BluDanuBlog

Kevin Meyer of Evolving Excellence describes how a maker of hand-sewn wedding dresses in the hills of Tuscany has turned its small size, craftsmanship and eye for opportunity to advantage in the global marketplace. Via @AlbertoRBaez on Twitter.

When I started this blog a few years ago, the idea was that this would be the “official” company blog and I would use Eurobubba for more personal, but still business-related observations. (I also have a non-business personal blog; I haven’t been especially prolific on any of them.) Since then, my approach to the business has itself become more “personal”, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it no longer makes sense to maintain two separate business blogs. I’ve imported all the posts from the Eurobubba blog except for announcements for events that have already taken place into this blog and will do all my posting here from now on. I’ll be redirecting the eurobubba.com address to point here. I’d like to promise that I’ll post more often, but other tasks seem to have a way of crowding blogging down the priority list, and I don’t want to make any promises I can’t keep — but I do have a lot of (hopefully useful) content I’m working on. I’m also turning comments on; I hope I’ll get to spend more time in real conversation than dealing with spam. Thanks to everyone for reading!

Are your company and products ready for global markets? Maybe you’re just thinking about dipping your toes in one or two “easy” export markets like Canada, Mexico, or the UK. Here are some online tools to help you assess your readiness and start thinking through your strategy.

The US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Services has a simple nine-point Export Questionnaire (not just for ag businesses) that addresses your international marketing plan, available resources, and your existing knowledge of export processes. The result rates your company on a scale of 1–100 and provides comments and next-steps for each question.

The California Centers for International Trade Development offer a more detailed Export Readiness Assessment that covers your present operations, attitudes, and products. Like the USDA’s tool, the assessment gives you a readiness score, point-by-point diagnosis and suggested actions.

Ready to take the next step? Have a look at the US Department of Commerce’s vast Helping U.S. Companies Export site, or give us a call — we’re here to help.

Keep it simple, smarty!
The new Come Clean Report from KRC Research and Weber Shandwick identifies insufficient and complicated information from vendors as the main reasons European companies are not following through on cleantech purchasing policies. Somebody’s leaving a lot of money on the table, folks. The Cleantech Group has more info here.

BusinessWeek’s Karen Klein offers a few tips on working with international clients through your company’s website: be sensitive to cultural nuance; prepare, and prepare your customers, ahead of time to deal with shipping and customs issues; start by addressing other English-speaking markets, and when you’re ready to publish multilingual web content, back it up with multilingual sales and service staff. (Thanks to Laurel Delaney for the link!)

Many small businesses fall into exporting “accidentally” when orders from overseas customers start to trickle in through their website. Maximize your company’s potential by managing it as a global business from day one. Your business is already global, whether you know it yet or not!