6,775,235,700

That's the world population 2009 according to Google who uses World Bank, World Development Indicators as its source (illustrated).

According to About.com Geography:  World population as of May 11, 2011 is 6,852,472,823.

What percent of the world population are you selling?  Do you think we will hit 7 billion by 2012 or sooner?

Related post(s) on worldly population issues.

No. 2 Most Difficult Market to Enter in the World?

China is considered the No. 1 most difficult market to enter and the United States is No. 2 despite attractive growth opportunities.  That's according to a new global report by international legal practice Allen & Overy.

The United States ranks third globally for growth opportunities behind China and India, but second behind China for perceived barriers to entry.

 Read the entire report here.

Results run counter to the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Rankings which shows the United States No. 4.  Once you break into the market, one could say it's easy to do business in USA?

Photo courtesy:  USA at Night (NASA)

Just Say "Yes" to Free Trade

Daniel Griswold (pictured), director of the Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute and author of “Mad About Trade: Why Main Street America Should Embrace Globalization” (2009), says:

Republican leaders in Congress have been ready from day one to advance free trade by approving three pending trade agreements, with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. President Obama also favors the agreements, as do enough congressional Democrats to ensure their passage.

While the agreements probably will not put a visible dent in the U.S. unemployment rate, they will create better-paying jobs and more prosperity for American households.

Read the entire commentary here.

Related post:

Mad About Trade and By Golly, I am Going To Do Something About It!

The Tale of Cheescakes Exported Nearly On Open Account

Our latest contribution for the American Express OPEN Forum via Small Business Trends.

Making Tough Decisions in the Global Marketplace
by Laurel Delaney

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

SCORE's Outstanding Woman-Owned Business Winner

And the SCORE 'Outstanding Woman-Owned Business Winner' is:

School House run by Rachel Weeks!

Instead of searching the world for her goods, they are Made in America (as illustrated).

Learn more about all the SCORE winners by reading Steve Strauss's Ask the Expert column over at USA Today.

Congrats to all the winners!

1964: The Tallest Residential Buildings and the Tallest Reinforced Concrete Structures in the World

Marina City Towers, ©Laurel Delaney 2011

The Marina City Towers (as shown) were designed in 1959 by architect Bertrand Goldberg and completed in 1964 at a cost of $36 million. When finished, the two towers were both the tallest residential buildings and the tallest reinforced concrete structures in the world.

The complex consists of two high rise corncob-shaped 65-story towers (including five-story elevator and physical plant penthouse), at 587-foot (179 m) tall. It also includes a saddle-shaped auditorium building, and a mid-rise hotel building, all contained on a raised platform adjacent to the river. Beneath the raised platform at river level is a small marina for pleasure craft, giving the structures their name.

Learn more here.

Photo credit: ©Laurel Delaney 2011, "Marina City Twin Towers, Chicago, Illinois, United States"

If You Are a Band, Here's What You Need to Do to Go Global

An interview at Undertheradar:

Going Global is about getting bands to recognize what they need to do to be successful overseas. What are your recommendations for New Zealand bands if they were going to the UK to get their music on radio or to get noticed more generally?

Radio play is something where the sound needs to be right for the UK audience and obviously I don’t know everything that’s going down here but I feel like there is New Zealand stuff over in the UK that is appropriate and that perhaps some New Zealand bands wouldn’t travel as well. If a band’s going to go all the way to the UK don’t just go for a week. They should go, have a ...

Read more:  Jen Long (BBC1) - Interviews at Undertherader

Photos from Going Global Music Summit 2011 (pictured above)

Share Your Export Success Story

Deadline extended to:  September 30, 2011

One Way to Expand a Small Business Is To Export

More and more small businesses are positioning themselves to go global.

"According to small businesses, the only way a business can expand is to export," said trade consultant Al Elgendy at a recent San Bernardino Economic Development Agency workshop for entrepreneurs looking to expand globally, as quoted by the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. "It reduces the dependency on the domestic economy. When there's a downturn in the economy, the only way to expand is to go global."

