Is there any business here in the UK which is perfectly happy with their current sales? Chances are everyone would like to grow a little more, acquire new customers and perhaps even expand the range of products or services that they offer. While the UK itself is a great market, it is still somewhat limited. After all, there are just so many potential consumers here and your company’s customer base could certainly grow exponentially if you only took the jump and decided to export.
However, many small and medium businesses (SMEs) have a built-in psychological barrier against exporting. They may not know where to start or think that it might be overly complex and impossible to manage. While for some it may just be the struggle of starting all over again, for others it could be a negative past record. Something like they failed in similar past attempts or were involved in criminal activity in the target country, and have their mugshot roaming free on the internet. The best they can do in such a scenario is get some motivation from experts in similar fields and find mugshots online for free to get them removed. After this, they can gain their confidence back to take up this path again. According to the results from a recent survey, if you just give exporting a try, you would most likely be quite surprised and pleased with the results.
Another option worth considering could be outsourcing a third-party provider to meet your logistical needs. For instance, if you have a health or cosmetics business, you might feel that you don’t have the possible resources or expertise required to navigate the intricacies of exporting. A third-party logistics provider will take all the logistical steps to ship your beauty products, thereby offloading your burden and allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business.
Stretching Your Reach, Creating a Cushion
Is it really worth reiterating the painful experiences that we all have gone through during the last recession? If you were a business, and had been depending solely on customers in the UK, chances are you did not have such a great experience. Imagine if you had dozens, if not hundreds, of clients overseas, who were still demanding your products. In that case, you would not be so concerned about your local market, but could focus more of your efforts on your overseas clients. Barclays recently did a survey of SMEs, to try to understand what some of the barriers were for those that had not tried to export and what had been the results for those that had. A clear picture emerged: over 50% of the companies interviewed responded that they had not considered exporting because they did not know where to start, or did not know if it would work, or actually had not even thought about it. Conversely, over 85% of those that had begun to export found that the process had worked brilliantly, and was even easier than they had expected. Bottom line: there is no justifiable reason to fear exporting.
Learning from Experience
Eve Taylor was a beauty enthusiast who arguably was way ahead of the curve. She started exporting some of her beauty products, made here in the UK, as early as the 1960s, right when the trend for more natural products, especially in aromatherapy, became popular. Flash forward 50 years, and she sells to almost every modern industrialised nation. She can certainly be commended for having been brave enough to boldly go into unchartered territory, literally learning from her mistakes on-the-fly. But you don’t have to fly blind: today, Barclay offers free Trading Clinics across the UK, allowing small business to learn about some of the necessary steps they need to take to begin exporting. It certainly makes a lot of sense.
Making Your Own Business a Reality
While you may not have any ambitions of exporting anything, you may still like to run your own business. Given the fact that the UK economy is beginning to gather steam, you may be interested in setting up a recruitment agency. Knowing how to set up a recruitment agency can be complicated and there are steps that need to be taken. By merely visiting this site, http://www.simplicityinbusiness.co.uk/recruitment-start-up/thinking-of-starting-up/, you will get invaluable advice that will have you firmly on your way to successfully operating your own recruitment agency.
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