By Carl Weiss
The economy is still kind of soft and you are looking for a way to augment the bottom line. The problem is that you have tried everything that you can think of to maximize your visibility in your market. You have even created an e-tail version of your brick and mortar operation that gives you nationwide reach. But you still haven't been able to take your business to the level that you know it can achieve. Is that what's bothering you, Bunky? Then why not try going global?
Going global is kind of like
the weather. Everyone talks about it,
but almost nobody does anything
about it.
When you think about this dilemma in the information age, it’s kind of
strange. After all, they call the Internet,
the World Wide Web for a reason. That’s
because it is the one medium that can put any company’s products and services
in front of a global audience. That’s
the good news. The bad news is that most
small to mid-sized businesses with a web presence are still restricting sales to their nation of origin. Due to
language and cultural differences, shipping regulations, customs requirements,
tariffs and other bureaucratic red tape, many US companies restrict the size of
their potential market.
Without a doubt the reason
that many business owners shy away from doing business beyond their nation’s
borders has to do with the fact that the
same medium that makes it possible to advertise their wares worldwide also
broadcasts an astounding number of fledgling exporters who have found
themselves caught in an Orwellian dilemma.
Case In Point: $15 Mailroom Mix-up Results in $90,000Penalty
Lee Specialties, a Canadian
manufacturer of oilfield equipment found itself in hot water when it shipped
rubber O-rings to the Middle East in 2012.
Most of the order for $6,054.00 in O-rings were shipped to an address in
Dubai. But through a clerical error, $15
of O-rings were sent to Tehran, Iran.
This not only caused the Canadian Border Service Agency to seize the
entire shipment, it also resulted in Lee Specialties being fined $90,000 for
violating international trade sanctions.
While it was clear that Lee Specialties
made a mistake, that mix-up still cost the Alberta company $90,000, not to
mention the legal fees they racked up during their two-year court battle.
“It seems like an innocent thing,” noted
Judge Allan Fradsham, approving the settlement and adding that the fine was
“perfectly appropriate” given the circumstances.”
Of course, if you think that
having to shell out ninety grand, plus court costs and legal fees for an
innocent mistake is galling, wait until you hear about the Netherlands firm
that was fined $10.5 million for violating US trade sanctions by exporting
jetliner spare parts to the Sudan, Myanmar and Iran between 2005 and 2010.
Fokker Fined for Aircraft Parts Sales to Iran and
Others
Fokker Services VB, a Dutch company flagrantly
violated U.S. sanctions laws and this illicit activity will not be
tolerated," said Adam Szubin, director of the U.S. Treasury's Office of
Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). http://www.cnbc.com/id/101735591
So it’s obviously dicey to
ship goods to the Middle East. Big
surprise there. But this isn’t the only
way in which exporters have been caught in the crosshairs of international
intrigue. There are currently US export
restrictions on a number of places around the globe, including Russia, Cuba,
North Korea, Syria, Sudan, Burma, among others.
And the list changes all the time.
What this means to US e-tailers
is that any time you export products you have to provide more
information to
government agencies than you do when you ship domestically. Fortunately, there is a document prepared by
the Commerce Department that is designed to walk you through the red tape. Called “Preparing Your Business for Global E-Commerce,” the 66-page e-book is designed to walk you through everything from
the paperwork involved in exporting goods and services to export controls, shipping
& returns, insurance and avoiding fraud.
While this is a good start at
getting a handle on the ins and outs of international trade, it is by no means
the only steps you will need to take if you intend selling your goods on
foreign shores. Not by a long shot. Aside from red tape, one of the most daunting
aspects of going global has to do with foreign languages and customs. Even some multi-nationals have found out that
what works in the US sometimes loses something in translation.
The Tale of the Chevy that Didn’t Go
You may have heard the story
of how Chevrolet had a tough time selling their Nova sedan in Latin
 |
| 1974 Chevrolet Nova Hatchback Coupe & '62 Chevy II Nova Sedan (Photo credit: aldenjewell) |
America
back in the 1970’s. While the word Nova
means an exploding star to those of us north of the border, in Spanish speaking
countries No va translates to “it doesn’t go.”
Purportedly Chevy was forced to pull the car from the market until a
name change could be made to the model.
While a wonderful tale about the vagaries of language and customs,
that’s all it is – a tall tale. But it
is one that every would be exporter should take to heart before trusting their
future to translation software.
While technology is the
hallmark of the Internet and there are a number of software packages that
purport to translate any website into a number of foreign tongues, there are
some things you need to consider. In the
first place languages differ by dialect.
This means that just because you have translated a webpage or document
into say Spanish, that doesn’t mean that the Spanish used in Mexico is
precisely the same as that is used in Barcelona or Puerto Rico. (I found this out during a videotaping
session when the woman who was hired to voiceover the video informed the
Cuban-American who wrote the script that the word he wanted to use in the ad
copy meant something completely different to anyone living in Puerto Rico where
he was planning on airing his ads.) So
my advice is to have an expert look over your website before you wind up with
huevos on your face.
