Over 50,000 jobs have returned to the US in the last three years (1). How will you know if it’s the time fro you to bring the work back home? I’d like to show you some tools that may help drive that decision. I’ll get right to the point, as many business writers have already expounded the reasons why to do so.
Assess Costs Everywhere (ACE Tool)
The US Department of Commerce has developed a deep website on costing comparisons for doing business overseas. This tool has pages of resources covering all of the costs that can make up to 20 – 30% of the total cost of doing business overseas:
- Labor
- Travel & Oversight
- Shipping
- Inventory
- Trade Financing Cost
- Product Quality
- Intellectual Property
- Regulatory Compliance
- Political & Security Risks
I find the site very well organized and easy to read. The ACETool site also provides links to these other tools:
Select USA
Select USA is a collaboration of more than 20 US federal agencies working to bring foreign investment to the US, or re-shore US companies. The website defines all the programs and incentives available at the federal level for bringing business to the US. It also has a lists of incentives offered by States & territories, and links to their websites for additional information and contacts.
The Select USA website also provides key data that can help businesses calculate their Total Cost of Ownership such as:
- International Labor Comparisons
- Operational Risk Ratings
- Foreign Per Diem rates
- Country Commercial Guide for market research
- Tariff databases
- International Energy Statistics
- Patent office fee schedules
- International travel information
- Advisories on political and security risks
STOPFakes.gov
STOPFakes.gov is a resource by the Department of Commerce & other federal agencies to aid U.S. intellectual property (IP) holders in their efforts to protect and enforce IP rights (IPR), both at home & abroad. Particularly useful to small and medium-sized businesses, it serves as a one-stop shop. For example, STOPFakes has an online IP training tool free to use including a needs assessment, legal protections available, and how the process of how to protect your IPR.
Reshorenow.org
Then, of course, there is the Re-shoring Institute, run by Harry Moser. If you haven’t looked at their website yet, you owe it to your company to do so. They have developed an online Total Cost of Ownership tool, available for free, which takes into account 29 cost factors often overlooked in comparing the cost of making a product overseas. The site also has a database of case studies, and over 1,200 articles on who has re-shored and how they did it.
