Amidst that backdrop, it can be enticing to delay or defer your international expansion and wait. But it may not settle down soon. And sometimes the best opportunity to be bold is when your competition is caught up in overall market inertia.

Seize the day – don’t wait to explore new markets

Being bold means leveraging an untapped talent pool with deep experience, approaches, and tools available so you can efficiently de-risk and profitably accelerate your international growth.  It means that you no longer need to endure constraints in talent, local market knowledge and execution, or cost.  Combining these elements helps you thrive, despite daunting challenges, when you have so much at stake.

In fact, it can cost you more not to grow internationally, frozen by the moment.

There are tailwinds from Canada’s diversification strategies away from dependence on the USA. Other countries are also looking for new global partners boosted by Canada’s reputation of being a reliable partner. And you’ll find that international growth diversifies your business mitigating impacts from a slowdown in the Canadian (or your domestic) economy.

Beyond the direct business benefits from international growth, I really enjoy the personal growth I get from meeting people from other cultures, learning their perspectives and customs. I suspect you will enjoy it too.

The point is that you can efficiently bolster your team’s international experience without adding overhead costs. It’s about who you use, when and how you use them, and how you find and access them.

3 key actions to jumpstart your global growth

• Don’t be deterred in your international business ambitions by global uncertainty. The knowledge and tools are available to make it a smoother transition, removing talent, insights, and cost constraints. It may cost you more not pursue it.
• Seek experienced guidance. Value deep experience, proven in the markets you target, for the way it can accelerate your progression, and reduce the inherent risks associated with it.
• Explore available resources.Look for resources and tools to help you quickly and easily find and engage the right expertise, each time as situations and your business evolves.

At what stage in market expansion should you engage with consultants?

This approach to accelerating your international expansion can be complementary to initial steps you may have taken. The consultants we are focusing on here have deep knowledge from real experience in the countries you are focused on. They may not know all the countries you are considering and may not be necessary for basic research.

You might decide to engage them either after completing your target country’s primary research (publicly available data and reports, essentially desk research) to help you on your secondary research (in-market insights) to validate assumptions and draft directional plans. Or you might engage them after your secondary research and after choosing your target country, to inject strong local knowledge as you shape and update your plans.

Either way, FITT has excellent guidance, process steps, and information sources for both your primary and secondary research.

An untapped, high impact source  of international experience

I led off this article referencing the global instability and unpredictability we all face. That includes the pros and cons of AI. These cumulative challenges suggest to me that the value of deep business experience has never been higher.

Experience breeds resilience and efficiency from having traveled often steep learning curves.

Fortunately, there is a large and growing, but largely untapped, pool of businesspeople with extensive international experience that you can draw upon.

They are not generally career consultants, rather they have worked inside businesses and know how they work, including their international operations. Their breadth and depth of experience means they can be very efficient in whatever flexible use you need, without adding overhead in a less than full time role.

The untapped talent pool I’m talking about is the growing cohort of businesspeople aging up, with 20+ years of experience.  Society’s perception of age hasn’t caught up with the reality. Longevity can mean that people have added middle years of high productivity, not added years of ill health at the end of their lives.

To that point, the latest brain neuroplasticity research found that we are at our peak cognition, conceptualization, and innovation in our 50s and 60s.

A MIT, Northwestern, Wharton and the U.S. Census Bureau, found that age 50 business founders are twice as successful as age 30 founders. Because of their experience. And that experience can benefit you greatly.

An OECD study found that age 45+ businesspeople are almost always more productive than younger people. And contrary to perception, we are very comfortable driving and adapting to change and technology adoption.

Consider these 4 ways that businesspeople with 20+ years of experience benefit your business, most of it free value add that you don’t pay for:

• valuable combination of knowledge/judgment/wisdom
• enhanced soft skills (communication, collaboration, resilience)
• boosted team productivity by 20% (the benefit of multigenerational teams)
• quick onboarding time, often able to “hit the ground running” due to breadth of cross functional experience
• cost effectiveness from using them less than full time, without benefits and long term financial commitments

Much of this value is not easily quantified, which means that businesses usually do not recognize the full value of aging up workers, whose experience can rub off on your staff and help them grow as a side benefit. Of course, this growing pool includes many people who have earned FITT’s Certified International Trade Professional (CITP) designation.

And due to their experience, consultants can help you adjust and pivot when things don’t quite seem to be going to plan – they can be an early intervention resource.

Select consultants based on the specific needs of your business

Consultants with deep international experience span many different functions, so you can choose the one that best suits your needs. They may be very accomplished in B2B or B2C, product or services, sales and business development, marketing, finance, operations, general management, channel development, partnerships, technology, legal, logistics, and more.

You might even find you want to engage more than one consultant, each with complementary expertise, to help you make sure you are taking a comprehensive approach and not missing any key success factors or risks.

