MOBILE, Alabama -- The Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce will host a series of international trade seminars aimed at companies who want to exports to foreign countries.
The task can be daunting at first, according to Robert Stackpole, a senior trade specialist with the U.S. Commercial Service of the Department of Commerce, who leads the sessions.
The pitfall many companies face is that they are "reactive" when they are first approached by a foreign customer, Stackpole said, often they forget to consider tariffs or other trade barriers.
Which is why the first topic covered last month focused on export planning and research. The next session will concentrate on the logistics and documentation side of shipping products to foreign countries.
Another one of the main goals is to cross-train people, Stackpole said. "Although it may be the person that just handles shipping for a company -- it's really important that the shipping manager knows about finance, sales and marketing and legal."
Michelle Crowe Ritter, owner of E-Worc, a website development and internet marketing company, was among those who planned to make use of the training.
Her client list includes growing companies like ASF Logistics and DK-LOK, which have expanded from being strictly domestic product and service providers, she said. "It started that way, but a lot of them are growing, so we're growing with them."