Let me start off by saying sometimes I think we regard small exporters as multinational corporations. We expect them to be experts in regulatory management, international trade, and legal affairs in their ability to very rapidly develop new products for new markets. The problem is they don't have the capacity to do that.
There's a lot of risk involved in any form of international business. So I see a couple of strategies that small companies are undertaking. One is simply to reduce their risk. That's done by partnering with service providers and partnering with other agencies that can assist you such as the trade commissioners, EDC, CCC, and industry associations like ours.
Certainly we're seeing a lot more networking to identify what the challenges may be.This involves not only the market opportunities but talking to other people about what they did wrong or what they did right in these markets. So peer-to-peer networking for small companies is essential.
But I think above all...because sometimes we get too caught up in the problems. I see a lot of small companies that don't think about exporting because they've been told that they can't. They've been told that they have all these barriers out there, and I think the biggest concern I have, the biggest challenge facing small companies, is the issue of business leadership itself. Businesses have to incorporate an international strategy into their business planning and then be able to manage that. Yet they won't be able to do it on their own. They'll have to partner in order to do it. So that's a very general answer.