Imagine how much acceleration a medium-sized manufacturer, with no international experience, would get from temporarily injecting proven experience in its target countries without adding overhead. There’s no need to build those capabilities internally, with all the fixed costs that adds.

This kind of support can also buy you time to make informed decisions. See how the business does and identify when to invest in employees after some time in market – a lagging investment decision compared to investing in overhead before your business can sustain it. Using proven experience in part-time roles means you can afford people with top tier experience – an equalizer with your big competitors. A real game changer.

There are now numerous ways you can engage consultants, as non-employees, to leverage their experience in ways that suit your budget and needs, such as:

Where to find and access international trade consultants

The traditional way for businesses to find consultants is through their networks. But what do you do when the expertise is more specialized, like knowledge of specific industries and countries, which makes them harder to find?

As Statscan reported, although there’s a shortage of tradespeople, knowledge workers are not in short supply.  They are just hard to find, so there’s a mismatch. They may not, for example, be as many social media stars. But there’s no correlation between how easy they are to find and how much value they create for you.

There’s a growing number of ways to find the expertise you need, including specific online services marketplaces, traditional recruiters with offices in many countries, boutique Canadian recruiters with an international network, and of course LinkedIn. There’s a growing use of AI to speed up the process of finding and matching consultants to your requirements.

Each of these options can have drawbacks such as high cost, slow turnaround times, an overwhelming number of candidates, or serving a narrow set of needs (which forces you to use multiple sources for multiple requirements). There can also be a lack of verification of someone’s experience. Which makes FITT’s CITP designation helpful.

Building a bolder vision and true competitive advantage

Injecting temporary deep experience doesn’t have to be a one-off or a rare exercise. You can use proven consultants flexibly anytime you face some challenges or opportunities but find that you have knowledge gaps. Quickly scale up or down. Proactively, or reactively when crises hit.

Sequentially injecting experience can make you more agile, more customer-driven, and can improve your execution and results.

Frequently bringing in these “guest workers”, not just for advice but embedded as the situation warrants, can help develop your people and even be a recruiting strategy.

In short, it can help your vision be more ambitious, not resigned to constraints, and improve the odds that you’ll achieve it.

Try a two-pronged approach for market-entry support

Having firsthand experience initiating international business, I know how daunting it can be wading into a different country, culture, and business community. To be successful, it’s vital to use deeply experienced consultants who know your target country, to help you plan and execute your market entry. I only wish these resources were available to me when I began my journey into international business.

You may want to consider a 2-pronged approach to engaging consultants for your international growth:

1. Home based

Engage a consultant based in your home market, i.e. a Canadian-based consultant with 20+ years of experience, for a Canadian company,  someone who has experience in your target country but also knows your culture, to help you draft a market entry approach, assess risks and opportunities, provide guidance on what to look for, and help in choosing the right local partners. There’s a saying: “trust but verify” – deep experience can help with that.

2. Locally engaged

Engage a local proven businessperson in your target country to provide the most current insights, feedback on your plan, and leadership in helping implement it. Recruiters with international offices, partnerships, and marketplaces can help you find the right fit.

In uncertain times, waiting can feel prudent — but momentum favours those who act with intention and insight. By tapping into seasoned international expertise at the right moments, you can reduce risk, accelerate learning curves, and compete far beyond your size.

Global growth doesn’t require building everything from scratch; it requires knowing who to bring in, when to engage them, and how to leverage their experience.

With the right support, international expansion becomes not just possible, but practical — and a powerful source of lasting competitive advantage.

The post How to tap into the best resource for export success – experience appeared first on Trade Ready.

I’ve learned a lot of lessons from over a decade of observing the efforts of senior trade development professionals, combined with research that included trade mission/show follow-ups, interviews with SME exporters, and extensive conversations with foreign government trade development officials.

One of the most important is that all of these sources revealed a critical gap in export market entry.

Canada’s SME exporters still mainly rely on the traditional “push” export approach, which involves selecting a potential market, building and launching a market entry strategy, and attempting to penetrate a new market.

However, the vast majority of potential buyers, as well as Canada’s international competitors, transitioned many years ago to a “pull” procurement approach.

Buyers prefer to purchase from local suppliers who offer fast delivery, local invoicing, and produce service and warranty.

Exporters using the pull approach, rather than trying to force their way into an established and usually highly competitive market from afar, take a longer term view and become part of the local supply chain that allows them to instantly identify opportunities and pull any good or service from head office.

In contrast, the typical SME export approach is to focus on managing risk and guaranteeing ROI over the near term. This is most easily accomplished by a simple push approach that relies on selling goods into markets without a previous invitation or request, and doing so with the minimal risk or expense.

But with service exports or services integral to product exports like software, licensing, R&D, custom design and fabrication, etc. becoming an increasingly important part of international trade, companies lacking the ability to provide these services are falling behind. As more countries require a certain percentage of local or domestic involvement, many companies not already in those markets are immediately excluded. And if a buyer is looking for a supplier, they will often find several local options and limit their search to those options, rather than expanding their search further to international options.

