Discover the Perfect UPS Invoice Template for Product Management

Ups invoice template for Product Management

welcome and good afternoon my name is maria luisa voice i wanna say welcome to those of you who are live and those of you that are watching us uh in a in the webinar afterwards uh it's really an honor to be here and a pleasure to be here my name is maria luisa voice i am with ups and i am joined today for with two wonderful individuals that are gonna take us and continue us through the journey of of what we are doing in our women exporter program on how to expert and export really is a power for growth i know we have it there on the title and it is fascinating for us to think about it as we're going to take you through the models and the trainings that we're going to do we're going to think of it as a puzzle and every piece of the puzzle is going to give you the tools and the knowledge to be able to be competitive and continue to grow and in the uk i find fascinating in some statistics that were published in in december of 2021 there were 99 billions of goods at services in 2019 that were exported by small businesses um and that was more than 700 million pounds over that year prior however only one in ten small businesses export and i know i'm taking probably mark's talking points in here but this is important to know because the potential for growth is amazing and and when we go and and grow deeper as ups when we start looking about what where is the the the need or where is the the need for that knowledge gap where we can go and help women entrepreneurs as small business owners to export this is how we have tailored the presentations and the conversations today and you're going to learn about the topics that you need to pay attention how to do it and most important you're not alone there's a community around you to help you and before i introduce both my speakers too i do want to thank our partners owed the organization of women in international trade the uk chapter and owed the international chapter for being partners of ours and working together so today i'm joined by as i mentioned two wonderful individuals miss sarah bell public affairs manager with ups and mr bart burkett i'm going to make an introduction quickly of both of you now so we can let it out between the three of us we have around over 100 years of experience that doesn't mean we're old it means we have accumulated youth and wisdom and sarah has been with ups over 20 years working on topics uh that help understand the markets help expand sustainability so many pro pro topics that have given her the expertise to be able to help you today sarah thank you for joining us and mark mark you have also over 30 years of experience working with the department of international trade he is an expert academy task advisor and i love mark that you have been in several markets learning how to export and how to work overseas and we're going to hear from you later today so thank you so much welcome some some things to keep in mind if you have questions please put them in the q a we will be answering the questions and also if you want to put in the chat any comments or where you're from let us know and we'll be able to to look at it so with that i'm going to turn it over to sarasata welcome how are you doing this afternoon fantastic thanks marie luisa it's really exciting to be here and kind of in our our first we had the launch a couple weeks ago um but this is really our first workshop to to really start digging into some of the the key issues and things that we can help kind of you know help small businesses to to start to prepare to export um so thanks everyone for being here this afternoon and for those that may be watching this on on a recording um i'm just going to take you through some some things to think about as you start your exporting journey um and and things that you can start to prepare and think about so that you can have a real strategy in in place um as marie luis has said there's going to be some times for questions we've also got mark on the line um you know who will also be sharing some of the resources that are available um from the department for international trade so hope this is really useful um also just to point out in our last workshop on the 28th of june we're going to be delving even more specifically into uk eu and uk us shipping um as we know those are our two kind of big markets and a lot of changes in those areas so so let's get started um and as maria luisa alluded to already exports matter and and why do they matter um you know as we see from some of the numbers here cross-border e-commerce is booming at the moment um we know that in the uk exports total about 742 billion dollars and the top export markets for the uk include the us germany china france netherlands and ireland so we know already that those are some kind of key markets that we can start to focus on as a small business and and start looking to see um where best to to kick off from um we know british products are are popular around the world if you look at this map you know the uk place is in the top five of where online shoppers want to go um and they look at us you know with some bigger markets like the us and china the uk is right up there and we know that global shoppers like the uk they look at they are looking for quality they're looking for health and sustainability and they're looking for uniqueness and we know british products have those and british products are really in demand around the world globally we just had the jubilee weekend the the the long weekend here in the uk and britain is really at the top of the agenda globally so it's a really great opportunity um to take that you know and really leverage it um why and again for your business you're a small business you've got a lot on your plate what you know why is exporting important to you we know it can be making more productive we know it can be more profitable for your business we know exporters you know companies that export can grow faster they will employ more people they'll pay higher rates and it really can help make your business more sustainable in the long term in terms of being able to work with different markets so when there's market fluctuations in different parts of the world you can pivot and concentrate on other markets so it's really key in terms of how you you know for the long-term growth of your business and and how you grow so it's it's a really key area to look at um but i know talking with a lot of small businesses you know a lot of the ways that you get into exporting is because all of a sudden an order comes in on your website it's come from the u.s it's come from australia and all of a sudden very quickly you have to figure out how do i get my goods