With small business exporting becoming an increasingly important element of U.S. commerce, attendees at NACM's 2011 Credit Congress in Nashville flocked by the dozens to the first in a series of five "Doing Business in..." sessions hosted in conjunction with FCIB.

The first, Doing Business in Canada, drew well in excess of 100 people and became one of the first standing room only, so to speak, sessions of Credit Congress this year. Hubert Sibre, of Davis LLP, described Canadian business terms as extremely varied depending on the province. For example, Alberta is considered very liberal from a pro-debtor standpoint, while Quebec is considered much more conservative on matters of business and credit. Sibre suggested that registering one's business in every province is almost essential because it greatly improves one's position to protect intellectual property in Canadian courts, among other things. It also helps to have a subsidiary based there because a bankruptcy judgment made in the United States is unenforceable without a Canadian court officially recognizing it.

A subsequent session on South Korea was led by Kyle Choi, Esq., of Bluestone Law Ltd. Choi spoke on the various aspects of why the nation's stock is rising in the international business community, which includes a highly evolved infrastructure, a wealth of available credit information on companies there and business-friendly law. Also helpful is its prestigious business quality rating by the World Bank and, according to Choi, that its free-trade agreements with the United States and the European Union will increase competitive fairness by reducing the gap in tariffs, estimated by some at 10%. But there are many cultural differences and barriers that need to be taken into account, such as a desire for officials at companies to speak directly with employees on their level with your company and the need for formality even in email correspondence.

John Du from Jun He Law Offices led the Doing Business in China session focusing on opportunity, cultural nuances and the often overlooked yet critical topic of population breakdowns. "Some people are worried about not having enough population growth," said Du, noting that this is a remarkable sentiment to be felt in a country comprised of 1.3 billion residents. Referring to China's one-child policy, he quipped, "in 10 to 20 years, we're going to have huge aging population issues." Du went on to warn that China's meteoric growth could soon become a thing of the past as the nation tries to grapple with inflationary concerns.

Doing Business in Brazil was an especially well-attended session under the direction of native Brazilian Octávio Aronis, of Aronis Advogados. The interactive session included significant discussion on collections in Brazil, a topic that has frustrated many companies and credit professionals involved in Latin America's hottest market. "Based on collecting over there, I think it's much better if you hire somebody in Brazil to do your collections," said Aronis. "This is the best procedure. You send them to the local professional, and he knows the law. I wouldn't be wasting my time with overseas collectors."

Hiring a local also became a hot topic during the final session of the five-part series, which focused on Chile. Christian Laborda Mora, of Laborda Abogados & Asociados LTDA, said credit professionals/businesses who do not sweat the small stuff when dealing with Chilean businesses often simply don't get paid.

"Basically, the bank executive will not provide you information if you have a problem; also, culturally, you're likely to offend when the bank tells the representatives from the company that you were investigating them," he said, noting it's part of why employing someone who knows the business and communications culture there is a near necessity. "You probably should hire a Chilean lawyer. There are often good results even when we just send a letter. People don't like receiving a letter from the lawyer and, if they see the letter is coming from Chile, they know you're serious and think ‘I could face problems.'"