GSA Schedules and GWACs

So you are looking for business. Your company is growing but you are looking for potential markets. What about the Federal Government? With sequestration the time might not seem the best to pursue this work but that is not the case, with the increasing number set aside contracts it is a potential huge market for any small business.

GSA Schedules creates "vehicles" for Federal agencies to procure products and services. In simple term, these are contracts which Small Businesses could potentially bid on in order to provide their services/products to federal agencies. GSA Schedules, and their IT counterparts the GWACs, make it easy for those agencies to procure those services/products. If these vehicles make it easier for those agencies to order from the contract holders then it behooves small business to be one of those contract holders.

Additionally the GSA has generously created programs for small businesses to have an ADVANTAGE over other when bidding for these contracts, from 8(a) to Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small businesses.

So what do you need to know. You can visit the GSA website,www.gsa.gov , and get knowledgeable on what the schedules are and how they operate, you can visit the Internet for many providers of this service or you can visit our website at www.ilesportatore.com and purchase one of our short and simple guides on the subject. Whatever you do, make sure you take advantage of this opportunity.

Look forward to your comments,
Juan

How do you do it? Finding Buyers II

Last post we quickly went over how to locate a place and a specific potential buyer for your products/distributor. This example was rather quick, however repeating it will yield numerous locations and numerous potential buyers/distributors. What do you do now?

     The first step is to limit your choices. Yes, its possible that you could sell your products to a buyer/distributor in New York or China but it might be easier to negotiate with a distributor that's close to you. In this business face to face interactions, and establishing trust, is essential as methods of payment can vary widely. I have found that narrowing your selections to between 3 and 5 is a good start. At least one of these should be local or driving distance from your location.

     Second you must research the terms that some of these buyers/distributors are offering. Are they asking for exclusivity? Will they buy from you to keep inventory or just-in-time? In the blueberries example that I used on the previous blog some questions to ask is if the distributor buying my entire crop? If so at what price per pound? What happens if the market price fluctuates? What are my responsibilities in getting the crop to the distributor? Is this a multi-year or yearly contract? The list can go on and on but you get the picture, drill into the details. Many buyers/distributors are shrewd negotiators but these are questions that any sales manager should easily answer. Be smart about creating a deal that is beneficial to both parties.

     Finally, this is a continuous process. Just because you close a deal with a buyer or distributor does not mean that your job is done. Immediately start looking for other buyers or distributors. This is key for two reasons; first terms always change and so does the market. If you wait until you have lost a buyer to find another one your bargaining position is not quite as strong. Second, this allows you to focus on your scaling. How many buyers/distributors I can supply? How may do I want to supply? Knowing where your business is and how do you want to scale it is key to having a successful business. As always I look forward to your comments.

How do you do it? Finding Buyers

This is a question that everyone trying to export their products comes up against. How do I find buyers for my product? I am currently involved in a small project whose sole purpose is to find buyers. The product is blueberries, the place is Florida and the buyers could be anywhere.

            A quick background on this search is required. Most the blueberry farmers in my area, north Florida, are not too keen to find buyers for their entire crops. Many utilize the u-pick method, basically a real simple cash transaction.  Others decide to take their crops to market, Farmer’s markets that is, and directly sell to customers.  Both of these methods are profitable with many farmers making a decent living (I recently had an interview with a farmer who claimed $175,000 yearly net profits on using a combination of both of these methods) However if you don’t want random people walking through your farm, or prefer to do something else on your weekends (most Farmer’s Market convene on Saturdays) then how can you find a buyer?

Well like all market research, it’s a process. I first started by looking at the USDA Market News (http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/marketnews) this at least gave me an idea of what cities in my area are offering decent prices for the crop. Since it’s currently off-season I looked through a lot of the archived news. I quickly centered in one city, Plant City, FL and one particular marketer, Wish Farms (http://www.wishfarms.com/how-we-grow/growers/). Now like in every research, finding one answer usually leads to more questions….

Sharpening your Consulting Skills: set up a meeting with entrepreneurs

I had an interesting meeting today. I know that business meetings can be tedious sometimes, but that was not the case with this one. I met with an emerging entrepreneur in Florida that is trying to put his business together. Although this might be familiar territory for other business consultants for me this was fairly new, most of my business involves negotiating with already established and very savvy business owners (that’s the export consulting part of it) who very quickly want to get to the bottom line. This meeting was refreshing and a good test of my skills. Below are several reasons why I think every business consultant should every now and then meet with emerging entrepreneurs:

1. It will test your skills. These young emerging business owners have very different perspectives and questions about how businesses operate. Spending a couple of hours answering their questions will help keep you sharp and will show you the flaws in your skill set.

