5 Reasons Craftsmanship Is Making A Return

By Terri Alpert, founder and CEO of Uno Alla Volta

Millennials, the largest generation in history, represent 92 million U.S. consumers in their spending prime.  They, along with the rest of the country, have moved to purchasing handmade and handcrafted goods.  According to Rangeme.com, this tech savvy group is not only socially conscious, they value handmade and locally produced goods that share a history and a heritage.  It’s not just about the quality of the good, but the story behind it. They’re inspired by people and the human connection, and they want to see ethical transparency in the products they buy.

Crafted items transcend trendiness, disposability, and empty consumerism. It is a larger concept than commerce itself, as it connects economics to art, culture, tradition, and personal history.

Here are 5 very good reasons why people are returning to the value of artisan products:

1. Quality.

The types of artisans we work with at Uno Alla Volta, such as my friends Weronika and Jacek in their buzzing stoneware workshop in Poland, often have degrees in their chosen craft or have undergone long apprenticeships with master craftsmen, possessing years of experience in their chosen field before factoring in the time it takes to create each individual product.  All of this experience leads to very high quality products that often become family heirlooms, passed down through the generations.  Voting with your dollar and choosing to buy from these passionate entrepreneurs makes a political statement of the value of artisanship and fair labor.

2. Value.

The high quality of craftsmanship is a value proposition in itself. Many artisanal items are surprisingly affordable when compared to mass manufactured goods and their durability means that they will often last far longer. Educated shoppers appreciate the value of handcrafted pieces, the very high degree of skill and training behind each artisan, and encourage consumers to see the person, the quality and the value of uniqueness and durability behind the small difference in price tag. What we appreciate, we value. What we value, we care for and nurture.

3. Experience.

Each artisan product is unique. There is nothing exactly like it anywhere else on the planet.  Further, buying artisanal products brings the experience of learning an item or craftsman’s story behind the product, where or how it was produced, the history, maybe even the mythology behind a piece that can be shared with family and friends. A true craftsman’s work reflects what goes on in their heart, their head, and their life itself. Through this practice, the return of our souls through collective return to older techniques of creativity, the way in which we as humanity view the past, present, and future of our shared human consciousness will be wholly altered. The journey of a hand-made artisanal product becomes part of your unique journey in life.

4. Connection.

Handmade goods have cultural significance in almost every subculture and socio-economic class worldwide. While the upper echelon may delight in the exclusivity of an object, crafting culture permeates the trendy shops of modern-day, millennial Brooklyn, and led the grassroots, ultra-feminist Riot Grrrl movement of the early 1990s. From punk musicians to polished socialites, an appreciation for handcrafted, one-of-a-kind wares is a common thread that connects us to our humanity. This work reminds us that our fingers can do so much more than just operate machines. Many handcrafted items prove the unique creative nature of humanity that is beyond the capability of an automated manufacturing system. It connects us to our cultures, our ancestors, our neighbors, and even strangers from faraway places, just through placing a single object between our palms. There is a chasm of experience and appreciation between “Made in Taiwan” and “Made by Ty and Juan.” We are connected to the artist, and by extension to greater humanity itself.

5. Greater Savings.

In our cold digital culture of missed connections where everything in life is devalued, cheap and replaceable, mechanized products are by their very nature unconnected and disposable, which has an impact on our wallets, on our quality of life and on our planet.  Quality handcrafted items are durable heirlooms that need on be purchased once, and appreciated for years.  As a connected and cherished part of our lives, artisanal products stay with us longer, thereby using fewer natural resources and not being cast away and wasted.  Being a steward of an artisan’s work not only passes connection and beauty from one generation to the next, it is also being a steward for the planet for generations to come.

 

Terri Alpert is a serial entrepreneur and consumer marketer, with a strong technical bent. She has created two direct-to-consumer companies from the ground up, developing the proprietary technology which runs the businesses as she developed the business models. The founder and CEO of Uno Alla Volta launched her own online business to bring treasures handcrafted one at a time (the meaning of the brand) to her customers.

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3 Tools To Help You Get Started With SEO

by Nate Vickery, editor-in-chief of Bizzmarkblog.com

In 2017, SEO can be described in two words: turf war.

There are over 1 billion active websites and a lot of them understand the value of ranking at the top of Google’s search results, so they are doing everything in their power to crush their competitors and push them out of the picture.

