Editor?s note: In March, Virginia Business ran several columns by Colleen Jolly of The 24-hour Co.in Falls Church as she traveled with the state?s Virginia Economic Development Partnership to Australia.? Her company got some business from that trip. Now she returns on her own to explore other business opportunities.
A mere five months have passed and I find myself sitting in an airport heading back to Oz, Down Under, Australia ? the other side of the known world.? It?s a 15-hour plus flight to Sydney.? My March trip to the country with the VEDP (Virginia Economic Development Partnership) was successful.? So I am returning for a paying gig, conducting a visual communications/information graphic, one-day seminar with our new partners, Shipley Asia Pacific. I am excited to be heading back and a little scared.
International business is hard. Truly, any business is hard, and selling services, by the hour or by the training day is particularly hard. On my good days, I laugh at people with their guaranteed
contract work and prefer my slogging it out in the trenches.?
Yet because this job is hard, it is easy to fail.? Sure, my first trip to Oz was great. The meetings were
great, the follow-up from the VEDP and the consultants in Australia was fantastic. But when faced with actual, real success, I think it is safe to say that we were stunned.
Now, not only have I been successful, but I have to deliver on all those promises.? I am faced with the potential that a market exists in Sydney or in other parts of Australia (which is the size of the continental United States). Success is quite possibly the best and the worst thing that can happen to any
entrepreneur.
The sights and sounds of Sydney are still fresh in my mind, and I look forward to visiting
old haunts.? I have done trainings before, in the U.S., South Africa, Germany, and the
United Kingdom. I am happy, no, cautiously optimistic and infinitely curious about what is going to happen next. In speaking with a representative from the State of Victoria government last week,
I paused to find the right words to respond to her question of ?What, precisely, are your intentions regarding Australia?? Then she paused and prompted, ?To have fun?? So, to start, I shall have fun. I will start the fun on a side trip to Tasmania and then report from Sydney on my newfound Australian
success.
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Source: http://www.virginiabusiness.com/index.php/opinion/article/international-trade-reprised/313845/
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