Export Broker: Building your Network of Trust

 Exporting can be complicated.  Fortunately if you are like me you picked the least complicated position in the export/import industry, being an export agent/broker. Our friends doing distribution or manufacturing require much more time and capital to get their businesses of the ground. We focus on the deal, as long as you have a penchant for getting two parties together and completing a deal you have a good foundation for being an export agent.  Most experts on the subject start with the same basic advice, find a good product and try to find a buyer for the product abroad, all for a commission. Although this is sound advice it is not as easy to find a "good" product to export, or for that matter a manufacturer that is willing to let you try to sell their product abroad. 

I do not suggest that you should deviate from this advice, finding a good product to export IS the best way to complete a deal but this other advice might be helpful as well.

1. Plan for your venture to take time. Exporting is all about building relationships. It is difficult to find a manufacturer that will trust you with a product because they want someone they can "trust".  Exporting is a difficult business with many pitfalls, building and maintaining that trust is essential and it takes time.

2. Plan to take even more time building your network.  Your network is the basis of your "sourcing". In a business where trust is key your network is the way to get your trust noticed. In exporting, word of mouth still counts. Spending the time to get to know others in the industry and try to carve your own niche will yield results.

So there it is, being an exporting agent is more than just having the right product. It requires building the trust and creating a network to support your business.

As always your comments are always welcomed,

Export Broker: Adventures in the Trade " The Export Assistance Centers"

If you are like many of us on the export/import arena you probably read, or at the very least browsed,  "A Basic guide to exporting". This "document" has been produced an important resource for distributing the basics of exporting to the widest possible audience for more than 70 years. Reading the 2012 version, which was advertised as completely revised and updated in the export.gov website, I have arrived at 2 conclusions that might help others in the export/import broker business.

1. The revised and updated edition is neither much revised nor much updated. If you have a copy of the old guide I suggested that you should hold on to that and wait for another "revision". Many of the examples are from the pre recession era (i.e. 2005 and 2006). This might have been good enough a decade ago but we all know that the market is changing at light speed this days, a guide with information that is 6 years old is not keeping much up to date. The problem is not that the information is obsolete, the issue is that much of the information loses its relevance. Save yourself the time, keep using your old guide.

2. Don't be discouraged by the Export Assistance Centers. In the guide all of the answers seem to rest at the Export Assistance Centers. With such a phenomenal organization, how are independent consultants going to survive? Surely the EACs will run all of us out of business. Not true. First let us remember that the EAC are just plain government agencies, i.e. not known for being efficient or providing the best service. Granted that there are excellent trade specialists in many of the EAC but overall the service is not much different than other government agencies. Second, the EAC can provide a lot of the information, but they can't represent a sole party. Your attention is divided among many customers and your best interest, although important, are not the sole interest of the center.  Independent consultants fill many voids that the EAC, simply by being government agencies, can never fill. Learn to leverage their expertise and work with them, but constantly remind your clients that there is a difference, in quality and service, between a government agency and a private company.

As always I am open to your comments on the opinions presented in the blog.

I look forward to your comments.

Export Broker: Adventures in the Trade " The Sales Department"

Brokering deals, what I specialize in my business, can sometimes be dull as well as exciting.  Regardless of the day to day events I always learn something new. A couple of weeks ago I had a Central American client who was interested in a product, the client had specifically stated that she wanted the product to be manufactured in the United States. Now, I am an advocate for U.S. companies exporting their products but I honestly had nothing to do with this request, for whatever the reason this client wanted her products to bear the "Made in the U.S.A" stamp.  I go about doing my normal research,  after a couple of days I narrowed it down to a couple of companies that had the product.  After narrowing the list I started to make phone calls. This is where I made my mistake, and I relate it to you so you avoid it. Once I started calling I usually contacted the Sales Departments... wrong answer. These Sales departments are ruthless, and obscuring the truth seems not to be an issue. However many of them, specially with other small companies, are just way out of their league when it comes to exporting.  They usually don't have the knowledge or the decision making authority to obligate the company to an export deal. I wasted about a week doing this with little feedback, almost no information to give my client and as far away from the deal as I started.  I changed tactics and started researching  the leadership of these small companies, you will be surprised how much info you can find online.  I started contacting V.Ps and Owners and the answers and I got were way more helpful.  Some of the manufacturers that I contacted, companies known for their U.S. products, were even made in the U.S. at all.  I received an answer stating that " our products are Chinese made but we distribute in the U.S" now talk about useful information! I am still working on the deal, but now we are finalizing details of a trade rather than on the initial market research stage. Here are some tips for your own search:

1. If contacting a large supplier, contact the sales department first. However, double check absolutely everything that the department tells you. Ask about their exporting history and for point of contact  information of officers if the company exporting history is flimsy.