to that to that location and it you know it's not easy especially if you want to be able to respond to that that customer quickly but you need to make sure that you're not going to lose money or or lose a customer by not doing it properly excuse me um so it's really key that rather than being a kind of reluctant or passive exporter really think about what you you know what do you want to do have a strategic plan think about it proactively what are the destination countries that you want to focus on how will you grow that year on year and most importantly and that's why we're here today is really work with experts so whether it's ourselves as your as your delivery company whether it's with the government through the dit through our partners as an owit there are a lot of experts out there that want to help and support you and make this a bit easier because we realize you've got so much on your plate trying to be an expert in exporting is just one more thing on on your growing list so let us help you um in terms of doing that how does exporting work um again very basically you know it's it's about creating a shipment moving those goods to another destination and making sure it's cleared through the local customs and delivered to your final customer one of the things you know that we talk a lot about at ups is that the information about your goods is just as important as the goods themselves so whether you know whatever mode you're using whether that's air truck ship or maybe a a combination of those things the information that's traveling with that that package whether through the documents that go with it or through what you file electronically having that information um accurate um and and meeting all the regulations is just as important as as the goods that you're you're sending to ensure that it gets a very quick and efficient delivery so what are some of the key preparations um for exporting so there's some thing some a few things that you can do to kind of prepare um before you kind of you step into this this world of exporting and um and moving your products around the globe so know what your product is know where your product is going what are the forms that are required that need to go in again it's that information that's going with the package that's just as important when does the package need to get there so thinking about the time and the speed um that you want to get it to your customer and how you're going to prepare that package so if we look at the what your product is now i know you all know what your product is you know it very intimately you know it very closely you've lived with this product for probably a long a long time as it's incubated and grown but when it comes to the customs clearance piece and the in terms of the the paperwork that you need to fill out you have to be very specific about what you're doing you need to know what the commodity code are so if you sell trainers putting down trainer or women's trainer on your form is not going to be enough information you need to identify that specific commodity code so for example in this example it would be a women's sneaker with a leather upper and a rubber sole and so again there's some tools we'll talk about that both we have that the dit have that can help you to identify what that code is to make sure that you're accurately reflecting that in your paperwork and if i may jump in here this would be important i always call it because i i find this fascinating as as for the entrepreneurs that are listening to us think of it as the as a custom straight name and last name of your product right um and that is always you're going to find this is one of the things that you have to remember like you remember something that is special for you this is how countries are able to recognize right what is that code how are the countries going to recognize it and this is what is gonna and i know you're gonna talk about this but i always think of the of the hta htms code think of it as that code that is going to help you how the internationally that that if your product is recognized and the last name changes depending on which country you're sending to so that goes deeper into the information but i always think of etc as the first name and last name of your product so that it is going to be recognized and move across the different countries perfect oh that's that's a really great example thank you thanks marilyn so yeah so i think you know again that's that's really key that we you understand what that how that product is is named and again there's there's ways that we can help you to to identify that um again you know the next thing is you know where is your product going so be sure that you're checking local country regulations about restricted goods the documentation that's required and the customer the customs clearance before you ship so again there's a lot of tools out there that that can help you do that and make sure that you're preparing everything um completely so it's it's really good to understand what those requirements are before you actually ship your goods where they then may get stopped in customs and then there's delays which you're not happy about and your customers not happy about so that's that's really key know which forms are required so again ensuring that these forms are completed accurately can really help speed up that clearance at your destination market so for top tips for your commercial invoice that you'll be filling out you know again ensure that there's a detailed description for each item in the shipment each item should have be on a separate line and the quantity and value is stated for each item for and and for the total shipment um another key thing really is the other forms that may be required to go along with that package um things like your certificate of origin electronic export information or an export license and one of the stories i always remember really clearly with the certificate of origin is really key um several years ago i took a group of small businesses to the us on a trade mission where we were kind of taking them to our to the ups home city of atlanta and and taking them through some of these processes in terms of getting goods to market and we had a great company with us which was a tea company that sold tea um and they had a bunch of their tea send over to the us for an event that was going to be showcasing their product while we were in the us and the the shipment got stuck to stopped in customs so we were looking into it to try to understand why did it get stopped and it came down to the certificate of origin where the the the owner of the business had filled out well it was coming from the uk that's where it was originating however the tea leaves that he used for his tea actually