But this doesn’t seem to go far enough these days. If you actually look at where and how people are shopping “online” you can quickly see that a more apt definition might actually be “commerce conducted via any digital means available and convenient for the consumer”.

24/7 convenience, time-efficiency, global choice, easy value-for-money comparisons, home delivery and good return policies; these are all reasons why “digital commerce” is a booming industry. They are also reasons why exporters need to think well beyond just an “eCommerce” strategy when considering their market-entry and/or marketing options.

A ‘digital strategy’ could include social media, email, sms/mms, RSS, online banner ads, digital displays and even “old” technologies like television. The best digital strategy is of course one that uses multiple techniques to “layer” the messages while also building up the database of knowledge on their customers.

Anthony Lye, President of CRM for Oracle, recently noted that businesses providing cross-channel processes and providing customers with flexibility to choose different ways to interact with the business will do far better than those trying to limit a customer to just one or two channels.

Let me give you a quick example which blends some of the various experiences I’ve had recently in the Sydney retail scene into a hypothetical scenario.

About six months ago I purchased a suit from a Sydney fashion retailer. At the time they asked if I’d like to receive a $20 voucher for my next purchase. For me to get the voucher I had to give them my email address, which I did.

They then sent me the voucher and asked if I wanted to know about their sales and if so, would I spend a few minutes filling in an online survey which would help them identify when to send messages to me. They asked if I’d like information delivered via email or a text to my phone. I opted for phone and gave them my BlackBerry number. About three weeks later I got a text message indicating this season’s suits (which matched my criteria) were going on sale in about a week. They also asked if I would I like to preview them at a special VIP sales night. I SMS-d an acceptance. At that evening, I was asked if I liked to order items online now that there was a track record in terms of my size and preferences. So I set up an online account with a full profile and I can now just order items online and have them delivered to my home or office.

In six months I have been into that store four times and bought outfits three times out of four. This from a store I’d never been into until six months ago and which I walked into just because I liked a suit I saw in their display window. So a digital strategy works nicely to build your customer base, loyalty and repeat sales. But my example still requires a physical “bricks and mortar” or “shop-front” set-up. Are there any other alternatives?

Interestingly, this is where television is making a comeback. Television retailing is big business. Thankfully, I’m not talking about cheesy, cheap infomercials peppering our favourite TV shows here, but rather actual dedicated television retail channels.

At just 21, Donovan is making serious waves in one of the most competitive industries. “I haven’t grown up with a family that’s been able to support me financially and I thought why not do something now while I’m young… I’ve got nothing to lose”.

Combining a passion for fashion with a savvy head for business, the young entrepreneur operates a freelance custom formal and bridal label, when she’s not winning awards, including the 2009 MSIT Swimwear Fashion Awards.

Donovan could have quite easily spent her 20s operating a military tanker instead of a sewing machine. Hit with a crossroads upon leaving school, she had the option of a scholarship with the Defence Force Australia or a Fashion Diploma at TAFE. “I ultimately chose fashion because I’m passionate about it. I think it was the best choice for me, I don’t regret it at all”.

The fashion industry is often termed as one of the most cutthroat industries, known for its fiercely high standards and talent. But Donovan isn’t scared by competition or the chance of failing. “I’ve definitely had a couple of falls but you just have to pick yourself up and rethink the people you want to wear your clothes. Just try again and again and again, because the more you believe in yourself, the easier it is to do what you do.”

Donovan sets off this October to attend the Skills Olympics, and on the side of her freelance work she is training heavily for the occasion. “I leave two days a week to work on pattern making, sketching and sewing skills… just fine tuning to enhance quality and I also work with an expert who critiques my work.”

Optimistic about her journey to London, Donovan speaks highly about her experience with World Skills and the opportunities it’s provided. “I think world skills makes you grow up really quickly and because you are representing your country you take it very seriously and you just want to do the best you can.”

Developer mHITS found its SMS payment technology had limited traction in Australia, as the market is well serviced by credit and debit cards. So Dimpel turned to export markets where traditional banking products don’t work.

“The majority of people in the world don’t have a bank account and probably never will,” Dimpel says. “The Western banking system is based on a lot of assumptions: that you have a permanent address, identification, a birth certificate, a job, credit ratings.” But in the developing world most citizens don’t. “It’s another world. Banks have a very tough time getting into this area.”

