Take Your Business Global in the Digital Age (SCORE webinar 1/23/20 with Laurel Delaney)

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Register (free of charge) for the SCORE LIVE webinar 1/23/20 How to Take Your Business Global in the Digital Age where Laurel J. Delaney, in a fun and energizing way, will help you create a road-map and an export experience that will take your business global in the digital age and bring you a ton of success. Follow SCORE @SCOREMentors (Twitter).

To learn more and to register, visit:
https://readytalk.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1274401&tp_key=3d0882b315

Expect the Unexpected When You Take Your Business Global

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Why should you take your business global?  Oh it's so simple.  I've elaborated on nine (9) unexpected reasons to take your business global.  The first reason is to generate greater revenue for less effort.

Read 9 Unexpected Reasons to Take Your Business Global

The Digital World Is Global

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Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania marketing professor David Bell says, "Most people spend most of their money within a very small geographic area."  What does that mean?  That most of the money that the owner of a small hair salon or small service business will make will come from someone right outside her door.

To professor Bell:  Knock, knock.  Who's there?  The world.  Start thinking about how to respond so you can take your business global.

Read more:  Why local, local, local matters for your online business.

19 Benefits to Selling in International Markets

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With the Global Small Business Forum taking place today (10/23) in Chicago at the historic Navy Pier, it only seems fitting that Small Business Trends, one of our Major Partners on the event, would write a fantastic feature on "19 Tips to Take Your Small Business Global" by Annie Pilon.  We love that our headliner on the event, Marc Schulman, President of Eli's Cheesecake is quoted.

Are you looking to expand your business internationally?  These tips should help you get there faster.  A BIG thank you to Small Business Trends for supporting small businesses, including ours, that wish to take on the world with their businesses.

How to Achieve 70 percent of Your Sales from Overseas Markets

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Do you wish you were doing more business overseas?  Could markets exist for you in other countries? According to the Department of Commerce, more than 300,000 U.S. companies exported goods in 2013, and nearly 98 percent of those had fewer than 500 employees.

But is going global really worth all the trouble?

Inventor, Co-Founder and CEO Adam Xavier believed his UK-based RoadLoK motorcycle anti-theft immobilizer was exactly what the American riding public wanted. And he was right, to a point.

"It wasn't until 2008 that RoadLoK realized we could do much more business working with foreign regions in addition to our customers in the USA, but are we ever glad we finally did. Today, more than 70 percent of our sales come from overseas markets," says Xavier

Read the entire article:  Ready to Take Your Business Global?

Take Your Business Global With a Good Trade Finance Strategy (Video)

Today in Global Small Business: Beware, Fraudsters Love the Holidays

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

• Why coming to terms with technology is crucial if smaller businesses are to success abroad.
• Why for utilities, international expansion can be a tricky thing.
• We all use the Internet on a daily basis.  Have you used it to take your business global?
• How will China's online boom impact e-commerce?
• Speaking of e-commerce, how do you choose a fraud prevention service?
• How to expand your online store to Brazil.

Take It Global in 2015

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I wrote the article below originally for About.com's Import and Export site and then decided to feature it on LinkedIn where I am a key influencer.  That's when it went viral.  On my Twitter account @LaurelDelaney, it was the first time I was "trending in Australia!" Even Pulse picked up the article as a special feature.  Have a look:

7 Unexpected Reasons to Take Your Business Global in 2015

How to Take Your Business Global Through a Chinese Marketplace

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Where do the international opportunities exist for U.S. retailers in China?  What challenges occur when retailers sell to China?  Where are Chinese consumers buying online?  These are among some of the questions addressed in the article below.  If you are selling clothing and apparel, then you are entering into one of the fastest-growing e-commerce verticals in the world.  Prepare accordingly.

Learn more:  Taking Your Business Global With Chinese Marketplace

From Home Business to a $3 Million Global Business

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Jellaine Ross, designer and founder of Brisbane, Australia based Cherry Blooms, talks about how to take your business global.  Cherry Blooms designs bag organizers, shoe clips and brush on eyelash extensions.

Quick snippet:

She founded the business in 2008, and started by selling her products at the local markets in Brisbane. Today, she has transformed Cherry Blooms into a global success. Her products have been featured in the Golden Globes and Oscars swag bags, and are sold online and stocked through 1,000 retail stores across the world.

Read the entire article:  How to take your business global

How to Translate Social Media Activities Into International Expansion

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Liz Elting, co-founder and Co-CEO of TransPerfect, provides common pitfalls when translating social media activities into international expansion.

Four Social Media Pitfalls to Avoid As Your Business Goes Global

Here are the four:

1. Let social media efforts carry the international marketing campaign.
2. Isolate social media efforts from the rest of the international marketing strategy.
3. Adopt social media marketing abroad no matter what.
4. Put resources into social media at the beginning of a campaign, then taper off those efforts.