come from sri lanka so it's really important when you're filling out that certificate of origin that it that it reflects that where the goods are coming from so in that case it was sri lanka if you have component parts that may be coming from different parts of the world again it's really key that that the final product reflects where all the the items have come from because that's a really key thing we hear again and again from some of our customers of of not having that certificate of origin completed correctly um and it can in in this case luckily we were able to get the t in time he was able to use it for his his kind of showcase um but it is one of those niggly things that can really mess up getting your products to where they need to be um speed so you know when do your packages need to get there how are you um you know communicating to your customers in terms of how quickly they're gonna receive their goods um and again it's it's really thinking about both the cost and the speed um i talked about the different modes that they may be going on so air is obviously your fastest but it's also going to be your most expensive in terms of getting your goods to to where they need to be rode is a good way of balancing both that speed and cost and shipping you know it can also be that more economical and reliable service but is going to take a bit longer but also can work when you've got maybe a larger shipment that you're trying to get to a specific market um so really think about that that speed and how you're communicating that to your customers the other thing i'd also really highlight is don't forget about returns um one of the things we know from consumers is that they will check your returns policy on your website um and we they will check that before they order to know whether they can return the goods to you um so think again you know as you're shipping internationally how do you get those goods back and what's going to be the most efficient way because a lot of customers will um you know especially if they if they're ordering something internationally if they can't return it they may not want to purchase it so it's it's always good to think about that stuff of the process as well from ups perspective we you know there's a range of services that we offer that provide that both that speed and the economical um service as well so depending on what you need there's a range of services there that can that can help you get the product where you need it to be including a ups economy service that's really good for kind of low weight low value e-commerce goods um that that really can help get direct to your customer in a slightly slower service but much more economical especially if you're shipping multiple shipments um and then finally in terms of knowing how to prepare your shipment again this is this is really key from you know how you're going to package your goods what is the customs documentation that's going to go through go with it if you're going to be able to file that electronically validating the address making sure that you've got the correct address including a telephone number so it can get to your end customer and also think about insurance but the key point i wanted to make here too is about packaging is really thinking about a robust packaging so that you're protecting your goods especially if it is fragile or could leak make sure you've got very robust packaging to protect your goods but also think about the size of the packaging um most when you're shipping something you're going to pay based on dimensional weight so that's both the size of your box as well as the weight and the last thing you want to do is ship air um we've all had those boxes where we've ordered something small maybe a book or or something quite small and it comes in a great big box not only is that packaging it can be wasteful but you're also paying for that size of that box so really think about how you're shipping your goods um and doing it both in a sustainable way um but also in a very um robust and protective way so that your goods get to the to the end point as you want them to do so where to get started where can you really start if you're starting to think you know maybe i'm sending stuff you know a few times a week a month internationally and i'd really like to grow this so really if you've got a website have a look at your website and look at where you're getting web traffic from where are you getting visitors from and look at where those markets might offer the most opportunity for you um you know where do you think that you could really um you know have some opportunity to grow your your product you know but you don't need to you know you don't need to venture far we saw some of the biggest export markets for the uk being um the us and ireland and some of our closest eu neighbors you know so you don't need to go no go far stay where you're familiar and where you're comfortable either by language or custom culture or business norms you know maybe also think about places like australia or india that have close associations with the uk um you have similar language similar histories um and have a real appetite for british products so again you know to think about where where your product is going to fit best another key thing to think about is the landed cost the duties and taxes that are going to be required for those goods when they arrive at their destination we know again this is a another key consideration for consumers when they're ordering something internationally what is that total cost of the order going to be they're paying for the goods but they also don't want to be surprised when the the delivery comes to their doorstep and there's extra money to be paid so i think this is a key piece to really be very transparent about um when you're advertising your goods there's some tools that that ups have through shipping apis or through going through ups.com that can a help identify what those duties and taxes are going to be on on your goods and you can also determine how you're going to allocate that cost in terms of a passing it on to your your end customer and making that very clear at check out what those costs are going to be um it may be that you're covering those costs or you're going to roll it all up into one cost and and again we just know it's it's it's um it's very important to be very clear and transport parent about what those end costs are going to be um so that your customer is not disappointed or surprised when there's an additional bill when they they receive their goods and here i think and we'll talk about this in the other modules but something that is very important here for our businesses to take into consideration is also their cash flow right and how much are they going to pay