Today in Global Small Business: Constant Evolution is the Only Way Forward

©iStock/smshoot

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

• It’s no secret that 2020 has been a difficult year for the food and beverage industry as a whole.  See how one fine dining restaurant is taking global to a whole new level by declaring constant evolution is the only way forward.
• Exporting Japanese culture abroad in the guise of a TV drama.
• Quote of the week: "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." – Walt Disney
• What you can do as a global small business to thrive right now.
• Want to rank higher in Google?  Learn SEO strategies from an expert (gee, there is a cost involved and it's offered from Entrepreneur Magazine during the hard times of COVID-19).
• Wix.com will now start offering payments.

Eureka Moments: Swinging in a Hammock

©2020 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

"Your best ideas, those eureka moments that turn the world upside down, seldom come when you're juggling emails, rushing to meet the 5 P.M. deadline or straining to make your voice heard in a high-stress meeting. They come when you're walking the dog, soaking in the bath or swinging in a hammock." – Carl Honore

Are U.S. Publishers Prepared for European Legislature?

©iStock/artJazz

Europe’s data protection laws are still murky, differently interpreted and fully understood by very few people. But wonky data laws are just one of many hurdles for U.S. publishers to scale in order to conquer international expansion — and those hurdles are stacking up.

Publishers say they remain enthusiastic about international expansion: HuffPost has 12 global editions and 60% of readers come from outside of the U.S. Bustle Digital Group, launched in the U.K. 2018, made several hires this year and has grown to 4 million unique monthly users with positive ad revenue momentum, the publisher said. Vox Media is hiring for its second international operation The Strategist UK, bringing the total to six staffers on international.

The U.K. seems a natural step into global expansion because there’s no language barrier yet there are some challenges worth noting.

Read more about why U.S. digital-media publishers are curbing international expansion.

World Entrepreneurship: Keep Your Eye on Young Entrepreneurs in 2020

©iStock/scyther5

The year 2020 has been an emerging year for the world of entrepreneurship, specifically amongst teenagers. From being quarantined due to COVID-19 and away from their peers, there has been a growing number of teenagers starting businesses this year. Here are the top 10 young entrepreneurs to keep an eye on in 2020.

Read more about ten young and emerging entrepreneurs you should become familiar with in 2020.

We Can Always Learn From Each Other (TEDx Video)

Let's Have Some Fun! wegg® and Whiskey Tasting 9/2/20

©2020 Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global®.  All right reserved.

Who wouldn't like to have some fun during these trying global pandemic days?  Who wouldn't like to connect with new people to make valuable connections?  Who wouldn't like to learn something new?  Who wouldn't like to meet directly with Dr. Sonat Birnecker Hart (and ask her questions), President and co-founder of KOVAL Distillery?

Now is your chance.  Join the wegg® team on September 2nd (5:30-7:30PM CT) with their annual FUNraiser (will set you forward only US $20) for a virtual experience that will alter your state of mind on the magic of whiskey.

To learn more and to register, visit:  https://womenentrepreneursgrowglobal.org/2020/08/06/wegg-and-whiskey-tasting-sept-2/.  #weggwhiskeytasting – I'll [Laurel Delaney] be there.  Hope you can make it!

Today in Global Small Business: The Happiness Edition

©iStock/alexel_tm

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

• Happiness is a practice, not a destination.
• What leading with optimism really looks like.  It starts with weathering the storm.
• Quote of the week: "The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself." – Benjamin Franklin
• Daydreams, expectations, and hope contribute to the happiness factor.
• Why aren't successful people happier?
• Variety is the spice of happiness.

Follow Your Heart

©2020 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.  Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking.  Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.  And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition." – Steve Jobs

Localization Testing Questions to Address When Launching a Product in a Different Market

©iStock/bankrx

As the author of the article below states, "A software application will not succeed globally if it’s written for a U.S. audience only. Users want an application that adapts to their understanding and expectations."

Localization testing verifies that an application functions as expected when it’s used in multiple locales with varying languages, formatting preferences and cultural expectations.

How do you actually create a strategy for localization testing to confirm that international audiences will respond well to your products?  What are the questions to address?

Read more about how to build a strategy for localization testing.

