One question I am often asked is: ‘Can any company export?’ I usually reply that international trade can work for a huge variety of different kinds of business, but I have to say that hairdressing is not one that comes immediately to mind. Well, sometimes it’s good for the soul to be proved wrong.

A good news story just in from East of England International Trade Adviser Ashley Almond is that one of her clients – a company that provides training to hair salons – has used our Export Market Research Scheme to help clinch a partnership deal in Australia.

The company is also using our Embassy team to explore options in Spain. I mentioned this to my colleagues and a surprising number of UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) teams have stories to tell about companies in this sector being successful overseas.

So it is possible to do business halfway across the world even if your line of work is something that doesn’t sound like an export. I did an interview for a local radio station the other day. The presenter asked me what was available in this part of the world to help companies find out more about international trade, and I found myself working through a long list of organisations and people.

For starters, just think of the hundreds of companies that use Chambers of Commerce to make sure their exported goods have the right documentation and the freight forwarders that actually get the goods where they need to go.  And the many business organisations that play such a vital role in making sure their members get solid, up to date information about doing business overseas.

Every company has a bank, an accountant and a legal adviser and we are increasingly working with that network to make sure firms in our region get the encouragement and help they need to secure a foothold in international markets. And of course UKTI is the first place to look for a friendly, guiding hand and links to nearly 100 countries that could be buying from you.

I hope companies that listened to the programme also heard me talk about our New Exporter competition. It couldn’t be easier to enter. Two hundred words about your company’s export idea, and why you think now is the time for it to succeed, could get you a chunk of free market research as part of a prize package worth £5,000. There’s all the detail you need about the competition here http://www.ukti.gov.uk/exportingforgrowthprize
and you’ve got until 31 January to enter. So take a look – even if your business doesn’t sound like the sort of thing that travels well.

One final thing – the December trade statistics show that plenty of companies in the East of England are doing brilliantly overseas. Exports from companies based here topped the £25bn mark yet again in the 12 months to the end of September 2011, with the region accounting for almost one pound in every 10 of what the UK sells to the rest of the world. But we could do more, and my message is that even if you and your company have never thought of exporting, now's a good time to start.

Find out how UKTI can help your company succeed overseas at www.ukti.gov.uk

@UKTI

Like many of you reading this I spend far too much time behind a desk, so it’s all the more enjoyable when I do get the chance to meet some of the people out there at the sharp end of exporting.

What are stereotypes if they’re not there to be smashed? We did a bit of that when my team of judges met to decide on the winners of UK Trade & Investment’s East Meets East competition. That was part of our initiative to get companies across the East of England to realise the huge opportunities open to them on the other side of the world – and realise how we can help.

By 2030 China, India, Japan and their smaller neighbours across Asia and the Pacific will be leading the world, with an economy out-stripping even the mighty G7, the group of top industrialised nations of which we’re a part.

Business Weekly readers won’t need reminding how big a deal the Asian economy is these days. But only a fifth of SMEs in Britain export at all – and it is hardly surprising that Asia may seem just too distant, and a challenge too far, for many smaller businesses in the East of England, especially if they are just starting up. But that view of the world needs to change.

It was really encouraging to thumb through the entries for the East Meets East competition and find so many companies that obviously are up for the challenge.

Stereotype number one: that we’d only get entries from the usual suspects. In the East we don’t only have companies that are doing wonderful things in the medical, pharma and bio-tech sector that everyone knows – but also lots of really good engineering companies. The over-riding impression was the range of entrants – everything from financial services to retail, from electronics to engineering.

And, gosh, weren’t they good? In fact there were very few entries that we didn’t think would work – but our judges, like Lord Sugar and the Dragons, had to pick winners.

Stereotype number two: that every bright twenty-something is after a high-paid job in the City. I went to see the overall winners – a Norwich engineering company with big ambitions in Asia – and met some young engineers there who gave the lie to the idea that our top graduates just want to make a quick buck in the City. There is an awful lot of very high-calibre engineering talent out there and it is brilliant to see a company in the East of England making use of it.

For the sake of our economy, we’ve got to hope they stay in engineering to develop their skills and continue Britain’s world-leading traditions. What PPI Engineering does – designing, supplying and servicing electric motors and generators for the energy industry – may not be metal-bashing as we have traditionally known it, but it is certainly continuing Britain’s great traditions of innovation and enterprise that date back to the Industrial Revolution.   

PPI’s prize is £3,000 of market research support from UKTI – towards the cost of one of our Overseas Market Introduction Service (OMIS) packages, specially designed for companies trying to break into new markets. They are going to use it to investigate potential partners in China, India and South Korea, specifically with an eye to opportunities in renewable energy.

The two runners-up – winning £1,000 of business help from UKTI - were electronic and mechanical instrument makers IMC Group and its Lamerholm subsidiary, from Letchworth in Hertfordshire, and Anglia Ruskin University, based in Chelmsford and Cambridge.

IMC will be using its OMIS package to find a specialist distributor in China for the high-tech shock recorders it makes – keeping an eye on ‘hidden’ damage to equipment in the oil and gas industry in transit or in daily use. Anglia Ruskin will be using it to research new markets for their unique training programme in keyhole surgery for sufferers from bowel cancer.

But the good news is that everyone can be a winner. We will be contacting all the companies who entered to try to spell out the benefits of an OMIS package – to help their business dreams come true. You can find out more about the Overseas Market Introduction Service at http://tiny.cc/OMIS

ENDS