Minnesota exports rise 2% to $5 billion in 1Q

Minnesota’s manufactured exports rose 2 percent to $5 billion in the first quarter, though sales to its two biggest markets faltered.

The uptick alleviated worries that the increasingly critical export market might falter as it did during several months last year.

Sales to Minnesota’s top trading partner, Canada, fell 12 percent to $1.2 billion as orders lagged for mineral fuels, machinery, beverages, ore and vehicle parts, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) said Thursday.

Companies such as snowmobile and all-terrain vehicle maker Arctic Cat recently reported that 30 percent of their revenues were negatively affected by Canada’s difficult currency exchange rates. Company officials said the problematic currency translation rate is expected to hurt that company for the rest of this year. But it was not clear from the report by DEED if other companies have similar concerns about Canada.

Minnesota’s second-largest trading partner, China, also bought less during the first quarter. Exports to China fell 2 percent to $523 million.

On the upside, Mexico, Japan, ­Belgium, Germany and Australia gobbled up Minnesota goods at a hearty rate, with percentages increasing from 23 percent to 49 percent from the first quarter of last year.

Mexico, which is Minnesota’s third-largest trading partner, bought $433 million worth of goods, up 49 percent. That increase was driven by an uptick in demand for Minnesota-made machinery, vehicle components and electrical equipment.

Exports have become an increasing part of Minnesota’s economy and helped boost the state’s beleaguered manufacturing sector during and after the Great Recession.

State and civic leaders have pushed small- and medium-size businesses to consider selling their goods overseas and have set up teams to assist them in exploring possible market opportunities. In several cases state officials have set up satellite trade offices in other countries to help Minnesota businesses more easily make connections.

“Minnesota exporters saw strong gains in our traditional markets during the first quarter,” DEED Commissioner Katie Clark Sieben said in a statement. “But they also made headway into newer markets for Minnesota products, with exports growing 11 percent in the Middle East and 16 percent in the Australia-Pacific region.”

Source: http://www.startribune.com

Stop Accepting Advice

According to the weather app it's 57 degrees and mostly cloudy. I was hoping to sit outside, get some work done and soak in some vitamin D.

I looked outside. Not a cloud in the sky and the sun was warm. Obviously the weather app was wrong.

Can you guess where I am right now? Outside on the deck!

I'm glad I didn't take that expert advice at face value.

There is so much expert advice being offered to business owners.

It could be about a "sure fire step-by-step system" that absolutely needs to be followed or you will never fill your next workshop. Or the 5-key elements that every single website must have and if not, don't even bother having a website at all. Or the exact script to use in a sales call because if you don't use it nobody will ever buy anything from you and you will be broke.

Most of these experts, unlike the weather app I was using, know what they are talking about and absolutely offer valuable advice. The question to ask yourself is: is the advice you are being offered right for you AND your business right now?

Did you notice that I highlighted the word AND in that last sentence?

Let me explain. Sometimes there is something that you could do for your business that is exactly right for where you want your business to go, but it doesn't work with who you are or what you are willing to do at that time. Sometimes the reverse is true. Advice is offered to you that works with your schedule, what you want to be doing, how you want to be doing it, but won't yield the results you want.

It's vital that whatever you decide to focus your time and energy on is what's right for you AND your business, and if it's not that you rethink your priorities and shift your plan and expectations so that it does.

Here's a suggestion to help you check in with your own reality and decide what advice to follow and what to let pass you by. Take a few minutes to create a vision for yourself of what you want your business to look like and especially get clear about what you want to be doing on a day-to-day basis.

Once you understand that assess all of your decisions based on that vision and determine if accepting that advice, doing that program, attending that event, marketing in that way is what's right for you and your business.

Source: http://carriegreenecoaching.com/