and we have a model just on e-commerce and talking about how you market and how you position but this costs are important and usually when you put free delivery your free this nothing is free in life just keep that in mind but make certain that you're being transparent and that there's a saying in spanish of course that has nothing to do here in english but it says cuentas clara's chocolate especially if you have all the information ahead of time and you're able to let your customers know this is what is going to be transparently your cause that gives you loyalty for your customers and helps you with your cash flow because you want to make certain you're managing your inventory and you're managing that cash flow brilliant thank you marie louisa i think that's i think that transparency is really key in terms of the customer experience and your relationship with the the customers is really important um again there's some other tools um you know through uh ups internet shipping or ups tradability which um help you in terms of aid to identify what some of the requirements are going to be um in the in the countries that you're shipping to helping you with that product clarification helping you fill out the forms that you need to do as well as calculating those landed costs so those are those are a couple tools that that we can help you with again there's some other tools and i know mark will probably talk about some of the resources available through the dit so again that's where you know the one message we want to really get out is you know rely on what's out there don't think that you have to go this alone there's there's there's a lot of information and resources out there that that can help you navigate some of these kind of very complex areas so next steps last couple slides here um you know again think about you know research your products find the right tools that you need you know maybe try out a few countries that you you feel comfortable with or that you have started shipping to already do you research make sure you understand what's required from those countries whether it's the paperwork the packaging or or other kind of key areas that that are going to you know really help you get a smooth entry into those countries and not get your goods held up in country in in that country and really you know begin your journey and don't be afraid to take you know take advantage of some of the opportunities that are out there through global e-commerce and it's the the key thing that that um the internet and social media has really brought is that you know it really levels the playing field between smaller companies and and larger companies where you can really compete globally as long as you've you've got this strategy in place we'll share this presentation with you um after the call there's some links in here that help you you know um in terms of getting some of that shipping advice um i know we've had questions we always get a lot of questions at the moment about shipping from the uk to eu which we will cover in depth in a few weeks time but if you need something more immediate there's some guides that we have um both from shipping from the uk to the eu or from the eu to the uk as well as an exporter's checklist um so again we will share that and i know mark's going to go through some of the resources that they have available as well so i'll hand back to maria luisa at the stage thank you so much sarah and mark i'm adding you on the spotlight sarah thank you very interesting uh very interesting information and definitely take us the steps right and and to to our to our attendees and participants you don't necessarily have to work with ups we're sharing that information we just want you to know you're not alone there's a community of tools available so now i welcome my dear mark to the stage and said i will do more q a later on and if you could write the questions in the q a box that's great i know you're writing some questions on on the chat and there is no size limit my dear tina but someone will answer to you and we'll get back to you in in in that question but mark welcome how are you doing this afternoon oh let me let me perfect yeah there we are thank you maria louisa thank you and thanks sarah it was uh informative even for me um i'm out of my long years in exports it was interesting to hear your presentation and lots of food for thought there thank you and good afternoon to everybody good morning to some people on the the webinar um i work for the department for international trade and i think one thing i'd like to say there were a couple of points that sarah made which i'd like to pick up on um there's a lot of and i'll say this from my own personal experience in international trade there's a lot of ambiguity and and sort of smoke and mirrors about international trade but i mentioned it earlier to um a lady was speaking to that essentially international trade is one human being selling to another human being and i think that's important to stress there's a lot of um effort put into sort of frighten people off from international trade we mentioned one in ten companies exports and there's obviously a reason for that and i think as the department of international trade our objective and aim is to try and get through some of that mystique if you like for wants of a better word and try and um break down the barriers be they either perceived or actual barriers um to international trade um we don't want anybody at all to be scared or worried or put off by the fact that they think they can't trade internationally you can but it's like anything in life the best way to do anything is to do it in the best way you can and what we try to offer here at the department for international trade are the tools um to enable you to draw upon them as and when you need i like it when i'm presenting to people who are clients of the exports academy think of us as providing the tools which you can put in your toolbox you won't use everything that we teach you because some of the things you'll already know um but those we identify your strengths and obviously everybody has those strengths maybe a product it may be your sales technique it may be you you know your unique selling points of the products or services that you're selling but we also identify those weaknesses as well and what we can do is we can help to strengthen those so we can give you the tools that you put in your toolbox some of which you may use some of which you may never use but you've got them in your toolbox ready to draw upon them if you need to in the future international trade can be i'm based here in the west midlands and a lot of because of the nature of what's going on in the past historically with the west midlands it's been a um an industrial area