Great Travel News Syndicate

By COLLEEN DEBAISE

From smSmallBiz.com

MARTHA MONTOYA HAS found a way to grow her small business: She exports. While “exporting” conjures up images of vast shipyards and warehouses, Montoya, a comic-strip artist in Santa Ana, Calif., sells her colorful cartoon characters for use on snack packages in China, Ecuador, Colombia and other far-away places. She tells other entrepreneurs — no matter their business — to think about going global.

“You have to look into it,” says Montoya, 43, who estimates that revenues at her company, Los Kitos Entertainment LLC, have grown between 30% and 40% since she started exporting two-and-a-half years ago. “You can grow your business much faster than if you keep trying to sell to the same customers here.”

Many entrepreneurs want to tap into the world marketplace, but shy away because they’re intimidated by language barriers, currency exchanges and the risk of getting stiffed by an overseas buyer. But those barriers are becoming less onerous thanks to technology and globalization, small-business advocates say. Additionally, new products and services, including programs sponsored by the U.S. government, are popping up to help entrepreneurs foray into foreign markets.

Earlier this month, the Import-Export Bank launched a new, web-based service to help U.S. companies more easily and quickly buy insurance covering shipments of goods or services to other countries. Ex-Im Bank, a little-known government agency created during the Depression to boost international trade, designed the more user-friendly web service with the small-business owner in mind.

“Our biggest problem is the lack of awareness on the part of the U.S. exporter that the federal government has a program like this that will allow them to increase not only their foreign sales but also their profitability,” says John A. Emens, Ex-Im Bank’s senior vice president of small business.

For small companies, Ex-Im Bank is often the only place to turn for protection on shipments of overseas orders, as the private sector typically doesn’t want to take on the risk.

And insurance is critical when it comes to exporting. For instance, a small-business owner who manufactures ready-to-eat desserts might get a big order from a buyer in Canada. If the buyer won’t pay in advance — and many won’t — then the small-business owner needs to buy insurance. That way, the dessert-maker will still get paid if the Canadian customer skips town with the pudding.

One of Ex-Im Bank’s most popular products is export credit insurance, which protects the small-business owner in the event of buyer default. The policy generally covers 95% of the invoice, at a cost of roughly 65 cents per $100 of shipment, Emens says.

Similar to Small Business Administration loans, in which the government works with commercial lenders to guarantee loans to entrepreneurs, Ex-Im partners with banks and insurance companies to minimize their risk. The government wants to help small exporters break into new markets because it can boost sales and “maintain and create U.S jobs,” Emens says. “Export sales are very valuable to the economy.”

Small-business owners who want to learn about the basics of exporting can turn to some other government programs for help. The Department of Commerce has set up one-stop centers staffed with trade specialists in more than 100 U.S. cities. The SBA also publishes an online guide to exporting, called Breaking Into the Trade Game.

While U.S. goods such as agricultural products have long been exported, there is increasing demand for U.S. exports of services, according to the SBA.

For instance, American software companies earned more than $5 billion from overseas sales in 2002, according to the agency’s most recent report. (Not everyone is a rock star, but interestingly, American bands brought in $500 million from overseas copyright royalties — considered a U.S. export — in 2002.) The most common U.S. service exports are in the industries of travel, transportation, financial services, entertainment, health care and telecommunications. Meanwhile, there’s new demand for U.S. exports in accounting, advertising, engineering, franchising, consulting, public relations and other industries, according to the SBA.

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A number of trade groups also help entrepreneurial exporters, including the largest and oldest nonprofit, the Small Business Exporters Association. The All American Small Business Exporters Association provides its advisory services free of charge to minority, immigrant and women-owned firms.

Sharon T. Freeman, president of the AASBEA, has written several books on the subject, including a how-to guide called “Exporting, Importing and E-Commerce.” She advises first-time exporters to be wary of common mistakes, such as blindly chasing orders from around the world. An entrepreneur who receives an order from a foreign country should first make sure the buyer is not on the “denied” list kept by the Commerce Department here, which works to prevent transaction that could be fraudulent, illegal or unsafe. Small-business owners also should consult a lawyer on how to structure export operations, Freeman advises.

Entrepreneurs interested in exporting should not only do their research at home but also investigate the market they hope to penetrate. Montoya, the comic-strip artist, says the easiest way for a small-business owner to learn about another country is to hop on a plane. “You have to go on vacation, right?” she says. “Concentrate on one country each year. Go visit, and check out the marketplace.” In this case, mixing business with pleasure might lead to profits, long after the trip is over.

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By ANGUS LOTEN

Small brick-and-mortar retailers who recently may have taken Amazon.com for a new and powerful friend are likely thinking twice these days.

Last month, the online shopping giant joined these small stores in their long-running battle to force Web-based retailers to collect out-of-state sales taxes – an exemption that enables many online retailers to charge lower prices, the store owners have argued.

