I’m starting this blog after a great Twitter discussion. It followed a tweet about how the CBI seeks £20bn state boost for UK exports to BRIC economies (http://t.co/pWXxkrzz). Was this announcement good news? Surely it has to be good news, to quote from the statement:
CBI study finds UK's share of global exports has declined to 4.1% from 5.3% in 2000.
The CBI has urged the government to provide a £20bn boost to the economy over the next decade through a radical overhaul of Britain's export strategy focusing on providing the right products for the world's high-growth markets.
John Cridland, CBI director general, said: "We need to capitalise on the booming success of the Bric countries, and look to future high-growth markets such as Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey. The middle classes in emerging economies will have needs that our producers are more than able to fulfil."
How could this not be good news … but there are always things to be aware of, be cautious of – but that shouldn’t stop the fact that getting on with EXPORTING is GOOD. We hear too many stories of companies who got into trouble because their goods got delayed in customs and it cost them loads of money, they didn’t do the paperwork right and they got fined, they didn’t understand international payment issues so they didn’t get their money, etc, etc, etc.
Though I know we need to temper enthusiasm with reasoned words of advice and caution can’t we be more positive with the public perception of EXPORTING? It's profitable! It’s fun! Companies are 34% more likely to survive a recession if they export! Here’s some more good news:
Taking your products (or indeed your services) to beyond the shores of the United Kingdom opens up almost limitless opportunities for expansion and growth. Why sell to 70 million people when you have a global market of 7 billion?
But you may argue: Isn’t it expensive to begin exporting and there are lots of the risks? Of course we can't ignore this. Companies can get caught out if they don’t do the homework but that's always been the case and it doesn't just affect UK exporters, other countries do it and the UK is still the 13th largest exporting country of merchandise in the world. Export/ import regulations are many and varied – but isn’t that part of the fun, the challenge, the reason I’m still involved in and excited by international trade. Companies make more money exporting than they can in home markets and it encourages growth and sustainability. We should be positive about exporting, encouraging them to try, and if there is a problem, try again.
Come on people …. Comment and Encourage!!
Strong & Herd LLP Blog - Import / Export Services
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Really can't disagree with this. In fact I said much the same in my blog some time ago
ReplyDeletehttp://accidentalexporter.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/feel-the-benefit/
- exporting offers a surprising range of benefits to a business, not least the ability to survive an economic recession.
I suggest we open the discussion via an online forum. I set one up before, a long time ago, and will see if I can remember how to do it.
Very thought provoking ideas here. Let's keep it going.
Tim
aka The Accidental Exporter
aka Exporters in Exile
I've set up an online forum if anyone wants to use it. You need to register as a user, then you can join in discussions or start your own.
ReplyDeleteThere's a pol on there - 'can Britain export its way out of recession'- cast your vote now!!
http://positiveexporting.myfreeforum.org/
I agree we tend to hear stories about things that go wrong - "cautionary tales" - not the positive. I've worked for 4 exporting businesses in my career and 3 have actively sought export markets and this contributed to between 45-80% of their turnover. They were keen to stay in their export markets so this meant they were committed to keeping their product up to date and this increased their UK domestic market share too. The one company who didn't promote exports had a website and if they got overseas enquiries they were thrown at me to sort out, when I tried to encourage the sales manager to send sales people overseas, do OMIS reports, answer some of the overseas agents/distributors and see if they could market our products overseas the answer was -- "It's hard enough to get the sales people to leave Yorkshire let alone England." No offence to Yorkshire, it was where the company was based. And I mean WAS based, without an export base it didn't survive the 1st recession that hit us 2009/10. I'm now working at a business keen to develop overseas, we're attacking the CIVETS rather than BRIC and doing very well thank you!
ReplyDeleteIs this a positive EXPORTING story, I hope so, but its also a CAUTIONARY TALE about the problems with NOT EXPORTING.
Love your blog, BTW
Just reading the blog when Sally's comment came on. Great story but please - no abbreviations! BRIC = Brazil, Russia, India, China
ReplyDeleteCIVETS = Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa
Positive exporting story:
1. a company in Southend, in aircraft equipment, export world-wide, not only does it keep them manufacturing in the UK but they also run their own apprenticeship scheme, properly accredited, and take on young people every year to train in "engineering".
2. company in Blackpool supply galley equipment for airplanes. Manufacture all the items in Blackpool and have market edge in luxury galley items, eg gold plated espresso machines! Rich people and companies world wide buy their products.
3. Innovation chemical company Ellesmere Port developing niche products in both industrial and consumer markets. Totally committed to export and doing very well.
I could go on - but I'll leave it there for now.
martkets expose a high quality of products which can be be right through a right procedure of Importing and exporting of products to a great extent if it is a good part then it may led to a rise
ReplyDelete