Folium: A Billion Consumers In The Americas via USA Today
Folium: A Billion Consumers In The Americas via USA Today
Folium: A Billion Consumers In The Americas via USA Today
Have you ever stopped to consider just how much of something it takes to make up a billion? That’s billion with a big “b”. If you had one billion dollars, you would need to spend close to $2,740,000 every single day of the year and you would still have change left over. That’s the kind of abstract numbers we’re talking about here. But instead of money, we’re talking about people. It’s hard to fathom these kinds of macro-type scenarios when we live in our micro-worlds, yet we really need to zoom out quite a bit in order to consider the following statement.
President Obama is promoting more trade between the United States and Latin America by saying that businesses throughout the hemisphere can benefit from “nearly a billion consumers.”
“With nearly a billion citizens — nearly a billion consumers — among us, there’s so much more we can do together,” Obama planned to say during today’s 33-nation Summit of the Americas. – USA Today
I don’t want to hear political bull. When we deal with the raw numbers, he’s right. There are a TON of people in Latin America who don’t have access to American goods and services because we aren’t selling to them!
Imagine being in sales, or even owning your own business, and working with a potential customer base of over one billion people. Most businesses would try and do anything for the chance at those kinds of numbers, yet many American small businesses ignore the remainder of North and South America, preferring to act like the Hispanic population doesn’t exist. I’m not too savvy about the world of business, but if you could reach a total of one billion people by just adding a few language and culture consultants, wouldn’t you jump at the chance? Oftentimes language and culture becomes invisible barriers, too “difficult” or “complex” to be dealt with.
This article is just another reminder that the world is constantly changing. While Hispanic market share wasn’t a consideration for the last generation of small businesses, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be a prime focus for ours! We bat about the term “global economy” a lot yet we only let the big kids play in the sandbox. The reason why Coke and Pepsi, Nike and Adidas, Microsoft and Intel are all global players is because they knew the power of going global as fast as possible. This should be no different for any other business in the world. An Amazon storefront, UPS, and a PayPal account gives you the freedom to sell anything you want almost anywhere in the world, and permits the freedom to do so in multiple languages and in global currencies. The technology is available today, now is the time for anyone to get started!
Ultimately, if your company doesn’t think that going global is a worthy goal, perhaps it’s time to find a company that does. Those are the ones that will succeed.
