Has your company received inquiries from foreign countries? Yes No

Does your company sales have a positive growth rate over the past three years? Yes No

Do you have an export marketing plan?

A lack of commitment, coordination, undefined management roles and responsibilities, and inexperienced staff are all weaknesses to be identified. Any company members with exporting experience and management should be involved in developing an export marketing plan.

Does exporting fit into your company's overall marketing objectives? Yes No

Will your company develop an international marketing plan with defined goals and objectives? Yes No

Will your company budget at least $5,000 for initial export development? This budget should include items such as international travel, market research, and business training. Yes No

Has your company conducted market research using secondary sources of information (government statistics, industry data or privately-produced reports)? Yes No

Can you serve foreign customers?

Will your company ensure that export sales orders will be processed with the same expediency of domestic sales orders? Yes No

Will your company give its foreign representatives and customers the same attention and level of service given to domestic representatives and customers? Yes No

Will your company appoint someone internally to develop export sales? (Ideally, this person would be familiar with the language, and practices of your target markets.) Yes No

Does your company have sufficient production capacity that can be committed to the export market over the long-term? Yes No

Is your company willing to modify product packaging and ingredients to meet foreign import regulations, food safety standards, and cultural preferences? Yes No

Does your company have a staff who can handle export documentation? Yes No

Can you afford to export?

Exporting is an advisable strategy to pursue only at the appropriate point in each company's unique development process. A non-export ready company is much better off devoting its resources to further strengthening domestic business than prematurely attempting to export.

Is your company well established in the domestic market and financially stable? Yes No

Will management accept a payback of three years or more on exporting? Yes No

Will your company's management set yearly export sales goals with long-term objectives of making export sales a substantial percentage of total corporate sales? Yes No

Is your company aware of how currency exchange rate fluctuations can affect company sales and profits? Yes No

Does your company have the financial resources to actively support the promotion of your products in the targeted markets over the long-term? Yes No

Scoring

Each "yes" answer is worth one point. points out of 21.