I suggest that the focus on push exporting goods and systematically excluding other potential exporters not using the pull approach is the primary cause of why Canadian SMEs export less than SMEs in many of Canada’s primary trading partners.

By encouraging more businesses to set up local presences in international markets, new doors will open for them and their exports should increase as a result.

How pull procurement tilts the odds towards businesses with a local presence

The pull approach is nothing new and has been in common use by international competitors and large Canadian exporters for decades, but has largely been ignored by most SMEs.

The fundamental success factor in any pull application requires only that SME have an established presence in the target country that allows them to identify, quantify and access opportunities from inside that market.

They can then pull goods, services and value-added intellectual property in as required. This presence can take several forms, and is almost always much lower cost than trade missions or even trade shows.

So why does pull work so much better than push? Put simply, suppliers are easy to find in any given market: they advertise, have websites, are often members of highly effective international trade promotion groups, focus exclusively on getting product into the hands of buyers, and compared to buyers are relatively few in number.

In contrast, buyers are much greater in number, do not advertise, and the vast majority rarely, if ever, attend trade shows. But more importantly, procurement has changed and now often focuses on services or service-intensive goods that demand a local presence. In addition, the vast majority of buyers depend on local supply chains, either by preference or to comply with local regulation or procurement contracts, as mentioned above.

This puts buyers (pull) in control of the procurement relationship. With the entire world and often literally thousands of suppliers to choose from, the chance a buyer will find one specific seller is low.

How does this play out in real-world examples?

Our international market research in 15 countries has shown that most of Canada’s SME competitors have been using a “pull” approach since at least the mid-1990s. In many markets they have dominated and have effectively shut out push type export sales into these countries.

EDC has successfully used the pull approach on larger projects and foreign buyers for years, although despite their best efforts, this approach generally does not benefit the majority of SME firms as much as larger companies.

A clear example of the power of the buyer vs the supplier is a Latin American startup importer that easily identified and qualified providers and signed procurement and services agreements with over 30 suppliers in 14 countries (pull) in under 120 days. Over the next two years they grew to dominate their multi-million dollar national market, yet only one international exporter reached out to them (push) to carry their product.

Another recent example of the gap between push and pull exporters is a country actively trying to develop a new oil and gas services and support cluster, that offers excellent (potentially huge) opportunities and facilitated access to market for significant numbers of Canadian SME.

While these opportunities are obvious, easy to identify and quantify, and offer immediate revenue generation, over the past two years dozens of Canadian firms have visited this country on push type trade visits, but to date few, if any, have achieved meaningful success.

One reason is obvious: local content procurement regulations systematically eliminate push exporters, and direct procurement towards registered local pull type providers who must meet minimum local supply and service levels.

How can I take greater advantage of buyers using a pull approach?

Any effective approach must address the gap between SME needs to manage risk and provide a low cost, facilitated market entry, as well as recognize the constraints of the offshore buyers and their requirement to operate within their supply chain as pull importers.

Unfortunately, while simple and inexpensive, this is not as easy as it should be. Any SME can do it on their own, but very few will, so it usually comes down to developing a group (shared risk/cost) approach.

The most successful examples are where industry groups and associations, usually working with various levels of government engage private sector consultants who are subject matter experts in the various industries and have a strong understanding of the local and target country markets. These consultants can then package export investment opportunities and present them in a format that is easy to understand and promote.

The generic approach that has been observed to offer a success rate of well over 50% for each opportunity identified is to:

1. Assess the target sector. Identify strategic operational areas in services and value added supply chain where there is a demonstrated need that is expected to grow strongly for at least 5 years.
2. Identify the ideal profile of the target SME firms they would need to attract.
3. Review the local operating environment with respect to constraints that could restrict trade and develop effective solutions before these constraints become problems.
4. Develop a comprehensive business case on each opportunity with sufficient detail to allow an SME to make an informed decision.
5. Where possible, partner with the provincial and federal government trade promotion agencies and various industry associations to promote it to their members and constituents, as this can sharply reduce the cost of any due diligence.

The post Try this approach to improve the number of export opportunities available to your business appeared first on Trade Ready.

The independent consultant knows that the first image a potential buyer experiences is vital to the credibility of the pitch that follows. Research shows that trustworthiness is established in the first 8 seconds of a meeting.

In that short time, the potential client makes a subconscious decision: they will either listen politely and then dismiss the proposal, or trust what they have seen in those first seconds. What they feel and hear in those few seconds will be the basis of a future relationship with the consultant.

So how can consultants make sure they create an excellent first impression to potential clients?

Work backwards to understand how to first attract a client’s attention

We all know that a product is used, impersonal and tangible, but a service is experienced, personal and intangible.

