By Don Gallion
In today’s global economy, exporting in the business community is no longer a choice. Your competitor is no longer someone down the street or across the state but someone halfway around the world, and if you’re not selling on your competitor’s soil, they will be selling on yours. Without this move to the global market, West Virginia businesses that are not exporting may soon wake up to find that they have lost their customer base and their market share and are on their way out of business.
Now, more than ever, West Virginia businesses need to grasp the reality of the global economy and begin exporting their products. With the cheap U.S. dollar and the fact that 95 percent of the world’s customer base is outside of the United States, one would think this to be an easy sell. Even though more and more West Virginia companies are exporting and, consequently, selling more internationally, there is still a large group of West Virginia companies that are holding back because they are dealing with what I call the big black hole effect. This is the fear of exporting due to not understanding the process. They fear their product—and money—will go into this black hole and they will never see it again, and that’s assuming they figure out how to get their product into this black hole in the first place.
If these companies were familiar with all the exporting help the State of West Virginia has to offer its businesses, the black hole might seem much less scary. West Virginia businesses have access to U.S. Export Assistance Center offices. These centers are a part of the U.S. Department of Commerce and exist solely to help West Virginia companies excel at exporting at no cost to the business owners.
Today, West Virginia companies have two export assistance center offices-—one located in Charleston and one in Wheeling. The export assistance centers are a part of the U.S. Department of Commerce that exists to help West Virginia companies with exportation and offer great information for free.
The West Virginia Development Office, International Division, is another key resource that assists businesses in preparing for exportation. Staff members arrange trade missions in conjunction with the export assistance centers to guide the new exporters through the entire process, from traveling to the target country, meeting with potential clients and dealing with customs and language barriers to making a sale, making arrangements to ship the product and developing a payment system.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) in West Virginia, better known for helping small businesses get loans, is also a great resource for export loan needs. EXIM Bank, which was established by Congress to help finance the exporting process of U.S. companies, has proven difficult to access for many small businesses, but the SBA has been given authority by the EXIM Bank to handle the approval process of many types of export loans from working capital to customer financing with lesser amounts common for small company exporters.
Other groups like the West Virginia Export Council are a great source of information for the new exporter. This organization is made up of a select group of company representatives appointed by the West Virginia Secretary of Commerce to help West Virginia companies export their products. Each of these members has extensive export experience or work in export related fields like banking, export law, accounting and logistics. The West Virginia Export Council works very closely with both the export assistance centers and the West Virginia Development Office with all their programs. They also put on seminars on export topics, make calls on new or potential West Virginia exporters, give talks at schools about exporting, mentor West Virginia companies and answer the questions that start to plug that big black hole.
The West Virginia Export Council has also had an export manager program in conjunction with West Virginia University for the last eight years and will start a similar program with Marshall University this year. All previously mentioned export help organizations assist in teaching the students. The program will be offered in the Spring 2012 semester at both universities, and the class will teach both companies and students all aspects of exporting by the export organizations in West Virginia. The students will be assigned to a company interested in exportation and will act as consultants to the company. Students will develop an export marketing plan for the company in a country best suited for their product or service. Participants are taught textbook exporting concepts as well as real life experiences from more than 20 outside speakers. The company and students work closely together over five Friday evenings and Saturdays. The class has been very successful for companies and students alike.
As you can see, the Mountain State offers a lot of assistance options for potential West Virginia exporters. The exporting organizations work together to ensure that West Virginia companies interested in exporting get the most of what they collectively have to offer. All West Virginia companies have a great international market available to them and an even greater need to participate in the global economy in which we live.