How to Attract International Clients to Your Global Small Business

©iStock/Ellagrin

Have you taken your company as far as it can go revenue and profit wise? If so, you should consider expanding your business overseas.

Taking your organization to the next level will allow you to tap into a much larger and far more diverse consumer market; it will help you to enhance your reputation; and, it will increase your foreign investment opportunities.

If you want your overseas venture to become successful, you'll need to find a way to attract international clients.

Find out how you can achieve this all-important feat – attracting international clients to your business – by reading on.

Global: Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto op. 35 & Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture

How to See Past Tomorrow for a Long-Term Strategy

©iStock/EtiAmmos

As Jennifer Riel writes for the global design company Ideo:

The unprecedented disruption created by this crisis should be seen first and foremost in humanitarian terms, connecting to the very real personal toll of this disease—serious illness and lives lost, isolation and fear, worsening unemployment and economic precarity.

How do you see past tomorrow for a long-term strategy?

Find out more here.

Today in Global Small Business: 5 Things to Know about the USMCA

©iStock/wildpixel

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

• Five (5) things to know about the United States-Canada-Mexico Agreement ("USMCA"), compliments of Kirkland & Ellis.
• Global marketing trends 2020 that could be helpful to your business.
• Quote of the week: "It certainly was difficult to sell NAFTA because it's always difficult to sell open markets." – an old quote by Lawrence Summers
• Want growth during COVID-19?  Try pivoting to a digital-first mindset.
• Create your best day at work, wherever it may be.
• Soon, Twitter will be translating tweets automatically on Android and iOS platforms.  Hello world.

Wear a Crown of Flowers on Your Head

©2013 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

"Wear a crown of flowers on your head, let its roots reach your heart." – Kabir

Female Entrepreneurship Is on the Rise Globally

©iStock/Wavebreakmedia

The World Bank's research shows that female entrepreneurs tend to encounter a unique set of challenges in starting and running their businesses globally.

1. Juggling competing priorities.
2. Skills gaps.
3. Legal constraints.
4. Financial and digital inclusion.

What are the things that male and female mature businesses, business leaders, academics and society at large can do to help?

Find out here how to uplift female entrepreneurs.

The History of International Trade in Three Distinct 'Globalizations'

©iStock/nespix

I [Laurel Delaney] wrote about Marc Levinson's book, The Box, in Exporting:  The Definitive Guide to Selling Abroad Profitably.  It was a fascinating book delving deep into who invented the containerized cargo and how it made our world bigger.

Twelve years later, Levinson has come out with a companion volume, Outside the Box.

Ostensibly a history of international trade through three distinct “globalizations,” Outside the Box is most useful as a chronicle of how the pre-2008 model of complex, globe-spanning, just-in-time manufacturing has been exposed as fragile, inefficient, and opaque.

Learn more about journalist and historian Marc Levinson's new book, describing the limits of long supply chains and the ways in which new trade routes are forming.

Today, Join Us For a wegginar® on The Power of Relationships in a Global Economy

©2020 Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global®.  Used with permission.  All rights reserved.

A wegginar® for anyone who has ever wondered or worried about relationship building.  How do you do it?  Why do you do it?  Who do you do it with?  And what are the benefits?  Lynda Dorman, CEO and Carolyn Howell, President and co-owners of Orange Wall Enterprises will discuss:

• Why every business needs to worry about relationship building.
• Understanding how your strengths could be your greatest weakness.
• Why you should build your business with a 'glocal' mindset.

There's still time (and space) to register!  Listen LIVE today (8/12/20) at 11AM CT.  To learn more and to register, visit:  https://womenentrepreneursgrowglobal.org/2020/07/10/the-power-of-relationships-in-a-global-economywith-co-owners-carolyn-e-howell-lynda-m-dormanaugust-12-2020/.

This educational program is offered free of charge by Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global® largely thanks to their generous sponsors who support women business owners interested in going global:  Greensfelder, GlobalCare Clinical Trials, APCO Worldwide, Associated Bank, Union Pacific and FedEx.

How the Global Crisis Will Affect the African Entrepreneurship Sector

©iStock/Lyndon Stratford

The entrepreneurship field is characterized by its ability to turn every crisis into an opportunity. With the help of the local governments and smart investments, entrepreneurs can use the COVID-19 situation to advance the field to new heights, affecting hundreds of millions of people. In order for that opportunity to arise, one major player that must take the lead:  VCs and investment funds.