SEO is a game of keyword- and research-driven efforts, wrapped around a technical understanding of how search engines work and what factors they use in order to calculate a specific website’s value.

It’s like chess. Once you read and implement all Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, you will see that optimizing for the engine itself is a lot easier than optimizing for the people who actually use the Web. As you gain steam and begin to understand the finer details of how Google operates, what the engine likes and dislikes, and where searchers fit into this story – you’ll soon realize just how important having the right SEO strategy is to your business.

If you’re new to SEO, this might seem overwhelming. But luckily for you, there are a lot of amazing utilities out there that can significantly simplify these processes and instantly get you on the right path to successfully optimizing your pages and site for search.

In the following part of this article, I’m going to list some of the more popular SEO tools that are perfect for beginners who are just making their baby steps in search engine optimization. These particular tools won’t guarantee success, they won’t get you to Google’s top search positions if you don’t figure out how to use them right. But what they will certainly do is help you create a solid strategy for reaching your goals. So, let’s get started:

1. SEO Ultimate.

A great tool for those who are just starting SEO. With this tool, you can easily update the titles of your pages and their meta descriptions at the same time. SEO Ultimate can really be of value to you if you’re one of those people who constantly have a hard time keeping up with all the details.

Even though things like proper page titles and meta descriptions might seem like something nobody really cares about, it’s important to know that these details could really hurt your rankings, if you choose to ignore them. SEO Ultimate is the ultimate detail checker. You can use this tool for monitoring 404 errors on your blog, creating custom robots.txt files which tell the engine how to crawl your site, applying “noindex” and “nofollow” actions for all sorts of different links, among other things.

SEO Ultimate is a superb tool for all those who want to properly optimize their site and pages.

2. Ahrefs.

If you’re just starting with SEO, it’s imperative that you familiarize yourself with the importance of generating loads of quality backlinks for your domain.

Backlinks are extremely important for optimizing your site for search. They have the power to significantly improve your website’s SEO rankings.

The more high-quality backlinks you create, the better chances you’ll have of finding your domain on top of relevant Google search results. Backlinks have the power to significantly improve the popularity, relevance, and overall domain authority of websites, so it’s only natural that I put Ahrefs at the top of this SEO tools list.

Ahrefs is a terrific, easy-to-use SEO utility, that’s great for tracking and reviewing your and your competitor’s backlinks. This tool makes it possible for its users to take a peek behind their competitor’s curtain, see which domains are linking back to them, and how to replicate that process and improve their own SEO by generating backlinks from those very domains.

Also, apart from being a powerful backlink checker, Ahrefs is also a tool that provides its users with other useful data as well. For example, its in-depth keyword explorer is as good as Google’s. It gives you a fantastic and precise volume of searches being conducted for various short and long-tail phrases, which is a useful feature for all those who want to create content that will generate a lot of organic visits to their site.

3. Dibz.

While we are on the subject of generating quality backlinks, let’s talk about Dibz. As I already pointed out above, the world’s most popular engine has been known to favor sites that have a significant number of other domains pointing back to them. So, having that in mind, one could easily say that generating quality backlinks should basically be the foundation of your SEO strategy.

If you want to rank high in SERP for your relevant keywords, you need to become relevant in Google’s eyes. One of the fastest and more efficient ways you can do that is through link earning. Spying on your competitors via Ahrefs is not really enough. If you want to generate some solid connections with relevant sites in your niche, you need to take your link earning game to the next level, and actually look for quality domains from which you can get a link to your own.

This is where Dibz comes to shine. Dibz is a great tool, dedicated to prospecting links. It doesn’t really matter if you’re a one man team or a person employed by a full stack marketing agency – this tool works for you. Dibz helps its users take their link prospecting game and influencer opportunity research to the next level. This tool gives you the luxury to quickly scraping the Internet and finding relevant prospects that have a high potential of publishing your link. The thing that really separates this SEO utility from the rest is its SPAM algorithm that eliminates garbage data and unwanted opps from your results.

Dibz is all about saving time. This tool has a dozen detailed preset search parameters, so you don’t have to build your campaign from zero every time you want to prospect for some of the more common link opportunities. Also, with Dibz, you can upload and download your findings in a CSV file with just a single click. This is a great option for bigger teams, who share their results with a lot of people.