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Amazon.com resisted collecting state taxes on remote sales for years.

But as WSJ reported this month, it has recently expressed support for federal proposals to bring order to the way online retailers collect state and local taxes.

Its willingness to get behind the proposals—combined with pressure from states for new sources of tax revenue, and bipartisan efforts in the House and Senate—has given the movement more traction this year.

Whatever warm fuzzy feeling that move may have elicited from small, independent store owners was likely short-lived.

On Dec. 10, Amazon promoted a new “Price Check” mobile phone app by offering shoppers a 5% discount—valid only for that one day—on items they found in brick-and-mortar stores, but purchased online through Amazon instead.

The app enables in-store shoppers to scan or snap a photo of a product. It then immediately compares prices with Amazon’s.

The app is prompting an outcry from small retailers, who say the site is using their independent stores as its own showroom.

By way of background, many small brick-and-mortar retailers have supported recent legislation requiring online retailers to charge state sales taxes on the grounds that customers often come into their stores to see products, but then turn around to buy the same products tax-free online.

More than 7,000 people have signed a petition against the promotion, according to Change.org. The Change.org campaign was launched by Marcus Books owner Jasmine Johnson of Oakland, Calif.

She told the Wall Street Journal in an interview Thursday that Amazon’s promotion will hurt holiday sales at small businesses at a time when they can least afford it.

“The Price Check by Amazon app is primarily intended for customers who are comparing prices in major retail chain stores,” an Amazon spokesman said Thursday. “The goal of the Price Check app is to make it as easy as possible for customers to access product information, pricing information, and customer reviews, just as they would on the Web, while shopping in a major retail chain store,” he said.

The Price Check app features prices from Amazon and its many third-party sellers, he added.

An Amazon spokesperson told the New York Times this week that the promotion was not aimed at small competitors, but rather big box stores.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R., Maine), the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, had recently likened that to “incentivizing consumers to spy on local shops,” calling it “an attack on Main Street businesses.”

She urged Amazon to cancel the promotion.

Write to Angus Loten at angus.loten@wsj.com

By JIM CARLTON

With the American Cancer Society warning of the ill-effects of sitting for prolonged periods, WSJ’s Jim Carlton tells Lunch Break that some workers in Silicon Valley are now getting out of their chairs and working on their feet.

Silicon Valley’s newest status symbol is a humble piece of furniture.

A growing number of workers at Google Inc., Facebook Inc. and other employers are trading in their sit-down desks for standing ones, saying they feel more comfortable and energized. They also are motivated by medical reports saying that sitting for too long leads to increased health risks.

A standing desk sits high off the floor so a worker can either stand at it or sit on a high stool to use it. Officials at Palo Alto-based Facebook say a number of employees asked about standing desks after news articles were published about the health risks of sitting all day.

The stories cited medical studies that tied excessive sitting to increased obesity and other health problems because of factors including a drop in physical activity. A 2010 study by the American Cancer Society found that women who sat more than six hours a day were 37% more likely to die prematurely than women who sat for less than three hours, while the early-death rate for men was 18% higher. The American College of Cardiology released a study in January that found increased mortality among people who sat longer at home than those who didn’t.

No one seems to compile statistics on the standing-desk trend. But anecdotal reports suggest Silicon Valley is embracing the movement.

Facebook officials say they have seen an upsurge in requests for standing desks to five to eight a week with a total of between 200 and 250 deployed at the company of more than 2,000 employees. Facebook also is trying out a treadmill station—where a worker can walk or run on a treadmill while tapping at a computer.

Google spokesman Jordan Newman said that “many employees at Google opt for standing desks, and we offer them as part of our wellness program” though he said he didn’t know the exact number.

Greg Hoy, 39 years old, asked for a standing desk shortly after joining Facebook seven months ago as a design recruiter. “I don’t get the 3 o’clock slump anymore,” he said. “I feel active all day long.”

Tiffani Jones Brown, 29, said she also requested a standing desk when she joined Facebook two months ago as a content strategist, in part to keep her energy level high. “I get really tired when I sit all day,” Ms. Jones Brown said.

There is a learning curve to using standing desks, however. Ms. Jones Brown said that at first it was hard for her to concentrate on writing tasks because she was focused on things like maintaining correct posture. Other stand-up workers use tricks to not be bothered by being on their feet most of the day. “I kind of move my legs around, no real position,” said Kirk Everett, one of two standing workers in the 21-employee offices of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group in San Jose, a tech industry trade association.

Mr. Everett is a pioneer in standing desks, having gotten one seven years ago to help recover from a back injury. He said he could never go back. “It is so much better,” said Mr. Everett, vice president of government relations for the trade group. “Staying seated all day is your enemy.”

Write to Jim Carlton at jim.carlton@wsj.com