Exporting Overseas

In today’s modern world businesses are no longer restricted to operating solely in their country of residence. It is now easier than ever to export services overseas, take advantage of export trade opportunities and grow businesses internationally. However, when having made the decision to export, it is sometimes difficult to know where to begin, below are our top 3 recommendations for your first port of call.

Export Britain

In 2012, the British Chambers of Commerce, UK Trade & Investment and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office came together to create an international UK business network, providing practical support to UK exporters. The network is a great resource, guiding new and growing exporters through every stage of the process from evaluating whether your business is ready to export to making connections and ultimately making it happen. Through guiding you through the full process, Export Britain helps you put solid foundations in place to ensure you and your team are prepared for your export journey. They also provide resources, such as webinars and market snapshots to give you as much information as possible before you begin your journey.

UK Export Finance (UKEF)

For financial support exporters can go to banks. Alternatively, there are other specialist financial organisations that can provide support, such as the UKEF. UKEF can help businesses of any size looking to export by providing insurance to exporters, guarantees to banks and loans to overseas buyers of goods and services. Through UKEF’s knowledge of the international market they can help you with anything from commercial insurance cover, to allow you to get into challenging markets, to performance guarantees, often required by overseas banks and investors. UKEF is extremely flexible, helping a broad variety of businesses, from larger corporate organisations to smaller businesses.

The European Network

Enterprise Europe Network London (EEN London) supports small and medium enterprises in the Greater London area looking to expand into the European market. The network does this through finding trustworthy and reliable in-country partners for you to connect with. The service is completely free of charge and is a great way of finding distributors, agents, joint venture partners, reciprocal production partners, subcontracting or outsourcing opportunities and many more.