So what does it take to sell and get acceptance for an intangible concept in a foreign market?

Ultimately, you need to create an image in a foreign contact’s mind that will appeal to them and lead to being hired to provide that intangible service.

Explaining the first step to selling an intangible idea internationally comes down to how that relationship is built. In the world of relationship-based sales, there is an adage that says one must seduce first and sell afterwards.

You can’t sell until you persuade, you can’t persuade someone until you have their interest, and you can’t have someone’s interest until you’ve attracted their attention.

With so much riding on catching attention early on, the initial visual image is vital to the success of the steps that follow.

When the eye buys an image of credibility, the mind and heart follow

Clients will usually only pay for a consultant’s expertise if others have reported positive experiences with that service. Independent consultants who seek new clients therefore need to first create an image of confidence, competence and success. The next step is then to transmit that perception of their services, promising to fulfill the future client’s needs.

When making a sales pitch, large companies usually calm a potential client’s concerns simply with their size and their brand recognition. A well-established presence in a market creates the professional image that helps large companies obtain new business in their chosen field.

In contrast, the individual consultant who does not have a large corporate identity faces daunting challenges when trying to develop new business. They have to work much harder to create the image that future clients will consider.

What’s important to remember, however, is that before reaching any professional level of notoriety, every large company inevitably grew from one individual who then created a small company, just like an individual running their own consulting company. If successful, this grew into a mid-sized firm and eventually even became a multinational giant. Good examples are Henry Ford and Steve Jobs, whose companies were once simply an idea in their minds. So what can you learn from their examples?

Even large service providers who may serve as your competition all started with the same basic approach.

To compete with other consultants or businesses of any size, you just need to develop a strong, positive image, preferably one that’s original or stands out in some creative manner, and then deliver on the promise of that idea.

Whether it’s expertise, innovation, originality or something else, find your strength, emphasize why it makes you stand out in that market, and go from there.

What qualities will help you adapt your first impression for success in international markets?

The consultant selling their services at home is likely to know the general requirements of potential clients and how best to shape their image for new clients. As a result, they are usually able to adjust to territorial, economic and cultural challenges.

The challenge of selling consulting services overseas is more difficult because the consultant is working in a market whose standards will be different than those of their domestic clients. Whatever they do at home to develop business may not apply to the international market chosen, and you may need to adjust how you project your image accordingly.

Selling and promoting consulting services internationally thus requires a much broader set of transferable skills. These include:

• Understanding the target culture and adjusting to it seamlessly;
• Linguistic talents to learn some basic phrases, if not fluency;
• Adjusting to other cultures’ views on time and punctuality;
• A thick skin to NOT take things personally;
• Tenacity to overcome unexpected hurdles;
• Changing and adjusting one’s presentation to fit into the new market’s parameters;
• The ability to move forward in the face of rejection;
• Flexibility and imagination to overcome preconceived cultural or national ideas or misconceptions;
• Recognition of one’s “foreignness” in the target market and the ability to turn it into an asset;

Canadians can also capitalize on their national brand

There is no doubt that Canadian consultants are as able as others to provide competitive professional services internationally. However, current world events are affecting potential relationships and it is often difficult to establish credibility, trust and professionalism, particularly when one is new to a market.

Fortunately, during those vital first seconds of a pitch, Canadian consultants can rely on Canada’s excellent global reputation to get the initial attention required. While the Canadian brand will not guarantee success, it adds undeniable credibility to a consultant’s promise to deliver a professional service to a prospective client.

The Canadian consultant can then focus on matching that positive initial image with a convincing presentation that will develop the interest needed to successfully move the discussion forward.

For consultants from other countries around the world, find your strength, emphasize it in a unique way that captures attention, and then use that attention to explain how you can deliver on your promises. Once you master these steps, you’ll make a great impression that will get the conversation started and lead to more clients.

The post How can consultants make a strong first impression to win over new international clients? appeared first on Trade Ready.

Bernadette Terry always wanted to see the world and meet new people. Her passion for travel is what led her to one of her first jobs, working as part of a UK travel company’s marketing department to promote vacations in Europe. In this role, Bernadette had the opportunity to travel across Europe.

After joining the UK Government, Bernadette decided to shift the focus of her career to international trade. Bernadette was offered and subsequently took the role of International Trade Advisor with UK Trade & Investment. As a department of the federal government, UK Trade & Investment (now the UK Department for International Trade) specializes in international trade and foreign direct investment.

In this role, Bernadette worked with a wide variety of organizations to encourage new and existing exporters from the UK to build trade relationships around the world. She led various international trade delegations and also facilitated many inward international delegations and trade promotion events. Bernadette worked as part of a team to implement new pilot programs and initiatives to support international trade and investment and regional economic development.

