Today in Global Small Business: What Do Most Extraordinary Global Business Leaders Have in Common?

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

• What do most extraordinary global business leaders have in common?
• Economic threats top global business leaders' risk concerns.
• Quote of the week: “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." – Steve Jobs
• Mastering cross-border regulatory compliance in global business.
• Will Trump's dollar diplomacy roil global trade?
• Global trade update (December 2024) – UNCTAD.

The Backbone of Our Economy: Global Small Businesses

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Global small businesses are vital to the USA recovery from the global pandemic yet micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) can power an even stronger recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, due to their innovative and opportunity-seeking nature, but they need more support.

Such support should be aligned with the priorities of the post-COVID-19 social and economic recovery, said the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Acting Secretary-General Isabelle Durant.

Read on to find out how supporting small businesses is critical for COVID-19 recovery.

Today in Global Small Business: Beautiful Destinations Around the World

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

• If you aren't doing something uncomfortable, you aren't growing.  Ready to change that? Register for an absolutely free-of-charge wegginar® on 12/5 to put yourself out there. 
• UNCTAD is making trade data freely available through a user-friendly interface called HelpMeTrade.org.
• DataReportal offers hundreds of free reports packed with data, insights, and trends to help you make more informed decisions.
• Quote of the week:  "May your walls know joy, may every room hold laughter, and every window open to great possibility.” -- Mary Anne Radmacher
• A Swedish restaurant is named Best Small Business In America.
• Beautiful destinations around the world -- from a Pinterest board. 

Lack of Global Rules

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Participants at the recent first ever cross-border e-commerce conference held in Beijing, China had a specific goal:  to discuss recent developments, challenges, and opportunities, as well as the enormous potential of digital trade.

Out of the discussions came three key factors that are currently limiting the positive potential of cross-border e-commerce.  They are as follows:

1. A lack of global rules
2. Customs solutions for the e-commerce age
3. Coordination is key

Read the complete Information Economy Report 2017: Digitization, Trade and Development, issued at a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which states 7% of business-to-consumer e-commerce in 2015 crossed national borders, amounting to a total value of around US $189 billion.

The World is On the Cusp of a New Digital Economy

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With the world on the cusp of a new digital economy in which e-commerce and automation will transform production, trade, investment patterns – as well as helping meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) –the need for new policies to be adopted is clear.

“The gains of digitalization are not automatic and there will be major challenges for countries, enterprises and people to adapt, but we must start somewhere,” UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said.

Digitalization is creating new ways for small businesses and women entrepreneurs to reach new markets worldwide.

Read more about global e-commerce policy work -- an effort that must never be given up.

No Early Global Economic Recovery

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How I hate to report information like this where it all seems so gloomy. The international investment that many developing countries rely on for growth is unlikely to rebound fully for two years or more -- at least that is what the United Nations trade and development agency (UNCTAD) claims. This means a lot of companies will be reluctant to expand internationally. Tell me it's not so.

Global FDI prospects are set to remain gloomy in 2009, with inflows expected to fall below $1.2 trillion," UNCTAD said. "However, recovery of these flows is expected to begin slowly in 2010 to reach up to $1.4 trillion, and will gather momentum in 2011 when the level could reach an estimated $1.8 trillion."
The 2009 forecast is well below 2008's $1.7 trillion, which was in turn down 14 percent from the 2007 peak of $2.0 trillion.

"In the short run, with the global recession expanding into 2009 and slow growth projected for 2010, as well as the drastic fall of corporate profits, FDI is expected to be low," it said.

Read more about what's going on here.
And don't let it stop you from moving forward on a global basis. Mindset is just as important as preparation for what's ahead.