EXPORTING (6): Why it is time for small and medium-sized businesses to go international? By M.Benhamed.

Today more than even international business dynamics are changing fast, world wide web is making it easy to sell products and services and exporting is boosting sales and profits. So much so that many organizations and companies are going international with different objectives and strategies and perfectionning their Websites and marketing messages in several languages in order to take advantage of new emerging markets in America, in Asia, in Europe and in Africa.

“How do I fit in this changing world?”. May be as beginner in exporting,  you start by asking yourself this question. To put it simply, let’s remind you that today the world is  like a “Trading open space” where anything can be imported and exported and all businesses -included  small and medium-sized businnesses – have the potential to:

• Expand their activities abroad;
• Extend customer base internationally;
• Build fruitful partnerships and alliances ;
• Increase sales and profits;
• Achieve greater scales of economy;
• Growth;
• Etc.

So in the light of what preceeds, this changing world is of your advantage. Now, it depends in you to think about the abundant export opportunities offered  to your  business or company  and to pause your efforts on going international.

Going international, what does it mean in practice? In a simple and schematic way, going international can be declined into four(4) respective levels. Those levels are the following:

1. Motivated by exporting, you have considered that you have a promising product or service and that your home market is a relatively small market.
2.  Within an export strategy and planning, you invest to travel and to prospect an overseas market of your choice. On a simple word, that means you are moving international outside your home country.
3. Outside your home country and despite of your inexperience in international business, you’ll focus  your actions on contacting potential clients,distributors and partners,  argumenting about your product or service, negociating prices and delivery terms, taking on the challenge competition, enregistering demands and orders associated with exporting, etc.
4. Acting as a “professional” in overseas market,you’ll be in position to change the dynamic of your business and to impact positively its standards of performance: increase sales, profitability, image, etc.

From my experience working international markets ,the fact that you could reach the levels 3 and 4 mentioned above is an impressive and a fantastic accomplishment.

In conclusion, I’m quite tempted to say that now is the optimal time to cultivate international business and development and that the gateway to sucess of small and medium-sized businesses in this area starts by taking the initiative,  by exploiting  the impact of the changement of international business dynamics and of Internet and by pausing efforts on going international.