World Commerce Is Slowing Down

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As Peter S. Goodman for The New York Times puts it:

As President Trump intensifies his trade war with China, and as factories slow in major industrial nations, world commerce is deteriorating rapidly, a perilous development that threatens the health of the global economy.

He goes on to say that most economists feel a global recession remains unlikely, even as growth slows.

What's your take?  See what others are saying.

Unlocking Sources of Global Growth: SMEs

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Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) represent about 90% of businesses and more than 50% of employment worldwide, accounting for the majority of businesses worldwide.   They are important contributors to job creation and global economic development.

Formal SMEs contribute up to 40% of national income (GDP) in emerging economies.  SMEs also play a major role in most economies, particularly in developing countries. 

A key area of the World Bank Group’s work is to improve SMEs’ access to finance and find innovative solutions to unlock sources of capital.  Learn the results of their work.

How Do You Make Your Global Debut?

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Expanding internationally achieves important growth and creates an additional revenue stream for many companies yet it can be a very costly exercise.

So how can promising business ventures without the financial backing of high-profile investors make their global debut?

Easy peasy at least according to work-place provider IWG (refer to some related IWG news here).

Flexible workspace solutions allow businesses to scale up and down in terms of size, offers a choice of location and different contract lengths that adapt as the business’ needs change.

Read more about how workspaces can drive your global growth.

Today in Global Small Business: Drivers and Constraints in the Global Cat Food Market

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Wendy’s will finally break back into the European market within the next 12 to 18 months after a 40-year absence.
• Two primary obstacles are preventing U.S. retailers from conducting international online sales.
• Quote of the week: “The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be." – Reid Hoffman
• Make your e-commerce business stand out.
• The global cat food market – drivers and constraints for the key players.
• How to innovate in the face of disruption.

Live Out Every Weekend

©2019 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

"When you're young, you should live out every weekend. Even if you look like a scarecrow, you just gotta go!" – Jonathan Brandis

How a Umami Burger Is Taking the World By Storm

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Umami Burger has 28 locations globally with 18 locations in the U.S., with most in California, with two in sweet home Chicago and one in New York.  Of that number in the U.S. only two are franchised.

You might ask yourself what Umami stands for.  Umami is a Japanese rooted word that means savory.

What's causing the burger to take the world by storm?

Fueled by its CEO Sam Nazarian who runs SBE, a multifaceted brand of hotels, nightspots and restaurants, and now controls 95% of Umami, with founder Adam Flieshman owning the rest, it’s expanding overseas, particularly in Japan and Mexico.

Learn more about a U.S. product that resonates globally.

Find One Thing That Isn't Perfect in this Global Video (Hint: Have Some Fun!)

Ready, Set, Scale

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Claudia Durán, a native of El Salvador, was appointed director of Endeavor Miami (EM) in June.  She is looking for 305 entrepreneurs to support EM's mission of leading the entrepreneurship movement in South Florida, by identifying, selecting and supporting high-impact entrepreneurs.

Ms. Durán brings a variety of business experience to the role, including stints at beer giant SAB Miller, Taca International Airlines, Deutsche Bank and Ashoka, one of the world’s leading organizations supporting social entrepreneurs. Durán holds an MBA from Instituto de Empresa in Madrid and a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Penn State University.

Main goals for Endeavor Miami?

1. Be a founder-centric organization that strives to provide the best services to our selected entrepreneurs, assisting them in every stage of their journey
2. Be ready to scale and catalyze economic growth.  

Read more about EM's before the end of the year plan.

Business Momentum is Slowly Building in Cannabis-Related Businesses

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The U.S. House of Representatives last month passed the bipartisan SAFE Banking bill, aimed at allowing complete banking access to cannabis companies. Its fate is uncertain in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Although the SAFE Banking bill faces an uncertain Senate fate, financial institutions have found other ways to navigate complicated regulations. To open accounts for cannabis companies, banks need to file a federal Suspicious Activity Report and continue to monitor accounts spotted by it. Abiding by these due-diligence clauses not only cost more to banks but also increases the risk of federal penalties, such as being cut off from the FDIC.

The cannabis might be underbanked (not in Vienna Austria) but the truth of the matter is that more than 700 institutions [banks] now serve marijuana-related businesses across the country.

Today in Global Small Business: How a UK Agency Grew From Small to Global

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Small business lending by SBA in Cleveland, Ohio falls 9%.
• First Aid Beauty, owned by Proctor and Gamble, kicks off international expansion. 
• Quote of the week: “Think you can, think you can't; either way you'll be right." – Henry Ford
• Chick-fil-A has some issues with international expansion caused by their anti-LGBTQ stance.
• Patrick Reid, CEO of Imagination talks candidly about how the agency grew from a small office in London to 10 countries around the world (video).
• Customer experience is disrupting and changing the supply-chain world from the inside out.

