to attend to in order to have a safe, comfortable, and productive journey.

I want to start this chapter with the fact that women drive the world economy and then share a story that relates to businesswomen in the world marketplace. Forty years ago, Harvard Professor Theodore Levitt was conducting a case discussion in his marketing class about a person’s rise in the workplace. The fact that the person in this particular case was a woman was disguised to the students, who were predominantly men. After a long brainstorming discussion, Professor Levitt finally told the class that the protagonist in the case was a woman: “Boys, you’d better wake up now, because there are going to be more and more women in management, and they’re going to have an edge. You fellows are going to be so competitive with each other that the thought of collaboration [with women] is never going to cross your minds. Women will come in willing and able and ready, and you’re going to lose.”iii

Do you have a product or service that you could sell to nearly 3 billion people? That is a question millions of global citizens and companies alike are asking themselves, because the world is shifting its attention to BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) in the next phase of globalization to drive export revenue growth. The BRICS countries are a major force in the world economy where a rising middle class promises a long-term customer base. Even with recent market turbulence and a slight stall on exports, the potential of BRICS is too big for companies to limit their activities to developing countries.

By now, you’ve learned what it takes to find fulfillment and fortune beyond your national borders as an export business executive. Now it’s time to get started, and there’s no time like the present. So where are the hot export markets? I won’t leave you guessing for long.

We’ve come a long way in our journey, and now it’s time to learn from other small business owners on how they overcame challenges and became successful exporters. In this chapter, you’ll find personal experiences supported by sound advice about what it takes to run a successful exporting business.

And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.