How Small Italian Firms Married Style to Globalism

iStock/Thinkstock

I love this article that was published in the Wall Street Journal on Monday because it's about how a small wedding-dress maker Giovanna Sbiroli SRL built its brand and customer base by serving the Italian market and then realized that if they did not go global -- aggressively and soon -- they risked having to shut their doors. But they didn't. Here's why.

There is a Global Small Business 101 lesson for all of us in this.

Special thanks to Rosamaria Mancini who wrote the quality piece for the WSJ.

PayPal Jumps on the Global Band Wagon

iStock/Thinkstock

Not sure if you have to be a registered PayPal user to access this. Needless to say it's all about PayPal jumping on the global band wagon and offering advice on:

Why export?
How to go global with the PayPal guide to selling overseas.

Creative Financing....3/5

The Ayer is getting a bit thin.... Browder signed a mortgage agreement with GE Capital for $115M, and an agreed revolving credit of $15M plus $3M swing. What's the difference between that and the investors (which GE has been at a different time)? The hospital secures the loan.

When maintenance money is tight, but capital improvements are available, that's when you know investors are tightening in the moneybelt. Maintenance can't secure a loan...real property and assets can.


What they fail to realize is this: A hospital is more (or less!) than the sum of it's assets. Management can drive down the intrinsic worth faster than you can say "cutbacks". Actually, they may well be aware. GE probably figured having your hand out at the beginning of the line is better than at the end.

Actually, the mortgage was signed on Dec 20, but not recorded until about a month later. It was, in fact, the day after the saga of Dr. Rimas Maurukas came to an ignoble ending with revocation of his medical license in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Globalization and Cultural Diversity

iStock/Thinkstock

Is globalization making the world more homogeneous? And if so, does Hollywood share the blame?

Does Spider-man play into this?

Find out here.

Vote, And Vote Often!....3/5

The fourth of next month will be interesting in the national arena, but it will also be worth a look here. I was going to let things slide, but then someone pointed out that Essent has a PAC (Political Action Committee), and hasn't been shy in the past as to who they support and what contributions they will make to their campaigns.

Sharon Hospital tried to host a fund raising breakfast for one Senator a few years back, and was promptly slapped down as being in violation of campaign contribution rules. That's when they formed the PAC.

So, who are the contributors, and who are the recipients? It will certainly be interesting, and possibly telling.

I'm fac_p, and I endorsed this ad.....

Global Education

iStock/Thinkstock

Knowledge is power. Kick it up a notch for the education of globalization. More universities are taking it seriously and offering programs to help individuals do business and innovate with different cultures.

Young Student Entrepreneurs Take On the World

iStock/Thinkstock

Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (www.gsea.org). The GSEA program recognizes the world's outstanding undergraduate student entrepreneurs. Eligible students can visit the website to download an application form for the 2008 awards.

Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization(c-e-o.org). CEO is the premier global entrepreneurship network servicing chapters at 134 colleges and universities. Students can register online for the national conference.

Students in Free Enterprise (sife.org). SIFE is a global nonprofit group active in more than 40 countries. Through regional and national competiions, SIFE presents awards in its core areas of market economies, entrepreneurship, personal financial success skills and business ethics.

Young Money (youngmoney.com/entrepreneur). The website's entrepreneur channel features expert advice, student profiles and small business calculators.