As an international trade advisor, Bernadette provided strategic advice and support to companies at all stages of international trade, including those who had never exported internationally before and helped them to reach global markets. Thanks to her support, Bernadette’s clients won various regional and national awards in the UK, including ‘Best New Exporter.’

Building bridges for businesses on opposite sides of the Atlantic

In 2004, Bernadette emigrated to Canada. She worked in various roles in the private sector before taking a new role with UK Trade & Investment in Canada as a Trade Officer in 2006.

After all she had achieved, Bernadette still wanted to add onto her vast experience. She then decided to enroll into the FITTskills training program, which would put her on the path to earning the CITP®|FIBP® designation.

“It was very challenging at times to complete the online courses while working full-time and traveling on business. I was fortunate that I was already an experienced international trade professional and had the benefit of assisting hundreds of companies from different sectors with their international expansion, which gave me additional perspective.”

“I already had many years of training and experience in international trade from my work in the UK. When I emigrated to Canada, I felt it would be useful to obtain a professional qualification, especially one with a Canadian/North American perspective.”

Bernadette’s hard work paid off when she attained her CITP®|FIBP® designation.

By 2012, Bernadette had moved on from UK Trade & Investment to Invest Ottawa. There she acted as Senior Business Development Manager for the International Trade and Investment team. Bernadette supported local companies to explore new markets and expand internationally. She facilitated international trade opportunities, foreign direct investment and business expansion into Canada.

As part of her work, Bernadette organized and facilitated successful trade delegations and international trade events in Canada and all over the world.

She used these opportunities to build strategic partnerships. One such partnership included developing a Soft Landing exchange program to facilitate new business opportunities between Canada and Europe.

The Soft Landing program was developed to help start-ups and young businesses conduct international trade and develop their exports. Companies can utilize this program to open new markets, close international sales, secure investment, and connect with new partners abroad.

“I have worked on many international trade missions and international trade events over the last 16 years, and have been very proud to assist hundreds of companies and organizations with their international expansion,” said Bernadette

Branching out on her own as an expert trade practitioner

Bernadette’s exceptional skills and experience in international trade allowed her to start her own international consulting company in 2016, BTI Global Innovation Inc. Her company works with various international clients, both from individual companies and government organizations.

Being the client-focused trade practitioner she is, Bernadette focuses on how her designation benefits her clients.

The CITP professional designation was created to prove an individual’s level of competency and experience in international trade and is therefore a useful reference for potential clients.

Bernadette has always been and will always be a client-focused international trade professional. Since attaining her designation, Bernadette has continued to help companies to establish themselves on the global market and helped them to benefit from international trade. We look forward to seeing Bernadette continue to add to her incredibly extensive experience.

The post Bernadette Terry, CITP|FIBP – International Trade and Investment Professional appeared first on Trade Ready.

Liesl Harewood, CITP|FIBP is an independent consultant based in Halifax, Nova Scotia who specializes in international trade development and entrepreneurship. With over ten years of practical trade experience, she’s ready to give companies the advice they need to succeed at any time.

Led to global trade and consulting by a love of the law

Liesl studied European commercial law as an undergrad, and then went on to complete a Master’s degree in law and diplomacy, focusing on the Caribbean.

Looking for the perfect job after finishing school, she unexpectedly discovered that international trade would be the ideal fit for her long-term career goals.

“I stumbled across it after my postgraduate studies and landed a role with the Barbados Coalition of Service Industries. I think at the time I didn’t even realize there was a “career” in international trade. All I knew was I wanted to use my legal background, but not in a courtroom, and speak French and Spanish every day. I worked with companies in the professional services sector in Barbados, to facilitate export opportunities across the Caribbean and to the European Union.”

In 2008, after two years there, she left the organization to take on several new roles simultaneously. Along with working as Business Development Director for Dykon Developments Inc. in Barbados, she took on short-term consulting work, typically projects that lasted a few months at a time. With the flexibility to continually take on new challenges, Liesl excelled in various roles across Barbados, Saint Lucia, The Bahamas, Jamaica and other Caribbean nations.

During this time, she also served as the Managing Editor of Caribbean Entrepreneur Magazine and became a member of the Human Rights and Democracy Network for Youth sub-committee of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Moving north to work with exporting companies in Nova Scotia

In early 2013, Liesl moved to Halifax to start a new position as Export Development Executive with Nova Scotia Business Inc. (NSBI), the province’s private sector-led business development agency.

This gave Liesl the opportunity to help companies across Nova Scotia in the professional services, ICT, education and training sectors export their goods and services abroad. Working with these companies was one of the highlights of her career, even when everything didn’t go to plan.

I think some of my favourite stories are from trade missions where you just have to expect the unexpected and realize that the best laid plans will often go awry.

“It’s so hard to pinpoint just one story, but in general I love when clients secure a deal or an opportunity based on some work you did behind the scenes to make that happen. Those are the best – the moments where you get none of the glory or praise, but you know that a company has increased its revenue!”