2. If contacting a small business or supplier, contact the officers directly.  Ask about the exporting history and on what terms they would be willing to conduct an export if no previous history.

3. Double check the answers you receive! There is nothing worse than presenting false information to your client. 

4. Be prepared to answer numerous questions, make sure you understand the requirements of your client, the regulations that will govern the trade, the terms of your client,  request of samples if necessary, etc. You are the expert for both your client and the supplier.

5. Stay positive, sometimes the deals fall through, The details might not be favorable or the client loses interests, there are a million reasons for the deal to go bad. Don't dwell on it, learn from the experience and move on to your next deal.

As always, look forward to your comments.

U.S-Korea Trade Agreement. Whats in it for you?

Last fall news of Free Trade Agreements appeared in the media for a brief period. The U.S. had finally signed three different FTAs; one being with South Korea. The news quickly faded more "pressing" matters like politics or the newest movie in Hollywood. But if you are a business owner, what does these news mean for you?

This morning I was reading my daily newsletters when I came across a brief article from the International trade Administration on the U.S. - Korea Free Trade Agreement. If you are a business planning on dealing these following points might be of interest to you:

1. The agreement comes into effect on March 15, 2012 (yes, in about a week!)
2.Almost 80% of exports from the U.S to Korea can be imported duty free, this is good news for both companies doing business there and those planning to do business there. You can use the FTA tariff tool, http://export.gov/FTA/ftatarifftool/index.asp , to see if your product qualifies.
3. Nearly 2/3 of all U.S. Agricultural exports to South Korea become duty free starting on March 15.
4. Commitments concerning intellectual property rights and the opening of Korea's enormous service market will also come into effect on March 15, 2012.

As most government regulations, if you do not claim the benefits of this agreement on your import/export activities you will simply not get them, you must explicitly claim them in order to take advantage.

FTAs are a great incentive for exporting, knowing the details and how they can benefit your operations is key. If you want to read more about this particular FTA go to http://blog.trade.gov/2012/03/06/how-u-s-companies-can-start-taking-advantage-of-the-u-s-korea-trade-agreement/

Look forward to your comments

The competitiveness and innovative capacity of the US. Any good info in there?

The U.S. Department of Commerce was tasked, in consultation with the National Economic Council, by the President of the United States to create a report about the current state of innovation in the U.S. " The competitiveness and innovative capacity of the U.S." is the result. Although a standard government report, by this i mean dry and not too exciting, it consists of about 160 pages, many of which are graphs and cover pages so your reading might be close to a hundred. The weather in the Washington D.C. area is not that great today, so i sat down this morning and read it.

Most of the report is standard, a document used by the administration to support its policies. It identifies three area or "pillars" in which government investments are essential; federal support of basic research, education and infrastructure. The report focuses on how the federal government needs to invest in basic research as private companies are not inclined to do so, how STEM education investments are essential and how improving infrastructure will benefit commerce. The benefits of these investments are rarely debated, the debate occurs when deciding who has to pay for them. This post will focus on two area that were presented, but not discussed in depth, in the report; Regional Innovation Centers and Trade agreements.

Regional Innovation Centers (RICs) are geographic areas around the U.S. in which particular industries are clustered. Some examples include the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in the Dan River Region of Virginia focusing on research and STEM education and the Joint venture Silicon Valley Network, focusing on IT.   RIC are important because its a mutually supportive environment, companies in the area depend on each other for growth and the success of one can mean future growth for other companies in the area. The link for small businesses to RICs can occur in the SBDCs. Most land grant public universities have some sort of relationship with a RIC, and most of the innovations created at the university are funneled directly into the RIC for commercialization. Having a good relationship with your SBDC could help you understand two things; if your area is a RIC and what are the terms of entry into the regional community. Small start ups and small businesses struggle with R&D since it is expensive, tapping into a whole network who help its members with these costs might enhance your business.

The second area that i noticed were the trade agreements. The report, in its entirety, only devotes about 1.5 pages to trade agreements. it mentions the signing of the Colombia, South Korea and Panama agreements and the ongoing negotiations for the Trans-Pacific  Partnership (negotiations currently include Australia, Chile, Peru, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, New Zealand and Vietnam) This is not enough. Mentioning trade agreements that have already been signed and the negotiations for another is not enough to help our small businesses export their products. Program from the U.S Commercial Services should be discussed, as well as the SBA and the Export-Import Bank. Signing FTAs with other countries is just one of the answers, more avenues for our business to learn and follow trade leads are necessary.

The whole report can be found here 

http://www.commerce.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2012/january/competes_010511_0.pdf 

What do you think? Can RICs help your business grow? Is assisting companies in their export endeavors really a priority or not? 

I look forward to reading your comments.