One of the best ways to make your business more efficient is to develop standard processes for all of your different logistics tasks. This includes a standardized workflow for domestic shipping, order verification, and-perhaps most importantly- how to export products internationally without slowing down operations. A disorganized process for exporting goods may lead to delays, extra fees, and a continuous worry that key steps were missed. However, once you have strategies and processes in place, your team can easily get work done without wasting time or skipping requirements.

At Chamber Export Partnership, we specialize in helping businesses digitize and manage their export documentation, and we’re here to help you scale up your business. We’ve collected these top tips that can help you create processes, make them more efficient, and streamline all of your exporting tasks.

1. Research and Identify Target Markets

Start by identifying which international markets you’re going to interact with most often. You can use your past sales analytics or industry research to determine which international audiences are likely to make up your most frequent export destinations or most likely to buy products that need extra care and attention.

Once you’ve identified your target markets, start researching the specific requirements of how to export goods from point A to point B. While a lot of international protocols standardize export requirements, there may be some individualized details and paperwork requirements you need to handle. Familiarize yourself with the export documentation and processes for your biggest customers. Eventually, your list may grow or be segmented for even better process management.

2. Develop a Strong Export Strategy

Now that you know where you will be sending most of your future exports, it’s time to develop or refine your export strategy. This is a big-picture overview of the export parts of your business. Your strategy will need to include:

The program, or how do you anticipate export functions to be handled?
What third-party partners do you need, such as carriers, notary services, and export documentation service providers?
Outcomes and objectives: that is, your ideal timelines, processes, and cost per export
How do you plan to evaluate your efforts?
Create pathways for expansions or changes?

This overview will be the foundation for how your company moves forward. It’s especially critical to spend time developing a strategy if exporting is a new facet of your business.

3. Establish Strong Logistics and Shipping Practices

How you implement your strategy will require multiple different moving parts and services. Consider each of these practices:

Specify the responsibilities of different roles and stakeholders within your organization.
Decide how to systemize the tasks so export orders can go out in a timely fashion.
Create internal audit processes to ensure documentation is handled properly.
Research tactics for moving from slow paper-based processes to faster and more cost-effective paperless processes.
Use monitoring and analytics processes to record or improve international exports over time.

From there, create an end-to-end checklist of every procedural step. This will facilitate better day-to-day operations. Then, at regular periods, you can assess factors like costs, delays, and time spent to refine the processes over time.

Maximize Your Export Potential With Chamber Export Partnership

One of the most important aspects of developing your export strategy and processes is connecting with the right service providers. Your export business needs a provider who can digitize and streamline the process. At Chamber Export Partnership, we provide certificates of origin, certificates of free sale, invoices, notary services, and more, all electronically. Reach out today to see how to export products with paperless records and how doing so can completely transform your operations.

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