As part of her position, Liesl also served as Nova Scotia’s Private Sector Liaison Officer (PLSO) to the World Bank Group. When organizations like the World Bank or various continental or regional development banks offered international development projects, Liesl would work with private sector companies in Nova Scotia to help them get involved.

During her time with the World Bank she experienced one of the most nerve-wracking but interesting projects of her career.

“I worked with my PSLO colleague Shane Jaffer in Alberta to organize a trade mission to Ghana and Senegal in 2014. Everything was going smoothly and then the Ebola virus came onto the scene in West Africa, which of course increased some of the fears of the participants. There was one case confirmed in Senegal just before we travelled and a few participants did drop out. It was definitely interesting working on this project with my colleagues in Canada and all across the globe. But it turned out well in the end, just a lot of unexpected logistics to manage.”

Getting the training and certification needed to win over clients and keep them happy

As Liesl’s career at NSBI progressed, she learned about FITTskills courses and decided to complete them, through both in-class and online study options.

“Five of my courses were in-person and I truly enjoyed that, not only the interaction with the facilitator but with the other professionals taking the courses. I enjoyed it as a great networking opportunity and also a chance to hear real life scenarios from these companies.”

Being able to do the last three courses online was ideal as it fit my hectic schedule at the time. I was happy to have the option to work online and at my own pace.

It was good to get a mix of teaching and learning styles. My favourite course was International Market Entry Strategies because it provides a great platform for international trade and export readiness. I would recommend anyone thinking of a career in international trade to consider taking the FITTskills courses, even if not in pursuit of the CITP®|FIBP® designation.”

Once she successfully completed the FITTskills program and earned her FITT Diploma in International Trade, she decided her next step would be to apply for the elite Certified International Trade Professional (CITP®|FIBP®) designation.

“At first, honestly, it was a situation where everyone else who I worked with had it, so I wanted to match their credentials. But then I realized the true value of this designation as I pursued more independent consultancy projects.  It’s been a work in progress for the past two years so I was very happy to complete it and earn my CITP®|FIBP® designation.”

After over three years with NSBI, Liesl decided to make the switch back to independent consulting in 2016. She now enjoys working with clients who need expertise in entrepreneurship and goods and services trade facilitation.

As an independent consultant again, Liesl is glad that this time she has the CITP®|FIBP® designation to reinforce her expertise in the industry.

“As an Independent Consultant, it will definitely add more credibility to my abilities as I bid on projects. I’m no longer attached to the reputation of an organization. Now, my brand is my reputation, and having this designation will enhance that brand. I see it opening new opportunities for me in facilitating training in international trade.”

We wish Liesl all the best in her continuing career as a consultant – though, with her experience and expertise, we doubt she’ll need it to succeed in her next challenge.

The post Liesl Harewood, CITP|FIBP – Independent Consultant appeared first on Trade Ready.

Etienne Beauregard, CITP|FIBP, is a talented global business professional based in São Paolo, Brazil. He is a multi-tasker, putting his diverse skill set to work for multiple organizations in different capacities.

Etienne runs his own consulting company for Canadian businesses looking to expand in Brazil called BelavistaBrasil. He also serves as Director, Brazil for DataToWeb, an IOT company, and an authorized agent in Brazil for XMedius, an online and cloud faxing service.

As a Canadian living in Brazil, he enjoys to working with companies in both nations, and furthering his career as a partner in all kinds of international trade projects.

Building the foundations for his future international trade career

At the start of his career, Etienne was not involved in international trade, but served as an advisor or manager for several different businesses in the Montreal area. In one of those experiences, he saw first-hand how international trade could have an impact on an everyday level:

“14 years ago I was managing Canadian IT consultants working in France and one of them was complaining that he couldn’t find his favorite beer in France (he liked a very cheap beer from Quebec!). So instead of travelling around Europe, experimenting with new products, he was complaining about not finding a cheap Quebecois beer in France!”

In 2003, Etienne took a position with Polytechnique Montreal as an internship coordinator, connecting with different companies across the Montreal area to find potential placements for engineering students.

“I was involved with foreign student attraction and I also did presentation at Montréal International when they had foreign companies visiting Montreal, wanting to know more about our engineering programs.

He also served as Chairman of the Board for Formétal, a youth employment assistance organization, from 2007-2011.

How making connections between his home countries helped his career

In 2012, Etienne left his job with Polytechnique Montreal on a leave of absence for 3 years to move with his wife, who is both Canadian and Portuguese, to São Paulo, Brazil, where she was doing her MBA at FIA.

“We moved the whole family (3 kids, my wife and I) to Brazil for one year to have a different life experience and to learn more about the country.”

After her MBA, she received a job offer from a Swedish company based in Brazil and they decided to stay a little longer.

“She is now the director of the company in Brazil, which gives me the right to work in the country, so we decided to stay for the next few years,” Etienne added.

