SME Resource, a Swindon-based company offering advice and solutions to help UK start-ups and SMEs increase their revenues and profits, has launched its international trade support service, the Global Trade Department. The service is designed to allow small and medium sized companies to effectively outsource elements of, or in deed all their exporting activity, leaving them free to concentrate on their core business priorities and domestic market.
With more than 20 years’ international trade and market research experience, the company launched the service in response to feedback from several small businesses who expressed a desire to export but claimed their efforts were constrained by a lack of know-how, resource, and time. SME Resource Managing Director, Andrea Collins, explains “Business owners already have considerable time pressures managing their domestic market and all the challenges that brings. Researching a new market and setting up an export operation is human capital heavy; pressures on capacity, production, and skill sets can be significant. Businesses can spend months recruiting staff with the right skills, or training and supporting existing staff to be able to meet the very different requirements international trade brings.”
The company insists that Brexit should not dissuade UK SMEs from embarking on international trade, but rather companies should view it as an amazing opportunity, particularly those companies able to capitalise on the wealth generation and increased consumer spending enjoyed by some of the emerging, high-growth markets like China, Indonesia, Ghana, Vietnam, and India. Andrea continues “Whilst the cultural differences, language barriers, and regulatory requirements involved in entering these territories cannot be underestimated, these are all areas in which the Export Department can help. The payoff from a well-designed export strategy and successful launch in these territories is considerable, the return far outweighs the effort”.
Andrea describes the Global Trade Department as a cost-effective alternative to an in-house function, performing all the tasks a small business would expect but with greater speed to market capability, less risk, and significantly reduced overheads. “We are entirely flexible in terms of how we engage with our clients, our involvement is dictated by their resource, budget and appetite for self-sufficiency. We are as happy acting in a mentoring capacity as we are managing a company’s entire exporting project from market research through to market entry and fulfilment. We simply believe there is a huge opportunity for UK SMEs to make their mark in this changing international scene, and we are 100% committed to helping them achieve this”.
Interested parties can contact Andrea Collins directly and find more information about the services provided at the Global Trade Department.
