If you want to get in on the lucrative international trading game, you should be realistic and cautious, have a competitive edge, be prepared to travel to the market and get as much help as you can. This sage advice is to be found in a book entitled Excellence In Exporting: Advice and Comments from Canada Export Award Winners, a 70 page volume from External Affairs.
Pretty heady stuff, I thought when I first read of the book prepared by Phillip Rosson and other faculty members from the Centre for International Business Studies at Dalhousie University. Despite International Trade Minister James Kelleher's description of the book as an "excellent first step," I had difficulty following it, steeped, as it is, in complex technical jargon.
I decided to list some of the more basic considerations a first time exporter might need, in a language the simplest novice could comprehend. This is what I came up with:
& Have a product. You know, you'd be surprised how many people forget this simple, but necessary prerequisite to international trade. It is best, of course, to have a product that nobody has tried to sell before. If this is not practical, however, one can still attempt to sell an old product in a new market. If all else fails, remember: enough of the right currency can solve any problem.
& Know where to sell your product. There is no point trekking all the way to Katmandu if your product is scheduled to be sold in Muncie, Indiana. Or, vice versa. You can save yourself a lot of time and money, not to mention vast amounts of embarrassment, if you know where you are going.
& When traveling abroad, don't drink the water. This is an old piece of advice, but I felt it bore repeating here.
& Never trust a man named Pepe. Woody Janus did, and now he talks to gargoyles on the front of buildings. Carl Orffal did, and his last message to the outside world was: "Didn't anybody remember to bring the dill pickles?" Sol "Solly" Mander did, and he lost everything in the Lithuanian metallurgical scandals of '79. This point can never be stressed enough: men named Pepe may know where to find the best alcohol in town, an important enough consideration, but they cannot be trusted in even the simplest business ventures.
& Consider the appropriateness of your product in your potential market. Contrary to the popular joke, it is possible to sell freezers to eskimos. You just have to be prepared to spend a huge amount of money on advertising.
& Don't get serious about selling anything in Russia. Those nutty Communists! Boy, do they have some crazy ideas about private ownership of material goods! If you tried to sell a product to any of them, it would probably be quickly confiscated by the secret police, and, if you were very lucky, you might only be thrown in jail for 15 or 20 years. Do yourself a favour: don't plan on doing business with folks who think nationalizing resources is a lot of good, clean fun.
& Always remember: water in the other hemisphere goes down the drain in the opposite direction to the one with which you are familiar.
& Make sure the currency of the country that you are considering doing business with is recognized by the World Bank as having some actual value. To use an example, accepting payment in clams is not considered a good business practice, unless, of course, you like clams, and are prepared to eat them every night for the next 28 years of your life.
& Don't over-extend your production capacity. If you only produce 38 units a week, it would take you over 10,000 years to adequately penetrate a market the size of the United States. Now, 10,000 years is a long time to ask a consumer to wait for delivery of a product, no matter how good it is.
& Wherever you go, don't forget your umbrella.
& Also, don't forget the differences in language. English is the language of business; French is the language of love; Greek is the language of dead poets. Mathematics and music are supposed to be universal languages, but it's virtually impossible to use them to say, "Where the heck am I?" When in doubt, spring for an interpreter.
& When in doubt, use common sense. Common sense is not always held in high regard in the business community, which prefers to take its chances with market surveys. If common sense is not to be found in abundance in your company, it can be purchased for a fee. Be aware, however, that common sense does not come cheap, and that the federal government does not allow common sense expenses as a tax deduction.
I hope that these simple rules can help you if you are considering going into the export business for the first time. Should you require any further advice, feel free to write External Affairs Minister James Kelleher and ask him to allow me to work on his next publication.
