CEO Sounding Board
ORGANIC PRODUCTS FOR ANIMALS
 [Photo: Taya Fagan] |
Founder
Mere's One More Time
Ocala
"My dream was to export, but I had no idea I actually could do it having such a small business. I had met with a bunch of different brokers and traders, and they all wanted big money upfront with no guarantees. Enterprise Florida gave me guarantees before I handed over any money. When we went into Costa Rica, I was with them from start to finish. It was amazing. I had five companies tell me they wanted to work together."
EQUIPMENT SALES
 [Photo: Ryan Ketterman] |
President
Heavy Equipment Resources of Florida
Jacksonville
"We were in the commercial landscape business for 27 years. I recognized about three years ago with the economy that there was not going to be any construction. Enterprise Florida, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Small Business Administration, the Jacksonville port and chamber had an eight-week class in becoming certified in exporting. We decided to jump in and see what it was about. We got our first deal for $3 million in Africa. We've been in Africa since then. We are mostly in Nigeria, Ghana. We're in southern Africa. We're doing business in Peru, the Dominican Republic. They want to do business with America, and they want the American way and they want American products. We've exported $9 million in equipment and parts, and we expect to do $20 million this year. I was in Africa 13 times last year."
BOAT MANUFACTURING
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CEO
Twin Vee Catamarans
Fort Pierce
"We shipped boats to Italy, some to Canada. We do ship to the Caribbean, to Panama. We own the Bahamas. It's (exporting) still a small percentage of our business. In Europe, how they rate boats is quite different. It's a test that's more intrusive than certifying a vessel in the United States. It's quite expensive to do it over your entire product line. Pick and choose a few models and concentrate on them. I'm getting so many requests from Australia I'm going to have to set up a dealer network there."
PERSONAL PRODUCTS
 [Photo: Jeffrey Salter] |
Iyad "Andy" Hammad
President
Hair & Accessories
Opa Locka
"The market we're trying to open up is Africa. Enterprise Florida helped us find a big buyer in South Africa, and we sold $60,000 in one shot."
SOFTWARE
 [Photo: Gregg Matthews] |
Joe Swiski
President/CEO
DiSTI
Orlando
"China, Singapore and Australia were very good for the company in 2011. We're continuing to focus on southeast Asia, Singapore, China and Korea. Southeast Asia presents a challenging environment where you have to learn about the different cultures in each country so that you can effectively conduct business there. A large percentage of our business is military aircraft. We're trying to get into the automotive industry, providing graphical software for the center display consoles in cars. A lot of that software is being developed in Germany, India and Japan."
MEDICAL EQUIPMENT
 [Photo: Halley Levy] |
President/CEO
Airon Corp.
Melbourne
"We're now in 22 countries, and our target is to add five to eight new countries every year. We attend international conferences to promote the company and to find distributors. We make life-support equipment, respirators, ventilators, breathing equipment. Our little niche is we don't use any electronics. It's all oxygen power. We have to find distributors with experience with similar equipment. We have to travel and train their staff. You have to have a lot of patience and give them a lot of support. Our most recent addition is Vietnam. We will not go into China."