Planning to export? Financial help for new exporters

Planning to export? Read the Cintra Translations’ how-to on researching new customers and markets abroad

For the fourth and final blog in our Planning to export series, we’re answering the question we’re most often asked by companies thinking about exporting: How can we cut the cost of exporting without cutting corners and damaging our reputation? 

There is financial help out there for first-time as well as experienced exporters, most of it in the form of grants towards specific types of expenditure – research, translation and interpretation, and training your staff. In fact there are real financial incentives to seeking advice even when your export plan is still very much at the back of an envelope stage.

Where to start? You really can’t do better than head straight to the UKTI and the British Chambers of Commerce. Find your local international trade team on the UK Trade & Investment website at www.ukti.gov.uk/export/unitedkingdom/contactus.html. Visit www.britishchambers.org.uk.

The UKTI can offer first-time exporters subsidised training and free export capability assessments under the UK Trade & Investment’s Passport to export scheme. There’s tailored advice and support that’s largely free. Find out more about the Passport to export scheme: www.ukti.gov.uk/export/exporting/startingexporting.html. They’ll point you to the range of financial help currently on offer from the Government, including help with the cost of visits to overseas markets and trade shows. The Export Communications Review Scheme offers help with in-depth advice from regional experts on your on- and offline marketing material, helping you build a do-able action plan from adapting your website to finding quality translation and interpreting services. (Don’t forget to check out discounts we’re offering exporters in our Go Global export packages!)

Have look at our post,  Using – and affording – commercially available sector-specific market research While commercial market research doesn’t come cheap, both the UKTI and the British Chamber of Commerce do offer help with projects either done in-house or by a specialist agency.

Get leads for free Once you’re plugged into the UKTI and Chamber of Commerce networks you can sign up for their newsletters and help forums. All free. They’ll invite you to free or low-cost seminars, webinars, information and networking events. All can be valuable sources of market research, contacts and even business leads. Check out Innovate UK’s EU Enterprise Network site too. They promote sector-specific opportunities, including details on grant funding in agri-tech, biotech and engineering innovation.

Catch up with the earlier blogs in our Planning to export? series

Planning to export? There’s a lot on offer from the British Government via the UKTI

Planning to export? Your local Chamber of Commerce – a one-stop shop for export expertise

Planning to export? Using – and affording – commercially available sector-specific market research