Making Life and Nature Harmonize

"Is not this a true autumn day?  Just the still melancholy that I love – that makes life and nature harmonize." – George Eliot

Photos courtesy:  @2019 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

What Are Small Business Owners Doing to Minimize the Impact of the China-US Trade War?

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According to CNBC's Small Business Playbook, here are the facts:

• The China tariffs have increased the cost of doing business for more than one third, or 37%, of small businesses across the U.S.
• In a recent survey by new survey by BizBuySell, 43% of small business owners said a 25% increase on tariffs in the U.S.–China trade war will increase their business costs.
• Of those, 64% said they would deal with the higher costs by raising prices and 65% of those surveyed said they would consider switching to suppliers outside of China.

How can you avoid being a victim in the escalating trade war? Read on.

On a Global Scale, Simone Biles Is Crushing It; Best Gymnast in the World (Video)

Small Businesses Are the Backbone of our Global Economy

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Whether you want to listen to the podcast or read the transcript, the interview conducted by Brian Kenny, host of the official podcast Cold Call produced by Harvard Business School and brought to you by the HBR Presents network, with Harvard Business School professor Len Schlesinger is worth exploring further.  Why?  Here's a snippet from the interview:

The reality is there’s this standard political logic that says that small business is the backbone of our economy and it’s the one thing in this world where all politicians don’t agree about what day it is. They all agree about this. We know that 68% of the American public actually dreams about owning a small business and we know that 93% of the American population thinks it’s important to support small business, but they don’t. And so the interesting question for us is given the failure rates of small business and the difficulty in getting small businesses to scale, the question is, whose responsibility is it to support that activity and where are there pockets of excitement going on? 

Discover which company hit it out of the park as a corporate initiative representing the best performance of any of the constituencies trying to address that (the small business growth] issue.

The $500 million bet on small businesses -- who made it?

GlobalCare Clinical Trials: A Conversation with Gail Adinamis

©2019 GlobalCare Clinical Trials.  Used with Permission.   All rights reserved.

In 2010, Gail Adinamis, founder and CEO of GlobalCare Clinical Trials brought Phase I-IV clinical trials to patients, instead of the other way around. Today, the company’s in-home and alternate-site nursing services employs approximately 100 people, contracts with more than 75 country coordinators in 60 countries and conducts approximately 2,000 home visits per month.

Gail says:

“I’ve always been one to break tradition and look for more efficient ways to do things,” Adinamis says. “It made much more sense to conduct a clinical trial visit—a blood draw or a drug administration, for example—in the patient’s home and at a time that’s convenient rather than having sick patients go to a physician’s office or a hospital or clinic.”

In the interview below, Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global's™ Director of Development Bob Marovich sits down with Gail to find out how she went from a zero base to exporting her services to more than 60 countries.

By Exporting, the Female-Owned GlobalCare Clinical Trials Saves Lives Worldwide

Today in Global Small Business: 5 Takeaways on Building a Global Business

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• From sports analogies to going global, here are takeaways on building a business. 
• Widely discussed but often overlooked topics on international expansion.
• Quote of the week: “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive, but those who can best manage change." – Leon C. Megginson
• Wendy's is using breakfast to launch internationally.
• Insights on how the e-commerce market in the US is changing and what is coming in the year ahead (interview).
• The floodgates opened on Facebook Inc.’s Libra Association as no fewer than five more companies exited the group overseeing the social network’s proposed cryptocurrency: Mastercard Inc., Visa Inc., eBay Inc., Stripe Inc. and Mercado Pago.

Roots: A Little Bit of Canada in Chicago

Roots is a publicly held Canadian brand based in Toronto that is a premium outdoor lifestyle brand, recognized globally for their quality products from leather goods to leisure wear. The company was founded in 1973 by Michael Budman and Don Green.

Are the products only made in Canada?

To be specific, they are are manufactured in China, Mexico, India, Ukraine, Italy, Peru and of course, Canada!

The photos above show the entranceway to the Roots Michigan Avenue location in Chicago.

Photos courtesy:  @2019 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Hawaii State Trade Expansion Program Helps Small Businesses Export and Enter New Overseas Markets

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The Hawaii State Trade Expansion Program (HiSTEP), recently announced, for the seventh year, more than $500,000 in federal grant funding from the US Small Business Administration to support global small businesses in exporting and entering new overseas markets.

“Local small businesses must be able to reach overseas markets and share their products if we are going to compete and thrive in today’s economy,” said [U.S.] Senator Hirono [of Hawaii]. “Hawaii made products are iconic and this funding will support continued efforts to diversify our local economy, create new jobs, and draw new visitors to our state.”

Details can be found here.

Global Design Awards Announced by Etsy

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Etsy recently announced the winners of its inaugural Global Design Awards.  Interactive Magnetic Dino Wallpaper, the winning creation from London-based designer Sian Zeng, is a creative approach to children’s imaginations and the bedroom walls that house them.

