This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Roxanne Baumann, global business strategist and owner of Baumann Global.
Baumann recently launched her company after spending decades in international commerce, and now offers export services, project consulting and more for clients. She’s previously worked for Harley-Davidson, and draws on her experiences overseeing sales in Canada, Europe, South America, Australia, Asia and elsewhere.
“I love working with manufacturing companies,” she said, noting her clients are typically businesses with between $5 million and $100 million in revenue, though that can go higher in some cases.
She helps C-suite executives “overcome barriers to international expansion” and other export challenges, noting some business leaders tend to take a “reactive” approach to exporting.
“They’ve never really sat back and said, ‘Gee, why am I getting that order, how can I make that happen further?’ And as they move to try to do more, without some experience, without some strategy, they basically can waste a lot of time, have some costly mistakes,” she said.
Her approach incorporates “best practices” of strategic exporters, Baumann explains, from focusing on countries that present the best opportunities to accelerating the process of getting a return on investment.
Bringing a domestic business to the global stage can seem daunting to many business leaders, according to Baumann. Her process seeks to hone in on clients’ unique value proposition, the most promising markets to target and how to drive expansion revenue, among other factors.
“If they get strategic, you know, I’ve had companies average almost $1 million in new revenue in the first year,” she said.
Baumann also discusses government resources and loans available to companies looking to export and how she helps clients navigate this landscape.
“So wherever they are, we’ll try to figure out how we can get through the barriers and get them moving,” she said.
Listen to the podcast below, sponsored by UW-Madison:
