package Example;

use strict;
use warnings;

use Exporter;
our @ISA = qw(Exporter);

our @EXPORT = qw(make_reference);

sub make_reference {
 ...
 return \$scalar_thing;
# or
 return \@array_thing;
# or
 return \%hash_thing;
# or
 return \&code_thing;
# or
 return \*glob_thing;
# or [], or {}
}
1;