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The entrepreneur's toolbox, continued ...Published: January 01, 2010



10. Think globally, not locally.

All the experts agree: The competition is spreading across the ponds. Puri describes it: “The world is getting flatter.”
   
That can be both good news and bad.
   
“The competition from Europe or China is now just as important to you as competition from within Southern California,” says Puri.
   
Collins points out that many of these competing countries don’t face the same kinds of licensing restrictions or high taxes that American companies do.
   
“It makes them that much more difficult to compete with,” she says.
   
But the flipside is this: If you think “global market,” it can improve your options. “You simply cannot afford to not think internationally in business anymore,” says Collins. “We even consider it important when advising about investing. A global presence for a company can make it appealing for investing.”
   
Also, the experts agree that the global economy is improving, which can only help local businesses.


• Follow these tips, the experts say, and Orange County businesses should be doing better in 2010’s healthier economic climate. And Puri is optimistic that recovery is just around the corner. According to the recent economic forecast by Puri’s team at Cal State Fullerton’s Institute for Economic and Envi-ronmental Studies, the future looks better because “negative forces have moved from ‘bad’ to ‘less bad’ (housing, investments), and positive forces have taken hold (sales, government spending).”
   
But Puri points out that all of the economy-related talk has one giant “if” to it: Washington.
   
“Everything in business here in Orange County depends on new federal regulations,” he says. “But from what we’ve seen, we can expect a recovery in 2010.”
   
Recovery – meaning one with a “new normal.”