Read more about how the African entrepreneurship sector was severely hit by the coronavirus yet it is still very early to assess how the global crisis will affect the sector.

Today in Global Small Business: Global Supply Chains Get Resilient

©iStock/AvigatorPhotographer

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

• A financial crisis is looming for smaller suppliers.
• Designing resilience into global supply chains.
• Quote of the week: "Amateurs talk strategy.  Professionals talk logistics." – General Omar Bradley
• COVID-19 made it clear: The supply chain desperately needs an upgrade.
• Mercado’s platform focuses on the “first mile” — the first 120 days — of the global supply chain, connecting buyers and sellers to help businesses better plan, move and ship products.  Now they can serve all importers, not just the 1%. 
• Supply chains on the move as global pressures mount.

Someone Planted a Tree a Long Time Ago

©2020 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

"Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago." – Warren Buffett

Women as Builders of the Digital Economy

©iStock/fizkes

2020 is a pivotal year for global stakeholders who want to advance and accelerate women’s economic empowerment.  Find out why through UNCDF's strategy, Women as Builders of the Digital Economy, (access and download report) which focuses on creating strategic partnerships at a global, regional and country level, and complementing them with market facilitation and deep technical assistance to affect change on the ground.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Clarifies What Info Is Needed on Shipments Valued at Less Than $800

©iStock/takenobu

U.S. Customs officials plan to issue a ruling this week intended to give border agents more transparency about the origin of imports destined for U.S. warehouses, improving their ability to police shipments for counterfeits and other illegal goods.

With the ruling, Customs and Border Protection aims to clarify what information some shippers must include about shipments valued at less than $800 that are heading to U.S. fulfillment centers and warehouses. Congress set that monetary threshold in 2016 as the amount at which goods can pass into the U.S. tax-free and with minimal documentation.

That law, which eased the flow of global e-commerce for retailers and consumers, also limited the amount of information shippers provided to Customs agents monitoring incoming goods for trademark violations, consumer-safety violations and other illegal behavior.

Note:  The ruling will require some shippers in the U.S. who want to import shipments under the $800 threshold to provide information about the foreign seller before the goods can enter the U.S. and continue to a warehouse to await a U.S. buyer.

How Women Benefit from Global Trade

©iStock/metamorworks

The World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Bank have launched a joint, 189-page publication titled, ‘Women and Trade: The Role of Trade in Promoting Gender Equality,’ on how women benefit from trade and the role of trade in advancing gender equality.

The publication shares how trade can expand women’s role in the economy, which can be linked to higher levels of gender equality, increased wages, improved working conditions, and improved women’s access to education and skills.

The report uses labor data disaggregated by gender at the industry level for 72 countries as well as a database on gender-related provisions in regional trade agreements.

Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global®, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization works with women entrepreneurs and business owners in helping them expand their businesses internationally and has known all along that women benefit from trade by earning more, paying more, employing more people and being more productive than firms that operate domestically.

wegg's mission is:  to educate, inspire and nurture women business owners and entrepreneurs worldwide on how to go global so they can run healthier businesses and create a new future for themselves, their families and their community.   wegg's vision is:  a world where every woman business owner has the opportunity and ability to take their business global wherever they may be located.

Performances From Across the World: Listen to Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts by NPR

©iStock/Adil Chelebiyev

Introducing NPR Music's Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It's the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space.

Settle in.  Kick back.  Relax.  Listen.  Enjoy.  Here's John Legend with his four-song performance.

Today in Global Small Business: How to Rebound From a Crisis

©iStock/IQoncept

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

• The Global Small Business Survival Guide.
• U.S. small business bailout money flowed to Chinese-owned companies.  
• Quote of the week:  "We all knew this. We all knew that it would take more time than any of us want to dig ourselves out of this hole created by this economic crisis. – Barack Obama
• Yes – Apple to release the cheapest ever MacBook Air!
• Global small businesses are fighting for their lives.
• How your company can rebound from a crisis.

Little Free Library: Chicago

©2020 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

©2020 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Check out the world's largest book-sharing movement:  Little Free Library.  We love this concept!  Join in building a community, sparking creativity, and inspiring readers.  Start here.