Setting up a Business in the USA 2 - Understanding the Culture

As I mentioned before, the USA is a big place and the culture on the east coast is quite different to the culture on the west coast or the deep south - that being said I'm going to make some sweeping generalisations and sum up the prevailing business culture in the USA in three words.

Respect, equality and success.

Time is money, so wasting it is not looked upon favourably. Punctuality shows respect, so turn up on time, or call ahead to say you are going to be late if you are delayed. Likewise, expect the people you are dealing with to have the same attitude and to be very task orientated - you'll find a lot less pointless 4 hour meetings with no real plan of action. Politeness is also paramount, use peoples titles and surnames until they have indicated that you may refer to them by their first name - they may well suggest that you do this almost as soon as you have been introduced, but it's still polite to wait.

Business is serious stuff in the US, and the sort of office humour, throw away comments and jokes that you may be used to could well be construed as deeply inappropriate - on the other hand when Americans do do 'funny' they do it, like everything else, big, bold and (some may say) brash. It's not true that Americans don't get irony and the British sense of humour, but you don't want to use the negotiating stage to find out whether your new business partner does or not.

Americans are proud of their culture of success - the American Dream is alive and kicking, and those who can work their way from the post room to the board room are highly regarded. America loves winners (which probably also partially explains why they do so well at the Olympics). Caution, self depreciating wit and a hint of cynicism may be the order of the day in the UK but may convey a much more negative impression than you intend in the US.

Article copyright John Cave 2008

Part 1 - Understanding the Geography

Meet me at the "Focus on Doing Business in the USA Event" 13th March 2008 in association with the British American Business Council

If you have any queries on freight to and from USA, please do not hesitate to contact one of our team on +44(0)121 713 7250 or by email for advice or further information.

Setting up a Business in the USA 1 - Understanding the Geography

The USA is, as we all know, fairly big. To be more precise the USA covers nearly 4million sq miles, which makes it 40 times larger than the UK (or 473 times the size of Wales...!). In fact 11 of the 50 states are bigger than the UK in terms of area - which gives you a lot of ground to cover. And there are a lot of people in the USA too - 300 million of them, making it the 3rd largest population in the world, after China and India.

But the thing to bear in mind, when considering setting up in the USA is while there are a lot of people in a lot of land, there is an awful lot of space. Even when you take into consideration that there is enough land in Alaska for each of its residents to have a square mile each, the USA is a relatively empty place, made up of areas of high density with huge distances between them. This in turn means that ,while there are federal laws and governance in place, in reality a lot of the administrative and legislative functions are handled state by state.

So what does this mean for you if you are considering setting up a business to distribute in the USA? Well, it means that you might be better off thinking of the USA more like a collection of small (and not so small) countries (a bit like the EU) rather than a single homogenous country. You can get away with having a central hub in Lyon if you want to cover all of France, but if you want your reach to extend to Turkey, Norway, Portugal and Poland, you might need to think again. Likewise a base on the West Coast of the USA is great… for covering the West Coast, but less useful if you want to reach those in the Central Time Zone and almost useless if you want to get to the East Coast - The distance between New York and LA is only 2/3 of the distance between New York and London.

And speaking of time zones - there are 4 of them on 'mainland' USA, not including Alaska and the various islands. So when it's midday in New York it's still 8am in California (and 5pm in the UK) which means if you want to deal with people all across the country, you might need to get a few extra clocks for the wall - and be prepared to work later or earlier than normal.

So, my top tip when understanding the geography of the USA is to focus on the 'United States' part first and 'of America' next. And remember, you're not in Kansas anymore, Toto....

Article copyright John Cave 2008

Meet me at the "Focus on Doing Business in the USA Event" 13th March 2008 in association with the British American Business Council

If you have any queries on freight to and from USA, please do not hesitate to contact one of our team on +44(0)121 713 7250 or by email for advice or further information.

Maps from: Map of the USA - Visit us for more maps of the USA including all the states.

It's a matter of balance - UK Exporting Opportunities

Although most people know that the UK regularly imports more goods than it exports, its perhaps not so well appreciated that the resulting imbalance has a direct and very useful effect on export freight costs - something which can be very helpful to wouldbe exporters.

Because imports outweight exports, there is, on balance, a much lower demand for export freight services than for import deliveries. In other words, there is much more space on trucks, ships and aircraft leaving the UK than there is available export cargo to fill them. This shortfall has a dynamic effect and freight prices reduce to very competitive levels as freight companies seek to win business in an effort to fill the empty space. However, at current levels of trade, there is evidently never enough cargo to match the capacity.

The effect on price is very appreciable. For example, a full lorry load from Antwerp in Belgium to Birmingham in the UK might typically cost as much as £1100 (due to excessive demand for transport to the UK). The same vehicle, from Birmingham to Antwerp, might cost less than £350 (due to very poor demand for transport from the UK to Belgium). And the same principle applies to a greater or lesser extent for nearly all of the UK's export markets.

So, potential exporters should be aware that they may have an immediate comparative advantage over many of their foreign competitors in terms of transport costs. A very good reason to explore any export possibilities from the UK and at least one advantage offered by our overseas trade imbalance.