By Claire Ehmann, Acting Associate Administrator for the Office of International Trade &
Christina Hale, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Women's Business Ownership
In honor of Women’s History Month, this is the third of four blogs in our series to highlight what the SBA does to help women business owners succeed globally. Now that we have discussed the assistance available to women who want to start a new business – it is time to discuss what comes next.
Small business owners are constantly looking for ways to scale up their efforts and reach the greatest number of customers that they can. One tool they can use to do this is expanding their business beyond our borders. But this is not always an easy task – especially for historically underserved communities like women entrepreneurs. This is where the SBA comes in to help.
The SBA’s Office of International Trade (OIT) enhances the ability of small businesses to compete in the global marketplace by preparing small businesses to sell internationally and helping small business exporters finance the sale.
We know that accessing both domestic and international markets is important. We provide no-cost export education to small businesses through national online events and individual counseling via our international trade hotline. We also advocate for small businesses in the trade policy development process and in trade negotiations to ensure that U.S. initiatives open opportunities for small businesses in foreign markets.
For small businesses, international sales are crucial because companies that participate in the global marketplace tend to grow faster, create more jobs, and are more resilient. These firms last on average 10 years longer than their counterparts, have three times as many employees and twice as many sales. Exporters are more resilient as they reduce their dependency on a single market.
There’s a lot of opportunity for small business growth with 95% of the world’s consumers living beyond our borders. This creates an environment where U.S. small business exports are big business - with small businesses representing 98% of all U.S. exporters, and 33% of all U.S. export value.
To address gaps in mentorship and information, SBA partners with other Federal agencies to ensure women-owned businesses have the insights and resources they need to succeed. To this end, SBA has partnered with the International Trade Administration on a webinar series, designed with women-owned businesses in mind, focused on trade tips for the Western Hemisphere. These webinars celebrate women exporters and provide insights and resources for markets including Canada, Mexico, and Panama. SBA and Prosper Africa also co-hosted a webinar in February that announced U.S.-based African diaspora women could now collaborate with the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program to better connect to resources supporting American dreams of entrepreneurship.
In addition, SBA is ensuring more women-owned small businesses can take advantage of opportunities to sell to the federal government, at home and abroad. SBA is working to make sure more women-owned businesses are contract-ready with the government. This year, the SBA announced the return of ChallengeHer, a free government contracting education initiative to help women-owned small businesses gain access to federal contracts and encourage participation in the SBA’s Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contract program.
The SBA wants to be the bridge between rebuilding and thriving for female entrepreneurs, not only because it's the right thing to do, but because the future of our economy depends on it. We know that as women prosper, countries thrive. To accomplish our goal of women-led business growth, we see funding as a foundation of the bridge to an equitable and empowered future for women.