While people from Rome to London are bragging about the growing
economic clout of the European Union (EU), U.S. entrepreneurs are
doing some boasting of their own. Why? European unity translates
into opportunities for Yanks as well.
"The fact that EU countries are working more closely
together means the market is going to get bigger," says Jan
Offner, director of business development at the Dallas branch of
the Flanders Foreign Investment Office (FFIO), an organization
maintained by the Belgian state of Flanders to attract foreign
trade. "This is good news for everybody."
Phil Combs, a specialist with the Trade Information Center at
the U.S. Department of Commerce, predicts the market will be better
as well. "It's making it easier for U.S. entrepreneurs to
do business [in Europe]," he says. "They're able to
be more efficient because they're dealing with more centralized
trade practices and a common currency."
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Before you rush off to set up shop in the 15-member EU, however,
consider these suggestions:
1. Work with a government affiliate. Two
small Florida companies, Tampa-based Romark Laboratories LC and
Bionucleonics Inc. in Miami, used FFIO to accomplish different
missions. Bionucleonics wanted to find a European university that
could provide it with a research grant and a partner, while Romark
sought a research site. Locating cash and contacts are what
government organizations like FFIO do best.
"FFIO helped introduce us to people in the Flanders region
who offered us all kinds of incentives to put a research facility
there," says Romark president Marc Ayers, whose company had
already been operating two sites in Flanders to manufacture
chemical ingredients used in its pharmaceuticals.
Offner says the EU and its member nations commonly provide
grants of up to 30 percent of start-up costs, especially if you
open a facility in a European Development Zone, areas the EU is
trying to bolster.
Bionucleonics president Dr. Stanley Satz, meanwhile, signed up a
premier university as a research partner. "We knew the Belgian
business climate was wonderful," says Satz, the majority owner
in the $10 million company that develops and supplies radio
isotopes for the health sciences. "But we were also looking to
other countries for a partner. When FFIO turned up the University
of Leuven, we chose Belgium."
2. Look for partnerships. "If you
don't have a European presence, you need to find a good
partner," Offner says. "Ideally, you should offer some
kind of technology that gives you leverage to deal with the big
guys. You can say, `Look, I have this goodie you can use, and I can
benefit from your distribution.' "
3. Consider using a third party to manufacture your
product. Licensing the production of your goods to a local
company can save you a lot of headaches. "Americans are coming
from markets where everything is the same," Offner says,
"and they get annoyed when they find the Germans want a bolt
screwed on one way, and the Dutch want something else."
4. Contract multilingual people. Europe is
obviously still a land of many languages, and you need people who
know the lingo. Says Offner, "It's a lot easier for
someone with language skills [to learn about] your business than it
is for someone from your company to learn the language."
Christopher D. Lancette is a journalist in Atlanta who covers
international topics for Hispanic Business and other
publications.
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