All the News Not Fit To Print.....3/15

Events and Orders of the Court

03/12/2008 OBJECTION TO AFFIDAVIT OF R. WESLEY TIDWELL
03/06/2008 BRIEF PLTS BRIEF IN OPPOSITION TO JOHN DOES NO. 1 MOTION FOR PROTECTIVE ORDER
12/20/2007 MOTION FOR PROTECTIVE ORDER
12/17/2007 NOTICE OF INTENT TO SERVE SUBPOENA ON NONPARTY REQUIRING THE PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS
12/14/2007 ORDER RESCINDING ORDER RELATING TO THE DISCLOSURE OF JOHN DOE #1'S IDENTITY
10/01/2007 ORDER RELATING TO THE DISCLOSURE OF JOHN DOE#1'S IDENTITY
09/28/2007 LETTER FROM JAMES RODGERS TO HONORABLE SCOTT MCDOWELL
09/27/2007 SUPPLEMENTAL PETITION PLTS FIRST
09/24/2007 LETTER FROM JAMES RODGERS TO HONORABLE SCOTT MCDOWELL
09/14/2007 JUDGE'S RULING
09/12/2007 PLAINTIFF'S SUPPLEMENTAL BRIEF IN RESPONSE TO JOHN DOE NO. 1'S OPPOSITION TO THE DISCOVERY OF HIS IDENTITY
09/12/2007 ARGUMENT FROM JAMES RODGERS
09/07/2007 PLTS BRIEF IN RESPONSE TO JOHN DOE #1'S OPPOSITION TO THE DISCOVERY OF HIS IDENTITY
08/07/2007 VACATION SCHEDULE J. MICHAEL TIBBALS AUG. 17-26, 2007

08/06/2007 LETTER TO JUDGE MCDOWELL FROM JAMES RODGERS

07/24/2007 ORDER AGREED ORDER AMENDING JUNE 10, 2007, ORDER AND DIRECTING NON-PARTY CEBRIDGE ACQUISITION, L.P.,dba SUDDENLINK COMMUNICATIONS TO PRODUCE RECORDS PURSUANT TO THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS ACT.

07/11/2007 NOTICE OF APPEARANCE/SUBSTITUTION OF COUNSEL FOR NON-PARTY CEBRIDGE ACQUISITION LP D/B/A SUDDENLINK COMMUNICATIONS

06/19/2007 ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF'S MOTION TO NON-PARTY TO DISCLOSE INFORMATION

06/19/2007 PLAINTIFF'S ORIGINAL PETITION

Looks like Suddenlink isn't rolling over...or doesn't have the data...floating IP addresses are tricky things....frank

RBN – Extortion and Denial of Service (DDOS) Attacks

The Russian Business Network (RBN) has long been known for its bulletproof hosting and its control of botnets such as Storm. Apart from the obvious example of an RBN “hired gun” Distributed Denial of Service (DDos) attack on Estonia in May 2007 many have attempted to comprehend and link the RBN’s usage for botnets. Within this article we shed light via several documented examples extorting potential clients into the use of their “specialized” hosting services by the use of DDos, and a further example of RBN’s ecommerce.

For those who wish to understand how a DDos attack works via a botnet see figure 1.


Figure 2 shows the evolution of DDos over recent years based upon purpose and size currently at 17+ Gbps (gigabytes per second) and potentially 7,000 such attacks daily - courtesy of Prolexic technologies (click on the figs to see full size and see links below).

The business model RBN uses is quite simple and effective; its affiliates and resellers comb various niche market forums and discussion areas for webmasters using or discussing protective web services i.e. DDos prevention. Carry out a DDos attack on the website and then provide a third party sales approach to the webmaster to “encourage” a sign up for their DDos prevention services. The cost of this hosting service is $2,000 per month.



These niche markets for the RBN are usually within the Internet market sectors of pornography, and specialized grey areas, e. g. online pharmaceuticals, and HYIP (High Yield Investment Programs). This blog is not commenting on the legitimate purpose or otherwise of these web sites, the RBN is successful as most of these webmasters are not about to publically complain. However it does appear that legitimate hosting services offering a level of DDos prevention are vulnerable to the RBN’s monopolistic efforts, to capture and control this high income business. It further appears many such recruits are then encouraged to mitigate the costs by becoming resellers themselves of the hosting and other RBN services. It should be added that some of these resellers are unaware, or are happy to be ignorant; they are actually part of the RBN reseller community.



