The U.S. is a world leader in exporting – roughly $2 trillion in total export sales each year. Yet, astonishingly, only 1% of all U.S. companies and only 25% of our manufacturers are pursuing this veritable goldmine. If you are among the majority who are missing out because you are too afraid or don’t know where to begin, this book is for you. This book lays out the step-by-step export process that you can easily understand - the why’s, the how-to’s, the to-do’s, and the who’s who. It gives you the reasons for each step and provides useful links to all of the resources that you need to grow your successful export business. With this book as your guide, you are ready to build your export success story. Use this book to venture into exporting, give it a shot, and feel free to let me know how you’re doing at mkogon@socal.rr.com. Over his decades in trade and exporting, Maurice Kogon has been doing anything but sitting still. This guide does a great job of distilling some of the key lessons Maurice has not only developed but has put into practice to guide companies into becoming successful exporters. -- Kevin Klowden, Executive Director, Milken Institute Center for Regional Economics and California Center This is one of the very best business-oriented guides to exporting I have seen. Maurice clearly understands the subject matter, and his book guides the reader through the export process explaining step-bystep what it takes to succeed as an exporter. I highly recommend it. -- Robert Erwin, Director, Export-U.com Written in a very practical, effective and interactive manner, this book is a must read for entrepreneurs, SMEs and business consultants contemplating or involved in international expansion via exporting. -- Anatoly Zhuplev, Professor, International Business & Entrepreneurship & Chair, Department of Management, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles The amount of intricate knowledge that Maurice casually imparts on anyone he works with is invaluable to their success. Maurice's ability to dissect and solve issues facing exporters is a testament to his lifetime dedication to international trade. His inclusion of this knowledge in a practical and useful book as Roadmap to Export Success will move you past the obstacles of exporting and into the export process. This book has offered me both the courage and the tools to venture intointernational markets. -- Simona Racek, International Expansion Advisor, Los Angeles SBDC and California International Trade Center; President, Women In International Trade, Orange County Chapter I am impressed with the scope and the depth of Roadmap to Export Success, which serves as a practical guide to a small company seeking to sell in overseas markets. The book follows a logical progression of topics that leads a company through the important stages to launch an export initiative without the jargon, acronyms, and academic theory that characterizes so many of these export guides. I highly recommend this book for serious practitioners--both new and existing exporters. -- Martin Brill, Program Manager, International Trade, Kutztown University SBDC Kogon delivers a comprehensive guide to building an export business. The author, the founder of Kogon Trade Consulting (with nearly 60 years of experience in the international business field),opens his nonfiction debut with a straightforward question: "Why is it that so many US manufacturers sell solely to the US market, with less than 5% of the world's population, when they potentially could make much more money by also exporting to the nearly 200 countries outside the US, with 95% of the world's population?" In laying out and demystifying the world of exporting for new-to-export (NTE) companies and entrepreneurs, Kogon breaks down the steps (and risks and prospective payoffs), beginning with some of the main misconceptions about the practice. These include "I'm too small, can't afford it, can't compete"; "fear—of the unknown, of regulations, of not getting paid"; and "ignorance—of their export potential, of the benefits, of the steps and procedures." The author proceeds to itemize the various components of the enterprise for NTE readers, spending time on human elements like differences in religion between businesses and their potential foreign markets, as well as variations in negotiating styles, business customs, languages, and so on. He offers readers a multiple-question diagnostic test designed to assess any business's export potential based on a series of bullet-pointed qualities like experience, capability, and motivation, among other factors. Kogon is a direct and forceful advocate, and it's likely that many NTE readers will catch a bit of his enthusiasm. Many of those readers will also probably feel some of the initial intimidation he describes, wondering if their goods or services really are suitable for an international market. These readers are the book's obvious main audience, and for them Kogon carefully enumera