When writers use the word Pitfalls they are trying to convey a meaning of potential traps which will be time consuming or costly to deal with.
 www.woodrow.org/teachers/bi/2000/Arthropod_Biodiversity/pitfall_trapping.html

WTGR

The course is International Business Management which literally means how to be an international business manager. Sometimes managers need to make decisions about whether to try a new situation or not: what we call a GO - NO GO decision. 

For the purposes of saving money and running the company efficiently, sometimes it is better to NOT GO - that is to say NOT export because the cost might be too high, or you may be consuming resources you don't have - it might be better to concentrate on making money on your "regular" business.

Deciding NOT to export doesn't mean your company is not involved in international business - you can still be involved in importing, directly, or indirectly and therefore international business circumstances (currency fluctuations, political risk etc.) will still effect you and you will still need to employ the management techniques you have acquired.

WTGR

WTGR

Being Export Ready

• expensive
• time consuming
• and use resources that you do not easily have access to

So one of the Disadvantages of Exporting is the challenge of "Ramping Up" and getting ready to export. These challenges can include:
 

• management focus 
• develop new promotional material
• subordinate short-term profits to long-term gains
• incur added administrative costs
• allocate personnel for travel
• wait longer for payments
• modify your product or packaging
• finding good distributors for the product overseas
• apply for additional financing
• obtain special export licenses

Mara said 

"I wanted to share an article I read on Yahoo! Finance:..The article talks about TD Canada's expansion in the US by acquiring South Financial Group two years ago and even mentions the exact phrase "ramping up" in describing the new call centre that opens a month from now in South Carolina."

• it can be hard on middle management carrying out the operations if the senior management do not give them the time and money to do the job right, 
• or if they ask for results in a time frame that is too short
or of the sr. management is focused on a different product line from the one you are exporting

• which includes translation costs
• finding a really good, ACCURATE translator

 witiger.com/internationalbusiness/badtranslation.htm
• translation of user manuals and other marketing promo material is critical for success - especially when so many countries are very nationalistic in the Millennium

• which means you have to have enough money from domestic sales to support a time lag until you make money from export sales
• hard when medium and large sized companies are public and there is constant pressure to keep the share price value strong

• for handling paper-work, communications, and other tasks
• admin costs are essentially HR costs and HR costs are usually the largest cost of running a company
• admin costs can rise quickly especially if there is a lot of foreign regulations that require extra communication and forms and documents to be processed

• advances in telecommunications technology has helped cut some costs for int'l business but you still have to put some "boots on the ground" to meet people in foreign locations and it is critical that you send the right people with the right qualifications and experience

• arranging for LCs  witiger.com/internationalbusiness/LCs.htm 

and other payment procedures is longer for exporting than domestic sales
• waiting longer to get paid can be difficult for SMEs because small and medium sized businesses often have to borrow money from financial institutions in order to produce more product to export, and the longer you have to wait for money from the foreign customer, the longer you have to pay interest on the money you borrowed

• these modifications can be small, or extreme depending on the product
• for some food and clothing products, the biggest costs could be developing packaging that will allow the product to be shipped very long distances in containers and still arrive in good shape.

• International Distributors need to have a good relationship with you on par with Domestic Distributors - this may take time and money you don't have

• financing from banks
• financing from regional or national government agencies

• government rules and regulations restrict certain types of products from being exported according to standards
• for example, Canadian beef cannot be exported unless it is Grade A, even if the buyer wants to use it for dogfood
• certain consumer electronics and computer parts cannot be exported to countries that are considered to be supporting terrorism

• American rules and regulations can effect Canadian exports if some of the component parts are of American origins

examples:
• 2006 "DI Canada, Inc. of Ontario, Canada, entered into a settlement agreement with the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) un¬der which it will pay a $6,600 civil penalty to settle charges that it re-exported oil-industry-related items from Canada to Libya without the required U.S. government authorization, and that it caused export to Libya without the required license, by special ordering from a U.S. company oil-industry-related items which were exported by the U.S. company through Canada to Libya without the required license."
• 2005 "Medical Equipment Specialists, Inc. (“MES”) agreed to pay a civil penalty of $37,500 to settle charges that it committed five violations in connection with the attempted export of X-ray film processors to Cuba through Canada."
• 2003 "an officer of Zimex, Inc. in Ontario, Canada, agreed to a five-year denial of export privileges to settle charges that he attempted to export U.S.-origin parts to Iran in violation of U.S. export control laws. "

from  www.reedsmith.com
• American export license considerations

 www.export.gov/regulation/exp_000968.asp