AIEx News

Are you one of the many hundreds of Australian companies who got into export by accident? You know the story: You met someone in a bar, or on a beach or in a taxi, and the next minute you were on a plane to Singapore  making your first offshore sale. Or someone placed an order on your web site and you suddenly had lots of customers in London! If so, congratulations! You saw an opportunity, you followed up, executed well and now you're one of many Australian exporters who are succeeding in many different countries and markets all over the world!

However, like in all aspects of business and in life, wouldn't it be better if you'd started off with a plan? A plan which analysed the best market for your product, the countries that offered the best prospects, and the product(s) or service(s) that are in the highest demand offshore?

Its never too late to make a plan, or to examine other markets and opportunities, so why not invest a day of your time to attend a Think Global Masterclass, www.thinkglobal.com.au, which helps you answer the following questions:

• Why should you go offshore in the first place? (ie why bother? what are the benefits? what will you get more of, and less of?)
• Where should you go? (ie which countries, markets etc. - how do you select the places that are right for you)
• What should you offer (ie how can your products and services be adapted to be marketed offshore?)
• How can you prepare to do business offshore? (ie what do you need to research? what knowledge do you need to acquire?)
• Who else do you need to involve? (ie for support, advice, additional resources, contacts, new sources of capital etc.)
• When should you get started? (ie design, develop and execute a plan with timelines, milestones and targets)

After a day with David Thomas of Think Global you will leave with the outline of a plan that you can start to work on yourself, and a list of places, people and resources that you can go to for more advice, research and support. Don't put this off any longer - the current environment demands that you spend more time on planning, strategy and business development. There are new developing markets in the world looking for world class products, services and expertise from Australia and you need to be thinking about all of them.

Don't be an Accidental Exporter - start working on your plan now!