For sample details we can start at a HYIP forum “Talkgold” this is a fascinating knock-about discussion on RBN DDos extortion (see link below) and provides some useful clues for RBN exposure.

However, the clearest evidence can be seen within another forum “HotHYIPs” as we can see in figure 3 the details of RBN DDos reselling, figure 4 shows an example of grateful affiliates with a US based affiliate openly stating “Paid very fast. A very good return from a ddos attack.”

The prime sales link for the RBN hosting is via NEAVE LIMITED a UK registered company, but the actual core serving is ELTEL based in St. Petersburg RU, one of the core replacement servers for the RBN post Nov 08, with AS-peers: 30 and 67,584 IP addresses. This is listed within Spamhaus (see link below) “Botnet criminal Indian & .ru/.ua spammer host: NEAVE LIMITED” as of Jan 12th 08.



Eltel: IP range 81.9.8.0 - 81.9.8.255 AS20597, example site hosting; goldenpiginvest.com /.net – the canadianmeds.com – pharmacy-viagra.net



Already some of the notable blacklisted domains listed within the Spamhaus lasso have moved to other RBN utilized AS servers, also using the RBN’s recent blocking avoidance mechanism “*.badsite.com” for sub domains for example:



rxpharmacy-support.com - ns3.cnmsn.com - 204.13.67.108 - 204.13.64.0/21 AKANOC Solutions Inc - AS 33314 (US)



*.thecanadianmeds.com - 79.135.160.0/19 Sistemnet Telecom - AS9121 TTNet (Turkey)



officialmedicines.com - 79.135.165.0-79.135.166.255 AS9121 TTNet (Turkey)



psxshop.com - 66.197.0.0/17 - AS29748 Carpathia Hosting




To further add and demonstrate RBN connectivity “goldenpiginvest.net” links directly to data storage on Level3 Communications; box(dot)net, - see figure 5 - a service that provides the ability to collaborate and share files online. This was shown in an earlier RBN blog article concerning 365fastcash and the RBN’s Panama based servers (see link below). No doubt Level 3 will be able to (again) inform US authorities of the content of these data files, and terminate such services.






Figure 6 – IP diagram for *.thecanadianmeds.com






Links:

Prolexic technologies - DDos information - figures 1 & 2


RBN DDos extortion Talkgold forum discussion


HotHYIPS forum RBN reseller advertising and remarks


Spamhaus botnet lasso - NEAVE LIMITED / Eltel, St. Petersburg RU


Level3 Communications; box(dot)net; goldenpiginvest.net & 365fastcash common linkages

Exporting: The Dollar's Upside

iStock/Thinkstock

Boom time for small business exporters.

Social-Networking Sites Going Global

iStock/Thinkstock

MySpace, Facebook and other social-networking sites aren't just slugging it out for customers in the USA. They're expanding aggressively overseas, where a vast majority of Internet users live.

Find out more here.

And don't forget to join our new wiki.

Next-Gen Artisans Fuel New Entrepreneurial Economy

iStock/Thinkstock

Another one of my favorite reports has just been released: The third installment of the Intuit Future of Small Business Report™, which looks ahead 10 years and examines the prospects, influences and profiles of small business. The report is sponsored by Intuit Inc. and authored by the Institute for the Future.

Check this out:

The Next Wave of Globalization Will be Driven by Small Business

The number of U.S. small businesses trading globally will substantially increase, fueled by cross-border business opportunities, technological advances leading to broader social networks, and reductions in export costs. More specifically:

• Almost half of U.S. small businesses will be involved in global trade by 2018. As the costs associated with doing business globally continue to decrease, small businesses will make no distinction between domestic and international commerce.

• Social networks will fuel borderless commerce. Online and offline social networks will help remove soft trade barriers, such as language and cultural differences. These networks will introduce small businesses to new markets and facilitate cross-border trade.

• Globalization will increase small business diversity and amplify its economic value. Small business diversity will help increase market growth in the U.S. and abroad and will unlock new opportunities for all small business owners.

