I frequently hear people say that small companies, especially entrepreneurial ventures, should not be thinking about the global market place. After all, they’re just a local company and need to be focusing on the home market, right?
Well, maybe, but in this age of globalization not considering the opportunities of international business could very well mean the difference between growth and stagnation.
Almost half of US businesses are predicted be involved in international trade by the year 2020, and US Department of Commerce data indicates that large companies currently sell only about 4% of US exports. That means that 96% of exports are sold by smaller companies!
International business can be an important strategic option for small businesses. It can open many new doors for success, but the key is determining why you want to get involved in international business.
Do you want to go global to:
Expand customer networks?
Gain exposure to new ideas and technology?
Find new ideas for global sourcing?
Or, just because everyone else is doing it?
A company’s motivation for pursuing international business can be very telling and help determine the likelihood of success. Programs that are most likely to succeed are those that are planned for the long-term, and include market research, international relationships, and logistics arrangements.
International business can contribute to long-term growth of a small business, and also can enhance competitiveness. By buying and selling internationally, a company can gain insights on customer requirements, competitor activity, and different ways of doing business. Companies also may acquire new technologies, ideas, and partnerships from the process.
Once a company decides to go global, commitment from the management team is the number one determining factor of success. Management can show their commitment to an international program by setting aside funding, allotting time to manage the program, and assigning personnel to perform its tasks.
Taking advantage of international opportunities now is easier then it’s ever been. The Internet and other modern communications technologies make the buying and selling of all types of products, services, inputs, and components a viable option for many businesses of all sizes, almost anywhere in the world.
For information on how TowsonGlobal can help your business take advantage of international opportunities, check out www.towsonglobal.com.
“Do you really know what you ate today?” Natural Check, LLC dares to answer this sometimes unnerving question by making the science of water and food testing easily accessible.
This innovative startup company, and member of the TowsonGlobal Incubator, provides fast, affordable and reliable methods to screen for unacceptable compounds in the food and water supplies. For example, the company has developed a lab-based test for the detection of artificial growth hormones in beef and offers a rapid field test for antibiotics in milk. Additional tests are under development in partnership with labs from around the world.
NaturalCheck also supplies water testing kits and is striving to build community awareness through city-specific “What’s in my water…” Facebook fan pages created for cities like Baltimore, DC, Los Angeles, and New York. In addition, the company offers the BRIX Meter, which helps determine the nutritional quality of fruits and vegetables.
Similarly, NaturalCheck, through its AuthentiCheck division, is on the forefront, developing and distributing new technologies to protect manufacturers, retailers and consumers from often unsafe counterfeit products. The technologies offer two important services—authenticating products and tracking and tracing the movement of products through the supply chain—and are suitable for textiles, packaging, pharmaceuticals, and many other products.
NaturalCheck was founded by Larry Bohlen, former NASA engineer, international environmental advocate and food safety entrepreneur. His experience has taught him that testing and sharing the results can be a powerful tool for facilitating real change.
In the marketing world, focus groups are a way of reaching out to existing or potential customers for feedback. Companies of all sizes often use focus groups to improve an existing product or service or to test new ideas. These facilitated discussions of 6-10 people can elicit a great deal of valuable information.
For start-up companies, focus groups can be a particularly powerful tool for evaluating new ideas, products or services before they are put on the market, avoiding costly missteps.
Developing new products can be very expensive, and focus group research can remove some of the risks by saving you from wasting time and money on ideas that won’t fly and by helping you strengthen good ideas. If conducted properly, focus groups can uncover many diverse insights from participants into how the product may potentially be viewed and can aid in development of marketing strategies that will most effectively address customer needs.
Take a look at this video describing how Domino’s Pizza used focus groups to learn what needed to be improved about their pizza.
In many cases, companies use outside resources to coordinate focus group research; the cost for which typically can be $3,000-$6,000. This may seem expensive for a small business, but compared to other research methods, it can be relatively economical. For those who can’t justify the expense, there may be ways to reduce the overall cost of conducting a focus group. For example:
Holding the session(s) in your own meeting space can save the expense of using specialized facilities; just make sure that the space is comfortable and private.