Read more here.

Global Study On How Family Businesses Manage Companies During Uncertain Times

In a study conducted by the executive search firm Egon Zehnder International, 720 executives were asked about their experience of family businesses.  Respondents included family business owners and executives from the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe. 

One of the biggest challenges for family businesses is recruiting top talent and integrating them into structures that have evolved over the years and that are often perceived as being short on transparency. When asked why they would not work for a family business, 40 percent of the executives surveyed name a lack of career prospects.  

Read more here.

Illustration credit here.

Let the Good Times Roll; Let the Small Businesses Go Global

More on how small businesses are going global.

Just the facts:

Facilitating small-business exports of goods and services is a top priority for the Small Business Administration and Export-Import Bank of the United States, which are following Obama administration goals to double exports by 2014.

The U.S. exported a total of $178 billion in goods and services in July -- an all-time high, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis as cited by the Export-Import Bank.

In the Jobs Act signed into law in September 2010, President Barack Obama allowed for the SBA to increase its ability to provide export-related financing by raising SBA 7(a) loan limits to $5 million from $2 million on export-related loans.

The law made the SBA Export Express loan permanent, with a 90% guarantee for loans up to $350,000 and 75% for loans between $350,000 and $500,000, according to the SBA. It also provides three-year state grants of up to $90 million to help small-businesses owners grow the exporting side of their businesses.

In early August, the Export-Import Bank said it had hit a record $24.5 billion for export-related loan authorizations. The bank's financing supports more than $31.5 billion of export sales and 213,000 U.S. jobs, including 2,548 small-business export jobs.

Read more here.

Illustration credit here.

World: To Be Creative, Hide Your (Re)Sources

“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” ~ Albert Einstein

Photo credit ©Laurel Delaney 2011, "Horse Flower Power"

Are You Short On Core Competitiveness?

According to People's Daily Online, Chinese businesses ought to do better in the overseas market.

It is true that Chinese enterprises should improve themselves when going global. Compared with large European and American transnational enterprises, most of Chinese enterprises going global are low and middle-end industries. Most of them are traditional contractors. Their primary businesses do not involve science and technology as well as high added value, which make them short of core competitiveness.

Read the entire article here.

Not exactly sure what core competitiveness is?  I am aware of core competencies so I did some checking on core competitiveness ... a lot of Chinese reference this theory:

Identification, Formation and Maintaining of Core Competitiveness of an Enterprise

Discussions on the Core Competitiveness of Tourism Industry

How to Build the Core Competitiveness of Enterprises

America's Future Depends In Part on Globalization

That's according to: America Needs a Makeover

“America's future—and the future of the world beyond America—depends on how well we deal with” four issues, they argue ... globalization ...

Read more here.  And Thomas Friedman is quoted.

Illustration credit, Amazon.com:  That Used to Be Us:  How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back by Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

Using Trade Data As Competitive Business Intelligence

Here's a great best practice on how to use international trade data as a competitive weapon for your growing global business. In this case, a vitamin manufacturer monitors their competition to get an international leg up.

One quick search by company, of imports from China could provide them with irrefutable facts of what was imported and where it came from, allowing them to continue selling their high-end product and protect their existing customer base.

Learn more here.

Illustration credit:  PIERS

A New Concept: Business Without Borders!

Business without borders, borderless business, Borderbuster - call it what you wish but in this case, HSBC unveils its new international business website geared toward U.S. companies involved in international business.

“Business without Borders” is billed as a “knowledge exchange” tool that offers industry-specific articles and commentary about global business. It includes content from The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Master Class and The Economist Intelligence Unit.

Beyond articles, it also allows business leaders to track global trade trends and identify the most promising locations for international expansion. Certain information is available only to those who register as members of the site.

Business Without Borders (BWB)
www.businesswithoutborders.com

Read more about this here.  BWB claims to be the first-of-its-kind knowledge exchange in the United States.

