I’m just back from a break in scorching Spain, but the work never stops here, so this week’s blog comes from our Marketing Officer, Matt Cole, who’s been looking to spread the PCS message far and wide...
Over the past few months we’ve been working closely with UK Trade and Investment, a government department that encourages businesses in this country to get into overseas markets and so far, I have to say, the experience has been nothing but positive.
We came to UKTI almost by accident, having heard about an event in Coventry where members of various British consulates in the USA came over to pitch their services to businesses from across the West Midlands.
The States has been on our radar for a while, so it was a case of ‘nothing ventured’ and possibly much to gain.
At Coventry we met the Vice Consul in charge of the ICT sector in the Big Apple, Patricia Young, and we set out on a process we hope will reap dividends not only in the USA, but more lately has given us contacts in Europe, too.
Next up was an event hosted by Coventry Chamber of Commerce near Leamington that further explained the UKTI export offer, starting with a kind of ‘exporting for dummies’ which they call Passport to Export, followed by services such as OMIS – the Overseas Markets Introduction Service, where UKTI will report back to you on specific requests for information about potential markets – and the Export Markets Research Scheme, or EMRS which offers grants to go into a potential market and do the research yourself.
In fact there’s a whole bunch of UKTI acronyms to get your head around, but currently we’re on one that doesn’t seem to have one - Passport to Export - which is being delivered by UKTI Black Country and our dedicated – that’s not just to say he works hard, but that he works hard for us – International Trade Adviser, Terry Wood.
Our introduction day at the Black Country Chamber of Commerce was interesting because it put us in touch with companies pretty much in the same boat, like ceramics producers The Big Tomato Company and their boss Gloria Daniel as well as soft furniture manufacturer Soul Living run by Amarjeet Mahey.
They’re a little way off browser-based publishing software for print and digital, but the exporting process is pretty similar.
From then on we’ve pretty much been in constant touch with Terry in particular and UKTI in general with regular catch-ups as well as further visits to the Explore Export event at Coventry City’s Ricoh Arena which put us in contact with commercial officers from around the world – including Miles Fisher in Vienna, for instance – and a Doing Business with Germany seminar in faraway Guildford.
We’ve also had further conference calls with the UKTI team in New York and with one of their contacts, Bob Schukai (@iammobilebob) from Thomson Reuters and we’re now well down the track towards one OMIS looking at the American market and another concentrating on Europe.
There are costs involved. Passport to Export was £500 for instance, but you get that money back towards the cost of an OMIS if you head that way and if you go on to something like EMRS, there’s matched funding available.
Obviously, we’re still very much in the process and looking forward to seeing where it takes us, almost literally, but so far I’d have to say, we’d recommend it. We’ll keep you in touch with how it’s going. And if you have any questions on the experience, get in touch with me at mcole@presscomputers.com .
If you’re a UK business interested in exporting, you can get more information from your local chamber of commerce or from the UKTI at http://www.ukti.gov.uk.
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