Chad M
Chief Economist & Director of Economic Research at U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy
On October 30, the U.S. government released its preliminary GDP estimate, and one of the only positives was a 5.9% increase in exports in the 3rd quarter. As a small business owner, how aggressive have you been at pursuing international opportunities?
Chad Moutray is Chief Economist & Director of Economic Research for the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy.
Answers (5)
Chris C
Director PM at New America Software
Best Answers in: E-Commerce (16), Supply Chain Management (4), Web Development (3), Search Marketing (1), Inventory Management (1), Manufacturing (1), Starting Up (1), Enterprise Software (1), Computer Networking (1)
Very aggressive. The US markets are in a bit a flat period due to the credit crunch. A lot of companies overseas,however, have ready cash and reserves that can be deployed due to less credit being available in those markets.
I haven't pursued international opportunities at all to this point, but it's an avenue I'm about to walk down. An international client (an English-language academic journal based in an Asian nation) recently fell into my lap thanks to a referral, which has opened my eyes to the possibilities.
To this end, I upgraded my PayPal account to "premier" status so as to be able to accept payments from anywhere in the world without hassle, and at a lesser fee to me than I was being charged with my regular account.
I don't know if my service counts as an "export," especially since it's all done electronically -- that would be interesting to find out.
Marianna H
Founder of the Results Revolution | New Media Marketing for Restaurant, Hospitality Industry, & Downtown Developers
As a small business owner myself that teaches seminars and provides services such as small business owner coaching and marketing advice, seminars, and with our sister business, a provider of web site, e-mail marketing, social networking marketing setup and training, we have had several interesting international opportunities appear - such as an invitation to speak at a wholesale gift market in South America next year.
We are definitely entertaining those opportunities to provide education AND services abroad.
We are also seeing an increased amount of interest in export by our small business client who product their own product - products such as gourmet food products and high end decorative picture frames. They are introducing them into wholesale shows abroad and taking advantage of foreign inquiries via web sites as an entry point into these markets.
We would love to learn more about how to help ourselves and our clients pursue these ends.
Jon D
Entrepreneur and Technology Consultant
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I always have been and remain extremely aggressive. In fact, half of my revenue currently comes from Australia and I'm heading down there in a couple of weeks. I think that many small businesses are intimidated by the thought of doing business overseas. I highly encourage them to utilize the U.S. Commercial Service's offerings. They are inexpensive and very effective.
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Despite the statistics, people still remain reluctant to drive into international markets. I believe if only the "undecided" take time to educate themselves, they will see the international arena as a fruitful arena that will only generate benefits for them. There is a lot of good people whose main focus is to help and not necessary be pushing the profit at all times.
