Today in Global Small Business: Fred Smith, Founder of FedEx, Is Dead At 80

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

• The mighty entrepreneur Fred Smith.  His vision for how to ship packages overnight led to not just a new company, but also a new sector of the world economy and a now-familiar English verb.  Read the FedEx news: https://newsroom.fedex.com/newsroom/global-english/frederick-w-smith-visionary-founder-of-fedex-dies-at-80.
• Free trade keeps you safe.  Tariffs Won't.
• The 6 miles of water keeping global markets on edge.
• Quote of the week:  "I am not someone who tends to advocate for increased government involvement in the private sector." – Frederick W. Smith
• Now, American President Trump, who promised to be a president of peace, has crossed the Rubicon with direct military strikes on Tehran's nuclear sites – the most consequential move yet in the second term of a president who has prided himself on breaking all the old rules.
• World reacts to U.S. strikes on Iran.

Giving Students Real-World International Business Experience

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The Knauss School of Business course International Management Consulting was designed with one specific goal in mind: give students real-world international business experience — right from home.

How? By working with San Diego-based businesses that are expanding into global markets. The course was uniquely created in response to the challenges of global mobility during the pandemic, and offers an immersive, hands-on experience with actual clients, company data and global industry statistics.

Galvanizing Global Small Businesses Worldwide By Supporting Women and Young Entrepreneurs

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Facing limited access to affordable finance, capacity-building support, partnership networks, and global markets, women and young entrepreneurs need help to overcome the numerous challenges that frequently stifle the growth of their businesses, confining many of them to informality or necessity entrepreneurship.

Learn more about how we can leave no one behind.

Benefits to Branching Into Foreign Markets

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Global markets offer tremendous potential for developing new customers.  Globalization isn’t a trend, it's a necessary strategy for expansion.  Presently, some 96 percent of the world’s consumers live outside the U.S.  Taking business abroad, therefore, is not only irresistible, but an essential requirement for any future-focused company’s growth strategy.

Here are 5 benefits to branching into foreign markets. 

An Introduction to McDonald's Shifting Tactics and Branding in Different Global Markets

Today in Global Small Business: The IMF Reels in Bitcoin

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

• In today's globalized world, becoming part of an international supply chain is key to the prospering of small businesses and their ability to create jobs.
• How do you acquire nearly a million (1 million) followers on Twitter or more than six-five thousand (65,000) on Instagram?  It takes perseverance.  Presenter CamMI Pham will educate us on how to be bold in 2018 and get the world to notice you in the next WEGGinar™ held on Wednesday, February 7 at 11:00 a.m. Central time. The WEGGinar™ is no charge but you must sign up to attend: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/2297562974983287811.
• Small business owners need to think about stretching their territory beyond traditional borders and bringing the entire world into play as their customer base.
• President and CEO of eBay Devin Wenig, says "One of the most meaningful ways technology companies can make an equitable impact is by bringing back to life the real engine of the U.S. economy — [global] small businesses."
• The tech industry has sparked rapid growth, provided access to global markets and created entirely new, massive industries — generating an estimated $1.3 trillion and accounting for about 8% of U.S. GDP.  Small businesses can continue to drive the growth.
• The IMF calls for global coordination on potential Bitcoin regulation.

E-Commerce Helps Small Businesses Go Global

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How do you create jobs and generate livelihood in a country?  Set up an e-commerce platform, such as the case in Pakistan, by China's biggest e-commerce portal Alibaba.

The [China] prime minister Nawaz Sharif] termed e-commerce a catalyst for bringing improvement in Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector, which he said could help promote the disadvantaged segments of the society. He said digital transactions were a solution for small entrepreneurs to expand their businesses and reach global markets.

E-commerce has the potential to unlock growth in emerging markets and elsewhere.

Read more ...

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone and Explore Global Markets

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To obtain sustainable growth, you must pursue challenges and one of them is going global.  The good news is there are benefits. All it takes is perseverance and a determination and commitment to break the market barriers.

Razzak Dawood [former commerce minister of Lahore, Pakistan] said it was only after exploring the global markets that one learned how to be internationally competitive. It is only after rubbing shoulders with competitors from various regions that one learns the secret of success by achieving efficiency.

Read more here.

Gator Guard Makes Huge Splash Into Global Markets

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Small businesses are the key to keeping local communities afloat and also for driving a healthy number of American exports.  Take Farmington, Illinois based Gator Guard.  They are a USA-maker of premier marine protection products.  Sue Smith, President and CEO, stands at the helm of the business.

She [Sue] knew there had to be a better way. None of the products on the market at the time provided the quality she thought was necessary in order to protect her boat. So since Day One of Gator Guards inception, Sue and her team have worked tirelessly to research, develop and bring the best protective technologies and products to the marine industry.