Once back in Brazil, he began to see the move as an opportunity to capitalize on his new circumstances.

“As a Canadian living in Brazil, I also wanted to help Canadian companies find success in Brazil. I really like to build bridges between communities and countries.”

For me, international trade is a great way to strengthen the relations between my home country and my adopted home country. Since I love both making these connections, international trade was an easy choice!”

To do so, he realized that he needed to sharpen his skills in global trade. FITTskills online courses were recommended to him and presented the perfect solution to his needs.

“A friend of mine told me about FITTskills courses, so I started in February 2015.”

“The courses were very interesting, very comprehensive and well structured. I learned a lot, and strongly recommend them to anyone who wants to start a career in international trade.”

While studying, he started BelaVistaBrasil and has been pleased with how he’s been able to bridge the gap between Canadian and Brazilian business opportunities.

“On my last trip in Montreal, I realized that when you personally explain the real situation in Brazil, people change their mind!”

“I also emphasize that I’m a Canadian – it appeals to clients in both Canada and Brazil. Canadians love that I speak French, English and Portuguese and that I know where they come from, and Brazilian like the fact that I live in Brazil and that I do business with them not from Canada, but from São Paulo.”

“This profile increases my credibility because people understand that you can succeed by doing things differently, and that new paths can also be profitable and interesting.”

His connections and local experiences have also been crucial in networking, building trust with new partners and expanding his client base.

I always use the term “boots on the ground”, which means that when you have someone in place, it’s much easier to react quickly and have a sense of what is happening in the market.

“I worked in Montreal for 15 years, building many strong business relations. My business network is big and I know many companies. I also participated in many different network activities and volunteer work, which gives me a broader professional experience.”

“You can build trust with people when you tell them your story and that story can be related to your business pitch.”

An international trade consultant with a reputation for credibility and experience

Etienne’s previous business experience has been an asset in his new line of work, but he still had a learning curve to navigate.

“I wish that when I’d first started in international trade, someone had told me to work twice as hard! International trade is challenging, and you need to master a wide variety of competencies (law, logistics, taxes, customs, etc.) You also need to rapidly build a strong network of people who are professional and can offer top of the line advice.”

All of his work is paying off and as his business grows, so does his reputation and results.

“I am very proud to have signed up four companies in the last six months and to receive daily requests from potential clients from Canada. Also, I enjoy being presented as a credible partner in international trade projects. I was very proud a few weeks ago, when after a meeting with a renowned venture capital fund, the president told me that I was very professional and that I knew what I was talking about!”

Two of those four companies, Rackam and Aquartis, have been signed in the past three weeks alone. Both companies are in the sustainable development sector.

To continue to build credibility in the industry, Etienne successfully applied for the elite CITP®|FIBP® designation.

“I work with Canadian companies, I interact with the consulate, and I believe that having a title increases your credibility. Also, in my opinion, having a title like the CITP®|FIBP® designation imposes a more professional behaviour by the holder of this title. It instills a rectitude, a professional attitude and a code of ethics – I like that!”

I also think that being a CITP®|FIBP® will help open doors and serve as an ice breaker in some delicate situations.

On top of his international trade work, Etienne is also involved in some medical volunteer work in Brazil.

“I’m in charge of a Canadian charity in Brazil. We try to help a Canadian nun who’s a doctor and works in one of São Paulo biggest hospitals.”

With Etienne’s ambition and dedication, we know he will continue to reach new levels of success, and we wish him the best as he continues to reach towards his goals.

The post Etienne Beauregard, CITP|FIBP – International Trade Consultant appeared first on Trade Ready.

Brent McNiven, CITP|FIBP is an international trade consultant with nearly 25 years of experience, who owns and serves as President of XPM Global Consultants Ltd.

His career started when, as he completed his geology degree in 1991, he decided that moving offshore was the smartest tactic for his long-term goals.

His first international startup, located in Venezuela, was as owner and general manager of Sedex, which he grew to become the country’s largest mineral exploration operations and project management group.

By 1995, Brent moved operations to Peru, and Sedex was soon managing projects across most of South America, with Brent overseeing the entire operation. His greatest accomplishments included implementing new anti-corruption procedures, and collaborating with local economies to build greater social capital and community relations.

Even now, some of the projects he began are continuing to grow, which is a source of pride for him.

Some of the local firms I helped start are still operating and creating employment over 20 years on – long after the original project/FDI has vanished.

In 1995, while already running Sedex, Brent started GeoSupply in Peru, an outfitting import/export firm that established a just-in-time supply chain that undertook over 400 importations per year from up to 15 countries.

You need to be local and know local

Even from the early stages, his greatest points of emphasis have been to ensure he has boots on the ground, a thorough knowledge of the local market, and local subject matter experts to collaborate with the project.

