A Revival in Global Economic Activity

Exports during the month hit their highest level since August 2008, the month before the financial crisis.

"More and more of our exports have started going to the faster-growing regions in Asia, Latin America and Canada," said Morgan Stanley economist Ted Wieseman. "It highlights that the emerging markets never really had much of a slowdown at all. They've continued to outperform throughout the crisis."

Exports of industrial supplies were particularly strong, rising 8%, driven by chemicals and plastics. Food exports also surged. Among the big gains: Soybean exports jumped to almost $2.4 billion, an all-time high, from $1.8 billion in September.

Read the entire article here.

What is the Smartest Decision You Made in Starting Your Business?

 

Mine was going global at the outset.  What was yours?

What's Nato's New Role?

A little late on this but still worth a look:

Nato's new strategic concept unveiled in Lisbon underlines the global role of the alliance's new non-continental or non-geographic preoccupations such as cyber and space.

Watch a video and learn more here.

Illustration clip here.

10 Things to Consider Before You Start a Business in the United States

The following article covers ten areas that anyone wishing to start a small business had better think about before moving forward.  Here's a glimpse at No. 7:

Foreign Competition

Especially if you are creating a small business that does manufacturing, you are going to have to deal with foreign competition.

So are you going to be able to compete with the companies in your industry that pay their workers on the other side of the world less than a tenth of what you are paying to your American workers?

On the other side of the world, companies often don’t have to worry about unions, worker’s comp, health benefits, retirement benefits, nightmarish environmental regulations, crushing taxes or miles of paperwork and red tape.

Are you certain that you can compete against that?

Read the entire article here.

How to Become a Micro-Multinational Small Business

Here are 5 steps that a startup or a small business can take to become a micro-multinational.

Read the entire article here.

Illustration credit here.

How to Leverage Your Existing Customers To Go Global

For small businesses doing a great job for big-name clients close to home can leverage those relationships to expand abroad.   This is a savvy way to grow global for a small business.  That is what economist Jayson Myers, head of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, one of the country’s biggest industry groups, said in an interview.

“Often the best sales strategy is not going directly into new markets, but it’s leveraging up your existing customers. We are seeing this in a lot of manufacturing sectors, in a lot of technology companies. We [Canadians] have very, very good products, but often these products have to be packaged or integrated into a bigger service for customers.”

Read the entire article here.

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

Turn To Other Parts of the World to Grow Your Business

Here are ten fabulous things you need to know about doing business in China.

It’s a global economy. We know that. But what does that really mean? It means that even if you decide to start a business tomorrow in your hometown, more likely than not, you’re going to have to turn to other parts of the world to make your business efficient and profitable. For many business owners, that other part of the world will most likely be China.

Read:  The Top 10 Things You Need to Know About Doing Business in China

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

Growing Small Business Exporting

A very interesting perspective on small-business exporters:

Thinking Small
The Obama administration's efforts to grow small-business exporting, and how Congress could derail them.

Pictured:  United States President Obama

Going Down the Export Road

Find out how you can boost sales by looking for customers across borders.

Tapping into exports

Illustration:  Ricky's Lucky Nuts as featured in the above article.

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

Toolkit Kiosk Helps SMEs Go Global

SMEs got a boost recently when the Small and Medium Enterprise Corp Malaysia (SME Corp) unveiled the first of its kind SME Toolkit kiosk in the country aimed at helping SMEs go global.

The kiosk, which is located at SME Corp's office in Menara Matrade, also helps them leverage on the toolkit to enhance their business by reducing their operational cost. SMEs can gain access to the relevant information in the toolkit via the Internet and need not go to the kiosk personally to access it.

The SME Toolkit is an online program that enables entrepreneurs and small businesses to learn how to implement sustainable business management practices needed for growth in areas such as finance, accounting, international business, marketing, human resources or legal, at no cost.

Learn more here.

Illustration credit here.

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

Gum and Greetings Around the World

Chicago-based Wrigley offers a nice season's greetings around the world ... check it out and enjoy your weekend.

Photo credit:  Laurel Delaney, GlobeTrade.com -- captured in my car near a stop light at Wacker Drive and Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

Global Gaga

My latest contribution for Small Business Trends at the American Express OPEN Forum:

How to Market Your Business Lady Gaga Style

Pictured:  Lady Gaga

Posted by:  Laurel Delaney, for The Global Small Business Blog

Notes from the World Entrepreneurship Forum 2010 (Part I)

After attending the third edition of the World Entrepreneurship Forum (www.world-entrepreneurship-forum.com/2010/), I was overwhelmed by the inspiring presentations from thought leaders around the world.

With this blog post -- the first in a series that I'll cover over the coming weeks --  Patrick Molle (pictured at microphone), President of Emlyon Business School (founding member of World Entrepreneurship Forum) is featured.

According to my notes, here are some of the points he touched on during his welcome presentation on "Shaping the World of 2050."

• Worldwide environmental changes
• Accelerating backlash against globalization
• Depletion of vital resources
• There will be 9 billion people by 2050
• At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10/day!
• Africa is the only continent creating bigger youth population than older population

Challenges:

• The world needs more (environmentally friendly) jobs
• The world needs to reinvent itself
• The world needs a new development model which reconciles the creation of wealth and with social justice (Laurel here ... which is what the World Entrepreneurship Forum is based on)

Ambitions for the World Entrepreneurship Forum:

Primary:  Educating entrepreneurs of the world (with emphasis on early stage).

Secondary considerations:

• How to prepare young people?
• How to train (to become agile)?
• How to educate cross-cultural leaders?

Goal: To produce entrepreneurs for the world!

"Entrepreneurs are not born but created by their experience." ~ Patrick Molle, President of EMLYON

His conclusions and recommendations can be found here (requires translation).

Revert to this post for photos from the World Entrepreneurship Forum 2010 and go here to learn more about what took place and its overall mission.

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

New Kid On the Block: GlobalTrade.Net

Welcome neighbor GlobalTrade.net!  A new marketplace for international trade services run by FITA Online, with the support of the Federation of International Trade Associations , in cooperation with the U.S. Commercial Service , United Kingdom Trade & Investment , ThomasNet , Alibaba and Kompass.

Ahhhhhhh, if only we could truly have an open source global trade platform that the whole world could tap into (similar to a Wikipedia for global trade) and benefit from!

We hope to see eBay and Global Sources welcomed into this exchange soon.

Posted by:  Laurel Delaney, GlobeTrade.com and The Global Small Business Blog