Exporting can be a profitable business! Are you ready? Step Four
By Mark Allen, UMKC-Small Business & Technology Development Center
The first three Phases of Export Training have laid the groundwork for building a successful export plan. In Phase IV, you and your team will actually assemble all the parts of the planning process and form it into a strategic export plan. The plan will provide you with a concise roadmap covering all aspects of the export journey as it applies to your company.
It should cover:
- Your company – products or services to be exported, structure, team, financial strength
- Your potential international markets – customers, distributors/agents, research, marketing plan
- Your timeline – a step-by-step critical path to benchmark your journey to exporting
- Your budget – sales forecasts, all product costs, logistics and finance costs, and administrative costs
After preparing the Export Plan, and to complete the SBA Export Training program, you should submit the completed plan to your SBTDC counselor. The counselor will do a final review on the plan and notify the SBA that you’re ready to go forward with exporting.
GO! Good luck!