Summary

1 A handicraft business wishing to export does not have to do it directly. It may choose to work through an exporter. Alternative trading organizations (ATOs) can offer a range of commercial and social services to organised producer groups.

2 Planning is essential to the success of a business. Plans must be realistic, have the agreement of everybody involved in implementing them, include a time for achieving them and allocate responsibilities to people for carrying them out. Planning must be based on past performance and future possibilities in the market place.

3 Careful preparation must be made for an export marketing venture. Find out as much as you can about your target markets from sources of information available in your country. Make a small and coherent selection of countries to approach in the first instance.

4 A business must ensure that it has the material, human, physical and financial resources required to implement its plans. It needs to make financial projections of its profit and its cash flow in order to ensure it can remain operational.