Gator Guards has done so well internationally that it earned the Governor's New Exporter Award for Manufacturing in 2016.  Since Smith began focusing on exporting in 2013, she has seen international sales grow annually -- to the point that they could meet or exceed Gator Guard's domestic sales in the next 5 years.

Learn more here.  Go Gator Guards!  And congrats on your award.

Today in Global Small Business: How to Win Global E-Commerce Customers in China

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

• How to take an alcohol business global (webinar 3/8).
• What does American business on-shoring do for international business?
• How to win global e-commerce shoppers in China.
• Speaking of global e-commerce, here's a report predicting it will grow at twice the rate of domestic e-commerce through 2020.
• How to get your small business booming in global markets.
• How the founder of McDonald's, Ray Kroc, turned the enterprise into a global phenomenon.

Tapping Into Global Markets Empowers People Worldwide to Share a Better Economic Future

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How many global scaling opportunities are you missing today? That is the question that begs to be asked and puts the elephant right on the table.

According to CEO & Founder of Startup Professionals, Inc., Martin Zwilling, there are six key risk factors when scaling a business to go global.  He bases the article below on NYU Stern School of Business scholar and leader Robert Salomon's recent book, “Global Vision."  The six factors are as follows:

1. Size market potential granularly based on local economics. 
2. Assume large and frequent economic swings.
3. Currency exchange fluctuations can wipe out gains.
4. Factor in basic infrastructure quality and services. 
5. Evaluate the political climate and operational processes. 
6. Honor cultural sensitivities and assumptions. 

Read more here.

To Be Successful in the Global Marketplace You Must Be Inclusive

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Here's what Shirley Engelmeier has to say for Fox Small Business Center:

To be successful you must be inclusive, that is, you must give up misplaced sentiments of ethnocentrism and seek to learn, really learn, about the native culture you hope to market to from the native culture you hope to market to. You can’t take a U.S.-centric approach.

She also tells us something you may not already know, that is, if you just started using the Internet today:

So you think global markets are just for the big guys? Think again! The truth is, small companies can tap into one of the many rapidly emerging markets.  In fact, everything is global these days.

Read the entire article:  Going Global:  It's Not About You; It's About Them

Acceptance and Respectability of Global Marketing

Photo courtesy:  ©Laurel J. Delaney

Revisiting the work of one of my favorite thought leaders who was an academic at Harvard Business School for some 30 years and started teaching marketing there at a time when, legend has it, he had never previously read a book on the subject.

That's my theory about everything, you must jump right in to master something. Similar to taking your business global!

Learn more about Theodore Levitt (they need to spell his name right) here.  And just a tad more on what folks say about him:

Levitt is sometimes credited with coining the term “globalization” in a 1983 article, “The Globalization of Markets."  Although the term had undoubtedly been in use before—The New York Times said it was used in other senses “at least as early as 1944”—it was Levitt who first popularized (marketed?) it as referring to the spread of corporations around the globe.

Related articles:

Managing Brands in Global Markets: One Size Doesn't Fit All

Global Managers:  Is There Such a Thing Anymore? 

Note:  They've corrected the misspelling of Levitt's name from Leavitt to Levitt (6/4/12 at 11:24 a.m. CDT)

Look Who's Entering Global Markets!

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According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, more than 70 percent of the world's purchasing power is outside of the United States.

So, what are you waiting for?  Small Business:  Getting Into Global Markets says, "if your business isn't taking advantage of global markets, you could be missing out on some big opportunities."

Read the entire article here (and we are delighted to be quoted).  Hat tip to author Jamie Herzlich.

China: What Wall?

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Interesting post by Elison Elliott for the Foreign Policy "Global Markets" Blog Network (launched February, 2009):

Don't Bet Against China

It's running in line with our predictions No. 4 and 5 here. Elison and I have been in touch via email. I hope to interview him soon on this topic at The Global Small Business Blog.

Also make note of prediction No. 4 in our report talking about China "borrowing our ideas ..." Looks like Google has a short fuse on this. Read more here.

Fascinating. Another interesting piece here.

Expand Into the Global Market

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Although this is after the fact, it's still interesting and relevant to see that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China are looking for ways to expand their businesses internationally.

"One of the key goals of this year's fair is to build an efficient trade platform for domestic SMEs to expand their business in the global market," said Lin Ying, secretary-general of the organizing committee.

Learn more here.

Waiting For The Fed To Boost Global Small Business

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The Fed's long-awaited program to revive consumer and small business lending, the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), got off to a slow start.

Learn more with the appropriate title of: Global Markets: Dollar rebounds as markets see-saw on the Fed move.

More on small business boosts here.