What are the best ways to set realistic and measurable goals for your import/export business plan?

We export >80% of our products outside the UK which has taken a lot of time and effort but the key strategies we have seen work are: - Spend the time to find the right partner, make them work for your offering. Every time we have snatched at a partner due to time pressures its been a disaster. - Put your trust in that partner, never be tempted to undercut or poach in their market. Its not worth making that extra margin if it alienates your relationship. - Recruit a native speaking partner management team. This not only makes your partners feel valued but also avoids misunderstandings pertaining to language or cultural differences. - Be patient - Rome wasn't built in a day but relationships and trust can be shattered in seconds.

A lot of people use desk top data . The best way is to actually meet and speak with potential customers. You should also carefully consider your route to market eg b2b b2c

On top of all the points above, it is also important to understand available international trade / payment system that could facilitate long term development strategy from the beginning.

Before plan or sitting goal one must have been equate knowledge information and future vision. After acquiring to knowledge and information one should do brainstorming for decision making process. After collecting data and proper systematic data analysis and evaluation one will have proper direction for decision making plan. When you make a decision and finalize your initial planning , take a degree preparation to implement their planning. Make a time plan of every event as for your wishlist or checklist. Then go for implementation of that plan according to your resource preparation and mindset. Never hurry up neither be too slow. 10 go for your goals for selecting the market.thank you very much.!

In my own point of view, you should know a lot for the local mentality of the people. The best way to do it is to find a local (who live in the area) people or to buy a local company. The second one is more risky as you must to check the company more than careful except the financial terms for their management, image etc. Business plan with only numbers figured out always means a mistake. Right locak people (partnership) is always ??

This is too simplistic. Perhaps the best question is "why should the customer choose my offer?" The answer involves a multitude of reasons ......really this is why you have to know your market

I find this definition too simplistic. There are so many elements that contribute to the Value Proposition. First 80/20 your product line, then 80/20 the customers including those NOT buying your product. Then complete “voice of the customer” meetings with cross functional members. Analyze all the data, then adapt a plan to your marketing message. Design a detailed Value Proposition model using competitive examples tailored to an individual customer, especially to those not buying your product. All this goes into designing and implementing a complete Value Proposition. It is not simple. It takes work and dedication and leadership to complete. Without it, you have chosen the “ die slow” route out of the business.

I would rather say, not defining the population whether identify and fix the target group of population as a stakeholders. It should be very clearly selected as target market with edequate demand benefit and likely solutions. They should be categories as per priority and geographical locations.

Having worked with thousands of companies over the years, often businesses overlook their global competition. They may know their local competitor, or national competitor well, but neglect looking at international competitors and what they offer, including better service or credit terms.

Actually disagree with the above mentioned things. Why? Because everyone else will do it. In my point of view the right way should be: How can I show to the customers our values and how can I show them that I am the right partner or how they can recognize me as the right one? If you find the answer, you should have the possibility to "catch" them.

Actually in the first 6 months if you didn't do some great mistake you should do a lot of things before to see some results. I don't think you must put some numbered target in the first 6 months as only positive balance sheet for the first year would be great result. Starting your second fiscal year you should add some targets but as the business has been started from scratch you should put more %, not 10. For your second year you should see 40-50% of increasing.

It helps to set up these objectives bottom-up rather than top-down. Many a time, you will not have perfect information about every single aspect when you launch into a new market. It is better to then work with your local resources (own sales team, distributors, wholesalers) to agree on execution specifics - coverage, listing, visibility, availability rather than outcomes like X% increase or Y dollars incremental. You should also agree upfront on how these objectives will be measured.

There is so much complimentary desk research available to companies that want to import or export. For example, for US exporters, they will surely want to pull reports from the export.gov websites or the USDA/FAS (for food/ag companies). Freight forwarders are great sources of information in terms of "easy to ship to" countries vs. those that are more onerous.

I can agree with this, but in a different way: Breaking down in my opinion means adding more people and giving them tasks from my owns so, I can free my time to do more in some specific ways.

Anyway, we are living in a Money World and if you check: 1. If your employees are happy? 2. If your turnover is growing? 3. If your EBITDA is good enough? If all the 3 answers are "yes" it surely means your business should stay longer-term

As an expert in Trade finance, I found that the 10 Key Strategies for Successful International business and contracts are: 1. Market Research 2. Regulatory Compliance 3. Partnering with Experts: 4. Supply Chain Optimization 5. Currency Risk Management 6. Cultural Awareness 7. Quality Control 8. Export Financing 9. Adaptability and Flexibility and last but not least 10. Long-Term Perspective

One of the strategies I often suggest to my clients is to talk to another company (non-competitor but same industry) that is already doing it (importing or exporting). These veterans are often willing to share a wealth of information with the newbies. I introduced a new-to-Canada company to a veteran exporter recently and they learned so much and came back to me thrilled with the advice they received.

Talking about your Plan B options via a story of when things went wrong and how you were able to adapt, be flexible and how you have the following measures in place for the top 3 most commonly faced problems in the industry will go a long way in the selection process.

I would like to point out that most of the discussion relates to exports. The SBA and the World Bank are reinsures of the generated receivables. As such, exports are relatively easy to do . What is far more difficult and generally necessary, are imports, which in most cases are not insured and are difficult to collateralize. While a full-scale discussion is beyond this format, It is important to prepare for as it should be part of a discussion with any inventory/receivable lender's offer.

Conduct thorough market research to gather data and insights about your target market, competitors, and industry trends. This information will help you set realistic goals Create financial projections and forecasts Consider factors like revenue, expenses, profit margins, and cash flow. Use these projections to inform your financial goals. Divide your long-term goals into shorter-term milestones. These can be quarterly, monthly, or even weekly targets.