Thinking of exporting?

Research suggests UK companies that export are more productive and pay higher wages than those that only sell their products within the UK. Exporters also tend to have stronger financial performance and have 11.4% higher probability of survival than companies that don’t export ¹.

 
Exporting is a great way to take full advantage of trade opportunities and for your business to grow. However, there are a number of factors to take into consideration:

• Does someone in the company have the time and dedication needed to develop export markets?
• Can the company invest in developing export markets, such as money for funding overseas trips, tradeshows and new marketing materials?
• Does your product/service have a unique selling point?

If the answer to these questions is “yes,” then read on…

Companies can develop export markets in the variety of ways including:

• using an agent or distributor in an overseas market and/or a combination of both
• selling and servicing the market directly from Yorkshire and Humber, often chosen by services companies
• forming a joint venture or alliance/partnership with a company offshore
• franchising
• selling on-line
• setting up a representative office or incorporating offshore

Visit this page for more information on selling abroad

If you are considering exporting or export is less than 10% of your sales and you would like to discuss the next steps in more detail, you can receive advice and assistance from a number of organisations and/or UK Trade and Investment. UKTI has also developped a tailor made programme called Passport to Export for companies new to export and they have also other funding programmes available depending on what you want to achieve and at which stage of your export plan you are. 

 ^{1 10-804-bis-economics-paper-05}