You might have seen that this is Export
Week designed to draw attention to exporting and the need for businesses in the
UK to do more of it. The government has set some ambitious targets for 2020:
achieving exports totalling £1 trillion and having 25% of businesses exporting,
the current level is 20%.
By coincidence, the guest speaker at the
ICM's Credit Industry Think Tank on Tuesday was Robert Hurley from UK Trade
& Investment who shared some interesting information and facts about
particular export markets and the work of UKTI, interspersed with some personal
anecdotes from his long experience in exporting before joining the government
organisation.
UKTI works with UK-based businesses to
ensure their success in international markets and provides support in four key
areas: business planning, market research, market promotion & publicity,
and market visits. Although I've had significant contact with the organisation
over recent years, I hadn't realised the depth or breadth of the service and
support they offer.
One particular service that caught my
attention was the 'Business Opportunity Alerts'. A business can register on the
website stating its sector and the markets it is interested in, and it will
receive alerts of any relevant opportunities that arise. I don't know how many
of the 4.8 million businesses in the UK have registered for the service, and I
don't know how many businesses are even aware of the facility, but I'd hazard a
guess that for both it's a pretty small proportion, and that's a shame.
Exporting is a really good way to grow our
economy, and it's good for business generally, so services like this need a
high profile. I've talked in previous blogs and elsewhere about the
disappointing lack of awareness among the business community of various
government schemes and this is another example.
A huge amount of good work is put into
supporting businesses, especially the small and medium ones, and it's a pity
when that effort goes to waste. More needs to be done to bring such things to
the attention of business owners and government needs to get smarter. In the
meantime, if you know a small business that's even thinking about selling into
overseas markets then you could do worse than point them to www.ukti.gov.uk
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