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The United States ranks third globally for growth opportunities behind China and India, but second behind China for perceived barriers to entry.Read the entire report here.
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Republican leaders in Congress have been ready from day one to advance free trade by approving three pending trade agreements, with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. President Obama also favors the agreements, as do enough congressional Democrats to ensure their passage.
While the agreements probably will not put a visible dent in the U.S. unemployment rate, they will create better-paying jobs and more prosperity for American households.Read the entire commentary here.
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| ©Laurel Delaney 2011, "Marina City Twin Towers, Chicago, Illinois, United States" |
The complex consists of two high rise corncob-shaped 65-story towers (including five-story elevator and physical plant penthouse), at 587-foot (179 m) tall. It also includes a saddle-shaped auditorium building, and a mid-rise hotel building, all contained on a raised platform adjacent to the river. Beneath the raised platform at river level is a small marina for pleasure craft, giving the structures their name.Learn more here.
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Going Global is about getting bands to recognize what they need to do to be successful overseas. What are your recommendations for New Zealand bands if they were going to the UK to get their music on radio or to get noticed more generally?Read more: Jen Long (BBC1) - Interviews at Undertherader
Radio play is something where the sound needs to be right for the UK audience and obviously I don’t know everything that’s going down here but I feel like there is New Zealand stuff over in the UK that is appropriate and that perhaps some New Zealand bands wouldn’t travel as well. If a band’s going to go all the way to the UK don’t just go for a week. They should go, have a ...
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"According to small businesses, the only way a business can expand is to export," said trade consultant Al Elgendy at a recent San Bernardino Economic Development Agency workshop for entrepreneurs looking to expand globally, as quoted by the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. "It reduces the dependency on the domestic economy. When there's a downturn in the economy, the only way to expand is to go global."Read more here.
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One of the biggest challenges for family businesses is recruiting top talent and integrating them into structures that have evolved over the years and that are often perceived as being short on transparency. When asked why they would not work for a family business, 40 percent of the executives surveyed name a lack of career prospects.Read more here.
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Facilitating small-business exports of goods and services is a top priority for the Small Business Administration and Export-Import Bank of the United States, which are following Obama administration goals to double exports by 2014.Read more here.
The U.S. exported a total of $178 billion in goods and services in July -- an all-time high, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis as cited by the Export-Import Bank.
In the Jobs Act signed into law in September 2010, President Barack Obama allowed for the SBA to increase its ability to provide export-related financing by raising SBA 7(a) loan limits to $5 million from $2 million on export-related loans.
The law made the SBA Export Express loan permanent, with a 90% guarantee for loans up to $350,000 and 75% for loans between $350,000 and $500,000, according to the SBA. It also provides three-year state grants of up to $90 million to help small-businesses owners grow the exporting side of their businesses.
In early August, the Export-Import Bank said it had hit a record $24.5 billion for export-related loan authorizations. The bank's financing supports more than $31.5 billion of export sales and 213,000 U.S. jobs, including 2,548 small-business export jobs.
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| ©Laurel Delaney 2011, "Horse Flower Power" |
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It is true that Chinese enterprises should improve themselves when going global. Compared with large European and American transnational enterprises, most of Chinese enterprises going global are low and middle-end industries. Most of them are traditional contractors. Their primary businesses do not involve science and technology as well as high added value, which make them short of core competitiveness.Read the entire article here.
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“America's future—and the future of the world beyond America—depends on how well we deal with” four issues, they argue ... globalization ...Read more here. And Thomas Friedman is quoted.
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One quick search by company, of imports from China could provide them with irrefutable facts of what was imported and where it came from, allowing them to continue selling their high-end product and protect their existing customer base.Learn more here.
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“Business without Borders” is billed as a “knowledge exchange” tool that offers industry-specific articles and commentary about global business. It includes content from The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Master Class and The Economist Intelligence Unit.Business Without Borders (BWB)
Beyond articles, it also allows business leaders to track global trade trends and identify the most promising locations for international expansion. Certain information is available only to those who register as members of the site.
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| ©Laurel Delaney 2011, "Photograph taken from car at a stoplight, looking straight up." |
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When shipping high-value products or when you are dealing with a very conscientious customer, an inspection certificate might be requested. An inspection certificate provides proof that what you are shipping is, in fact, what the customer ordered, and is also of good quality.Learn more (including companies who do this sort of work) here.
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| ©Laurel Delaney 2011, "Lend a Hand," Rogers Park, Illinois, U.S.A., artist mural |
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Most people would say the answer is obvious -- lower wages in China compared to the United States. However, that answer is only partially true. Why? Because labor is only one part of the total cost of a product, and in many cases it's as low as 20% of the total cost.And the winner of the product -- frisbee or stuffed toy animal -- made the cheapest in China is ...Let's compare two simple products that are primarily made in China: a stuffed toy animal for a baby and a Frisbee.
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