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Think global, act local has long been the mantra of multinational businesses.  They want the best of global thinking as well as the economies of scale.  The think local often just referred to the marketing being in tune with local sensitivities and needs.  But this philosophy can be extended further to benefit your small business and the community in which you operate.

Bring the Best to Your Community

We regularly hear about and experience businesses where the owners or managers say that everything will be OK with their businesses when the economy improves.  It’s very tempting to blame the ills of the business on the trading environment.  Our view is that for good business planning and management it is best to accept that this environment is the one you have to deal with and it may stay this way for a long time yet.

All a bit negative you might thing.  Not at all!

Make it Locally: Entrepreneurs Should Pay More Attention to the Benefits of Backing Local Manufacturers
Using Britain as an Example

We are pleased to announce that Bizantra has signed a strategic partnership with Ideaspace Global, www.ideaspaceglobal.org. Ideaspace Global will be live in November 2012 as the online extension of Global Entrepreneurship Week and was offically announced at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress 2012 in Liverpool in March.

Now that I’ve got your attention I’m going to take you through why this is a true statement and such an enormous real opportunity for startups.  And it’s down to what the new technology and the people who get it are enabling.

I recently attended the inspiring Entrepreneur Country Going Global workshop.  There were impressive examples of British companies that are being successful in international markets.

It's a Busy Autumn

Times are tough for business. The governments of the world don’t look like they’re anywhere near resolving the borrowing and liquidity crisis.  Everyone is facing increased costs from energy and other essentials so has less money to spend.

So it’s not a good time to start a business.  Right?

Wrong!

If you’re the kind of person that just wants to keep their head down and hope the governments sort their problems out, then you may want to stay where you are.  Latest data shows it may take 10 years before the economy recovers to any reasonable level.

If you wanted to be rich and famous and live the rock and roll lifestyle, there was only one way to do it.  Go into rock and roll.  That did work from the 1960’s to the 1990’s, with big money being made by the bands and artists from the 1970’s onwards.  In the 1960’s it was the managers and record companies that kept most of the money.

And the lifestyle was great as well, jean and t-shirts, sleep late, sex, drugs and rock and roll, money for nothing, dreams delivered.....

Startup business is a hot topic for governments around the world.  They see startups as a key part of the strategy that will drive economic and employment growth.  This is quite right, although not the only sector that requires attention.  Small businesses overall are the biggest driver of growth.  Witness all those Mittelstand engineering companies in Germany that have juiced the recent growth figures.