Handcrafted Couture Greeting Card
Well I’m back from London and as some of my blogs have stated, it was an amazing journey. For those who are recently becoming acquainted with Blac Gurlz Ink (BGI) — we are a greeting card company that specializes in greeting cards and gift items for same-sex consumers!
A few months back I entered Blac Gurlz Ink into the Face of Opportunity contest sponsored by StatUpNation & British Airways (BA) by writing an essay as to why it would be beneficial for us to have access to overseas markets. Thank you again, *Rich & Simon!
The Face of Opportunity contest was created to give businesses here in the states an opportunity to promote their products/services, face-to-face, to overseas markets with British Airways providing FREE air travel to Europe and 1 night hotel accommodations to the winners — Blac Gurlz Ink was one of the winners and off to London I went.
It was an amazing and pleasantly hectic journey as I, along with my business adviser provided via the Small Business Development Center, fine-tuned BGI’s marketing kit. The end product was an impressive information packet consisting of a letter of introduction, catalog, pricing structure and samples of both our “premium” and “couture” greeting cards.
Upon my arrival in Los Angeles to catch the “chartered” BA flight to London, one of the first people I met was Rich Sloan…who I just had to hug for affording us this opportunity at this stage of our
Premium Greeting Card
development! Most businesses aren’t able to promote to overseas markets until around years 3-5, so for us to be going at year 1 — well I was stoked! Blac Gurlz Ink turned a year old 3 days prior to the trip and yes it was the best anniversary gift I could have imagined!
I checked in to get my boarding pass and was informed that I had been upgraded to First Class — oh I am so spoiled now and when I travel back to London — yes I’m going back — it will definitely be First Class via British Airways…it was one of the most relaxing and enjoyable flights I have taken thus far!
There was networking taking place throughout the first two days of the journey. On the flight over the winners were all over the plane, making introductions and networking with future partners. I met several people who I will be in contact with this week to follow-up on discussions we had during the trip.
We were housed at the Radisson Edwardian Heathrow Hotel and had a dinner session with key UK business leaders to give us much-needed information and inspiration to take the countries/cities we had chosen by storm. They encouraged us to embrace the premise that it is the small to medium business owner who will be key to stimulating the economies of many nations and they wanted us to go with confidence in our plans for doing just that.
I understood from the outset that BGI was on a “market development” venture this time out. I know that there is a niche for our products and my goal while in London was to develop markets for our greeting products.
I had mailed out the marketing kits out prior to my leaving, so once I hit London proper I was off to follow-up with those who had received the kits.
Handcrated Couture Greeting Card
They were more than receptive and other avenues were found and developed, as well, as I stopped in any shop that carried greeting cards and introduced myself and BGI’s greeting products to them.
There are three contacts I found that will be most beneficial in the promotion of Blac Gurlz Ink to international markets:
American Embassy **Commercial Services Division. I contacted Mr. Rod Hirsch in the Oakland branch of this division and he coordinated a meeting for me with his UK counterpart, Sara Jones, who I will be working with to promote BGI within London. The Commercial Services Division has been tasked to assist US businesses seeking to conduct business overseas in doing so. They will field your promotion kits to various distributors and retailers within your industry, coordinate face-to-face meeting with you and bona-fide businesses who WANT to do business with you — meetings can be held at the American Embassy or if the business wants you to visit them at their sites, an Embassy representative will accompany you. All contracts and coordination thereof are between the respective businesses. The Commercial Services Division charges a fee for their assistance, however, it is often worth it to a business to KNOW for certain that those at the meeting are there to seal the deal!
Sara and I met and she provided me with some great information. She was able to see our greeting cards first hand and said that she is looking forward to working with me. She commented, of our couture cards, that currently there is nothing on the market like it for even mainstream consumers — she was quite impressed with our work! Sara also kept some of the samples and our marketing kit information, so that she could show them to her colleagues working in the gifting industry and so that she will have them when Im ready to launch that phase in our strategic marketing plan! I told ya’ll I was taking this baby GLOBAL! hahaha! **http://www.buyusa.gov/uk/en/
UK Trade & Investment. ***UK Trade & Investment – UKTI was one of the presenters during our dinner session and I spoke with Mr. Don Bolessa afterwards to see what UKTI could do to assist us. UKTI’s primary function is to assist in partnering businesses together in order to enhance cross-promotional/distribution of their products or services. They are a department of the UK government that is responsible for the Global Partnership program. They provide research, consulting and logistic services to businesses so that they have a better picture of their industries within the European markets. And as any business owner knows — knowledge is power! ***http://www.ukinvest.gov.uk/Feature/4040582/en-GB.html
The third organization is for anyone who is ready to take the whole kit and kaboodle overseas to London — relocation!
Think London. Jill Scott, Business Development Associate, of Think London, another presenter at the Welcome Reception at LAX, provided information that I think any business owner wanting to open an office in London would find useful. Think London is an organization that offers FREE services to businesses who want to do business in London. They coordinate and advise on the detailed aspects of starting a business, expanding your business or relocating your business to London…and did I mention that their services are FREE! http://www.thinklondon.com/how_we_help/index.html
So in summation everyone — it was a most productive trip based on the goals I had set prior to leaving. If I had not won this contest who knows how long it would have taken me to fall upon such gems of information and their respective organizations! haha! When I return to London, the first part of 2010, I will be going to sign contracts and to me that would not have been possible if not for the foresight of organizations such as StartUpNation and British Airways!
Now if you’re a skeptic who thought that no one small wins big in these types of contests, I say to you — the Universe will conspire to make your dreams come true — the question is will you dare to dream of the Impossible? I dream BIG! haha!
If you have questions that you think I might be able to answer, feel free to leave a comment and I will definitely get back to you.
One Love and Spreading it Around the World…
Supreme One Out…fade to work…hahaha!
*Rich Sloan, CEO – StartUpNation and Simon Talling-Smith, British Airways EVP Americas.
