I have been a fan of Laurel Delaney and her blog, the Global Small Business Blog, for years. Ms. Delaney and her blog do for exporting exactly what we here at the China Law Blog seek to do for companies doing business in China or seeking to do business in China: provide no-nonsense, real-life information that helps. Ms. Delaney’s focus is on exporting products and services from the United States, with a particular nod towards SMEs.
The reality is that exporting product and services can be very complicated and it always pays to have how-to information before you embark on doing so. It is also true that there is a dearth of good information on what it really takes to export and that many small and medium sized companies learn their exporting ropes through trial and error.
If you are looking for information on taking your business international, check out The Global Small Business Blog.
But now I can say that if you are looking for a definitive guide on how to succeed at exporting, check out Ms. Delaney’s fresh off the presses book, Exporting: The Definitive Guide to Selling Abroad Profitably. This book is not only definitive, it is comprehensive. Heck it’s 552 pages!
But what I most like about the book is how it raises and clearly answers virtually all of the key questions that arise from exporting and how it constantly cites to and discusses real world examples. That it has a whole chapter on “getting paid” is testament to its being rooted in the real world.
One need only review its table of contents to understand both its depth and wide scope:
Part I: Building Your Foundations for Exporting . . . . . .
Chapter 1: Are You Ready to Export? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Chapter 2: Writing an Export Business Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Chapter 3: Prepping For Exports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Chapter 4: The Human Side of an Export Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Part II: Creating and Using Online Marketing Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Chapter 5: Online Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Chapter 6: Creating a Social Media and Networking Presence . . . . . . 83
Chapter 7: Using e-Commerce and Social Media Sites as Stepping Stones to Export Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97
Chapter 8: The E-Commerce Connectivity Craze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Chapter 9: The Mobile World at Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Chapter 10: Marketing Your Business Worldwide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Part III: Mapping Out Your Export Journey. . . . . . . . . . 173
Chapter 11: Choosing a Product to Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Chapter 12: Exploring Your Territory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Chapter 13: Preparing and Adapting Your Product for the Export Marketplace . . . 209
Chapter 14: Preparing Your Service for Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Chapter 15: Web Design with the World in Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Part IV: Developing Sales and Distribution Capabilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Chapter 16: Finding Cross-Border Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Chapter 17: Methods of Exporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Part V: Managing the Transaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Chapter 18: Transport, Logistics, and Fulfillment Options . . . . . . . . . . 305
Chapter 19: Pricing and Preparing Quotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Chapter 20: Getting Paid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Chapter 21: Booking, Marking, Labeling, and Insuring . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Chapter 22: Documentation, Export Licensing, and Other Procedures . . . 387
Part VI: Keep Building Your Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Chapter 23: In Pursuit of Exceptional Export Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Chapter 24: Cross-Cultural Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Part VII: The Export Journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Chapter 25: Global Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Chapter 26: International Business Travel and Security Tips . . . . . . . . .435
Chapter 27: Women Business Owners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
Chapter 28: New Frontiers in Emerging Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Chapter 29: The Top Ten Export Business Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Part VIII: Export Mastery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
Chapter 30: Export Success. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Chapter 31: Essential Keys to Export Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
If you are exporting or thinking of exporting, I recommend you read Exporting: The Definitive Guide to Selling Abroad Profitably.