The USD vs CAD chart on Yahoo pretty much sums up my experience with the USD.
Being a Canadian company, when we started we had roughly 1 USD = 1.5 CAD. Now the rate is at 1 USD = 0.95 CAD. And it hurts. My spending power outside of the US has been dealt a blow to the gonads.
But there is an unexpected reversal – our consumer-oriented business is seeing a spike in business outside of the US. Case in point: vB Skins. We charge roughly $600+ USD per custom template (and we’ve done over 100). A year ago I would have said 95% of our customers are from the US. Now I would say it is roughly 40% US, 60% overseas (just last week we sold 5 skins to 3 different EU customers).
So – yes the USD is hurting. But the world is far bigger than the US. This is a grand opportunity.
2 Responses to The US Currency Headache – internationale version
Andre Marcelo-Tanner
November 12th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Someone said before I should keep my savings in EUROs not Dollars, I wonder if I should have listened to them before
Tim L. Walker
November 12th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
That’s awesome that a site like vBskins can do more business overseas, using the dropping US dollar to your advantage. Any other tips for other of us Canadian web people?