Doors to a world of export opportunities for businesses in Yorkshire and the Humber will be flung open during Exporting is GREAT Week from 18th to 22nd April.
The five days of events and webinars for first-time and established exporters in the county champion Exporting is GREAT - the Government's most ambitious export initiative to inspire and support 100,000 new UK exporters to sell goods and services overseas by 2020, thereby effectively doubling the number of businesses trading abroad.
But why is increasing the numbers of exporters a Whitehall priority?
The answer is that trading overseas is good for the economy and for businesses engaging in it.
Exporting generates almost one fifth of all income in Yorkshire and nationally - creating and sustaining thousands of jobs both directly and indirectly.
The gross value added (GVA) of the Yorkshire economy - representing the contribution to the economy of each producer, industry or sector - amounted to £102bn in 2014 (source: House of Commons).
The total value of exports from Yorkshire in 2014 amounted to £16.95bn (source: HM Revenue & Customs) - representing at least 16 per cent of Yorkshire's GVA.
Research shows that exporting is great for businesses of all sizes: it makes them more productive, innovative and resilient to economic downturn, achieving a stronger bottom line, enhancing reputation and profile and ultimately making them more likely to stay in business.
We can always do more to help create and develop new exporters and enhance and improve established exporters. If you ask the question could more companies sell profitably overseas the short and conclusive answer is definitely yes.
But why don't they?
For many it will be something they have never seriously considered, maybe they have never had any enquiries from overseas or maybe feel there are no opportunities. I suspect however that there will be plenty for whom it is either in the too hard' box or the too busy running my day- to-day business and paying the bills to bother' box.
Selling overseas can be hard work but can also be as easy as putting a product in a packet and posting it to someone in another country or for businesses with non-physical products, just selling a licence or sticking an attachment to an email. In most cases it's much less difficult than people imagine, it's just different.
As an analogy, consider how the internet and email rapidly became the norm for people and businesses to communicate and source information.
Exporting is GREAT can be the start of a similar revolution, where trading internationally becomes the new normal - as routine as searching the web.
This analogy is particularly relevant as the world becomes ever more globalized and digital. A strong web presence makes you visible to anyone in the world and there are many companies which first secure international business via an unsolicited enquiry through their website.
Other changes have helped make selling overseas less complex: translation is much easier and cheaper, contacting people is simple via email and phone, the growth of global banking and legal businesses and cheaper travel amongst many others.
So the potential for businesses in Yorkshire to reach out to new customers and lucrative new markets beyond the UK has never been greater. There are some 1800 export opportunities on the Exporting is GREAT website Exporting is GREAT alone.
Companies often ask me what kind of products can we sell overseas?
The answer is pretty much everything you can sell in the UK and quite possibly some things you can't. The list of amusing tales is endless - curries to India, tea to China or sand to Saudi Arabia. But behind these are serious points: people living overseas living similar lives want the same kind of things as we do here so if you have customers here you can also have them in another nation. Secondly, a product considered to be an everyday item here may well be regarded as a luxury overseas and attract premium pricing.
The same applies to services. Plenty of firms from lawyers and accountants to architects and designers ply their trade abroad.
UKTI and our partners are determined to help local companies succeed globally. We're working with thousands of companies across the region to do just that and want to help many more.
Making exporting the new normal for Yorkshire and the Humber businesses is a big challenge but one that we relish.
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