Small Businesses Can Look Abroad for a Boost

December 23, 2011

Running a small business can be a daunting prospect. Particularly for people without experience in the business world, owners and managers can regularly come across challenges they have never heard of, much less have training to handle.

With this kind of stress already involved, many small business owners look at the international market and see more complexity and uncertainty than the potential rewards are worth. Aside from the sizable logistical concerns of shipping abroad and dealing with differing currencies, businesses can also encounter difficulties with language barriers and cultural differences.

But David Rodriguez of Angelo State University's Small Business Development Center writes for the San Angelo Standard-Times that this perception might not be true. Rodriguez notes that simply engaging in international trade increases a business' chances of surviving and remaining solvent by 9 percent, according to data from the U.S. Small Business Administration. In fact, the vast majority of exporters - 97 percent - actually are small businesses, accounting for a full quarter of the country's exports.

"No business is too small that it cannot become a successful exporter," Rodriguez writes.

The SBA notes the importance of international markets, with 96 percent of the global population and more than two-thirds of the purchasing power located in countries other than the U.S. In addition, many of the products American small businesses produce are just as sought after abroad as they are here.

Many of the seemingly insurmountable challenges are not quite as daunting as they first appear as well.

Numerous cultural exchange organizations operate both within the U.S. and abroad that are designed to help different cultures around the world interact. Some can send professionals abroad for a time to experience a culture directly, but many others actually bring people from other countries to live and work in the U.S.

Bringing on an international employee or intern will allow other workers to interact on a daily basis with people who might hold a dramatically different attitude toward business, and can help prepare managers to deal with international clients and understand what to expect. Customs can vary in terms of formality or timeliness and sometimes these visits can reveal some very basic misperceptions of international cultures. These employees can even sometimes provide direct contacts in their home country, even while they are getting the opportunity to work in an entirely different environment.

Logistics are increasingly manageable as well, with companies like FedEx and UPS helping with shipments while the internet eases communication issues.

As businesses look beyond the boundaries of the U.S., many might find their exports saving their company in down times in the domestic economy. At the very least, they will gain a new appreciation for the importance of the international market.