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July 11, 2008
Dear Reader:
Summer has been anything but slow here at Virginia's Gateway Region. Take a moment to read what we've been up to in our Summer 2008 newsletter!
Entrepreneur Express Seminar
Virginia's Gateway Region is partnering with other organizations throughout the region to host an Entrepreneur Express Seminar. This seminar will be held on Thursday, July 31st from 8:30 am - 1:00 pm in room 102a at the Nicholas Student Center at John Tyler Community College, Chester.
This seminar is geared toward small business owners and entrepreneurs who are looking to educate themselves further on such topics as: How to Start and Operate a Business, Marketing Strategy, Financing/Managing Resources and more. Click here to learn more and for information on registration!
NEW: Digital Update for Investors
Renee Wyatt-Chapline, Executive Director of VGR, worked with Dominion Virginia Power recently to produce the first ever digital update geared towards our investors. These updates will come out at the end of each quarter as way of keeping our investors informed on the developments in the Gateway Region. Please visit www.gatewayregion.com/investors/ to take a look!
Overview of Exporting: by Terri Noll, VEDP
Terri Noll was the featured speaker at the last Business Council meeting in June. She was an extremely enthusiastic speaker and everyone came out of there with a better knowledge of exporting and the effect it has on each of their industries. In case you missed it read the article below written by Terri talking about exporting.
“Our company is interested in exporting but we have no idea how to get started. Where do we begin?”
I know this has never happened to you before, but I have (on more than one occasion) found myself eager to embark on a new adventure in home repairs. Barely able to constrain my excitement, I have plunged headfirst into things only to realize that I had no clue what I was doing. Invariably, it costs me three times more to have the plumber come and fix what I’ve messed up than it would have if I called him from the start.
Now, what does this have to do with exporting, you ask? Many companies have great products with potential markets overseas. However, they do not pursue entering these markets because they don’t know where to start. Or, like me with my home repair projects, some companies dive in full of enthusiasm and little else, only to realize that they are not sure what they are doing and end up making costly mistakes along the way.
In the world of exporting, getting started is not as hard or risky as it seems IF you have a plan of action. The first step along the way is to know if there is a market for your product. Many people come to us at the Division of International Trade (VEDP) thinking they want to break into a particular market for a number of reasons: “My cousin lives in Singapore…. A friend told me she knows somebody who once needed a widget in Irkutsk… I’ve always wanted to go to Fiji so this way, I can write it off on my taxes….” While all of these may be factors that play into what makes a market attractive to someone with wanderlust, my immediate reaction is “Show me the data!”
The quest for finding data begins with the classification of your product(s). Every product that goes overseas needs to have an HS code—a Harmonized Schedule code. Sometimes you will hear this referred to as a Schedule B code; they are one and the same. Essentially, this is a number recognized internationally to classify commodities. The very first thing a company should do is determine what this code is, which you can do at the U.S. Census Division’s website, www.census.gov/foreign-trade/schedules/b/index.html#about.
Many products may seem to have a variety of codes which might apply. The best bet is for a company to narrow down the choices as precisely as possible. Does your company manufacture dishes? If so, are they plastic dishes or ceramic dishes? While dishes are dishes, they have different codes. Once you are pretty sure what your specific dish code is, you can confirm it with a phone call to the U.S. Census Foreign Trade Division’s Commodity Analysis Branch at (301) 763-3484.
Now that you know your HS code, what you do with it is very important. You can use your HS code to “find” your markets—that is, the countries that are the major importers of your product. A helpful website for this is http://www.worldtradestatistics.com/state/. (This site is a subscription based site. You can also find valuable, free access trade data at the UN Comtrade website, http://unstats.un.org/unsd/comtrade/, but it is not as user friendly.) Ceramic dishes are 691200. Plastic dishes are 392620. By visiting these websites, we can determine that Canada, United Kingdom and China are the top importers from the U.S. of ceramic dishes. However, for plastic dishes, Japan, Canada and Mexico are the top importers. (Fiji, sad to say, is 107th on the list, importing only $4,301.00 worth of plastic dishes from the U.S. in 2005. That might be a hard sell to the IRS.)
Now that you have your countries targeted, you will want to consider if there are trade barriers to any of those countries. Are they an embargoed country? Is there an excess tariff or other obstacle to overcome to export to that country?
Though you are now headed in the right direction, you will still need to research the market to learn about export licensing issues, foreign standards, and a myriad of other issues will come into play down the road. This is the point at which, if you’ve not already chosen to do so, you might want to give us a call. The Division of International Trade of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership has offices located throughout the state to help companies through this process. A team of International Market Research Specialists routinely handle such issues for companies throughout the state.
To learn more about the services available for your company to get started exporting, or if you have a specific export related question, contact Terri L. Noll, Client Services Manager, at (804) 545-5764 or by e-mail at tnoll@yesvirginia.org.
BIO 2008 International Convention
Virginia's Gateway Region recently attended the BIO 2008 International Convention, one of the premier biotechnology conferences in the country. In total 20,108 industry leaders from 70 different countries and 48 states were present. The full convention program included four full days with 175 breakout sessions, 21 educational tracks, more than 1,000 speakers, three keynote sessions, six Super Sessions and three CEO Forum sessions.
BIO 2008 International represented one of the largest gatherings of Biotech exhibitors in history, with more than 2,100 companies present occupying more than 208,000 sq. feet of exhibition space. This level of participation provided VGR with the opportunity to meet with numerous companies to spread the word about Virginia's Gateway Region and explain why our region is one of the premier locations in the country to do business.
Phoenix Project
On Friday June 27th the Virginia's Gateway Region team gave a presentation to The Phoenix Project Nonprofit Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship Program at Virginia State University. The lively class was focused primarily on the key historic events that led to the economic demise of the City of Petersburg and the subsequent rejuvenation of the City that has occurred in recent years. Students discussed key economic indicators and considered the impact of possible future plans for the City. Students were left with a positive impression of what the future holds not only for the City of Petersburg but for the entire Gateway Region.
The Phoenix Project is a statewide nonprofit organization that seeks to alleviate poverty by building a sustainable partnership between Virginia's higher education institutions and the Commonwealth’s most distressed communities that adds civic capacity to communities, strengthens the mission of universities, and provides a powerful context in which to prepare nonprofit and social entrepreneurs for tomorrow’s Virginia. With offices in Springfield and Petersburg, Virginia, and programs in Northern Virginia, Tidewater and Southside, The Phoenix Project is developing innovative short-term and long-term strategies that benefit the Commonwealth as a whole.
Top Notch Education
According to a Newsweek report, four of the best public high schools are located in the Gateway Region, specifically Chesterfield County. These schools include: James River, Midlothian, Clover Hill and Monacan. About 27,000 U.S. high schools were eligible for consideration.
Chesterfield County Adult Continuing Education
If you have employees that still need their GEDs, let them know about Chesterfield County Continuing Education’s workforce classes. These programs offer introductory training that allows adults to enter areas of interest on a basic level. Classes are offered in Dental Assistant, Nursing Assistant, Cosmetology Theory, and Heating/ Air Conditioning (levels 1-3). New classes for 2008 include: Legal Systems Administration, Phlebotomy, Medical Assisting, Nail Technology, and Building Trades (Plumbing, Masonry, Tile, and Wall framing). Please call 768-6140 for more information and look for the new catalog of courses available on-line by August 1st with complete class information and how to register. To view the catalog after August 1st, go to chesterfield.k12.va.us, click “Community,” then “Adult Continuing Education,” then “Program Guide.” Printed copies will be available in Chesterfield public libraries, schools, and school/county government buildings in early August. |
