Website helps small businesses move into exporting

The U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Small Business Administration have launched an online assessment to help small businesses considering a move into exporting, the SBA announced today.

The six-step assessment, at www.export.gov/begin, leads to a score indicating the level of readiness the small business is at prior to undertaking export operations.

The site also has information on training, foreign buyer sourcing, export business plan development, and market research.

After the assessment, the site uses the score to identify resources available, such as regional SBA centers and the Department of Commerce’s U.S. Export Assistance Centers.

The Department of Commerce has been pushing exports as part of a five-year strategy by the administration of President Barack Obama to double the nation’s exports.

The department opened a CommerceConnect office, the nation’s first, in Pontiac in October as part of this push. The office is a “one-stop shop” for accessing all of the department’s services available to businesses. More offices are planned in other regions of the country.

Detroit is also a candidate city for the nation’s first regional office of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said while visiting Detroit in October for a conference on exporting.

By Gary Anglebrandt