Key to Future Success For Small Businesses: Going Global

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Whether you think small or big, you can still take your business global!  What's needed to make it happen is more support and education to show the value of exports to small businesses.

According to the UPS Perceptions of Global Trade Survey, 24 percent of small businesses are currently engaged in global commerce, and many of those businesses are experiencing a large return from global trade. Of businesses who are doing business overseas, 66 percent report that exporting contributes up to a quarter of their annual revenue.

Learn more here.

Laurel Delaney says:

"While it might seem counterintuitive for small businesses to expand internationally with the economic challenges in the U.S., now is the time for calculated risk. By connecting with companies that have already been successful exporting, companies new to the process can realize the benefits of engaging in global trade a lot faster," said Laurel Delaney, owner of small-business consulting firm Global TradeSource, Ltd. "The simplest way for SMBs to find a successful exporting lead is good old-fashioned word-of-mouth coupled with a great company website."

More news on the survey:  A Survey Conducted by TNS, MarketWatch and UPS Pressroom

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

Great American Leaders

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From Chicago Defender's Robert Abbott to Totino's Pizza's Rose Totino to Herman's Miller's Michael Volkema, these great American leaders are featured in a database that was compiled in an effort to identify and chronicle the lives of 20th century men and women whose (global) business leadership shaped the ways that people live, work, and interact. 

Visit:  20th Century American Leaders Database

Why Brazil Is Booming

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Brazil is now the world's seventh-largest economy, GDP in 2010 grew at a 7.5% rate. Over the next two years, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicts, growth will continue at a healthy 4% rate.

As the article states:

A burgeoning middle class is generating growing demand for automobiles, televisions, computers and other products that a generation ago were out of reach for many Brazilians.

Are you poised to take advantage of it?  Learn more here.

Importing Substandard Products: Don't Even Think About It

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The Director General of Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), Dr Joseph Odumodu appealed to importers to stop the importation of substandard products into the country.

According to him, the fine for importing substandard products has been increased from N10, 000 to N2 million, in addition to seizing the goods, prosecuting and sending the importer to jail.

“Let me tell you one thing, SON has changed its strategy, when we catch you, we seize your goods, trail you and send you to jail.

Learn more here.

The Hidden Benefit to Globalization

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Below is an article on how globalization increasingly allows companies to avoid United States taxes and regulation.

The Benefits of Incorporating Abroad in an Age of Globalization

App Obsession Goes Global

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The app obsession has gone global. App downloads grew this year but 2011 was a turning point: This was the first year that these mobile devices outsold desktop and laptop PCs.

We mobile consumers demonstrated this very clearly both in the U.S. and abroad: Apple this month hit 18 billion downloads total on its iOS App Store, and Google’s Android Market likewise hit 10 billion.

Find out why here and what to look for in 2012.

Illustration credit here.

Migration Makes a Connected World Brainier

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Excellent opinion piece by Robert Guest for The Wall Street Journal.

First though, from the Partnership for a New American Economy (which is a snippet to the lead on the commentary):

I once asked the boss of Tata Consulting Services, a gigantic Indian IT firm, how many of his top executives had worked or studied abroad. He replied: "All of them."

The world's most talented people are exceptionally mobile. When they move to America, they make it smarter, and that's not just because they are smart. It is also because migration creates connections.

Read the commentary:  How Immigrant Entrepreneurs Turbocharge U.S. Trade

Robert Guest is the Economist's business editor.  His new book is Borderless Economics: Chinese Sea Turtles, Indian Fridges and the New Fruits of Global Capitalism

Green Standards For An Ever Changing Complex World

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Walmart’s Chinese sales receipts account for only 2 percent of the company’s annual revenues or roughly $7.5 billion. Fortunately, its sales in China have risen substantially over the past decade. Not the case in the United States; they have been shrinking.

What does this mean? Is China changing Walmart or is Walmart changing China?  Looks like new green initiatives are in the works.

The world’s biggest corporation and the world’s most populous nation have launched a bold experiment in consumer behavior and environmental stewardship: to set green standards for 20,000 suppliers making several hundred thousand items sold to billions of shoppers worldwide. Will that effort take hold, or will it unravel in a recriminatory tangle of misguided expectations and broken promises?

Read the entire article here.

Get Ready to Go Global in 2012

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How do you go global?  Let me count the ways.

Here are ten to start:

How to Position Your Business for Global Success

5 Tips to Grow Your Export Sales

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As one expert says, "Start small, but start."

Here are five tips to reduce risk, increase opportunities and grow your export sales.

Read: IndustryWeek: 5 Keys to Growing Your Export Sales

Posted by: The Global Small Business Blog

Eliminate Excuses in 2012: Go Global

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Stop making excuses and get ready to go global in 2012!

Top 10 Excuses for Not Going Global

Reasons why you should go global.

Select a Company Name That Reflects Happy and International

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Why didn't I think of this company name?

