When Britain officially left the European Union on 31 January 2020, many small-business owners were left in a world of uncertainty.

Despite it being more than four years since the referendum vote and even with a lengthy transition period, there were still many unanswered questions for entrepreneurs.

There has undoubtedly been disruption since the transition period ended on 31 December 2020, with exports from Britain to the EU falling sharply due to Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, selling goods or services into Europe remains a huge opportunity for fast-growing businesses.

In this article, two entrepreneurs talk about their experiences of exporting to the EU after Brexit. While they are frank about the many challenges, they also offer hope and advice to those considering expanding their market.

Case study 1: Euan Davies, co-founder of Sliderfy

Set up in 2019 in Bristol, Sliderfy makes branded merchandise for sports teams and companies. Roughly 30% of its sales are to clients from the EU.

From January 2021, we had to look at different ways of making it profitable to sell into the EU. After Brexit, we were having to pay imports and duties for goods we manufactured in China and then pay them again when exporting to Europe. Given the already-squeezed profit margins caused by COVID-19, it was completely unfeasible to be paying those imports and duties twice.

We have been forced to establish a fiscal headquarters and third-party fulfilment centre in the Netherlands. We are still getting to grips with the new system; it was incredibly costly to set up, as well as bringing a lot of stress on our team. It’s become a lot more expensive for the company simply as a result of the fixed costs going up to maintain that structure.

It was by no means a quick or easy process – it took months. It wasn’t until August that we began to operate smoothly, but even now, we have parcels waiting for three weeks in the Netherlands.

We took a large risk to continue trading with EU customers, with COVID-19 and Brexit being so damaging, but thankfully it has paid off. We are now supplying some of the largest tech companies, universities and sports teams in Europe and would not have been able to do this had we not set up this new system.

Going through all the stress and absorbing the extra cost was difficult to take, but it’s something that I’m incredibly proud of because it has allowed us to do business with these large European clients. Now we are reaping the benefits of all that hard work over the past 12 months.

Case study 2: Nick Whitmore, founder of falseeyelashes.co.uk.

The website falseeyelashes.co.uk sells false eyelashes and other cosmetic products in the UK and around the world.

We used to trade directly with Europe, sending most of our products with a courier. We traded under the VAT threshold in all EU countries.

Since Brexit, the only disruption we’ve really seen is longer processing times at the European border – because there are now hard checks – plus a small increase in costs. We started working with Global-e, which is a platform that enables retailers to sell internationally. We effectively sell to them and they then take care of the technical part of exporting for us. It saves having to have an accountant in every country you want to sell into. There is a premium to pay, but it’s worth it.

It wasn’t all plain sailing. Hundreds of packages that we sent in the week before 31 December 2020 were returned. We didn’t realise that if they were in transit when Brexit officially happened, they would be sent back to us.

International is a very attractive market for us. There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit and we are growing quickly. It’s roughly 12% of our sales and is a big opportunity.

You can focus domestically forever, but there’s always a chance you hit a ceiling. In the business I’m in, market saturation is relatively easy to achieve. The only other way to broaden horizons and expand is to look overseas. There is a great deal of demand for some of the British brands we stock. We appeal to international customers because we offer shipping and a seamless experience.