Clearly, borderless business is going to become BIG.

Special kudos to the main authors of the report: Steve King, Anthony Townsend, and Carolyn Ockels who also, in addition to writing the Intuit report, publish a nifty blog at Small Business Labs.

For a shortcut to the report, visit here and look for Phase Three: The New Entrepreneurial Economy.

Note: We contributed a tad to the report.

Ever Wonder Why....2/27

I received this promo from Dell and Microsoft:

Your choice of a PC can dramatically improve the lives of people living with AIDS in Africa. Windows® is proud to partner with Dell™ and (RED)™ to give you an opportunity to buy (PRODUCT) RED next time you buy a PC.

For every purchase of a Dell (PRODUCT) RED PC, Windows and Dell will make a contribution of $50 to $80, depending on the product purchased, to The Global Fund to help improve the lives of people in Africa affected by AIDS. $50 is enough to pay for almost four months of life-saving antiretroviral treatment for one person suffering from AIDS.

It's simple. You choose Windows Vista Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED, we give to The Global Fund, and people in Africa benefit.

It is a beautiful choice with a powerful impact.

My question, to the drug manufacturers, and our elected officials is, Why does four months of antiretroviral cost $80 in Africa, and why shouldn't it be the same price here?



Last I heard, the treatments, not just the cocktail, cost thousands per month. So why are we paying (at levels that threaten to bankrupt our healthcare system) the much higher price for the same drugs? Is it because they can get away with it?

But, it isn't only that. What has happened to our healthcare system? Years ago, in a fee-for-service era, you got sick, you went to your doctor. He listened, you talked. He talked, you listened. You paid him. Simple. Now, with the system we have, you pay the HMO, they pay the doctor, a percentage of what he bills, so he feels the need to cram more patients into the time slots. Little talk, less listening. Less paid. The price of progress.

This really isn't the fault of a free-market system. It happens in socialized medicine as well. The money you would have paid to the HMO, would go to the government. They would 'manage' the system. The physician receives less, as does the patient. ...And the level of caring is even less. ...And what program has government 'managed' correctly, or under budget?....keep thinking.....

Going Online to Lure Foreign Shoppers

iStock/Thinkstock

Retailers in the U.S. are turning to the Internet to sell to shoppers abroad in hopes of easing the pain of an economic slowdown at home. As featured here -- preview only unfortunately -- in the WSJ 2/8/08.

When I read the article entitled, "Going Online to Lure Foreign Shoppers," I could not help but think of the days when Sears Roebuck published the one and only world's largest print catalog offering everything from toys to garden supplies to the best all cotton underwear for the entire family. These two clips provide context on what I'm talking about: Sears archive and a book about the catalog. If the catalog were still around, you can bet Sears would be thinking about luring foreign shoppers to it.

Could it be that retailers are just now thinking along the same line as Sears back then? Isn't that what Amazon has become: the world's biggest online catalog? Sears had its global day in the sun too (refer here when they formed a Sears World Trade company in the 80s) attempting to become the world's biggest global supplier but it fell far short of shareholder expectations. Since they had the global suppliers already in place, why not offer retail products on a wholesale basis to the world? Sounded like a good idea at the time but it didn't work out. One forgets just how complicated it can be. Even now with supplier chain management tools in place it's difficult to manage.

Where am I going with this? Don't think about piece-mealing exports on your products through someone else's efforts. Say you sell Macy's. And Macy's is thinking about luring more international customers to its online store (as the article states). Great. You see more of your widgets sold all over the world so how could you not be happy about that? Now you can attend business networking events and claim you are really, really global instead of just global -- through Macy's initiatives, that is.

But wait a minute. Wouldn't you rather sell a million units of your own product to a key customer in an overseas market and pocket the profit than sell a handful of units a month through Macy's and share in the profit? Just think what happens when you open up to other market opportunities?