Closing Word.

SEO is a complex game that requires constant learning and experimenting. Even though it is constantly changing and evolving, a couple of things remain the same. Quality links will forever remain relevant in both the user’s and the engine’s eyes. That’s why, apart from paying attention to some key on-site SEO details, everyone who’s just starting with optimization should immediately learn the importance of generating relevant, organic content throughout the entire Web.

 

Nate Vickery is a business technology consultant mostly engaged in management and marketing for SMB and startups. Nate is also the editor-in-chief at a business oriented blog Bizzmarkblog.com.

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Money Saving Tips When Starting A Business

by Joanna Lau, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of JEMMA

The old adage “Time is money” may well be the most used and most misconceived concept of the business world. Sure, it means that wasted time means wasted money, but the meaning also extends to the expense of convenience. If you can reconcile the ideas of saving and spending as they pertain to your particular business, then you can successfully adjust your lifestyle to a more productive future. The trick is to work smarter, not harder.

Use the following tips to help guide you through the maze of entrepreneurship with limited pockets and work space:

Purposeful Budgeting.

Your budget is where you should begin and end the day. This is the bible that is going to be honest about exactly what is coming in and what is going out. It will also better prepare you for predicting likely and unlikely events that may affect your bottom line in the near or distant future. Most of the decisions that you will make will depend on what your budget has to tell you about them. You will even have to decide whether or not to use the trusted day planner and matching pen or to invest in a software package designed to help you to keep track.

Do You Really Need It?

Ask yourself if you really need it when considering making a purchase. The best deal is worthless if it concerns something that doesn’t contribute to the bottom line. You may be telling yourself that you saved $100 on a $300 item when in actuality you’ve just spent $200. Ask yourself if there are other ways to accomplish the same thing or if the endeavor is even necessary.

No Don’t Cost a Thing.

It never hurts to seek a better deal or negotiate one that is already on the table. You won’t know until you ask or suggest, and you may be pleasantly surprised at how much wiggle room unexpected savings can bring. Seek out sponsorship to attend functions and events that will lead you to further networking for increased exposure for your business. It can’t hurt to ask, a negative answer is free, and the worst case scenario is that you are no worse  off than when you were.

Don’t Let Your Credit Use You.

Learn how to use credit to your advantage instead of being bogged down by it. It is worth the time it may take to shop around for lower finance options, or to transfer existing debt to a card with a lower rate. If you receive a loan, then deposit it in an account opened specifically for these funds. You can set up a draft account for repayment from it, and you may be eligible for special deductions and promotions by having such an account.

What Can You Do Yourself?

Another perspective for saving money is spending time. The more that you can handle on your own, the better off you’ll be. When it gets to be overwhelming, then you can consider interns to pick up the slack as opposed to hiring costly employees.

Telecommute Since You Cannot Teleport.

Social media networking allows you to access a very active market base as well as connect with people who can help you with any struggles that you may have or have yet to experience. The more active you are, the more likely you are to cross paths with lucrative opportunities. If telecommuting can be used to promote your business, odds are favorable that it will.

 

Joanna Lau is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of JEMMA. JEMMA was established after Joanna experienced a void in women’s workwear throughout her four years as a Trader on Wall Street. Men had suitcases, whereas women’s accessories didn’t support their leadership and managerial roles, so Joanna envisioned closing a small, but powerful fraction of the gender gap by eliminating intimidation from the workplace and offering opportunity – in the form of handbags.

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How Programmatic Marketing Works

by Tony Schubert, founder and CEO of Nerdigital Marketing

Ads form an integral part of an organization’s marketing efficiency. Some of the best forms of marketing include posting ads on websites. However, companies need to pay for this advertising space and many times a company may purchase some ad space which may not yield much. Programmatic marketing involves a computer automatically using data analytics to determine and buy the best digital advertising space for you and suggest how much to pay for the ad space. While the acronyms used in programmatic marketing make it sound like a complicated process, the truth is, it’s a very simple process.

The key to understanding programmatic marketing lies in understanding the language used in the process. The terminological acronyms used are DSP (demand supply side), SSP (supply side platform), DMP (data management platform), and API (application program interface). In simple terms, programmatic marketing involves buyers on one hand, sellers on the other end, and middlemen. Buyers use demand supply platform (DSP) to decide which ad space to buy whereas publishers use supply side platform to sell ad space by use of application program interface (API) to match them up in real time.

