Doing Business in the United States
Having successfully won several major US Government contracts over the years and lived in multiple regions of the United States, I both advise and brief businesses and businessmen on how to effectively do business in the United States, and in Europe for American businesses. Most people in the United Kingdom believe that as respect to doing business the United States is a single country, with Washington, DC as it's Capital. Wrong !
The United States is a federation of states, each with their Capital, legislature and laws, that join together in the United States of America, with Washington, DC as their Federal Capital. That can derail even the best laid plans of doing business here.
A couple of years ago an importer of Fine Wines came to me completely perplexed, and with his lawyer was hell bent to leave the US as quickly as possible. He had landed at Dulles Airport, visited the contacts in Washington, DC and was about to tour the key markets in the United States with samples of his French Wines. His plan was to load a large rental car with the wines and visit Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Atlanta and on to Miami, stopping at Orlando. He quickly found out the penalty for taking alcohol across State Lines. He also found out that what goes in Washington is against the law in Philadelphia. I will not cover his experiences in a Dry County only to say he left early and was glad to get back to the sanity of Europe.
In the 1990's I lived for several years in Orlando, Florida and daily British businessmen would call with tales of woe. Many had been promised that if they invested in property developments in Florida they could retire there, and many bought houses, sight unseen, on the strength of this promise. Many lawyers were around to promise Green Cards and even citizenship, for a hefty fee. Unfortunately they were being conned, and tens, if not hundreds of thousands learned that they could stay for a maximum of 6 months, regardless of what their "Investment Consultant" has told them.
Washington, DC is a good place to start, as all the States have offices there, as are the offices of 1756 or so trade associations and lobbying groups. Few in Europe understand Lobbyists, or their corrupting influence in drafting rules and legislation, but there are around 50,000 in Washington alone, for around 600 Legislators, and key government officials.
In the months ahead I will pull together the many presentations I have made, and papers written, that will assist companies in planning their sales strategy.