3 Small Businesses Take on the World

To help educate local small businesses on international expansion, NY Report produced “International Business Opportunities: 3 Success Stories,” sponsored by HSBC Bank on May 25^th. The event featured a panel discussion with Jordan Finger of Ardis Health, Rhona Sutton of Rhona Sutton, Inc, and Tom Brown of Little Airplane Productions. The panelists shared what they had learned from experience on what to consider before expanding, setting up shop overseas, developing cash flow strategies, and who to have on your team to get ahead.

Deciding to Go Global

A key component of expanding business overseas is observing trends and opportunities in foreign markets. By doing this, you identify the best ways to get your foot in the door in new markets.

Finger started Ardis Health, an Internet marketing company that develops health and beauty products, in 2000. Six years later, Finger was approached by one of his vendors in the United Kingdom about starting a similar business in Europe. After doing some research, what compelled. Finger to pursue the idea was what he learned about European adoption of the Internet.

While adoptions rates in the US had plateaued, scattered telecom service overseas meant the Internet was still in its infancy, presenting Finger with another opportunity to get in on the ground floor and be in an advantageous position once the market grew. “E-commerce in Europe is growing by the double digits,” he said. “In the USA, it’s static or maybe at a one percent growth.” Finger took time to set up technology and infrastructure overseas, and started selling in the UK at the beginning of 2008, mirroring his US business model.

Sutton also identified a potentially lucrative market for her accessory and clothing company, Rhona Sutton, Inc. The predominant source of revenue for her company, which was founded in 1999, was selling swimwear and resort wear to chain stores in the UK, her home country. She also served as a vendor for Disney in Europe.

While Sutton’s company was successful with its private-label business, she wanted to grow her name brand,. To start building her brand, she knew going to the US was her best move. “The market opportunities for a swimwear brand are larger in the United States than in Europe,” she said.

To help secure her US contract with Disney, some of Sutton’s buyers in the UK gave her contacts, including information on the woman who worked the switchboard in Disney’s London buying office. Sutton sent her a box of chocolates, and in exchange, the receptionist gave Sutton the numbers and emails to people of influence in the US market. With this list, she was able to contact different buying offices and request meetings that eventually led to a successful conversation with Disney.

To get executives in the US to keep their meeting appointments, Sutton told them she was coming into town from the UK, and wanted to make an appointment to meet with them. “Whenever I approach someone in the United States I say, ‘I’m coming from the UK,’ or if I approach someone in the UK, I say, ‘I’m coming from the US,’” she said. “When you give them the impression the UK,’ or if I approach someone in the UK, I say, ‘I’m coming from the US,’” she said. “When you give them the impression you’re making an effort, they tend to keep the meeting.”

Because she had an existing relationship with an international company, and had already developed an effective cost structure for working with Disney, she was able to get her foot in the door in the US market. With the support the Disney account provided, she was able to open a New York office and grow her name brand in the US through deals with luxury resorts, like the Ritz Carlton.

Brown also leveraged a foreign connection. As head of production at Little Airplane, Brown currently oversees all aspects of production, operations and logistics for the studio, including both live-action and animation projects. Such projects include “The Wonder Pets!” for Nick Jr., “Oobi!” for Noggin, and “Go Baby!” for Playhouse Disney. His company sought and landed a contract to do a show for the BBC called “3rd & Bird.”

With BBC’s business secured, Brown decided to open a UK office as a base for getting more business throughout Europe. “It’s a lot easier to have an office in the UK as a jumping off point to target Europe,” Brown said. “When the perfect opportunity (BBC) to open an office presented itself, we took the green light and went.”

Since opening the London office, the close proximity to clients and the ability to have face-to-face interactions has made the satellite location sustainable. “It provided an opportunity to promote the full range of services we provide or just specific services that a potential client needed,” Brown said. “That flexibility allowed us to obtain a variety of different service contracts for our UK office.”

Once Brown secured the contract with the BBC for the show “3rd & Bird”, he had a mere eight weeks to form a corporation in the UK, set up bank accounts, hire staff, and negotiate leases. To help expedite this process and help with the stress of learning the procedures of a foreign country, Brown sought assistance from United Kingdom Trade and Investment. Not only did the organization help Little Airplane weed through regulations and work permits, and help them find a local accountant, but they also found similar investment groups in other parts of the world if the company needed to travel elsewhere. Brown said,

“They helped me set up meetings, and connected me to people I needed to talk to. We don’t know what we don’t know, but they help you figure out what you need to know.”