聽 The information flowed fast and freely for the benefit of about two dozen local business men and women attending the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership (STEP) seminar in Estevan on Sept. 28.聽
The event, staged at the Saskatchewan Energy Training Institute (麻豆传媒AVeast College campus), under the auspices of the Estevan Chamber of Commerce saw three STEP export professionals provide reams of information. They were joined by business consultant Tracey Fieber, a business solutions manager who also served as chairwoman for the morning seminar that included a wrap-up panel discussion at noon that addressed opportunities and pitfalls from a local southeast exporter鈥檚 perspective. The panel included local businessman Jim Wilson of Wil-Tech Industries as well as the presentation leaders.聽
Jordan Gaw, Fahed Abu-Ghazaleh and Jeff Thackeray from STEP addressed a variety of topics associated with taking products and services beyond Saskatchewan borders.聽
Gaw, the director of international trade and finance for STEP, cited various examples of export growth for Saskatchewan businesses in hot spots such as China and India. He noted that while export trade with the United States was down, by almost 22 per cent in the past year, it still represented Saskatchewan鈥檚 biggest market at $22.6 billion in goods and services being delivered to that country each year. When oil and gas sales slumped, Gaw pointed out agricultural products sold to the United States, remained a huge factor.聽
鈥淔ood, fuel and fertilizer 鈥� and those commodities are on a roller coaster,鈥� he said.聽
On the agricultural side, Saskatchewan remains the world鈥檚 top exporter of several crops with canola being a top agricultural export at around $4 billion.聽
Gaw focused on some emerging markets opening up to Saskatchewan businesses along with China and India. He said it was by no accident that recent trade missions made by Premier Brad Wall and business leaders have included those countries.聽
鈥淏ut the U.S. is still a growth story,鈥� he said, citing free trade agreements.聽
鈥淥ur role is to help companies that want to export,鈥� he said.聽
Abu-Ghazaleh, an export development analyst, gave the local business community a quick primer on exporting in today鈥檚 environment, noting that employees in companies that export earn 15 per cent more in wages and benefits than workers who work for non-exporting companies.聽
He said a lot of homework had to go into exporting and that is where STEP helped by offering advice on export plans, finding financing and addressing regulatory requirements. He said currency exchanges, language barriers, tariff and non-tariff barricades and shipping processes were just some of the challenges exporters have to meet head on to be successful, but once the potential customers are identified, it might well be worth the effort.聽
Packaging, labelling and pricing as well as travel requirements meant that management and employees had to be immersed in the plan for it to be successful.聽
鈥淲e have the workbook plan for you though,鈥� said Abu-Ghazaleh.聽
Fieber spoke about E-commerce and E-business solutions noting that 76 per cent of Canadians purchased online, which is up from 51 per cent six years ago with 20 per cent making three or more purchases a month.聽
Fieber noted how funds and data transfers began online in the 1980s and have improved in terms of quality and quantity ever since.聽
鈥淓-Commerce involves new business models and you can gain or lose depending on your competitors and your service,鈥� she told the delegates.聽
The E-Commerce and E-businesses might involve business to consumer models or business-to-business models, among other things, with transactions taking place, 鈥渋n real time,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he items are selected, bank payment approved, warehouse is informed and the items are shipped to the consumer,鈥� she said. However, 80 per cent of E-commerce consists of business-to-business transactions. There are also government-to-business transactions, and consumer-to-consumer links. She said advertising takes the form of traditional print and airtime, as well as online. The disadvantages she cited, included security, privacy and quality (standards) concerns, as well as continual software and hardware changes that require special servers that can make some potential business hookups incompatible.
When conducting E-commerce activities, Fieber said follow up is a crucial component.聽
Thackeray, director of market intelligence for STEP, spoke about strategies and resources that could be used to pursue export opportunities. He said STEP spent a lot of time and money gathering market information and analyzing it to better understand markets and market conditions for potential exporters in Saskatchewan.聽
Trends are monitored and changes are assessed, he told the gathering.聽
鈥淚t will tell you who your competitors are, where and who your customers are and helps with strategic planning while identifying opportunities such as potential partners or agents and minimizing risks while monitoring the businesses鈥� performance,鈥� he said.聽
Thackeray also spent time explaining the online sources used for obtaining information beginning with traditional search engines to such tools as the Deep Web and Invisible Web servers. He said 96 per cent of the digital universe is on the Deep Web, protected by passwords.聽
鈥淎bout 95 per cent of the answers to your questions are found through secondary data sources,鈥� he said. Web services used to be less secretive, but now groups like STEP can dig deeper and delve into information bases more effectively using specific servers, saving exporters a lot of time web browsing.聽
鈥淏e specific about what you need to know,鈥� he said, citing one example of a service that tracks all corporate airplanes in the air or on the ground, informing users as to where any particular company鈥檚 main executive members might be at any given time, or where they are headed.聽
鈥淲e spend $90,000 a year just to access data bases so we can inform businesses about competitors and potential customers,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you want to sell something to Australia, we can tell you who else is selling to Australia.鈥澛�
Industry associations are also helpful in sharing vital information as are government and financial institutions as well as embassies, consulates, market research firms and media sources.聽
During a break in the presentations, Thackeray and Abu-Gazaleh told the Mercury the most common inquiry they get from Saskatchewan businesses is after the business has discovered their product is desired by someone or another business beyond the provincial borders.聽
鈥淭he common comment is that 鈥榳e got it, now where do I go and what do I do?鈥欌�� said Thackeray.聽
鈥淭hat鈥檚 where we come in,鈥� said Abu-Ghazaleh.聽