But where banks have failed, cheap prepaid mobile phones are taking off. “It’s all scaled down so phones are affordable.” Dimpel set out to capitalise on the available technology to solve simple payment problems in the developing world. mHITS was approached by a Papua New Guinean phone company to build a mobile payment service.

“We built a system that meant people could use prepaid credit on their phone to pay for electricity. In developing countries people don’t pay their bills. So everything is prepaid.” Where previously villagers had to walk to another village and stand in line at a shop they can now send a text message to get electricity credit.

After just 18 months, the service accounts for 60 percent of prepaid electricity in PNG. “It’s a good example of how this sort of technology is working better in developing countries than in the West,” Dimpel says. “And that uptake is only using one of two carriers so there’s still room for growth.”

In PNG Dimpel is also developing point-of-sale mobile technology. “Traditionally that has been the domain of the banks and pretty well guarded. We’ve developed a technology that lets us plug point-of-sale technology into mobile payment systems.” The system uses similar technology to SMS payment, allowing a customer to use a mobile wallet in shops. “These are small amounts but in these developing economies $10 is a lot of money.”

In the Pacific, the technology allows city workers to remit money home to their village families, without taking days out of their working week to make a dangerous trek home. Each village has a “de facto human ATM”, who can dispense cash once paid by mobile wallet. It’s banking but “scaled down, lightweight and simple”.

While mHITS is new at the export game, Dimpel is keen to move into markets across Asia-Pacific and Africa. “We have competitors, but we’re a newer, smaller player, which gives us the advantage of being a bit more flexible and nimble. A lot of our competition doesn’t tailor to an economy.”

For the moment, mHITS operates as a vendor, selling the technology to an end client who takes control of the marketing. “A lot of them take off on their own through word of mouth. In PNG you have a very strong clan and tribal culture. Once a family gets word of something being convenient they’ll tell everyone. It’s like analogue social media.”

While banks are still working out how to get into the market, mobile payments are gaining popularity because the system facilitates financial inclusion. “That’s the dream. If people have access to modern payment systems they’re not forced to pay all their bills face to face in cash, which holds back economies because you can only do that at a certain rate. So moving towards electronic payments enables more commerce in a market.”

Dimpel says his biggest challenge has been finding help. “We’re a technology innovation, knowledge that gets sold overseas. How do you map that into government grants?” It’s not trade shows and presentations, Dimpel says. Researching is visiting “terrifying” markets like Nigeria.

“What’s the path to export? There’s no one we can really replicate. That’s something to look at as a country and an industry and say how can we help these trailblazers in some way?”

Without a realistic and detailed marketing plan the opportunity for business success in a new market may be severely hampered.

Costing a marketing plan

The marketing activities that should be included and how much will they cost will be first determined by the product or service itself, the entry strategy selected and the market growth that is planned.

Your marketing plan will also depend on whether the intended customers are retail clients, businesses or government buyers. Certainly the consumer market is the most scattered and the most bombarded by conflicting advertising messages, while business and government buyers tend to be more easily targeted. In new markets it may be about first establishing a brand identity.

With today’s technology there are also inexpensive options such as direct mail to a targeted market segment, focusing on specific activities such as trade fairs, attending large industry conferences or using social media and other on-line media to build your potential client list.

Once you have decided on the best market entry strategy, the marketing cost can be more readily estimated. Take trade shows as an example. As Gemma Hansen of Export Solutions says, “Trade shows are one of the most effective tools for marketing your products internationally, however, they can be costly. Taking account of booth hire, stand costs and travel to the show it could cost you in excess of $20,000 to exhibit. The Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) may assist with some of these costs, providing a rebate of up to 50 percent on your international marketing expenses.”

Many exporters use commercial agents in their target markets, who will charge an agreed commission on sales and may request a contribution towards marketing expenses to build product recognition. Again the costs can be calculated.

What other marketing costs may need to be considered?

• Perhaps you will require intellectual property protection in the target country. For example, registration of a brand name may be necessary.
• In some markets, such as the USA, you will require product liability insurance.
• Perhaps some tweaking of packaging, labelling, use- by dates, colours, designs and inclusion of local language instructions will be needed.

So, having established what needs to be done, and completed a cost estimate, the next step is finding a way to finance your marketing.