By allowing organizations a chance to critically evaluate a website, its activities, and the audience that visit the site, companies can find the perfect audience for their products and avoid spending on unyielding digital ad spaces. This article will explain how programmatic marketing works in three stages.

Finding ad space.

Usually, when a web page gets loaded and it has some space for ads, information about the browser page gets detected automatically and is sent to a publisher ad server. Artificial intelligence uses algorithms to know the website user or visitor’s behavior to determine the type of content that the website posts and the kind of audience it has. The publisher finds information about the web page through its data management platform (DMP). The information then gets sent to the publisher ad server to determine if there is an ad campaign that can match the website profile.

Vouching for buyers.

If an ad campaign is not immediately found to match the website’s profile, information gets sent to different platforms, including supply-side platform (SSP). The SSP then goes through the website’s user profile to determine if the website is legitimate, check the visitor behavior on the site, and only present the most relevant material in the next stage. After comprehensively evaluating and analyzing the ad space, the SSP sends out a request for bidders to multiple networks including traders, ad networks, and demand supply sides (DSPs), requesting them to bid for the ad space through an ad exchange

The bidding.

After the ad space gets advertised, the bid for it begins with organizations and individuals in the demand-supply side platforms evaluating the information about the website in relations to their target market to ascertain if they want the space. Companies use automatic algorithms to assess the request and analyze different features of the website about the product they are advertising and calculate how much they are willing to pay for the ad space according to their budget. After all assessments, bidders present their bids, the ad exchange selects the highest bidder, and then auctions the ad space to them. The winning bidder’s URL and price is sent to the publisher ad server which then lets the user browser website know which ad to display.

The browser website uses the provided URL to extract ads from the winner bidder to display on its ad space browser. The browser then displays the webpage of the winning bidder on its space, including matching ads.

 

Tony Schubert is the founder and CEO of Nerdigital Marketing. He strives to increase his knowledge in online marketing and build Nerdigital to a thriving small business marketing company. You can follow him on twitter at @nerdigitalmktg. 

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6 Freedoms You Can Discover At Work Today

by Jesse Wood, CEO of eFileCabinet

Although work is not synonymous with freedom, there are freedoms you can discover through the implementation of a Document Management System (DMS).

Just as lions ruled the jungle before we caged them in zoos, workers ruled their professional lives before paperwork shackled them to their desks, printers, fax machines, and filing cabinets. However, unlike the caged lions in these zoos, most workers aren’t aware of the paper predicament oppressing them.

In other words, any paper-dependent organization allowing its workers to rely on paper in transacting and conducting business is not only partaking in the cycle of its workers’ oppression, but also the oppression of the organization as a whole: Lost profits, reduced operational efficiency, inconvenience, and unmet compliance standards are only a few of the setbacks paper-dependent offices face on a daily basis. Other setbacks are easier to trace:

The average paper dependent organization either misfiles or loses a document every 12 seconds — each document costing anywhere from $150 to $300. Offices also steal 30-40% of each of their employees’ productivity per day, shave annual revenues by 15%, and waste anywhere from 15-25% of the space in a leased office. To add insult to environmental injury, 68 million trees are cut down each year to fuel these inefficiencies.

However, all is not lost: by making the first step toward taking your office paperless through document management software, you can reclaim these 6 crucial freedoms at work today:

1. The Freedom to Work How You Want.

Of the 6 freedoms you can discover at work today, this is the most liberating. Our career is a large part of how we spend our lives in our own way—so it’s crucial that we have the freedom to form this career out of our most authentic dreams, aspirations, and goals.

Aside from the white picket fence, dog, marriage, and children, a big part of living the American dream (and the global dream, really) means not only having the freedom to choose which career we enter, but also freedom in how we work throughout the duration of this career.

Whether that means working from home, while traveling, or from any device you want while outside the office, DMS places this freedom at your fingertips.

Through Mac OS X integration, mobile applications, cloud-based online solutions that enable secure access to documents anywhere there’s an internet connection, DMS provides workers the freedom to work how they want while simultaneously ensuring the security of an organization’s information.