Using someone from inside the company as facilitator instead of an outside consultant may be cost effective; chose a person adept at leading discussions and keeping the group focused on the objective.
Having an internal scribe make notes of and summarize the meeting can save money, but the person(s) must be sure to capture the numerous thoughts and ideas from the discussion that will direct the efforts to move forward on the issue.
Analyzing the data internally also could save a significant sum; however, the risk of biased reporting, can make having an outside source analyze the data a worthwhile investment.
While there are options for cutting corners when conducting marketing research, there also are aspects on which the firm does not want to skimp. The most important elements of a focus group are the participants. You do not need to pay large fees, but some small level of compensation for participants’ time and ideas is required. Also, make sure you have the right audience (people without the proper background or interests will provide useless or distorted information).
Starting and running a business can be daunting, but you don’t have to go through it all alone. Even before you launch your business, it probably is a good idea to find a mentor or two, someone more experienced who can serve as a trusted advisor over an extended period of time and who can provide guidance and input that will help minimize the likelihood of making many common mistakes.
The mentor can help brainstorm and strategize, can provide an important third-party perspective, can challenge deep-rooted but perhaps misplaced views, can offer support and motivation through difficult periods, and can give constructive feedback.
The mentor should be someone who suits you and your circumstances. The right mentor can make all the difference, so how do you find that person? Here are some suggestions:
Look at your network of contacts: friends, family, former colleagues, college professors, SCORE, business associations, chambers of commerce, or other sources. A business incubator like TowsonGlobal also has may have an advisory board or entrepreneur-in-residence who can provide in-house mentoring.
Choose a mentor in the same field as you who or someone who is aware of many of the specific issues that might arise in your field and can uncover hidden challenges.
Choose a mentor who can talk to you about their mistakes (and successes) and will share what they have learned. This can help advance you more quickly along the learning curve.
Choose a mentor who has a network that will expand important contacts in your industry. Having access to the right people early on can help make things happen more rapidly.
Choose a mentor who has no ulterior motive, no service or product to sell you. You need someone you can trust, with whom you are comfortable sharing your hopes and fears.
Don’t view it as only a one-way relationship; be willing to reciprocate and share your own insights, contacts and opportunities.
Once you have found your mentor, be willing and prepared to listen and seriously consider their advice; otherwise they won’t be sticking with you for long. Ultimately, their counsel could make all the difference in the world.
Jill Blashack Strahan was a small business owner with a struggling gift basket company in Minnesota. She counseled with her mentor as she was trying to figure out how to be more successful. Jill said her goal was to make $30,000 a year but was advised that not only had she set her sights too low, but she was focusing on the wrong thing. She should focus on her passion not the money. During many of the rough times, Jill thought of giving up, but then she remembered her mentor’s advice to focus on her dream. She did that, and today Jill’s company, Tastefully Simple, is a direct-sales business with $120 million in sales.
University-based business incubators such as TowsonGlobal not only support start-up businesses from the surrounding region, but also offer students a plethora of hands-on experience and practical knowledge before joining the workforce (see story from TheBaltimore Sun special education section).
While the model may vary from one incubator to another, area entrepreneurs, students and others can tap into the incubator’s resources by paying affordable membership fees as either resident or associate members. The incubator offers a wide variety of resources, including office space, mentoring, and networking assistance. For instance, TowsonGlobal’s advisory board, brimming with advice from seasoned executives, is a great asset for member companies.
Affiliation with a university provides incubator companies ready access to faculty and staff for collaboration on research and development, for commercialization of university generated technologies, or other types of academic-business partnerships. This also can provide an ideal avenue for finding enthusiastic and hardworking student interns.