where they've made lots of widgets and engines and all those things that have been groundbreaking around the world but more and more now we're seeing people exporting their services as well so we've got lots of people who are in the professional markets for the services that they provide and they're taking them to export markets for the first time and that's with our help and support um it's a free service that we offer and i think someone mentioned before that nothing's for free and that's absolutely rise um and i accept that point and it's a point well made but i always think that when you're starting off essentially you're looking at you know you're looking at your budgets and you're looking at the finance and you're thinking well we can't afford this but we can afford that and the thing to to always remember with what we offer at the department for international trade it's a free service and i always think that anything that's offered to you which is free you should lean upon and maximize the use of that we've got experts in very many sectors um you know i can list them all but or list some of them but there's so many different sectors we have experts in and we've also got the advantage which i think is an advantage of when you send the overseas it's nice to have somebody who's in situ in that particular country and of course we've got representation in embassies high commissions consulates around the world and we can lean on those people they're our eyes and ears on the ground and we can take your client to them and say look this is what the particular product is or service that they're selling is there a call for it in the marketplace what are people looking for in your particular region or country and they can give us that feedback now you can get that on google everybody google's everything for information nowadays but what you can't get is that the actual eyes and ears of people who are actually situated in those markets and of course we've got that as well so we can call upon those people to help us basically what the exports academy is about which is my particular um sector we're here to as i say remove the barriers for new to export people people who've never considered export before and i must say as well we also have people who've had a bad experience of exporting they've exported they've caught a cold and it's put them off and they thought oh gosh you know it's not for me exporting what we're trying to do is it's a bit like riding a push bike if you fall off on your first attempt you've got two choices haven't you you know they get back on again and you you learn to master the bike or you you throw it into the back of the garage and never use it again and stick to your skateboard like i did but um that's the kind that's the kind of thing that we're trying to get past that if we can show people how to do it right then that's going to be better than making the mistakes because it can either be costly or more importantly it can put you off forever i love i love i love what you're sharing because that is that is so important and how in your expertise as you go through the journey and help them what tools does the department have available to help them keep that in mind because that is i think that is a mistake that that many times are done right and the small businesses get afraid about exporting afterwards yeah i think what we do what we cover is um sarah touched upon it in her presentation international i think everything is it's like any aspect of your life really if you fail to prepare you know the rest of the saying so what we offer i don't like saying it but you know the rest of the same and i think what we offer are how to internationally market research so people may be sitting in the uk thinking i've got a great product but where can i sell it well we offer you and show you how to go about doing your market research not only finding identifying markets but also doing due diligence on who you're selling to because i think what's important is someone again you know it's been mentioned before sustainability sarah mentioned it but i think the important thing is we're not looking for one-off sales are we what we're looking for as business people is to develop a business that has got longevity it's not a one-off sale you mentioned about return sale and it's a very good point someone i hadn't really considered really but it's important that you do cover all bases because people will look and think well if there isn't a returns policy why would a deal why would i choose to deal with these people when i can go to another company you've got that returns policy so it's doing you your due diligence i would suggest international market research pricing strategy is another workshop that we offer and that pricing strategy obviously selling goods in the uk is different from selling them in the far side of the world you have to take into different into account different aspects such as duties and anything payable locally in the country which people may not understand or even not understand but not even know about when when you're setting setting up your business um we go through all the pricing elements whether you work with agents and distributors or whether you sell to the customer and the end customer we have a workshop that presents for that as well and through right the way through there's a whole range of logistics hs codes which is important as you said it's the name first name and surname of a product but it's also the way i liken it is it's like an international language it's it's that number is recognized in you know the middle east as it is in america as it is in the far east it's the universal language of exports and that's important to understand mark and in in on that point something that people might not realize which i love about the uk government you do all this research you you leverage your network of embassies around the world right to get that market information for for for the small businesses yeah it makes it it makes international business localized um you know i've sat in on very many webinars and team schools where we've spoken with the far east for instance on last week with china and some of the things that they can offer you just wouldn't know you would not know from the uk it's localized information which is absolutely invaluable i know ups have representation there that's fine of course it is but you know what we would try and do as the department of international trade is present clients to you in the best possible shape i see it as a journey in that regard that you know if we can prep clients properly when they come to you at ups they've already you're talking about the same kind of language and i think mark from that respect for example we work at ups we work very