Over 400 000 Uk citizens leave the UK every year in search of a new life. For the majority this move is career and lifestyle driven. If you are not talking to these people, then you are missing out on a great revenue making opportunity, but mud slingers beware, you will quickly ruin your reputation if you enter this half hearted.

There is a wealth of information out there, from the UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) website to expat blogs, all are valuable sources and all should be looked at.

If you were moving abroad, what would you want to know? Make sure you know these answers.
Exporting recruitment services is not for the lazy. This requires effort and commitment. Don’t think for one minute that overseas trips are nice jollys, they are really, really hard work.

Working with different cultures and in different surroundings is exciting and challenging and can reap rewards. Just make sure you do it properly.

So, what should you do to ensure you enter the export market in the most professional manner possible?

1. Do your research!!! Don’t just rely on a few holiday snaps and your drunken memories from years ago. Visit the market, understand the culture and decide whether you feel comfortable sending your candidates there. I appreciate that this is not always feasible but it will set up apart from the rest, trust me.
2. Utilise the UKTI website and arrange to meet a Trade Advisor. This is essential as they will unlock a huge wealth of information. Go on the Passport to Export training course, look at the research UKTI can offer and make use of it. The contacts they can supply could be invaluable.
3. Make sure you understand the culture of the country. Not everyone likes a hard cold call with a quick close. Ensure you learn how business works before you jump in feet first.
4. Read, read and then read some more. The more knowledgeable you are about the market you are about to enter, especially about current events the better. Too many UK recruiters have tried to enter overseas markets and failed, therefore you may be tarnished with the same brush at first.
5. If the country’s first language is not English, then do your best to learn the local language. Even the odd word will work wonders.
6. Pretend you are moving to the country in question. How easy is it?

The more information you have, the more credible you will be in front of clients and candidates. Remember, they have probably seen / heard it all before……

So, what makes what I say credible? 4 Overseas trips, clients and partner companies across the globe, awards success and international recognition.

So much negative press at the moment. The British press are climbing over themselves to ‘expose’ Dubai. Having spent a vast majority of my time in the Emirate, I have seen first hand the good and bad of the place.

There was a letter in the Independent on the weekend, I wish I had kept it. It was from a Dubai journalist (not) discussing the underbelly of Britain and how he was (not) going to talk about our cultural frailties.

Before anyone complains, I am not bashing any country or way of life etc. But there are always 2 sides to every story.

In Dubai, which was until very recently, just sand, foreign workers were needed to construct not just a few buildings, but an entire Emirate. Walking past the workers in their blue overalls, I was left with a sense of pride and also pity. I remember a day when I got lost having taken a short cut through a building site and 2 site workers gave me a hard hat and helped me find my way back to my hotel! I struggle to imagine the same in the UK. I felt pity as seeing them all at the side of the road eating curry and rice from a small bag, but I also felt pride as these hardworking soles were prepared to do the jobs and take the salary that most of us would turn our nose up to. So, when I saw a few workers being harassed in a shop on the marina, I felt ashamed. If it wasn’t for these workers, Dubai would not be the thriving cosmopolitan place it is today and no one should forget that.

My simplistic view of life is probably not up there with the hacks and their hard hitting stories but so what? This is my view and I don’t think I am saying anything wrong.

In the UK we are not exactly innocent in the exploitation of foreign workers yet it isn’t really focussed on anymore. Dubai is the PR dream, if you can’t beat them, knock them down.

I love Dubai, but as I was once told, you cannot judge the Middle East through Western eyes.