Two significant business developments are taking place in the global economy of the 21st century. One is the explosion of women-owned businesses. The second is international trade. Put the two together, and you have a powerful force with which to reckon-a force that contributes to economic growth, development, and prosperity in our world.

The timing has never been better for businesswomen to get out of their own backyards and transition from local, regional or niche-market-players into global market players.

The Potential is Infinite
Today, women are starting businesses at twice the rate of men and becoming major forces, both in the traditional and the new global e-business marketplace.

Women make up half of the world's human resources. There are 9.1 million women-owned American businesses alone, employing more than 27.5 million people and contributing nearly $4 trillion in sales annually to the economy. These businesses are increasing at a rate that is nearly twice that of the national average.

Between one-quarter and one-third of the world's businesses are owned by women. As of 2000, only about 13 percent of women-owned businesses were involved in the global marketplace, despite the fact that the global market presents a huge opportunity for women to advance their careers and impact the world of business.

Some women business owners, of course, already are participating in the global marketplace. In fact, women own 30 percent of the businesses that export more than half of their products, and their potential to impact the worldwide market has not gone unnoticed.

"Women-owned firms participating in the global marketplace grow more rapidly than women-owned businesses that are primarily domestic," former Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Aida Alvarez said. "They are more apt to develop a new product or service and expand domestically. At the SBA, we have several programs in place to help women-owned businesses take advantage of the outstanding opportunities available through international trade."

Who's Going Global?
In a statistical report released last year, the U.S. SBA Office of International Trade indicated that "America's small businesses are big players in international trade, and their role is growing rapidly." Export data analysis shows that 97 percent of U.S. companies that export are small businesses and women own 40 percent of all small businesses.

Other studies also make the case for small businesses and women-owned businesses as exporters. Consider, for instance, a case study regarding successful public and private initiatives for fostering entrepreneurship among women that was prepared by the National Women's Council Interagency Committee on Women's Business Enterprise for the 2000 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Conference.

That study noted the significant role women have played in recent economic prosperity and affirmed the fact that "countries with high levels of economic activity and with the highest start-up business rates are the ones where women are well-engaged in entrepreneurial activity." The authors also noted that small businesses owned by women and minorities are focusing more intense efforts on exporting than are small businesses owned by non-minority men.

A recent report issued by the Small Business Survival Committee made this point: "Small and mid-sized businesses, entrepreneurs, and many U.S. workers are seen as falling short of what it takes to make it in the rough and tumble global marketplace. The thinly veiled assertion is that these folks can't cut it; they need coddling and protection. Of course, the notion that U.S. entrepreneurs, smaller enterprises, and workers cannot compete internationally is as false as it is insulting."

Most women entrepreneurs start to enter foreign markets soon after start-up.

In fact, nearly 55 percent of business owners take their first active step toward exporting (for example, gathering information on a foreign market) within two years of start-up. This is true of both those who already are active exporters and those who are still in the planning stages for exporting, and it indicates that women business owners are cognizant of the global economy and its potential consequences for their firms.

Research also indicates that more than half (55 percent) of these owners usually make their first foreign sale within two years of start-up. This finding reflects a global trend towards a narrower time gap between start-up and international activities.

Preparation time for entering a first foreign market is minimal, reflecting the opportunistic nature of many first-time exporters. The average elapsed time between the first step toward exporting and the jump of actually making a foreign sale is less than four months.

It is important to also note that there are no statistically significant differences in how long it takes product-based firms and service-based firms to enter foreign markets.

On average, firms tend to enter close proximity overseas markets (for example, a Canadian company exporting to the United States or a U.S. company exporting to Mexico) one year earlier than they enter other foreign markets.

Global Incentives
There are a number of realistic incentives for women to take their businesses global. Among them: increasing sales; generating economies of scale in production; raising profitability; insulating seasonal domestic sales by finding new foreign markets; creating jobs; encouraging the exchange of views, ideas and information; establishing educational programs, conferences, and other activities to advance women; and promoting professional growth, mentoring, education and leadership among women.

If these incentives aren't enough, how about pure and simple business survival?

Business is about beating the competition, or keeping up at the very least, and these days you've got a lot more to worry about than your competition on the other side of town. No matter what your product or service, you're now in a worldwide market, which means you have competitors all over the world.

More and more of those competitors are managing worldwide operations, and they are working hard to increase their share of the pie. Are you? The best-maybe even the only-way to stay competitive with this new breed of global business manager is to become one yourself. You must act as if you were born to go global.

Furthermore, consider for a moment how your business helps fuel your country's economic engine. If you and other women business owners fail to keep pace with the changing world and globalize, that engine will run out of steam. Where will you be if that happens?

Begin with the Basics
To survive in today's world, you must seriously consider the step of going global.

Once you decide going global is for you, you need to stop thinking of going global as a fantasy, and begin to make it an integral part of your business plan.

Going global is for life. Let's look at the basics and examine the "inside job" of understanding what it takes to go global.

