You’re probably wondering who we are and why we are putting on this forum. Great questions. And we’ve got solid answers.
We’re Global TradeSource Ltd. (our online arm is GlobeTrade.com) and we’ve been in the business of helping entrepreneurs and small businesses go global since 1985. Yes, you read that right. Laurel Delaney, successful entrepreneur, a business owner herself and a native of Chicago, started Global TradeSource, Ltd. with the notion to help all entrepreneurs and small business owners market, sell and fulfill orders internationally. GSBB Media LLC that you see throughout our site is a wholly owned subsidiary of Global TradeSource, Ltd., which was established in 2013 to keep our No. 1 ranked blog in the world, The Global Small Business Blog, independent of all other properties due to its stand-alone popularity. With the global reach across all of our online platforms, we’ve had the opportunity to connect with more than 4.8 million viewers.
What Laurel discovered early on in her career—spanning the pre- and post-Internet era—is that relationships matter, especially those when we take the time to get to know one another whether in person or online. For Laurel that meant meeting with a customer in Japan who did a small amount of business with her firm. But after that face-to-face visit, he tripled his business with her. Now, slowly making our way out of the global pandemic, a well-run virtual meeting can not only be more efficient, it can make or break an international trade deal.
All of that led to developing a newsletter called Borderbuster, teaching MBA International Marketing at Loyola University Chicago, writing books on exporting, serving as the President of Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global®, hosting the podcast How She Went Global®, creating ExportingGuide.com and the accompanied Exporting Guide Group, and now leveraging all those initiatives to host the world’s best little Global Small Business Forum in the world. And what better place to begin then Laurel’s home city: Chicago?
One of the key aspects to exporting success are the connections we forge—building relationships locally, through a supply value chain network and overseas to expand a business. That’s why the Global Small Business Forum was conceived in 2015: to be a place where participants, who largely up until now have communicated via email, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram, now have a chance to e-meet, interact, network and make new connections.
After hosting six successful forums, we have discovered that we have an amazing ecosystem here in Chicago (and virtually) that fosters international expansion and we will continue to work hard to keep it growing.
One of the unique things about our participants at the forum is that it’s small business owners, big company top executives, global leaders, investors, entrepreneurs, students, forward thinkers, trailblazers and everywhere in between – all wanting to make the world their business.” – Laurel Delaney
The Global Small Business Forum will take the mystery out of expanding a business globally and provide entrepreneurs and small business owners and anyone else who is interested, a whole new way of doing business with the world.