For nearly eight years Elaine and Sam Isaiah have been running Candles & Yesteryear, a small retail store on Diamond Hill Road in Cumberland.
But Sam Isaiah, who had previously been involved in international trade, always knew there was a greater market out there for the candles he was selling, and he was determined to reach it.
His first stop in establishing an international trade route – the Rhode Island Export Assistance Center at Bryant College where he was enrolled in the Country and Industry Program.
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A market research initiative, the Country and Industry Program, is designed to help Rhode Island businesses identify potential trade opportunities by country, region, or even by industry. The market research projects, which are managed by the center’s International Trade Consultants, are tailored to meet the needs of a given company and its products, said Raymond W. Fogarty, director of the Rhode Island Export Assistance Center.
“What we do is hire consultants and students to do the necessary research for these businesses,” he said. “It gets very specific. They will do research in certain areas, and eventually even come up with some potential contacts.”
According to Fogarty, the program, which is financed by the United States Economic Development Administration, has been helping nearly 400 Rhode Island companies since it began four years ago.
“Our exports went up 7 percent last year, when the country as a whole saw exports go down 6.3 percent,” he said. “I think that the companies we are working with are pretty enthusiastic about doing business internationally, and it shows that they are successfully doing it.”
The experience of working with the export center has been an eye-opener for Isaiah. While he had previous experience in the international trade arena, Isaiah said, the Internet coupled with new trade policies have totally changed the way he is used to doing business.
“In the past I used to travel from country to country, and now I don’t have to,” he said. “But understanding how to use the Web as my tool is a whole different set of challenges.”
In fact, using the World Wide Web as a marketing tool is one of the things he worked on with consultant Paula Tivey, associate director of the International Trade Date Network at the Rhode Island Export Assistance Center. In the two months since the two set-up www.americandleusa.com they have already gotten international responses.
“This is truly something that the whole world is going to see, whether or not that is your intention,” Tivey said of the Web site. “Sam wanted to make sure that people could order online so we started with an informational Web site, and then added shopping cart solutions.”
Tivey said getting Isaiah’s products out there, was only the first step. The second was informing people around the world how to find them. To do this, she got him involved with BUY USA, an online forum sponsored by the Department of Commerce that brings buyers and sellers together.
Ironically, the site provided its own set of challenges.
“One slight handicap I have is that they don’t have a gift category, and that is true of a lot of these services,” Isaiah said. “It’s very difficult to put our product on any list, because the gift category doesn’t exist. I can certainly put candles with jewelry, but that’s not what they are.”
But if there is one thing Isaiah has learned from past experiences, and his current foray into international trade is that patience is extremely important. Targeting clients in Canada and colder areas of Europe, he said, it’s clear that most have already done the buying for this winter, and the holiday season.
“This is a brand new venture on my part,” he said. “I know that it is going to take some time before I can get my products out there. I am not disappointed. I know that I have to lay the groundwork and contact leads directly. I am setting myself up for next year.”
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