Any Ontario company considering entering the export market will have to assess its strengths and weaknesses in detail. Consider these eight key aspects of your business:

• management expertise
• production resources
• product design and ability to adapt
• domestic market success
• marketing skills
• technology
• financial resources
• people resources

To help determine your company's potential to expand into export markets, ask yourself the questions listed below. If you can respond positively to many or most of these challenges, then you are ready to start planning to export.

1. What is your position in the Ontario market?
2. Are foreign markets necessary for your company's growth?
3. What is your capacity for expansion?
4. Is your company prepared to make the commitment of money and people for the often long-term development of export markets?
5. Will you be able to commit your export-related resources for at least a two-year period? (Exporting is not just a stop-gap for a slow domestic market. Three years would be better and one year is the absolute minimum.)
6. Will your export manager be able to call on the support and cooperation of other key individuals in finance, production, technical support, and shipping? Is everyone in your company prepared to work toward the same goals?

7. Do your marketing and technical staff understand how to do business in foreign markets?
8. Do your professional/technical staff have the necessary certifications in the foreign market?
9. Will professional staff need to be licensed locally?
10. Do you have access to additional qualified labour?
11. Do you have Canadian support staff capable of speaking the relevant foreign languages?
12. Are your marketing, technical staff and senior executives prepared to spend days, or even weeks, away from home?
13. If not, is the company prepared to train or hire people to work in new markets?
14. Is your senior management prepared to have departments work together to support an export initiative?

15. If you are a small firm, do you have staff with marketing expertise?
16. Is your senior management and/or marketing staff skilled at marketing in other cultures?

17. Do you have excess growth capital to use for foreign market development?
18. Do you have enough financial resources to manage professional fee withholds at source (for tax reasons) if applicable?
19. Are you financially equipped to increase production significantly?

20. Is your product suited for export? Can it be adapted easily to meet different cultural preferences?
21. What are the characteristics of your product that provide it with a marketing advantage?
22. Can your goods be easily shipped?
23. Can your service be delivered easily abroad? Does your packaging meet international requirements?
24. Will you need to redesign your product (packaging, manner of delivery, etc.)?
25. Will you need to translate materials?
26. Is your product cost competitive?
27. Is your quality control up to international standards?
28. Are you ISO (International Standards Organization) certified and approved?
29. Can your product be modified to meet mandatory technical standards in foreign markets?
30. Will your product need to be certified by a foreign agency before being allowed into the market?

31. Can you increase production to meet a surge in demand?
32. Will your production facilities need to be certified by a foreign agency before your product is allowed into the market?
33. Can you expand your telecommunications capabilities easily? Do you have a fax machine and email capability?
34. Do you have a strategy for accommodating different time zones and vacations when relying on communications by telephone?