Why Now's the Best Time to Try Exporting

By Carol Tice
Exclusively for BVR Times

I recently had a chance to write an exporting guide for Allbusiness.com. It turns out now is an amazing time to get into selling overseas. A confluence of positive factors are in place that make now the perfect moment to try exporting or expand your exports.

Simply put, dollars are cheap now, making U.S. goods more of a deal in foreign stores. But more importantly, there's a huge government push on to right our national trade deficit by encouraging more exports. President Barack Obama's recently announced National Export Initiative aims to double exports in the next five years and is targeting billions in new funding to the effort. There has likely never been as much federal help available to smooth small business owners' path to selling overseas as there is now.

A lot of companies think of exporting as shipping goods off to somewhere thousands of miles away, but advice I got from longtime export consultant Leah Cochran of Glocal Consulting in Atlanta is to start small. Think Mexico, Canada, or maybe England – somewhere nearby and/or with a similar culture and language to our own. Do one country, and then expand once you've got the hang of it.

Exporting usually means turning to the government for help, a move that I think rankles many independent business owners. But that, I learned, is how the export game is played – federal agencies offer the expertise, training, finance know-how, introductions and vetting of foreign buyers you need to make sure your export effort is successful and profitable.

Agencies including the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service (for food products) and US Department of Commerce offer programs to shepherd you through the export process. The Export Initiative gave Commerce's Gold Key export program more staff, and staff is being added at USEACs – U.S. Export Assistance Centers – tasked specifically with helping small business owners.

The Small Business Administration and Export-Import Bank, a government credit agency, provide guarantees for export loans, and Ex-Im does some direct lending as well, in situations where a bank won't do the deal. The Export Initiative granted Ex-Im $2 billion in additional funds specifically for small-business export loans.

You'll need a strong relationship with a merchant bank with export expertise to help you work with SBA and Ex-Im. There's a list of banks with "delegated authority" from Ex-Im on its Web site – they're your best option, as they can move faster and make loan decisions without having to wait for Ex-Im's approval.

To get you started, there's a small-loan program at SBA, Export Express, that helps fund trips abroad or to export Expos here in the States, up to $250,000. The Export Initiative gave this loan program more funding, too. Explore at Export.gov if you're interested in learning more about the export process – there's a Webinar series there that'll take you through the basic steps.