58 | April.May 2007 | © PINK magazine 2007

WOMEN IN COMPANIES OF ALL SIZES ARE TAKING THEIR BUSINESS

AROUND THE GLOBE–AND TO THE BANK.

arah McCann, president and CEO of Apex Per-formanceSystems,vividlyremembersthefirsttenta-tive toe she dipped into international markets.The call came in 1986. Come to France, said the organizersof a European business conference. See Paris and, while you’reat it, meet international entrepreneurs and try to sell them ondoing business with your sales training and management con-sulting business.McCannacceptedtheinvitationanddecidedtotackonafew days for a Parisian vacation too. “Were there any butterflies?Sure,” she recalls. “What will they think of Americans? Willour ideas be accepted? And the worst case, will they boo usout of the auditorium?”Therewerenoboos.Andthingsworkedoutbetterthanshecouldhavehoped.Thatconferenceledtotwoclients.Onebe-came the firm’s biggest customer for a number of years,adding about a quarter of a million dollars to her bottom line. Another became a favorite client and a lifetime friend. Today, Apex Performance Systems, while based in Madison, Wis.,and Chicago, has clients from Jordan to New Zealand andmany places in between.McCann’sexperienceisjustoneexampleofthewaywomenentrepreneurs are tapping into global business.They are ex-panding their markets, working with local representatives inthe countries they target, and seeking innovative partners orinexpensive manufacturers all over the world – an increasingly “flatter”world,wherecompanieseverywhereareconnectedona more level playing field as if they were neighbors.ThomasFriedman, author of

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005), says,“If you want to grow and ﬂourish in a ﬂat world, you betterlearn how to change and align yourself with it.” Womenarelearninghow.Ina2006surveybytheWomen’sBusinessEnterpriseNationalCouncil,anadvocateforwomen-ownedbusinesses,25percentofthegroup’smemberssaidthey currently conduct business outside the United States.“A lot of business owners are getting into the internationalmarket,”saysMarilynJohnson,vicepresidentofmarketdevel-opmentforIBM.“Womenarelookingforwaystocapturenew markets and grow without adding brick and mortar.”

READY TO GO — OR NOT?

But how to get started? Where do business owners go to get international clients, or partners, if not during a weekend in Paris?

While business conferences are one way to begin, there arelotsofotherconsiderationstomakeﬁrst,sayexpertslikeLaurelDelaney, the self-described “queen of global” who owns andruns a ﬁrm designed to help companies develop business in-ternationally. Delaney’s company, Global TradeSource Ltd.(globetrade.com),“servesasaroadmaptodoingbusinesswiththe world,” she says. Although selling software in South Africa, services in Sing-apore or technology inTajikistan may sound exotic, compa-nies considering a leap abroad should ask tough questionsabout the nature of their business to determine whether ornot it’s even ready to go overseas, according to Delaney andothers. For example:

Is the business already successful?

Overseas markets areno place for a struggling company. “I ask key questions todetermine if the business is in the ready stage,” Delaney says.“You have to have a proven business model here in the UnitedStates. You have to have taken the transaction all the way tothe end and kept up locally.”

ELAINE S. POVICH

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRISTOPH WILHELM

SHE’S GOT THE

WHOLE

WORLD

60 | April.May 2007 | Visit pinkmagazine.com to subscribe

ALTHOUGH

SELLING SOFTWARE

IN SOUTH AFRICA,

services in Singapore or technology inTajikistan may soundexotic, companies considering a leap abroad should ask toughquestions about the nature of their business.

Doesthebusinesstranslatetoforeignmar-kets?

Growingcompaniesshouldneverassumethat“the way business is done here is the way business isdone there,” says Rich Sloan, co-founder of StartupNa-tion(startupnation.com),anonlineresourcethathelps entre-preneurs. Furthermore, a product or service in demand in America won’t necessarily be in demand – or be seen asaffordable – in just any foreign market. For example, Amer-ican-made electronics shipped off the shelf may be useless to abuyer in Austria if they don’t plug into Austrian outlets.

Can manufacturing keep up with the increased demand?

Ordersmaycomeinmorequicklythanexpectedwhenacom-pany’scustomerbasesuddenlyswells.Canlocalsupplykeepup?

Will current banking and ﬁnancial systems handle ordersfromoverseas?

Wire transfers and international credit transac-tionscanbetricky,butthelargerU.S.bankshandlethousandsofsuchexchangeseachday–helpingcompaniesavoidmostof the headache.

Can the present transportation system ship door-to-dooroverseas?

Lateorderscansquelchnewbusinessbeforeitstarts,and the average smallto mid-size companycan’t handle inter-nationallogisticsonitsown.Fortunatelyawiderangeofthird-party logistics providers, including UPS, FedEx, DHL anddozens of others, can manage the entire supply chain, includ-ing customs and foreign delivery.

What’s the best market to enter ﬁrst?

Experts suggest pick-ing a country with a familiar language where American prod-uctsandservicesalreadyhaveasuccessfultrackrecord.Googling websites in that country, especially sites that sell the same cat-egory of products, can give a quick, initial idea of how mature amarket is and whether or not there is demand worth investi-gating further.

STEPPING ABROAD

For many companies deemed ready to ven- ture abroad, going global can begin by redis- covering the “world” in “World Wide Web.”

Even businesses that aren’t Internet-driven discover they arealready infiltrating overseas markets merely by being on the Web.“Whatwe’refindingisthroughtechnologyandtheinvest-ment in technology, you are a global business if you’re usingthe Internet,” Johnson says. Sloan advises that companies con-ductingmostoftheirbusinessonlineshouldthinkinternation-ally–dedicatingversionsoftheirwebsitetoeachtargetmarket’slanguage and tastes – in order to boost sales overseas.Experts also suggest that less experienced companies findsomeone in a new foreign market to serve as a local presence,such as an account representative or salesperson who knowsthe territory, or a foreign company acting in partnership.“If I’m interested in distributing a product in Germany andI’m based inTopeka, I will be very well-served by someone inGermanywhounderstandsthelayofthelandandhasresourcesto help me penetrate,” Sloan says.SherylPrinceandAllisonDoorbar,seniorplannerandman-agingpartner,respectively,atJWTEducation,providemarketresearch,strategicmarketingandservicestoclientsintheedu-cation sector. They also advise educational clients from theU.S.totheU.K.,HongKong,SingaporeandAustralia.Door-bar started a company in Australia, which later merged with JWT. From the company’s base down under, internationalex-pansion was a no-brainer because there are just 38 universitiesin Australia, while there are 3,000 in the U.S. and 168 in theU.K.DoorbarsaysthebusinesstookoffintheU.K.“becauseit doesn’t exist there,” but the British universities still wantedto deal with a local representative.“In our experience, it’s hard to service a business from anoverseas location,” she says. Adds Prince: “We are required tohave a presence, even for billing.”The solution?The compa-ny asked a contractor in Australia, a company based in theU.K., to be its local contact in Britain. Another way to test the market waters overseas is throughadvertising. International publications – such as those thatappear on international airlines or in high-class hotels – oftenprovide an avenue for finding for-eign clients, especially for