“The mineral exploration industry is 100% knowledge based, and until we trained the locals, it demanded that we move Canadian professionals offshore. But by 2000 we had transitioned to almost 100% local staff and management, and many firms had relocated head offices as well.

Today, having a broad based network of local subject matter experts who could be called on to deliver quality services in the specific country, culture, and industry is integral to my consulting work.”

The rewards of an international trade consultant career

After selling his Peruvian companies in 1999, Brent was able to pursue new opportunities.

Among them was a business development project in South America, where he used innovative logistics approaches to reduce costs by 15%. He also worked with clients on opportunities for UN, NGO and military housing in Afghanistan in 2002, and business development consulting work to expand social housing across ten different countries, including Mexico, Tanzania and Afghanistan.

Working in a consulting role was extremely rewarding for Brent, as it allowed him to continue to work on what mattered most to him.

“In most cases, our task is not “trade” as an abstract concept – rather it is to work with clients to help them develop the capacity to function within complex international environments, and build effective cross-cultural bridges between the client and their customers, partners and divisions.

“We are the bridge between where they are now, and where they want to go.”

Finding the competitive advantage for Canadian SMEs in local markets

In his most recent work with XPM Global, Brent has spent the past ten years working with Canadian SMEs, to find out what gives them leverage in international markets.

Market intelligence and analysis from afar, or by holding in-country formal meetings with agents and lawyers, is no substitute for spending time knocking on doors and just following your nose, all while building out a network of local contacts.

Examples of how this has been successful include identifying an opportunity to open a processing facility in Brazil that turned a US$1.4M profit in the first 12 months of operation, and a very profitable services contract to bury garbage in Afghanistan that provided the client with the operating infrastructure, funding, and credibility it needed to go on to build millions of dollars in defence contracts.

“We must always remember that the client is optimized to operate in their home environment – it is our task to see the world through ‘new eyes’, and help identify and evaluate opportunities that meet their needs, and strategic objectives.”

Accessing new networks and opportunities as a CITP®|FIBP®

In the same spirit, Brent applied to become a CITP®|FIBP® to validate his expertise and develop stronger connections to those like him.

The elite CITP®|FIBP® designation provides access to a network of expertise and experience that is not available anywhere else.

The continuing transition to knowledge and services-based trade demands that a comprehensive network of highly qualified and experienced people be available, and the CITP®|FIBP® designation facilitates that.”

Brent has also found that having the designation has helped him work with organizations like EDC, the TCS, and other international agencies.

Now, he is excited to contact his fellow designation holders to find subject matter experts and form a team to assist SMEs in very specific market sectors. Brent says that contacting other designation holders was the only way to find such high levels of expertise.

We look forward to hearing how the project turns out, and know that any company who contacts Brent for assistance is in good hands.

The post Brent McNiven, CITP|FIBP – International Trade Consultant appeared first on Trade Ready.

Amber Mackereth, CITP®│FIBP®, is an International Trade Consultant who, after nearly ten years in international trade, is using her expertise and experience to launch her own independent consulting practice.

“I provide counsel to firms on the subject of international business development, and deliver trade training and services to government trade agencies, such as business matchmaking for international trade missions focused on specific geographic markets and sectors,” she says.

Amber has either led or played an integral role in fifteen successful international trade missions, and has delivered services to upwards of 150 Canadian companies and organizations in their pursuit of international business.

She’s also trilingual, including English, French and Spanish, which has helped her to work in more than 20 different countries.

For five years, Amber served as the Director of International Projects for EduNova Co-Operative Limited—an export organization representing universities, colleges and private firms across Nova Scotia.

In this role, she developed major project and funding proposals, and built and managed teams to deliver on international contracts.

She then moved on to work at the Canadian Embassy in Washington where she served as Trade Commissioner for International Financial Institutions and helped Canadian businesses involved in international trade to discover and  maximize the commercial opportunities presented by institutions like the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank.

Most recently, Amber spent just over two years as a Senior Consultant for the Barrington Consulting Group, located in Halifax.

She helped develop and oversee their international business development strategy, establishing strategic partnerships and winning projects in Africa, Asia and Europe.

After working in both the private and public sectors, and doing business all over the world, Amber is now drawing upon her experiences and focusing in on her areas of expertise: helping Canadian companies—particularly those in Atlantic Canada—to expand into international markets and maximize their revenue potential.

She also has a particular passion for the Caribbean, Latin American and Sub-Saharan Africa regions, the latter stemming from a position as a technical co-operant in Ghana with the Social Enterprise Development Foundation of West Africa.

With a Master’s degree in International Relations, a Master’s certificate in Project Management and the PMP certification, Amber is no stranger to education and certification.

However, she was still excited to earn her elite CITP®│FIBP® certification to formalize and cement her experience and expertise in trade.

Doing so has created an opportunity to tap into an impressive network of fellow practitioners and experts with whom I hope to collaborate and learn from in the years to come.

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