2. The Freedom of Time.

Of the 6 freedoms you can discover at work today, this one provides the most flexibility for those looking to structure their lives in the most unique ways possible. One of the biggest freedoms DMS offers in helping organizations go paperless is the freedom of time. Time is not only money, it’s currency that’s arguably more valuable than the kind printed by the Federal Reserve: Far from being an in-kind gift—we can use it however we wish.

DMS frees up time for organizations by eliminating the need to re-create lost or misplaced files. It also speeds up document turnaround times via workflow features and collaboration tools, consequently expediting document retrieval times through metadata and sophisticated indexing capabilities.

Otherwise, the time consumed by filing, misfiling, storing, ‘losing,’ and needlessly re-creating documents creates an enormous opportunity cost, meaning there are many more ways we could’ve used this time productively and to our organizations’ benefit.

3. The Freedom of Professional Development.

Of the 6 freedoms you can discover at work today, professional development is most likely the best stepping stone to other forms of occupational freedom.

The more time we have to work on our skills and contribute to our organizations, the more freedom we have to develop as professionals. Even a records manager would not deem time handling paper as sufficient means for establishing his or her professional development.

The less time spent on filing and misplacing files, the more time there is to spend on learning and refining employees’ skills. This is increasingly important to both knowledge and process workers alike in all industries — all of these workers at times feeling dejected by the lack of time they receive to develop themselves professionally.

4. The Freedom to Overthrow Manual Labor.

You may be thinking, Wait, nobody does manual labor in an office. Well, we’re here to tell you that just simply isn’t the case—and this manual labor includes employees who work outside of an organizations’ shipping department.

From the dozens of times employees carry printed items from the printer and back to their desk to the time spent walking to and from filing cabinets to retrieve files — from a bird’s eye view, it would look as if office workers are partaking in some sort of inefficient relaying of information — the kind that requires a lot of walking, lifting, and retrieving. By both nature and definition alike, this dependence on paper definitely is manual labor.

Despite this fact, many are often quick to deem manual labor as something that occurs strictly outside the office and only in blue collar environments. But paperwork and paper itself are what keeps manual labor alive and well in white-collar, corporate offices worldwide.

Although DMS can’t help every industry overthrow manual labor (such as construction), those industries can reduce the number of steps in its workflows by relying on less paper.

5. Freedom from Misplaced Nostalgia.

Musician Frank Zappa once said that ‘It isn’t necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice. There are two other possibilities; one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia.’

Although paper is responsible for holding sweet nostalgia as they appear in letters and other keepsakes, these nostalgias have little relevance in an office filing cabinet’s storage—where people aren’t necessarily dying to place and later retrieve TPS reports when they need a quick pick-me-up.

Instead, what ends up happening is the office-relevant information is stored and kept in the filing cabinet for eternities of irretrievableness.

But many employees in every creed of organization act as if every item is worth hoarding — storing and filing away reports and unnecessary files as if they were their grandmother’s heirlooms.

However, the automated retention and deletion feature of DMS keeps us from transubstantiating this issue, disposing of user-specified files on specific dates as selected by the administrator.

This not only reduces the amount of clutter employees have to deal with, it makes items more retrievable and secure, too.

6. The Freedom of Peace of Mind.

Paper-dependent organizations have wrongfully placed a sense of psychological sense of security on paper. This is not only because paper is a tangible object, but also because the previous year has been rife with digital data breaches.

What most organizations don’t know, however, is that although many of these data breaches occurred via digital means, DMS is not just ‘digital,’ it offers bank-grade encryption in its information exchange and client sharing portals.

Additionally, email is also digital, but not anywhere near as secure as people believe: email has multiple points where information stops in transit, and these locations are susceptible to breach. So next time you think about emailing a client’s sensitive information, think again.

Also, most of these data breaches are conducted internally, meaning they don’t come from outside hackers. The role based user permissions inherent to DMS sidestep this problem, keeping all relevant information in a central, secure repository, yet permitting only certain users to access certain files, information, and content.

What’s more, peace of mind doesn’t just involve sidestepping human-based data attacks — it also involves ensuring continuity of information in the event of a natural disaster.

How Will You Use These Freedoms at Work Today?

If your organization were sideswiped by a tornado, submerged in the waters of a flood, or clutched in the furious gales of a tornado, would you be able to continue mission-critical operations the next day? If you don’t use DMS for your organization, the answer is a definite ‘no.’

