Elgin service business builds success in China

The most important fact about Paulsen Productions Inc.'s successful first year in China may be that Paulsen is a service business, not a manufacturer. No worries about lead paint, poor machining or shipments plodding across the seas.

Instead, the Elgin-headquartered company teaches presentation and leadership skills to Chinese - and to others elsewhere - in two-day seminars.

The seminars are always in English. "English communication skills are a huge focus in China," explains Gerald Paulsen, president and CEO. "The people we deal with have to travel the world - and know English."

Paulsen Productions has gone global, Paulsen continues, because "Many of the companies we work with here have overseas offices and wanted us to go there."

"There" actually refers to 23 countries, served by Paulsen offices in Elgin, China, Brazil and, since October, Guam - a U.S. territory that Paulsen and Executive Vice President-CFO Cheryl Kaspar see as a gateway to Japan and the Far East.

Establishing an international presence requires more than packing seminar materials and boarding a plane. Paulsen and Kaspar give a huge amount of credit to Cassandra Keener.

"It took us two-three-four years before we set foot in China," Kaspar says. "Cassandra helped dot all the I's and cross all the T's." Equally important: Keener "provided us with State of Illinois trade contacts around the world."

Keener, director of the Illinois International Trade Center at College of DuPage, Lisle, has become a go-to person for area companies seeking to do business abroad. One reason is that she connects to the nine state-funded trade offices created to help Illinois businesses do business internationally.

For example, "Illinois has an office in Shanghai," Paulsen says. "It's his job to help Illinois businesses. When I went to China, I had a nine-day game plan - meetings in six cities, all mapped out in advance."

Keener also helped in Brazil, where Paulsen Productions has had a presence for four years. "Brazil was a different animal," Paulsen says. "We had an employee who relocated there. But Cassandra helped set up a meeting with the U.S. Consulate, and we met with a law firm there."

Keener helps, but she only advises and assists. Responsibilities belong to the business owner:

• Watch your finances. "The first consideration is that we are for profit," Kaspar says. "The volatility of the dollar can be a problem," Paulsen adds. "You have to protect yourself financially."

• Protect your intellectual property. Your U.S. copyright may not hold elsewhere, according to Kaspar.

• Understand your contracts. "Ours are all in English," Paulsen says.

• Have a local contact. "What better way is there to know the local situation than to have a partner there?" Paulsen asks.

• Don't be afraid of China. "It's not necessarily harder to get into China than any other country," Kaspar says. "Build rapport and trust."

Questions, comments to Jim Kendall, JKendall@121MarketingResources.com.

© 2008 121 Marketing Resources, Inc.