Small-business owners representing the United States, Greece, and Israel all took top prizes in their respective categories; these winning designs include a custom midcentury doghouse, upcycled sandals, and papercut wedding art—brand-perfect entries for the e-commerce site, which is known for its unique and handmade products.

Further details can be found here concerning the winners and how the judges chose all of the design entries on the basis of quality, creativity, utility, and branding.

Small Businesses in the United States Are Driving Ad Spend Growth Globally

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Small businesses in the United States are driving ad spend growth globally.  How or why is that?  A lot has to do with self-serve and cost-efficient ad buying tools from the duopoly between Facebook and Google.

While small businesses haven’t yet begun advertising heavily on social media outside of the United States, Zenith [from Jonathan Barnard, head of forecasting at Zenith] expects the same dynamic to take off in other markets soon.

Learn more about how small business drives global ad spend growth and why the duopoly between Facebook and Google reaps the rewards.

Relax Your Global Mindset (meditation music video)

Today in Global Small Business: The New Kid on the Block for Global Payments Who Claims to Have 2 Billion Users

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Here's what small businesses are doing to minimize the impact of the trade wars.
• Recording (complimentary thanks to wegg® sponsors) is available from presenter Monica Toporkiewicz, Senior International Trade Specialist, U.S. Department of Commerce on how to find international buyers for your business, conduct research and utilize government resources. To view, visit: https://womenentrepreneursgrowglobal.org/2019/09/16/how-to-find-international-buyers/
• Quote of the week: “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." – Ludwig Wittgenstein
• To help companies understand these risks and work to eliminate child labor and forced labor, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) developed the mobile app Comply Chain: Business Tools for Labor Compliance in Global Supply Chains in 2017. 
• Payment technology startup Rapyd has raised $100 million in venture-back funds to tap into e-commerce businesses, gig economy platforms, and any digital business service that wants a “highly localized” customer experience.  The company claims to have more than 2 billion users.
• Climate activist from Sweden Greta Thunberg remarks remind us what leadership, courage and sacrifice look like.

The Greatest Banquet in American History

©2019 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

In 1879, the "Greatest Banquet in American History” was celebrated at the grand Palmer House Hotel in Chicago.

Commemorating the return of President Ulysses S. Grant after his trip around the World, Potter and Bertha Palmer hosted a gala dinner for 500 dignitaries including honoring Civil War heroes, General William Sherman and Phillip Sheridan. Among those in attendance Palmer’s friend, Mark Twain was the master of ceremonies, making this dinner and hotel talked about for ages to come. 

Learn more about the Greatest Banquet in American History.

How Do You Stay Optimistic Despite Concerns About Trade Disputes and a Slowing Global Economy?

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The latest National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) survey finds continuing labor shortage and higher pay for workers.  Small businesses are hiring but still struggling to find help—even as they raise wages.

How do they stay optimistic despite concerns about trade disputes and a slowing global economy? A separate NFIB survey out this week suggests it has a lot to do with the positive impact of the 2017 Trump tax reforms.  Really?

Let's take a look at one person's opinion piece -- keep an open mind and draw your own conclusions.

Youth Entrepreneurship Has the Capacity to Contribute to Economic Growth

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One of the most pressing and challenging issues facing the global community is youth unemployment, particularly in the developing world.

Rates of youth unemployment are the highest across the Middle East and North Africa region, around 30 percent, and close to 17 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the micro and macro consequences loom: stunted economic growth, poverty, migration, crime, and poor health, among many others.

Young people in the developing world are some of the most entrepreneurial, a key booster to economic growth through the introduction of innovative technologies, products, and services.

"With access to money, mentors, and markets youth entrepreneurship has the capacity to contribute to economic growth, catalyze new industries, and  support individuals, families, and communities," says Nicole Goldin, a nonresident senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Global Business and Economics Program and director and lead economist, Economic Participation at FHI 360.

Learn more about what youth entrepreneurs need to succeed.

Are You Ready to Cope with a Fresh Economic Downturn?

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Bulgaria’s Kristalina Georgieva has said the global economy needs to be ready to cope with a fresh economic downturn after being chosen to head the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a five-year term.

Georgieva said: “The IMF is a unique institution with a great history and a world-class staff. I come as a firm believer in its mandate to help ensure the stability of the global economic and financial system through international cooperation. Indeed, in my view, the Fund’s role has never been more important.”

Read more about heading off the threat of a global recession.

Translators Are Moving the Global Economy Forward

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Out of the world’s 7.5 billion residents, only 20 percent or about 1.5 billion speak English. Companies can’t rely on machine translations to reach the other 80%.

That’s why content translators have emerged as key contributors to the global economy. Without their contributions, technology would be siloed by more than the type of device or service availability. As a result, the global market for outsourced language services and technology has understandably ballooned to more than $46 billion and goes far beyond selling apps or streaming services.

Translators are moving the global economy forward, from remote corners of the world.  Discover how they are doing it and why it is important.