Today in Global Small Business: A Federal Program That Encourages Small Businesses to Enter Global Export Market

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

• A federal program that encourages small businesses (in PA) to enter global export market.
• Open, the Google and Tiger Global-backed neobank, is planning to onboard about 10 million small businesses in 3 years as it aims to solve a series of challenges faced by SMEs for managing their business finances, using technology.
• Small businesses hanging by thread?
• Quote of the week:  "Blitzscaling is what you do when you need to grow really, really quickly. It's the science and art of rapidly building out a company to serve a large and usually global market, with the goal of becoming the first mover at scale. This is high-impact entrepreneurship." – Reid Hoffman
• Some tips on taking your business global.
• How businesses can use video translation to grow their global influence.

Top Actions You Should Take Before Taking Your Business Global

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Taking your business global allows you to gain new customers and experience new business cultures.  However, the move is no small feat and can have complications along the way.

A panel of Forbes Business Development Council* members share some vital steps business leaders should take before they expand their business globally. Follow their tips to prep for global success.

Oh, and here's a little more help on your journey.

Note:  *Forbes Business Development Council is an invitation-only, fee-based organization for senior-level sales and business development executives.

Align Your Goals With a Potential Partner Before Going Global

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Rhonda Klosler, National chief operating officer at RSM Canada; office managing partner, Toronto, talks about what it takes to incorporate a good new partner that can take you global while still maintaining your identity.

Becoming part of a global firm offers many benefits: access to different talent pools, more opportunities for new business, extra resources and capabilities and, of course, international breadth to clients.

In her case, the Toronto office where she was a managing partner became a part of RSM, a global network of independent audit, tax and consulting firms.

To set up for success, they had to capitalize on their new-found advantages without losing the key differentiators that made their businesses so successful.  Here are three:

1. Educate employees about "why"
2. Maintain what makes you special
3. Seek out relationships across the business

Read the entire article about taking your business global and making sure to tell your employees why.

How to Stay Out of An Early Grave with a Global Business

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What happens when you launch your business globally?  It's never a linear process, rather, you zigzag from one thing to another that requires your attention.  As Fred Schebesta, chief executive of finder.com says:

Going global with a business idea is exactly the same – what worked for one company will put another one snugly into an early grave.

Here's a look at four points that Schebesta makes in the article "Here's what happens in the first six months of taking your business global."

1. First you realize that importance, no matter the industry, isn't universal
2. Then, you need to get your existing fan base fired up
3. You need familiar boots on the ground
4. Then, you iterate in the motherland

If you do most of these things, you are well on your way to success in the global marketplace.

Today in Global Small Business: What's Not Going Global?

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

• What's not going global?  Google's 'Right to Be Forgotten' (transparency outweighs additional privacy in this case).
• A few tips when taking your business global.
• Netflix goes to Japan in the fall of 2015 (Netflix wa 2015-nen no aki ni Nihon de hanbai kaishi).
• 10 tips for a killer global market entry strategy.
• The difficulties in expanding globally with a contingent workforce management program.
• 3 questions you should ask before going global.

Gold Gems for Taking Your Business Global

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Kunal Sarda, cofounder and COO of VerbalizeIt, a human-powered translation platform for businesses, crafts a good case for Forbes on taking your business global.

What was once a game reserved for multinationals [going global] is now open to anyone. Why haven’t small businesses gotten the memo?

The Secrets to Taking Your Business Global

Taking Your Business Global: A Digital Short

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Hopefully this 39-second digital short will make you smile (shameless plug involved) and will also give you ideas on how to use technology, namely animation, to market your brand globally.

Taking Your Business Global (Go!Animate)

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

What High Achievers Do: Go Global

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We are delighted to reconnect with one of our favorite entrepreneurs/journalists/editors, Rieva Lesonsky, over at GrowBizMedia on a fantastic article she wrote for Success Magazine June 2010:

Taking Your Business Global
A world of opportunities awaits business owners seeking to sell or source products overseas.

Many thanks to Rieva and her brilliant team for including us in this article and for getting the message across on how important going global is to small businesses.

As Rieva says:

... proof that even the smallest business can take advantage of expanding opportunities in global trade.

Posted by: The Global Small Business Blog