Global Business

Often, even medium size businesses are very hesitant to expand into the international economy. And without careful preparation...they are right to be cautious. The terrain looks unfamiliar as well as the markets, marketing strategies, competitors, language, food, ways of closing a deal, or even the way you greet a possible business partner or the way you hand over your business card. So many unfamiliar things! You just don’t want to add the anxiety of not knowing what is going on or what is being said. Is it worth the trouble or not? Is the risk matched by the potential?

But like most challenges you have faced in your home market....with effort and flexibility, you can win. While it is true that doing business internationally has its own set of ladders to climb (and snakes to skid down), there are countless rewards in a world market that is exploding in demand for imaginative and innovative products. If the rewards were not there, nobody would risk doing it and every day we see new small and medium firms taking the leap...because that is where the growth is.

OK...swallow hard and let’s start to look. How then can you leverage the skills you clearly have in your home market into becoming a savvy businessman in the international scene? Here are a few steps:

1. Lift Your Head, Look at your immediate world. Start at home. Talk to that cleaner with the funny accent or the IT Specialist next door (probably from a BRIC country). He or she may have had a much bigger job in the home country and already have ideas about where you could fit in. Ask some of your colleagues at work how people do business in countries of their origin. Check Governments web site for trade initiatives or feed back from your Trade Commissioners. Read about international events. Begin to see possibilities in these emerging global trends. Don’t just read the business news, Current events can forecast the economic future for products and services. Food shortages, water management, green initiatives...and on and on. Looking for ideas in all the right places!....Read the full article