The brainchild of Australian brass musicians Geoff Collinson and Paul Evans, RivusTV 421 is a simple portable black box with video input capacity. It can stream and schedule content anywhere in the world and charge per view in multiple currencies. Commercialised in late 2009, the platform is now used to broadcast secondary league sports, music gigs, corporate communications, arthouse films and even funerals and weddings. Chief executive officer Simon Bailey says the concept is simple. “We’re creating a conduit that puts viewers in contact with content and then shares the revenue around the circle for everyone.”

Where an Australian audience is too small for a niche community of interest to make profit from video content, RivusTV allows an organisation to access an international audience. For example, Australian water polo has been streaming using RivusTV for 12 months. “They now stream all games, have a weekly water polo TV show and has attracted sponsorship because it now has a broad audience. And we’ve replicated that model in a daisy chain around the world for federated clubs.” The same model has been applied to an international opera syndicate and could work for any minor sport.

Bailey says it’s a big model that will work internationally, as RivusTV targets communities of interest. “You create a community of interest where there is a range of viewers. We allow them to share their content and to make money from their content through the support of their members. And then we bill them in all verticals.”

The content syndication model is unique to RivusTV. Usually, whoever streams pay-per-view content will reap the profits. But a hardcore Melbourne fan is unlikely to watch an away game on Townsville’s broadcast if they will be raising money for a rival club. “We looked at that and said why don’t we make it so that everyone can make money?” Using RivusTV 421, the owner of the content, the broadcaster, affiliates and RivusTV make money. “In sports that creates a fundraiser, in music it puts funds back in the hands of musicians who don’t have recording contracts.”

Content syndication is RivusTV’s major USP. And with a set-up cost 80 percent cheaper than its nearest competitor, it’s an accessible and inexpensive way for an individual or community operator to make money from digital content. There are vaults and vaults of currently worthless sporting, arthouse and documentary material archived around the world, Bailey says. “We’re effectively doing what iTunes did in the context of rejuvenating archived music which had not been in print for years. If you expose anything to an international audience it’s a very large audience. It costs (the footage owners) nothing unless someone views it but when someone views it, they’re making money.”

RivusTV spent 2010 creating ‘reference sites’ all over the world, in a bid to reduce the need for a direct sales force as the company expands. This year, Bailey expects profits to increase tenfold as resellers offer the technology to their own client lists. International business is growing, and by 2012 RivusTV will be a platform for cycling in Europe, martial arts in the USA and basketball and soccer in Asia. Bailey is concentrating on building a solid market in Australia to springboard into international syndicates. (The US martial arts opportunity came because Martial Arts Australia was using the technology.) RivusTV is working with big names like ESPN and Yahoo as well as no-names such as independent music promoter ScoutTV.

“Once it starts to move, it will move fast and move internationally,” Bailey predicts. By 2012, he expects content syndication will drive a twentyfold increase in profits. “With syndication, once you mobilise an international market, it kind of grows while you sleep.”

The first of the baby boomers will be retiring this year. In fact when Bob Hawke and Paul Keating floated the dollar, many baby boomers were in their thirties and forties and taking their businesses out of Fortress Australia and onto the world stage. The lucky country indeed made its own luck as our leaders opened up our economy to Asia and the emerging world, and many of our businesses were brave enough to chance it in new lands that were not nearly as affluent or easy to do business in as they are today.

Yes, the lucky country was lucky to have those brave baby boomers but we were also lucky in another sense. Much of Australia’s success as an exporting nation was due also to the efforts of the post-war immigrants who ended up leading successful companies. Think about some great Australian icons: Westfield, Bing Lee, Aussie, Crazy John’s, Myer… they were all started by someone born outside Australia or a first generation Australian. Around 50 percent of all exporters and two thirds of all entrepreneurs were born overseas, so immigration has helped build our export capability.

Who Takes the Baton?

So who are the next generation of exporters that will lead Australia for our next stage of prosperity? When the post-war generation moves on to that business lounge in the sky and when the baby boomers retire to their lucrative superannuation and part-time directorships, will Generation X fill their shoes to become ‘generation export’ and will Gen Y become the ‘global generation’?

