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The World Wide Web can be used to launch your company into the world of international trade. The cost of marketing on the Web is so low that even small companies can afford to promote their particular specialty worldwide, and around the corner. We could talk about all the negatives of doing business internationally; the exchange rate risk, the letters of credit, the tariffs, the language barrier. But one thing is certain, trade has become truly international, and local markets are disappearing fast.

I was working in an electroplating shop several years ago, plating nuts & bolts with zinc. These fasteners were made in China, and I wondered why they were not plated with zinc before shipping them from China. If China can compete with our screw-machine industry, they can most assuredly compete with our electroplaters. We were plating these fasteners in the USA because of some marketing concern. Maybe there is some tariff advantage if the parts require finishing. It certainly is easier to ship and stock oily parts, and have the final finish made to order for the customer; black oxide, zinc and yellow chromate, nickel.

All I am saying is that the business manager should know why he was plating those fasteners, because things change fast. Suppose it is a tariff thing, and after a few years, all he is plating is Chinese bolts. What happens when the law changes? China sends the bolts to Mexico to be plated in a maquiladora, then to a distribution center in El Paso, Texas. No more plating in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

So the Chinese have some competitive advantage in making fasteners, so what? I say that if this is the case, then every one of us has to find our competitive advantage and market it. No matter how you look at it, it is better to grow pineapples in Hawaii, and corn in Iowa, and trade between the two states.

Now unless that electroplater is out there marketing, how would anyone ever find him? Suppose someone in Paris has a competitive advantage making a consumer product, and it is advantageous to ship the part unplated to New York. He could just call the World Wide Web and look for a plater in the USA. A few e-mails later, the parts could be on their way.

The same goes for suppliers to the finishing industry. Suppose you sell a full line of metering pumps. I would study the finishing market and pick my top five pumps, and keep a catalog on line on the Web. I myself have never had a parts list when my metering pump went down in waste treatment. Sulfuric acid seems to have an affinity for the page with the exploded view of the diaphragm parts . So if I sold pumps, I would keep a parts list on-line and guarantee overnight delivery. Where else but on the Web could this be practical?

The technology of the Web provides new ways to market, and that, I think, is what all the excitement is about.

Please e-mail comments to Tom Pullizzi, <fizz@dandy.net>

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