At TowsonGlobal, for instance, over the last several years as many as 30 students have benefited from internships with participating companies as part of their academic programs. They have been assigned to companies where they have conducted market research, produced feasibility studies, and developed real business contacts for the incubator clients (see the TowsonGlobal YouTube video).
Encouraging entrepreneurship through incubators allows universities to provide great collaborative, educational experiences that benefit all… students, faculty/staff, entrepreneurs, and student entrepreneurs, too.
As in just about every area of life, the importance of planning really can’t be overemphasized for the entrepreneur. This old saying is very true: Failure to plan is a plan for failure. Even though some entrepreneurs may “luck” into success without going through the process, a lack of planning really is a formula for failure.
The business plan does not need to be complex or long, but it is necessary. In simple terms, a business plan is a written description of your business, a document that describes what you plan to do and how you plan to do it.
What is included?
A business plan conveys the business goals and the strategies you’ll use to meet them.
It discusses the potential problems and risks that may confront your business and ways to solve them.
The plan highlights the organizational structure of your business and who the team members are.
It demonstrates that there is a market for your product or service and that you know how to tap that market.
The plan highlights how the product or service will be produced.
It also discusses the amount of capital required to finance your venture and where you expect that money will come from.
Clay Hickson advises a TowsonGlobal business
Business plans have several purposes. They’re used to seek support from potential lenders or investors. They also may be used to attract key team members, win new business, work with suppliers, and understand how to manage the business better. However, just because you have a plan doesn’t mean that everything is covered and that there won’t be surprises. It does mean you will be much better prepared and more likely to achieve success. Even so, once you have the plan in place, it doesn’t mean that all your work is done. A business plan is a living document that should be regularly revised as conditions and goals change.
There are numerous resources available for guidance on developing a business plan. Small Business Development Centers have workshops that teach all the basics. Their counselors and those of a Small Business Resource Center or of the Service Corps of Retired Executives also can help. Of course, there also are templates and other resources available on line, such as from the Small Business Administration. In addition, participation in a business incubator program like TowsonGlobal can provide an entrepreneur significant help in fine tuning his or her business plan.
This nautical analogy sums it up pretty well: “It’s better to be 5 or even 10 degrees off your charted destination than to have no port in mind at all. After all, the point of sailing is to get somewhere, and without a plan, you’ll wander the seas aimlessly, sometimes finding dry land but more often than not floundering in a vast ocean. Sea captains without a chart are rarely remembered for discovering anything but the ocean floor!”
Demonstrating that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and strong in Baltimore County, Vulcan Furniture, Inc. and Study Abroad Counselor, LLC, have become the latest companies to join TowsonGlobal, Towson University’s international incubator for startup ventures.
Vulcan Furniture, Inc. specializes in the supply and wholesale of office furniture, systems, seating, cabinets and accessories. The company provides office furnishing solutions to architects, designers and businesses seeking an upscale image. The firm represents high-end international brand manufacturers, primarily from Asia. Vulcan is a U.S.-incorporated affiliate of an established furniture company in Pakistan. According to Shoaib Mastoor, CEO, his grandfather established Vulcan as a steel fabrication company in 1948 after immigrating from neighboring India.
Study Abroad Counselor, LLC, (SAC) is an online-based organization dedicated to assisting students around the world in pursuing studies outside their respective countries. Initially, the company will target smaller colleges in the Mid-Atlantic region and focus on programs in Spain. SAC’s founder Amine Faridi developed the concept for this one-stop-shop web-based business in light of his own experience of being a foreign student in Spain and in helping many other students prepare for study abroad opportunities, while realizing there was no easy way to navigate through all the information spread around the Internet.
Although these companies work within separate industries, both will bring valuable products and services to our region as well as internationally. And, importantly, they will create new jobs and contribute to the overall economic strength of Baltimore County.
Since the mission at TowsonGlobal is to help both domestic and foreign entrepreneurial ventures learn how to compete in the global economy, we are excited to add both companies to the already diverse mix of startups here at the incubator.
