FLORIDA SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER AT IRSC
EXPORTING? CONSIDER AN EXPORT MARKETING PLAN
TCBusiness.com 51
BY NANCY DAHLBERG
In Florida, 60,000 Florida companies are
exporting $55 billion in goods and services
overseas. Small businesses account for 66
percent of all those exports. The exporting
process may seem daunting but if you have a
product or service with a proven track record
in the domestic market, you may be already
planning on international expansion.
Once you have determined exporting
is right for you, you can tap a number of
resources to help you research markets
and defray your costs of doing business
overseas.
So where do you start as an exporter?
“Exporting requires more time and
capital and the Florida Small Business
Development Center at Indian River State
College (FSBDC at IRSC) wants to help the
region’s potential exporters mitigate risks
and increase their potential for success.
The FSBDC at IRSC will assist a business
in narrowing their focus to one or two
markets initially and will help the business
in acquiring and reviewing qualitative and
quantitative data,” said Emily McHugh,
international trade specialist at the FSBDC
at IRSC. “In the Florida SBDC Network, we
are fortunate to have so many international
trade resources. That’s what sets our
program apart.”
IT STARTS WITH RESEARCH
To begin the research, look at trade flows
— “A potential exporter will want to see
where their product or service is in most
demand. ‘The “Made in the U.S.A.’ brand
is valuable and meaningful to a lot of
countries. Our International Trade program,
here at IRSC, reviews U.S. origin trade data
to analyze trends,” McHugh said.
FSBDC at IRSC clients have access to
IBISWorld, which uses economic, demographic
and government data to help
identify business operating risks and opportunities
across 1,300+ industries. Each
industry report includes detailed performance
data and analysis on the market,
supply chain information, forecasts,
analysis of external drivers, major player
market strategies, and industry profit and
costs benchmarks.
Euromonitor is another great resource
available to FSBDC at IRSC clients. These
include reports on the industry, country
and consumer behavior. Euromonitor
allows the client to get a comprehensive
picture of who’s buying the product, how
they are using it, trends, what the competition
looks like, and the purchasing
behavior of those countries.
McHugh says data is the critical component.
The data must support a strong
market and buying power — if research
cannot demonstrate a strong market then
that market is not worth pursuing.
For sales leads, SBDC can filter a list
from Dunn & Bradstreet databases, which
includes contact information. McHugh also
recommends accessing ReferenceUSA,
which SBDC also makes available to clients.
GOOGLE IS YOUR FRIEND
McHugh recommends using Google’s
Market Finder tool. Using key words
related to your product or service, you can
pull the number of monthly searches per
country for people looking for those key
words. It also gives you the ad words recommended
bid price. This tool is a good
indicator for demand and will also assist in
identifying potential competition.
Once a potential exporter has narrowed
down their target markets, translate the
keywords into the language of the market
for further searches on Google and on
country-specific e-commerce sites, such as
Amazon.com/uk for instance, and Alibaba.
Pro tip: Use the images category for a
Google search. You can quickly see a lot of
information about where this product is
being sold.
THE EXPORT MARKETING PLAN
Now it’s time to develop an exporting
strategy. Florida SBDC Network partners
with Enterprise Florida and the Department
of Commerce to bring small business
owners Export Marketing Plans.
“We use the expertise of our international
trade consultants (including experts
at the FSBDC at IRSC) to research international
market opportunities, identify
those international market opportunities
and develop a strategic plan on how to
enter the highest probability markets,”
said Michael Myhre, CEO of Florida SBDC
Network, at the small business conference
produced by the Jim Morin Institute and
Florida SBDC. “It is a fantastic service. The
small business only pays $500 for it and
the rest of the cost (about $4,500) is picked
up by Enterprise Florida and Florida SBDC.
If I told you that if you could grow your
revenues by 20 percent, would you invest
$500? Check it out.”
If your business meets the qualifications,
you will meet with an international
trade specialist to conduct a confidential,
in-depth business assessment, McHugh
explained. The consultant will spend about
90 days and prepare and provide your
company with a comprehensive, customized
Export Marketing Plan. Every Export
Marketing Plan includes an action plan.
McHugh said. “Once we present our
clients with the Export Marketing Plan we
continue to engage and support their efforts
to assist them in deploying the plan.
MORE GRANTS AVAILABLE
Here are some grants available for Florida
exporters, underwritten by Enterprise
Florida:
Target Sector Trade Show Grant: For
qualifying companies, this grant will reimburse
a percentage of booth costs (from
75% to 100% of costs for up to $10,000) for
overseas trade shows.
Gold Key Reimbursement Grant: This
grant subsidizes the small business’s cost
of meeting with pre-screened and prequalified
buyers, agents, importers and
representatives during Enterprise Florida
trade missions.
Website Localization Grant: An $8,000
grant to assist in customizing your website
to target foreign markets.
International Registration Grant: This
one helps small businesses offset the costs
of obtaining international product registrations,
certifications or markings that
may be required to do business overseas.
For more information on the international
trade program at the FSBDC at IRSC
and how you can potentially increase you
company’s revenue call 772-462-7631 or
contact Emily McHugh at Emily.mchugh@
floridasbdc.org. v
Emily McHugh’s professional experience
and background includes international
trade finance, international manufacturing,
sourcing, marketing, and entrepreneurship.
She has significant experience
exporting and importing and working
with companies overseas. Born in Cambridge,
England and raised in Jamaica,
W.I., and New Jersey, she has lived in six
countries and speaks three languages.
Emily is a graduate of Swarthmore College
with a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics,
French, and Spanish and Columbia University’s
Graduate School of Business with
a Master of Business Administration.
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