First, you have to learn how to navigate your business through uncharted waters worldwide. To do that, you need to develop the right mindset, establish special character traits, map out a global strategy, and just flat-out take the initiative to take on the world.

Secondly, you must stop acting by the old rules and start creating new ones. The question becomes, "What in the world are you doing with your business today?"

Lastly, if you are not attempting to conquer the world, you just don't get it. Not to sound like the Dr. Phil of global small business, but the single most important element in implementing a successful global launch is-you guessed it-you. Only you can unleash your potential to build a dream global empire.

Getting Started
Where in the world should you take your business first?

You could just wait to be deluged with e-mails from other countries. Better yet, your partner speaks French, so how about targeting France for your first market? Wait a minute-did you say you're selling perfume? Do the French need yet another enticing scent to dab behind their ears? I doubt it-but at least when they tell you so, your partner will understand!

Seriously speaking, it's a little trickier than that to decide which overseas market is most promising for your product.

Sometimes, while you're busy servicing the domestic market, you'll get lucky-an inquiry will come through, pointing you directly at an ideal new market. But, it's more likely you'll need to do your homework to find customers. Conducting market research will help tell you where they can be found.

Your Market Research Model
Your first market research project is usually the toughest because it's all unfamiliar terrain. But, take heart, because once you have searched out the data you need to predict how a specific type of product will sell in a specific geographic location, you can use the information repeatedly as a guideline for exports of similar products in the future.

As you build your personal information database on global markets and learn to keep yourself up-to-date on developments in international trade, it will become less of a chore to determine where to take your product. You will find that market research is a powerful tool for exploring, and taking control of, your global territory.

How to Choose a Market
When deciding where to concentrate your sales efforts, you might choose a market that intrigues you or offers a challenge, and then consider products that you might want to sell there.

You will be visiting this market frequently and getting to know its people intimately, so, just as you should pick a product that will delight you for years to come, you should plan on exporting to a country that delights and fascinates you.

Doing this will give you a place to start. But, remember to use common sense. Don't ignore other countries that offer good prospects for your product, and don't expend too much time and energy on your first-choice market if it turns out to be a poor prospect.

10 Steps to Take On the World

1. Get company-wide commitment. Every person at a company is a vital member of the international team, from the receptionist through customer service, engineering, purchasing, production, and shipping. Exporting is not something you work at one day and forget about the next. It's an investment in your company's future that deserves your consistent attention regardless of how well you're doing domestically.
2. Research and map out your export journey. Do your homework. Perform a global-readiness assessment, and plan out your strategy all the way to implementation. Just because your service is needed here in the States does not by any means indicate that it will be well received in a foreign country. You must always check with either your prospective customers (let them review it at no charge) or a local foreign consulate to see if they can help you determine if your service makes sense for their host country.
3. Know where you want to go and go there. Know your destination, but be willing to make adjustments along the way. Forcing a customer to buy what you have available with little or no willingness on your part to make improvements is not just insensitive, but downright hostile. Global marketing has come a long way since the days of Henry Ford, who said, "The customer can have a car painted any color that he wants, so long as it is black."
4. Take that decisive step, and follow it up with sensible judgment. Jump in with both feet first, but keep them firmly planted on the ground. It gets back to basics. Pick one service and pick one market. Then stick to it. You need to put on your mental blinders and ignore distractions, channel your energies, and define the territory in which you're going to play. It takes a lot of discipline to resist the scattershot approach to doing business and stay focused. But, after a while, the discipline becomes automatic. Focus, focus, focus. Persist, persist, persist.
5. Keep your ego in check. Don't let the prospect of going global inflate your ego and cause misjudgments.
6. Trust your instincts. If it smells, looks or feels bad, don't try to rationalize otherwise.
7. Treat other people as you yourself want to be treated. People are basically the same worldwide; it doesn't matter where you are. Awareness and respect of cultural protocol demonstrates honesty and goodwill, and this leads to trust, which in turn leads to mutually profitable relationships.
8. Make personal contact with attentiveness, courtesy, professionalism, and consistency. In-person visits are vital to building a relationship with rapport. You can't afford not to meet with prospective customers because, without face-to-face contact, there will be no business. Customers matter-I can't repeat it often enough. The personal meeting is the best way to demonstrate your professional commitment.
9. Factor in a two-year lead time for world market penetration. It takes time and patience.
10. In a global marketplace, welcome the unknown. Don't let the prospect of the unknown frighten you. Rather, learn to welcome it, take it apart piece by piece, and then slowly digest it all. The rewards can be great.

LAUREL DELANEY is the founder of Global TradeSource Ltd. (www.globetrade.com), a Chicago-based company providing global marketing, consulting and web content aimed toward entrepreneurs and small businesses. This article is adapted in part from her upcoming book, Women Entrepreneurs Take on the World, which will be published this fall. The author can be reached at 312-861-0562 (e-mail: ldelaney@globetrade.com).