Austrade and Sensis data can give us some guidance. Of all small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) who are exporters, 42 percent of businesses have been in the game for over 20 years. This compares to 6 percent who have been around for less than five years, and 25 percent who have been around for less than 10. Why is this so? Because you need a bit of experience to compete in global markets (to get used to swings in commodity prices, exchange rates and so forth) and also to build strong relationships with your overseas business partners so you can survive dramatic events like the Asian financial crisis or the recent GFC (which Australia got out of unscathed, thanks to our past reforms and the resilience of our experienced exporters).

But there’s another implication to gaining export experience. This also means that the average age of the proprietor of an exporting SME tends to be older than that of your local domestic businesses. According to the research, 39 percent of all exporting SMEs are classic baby boomers aged in their 50s, and a further 27 percent are over 60. By contrast Generation Xers made up smaller numbers, with 20 percent of all SME exporters in their forties and 13 percent thirtysomethings. GenYs are 1 percent and Gen Zs are still watching The Wiggles.

Should we be worried? Not necessarily, as it is just a matter of Gen Xers getting the experience to run exporting companies. This will occur through generational change as the baby boomers pass on the baton. In addition, there are many reasons why Gen X and Y and Z will be okay to lead the charge.

In the midst of a trade rush to the East, don’t forget old friends. Just ‘across the ditch’ (the Tasman Sea) is New Zealand, an almost entirely middle class society with a sophisticated marketplace and the buying power of nearly 4.5 million people.

Australia has a strong history of trade with New Zealand, based on similar backgrounds, culture, language and environment. According to Austrade New Zealand business development manager Sharl Gedye, New Zealand is a relatively safe test market for new exporters. For established exporters, a move into New Zealand expands the domestic market by 20 percent (equivalent to adding another Queensland) with relatively small investment.

Australia/New Zealand background

Australia and New Zealand were both adversely affected by Britain joining the European Economic Community in 1973, losing preferential trade with the ‘mother country’. From the mid-1970s the New Zealand economy contracted as the oil market bottomed out, trade fell and inflation rose. The government increased taxation and foreign borrowing to control consumer prices and maintain employment levels, and in the 1980s a Labour government program of sweeping liberalisation devalued and floated the NZ dollar, introduced a goods and services tax and abolished agricultural and consumer subsidies. The new government sold off banks, commercial forests, telecommunications and infrastructure assets, effectively privatising much of the economy.

Since the 1983 Australia New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement (ANZCERTA, or CER) reduced trans-Tasman trading barriers bilateral trade has grown rapidly, averaging 6.2 percent growth each year since 1991.

The current picture

Trans-Tasman trade in goods and services was valued at $20.6 billion in 2009. By value New Zealand is Australia’s eighth largest trading partner and third largest investment market. By volume, however, New Zealand is Australia’s most important trading partner, the export destination of over 17,000 Australian businesses in the 2008-09 financial year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Australian products form 17.8 percent of New Zealand’s total imports. With New Zealand’s economy based on primary industries (wool, meat and dairy), Australian exports are concentrated in manufactured goods, services, infrastructure and machinery that supports primary industry. Australia’s biggest exports to New Zealand are medicaments, computer parts, petroleum and motor vehicles.

Due to the Trans-Tasman Travel agreement (1973), travel between the two countries is virtually unregulated, with limited immigration controls and virtual freedom of employment between the two countries. There are large populations of Australian and New Zealand expatriates in each country, and inter-country tourism is an important revenue stream for both.

New Zealand also recently signed a free trade agreement with China, which may give Australian businesses the opportunity to leverage access to the Chinese market.

Single economic market

In 2009, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key travelled to Australia to meet with then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to develop a framework for a single economic market. During the past 18 months each government has been working to streamline economic relations between Australia and New Zealand, reforming and reducing regulations so that the New Zealand framework for business operation more closely mirrors Australia’s, and vice versa. The aim is to reduce the time businesses have to spend duplicating information and on bureaucratic processes in each market.

Outcomes will include closer cooperation between the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and New Zealand’s Commerce Commission to allow sharing of information and mutual decision-making for mergers affecting both markets. A single economic market will establish cross-border insolvency processes, supported by the streamlining of accounting and financial reporting standards in each country, and will also coordinate intellectual property regulations with a single IP licence.

Australian export success stories range from infrastructure powerhouse Leighton group, which employs 9,000 people across the Tasman, to smaller organisations such as Cobbett Technologies which has been selling animal nutrition products and infrastructure technologies to New Zealand for 27 years. Cobett’s commercialisation director Jenetta Russell says there is a huge market in support products for primary industry.

