If your readiness assessment convinces you that your company is capable of operating abroad, and you decide that this makes sense for your business, the next step is to develop your export plan. This is the master plan that will define your international goals and how you’ll achieve them.
In brief, though, your export plan should cover at least the following:

• your export objectives;
• your management and staffing plans;
• your financial strategy for obtaining the cash flow you’ll need;
• the key selling features of your product;
• your competitive advantages and disadvantages relative to exporting;
• your key competitors and major market risks;
• how you’ll adapt your product to meet the needs of the foreign customer;
• the price at which you’ll sell your product;
• your strategy for promoting your product to your customers;
• your logistics for delivering your product;
• how you’ll enter the market (by direct selling, for example, or through a distributor);
• your export budget, which covers travel, marketing expenses, trade show participation, logistics, ongoing market research and the expenses of adapting your product to the target market; and
• an implementation schedule setting the deadlines you’ll need to meet.

You won’t likely make much of a profit during your first two years of exporting, so your export plan (and your finances) should allow for this. In year three, you should start to see some positive cash flow from your foreign operations. If you don’t, you should review your approach to see if you’re doing something wrong. That said, some markets are extremely difficult to penetrate, with lead times before the first sale (let alone an overall profit) of five years or more.