Export – the Basics
You thought it was going to be a tougher question than that right? Something like changing the color of your logo or adding new features to your product, or changing your product to fit UL or EU standards (those last two do have an effect we will talk about). Let’s get the most important statistic out of the way first “US Companies that export are; 15% more profitable, pay their workers 12% more, are 15% more likely to withstand a recession, than companies that do not export”. These facts are gathered from a number of sources (OMB, US Census, US Commerce, Chambers of Commerce, etc)
US Companies that Export are:
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The oldest business in the world is exporting, first recorded sales were grain between what is present day turkey and the romans (and that dealt with import taxes of course http://www.taxworld.org/History/TaxHistory.htm ). The US for the first many decades of its existence had a lot of natural resources and we exported more cotton to Europe than anyone and we are shocked to see that some present day companies based in the United States don’t even have exporting on their radar at all.
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of all US companies export and even less have a viable export plan.
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The one thing that has hindered US Exporters over the past 50 years has been the US’s greatest strength and weakness; growth. The US has been the natural growth leader in the world since the 1950’s no one was even close by GDP or middle class growth. This happened to change starting in the late 1980’s 1990’s when manufacturing started to creep its way into Asia where labor and costs were cheaper. By the late 1990’s early 2000’s you get the picture we were not the manufacturing powerhouse we once were. Many US companies didn’t see the need to have a broad reach around the US because sales were good and the income was steady and shops were running at 60-70% capacity, they were happy.
The next problem is scale, as the US economy continued to be strong the world’s economies started to catch up, those manufacturing operations in China and Asia started to make their own products and outsell the US in other markets, those very poor workers started to have a little more disposable income.
In the next part of the series let us discuss that rising global middle class.
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