Why Export

OK, this blog is about exporting to the Pacific Northwest so let's get to it. First, why export? It's a lot of work right? It's going to cost me a lot of time and effort right? Yes to all of that. But.... the US has 15 times more people than Australia and the different in GNP is even larger. Meaning there is tons of opportunity here. There is a saying that the US really does not need anything else, but want is another thing! Australian companies of every size and shape have had success here and you can as well. One nice thing about engaging the US market is there are literally dozens of nice size markets which offer success in their own right. While LA and NY are large markets they tend to tougher to get into. Look to smaller areas like Seattle, Denver, Charlotte, Austin TX, Salt Lake City and others. They all have reasonable size markets in many cases similar to Melbourne or Brisbane and the competition is a little less intense.

It all boils down to massive opportunity. As you might notice I am partial to Seattle. It's a great market with a number of strong business sectors. In future posts I'll highlight some of them. In the meantime check out my website http://www.exporting-to-seattle.com/ for an advanced preview.

Update to Beta Blogger

I saw the opportunity to upgrade to the new Beta Blogger to get more flexibility in the template. Well, it did not go all that smoothly. After upgrading I was not able to log in. I'd enter the account and password items and then it woul just sit there. I also tried to find an answer on the Group Help section without success. After selecting log in a link says press here to continue which did nothing either. So, after deleting cookies, temp files etc. I copied the link URL and pasted it in the address bar and voila I'm in.

Thanks Cameron Reilly

Thanks to Cameron Reilly I got a nice plug in his blog (www.cameronreilly.com), appreciate it mate! He's here in the US seeing whether he will setup shop on our fair shores. Good luck Cam, we need more like you here in the US of A! Any of you out there with a spare bed let Cam know, he needs it.

I'm still figuring out the basics of Blogger, one strange quirk is the spell checker. It flags blog, blogger and podcasting. Interesting, it's kind of like MS Word not recognizing the word Gates. Well, it's still raining here. Yesterday there was 3.5 inches, the third wettest day in history. Oh boy. I've got to get back to my ark now. Cheers.

Welcome to the First Post

Welcome to my blog Exporting to Seattle. I also have a site, www.exporting-to-seattle.com this will work with. My day job is working for a prominent trade development organization focused on assisting Australian companies to export to the US, and for me specifically Seattle.

I got into blogging last week after meeting Buzz Bruggeman at an event called ANZA Tech Conference 2006. I met Buzz earlier this year at a technology lunch at the Westin. We struck up a conversation about Australia and he turned me on to a guy in Australia into podcasting. Now, the world really is a small place as I ran into both Buzz and the podcasing bloke at the ANZA event. Cameron Reilly, an ex-Microsoft salesman from Melbourne runs a great podcasting site, www.thepodcastnetwork.com and has a blog at www.cameronreilly.com. Check them out.

This is new stuff for me so stay tuned. I'll be posting some of my web content over the next few weeks and hopefully you'll find it useful.

In the meantime think about selling to the US, especially Seattle. Don't worry, it does not rain as much as you think here (although today I think you will find some folks building an ark it's coming down so hard).