More and more small businesses find their way and become successful on the international market. This comes to show that there are opportunities out there even for small businesses, and that not only big players can make it. Belfast Mini-Mills Ltd. is a small, family run business located in Prince Edward Island. Though Belfast Mini-Mills Ltd. didn’t have a clear strategy and didn’t initially intend to go global, it happened.

Doug Nobles, who is currently running the family business, says that they weren’t looking into ways to enter the global market, but everything changed when, a few years back, they started getting international customers. One of these clients was a small village in Scotland. The village needed the small mills manufactures by Belfast Mini-Mills Ltd. to export luxurious textiles and make a living out of it for most of its population. The small Canadian business has sold mills to people all around the world, including Bolivia, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and North America.

Belfast Mini-Mills Ltd. doesn’t have an aggressive marketing campaign. They get clients through their website, which isn’t even upgraded, according to Mr. Nobles, and they also get clients by running an ad in a few industry magazines, among which Wild Fibers and Alpaca World.

The business was founded 14 years ago and it manufactures 14 types of textile producing machines. They sale their products different prices, ranging from $5,500 to $210,000. They use a shipping service, getting their products anywhere in the world in a few days, and they also offer training to clients for using the machines.ZyloprimBelfast also makes service call all throughout North America. Mr. Nobles notes that the services they offer are their strong point and there are not many who can compete with that.

Belfast Mini-Mills Ltd. is only one example of a Canadian business venture that made it on the global market. Another example is the Ottawa-based Unlimi-Tech Software Inc., which sales a software called FileCatalyst, that enables quick transfer of huge data files. According to the representatives of the business, 90% of their clients are international customers. They get clients by spending some money on advertising and also by attending large media trade shows.