With DMS and the paperless office environment it provides, data is stored and housed in multiple points of physical and artificial presence—keeping your organization’s information indestructible and secure.

These freedoms are what will help organizations dispel the myths of paper-dependent corporate freedom, enabling us to achieve professional development, peace of mind, time put to good use, and the means to work how we want inasmuch as it will help erase misplaced nostalgia and manual labor in our corporate environments.

 

Jesse Wood is the CEO of document management vendor, eFileCabinet. Founded in 2001, eFileCabinet, Inc. began as a cutting-edge tool to digitally store records in accounting firms. As it grew in popularity, eFileCabinet developed into a full-fledged electronic document management solution designed to help organizations automate redundant processes, ensure security, and solve common office problems.

 

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Education Vs Real Life Experience – Which One Is The Right Path For A Budding Entrepreneur?

Most parents push their offspring into further education in the belief that a college degree is the best way to ensure a bright future. The statistics would appear to back this up. In 2015, the Economic Policy Institute reported that college graduates earned around 56% more than those without a college degree. Degree educated workers are also more likely to score better job opportunities, especially in markets where there is a glut of candidates for every opening.

In a world where a college education has become the norm, employers are now filtering out candidates based on their educational attainment. It is a quick way to reduce a stack of 500 resumes to around half that number. Yet many successful entrepreneurs dropped out of college and still made it big.

Famous Entrepreneurs Who Quit School.

Mark Zuckerberg famously quit college to work on Facebook and he is now one of the richest and most successful tech entrepreneurs in the world. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates both quit college too. Another successful entrepreneur, Gurbaksh Chahal, left school at 16 to start his first business – ClickAgents. Eighteen months later he sold it to ValueClick for $40 million.

When you look at success stories like these, it becomes increasingly difficult to justify the time and expense of gaining a college education. So, is a degree really necessary if you want to become an entrepreneur?

Ask your parents and they will tell you that a college education is the only route worth taking. In some respects, they are absolutely right, as there are a few career routes where a college degree is essential. These include medicine, law, and other specialist careers. In other cases, whilst a degree is often desirable, as long as you have a commitment to learning, some great ideas, or plenty of business acumen, there is no reason why you shouldn’t get out there and start your business.

When a College Degree is a Bad Choice.

Richard Branson didn’t go to college. He is profoundly dyslexic, so for him, academia held no great attraction. Luckily for him, he had the drive and ambition to build a business and make money. Today, Branson is worth millions and he has a range of successful enterprises operating under the Virgin umbrella.

If you are naturally academic and you are not 100% sure what path you want to take, sometimes it is better to go to college and continue the learning process. College is a time to make contacts, gain life experience, and flesh out the ideas you have buzzing around inside your head. But, if like Gurbaksh Chahal, your ideas have already taken shape and you know what you want to do, college is probably a waste of time.

Quitting school to start a business is a big risk. It paid off for the likes of Gurbaksh Chahal, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates, but research data indicates most successful businesses are more likely to be run by highly educated people. However, you can compromise.

Online Education.

Instead of following a traditional route through college, follow your entrepreneurial dreams and go to college part-time. Online education has really taken off in the last few years. It is now easier than ever to pursue a degree or advanced degree via a reputable online university. Instead of taking classes at a bricks and mortar institution, you can run your business and study for an MBA in your spare time.

The world is changing. Formal learning is still relevant, but there are many instances where dropping out of college to start a business is a smart idea. If in doubt, take advice from numerous sources, but in the end, you have to follow your dreams.

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How To Sell To Consumers In Europe

by Stef van Boekel of http://ift.tt/1OgOpZk

Congratulations, you have launched a successful product or a web-shop. Cash flows are coming in and you are succeeding as an entrepreneur. One of the reasons why you are making money, is because the market has changed. The retail market has not altered much for decades, and remains a store that is focused on the people in the city and the surrounding cities. A competitor that was much better in the same business, opened up a few cities away, wouldn’t do much harm to your business operations.

Then the big bad wolf of internet came. And the smarter competitor – let’s call him Chris, that was on the other side of the country, started stealing away customers in his city. How was this possible? One decade further and Chris had stolen customers from decade-old companies in every city. Chris is earning the money that used to go into the pockets of all those small retailers.

