Should You Have a Google YouTube Channel For the World to Watch?

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YouTube is a global video platform that can get your business in front of millions of potential new customers. Additionally, meaningful video content can attract and engage your target audience and strengthen your marketing efforts.

In this article, the author explains why YouTube is a must-have marketing strategy, how the video platform can help your brand and how to create a YouTube channel with compelling, engaging content.

Transformational: 8th Annual Global Small Business Forum 10/20/23

©2023 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

If you missed the 8th Annual Global Small Business Forum 10/20/23, all you can do at this point is check this out, LinkedIn post, and then sign up for next year's:  10/18/24 – scroll down and look for Subscribe for Updates.  The forum is all about learning how to take your business to the next level, global.

Growing Global Is Inevitable For Prosperous Companies

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Businesses frequently consider expanding “nationally” over time, that is, within their current nation. Many companies will consider international expansion at some point. This is the point at which an expansion turns into a “global” or “international” expansion, even if it is just into a neighboring nation such as Canada or Mexico for USA-based companies.

Although it takes guts to grow your business internationally, most businesses are forced to do so because local growth maxes out and there are greater opportunities elsewhere. 

Internationalization comes with expenses and risks, but with careful planning and a well-thought-out export strategy, overseas markets offer fantastic growth prospects.

Learn why growing global is inevitable for prosperous companies.

Franchise Brands Wrap Up 2022 More Global Than Ever

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International businesses have learned to adapt and continue to expand into new countries despite nearly 3 years of a business world forever changed by Covid.

This month our international deals roundup reports on expansion from Costa Rica to Eastern Europe, the U.S., Uruguay, Dubai, Canada, Mexico, and more. 

From Arby's to Domino's to Wendy's, find out who's doing what, where.

There Is a Bigger Market Out There: Global

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Matrade CEO Dr. Mohd Shahreen Zainooreen Madros says small businesses cannot afford to remain local. More and more foreign companies are making their way into Malaysia and are quickly crowding out the local market.  “There is a bigger market out there,” he says.

Competition has intensified as companies find that they are no longer limited to just the market in which they are based in.

As such, the world can become your market.

Read more about enabling exports for SMEs.

Find Wi-Fi

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Facebook's 'Find Wi-Fi’ goes global and will allow billions of users to locate their nearest Facebook hotspot. And it will help especially small businesses in attracting more visitors to their venues.  It’s a simple Internet access extension of Facebook’s booming social media advertising business.

The service – including the value proposition for small businesses in particular – should be very attractive in emerging markets such as Asia and Latin America, where wireless data is often scarce or expensive or both.

Learn more here.

Take Your Business to The Next Level: Global

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If entrepreneurs are to take their businesses to the next level, they need to get informed, especially if they are Rwandan entrepreneurs.

For example, the Export Growth Fund (EGF) managed by the Development Bank of Rwanda (BRD) is under-utilized.  The Fund was established to help exporters get around obstacles.

If a bank gave an entrepreneur a loan at a 17 per cent interest rate, for example, he [François Kanimba, the minister for trade, industry and East African Community affairs] said, the Fund would chip in 6.5 per cent to ease things for the entrepreneur.

Learn more here.

Google Gone Global Once Again

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Google Talk (VoIP service) is expanding its phone call service beyond the United States to more than 150 locations around the world in 38 languages.  No kidding.  No connection fees.  Pay only for talk time.

Many small businesses are turning to Skype to cut telephony costs, but with Google offering a lower-cost alternative, businesses and consumers may soon reap the benefits of increased competition.  

Learn more here.

Meet Zaha Hadid Architects

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Built globally and built to work.  From the UK to Austria to Japan -- these folks get around and produce magnificent structures the world over.

Zaha Hadid Architects

What It's Like to be No. 2 Globally

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Take a good look. I bet they try harder.

'Avatar' Cracks Top 10 All-Time Domestically; No. 2 Globally

See how China consumers view the movie here.

Note: Our "10 Predictions, Forecasts and Trends That Will Shape Our Global Small Business World In 2010" is scheduled to be published first over at Small Business Trends (www.smallbiztrends.com) -- hopefully today (1/12). We'll let you know when it's posted. As a refresher, here's 2009.

12 Social Media Monitoring, Analytic, Simplifier + Discovery Resources

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Here are twelve web site usage resources to help you monitor online global marketing activities:

1. Google Analytics
2. Twitter Analyzer
3. Hootsuite
4. Radian6
5. ViralHeat
6. Bit.ly
7. Scoopler
8. TweetMeme Analytics
9. PostRank Analytics
10. Twopular
11. Xinureturns
12. Omniture

Global iTablet from Apple?

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Whatever it is and whenever it is launched, get ready to take your business global by developing accessories for the soon to be announced Apple tablet.

Read more here.

Small Businesses Can Become Global Conglomerates

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How to take your small business global by way of extreme outsourcing.

Read BusinessWeek's "Mom and Pop Multinationals."

The Tipping Point For World Recovery: Women Entrepreneurs

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Let me catch my breath on this one because it's a doozy of a "Groundbreakers" report #2 by Ernst & Young, "Scaling up: why women-owned businesses can recharge the global economy," detailing how women entrepreneurs are critical drivers of economic growth and provides resources and insights for private sector, government and NGO leaders who are seeking to close the gender gap. I love to see that women entrepreneurs and women-owned business owners are finally getting the respect and attention they so rightfully deserve.

