Key steps and issues you need to have covered to ensure successful exporting
1. Research your Market
- What’s your Unique Selling Point – USP and will it translate to this new market place?
- Does your product or service meet all foreign standards and regulations?
- Are there any lessons to be learned from the existing market leaders?
2. Export strategy
- What’s your strategy and why are you actually looking to sell abroad?
- Have you secured your home market first?
- Are you geared up to supply your overseas customer?
- Are your planning business to business sales or business to consumer?
- Direct sales or agent, local distribution or UK dispatch?
3. Advertising and promotion
- What’s your plan for getting yourself known?– trade fair, adverts, PR and press.
- What’s your budget? And is it big enough?
- Do you know the local customs and trends and does your literature translate?
4. Rules & Regulations
- Have you sorted your documents, taxes and tariffs?
- Do your products measure up to overseas regulations?
5. Cash flow & Credit – Getting paid on time.
- Can your cash flow can take the strain, are you able to cope with extended payment terms?
- Have you sorted a line of credit?
- How are you going to handle foreign transactions?
6. Packaging & Transport
- What’s the cost of transport, postage and packaging?
- Will your packaging stand up to international regulations and the rigours of transport and handling.
- Are your goods insured?
7. Keeping in touch, repeat business and after-sales.
- What’s your policy for keeping in touch with customers, export agents and suppliers?
- When’s the best time to promote new products and supply all customer types?
- Will overseas events or trends influence and effect, transport, payments, product launch or supply?
- What’s your policy on returns and defective goods?
If done right your business plan will have addressed these issues and your research will have helped indicate if there is:-
- A market for your product
- An efficient route to market
- A profit to be made.
More especially a benefit in Going Global and doing business abroad.
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