An article in the Atlantic
Monthly called “Lost in Translation” goes even further when it decries the
difficulties inherent in relying exclusively on translation software upon which
to hang your export hopes.
In one famous episode
in the British comedy series Monty Python a foreign-looking tourist clad in an
outmoded leather trench coat appears at the entrance to a London shop. He
marches up to the man behind the counter, solemnly consults a phrase book, and
in a thick Middle European accent declares, "My hovercraft... is full of eels!"
Even though translation
software has become much more sophisticated since the time the Atlantic Monthly
article was written, the point taken should be one of caution. Just as it takes time to master a foreign
tongue, so too does it take time to master the ins and outs of exporting. If you think that transshipping your goods to
the far side of the planet is tough, just get a gander at the cautionary tale
of a Washington State entrepreneur who tried to save a few bucks by driving his
parcels into Canada instead of using FedEx.
Stuck in Customs – How NOT to Import Goods into a
Neighboring Country.
5 minutes later I pull up to the US Customs and Border
Protection booth.
CBP: "How long were you in Canada?" Me:
"Actually, I've never made it into Canada. I have commercial goods and I
didn't know you weren't' supposed to cross at Peace Arch…" CBP: (Eying all
the Open Beam tubes in the back seat of my Accord) "What's in those
tubes?" Me: "It's, uh, a construction toy" CBP:
"Construction toy?" Me: "Yeah. Like Legos. For engineers"
CBP guy starts scribbling something fast and furious onto a bright orange sheet
of paper. I can't read it, but I doubt it's a drug prescription… CBP:
"Okay, go talk to that officer over there - he'll tell you where to
go" and slaps the said orange sheet of paper on my windshield.
I drive around to a very humorless and
bored looking CBP officer. CBP2:
"Where do you think you're going?" Me: "They said I was supposed
to talk to someone. I guess you're it". CBP2: "What you are
*supposed* to do is to go inside that building over there. And take that orange
slip with you". Me: "Ok".
Now, for those of you who's never had the pleasure of a
CBP secondary inspection - these guys make post office workers look like type-A
workaholics in a startup. For about 45 minutes, I watched as they typed away
like trained chickens at a computer keyboard, ask a few questions, stamp the
little orange sheet of paper - then walk away from the counter with said stamp,
over to a row of desks, take a seat, and proceed to type away more like trained
chickens at a computer keyboard. Finally, after about 45 minutes (with just one party of
three kids in front of me) it was my turn.
For the next 3 minutes or so, the CBP
officer would stare blankly at his screen and click a few keys here, type a few
sentences there. Suddenly, sirens sound. Over the intercom, I hear, "Lane
2! Lane 2!!!"
And, for how lethargic the CBP officer
had been, he immediately bolted out of his chair, along with his coworker, and
they rushed out of the side door. I look over at the next booth to the 19 year
old visiting the US for the first time and he looked back at me with the same
bewildered look on his face. I think we were both expecting to hear gunshots. Minutes went by, then as suddenly as the
alert had begun, it was over. My CBP officer calmly walked back over to the
counter. Me: "What was that
about?" CBP3: "Don't worry about it"
The story goes
onto detail the entire harrowing ordeal, including having to wait while his vehicle was run through an x-ray machine. Even worse still was the fact that after
being made to feel like some kind of smuggler, the writer lamented the fact
that he never made it through the Canadian border and wound up turning back to
the US in defeat. He ended the story
with the following:
I'm happy to report that by the time you
are reading this, all of my Canadian orders have now shipped out along with
almost all of the European, Australian and Asian orders. In light of the
experience with importing goods into Canada - the extra $15.00 per parcel
doesn't seem like too bad of a hit.
The moral of the
story is that you want to proceed with care in your endeavor to begin selling
your products on foreign shores. Instead
of running off half cocked, you would be well advised to seek the advice of
experts in the field of exporting as well as those of a businessman or woman
who is already exporting goods overseas.
The Small Business
Administration (SBA) offers free resources and assistance for any business
looking to start exporting. Below is a
link to Four Resources that Can Help: http://www.sba.gov/community/blogs/interested-exporting-these-four-resources-can-help
Global Edge, http://globaledge.msu.edu/reference-desk/export-tutorials
offers a series of free online tutorials that cover such topics as:
1. Is
your company ready to export?
2. Government
Regulations
3. Financial
Considerations
4. Sales
and Marketing
5. Logistics
Amazon.com offers
a book entitled: Basic Guide to Exporting – The Official Government Resource
for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses. http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Guide-Exporting-Government-Medium-Sized/dp/0160869536
As you can see,
while the promise of profits is tantalizing enough to consider taking the time
and trouble to learn the ins and outs of exporting, the moral of the story is,
“In the exporting game a little knowledge and $15 can make you or break you.”
great
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