closely with you guys because that helps the full picture for example tina's asking us a question that that makes sense he she says how do i know legally how do i how do you to ensure that you're covered from uh with the language differences that the legal terms are covered if it's a country where there's another in another language do you are you able to advise them on the tools or be aware of what they need to be aware of legally and what the terms are in another country absolutely louisa where i mentioned about sector specialists before we've got people who are basically involved in the legal side of things so they can handle contracts they can handle um all the the various legal aspects of international trade we also have a lady who deals with the cultural aspects because obviously dealing around the world is different in i mentioned it before but working in the middle east is different from from europe and in fact even within europe and i'm sure we do all agree even between european countries there's different cultures and different approaches to work so we cover those as well but also we offer and translation services the one thing i would say about that is i think there's a price to pay for the translation services there's a feeling yeah there's a fee for that but the fact of the matter is we've got guys who can tell you about the legal aspect so particularly for whichever country because obviously that varies around the world as well that is that is and and and something tina to be aware of leverage the dit the department of international trade because it like mark says they really do a holistic approach mark moving so other questions that that may have and i know sarah mentioned we're going to go deep dive into uk eu and uk uh usa but how are you looking at some of the um in general how do you advise that the from the department's perspective if they are exporting perishable products or products that that need more care where they're going and how to take care of understanding the regulations at the point of origin right like sarah very much shared with us about the t before that's right i think the thing is as sarah pointed out i think it's the one thing that let me be quite clear it's the one thing that we can't be 100 um experts in because individuals know their own products you know and i think that's important i think what i would also say about the department for international trade we'll show you the best practice and the best way to do things obviously it's down to the individuals in terms and that's not a disclaimer i don't mean it to sound as though it is a disclaimer but if you're going to be selling a product what it would suggest is you need to know absolutely everything about that product anyhow otherwise you're not an expert in what you're professing to sell so you need to be an expert in that but um in terms of the advice that we give i would say that the exports academy through the process of the workshops that we offer we cover off there's 10 core elements of the workshops um again not to avoid the elephants in the room there's been some changes he says very loosely in europe within the last two and a half years um but because of the agility that we have and i use that word loosely as well but the agility that we have to be able to be reactive as well i'm sure we'll all agree at the turn of the year this year there was a lot of changes with duty and taxes into the um into the eu and we were able to be agile enough to put individual bespoke workshops on october and november last year into december as well so we were able to give our customers our clients the best possible advice to get them ready for the the changes that were coming into place from january the first so that's one thing that we are we are agile enough and we pride ourselves on that really because i think a lot of people's perception from outside looking in is the fact that with this giant bmw you know too big to change as it were but we're not and also you know there's people within within the dit you've got practical experience we've been in your shoes yeah let me just tell a very s very quick sorry if i made my very first experience of sending goods overseas was a nightmare and i'll hold my hands up and say that but it was the one and only time it happened and i sent a pallet to spain to barcelona and it went by air and the one mistake i made and sarah touched the product before about packaging properly it was a full palace of product it was all labeled up correctly the consignee everything everything was right pallet 101 off it went the one thing i failed to tell people was don't stack them and when it got to where the end user in the warehouse in barcelona the pallet that was 1.2 meters high when it started was about point eight of a meter high when it landed and so guess who had to go back out to barcelona hard job but someone has to do it i went out to barcelona a couple of days later with about 300 boxes in my hand luggage and they met my old luggage and had to go and re-box them um so what we did all we did was break even on the first order but it was the first and last time we made that mistake but it's little things like that that you don't think of you know do not stack should have been on the palace and it was a mystery not to do that yeah mark and and i i'm sorry that that happened to you the worst way to learn what not to do but but we see it it happens a lot right is the packaging makes and and we see a lot in the uk a lot of interest also in small businesses as a sustainable approach and and agreeing package taking into consideration that that it has to be a journey right and i so something that i wanted to call market i i know in in late last year d.i.t published a 12-point export strategy right called uh made in the uk sold to the world is that correctly is that something that the small businesses can leverage and use so add it to the conversation with you as an expert and then have that in mind as they're thinking about exporting absolutely i think it's important to mention i will say it because i'm british um there's a lot of kudos around the world with made in the united kingdom and that can't be underestimated because it stands for quality it stands for safety and security it stands for value for money um there's lots of lots of things that you don't realize when it says made in the united kingdom it means a difference as opposed to made and that's not decrying anyone else in the world i'm not but we are valued around the world and we must emphasize that made in the in made in the uk souls of the world is exactly what we're putting out there it is made in the uk and we are able to sell it around the world as well so you know yes for small businesses you mentioned obviously we're talking