Illustration credit: Business Without Borders | Trade Connections Tool

Posted by The Global Small Business Blog (founded in 2004 for entrepreneurs and small businesses interested in going global).

Note to HSBC:  Come to us when you launch your small business channel.

Using Distance As a Global Opportunity

“From day one the idea was to go global.  We’re in such a small market for games, you really don’t have a domestic market so you’re forced to go across the pond. This is a blessing in many ways and has served us fairly well.” ~ Matias Myllyrinne, CEO of Remedy Entertainment.

Find out how an Espoo, Finland-based company, Remedy Entertainment, goes after the biggest gaming market in the world:  the United States.

Game Theory:  Go Global or go home

Illustration credit:  Remedy Entertainment 

1973: The Tallest Building in the World

Willis Tower, Chicago, Illinois, United States

Photo credit: ©Laurel Delaney 2011, "Photograph taken from car at a stoplight, looking straight up."

The Importance of Export Licensing Control

Related article:  How to Determine Whether a Product Requires an Export License (U.S.A. perspective)

Doing Good While Going Global

Over at the Crain's Chicago Business blog (under the "global" entrepreneurial banner), we interview Kate Koziol, the founder of Chicago-based K Squared Communications, to find out the importance of crossing borders to do good. In addition, Ms. Koziol shares her best practice on how to promote social-agency programs on a limited budget.

Read: Reaching Across Borders For Social Improvements

Illustration credit:  CIA, The World Factbook

Posted by:  The Global Small Business Blog

Reaching Mexico's Consumer Base

Based in Miami, GEE International, LLC is the U.S. based sales and marketing arm of Grupo Editorial Expansión, a Time Inc. Company since August, 2005. GEE International is the ideal source for American and international companies to reach Mexico's most affluent and diverse consumer base.

With more than 40 years experience, GEE is Mexico's leading publisher of high-end magazines.

Have a look at Expansion Magazine's 50 Most Powerful Women of 2011.

Punish Americans Who Outsource?

I don't mind getting China to play fair but do you really think we should punish folks in the United States for outsourcing?  Refer to No. 5.

6 ways Washington could create jobs

Elizabeth, have you heard of President Obama's National Export Initiative?

Photo credit:  President Obama in Detroit, Michigan U.S.A. (9.5.11)

Discover How To Use an Inspection Certificate

Inspection certificates 101:

When shipping high-value products or when you are dealing with a very conscientious customer, an inspection certificate might be requested. An inspection certificate provides proof that what you are shipping is, in fact, what the customer ordered, and is also of good quality. 

Learn more (including companies who do this sort of work) here.

Illustration credit:  SGS

Rebuilding Our World Together ... Hand In Hand

"I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catchers mitt on both hands.  You need to be able to throw something back."  ~ Maya Angelou

Photo credit:  ©Laurel Delaney 2011, "Lend a Hand," Rogers Park, Illinois, U.S.A., artist mural

Made In China: Frisbee Versus a Stuffed Toy Animal

I love analysis and this one's a doozy.  Pass it along to anyone who might benefit.  It's interesting (don't know if it is all necessarily accurate)  I welcome your comments to challenge or agree with what's said.

An excerpt from, "Why is China Cheaper?"

Most people would say the answer is obvious -- lower wages in China compared to the United States. However, that answer is only partially true. Why? Because labor is only one part of the total cost of a product, and in many cases it's as low as 20% of the total cost.

Let's compare two simple products that are primarily made in China: a stuffed toy animal for a baby and a Frisbee.

And the winner of the product -- frisbee or stuffed toy animal -- made the cheapest in China is ...

5 Keys to Walton's Worldwide Success

My latest contribution over at the American Express OPEN Forum via Small Biz Trends.  Hope you get some ideas from it.  Sam (pictured) was quite the leader.

5 Lessons From Sam Walton

Photo courtesy:  Wal-Mart