She says New Zealand is a sophisticated market. “I have a high respect for Kiwis because they’re conservative but they’re not naïve. They’re really streetwise, so you have to be your absolute best to succeed over there. You have to work hard to gain their respect but once you do, you have a friend for life.”

Focusing on comfort and convenience, the 26-year-old entrepreneurs have invented a pair of thongs that triple-fold into a carry-anywhere pouch.

“I had this idea, having seen a few girls walking around in sky-high heels, that maybe something small, portable and comfortable that still looked good could be created as a take-anywhere accessory,” Lipschitz says.

Lipschitz invested his savings in the start-up with his design graduate friend Munitz at the beginning of 2009. The pair spent six months in research and product development.

Having never designed shoes before, Munitz spoke to podiatrists and shoe manufacturers, investigating different materials. “It was quite difficult having something that folded up but still had the rigidity for protecting your foot,” Munitz explains.

Each new design needed a prototype, which took four hours to make, “just so you could walk in it for 10 metres to see how it worked!”

Soon they had a prototype that worked and they hit the club scene to gauge reaction to their idea, then sought out manufacturers offshore and refined the design until they knew they had a saleable product.

From there, Lipschitz explains, “We needed a branding strategy, a good website and also an awareness campaign.” After working with experts in each of those fields Lipschitz and Munitz launched Flipsters in October 2009.

A targeted PR campaign generated enough interest to get Flipsters stocked in 120 Australian retailers in their first year. The first article was picked up by Reuters and circulated around the world and, as emails flooded in, the world of export opened up.

“We didn’t know if it was too soon. But once people start knocking on your door you have to entertain the idea that you can export,” Lipschitz says. The pair entered into cautious negotiations with distributors in several countries. “We made sure that we weren’t putting ourselves at too much risk.”

Now exporting to Ireland and Canada, the entrepreneurs hope Flipsters will be a hit in many different markets. “We’d like everyone to share in the fruits of what we’ve created,” Munitz says proudly.

Their strategy is to take it slow and not over-extend their reach. “We’re keeping it reactive because we’re still so young. We don’t want to bite off more than we can chew. America is a country that can make or break you and while it’s definitely our number one goal market we won’t enter until we’re ready, we can afford to financially back any orders. And we’d need excellent production to ensure we can churn out everything that might come from having a good relationship with America,” Lipschitz says.

Both men confess to having no idea what women want. But this forced them to research everything, and they agree this has resulted in a better product.

“It’s versatile, it’s waterproof, you can use it at the beach, for travel, after pedicures,” Lipschitz says. These features and the unique design are what they hope will differentiate Flipsters from competitor folding ballet flats.

With a price point of just $29.95 a pair, Lipschitz knew that securing high volume distribution would be vital to cashflow and is pleased with how quickly Flipsters landed in stores.

And while the last year might sound like a dream, Lipschitz is quick to credit painstaking research to their early success. “When we’re uncertain, the thing that has saved us is a lot of research. That is what has given us the confidence to move forward in a particular direction.”

For export, Lipshitz says it’s just the beginning. “It’s really cool when you get an email from overseas from someone in a completely different market who is saying, ‘Hi, I want your product here.’ It’s so exciting.”

Often, businesses confuse value propositions with words of ‘high quality’, ‘satisfaction’, ‘great customer service’, ‘lowest prices’. These are just general statements that anyone can use; there is no credibility in these statements because there is no uniqueness. The best outcome is achieved when the statements used enable the business to be perceived as something unique in the market and something unique in the eyes of any potential customer.

FedEx saw an opportunity to deliver packages in a speedier manner by owning their own aeroplanes, which enabled them to be able to ship and deliver items in accordance with the customers schedule and not the schedule of the passenger airlines. They came up with the ‘When you absolutely positively have to have it overnight’ slogan to express this value and differentiate themselves. The customers did not really care that FedEx had their own planes; all they wanted was the benefit of having their packages delivered overnight to the recipients’ door. This is one example of how a business created a value proposition.

Why would a business want to create a value proposition anyway? It communicates the main advantage over the competition. It communicates why potential customers should choose it. The key aspect of any value proposition is that it must be measurable and it must be beneficial. Thinking about FedEx’s value proposition again and in particular the use of the word ‘overnight’. They have a unique benefit and they can deliver on that. The best value proposition is specific, concise, measurable and conveys a definitive customer benefit.

