Hi, everyone. So today’s question on the FAQ is, why should you consider working with overseas business partners?

Well, as everyone will know, within my network, I am a huge advocate of doing business internationally and of international trade and the advantages that that can bring for your business. And when I talk about overseas business partners, that could mean a whole category of different people and stakeholders that you could involve in the growth of your business.

So whether that is you’re a supplier looking to expand and to sell your products overseas to new customers, whether you are a brand owner looking to source new products from other international suppliers or brand owners in other markets, or maybe you’re a distributor yourself and looking to bring in new innovation and new products into your local marketplace, there are a number of benefits and advantages of looking further afield than your local market, in my opinion.

For example, this allows you to increase your scope and your opportunities, whether that is within your local customer base, whenever, wherever that is, to also bring innovation into the marketplace as well. By widening your view and your look in terms of who you are trying to bring into your supply chain, it can bring a wealth of opportunities for you. It can also, as a result of that, help you to de-risk your business. We are in uncertain times at the moment, probably more than ever. So and actually it’s in these times that you need to look at the aspects of how can you try and protect what you’re doing and also grow and adapt and change. And often by looking to other aspects of working, other opportunities that are out there on a global basis, that you may be able to turn on for your business. This could be a great way by diversifying who you work with, how you do things, and it can really create an opportunity amidst all of this uncertainty and challenging times.

The final thing I think, which we should also forget, is that it can also bring, which we shouldn’t forget sorry, is that it can also bring a huge amount of innovation and new ways of working into your business, which can really also be a massive plus. And I’m not just talking necessarily about the products itself. It can be the way you interact with a new business partner. And if the values and the fit is there between the way that you work together, the synergy and the drive to make something happen, you could bring a number of benefits into your business in terms of your way of thinking, your MPD pipeline possibly, your new customer base that you might find as a result of working with new people overseas and new partners.

So really, it’s a huge benefit that obviously a lot of brands and businesses achieve through widening their scope, widening their opportunities into global markets and interacting with business partners on a number of different levels. So from my perspective, I would encourage you to consider what the benefits and advantages could be of starting that international journey and widening your scope into global markets. And if you’re already doing it at the moment, then thinking about actually if you did more of it and put more focus onto diversifying into other new markets or developing and growing further what you currently have, what could that bring to your business and what you’re trying to achieve overall as a business goal?

So I hope that was helpful. Thanks for listening as always, and speak soon.