Growing Small Business Exporting

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A very interesting perspective on small-business exporters:

Thinking Small
The Obama administration's efforts to grow small-business exporting, and how Congress could derail them.

Going Down the Export Road

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Find out how you can boost sales by looking for customers across borders.

Tapping into exports

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

Toolkit Kiosk Helps SMEs Go Global

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SMEs got a boost recently when the Small and Medium Enterprise Corp Malaysia (SME Corp) unveiled the first of its kind SME Toolkit kiosk in the country aimed at helping SMEs go global.

The kiosk, which is located at SME Corp's office in Menara Matrade, also helps them leverage on the toolkit to enhance their business by reducing their operational cost. SMEs can gain access to the relevant information in the toolkit via the Internet and need not go to the kiosk personally to access it.

The SME Toolkit is an online program that enables entrepreneurs and small businesses to learn how to implement sustainable business management practices needed for growth in areas such as finance, accounting, international business, marketing, human resources or legal, at no cost.

Learn more here.

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

Gum and Greetings Around the World

Photo credit:  Laurel Delaney, GlobeTrade.com -- captured in my car near a stop light at Wacker Drive and Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

Chicago-based Wrigley offers a nice season's greetings around the world ... check it out and enjoy your weekend.

Global Gaga

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My latest contribution for Small Business Trends at the American Express OPEN Forum:

How to Market Your Business Lady Gaga Style

Posted by:  Laurel Delaney, for The Global Small Business Blog

Notes from the World Entrepreneurship Forum 2010 (Part I)

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After attending the third edition of the World Entrepreneurship Forum (www.world-entrepreneurship-forum.com/2010/), I was overwhelmed by the inspiring presentations from thought leaders around the world.

With this blog post -- the first in a series that I'll cover over the coming weeks --  Patrick Molle (pictured at microphone), President of Emlyon Business School (founding member of World Entrepreneurship Forum) is featured.

According to my notes, here are some of the points he touched on during his welcome presentation on "Shaping the World of 2050."

• Worldwide environmental changes
• Accelerating backlash against globalization
• Depletion of vital resources
• There will be 9 billion people by 2050
• At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10/day!
• Africa is the only continent creating bigger youth population than older population

Challenges:

• The world needs more (environmentally friendly) jobs
• The world needs to reinvent itself
• The world needs a new development model which reconciles the creation of wealth and with social justice (Laurel here ... which is what the World Entrepreneurship Forum is based on)

Ambitions for the World Entrepreneurship Forum:

Primary:  Educating entrepreneurs of the world (with emphasis on early stage).

Secondary considerations:

• How to prepare young people?
• How to train (to become agile)?
• How to educate cross-cultural leaders?

Goal: To produce entrepreneurs for the world!

"Entrepreneurs are not born but created by their experience." ~ Patrick Molle, President of EMLYON

His conclusions and recommendations can be found here (requires translation).

Revert to this post for photos from the World Entrepreneurship Forum 2010 and go here to learn more about what took place and its overall mission.

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

New Kid On the Block: GlobalTrade.Net

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Welcome neighbor GlobalTrade.net!  A new marketplace for international trade services run by FITA Online, with the support of the Federation of International Trade Associations , in cooperation with the U.S. Commercial Service , United Kingdom Trade & Investment , ThomasNet , Alibaba and Kompass.

Ahhhhhhh, if only we could truly have an open source global trade platform that the whole world could tap into (similar to a Wikipedia for global trade) and benefit from!

We hope to see eBay and Global Sources welcomed into this exchange soon.

Posted by:  Laurel Delaney, GlobeTrade.com and The Global Small Business Blog