about people selling eco via ecommerce one of the other workshops that we offer is is your website internationalized we all think we've got a great old single dancing websites but can somebody see it over in the far east does it make sense to them can are you targeting particular markets we can do that as well we can give you details on how to tweak it so that you're actually specific to a region or a country so there's lots of things that people wouldn't necessarily think about but they're the kind of things that we can offer as well and of course the most important thing how are you going to get paid because that we don't like to talk about it nobody likes to talk about it but you're in business to make money and how do you get them to pay from overseas where they're you know it's not great british pounds they're dealing with how are you going to get that payment into the uk so we show that in form of a workshop as well and then of course we've got moving on my aspiration is to get people to a certain level that i can pass them across to the international trade advisors and they're the people that will take them to overseas trade missions and virtual missions that we have to have during the year obviously the pandemic but there's different levels different stages but our aspiration is to get people exporting um if we do that then you know people and get them to enjoy it because that's what it should be about yes right and and i think as we see it so from a ups perspective what we have seen really mark in the past two years we saw e-commerce because of that pandemic we saw e-commerce grow in nine months what we thought was going to take five to ten years and and and that has really opened opportunities for small businesses to connect with customers that otherwise they didn't think they were going to connect and and being able to export allows them allows you as a business owner to hatch your risk right if maybe locally you're not able to sell as much or the economy something you can export and and go to others and uk products here right mark are so well received and and and there's a great market for for made in the uk on that part i say it as a latin u.s person i love i love the products so mark moving forward on this part um if and i know you have mentioned some of them what will be the top three areas where you see either businesses make the most mistakes as you are advising them um or the areas that that are myths that people assume something and then they realize it's not that what would be those top three things okay to address the first one in terms of the mistakes people make i think i would always say um to any person that i spoke to about export don't be don't go with the scatter gun approach don't say you're going to take over the world because quite frankly you'll never do that you know or you'll never do it right from the start anyhow i think what we always say to to people that we speak to for the first time is be targeted so don't go thinking you're going to dominate america and then you're going to dominate the middle east and the far east you know unfortunately people get carried away with things and that's that enthusiasm is fantastic but it has to be channeled in the right way so target your market so be country per pers specific even um or or even you know say you mentioned there about ireland um you know one of the things about where we are in in this part of the the uk is we've got the commonwealth games coming up in the summer just a couple of weeks away now and one of the biggest barriers to exports is language well i think the figures say that something like 90 percent of the people involved in the commonwealth games speak english so straight away there's one of your barriers almost trampled trampled down so you know the legacy of the commonwealth games isn't going to be at all running around jumping 12 foot in the air or running 100 meters in nine point something seconds although we can aspire to that but um that's not going to be the legacy the legacy will be the connections that we make in the next few months and then building on those as i said making new business have longevity having sustainability and so that is one of the things language i think is a problem but be targeted um be realistic as well i think you have to be realistic you need tenacity in export you need you know there's so many times you're going to be knocked back or have setbacks and i mean that by someone saying no it's okay i've gone somewhere else you know that always happens his life but but be tenacious don't ever be put down not how many times you get knocked down it's how many times you get up so keep getting back bouncing back and be tenacious um and in terms of is how is that one two three and the second part what was the second part of your question is there a second part two the second part the second part is myths that you uh that business have this preconceived notions about exporting and then well it's a very good point you make i as you somebody i think it was marry luisa i think it was you i'll have to hold you accountable somebody mentioned i've got over 30 years experience in international trade thank you for mentioning in the years um i was a child when i first started but um i think one of the things that you have to remember is that um when i joined the dit i had to go through the sports academy program now i'm an old dog i've seen it i've been there i've done it i've written the book i've got the t-shirt every every everything you want to say about that but when i went through the academy program it made me think it was thought provoking so whatever preconceived ideas you've got i'd like you to set when you come to us set them aside and learn because every day's a landing day i say that you know to my little puppy every day every day is a learning day the kids are too old to be told there but the puppy still listens but the fact of the matter is i think put your preconceived ideas to one side and open your mind to a way of doing things that you know we don't profess to be all singing all dancing and it's an evolving world out there of course it is you know who said two and a half years ago that we would have gone through what we've just been through but i'm still going through indeed so i think the thing about it is be realistic but be ambitious and be absolutely tenacious that's the big word i love it so so have a plan beat the nations be realistic and and really uh be open-minded i think that's that's too yes to not come to this so mark last question before i invite sarah to to to come to the q a um how do they how do people contact you they're asking us what's the best way to connect with dit well what i was going to suggest there is i did have a slide presentation that i was