Is It Time to Scale Globally?

©iStock/ChrisGorgio

Perhaps you have a small online business supplying homemade jelly and all your stock is stored in your basement. What will you do if you get an order for 10,000 jars of jelly from the UK or Argentina?

Make sure you assess whether your chosen systems -- how you make the product, ship it, and get paid --  can withstand increased orders.  Otherwise, you might need to start an overhaul. What will that cost you, in time and money, to implement?

Read more ...  

How to Cater to National and International Tourists

©iStock/AlexBrylov

A cozy restaurant, bar and patio, Nomads Global Lounge, tucked into the Motel Du Beau, is bringing a taste of the world to Flagstaff, Arizona -- one plate at a time.

The idea for the name of the lounge came from the globe-shaped fire pit, which they first saw online. The name comes from a combined the idea of the nomadic world traveler and the image of a world globe. The globe theme can be seen in the porch lights, door and even the wrought iron railing enclosing the patio of the lounge.

That's how you cater to a national and international tourist audience.  You make a place warm and cozy with a world theme.

Read more ...

Today in Global Small Business: Best Place to See the Great American 8/21/17 Eclipse

©iStock/solarseven

What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• The best place to catch the Great American 8/21/17 eclipse. 
• What would a better NAFTA look like?
• How to win at the international trade game with creative export finance (WEGGinar™ on 9/6 free of charge but you must register to attend: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/4753604763900421122; I'll be on the call).
• Flying warehouses?  Coming soon from Walmart.
• Can working overseas influence your worldview?  One man's perspective.
• How to launch your startup in an Asian market.

America Was Built on Courage

©2017 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

"America was not built on fear.  America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand." -- Harry S. Truman

Safest City in the World?

©iStock/vwalakta

What's the safest city in the world?  Oh that's simple:  Abu Dhabi. Who says so?  Numbeo.  Who's Numbeo?

Numbeo is the world’s largest database of user contributed data about cities and countries worldwide. Numbeo provides current and timely information on world living conditions including cost of living, housing indicators, health care, traffic, crime and pollution.

Abu Dhabi came in first, scoring the lowest crime index of 13.09 and the highest safety index of 86.91 in the past six months.

The UAE's capital was followed by Doha, Qatar, which came in second globally,  and Basel, Switzerland, which came in third.  Other cities that were ranked in the website's top 10 list include Munich, Germany, Osaka, Japan, Singapore, Singapore, Quebec City, Canada, Taipei, Taiwan, Boise, ID, U.S., and Bern, Switzerland.

Read more ...

Looking Beyond Borders for Business

©iStock/tiero

Making the decision to export as a small business can be a daunting one, but there is considerable help available to help you realise your goal.

There are valuable export opportunities for Australia’s small business sector not only in China but also in the United Kingdom, the United States and Malaysia (to name a few overseas partners). However, for some small businesses, the perception can be that the export market is difficult to access and full of obstacles. 

So here are a couple of things you need to do to overcome export challenges.

Staying Relevant

©iStock/BrianAJackson

Some global small businesses are very good at staying relevant. Some not so much.

Think about the well-documented stories of Sony Walkman failing to take advantage of the digital music era, the taxi industry doing little to effectively battle Uber and many, many more examples. This is all comes back to a loss of relevance with an audience and it is one of the biggest risks facing all of us in business today.

So how do you make sure you stay relevant?

Read more ...

How to Create a Sensational E-Commerce Website with Wordpress

Today in Global Small Business: What Makes For a Successful Global Business Leader?

©iStock/istocksdaily

What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Read these 10 books on globalization. 
• What makes for a successful global business leader?
• Learn how to win the trade game with creative export finance (WEGGinar™ on 9/6 free of charge but you must register to attend: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/4753604763900421122; if you participate, I'll be fielding your questions).
• How a woman business owner took her business from a hobby to a $2 million international business. 
• To become an international player, you must develop a global mindset.
• Speaking of global mindset, developing a global mindset is a key leadership attribute.

What's Your Place in History? Mine Is Clouds

©2013 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

"All of us have a place in history.  Mine is clouds." -- Richard Brautigan

A Golden Age for Small Business

©iStock/krung99

Since President Trump took office, small-business owners have grown more confident in the economy.

The businesses in the survey [The National Federation of Independent Businesses’ Index of Small Business Optimism] reported increased confidence on nearly every front, saying they expected higher sales and planned to hire more workers, increase inventories and expand their business.

Corporations are currently taxed at a lower top rate than pass-through businesses, which account for 75 percent of small businesses. They pay the same tax rates as any other worker.

President Trump:  “America is on the verge of a golden age for small business,” he said at a recent White House event with more than 100 small business owners.

Read more ...

How to Develop an Insanely Natural Brand

©iStock/Smileus

“Shane [Shane Wolf, Lead Farmhand at Seed Phytonutrients] came to me [Brad Farrell, vice president of global brand marketing at L'Oreal] and said, ‘I’ve always wanted to break the rules and have an insanely natural brand.’ I knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work on something I believe in.”

Learn the story behind Seed Phytonutrients, a personal care brand that embraces organic farming both philosophically and practically, and how L’Oreal’s global chairman and CEO Jean-Paul Agon, embraced the creativity, sustainability, and especially the entrepreneurship of the project.