Champagne and Caviar

Why are imports such big business in the United States and around the world? There are lots of reasons, but the three main ones boil down to:

* Availability: There are some things you just can't grow or make in your home country. Bananas in Alaska, for example, mahogany lumber in Maine, or Ball Park franks in France.

* Cachet: A lot of things, like caviar and champagne, pack more cachet, more of an "image," if they're imported rather than home-grown. Think Scandinavian furniture, German beer, French perfume, Egyptian cotton. Even when you can make it at home, it all seems classier when it comes from distant shores.

* Price: Some products are cheaper when brought in from out of the country. Korean toys, Taiwanese electronics and Mexican clothing, to rattle off a few, can often be manufactured or assembled in foreign factories for far less money than if they were made on the domestic front.

Aside from cachet items, countries typically export goods and services that they can produce inexpensively and import those that are produced more efficiently somewhere else. What makes one product less expensive for a nation to manufacture than another? Two factors: resources and technology. A country with extensive oil resources and the technology of a refinery, for example, will export oil but may need to import clothing.

The Right Stuff

Not everybody is cut out to be an international trader. This is not, for example, a career for the sales-phobic. If you're one of those people who would rather work on a chain gang than sell Girl Scout cookies, or if you blanch at the thought of making a sales pitch, then you don't want to be in import/export. This is also not a career for the organizationally challenged. If you're one of those let-the-devil-handle-the-details types whose idea of follow-up is waiting to see what happens next, you should think twice about international trading.

If, on the other hand, you're an enthusiastic salesperson, a dynamo at tracking things like invoices and shipping receipts, and your idea of heaven is seeing where new ideas and new products will take you, and if, to top it off, you love the excitement of dealing with people from different cultures, then this is the career for you.

It also helps if you already have a background in import/export. Most of the traders we talked with were well-versed in the industry before launching their own businesses. Peter P., who founded a Russian trading company, segued directly from his college major in international business to an operations position with an international frozen-meat trading company in Atlanta, which landed him in the right place at the right time.

"I speak both Russian and Ukrainian fluently," Peter says. "I'm of Ukrainian descent. I took Russian as a minor in college, initially as an easy grade. Little did I know when I graduated back in '89 that Russia would open up to the West shortly thereafter."

Trade Mission

Whether you are a first-time exporter or already have experience of exporting, Trade Missions offer comprehensive support for companies from all sectors looking to increase sales. As a Mission Member, you will join a high profile group, with the flexibility to pursue individual business objectives as well as participation in group events.

Most, if not all, the industries involved in export will have a trade mission or several that can be used to coincide with a fact-finding trip to meet potential business partners. This can be seen as a market entry strategy.

Trade missions present companies with an opportunity to test the waters in selected overseas markets. In order for your foray into a trade mission to be successful, you are going to have to be open minded, skeptical, wary and you’re going to have to be willing to ask lots of very unpleasant questions.

If you can do all of these things, then you just might be able to actually participate in a trade mission and accrue some tangible benefit.

Choosing the target industry and the participants is a crucial aspect in any successful trade mission. When experienced business or economic development professionals have an opportunity to control these decisions, there is usually a consensus about the goals of the mission and the actual particulars of how it will be executed.

Translation & Interpreting Are Your Starting Points Towards a Global Profitable Business

Talk the language of your customers
In today's global marketplace, business is constantly changing. Companies merge or partner with other firms to promote business internationally and this will lead to a need for cross-cultural training and orientation that is imperative in our global environment. Any lack of effective communication and cultural awareness would limit your knowledge of new business protocol and complicate your effort in finding suitable partners, agents or distributors. This could lead to expensive misunderstandings, and even loss of business.

In the U.K., one in five businesses is losing money because of language barriers. In northeast of England, for example, 20% of companies are losing business in international markets as a result of a lack of language skills and cultural awareness, 46% of businesses are aware of language barriers, and 20% of businesses are aware of cultural barriers. Hence, to avoid being one of these figures, businesses have to be prepared to communicate effectively with their customers. They need to be equipped with tips and tools to bridge verbal and nonverbal language differences, and learn how to practice ways to increase their effectiveness in the Arabic and Asian commercial environments.

If companies are working internationally, and want to be very successful in their business activities, they may need to consider translating their brochures & leaflets, exhibition handouts, product information sheets, technical manuals, contracts & legal documents and correspondence with their partners or customers.

Making a good impression is always important when meeting new customers, so is understanding their way of doing business. Failing to communicate in your customer’s language and wrong assumptions based on your own culture can cause problems, if not outright offence. In the same way your counterparts in any of the Arab and Asian countries are probably also making assumptions based on their own backgrounds. Businesses may have experience differences between European cultures, which lead to different ways of doing business. This situation is even more apparent between regions of the world with totally different cultures, such as those between Europe and Arab and Asian countries.

Remember, when marketing products overseas, regardless of the location, you should keep your target audiences in mind and be sensitive to local conditions.

Translation & Interpreting Are Your Starting Points Towards a Global Profitable Business

Talk the language of your customers
In today's global marketplace, business is constantly changing. Companies merge or partner with other firms to promote business internationally and this will lead to a need for cross-cultural training and orientation that is imperative in our global environment. Any lack of effective communication and cultural awareness would limit your knowledge of new business protocol and complicate your effort in finding suitable partners, agents or distributors. This could lead to expensive misunderstandings, and even loss of business.

In the U.K., one in five businesses is losing money because of language barriers. In northeast of England, for example, 20% of companies are losing business in international markets as a result of a lack of language skills and cultural awareness, 46% of businesses are aware of language barriers, and 20% of businesses are aware of cultural barriers. Hence, to avoid being one of these figures, businesses have to be prepared to communicate effectively with their customers. They need to be equipped with tips and tools to bridge verbal and nonverbal language differences, and learn how to practice ways to increase their effectiveness in the Arabic and Asian commercial environments.

If companies are working internationally, and want to be very successful in their business activities, they may need to consider translating their brochures & leaflets, exhibition handouts, product information sheets, technical manuals, contracts & legal documents and correspondence with their partners or customers.

Making a good impression is always important when meeting new customers, so is understanding their way of doing business. Failing to communicate in your customer’s language and wrong assumptions based on your own culture can cause problems, if not outright offence. In the same way your counterparts in any of the Arab and Asian countries are probably also making assumptions based on their own backgrounds. Businesses may have experience differences between European cultures, which lead to different ways of doing business. This situation is even more apparent between regions of the world with totally different cultures, such as those between Europe and Arab and Asian countries.

Remember, when marketing products overseas, regardless of the location, you should keep your target audiences in mind and be sensitive to local conditions.