going to make but i thought i'd like to personalize it a bit more by by being me sadly for you guys but um perhaps we could distribute the slide presentation as well and i'll put the contact details on there as well and they by all means they can email me or phone me or whatever and we can get get moving within the department for international trade yeah that's awesome mark thank you so much and and i i hope for for all the participants to to appreciate the wisdom we all started when we were five in the screen yeah working um the wisdom that we bring to the table in in the the resources that you have available with dit and and that's something that i keep saying that i said it at the beginning you're not alone there's a community around you ready to support you and and that's very important my dear sarah one question for you that that came up in here and i and and understanding all the topics is there a business size this is very ups focused but but the question came up does ups care about the size of the business that you work with abs yeah absolutely not i think you know we we will work with companies of any size and i think what's really key with small businesses and i've i've worked in different ways with small businesses as i mentioned taking on on trade missions on on doing some of these workshops and i think you know we have the scalability to deal with um you know a smaller business and really um you know the tools are there whether you're a big multinational or smaller businesses we have the tools that that are there to support you so through um and again this i'll put the slide up at the end um you can sign up for a consultation with one of our our team that can talk through some of the challenges that you're having there's a discount code as well in terms of shipping um and there's a a kind of a host of resources online in terms of you know accessing what we can what we can support you with so again you know make sure that you're you're taking advantage of those um leveraging the expertise either through ups or through mark and the export academy um and really you know the our hope is really that we can grow with you i think that's what is really exciting for us is to see a small business that's maybe just shipping in the uk and starts to take that ship you know that shipping it internationally and we love to see that we love to see that grow i agree so let's going back thank you my dear sarah so my dear mark my dear sarah thank you so much for the words of wisdom the knowledge and a summary though for for for all of our participants and as we talk about how to export know your product know your customer know your country do your homework have a plan and that really helps you as a woman entrepreneur there's a lot of networks that can help you succeed and i know we had one of our guest speakers when we started was we had itc uh she traits initiative where you need to network you need to connect and be able to part of bigger networks you have owit that is a partner here you have what is called we connect which is an a large organization too that ups belongs to there's a community and a family around you to support you and help you deep dive in these areas and from the dit perspective i love mark the academy and and the other workshops and information make time to invest in yourself and your business so that you can take time off of doing the workshops so with that we're gonna say um we're gonna say see you next week as we continue the journey of the modules and the training you're going to receive this information those of you that are watching us in the recording you're seeing it right now in in our youtube channel and we'll be able to to see this we will receive more information and the upcoming workshops are june 14th the 21st and the 28th we're going to talk about logistics for ecommerce mark that's an interesting topic too i i'm thinking about your boxes that didn't make it at the same size um but that is something that is very important for you to understand right sarah that that logistics of sending packages when you sell them online that's a great success you have to make it to the customer so that's important that you understand that piece and going through customs right what is the customer experiences the sustainability approach of this and packaging and understanding more in depth we're going to deep dive on uk eu uk us and understanding the trade agreements there's a lot of questions in that area so i want to say thank you um i always ask my my speakers i i didn't tell them ahead of time words of wisdom what is the words of wisdom that you have learned that you will give the participants mark you want to go first okay um i think what i'd say is there's no stupid questions there's only stupid answers and i think the important thing to remember is as i said right at the start when i started to speak is that international trade is a human business it's one human being selling to another human being and i think you mustn't forget that you know it's um we're all the same we're just different shapes and sizes and all those things but you know the fact of the matter is it's a human business and be tenacious don't ever give in keep going and you know do it the right way is what i'd say it's always the best way you mentioned you mentioned very nicely my experience of the crush boxes but it only happened once and that's because yeah once bitten twice shy yeah he made that mistake once you know i made other mistakes but they weren't as dramatic as that you know love it mark thank you so much and and i think that's a that's a great advice and that's why we support women entrepreneurs right don't be afraid it's a human business and you can and you can make it happen my dear sarah your words of wisdom but yeah you've kind of alluded to one i was going to say you know be be brave you know one of the things i am always so inspired by the businesses that i see because you know just to set up your business you've taken a huge step and i think you know don't be afraid of taking that next step because i think that'll be really key for your business and and taking it globally so be brave be prepared do you know take the time to just do the resource research um get prepared to do that and lean on the experts that that we have here reach out to us reach out to the dit we can put you in contact with other people as well um and yeah we want to be on that journey with you if we can perfect well thank you with that have a beautiful rest of the week it was it has been an honor to be with mark and sarah thank you both of you for for your time and to all of you continue conquering the world and may the force be with you i'm a star wars fan uh so so be strong and and continue conquering business thank you thanks