As part of our new Exporting Challenge for 2012 in the North East, led by Lord Green, Minister for Trade and Investment, I'd like to challenge the North East to find 500 new exporters in this Olympic year.
This would mean a fantastic 500 new companies winning an overseas order and would increase our export population by 25% !
To support this initiative, our International Trade Advisers are fully on board to help develop and increase export sales opportunities. And we have two special events coming up - Exporting for Growth prize event on the 12 March at Hilton, Newcastle - Gateshead and the Exporting for Growth Event on 27 March also at the Hilton when Lord Green will be joining us .
If you want to apply for the prize you can find out more on the UKTI website.
We plan to establish a new, small team to focus on helping to build 500 new North East exporters - New Export Developers - of which more to come from UKTI . We are open to all exporters and, of course, internet-based web sales are part of this programme, so it's applicable for all small businesses that want help to just get going in penetrating a new market.
So can the North East rise to the challenge? Can we put 500 new exporters on the list and generate new sales, new opportunities and continue the excellent export progression the region has had over the last few years?
1 comment
Comment by Andrew Todd posted on
I think it is well known that UK SME's have got increasingly risk averse over the past 15 years and finding new exporters has become ever more difficult. Commercial organisations like ours find we are obliged to "sell the market" to UK companies before we even get to the mention our own particular product or service.
Simply saying that "Asia is booming" is not enough. Companies want more than headlines before they are going to invest their own time and money. Yet the very information they need - such as exactly how big the market for their specific product is, is either hard to find or, will cost them £1,500 or more.
We understand this kind of information is valuable. We even understand UKTI's desire to cover the costs associated with producing their own OMIS reports. But "Pay Walls", even pay walls that simply cost "time & effort", prevent companies taking a risk.
Yes, I agree, that if a company isn't willing to do the desk research necessary to ensure the market is right, then they probably aren't ready or serious about exporting.
But there are a lot of markets out there, and if a company is going to approach exporting seriously then they will need to compare all the various markets and prioritise which ones offer the best chance of success - and then the costs do start to become a serious barrier. Which 26 year old marketing manager is going to ask his boss to spend £1,500 on a hunch?
Personally I hate having to spoon feed companies this kind of information, but if UKTI wants to boost the numbers of New Exporters then perhaps they need to consider finding themselves a sponsor and start giving OMIS reports to companies for free?