Deciding what a business represents up front not only establishes value externally but can also create the direction for the entire business to focus on striving to achieve day-in day-out. One approach to developing a value proposition is to ask ourselves the following questions:

• What do our target customers want?
• What can we offer to achieve that?
• In what way is it better than the competition?

By identifying three things that represent the brand in this manner will result in identifying what is natural, what is independent and maybe even quirky. Everything that follows has to be consistent with these characteristics. Remember, a value proposition is about your customer and the benefits provided to them. And all important is that whatever we come up with, we must be sure we can deliver on. Finally, making sure that everyone connected with and working in your entire company knows and understands your value proposition and is able to act upon it supports the proposition internally.

Like the business environment we operate in, a value proposition is dynamic and therefore it is never too late to adjust it. Take a moment to reflect on your value proposition.

Access to much larger markets—securing a very small share can be significant for an Australian based SMB.

Depending upon your export strategy you may have access to overseas capital to fund your business growth.

For manufactured goods, in addition to the benefits of greater volume exporting to the ‘other’ hemisphere can greatly assist to smooth out the normal peaks and troughs of supplying the domestic market.

There maybe ‘residual markets’ overseas for products and services that are in decline in the domestic market.

The mere process of overcoming the numerous hurdles of exporting can sharpen your commercial acumen and improve your business’ sustainability.

Maximise exporting  benefits

Your domestic business operations can also derive significant benefit from developing overseas markets as follows:

Exposing your products/services to overseas competition forces you to compare your product offering and in so doing you may enhance your product or service to be more competitive. This can assist your competitive edge in your domestic market by either increasing market-share or improving margin—or in preventing overseas competitors competing in your market.

As your product may need to be enhanced to market overseas—so may your marketing message and materials. Is the value proposition you offer your customers really crisp, clear and differentiating? Different markets require information presented in different ways (in addition to using new languages). The information gained this way can provide a reach stream of innovative introductions into your domestic market.

The obvious benefit to manufacturers is larger production runs and hopefully the benefit of economies of scale.

To successfully access export markets may require changes to internal systems and processes—all of which can/should be used to enhance service delivery in the domestic market.

Typically expanding into export markets requires bringing additional skills into the business and this can be achieved through training—hiring qualified staff or outsourcing support

Are you export ready?

Notwithstanding the above developing overseas markets is not for the fainthearted—penetrating new markets with different languages, cultures and currencies requires time, skills, concerted effort and cash (working capital). If done incorrectly chasing export markets can potentially negatively impact the domestic business. The first step is to evaluate your readiness for export. To address this question you must answer the questions:

Do we have or can get access to appropriate skills?

Do we have the capacity now (product or service delivery) to service export markets? Is that capacity scalable, what are the limitations?

Will developing export markets draw resources—skills, money, capacity?

Typically export markets involve a longer payment cycle and a reduced margin plus volumes can be significant. Can your business fund this additional working capital or can it source the appropriate funds?

Have you researched target markets in depth and been able to identify how the value proposition of your product or service differs from local and other international competition?

If you cannot answer all these questions seek independent advice to assist you to secure the information you need and if necessary to assist you to become export ready.

Develop your strategy and set objectives

Once you are confident you are Export Ready it is time to develop your plan. Your Export Plan must start with the clarification of your strategy. To develop your export strategy you must be able to answer the following questions:

1.    Why do you wish to export?

2.    What benefits your business will derive from penetrating export markets?

3.    How will those benefits impact your domestic business?

Answering these three key questions will ensure that your strategy is clear and this will therefore will be an important framework within which to manage the development of your export business. In addition to answering the three questions above your strategy should also identify:

The markets you will target

The product-service areas that you will compete in

How your product/service will be ‘delivered’ e.g. shipped from domestic operations, manufactured offshore, licensed, franchised, delivered online etc.

Your picture of export success

Confirming your strategy will require analysis and evaluation based upon your desired objectives and the resources at your disposal. It is advisable to seek assistance to either assist you to develop or, to review the strategy you develop.

Once the strategy has been developed it is important to complete your export plan.

For more information see www.incitemg.com.au

—Anthony Moss, director of Incite Management Group, has more than 24 years’ international experience at senior management level in manufacturing, wholesale and service industries in the UK, Europe and the US.