How to Take Your Business to the Next Level By Going Global

The iPad Makes It Easy to Take Your Business Global

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According to Gartner research analyst Raphael Vasquez:

"PC market growth will be impacted by devices that enable better on-the-go content consumption such as media tablets and next-generation smartphones," added research analyst Raphael Vasquez. "These devices will be increasingly embraced as complements if not substitutes for PCs where voice and light data consumption are desired."

 And according to Laurel Delaney, founder of GlobeTrade:

"The iPad will make it a whole heck of lot easier and more fun to take your business global."

Read more here.

Going Global Can Take Place Anywhere in the World

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Repeat: You can take your business global from any point in the world (such as this small town shown above) provided you have access to the Internet to help facilitate things. Got it?

Read this Portfolio (now available only online) article:

Small Town, Big World

Entrepreneurs in Sonoma have figured something out. You don’t have to be in New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles to go global. Sometimes, you can do it right in the backyard of your own little California town.

How to Grow Your Business Globally and Capitalize on the Rebounding Economy

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On February 9th, I served as a panelist for the San Francisco-based SMB Summit, "How Businesses Can Capitalize on the Rebounding Economy," that was hosted by Verio and Inc. Magazine and for private-company CEOs, business owners, and Inc. 500|5000 alumni. It was a great experience to share insights with other leading experts in the SMB sphere, including:

• Donna Fenn, Moderator, International Author, Contributing Editor/Blogger at Inc. Magazine
• Mitchell Merrifield, Senior Director of Managed Computing Solutions, Verio, Inc.
• Brian Burch, Director of SMB Marketing, Americas Region, Personal Systems Group, Hewlett-Packard Company
• Laurel Delaney, President, GlobeTrade.com
• Kristin Micalizio, V.P. Strategic Initiatives, Office Depot North America
• Alex Freemon, Volunteer, Silicon Valley Chapter, SCORE

My focus was on how small to medium-size businesses (SMBs) can grow and capitalize on the rebounding economy by taking their businesses global. Here are some of the questions I addressed, my responses, stories I shared and some other issues that came up as a result of our lively conversation (attendees were magnificent!).

Snippet:

Q: Let’s start by addressing the 800-pound gorilla in the room: Is the economy rebounding? Tell us if you’ve seen some glimmers of recovery; how are you reading the tea leaves?

My response: Not really, although I find it hard to imagine it getting any worse. We are at rock bottom so the only way is up. Nothing, other than the “tech” industry, tells me there’s a rebound. What I mean by that is Cisco (Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers indicated, “This is one of the most robust positive turnarounds I’ve seen in my career”), Microsoft, IBM, Apple, NetSuite and Google all reported stunning profit results for the last quarter of 2009, which means SMB owners might be getting more tech savvy in preparation for a slow recovery. But let’s face it, money is not just tight. There is no money for growth unless you are running an established business with a wildly successful track record. That’s scary for people who have insanely great ideas and can’t get them funded. The good news for SMB owners who are tinkering with the notion of taking their business global is that our commerce secretary, Gary Locke, pledged $6 billion a year in export financing for USA small businesses through the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

Aside from all this, the only real sign I am seeing with SMB owners related to recovery is ...

Read the entire piece here.

Posted by: The Global Small Business Blog

How To Organize An Export Trial Run

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Despite harsh economic times, you can still formulate a plan to take your business global. In this case, it's getting ready to export.

I prepared this article, Organizing Your Export Trial Run (3 of a 5-part series) for Small Business Trends over at the OPEN Forum by American Express OPEN blog.

If you like it, click on the useful button (and add your comments). If you don't, please email me at ldelaney(at)globetrade.com. I always welcome feedback.

Just Go For It: Take Your Business Global!

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I participated in this fabulous program UPS (along with Inc. and IBM) put on in November. I can't encourage you enough to take the time to listen to these podcasts where global small business owners share their successes that will inspire and empower you to take your business to the next level: global. If you can't tune-in to all of them, pick one or two that appeal to your interests.

And don't forget to download and read the invaluable Business Monitor Reports (refer to the upper right hand side of the site) to find out what's really holding small businesses back on going global.

Take Your Business Global

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Everybody is focusing on going global these days. Looks like we are on to something!

Read CNN's article here.

And most of the guidelines mentioned for expanding your business internationally have been featured in Entrepreneur magazine's Global Village column. We've covered the World Bank's website (see Easy Street, June, 2007), Export Assistance Center and U.S. Department of Commerce (Study Abroad, May, 2006) and the World Citizen's Guide (American Outcast, February, 2006) -- so we're on it!