Today, we stand in the exactly the same situation. Chris is earning money from his home country and he does not have a lot of effect from the entrepreneurs on the other side of the border. To begin with, it was the internet that created this. Subsequently, it is the people, system and the overall knowledge that are creating a new shift, yet again – a market force. This has enabled the entrepreneurs to easily go cross border with their business. The world is becoming a playing field with many entrepreneurs such as Chris, with more budget, smarter systems, trained people etc.

In a few years, it will be Pedro from Rio, Maria from Hamburg and Peter from New York that will fish in the Chris bowl. This is something that is already happening on a big scale. 20% of the online purchases are cross border. The main reason: The consumer does not realize he is buying in another country. Everything has been designed to suit the customer needs, the web-shop is in the local language, the delivery address is local, the customer support speaks his language and the bank account is a local one as well.

What does Chris need to do…?

Start with a checklist of his current infrastructure, such as

• Can my bookkeeping process be managed with different currencies and VAT
• What language does my customer support speak?
• Can I receive international payments and if yes, which ones?
• Do I have a contract for international shipments? What are the prices, delivery times and who is doing the local shipment and what are their service levels?
• In what countries does my shipper have a local returns address?

By doing research on your current people, systems and partners, you can create an overview of where you are as a company.

Market research.

You cannot look at Europe as one playground. You need to do local research on competitors, pricing, service levels, potential marketplaces, operational cost, search trends, local VAT etc.

Every country needs to have its own plan of action. By doing research you will see where you probably have the most chance of succeeding:

Knowing the exact cost is crucial. And VAT has a big effect. The difference in Europe on the same product is between 8% and 27%. That is money not going into your pocket.

Make a shortlist of the top countries and prepare a plan of action.

Market places.

Everybody knows Amazon. But in Europe, Amazon is only active in 5 of the 51 countries (!!)

There are hundreds of similar companies active. Look at the marketplaces that are active in the countries you did your research on and have seen potential in. Probably you only need to work with 1-3 per country that you want to be active with.
Often these marketplaces have their own customer support and logistics. And of course, they have a huge marketing budget. Use their platform and their services, to easily get into new markets. It is the fastest and by far cheapest way to reach new markets

Retail and E-Commerce.

In every country you will have retailers and web-shops that are specialized in your product category.

The retail market is not as flexible as the e-commerce companies. Building a relationship with retailers looks as if it is a long term project, which is the way to go in the traditional retail market.

The online boys are often more easy. The employees are often young people and open for new trends. When you have good content, you don’t mind sending samples, and you don’t mind picking up the phone to start contacting new purchasers, then you are already pretty close to a first order.

Next to a good product, the purchasers will be interested in hearing success stories at similar platforms in different countries, expect that you can deliver quickly, provide quality warranty service and work with low MOQ.

Distribution.

More than often, retailers and e-commerce companies do not look to work with new suppliers. That does not have to be a problem. This can be an advantage. Ask them the distributors they work with and are active within the same product category, try to get an introduction. Then the distributor already knows you could be bringing free business.

If you want to scale up quickly, without investing too much into your sales department, then working with local distributors is an old and proven method. You will have 1 or few distributors that will sell your products to their clients and they will take over the operational and financial responsibility. More than often, against 20/30% fee (Depends amongst other on the product category and country)

Be aware for distributors with a big product assortment. You do not want to be one of the many suppliers. To open a new market and attract sales, the customer needs to be informed. When you are only a picture in a catalogue, the chance of succeeding is limited. Simply because you are an unknown brand with unknown success.

Summary.

Overall, it is doable to succeed in new countries. You need to go outside of your comfort zone. Hire local specialists and you will avoid losing money and time. Do your research, prepare your organization and take time and budget to start building this market.

As it has been written in the beginning, it is not luxury to start thinking on cross-border, it is the only way you will have a growing business in the near future. There are a lot of smart competitors out there.

Don’t make the same mistake as the retailers did 15 years ago, that did not build their business from bricks to clicks. As it has been very rightly put by Warren Buffet, “someone is sitting in the shade today, because someone planted a tree a long time ago’ .

 

EU e-commerce developer Stef van Boekel of http://ift.tt/1OgOpZk offers his expertise, network, knowledge to guide companies to the European and North American market. He was one of the pioneers to start selling cross border including setting up the operational network and over the years has successfully sold products on European level.

from Young Upstarts http://ift.tt/2tDqUUR via website design phoenix