2. It will give you new ideas. The conversation will make you think about current business trends just a little different, it will help you understand what challenges business owners are facing and what opportunities are out there.

3. It is a key step in expanding your network. Some will make it, others will not. However it is much easier to meet with an emerging business leader than with the head of an established company. They still do not have all the administrative duties that are associated with established business. However the new entrepreneur that you just met might become a successful business owner in a couple of years, you want those leaders to remember, and most importantly refer, you.

As always let me know what you think and please share your own experiences in this area,
Regards,
Juan

Guides to Nowhere? The ITA’s good guides with no plan.

I just finished reading the International Trade Administration’s Trade Finance Guide (you can find it at http://export.gov/static/TradeFinanceGuide_All_Latest_eg_main_043219.pdf ). There is plenty of useful advice on it on things such as Export Credit Insurance, Factoring and a brief summary on Letters of Credit.  The guide is useful and its language is plain and easy to understand.  I tend to read most of the products that come from the ITA, such as A Basic Guide to Exporting, but after reading this one a concern seems to continue to come up. The ITA seems to be publishing good products but without any clear cohesive strategy, the SME owner basically has a guide that explains the basics of exporting and then another guide that gives information about financing. There is no “cradle to grave” guide that tells you HOW to export! 

The most fundamental and basic step, finding clients for your products overseas, seems to be overseen at best or assumed at worst.  A guide that explains the business process could be more beneficial. Clearly defining steps such as assessing your products/services, finding clients overseas, negotiating with clients overseas (to include method of payment and negotiations), financing, shipment of products/delivery of services and receipt of payments would be good a start. Obviously the business process is far more complicated but a coherent guide that takes the SME owner from the “cradle” of exporting (i.e. product or service self assessment) to the “grave” (i.e. goods shipped/service provided and payment received) is far more beneficial than good guides published at what seems to be random times. I know that services such as Gold Key Matching exist to find overseas buyers but not all SMEs prefer to pay the associated premiums of such services.

As always I look forward to your thoughts.

Florida: Exporting and SMEs

Recently I came across a report from International Trade Administration (www.trade.gov/mas/ian )regarding Florida Exports, Jobs and Foreign Investment from June 2012. The report had some interesting facts that I thought i will share. Florida is were i operate my business so i also have some selfish reasons to share this with you:

1. 37,687 companies exported from Florida in 20009 of those 36,109 were Small and Medium Sized enterprises (SME)

2. 67% of Florida's total exports are from SMEs

3. The largest trading partners are Switzerland ($7.3 billion in export sales), Brazil ($5.3 billion), Venezuela ($4.5 billion), Canada ($4.1 billion) and Colombia ($2.8 billion)

These figures seem impressive, however, when I see these figures i think of the challenges and opportunities of exporting. Consider these other figures from the Census Bureau (www.census.gov):

1. Florida has 491,249 private non farm establishments

2. Total number of firms in Florida is 2,009,589 for 2009

Do you see it? According to these figures only 7% of businesses in Florida engaged in exporting! I know some of you might point out that private non farm establishments are not the same as companies but even accounting for different types of establishments there is still a vast number of Florida companies that do not export. The opportunity to expand our exports is enormous! Do you see the second opportunity? Most of our exports are going to South America, a few to Europe. What about Africa, Central America, Asia? There are numerous places were Florida businesses can expand and export. I see these challenges as opportunities and as we all well know running a business is about seizing opportunities.

Is your next business breakthrough in Sub Saharan Africa?

I read a press release from the International Trade Administration this morning. Its an old one, dated June 14th, 2012 but the information is still relevant. In thepress release the World Bank's "Doing Business in a more transparent World" document is cited as evidence that 36 out of the 46 economies in Sub-Saharan Africa have improved business regulations this year and 6 of the world's 10 fastest economies are in this area as well. Hopefully this translates to better export opportunities for our businesses. The point here is simple. This COULD be the next big market for your business.

I know many of you are thinking do not put too much thought into this area. Asia occupies most of the commercial "bandwidth" out there and Latin America follows as our business are far more adept at conducting business in those countries than in sub-Saharan Africa. For this same very reason this is why it could be a potential market, the competition might be less fierce and the opportunities might be more abundant. Obviously this is just food for thought, a proper market research needs to be conducted before ANY business decides to take this leap but the facts are there, this area is growing, its growing fast and many are not paying attention.

You can read the press release at the following link:

http://blog.trade.gov/2012/06/14/growth-and-opportunities-in-sub-saharan-africa/

I look forward to your comments.