8 tips from Trunki founder on how to succeed in business

One of the UK's most notable entrepreneurs, Rob Law is the founder & CEO of Trunki, the popular ride-on hand luggage suitcase for children.

The company has won over 50 product and design awards and sold more than 1,300,000 suitcases in 1,564 stores in 96 countries, through retailers including John Lewis, Harrod's, and Next. In 2012, on the company's 6th Birthday, Trunki brought production back to Britain.

Today we hosted a webinar with Trunki founder, Rob Law, which was filled with wisdom and years of trading experience. Here are Rob's top 8 tips for growing a successful business across the globe. Listen to the webinar and take on board the tips!

Top tips:

1. Enter competitions! Rob Law came up with the idea for Trunki whilst studying at University and entered a competition with a local retailer that needed some inspiration.

2. Validate your idea by opening your eyes and looking for gaps in the market and finding issues that your product or service can resolve

3. Don't underestimate the power of branding. Make it clear, compelling and understandable to people across borders

4. Don't let set-backs get you down. You will face hardships when working with overseas manufactures and distributors, but you can lessen the risk by taking the time to research and take note of recommendations.

5. Need funding? Friends and family are a popular source of income - Rob turned to his Gran for seed funding!

6. Make sure your distributors know their stuff! Ask your distributor to show you a marketing proposal on how they intend to get your brand and product to a local demographic and go into relationships with agents with open eyes. If you fire an agent in Europe, you have to recompense them for what they would earn over the next 2 years!

7. Get a strategy in place. Talk to government agency, UKTI, as they can help with research and may also be able to help fund your visits to overseas trade shows

8. Don't think it's too pricey to Make in Britain! When manufacturing abroad there will be import duties, shipping costs and lengthy lead times so it's becoming much more cost effective to keep production at home. Be sure to weigh up the pro's and con's.

Thanks to Rob for sparing his time and sharing his knowledge!

The webinar was hosted by Enterprise Nation founder, Emma Jones - and is part of a series of Go Global events to help small businesses trade across borders that are supported by PayPal, UPS and HP.