The Center for Women’s Business Research study shows that there are about 8 million women-owned enterprises in the US. Those businesses have an annual impact of nearly US$3 trillion dollars and create or maintain more than 23 million jobs — 16% of all US employment.

Women entrepreneurs have economic clout. Greater participation of women in the labor force correlates with higher GDP growth.

Worldwide, women own or operate 25% to 33% of all private businesses, according to the World Bank. Women-owned enterprises grow faster than those owned by men and faster than businesses overall.

And that's not all. What has made a difference for women entrepreneurs lately?

• The US government has appointed a woman as Secretary of State, and has created a new position, Ambassador at-Large for Global Women’s Issues.
• The World Bank’s Doing Business project has launched a two-year research program to identify and recommend reforms to eliminate the legal and regulatory barriers facing women.
• The Declaration on Fostering Women’s Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The more wind and support we put behind women entrepreneurs, the faster and more powerful our global economic recovery. Read more here.

Download "Scaling up: Why women-owned businesses can recharge the global economy," as a printable document (818KB PDF).

We've been on this same trend (and agree with the report findings) for some time but see for yourself by visiting our sister social enterprise, Women Entrepreneurs GROW Global (WEGG). You might also re-visit our Top 10 Global Small Business Trends in 2009 (refer to No. 8: Women entrepreneurs will rule the global marketplace).

Swiat Nauki

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Yesterday, I visited Borders downtown Chicago, and scanned the recent edition of Scientific American (SA). I got caught up in "Does Language Shape What We Think?" Later, because I was so impressed with all the great content, I decided to check out SA's website. My goodness, I had no idea how global they are.

Swiat Nauki is their Poland edition. According to Google Translate, Swiat Nauki stands for "World Science."

If you want to get a quick course in cross-cultural online communications, pay a visit to each of these wonderful Scientific American sites from all over the world. You get a good feel on what works, what doesn't, especially on design and color schemes.

Russia
Spain
Taiwan
Italy
Japan
India
Israel
Germany
France
Czech Republic
Holland
Brazil
China
United States

Look at all the other countries that Scientific American operates in here.

Reaching Beyond Borders

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We've been preaching the value of using technology to go global for a long, long time. Here's a good article that backs us up!

Living Unbuttoned Goes Global

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Levi's offers a campaign and a jean fit for all 110 markets. Think it will work?

Catch the story here: Levi's Marketers Hope One Size Fits All

5 Steps To Opening An Office in China

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It takes a lot of grunt work and perseverance to pull it off. If you follow these suggested steps, it might make your journey a little easier.

Many of you have experience in conducting business and/or setting up shop in China. Care to weigh in by either challenging the steps or adding to them?

Social-Networking Sites Going Global

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MySpace, Facebook and other social-networking sites aren't just slugging it out for customers in the USA. They're expanding aggressively overseas, where a vast majority of Internet users live.

Find out more here.

And don't forget to join our new wiki.

Innovators Using Technology To Make The World a Better Place

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Read all about the tech award laureates here.

2007 Laureates

Intel Environment Award Laureates

* Emulsified Zero-Valent Iron (EZVI) Team FL, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
* Fundacion Terram Chile, Santiago, Chile
* Joe David Jones, Skyonic Corporation TX, Austin, Texas USA
* Marc Andre Ledoux, Consortium SudEco Industrie Montreal, Canada
* Solar Sailor Chatswood, Australia

Accenture Economic Development Award Laureates

* Anil Chitrakar, Babu Raja Shrestha, and Prachet Kumar Shrestha, Environmental Camps for Conservation Awareness Kathmandu, Nepal
* Association la Voute Nubienne Ganges, France
* blueEnergy San Francisco, California, United States
* Kamal Quadir, CellBazaar Dhaka, Bangladesh
* Kiva.org San Francisco, California, United States

Microsoft Education Award Laureates

* Canal Futura Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
* Elluminate, Inc., Fire and Ice / Elluminate Live! Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, United States
* Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, OER Commons Half Moon Bay, California, United States
* Robert Shelton, Terry Hodgson, and Stephanie Smith, Math Description Engine Software Development Toolkit and MathTrax application (MDE-SDK MathTrax) Texas, United States
* TakingITGlobal Ontario, Toronto, Canada

Katherine M. Swanson Equality Award Laureates

* Counterpart International Washington, DC, USA
* Devendra Raj Mehta, Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti Jaipur, India
* Grameen Shakti, Empowerment Through Renewable Energy Technologies Dhaka, Bangladesh
* Innocence Project New York, U.S
* Tropical Forest Trust, Indigenous Peoples Voices Programme Craissier, Switzerland

Health Award Laureates

* Diagnostics Development Unit, University of Cambridge & Diagnostics for the Real World Ltd. Cambridge, U.K.
* Donald O'Neal, HELPS International Farmersville, TX U.S.
* P&G's Children's Safe Drinking Water Program Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
* PATH, Vaccine Vial Monitor Seattle, WA U.S.
* Vaxin Inc., Rapid-Response Bird Flu Vaccine Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.