Trading internationally can be a great way to improve your businesses potential, by spreading the risk across a different market you can expose your products to a whole new audience and generate a new source of income. This is not something you can rush into, before you start you need to conduct extensive research, not just about the country you're looking to trade with but also how you're going to get your product to them and any legalities this may entail. Once you've looked at where and how you're going to trade internationally, there are many options available to you when it comes to the transportation of your product so you need to consider variables like how quickly your product needs to get there, how much cost you can afford to incur, as well as the logistics of your product (size, quantity, hazards.

 The most obvious factor to consider is the infrastructure of the country you're looking to export to. A land locked country then shipping by sea may not be practical, if however you're looking to export to a country with developed ports and docks then using the services of a freight forwarder may prove the most cost effective as long as you can ensure a reliable transportation system will be there to meet your products to deliver them to their final destination. Another factor to take into consideration when choosing a mode of transport, is that many freight forwarders may be able to save you money by consolidating consignments that they may be moving to or from your chosen destination. It might prove beneficial to find out if the UK already has any trade agreements with the country you're looking to trade with as this could save you time and money as well as alleviate a few of the legal risks too. In addition, you may want to consider working with a partner who knows your new market and can help you make the right contacts and connections. 

Once you've decided where and how you're going to export, you need to look at your labelling and packaging. There are three types of packaging that need to be looked at when you export your product, the first is the actual transport packaging which is what will protect your product during its transport and prevent it from getting damaged. Then you need to look at the outer packaging, this is often what's going to be used for promotion purposes and maybe placed straight on the shelves if a box can contain multiple units. Thirdly you need to make sure your sales packaging is sufficient, like the outer packaging, your end customer will be seeing this so as well as being atheistically pleasing.

 it will need to comply with any regulations and language issues the country your exporting to might have. Once everything is packaged correctly, you will need to ensure its labelled too, this must clearly state the country of origin, destination country and identify any hazardous goods included in the transport. If you are transporting anything that can be deemed dangerous or hazardous, you must ensure any regulations or laws are complied with and you're also legally obligated to appoint a dangerous goods safety officer. All packaging must also be clearly labelled to identify the goods in transit as well as how to deal with them if an unforeseen accident were to occur. Lastly any dangerous goods must have a dangerous goods declaration to accompany them.