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Global Outsourcing: Rather than purchasing the materials you need to make your products from local or regional U$.$S$.$ vendors, you could purchase them at a decreased cost to you from companies located outside of the United States. This

Joint Venture: You may find a strategic ally and decide to start a joint venture in order to enter the international arena. In this situation, you and your strategic ally would start a new enterprise in a foreign country and share both the risks and rewards in that venture.

Wholly Owned Subsidiary: This option would have you owning an entire company in a foreign company. You might purchase an existing company, or start a greenfield venture, which is a foreign subsidiary that you would build from scratch.

Licensing and Franchising: You might consider licensing a company in another country to make or distribute your products. That company would pay a fee for the right to make or distribute those products. Alternatively, you might set up a franchising arrangement whereby your foreign partner would pay a fee and share the profits in return for using your company's brand name and ways of doing business.

Importing, Exporting, and Countertrading: Currently, you make all of your own promotional products and sell them to customers within the United States. If you can find a manufacturer who can produce the products cheaper than you, you could import them and then sell them to your customers. Additionally, rather than limiting your market to customers only within the United States, with the exporting option you could sell your products to customers that are located virtually anywhere in the world. Another option would be to countertrade with a company outside of the United States. You may be able to do the customizing work better or more efficiently than a trade partner outside of the United States. You could potentially counter trade$-$that is$,$ barter products for products with your trade partner rather than importing or exporting for cash.