Exporting CONOPS: a Business Operations Plan

By Juan A. Salva

                Exporting is usually touted as a possible solution to various economic problems in the United States. Small Businesses, actually business of all sizes, are encouraged by a plethora of government agencies to increase their exports. The US Commercial Services, the Export Import Bank and the SBA are just a few of those agencies. Yet, according to Jason Katzman in his "Basic Guide to Exporting", many businesses are simply not prepared to export, basically having no plan and stumbling unto exporting opportunities having to figure out how the business should operate.  With Ex-Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez stating that close to 70% of the purchasing power in the world resides outside the United States it is surprising that business are not better prepared for this.

                Proposed in this blog entry is a simple solution, small businesses should focus in developing different concepts of operations, or CONOPS, to lay the foundation for exporting. This is simple yet different from a business plan. In a CONOP the business would lay the foundation of how the business will operate if encountering an export opportunity in different regions of the world. A basic layout of a CONOP would include the following:

1. Which business services could potentially be developed in the region?

2. What permit, licensees or fees are involved with exporting to the region?

3. Applicable U.S. laws, regulations or restrictions

4. How will the business be structured if exporting occurs?

5. How will the business be staffed? recruiting strategy? overseas locations?

6. Possible courses of actions regarding the expansion of the exporting venture

                These are just a few of the questions that should be asked, and included in the CONOP, for exporting. The advantage of CONOPS is that businesses can take time to develop them. Exporting opportunities might not occur immediately, but with a basic plan in place, the business can at least not be completely surprised when the opportunity occurs. Secondly, the company can develop different CONOPS for different regions, so CONOPS do not need to be imbedded in the business plan, but could be shorter annexes to it that a business manager could refer to if the opportunity arises.

                CONOPS for exporting are a possible tool that business could exploit. The only caveat is that these, as the business plan should be, are living documents so they should continually revised and updated. What are your thoughts on developing these kind of documents?