Joy Global

Joy Global Inc. is a worldwide leader in high-productivity mining solutions. Through its market-leading businesses – P&H Mining Equipment and Joy Mining Machinery – the company manufactures and markets original equipment and aftermarket parts and services for both the underground and above-ground mining industries and certain industrial applications. Joy Global's products and related services are used extensively for the mining of coal, copper, iron ore, oil sands, gold and other mineral resources.

Global demand.  Global reach.  Learn more here.

World: Experience the Mysterious

©Laurel J. Delaney 2011, "Beach Art"

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." ~ Albert Einstein

Do Your Part to Change the World

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Search, find your cause, change the world -- those are the words of Barton Brooks, founder of Global Colors, working to create self-sustaining grassroots projects for the common good of each community it serves.

Global Colors came after he took a trip to a small village in Cambodia. He says he was so moved by the people and their struggles that he decided to form his own organization to help get aid to people in need. To fund the first Global Colors projects, Barton sold his only asset at the time—a Shelby Cobra replica he built by hand. "It turned into education for kids and sustaining life for some widows in Kenya, so it's kind of hard to miss it that much," he says.

Read more here.

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

The Importance of the Spanish Speaking Market

Exporting: Got a Marketing Plan?

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If you are considering exporting, better get organized on the marketing front. This article might help.

Keep the research summary to one page, and break it into four manageable parts (refer to article below). The purpose of this exercise is to establish a broad scope on your research market analysis but not so broad that you overwhelm yourself. Try to begin with the end in mind: Where do you want to go and how will you know that you have arrived?

How to Develop an Export Marketing Plan

Changing the World One Heart at a Time

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What is Hearts For Hearts Girls?

Playmates Toys, the company behind Hearts For Hearts Girls, is among the most respected and innovative marketing and distribution companies in the global toy industry. Playmates Toys has a proven 40-year history in the creation of innovative and imaginative products as well as the development and management of profitable, long-term brand franchises.

Learn real stories from girls all over the world here.  And why it matters.  Visit World Vision as well.

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

Nepal Trade and Export Promotion Center

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The Government of Nepal established "Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TEPC)," a national trade promotion organization of the country in November 2006. They accomplished this by merging three organizations: the Trade Promotion Centre, Export Promotion Board and Carpet and Wool Development Board. The objective is to promote foreign trade with particular emphasis on exporting from the country.

Learn more here.

Made In USA: Chopsticks Destined for China

Tip for Global Small Businesses?

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It's our monthly e-newsletter, Borderbuster!  You probably already know about it but just in case, go here to subscribe.

Tips for Small Businesses Going Global

And see what the Federation of International Trade Associations (FITA) says about Borderbuster.  They must like it because they featured it to more than 70,000 readers of their own newsletter!  They also mention The Global Small Business Blog and the About.com Import and Export site.

We are grateful and thank FITA for their support.  Our social media platforms are buzzing!

A New Type of Hyperconnectivity

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With technology, mass migration is changing the way that people do business

In the flat world of maps, sharp lines show where one country ends and another begins. The real world is more fluid. Peoples do not have borders the way that parcels of land do. They seep from place to place; they wander; they migrate.

Read the entire article: Migration and business: Weaving the world together | The Economist

Global Distortions

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How do you battle cheap and low quality imports and other 'global distortions' in your country?  See what Brazil is doing to combat these dumping woes by way of a lesson from tire producer Pirelli.

Read:  Brazil's Consumers Go To Ground

Pirelli Corporate

Wake Up World: The Future of Computing Is Here

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David Gelernter, Professor of Computer Science at Yale, offers his fresh and compelling view on future computing, including his new concept called "lifestreams." Worth a read.

The idea, though, of lifestreams has been catching on. A lifestream is a way of organizing digital objects—photos, emails, documents, Web links, music—in a time-ordered series. A timeline, in essence, that extends into the past but also the future (with appointments, to-do lists, etc.). Facebook, with its "wall" constantly updated with postings by you and your friends, is a lifestream. Twitter's feed is a lifestream. "Chatter," developed by Salesforce.com for internal use by client companies, is a lifestream.

Rethinking the Digital Future

More on David at Edge and Wikipedia

How To Survive Running a Small Business In Egypt? Egyptology

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Read Jane Akshar’s life story which has all the makings of a best-seller and a lesson on taking a small business global.  Fascinating.

Global Entrepreneurship:  Running a Small Business in Egypt

Jane and Mahmoud's business: Flats in Luxor.  Curious about the 'Egyptology' part?  Go here.

Hello World: Go Live Your Dream Today

©Laurel J. Delaney 2011, "Rogers Park, Illinois Lakefront"

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Is Asia's Export-Oriented Model Dead?

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Stephen S. Roach, non-executive Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, lecturer at Yale University's School of Management and Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and author of "The Next Asia" has  word or two to say about whether Asia's export-oriented model is dead or not.

Asia's Wake-Up Call:  Is The Export-Oriented Model Dead?

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

The State of the World, According to OECD

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In its report on the state of the global marketplace, the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says:

"Trade growth slowed strongly in most major economies in the third quarter of 2011."

Learn more here.