Appointedd CEO'S exporting tips

Be prepared to tailor your product for new markets

“Yes, we have adapted the product. Previously we wouldn’t have been able to handle business internationally. We originally built the product with a UK audience at the heart of it. Then, to look at overseas markets and internationalise it, we absolutely had to update the product and do some customisation to cover the different timezones.

Be ready to build relationships

"We’re really lucky as an online product that we are able to sell direct to any country that’s able to use our software, so we do get direct sales from overseas and we often get ones that really surprise us, especially in the early days.

"One of our earliest clients was a company in Kansas City: ‘we just found you on the web and it looked just like a great product so we’d thought we’d try it’, they said.

"That was a real eye-opener for us – the fact that we’re an online product means we are operating on a global scale anyway, and we are able to reach people that we don’t necessarily try to reach. They’re just able to find our product. 

"But I think for us, from a growth perspective when it comes to exporting, partnerships have been so important to us. Whilst we can pick up ad-hoc organic sales from overseas we haven’t yet really spent any marketing budget to attract overseas clients. But what we have done is spent a lot of time and energy on building relationships with people who we believe can be a key to unlock that territory.

Be open-minded to opportunity

“It’s really important that you stay open-minded. For us, we were surprised by some of the opportunities that came to us and it would’ve been really easy to dismiss them, saying we don’t have time for that.

"As a start-up, every day is super busy and you do know you have to stay focused as a small company. But what we’ve tried to do is see the opportunity wherever it lies, and really see how far we can push that to make the most of it.

"Our partnership with a major international bank came through a meeting we had in Las Vegas. We’d gone over to Las Vegas supported by Scottish Enterprise to exhibit at a trade show.

"The main aim of our visit was to showcase our new cross timezone tools to other start-ups who were exhibiting. But while we were over there we visited a more corporate trade show, and it was there we met the company that led to our deal with a major international bank.

Be resourceful

“I think the biggest challenge for in terms of exporting has been resource allocation. We’re a small team of four at the moment. Any project we embark on does take us away from our core aims, so managing those resources and making sure that we don’t get too distracted has been probably been the biggest challenge.

"There’s always going to be a financial aspect to exporting and the way we’ve tried to manage that is by being savvy about the ways in which we approach people. Email marketing has been a really great tool for us to reach potential partnerships and see if there is any interest there.

"It’s about making the most of the resource you have.

Be culture-savvy

“Outside of that, there are the more practical challenges and quirks of just how people do business in other countries. We’re in talks with a Japanese company and that’s been a learning curve. You need to understand their traditions and conventions to represent your company in the best possible way.

"One of the wonderful things about the American market is that they are so decisive and there’s a real kind of action there that sometime doesn’t happen here in the UK. Although I’ve learned that you can’t do the modesty thing that we often do in the UK – you have to really go out and sell your product.

Exporting is easier than you might think

“The commercial benefits of exporting are undeniable. We’re now able to operate on a global playing field, so the prize is going to be so much bigger relative to the UK market, which is relatively small. If you have a product that can be exported then I would recommend it to anybody.

"The personal benefits too have been amazing. It’s allowed me to travel with members of the team which has been wonderful for us – not just from a bonding experience aspect but from learning how other cultures do business.

"In some ways, it’s as easy if not easier to do business internationally because firstly, it’s a bigger stage so you don’t need to appeal to everyone – you can be very niche and still have access to a huge market. Secondly, the UK, and Scotland in particular, is a wonderful brand to be associated with – people know that we build great products and there’s a real quality of product that comes from the UK.

Enjoy the journey

“You don’t have to close every deal. You don’t have to have the tenacity that you necessarily would when you’re looking at things on a domestic scale because there’s so much more business out there.

"Probably we’ve wasted a bit of time on deals that haven’t come to anything, while we’ve had some amazing deals come ‘out of the blue’. For me that has been a big learning point.

"I would like to say to other small business starting out in exporting to just enjoy it. It does feel really stressful at the beginning because you feel a little out of your depth. But you’ll start to enjoy the quirks, the differences and the opportunity that’s there and look at how you can maximise it and make things better.