One of the ways I moved a lot of products -- a couple of 40 ft. containerload quantities every month -- back in the days when I was exporting gourmet foodstuff was to work with importing wholesalers in foreign markets where I wanted to sell products. Those importing wholesalers sold to all the mass merchandisers, independent mom and pop stores and supermarket chains in their homeland. All I had to do was get product to them for marketing and distribution! My oh my was I on a roll and a very fulfilled small business exporter.

And you can be too. Regardless of whether you are selling direct or indirect, your customers will tend to fall into five categories: overseas agent or representative (importer), distributor or importing wholesaler (which mine were), overseas retailer, overseas end-user, and trading company.

Take a look here at how the process is managed.

6 Questions For Your Global Shipper

iStock/Thinkstock

I wrote an article, "Leaving the Country" for PARCEL magazine that talks about the reluctance of small businesses to expand their businesses internationally and why. One of the key concerns that always rises to the top of the heap is: "How will I ship my product? I'm clueless."

That issue is addressed near the end of the article with six questions small businesses should ask to help find the right shipping partner.

No. 1: Are you familiar with my industry and the markets where I want to do business?

The article along with the other five questions can be found here.

Got the Urge to Go Global?

iStock/Thinkstock

Well you've come to the right place -- that's for sure!

Read about how a chief executive plans to take the Harlem Globetrotters more global.

Global Misunderstandings

iStock/Thinkstock

Fascinating stuff! Don't miss a bit. I even added my own little story to the discussion list of working with people around the globe. Add yours too, if you have the time.

Here's the originally published article: Global-Market Woes Are More Personality Than Nationality. Quite a few people thought Jared, the author, was way off base. What do you think?

New GlobeTrade Community Wiki!

iStock/Thinkstock

Please join us on our new GlobeTrade Community Wiki (http://globetrade.wetpaint.com/) -- your place to build, connect, communicate and grow global with your peers!

We hope you like what you see, learn a lot in the process and discover there are no boundaries to growing your business.

Sign up (takes just a minute). Create a profile. Add your photo. And start net-borderbustering.

Ask For The United States Dollar Rate

iStock/Thinkstock

This never would have occurred to me. Dependent upon where you are traveling to or from, ask for the U.S. dollar rate if it's to your advantage. Good idea. And another interesting tip mentioned in the same article is the Small Luxury Hotels of the World where they do allow you to ask for U.S. dollar rates but not so sure -- even with the weak dollar -- the room rates are affordable to all global small business owners. Worthwhile read though.

Gear Up For Globalization: Answers From Real People (#3)

iStock/Thinkstock

Question from:

Laurel Delaney, Founder and President, GlobeTrade:

"Do you think Ex-Im Bank will cut back or be more willing to extend loans to SMEs (that qualify on exports) this year in light of a possible recession?"

Answer from:

Tess Morrison, Director, Illinois International Trade Center, University of Illinois, College of Business, Champaign, Illinois.

"Exim (and SBA) will not cut back for SMEs, whether or not there is a recession. Exim is committed to serving at least 20% of their business as SMEs.

All companies need to adhere to the financial guidelines, but they have as much to do with the buyers as the sellers. Exim must (by law) act as a bank. For example, they can only do business where there is a reasonable expectation of repayment. The onus is on the buyer. Otherwise, we, the U.S. taxpayer has to pick up the slack. Exim looks at the seller to make certain that they do not appear about to go under (to give an excuse to not repay by the buyer.) Exim is committed to SMEs."

Delaney (clarification):

"So Exim will not be in the same league as all the other banks on being super cautious with loans to SMEs due to the mortgage meltdown?"

Morrison:

"That's correct. They don't do the same kind of lending as regular banks. Their focus is on the buyer being able to repay so that we the U.S. taxpayer isn't stuck with the repayment."

Note: I am still waiting to hear back from two other experts (one from Chicago and one from headquarter office) at Exim Bank on the same question.