I started my first business when I was in fourth grade, but having grown up on a ranch in Texas, many of the usual ways a kid earns money weren’t really available to me. I couldn’t have a lemonade stand or a paper route or mow the neighbors’ lawns. What were my options? I had to work with what was available if I wanted to earn a few extra dollars. Well, along with the beef cattle, we also had a flock of chickens. I’d been taking care of them since as long as I could remember, so I thought maybe I could sell eggs in town.
After talking it over with my parents, they agreed to support my entrepreneurial initiative. Someone nearby was selling some of their older hens, and with some of my own money and an “investment” from my parents, I bought 20 of them. We set up a separate chicken coop with nests in a part of one of the barns and fenced in an adjoining new chicken yard. I went to town to find customers for my farm-fresh, free-range eggs and was able to get several people to sign up, including my school bus driver.
left to right: Aaron and Clay Hickson
Every evening I gathered the eggs, cleaned them, and stored them in cartons in an old refrigerator that gave me an electrical zap every time I touched the handle. Each Saturday I’d load the eggs into the car, and one of my parents would take me on my delivery route in town. [Eventually, I would drive myself since the country lane into town was not paved, and no driver’s license was required for that.]
Naturally, those tired old hens didn’t produce for long, so I had to invest in some younger pullets in order to keep my supply coming. While replenishing my “producers” was an occasional expense, I really didn’t have too many other expenses… except for chicken feed. Skyrocketing input prices are what eventually put me out of business. While I did gradually raise my prices, I couldn’t keep pace with the increase in the price of feed. After about five years, the prices I needed to charge to break even, even considering the subsidy from my parents, were well above the prices in the grocery store. I think my price got as high as $1.25, not much higher than super market prices of just a few years ago. Alas, the chickens flew the coop, and I went out of business.
Even though I didn’t make much money over those years, I did learn some valuable lessons.
I learned the concept of supply and demand;
the importance of having a support network, of planning, and of monitoring competition;
and that you don’t always have to have the best of everything to do something well.
Of course, there also is that old adage: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket!
The term entrepreneur comes from the French word, entrependre, which means “to undertake,” and this is precisely the basic principle of entrepreneurship. An entrepreneur is one who has a vision of an opportunity and takes the initiative to capitalize on it. In simple terms, he or she organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business. Surprisingly, there actually is debate over exactly what the term means, but few would argue that anyone who embarks on a new venture in order to create a new business would be considered an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs and other small businesses are the driving force behind the US economy, creating jobs and innovative technologies. These businesses “represent 99.7% of all employers, employ more than half of the private sector workers, account for 39% of high-tech jobs, and create 60-80% of the net new jobs annually,” says Entrepreneur magazine.
A true entrepreneur has a vision to seize an opportunity with passion and diligence. And these traits are crucial to success. If you are thinking to yourself: “This whole entrepreneurial thing is a piece of cake! It can’t be a complicated process? I can make millions effortlessly!” Well, you are sadly mistaken. Experience, knowledge, and most importantly, planning breed success.
from Flickr MartinPhotoSport
Entrepreneurs often are innovators, creating new products, new production methods, new markets, new forms of organization…. However, being an innovator doesn’t ensure success. People come up with new ideas everyday that we never even hear about.
Planning is the key to success. Even though some entrepreneurs may “luck” into success, a lack of planning really is a recipe for failure. There must be a market for whatever the idea is, and the product/service must actually be successfully produced and marketed. And then there is the competition; someone may already be doing something very similar, or may learn how to do it better very quickly, stealing the market away. The successful entrepreneur has a pretty good handle on all of these elements because he’s done his homework, he has planned.
Many entrepreneurs find that obtaining the support of an incubator can help them move more quickly along the path to success. Incubators like TowsonGlobal provide a wide range of support, including affordable office facilities; business counseling & mentoring; networking assistance; and workshops and other educational forums.
Posted by Clay Hickson 
Many entrepreneurs find that obtaining the support of an incubator can help them move more quickly along the path to success. Incubators like 
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