From the First State to the Four Corners of the Globe: Delaware Firm Exports Electronics Worldwide with a Little Help from the Delaware Small Business Development Center and SBA

Wilmington, Del., Based Firm Argentek’s Success Earned it SBA Delaware’s ‘Small Business Exporter of the Year’ Title

When consumer electronic wholesaling firm Argentek’s founder Andres “Andy” Molanes launched it in 2010, he didn’t have an entrepreneurial support network to guide him. But what he did have—electronics industry supply chain connections, commercial exporting savvy, and a highly strategic long-term business plan—made all the difference, putting his upstart electronics firm Argentek firmly on the path to success. 

Launching a business in the wake of the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis—as Molanes did Argentek—often meant a conservative business stand-up period with turns of strategic analysis leading to next steps and well-measured growth. For Argentek, this meant an initial New-York-based warehouse operation launch, with Molanes’ electronics industry suppliers and familiar distribution hubs close at hand. Argentek’s start-up team, led by Molanes, was three-people strong, committed to its industry, and poised for growth. 

Delaware-Bound

By 2020, the Argentek team’s hard work was paying off, and the firm’s success had outgrown its New York facility. Relocation research revealed that headquartering in the state of Delaware would provide an optimal environment for Argentek’s next stage of growth. Delaware’s favorable corporate tax laws, as well as its relatively reasonable commercial real estate market and labor market conditions made it a prime location for Argentek headquarters. So, relocation research in hand, the Argentek team set a First State facility firmly in its sites.

Then came the unexpected.

COVID-19 Takes Hold

In 2020—just as the Argentek team’s plans to relocate their headquarters to Delaware took shape—the COVID-19 pandemic turned successful small businesses across the globe upside down. Argentek was no exception. Suddenly, consumer electronics purchasing ground to a virtual standstill. Suddenly, the business’ future was at risk, and the livelihoods of its employees hung in the balance. And, just as suddenly, it was up to Molanes to make it right – ensuring not simply the business’ survival, but his employees’—a team that had grown to 30 strong—livelihoods. And, with a lot of ingenuity and skilled leadership, as well as financing through SBA’s COVID-19 relief Paycheck Protection Program, and small business mentoring through the SBA-backed Delaware Small Business Development Center, Molanes proved himself to be more than up to the challenge.

In the face of COVID-19’s commercial market upheaval, Molanes was committed, first and foremost, to keeping Argentek’s workforce intact. Certainly, Molanes was, as Argentek CEO, mindful of the potentially catastrophic impact that a largescale force reduction could have on the firm’s talent pool, both to navigate the instant crisis and to re-build post-crisis. Significantly, too, Molanes was, himself, a veteran of the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis’ ruthless cull of small businesses and was well-aware of the very real human impact that employee downsizing has on personal lives and professional trajectories. While the Financial Crisis’ shuttering of Molanes’ earlier employer ultimately led him to a positive outcome—founding Argentek— Molanes was committed to keeping Argentek’s own payroll intact, sparing his own employees the unsetting instability of unemployment in COVID’s wake.

For help, Molanes turned to the SBA.

Enter: SBA

Enmired in COVID-19’s business impact and uncertainties, Molanes was eager to tap into SBA’s small business COVID relief program the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Active through May 2021, PPP was an SBA-backed loan that helped small businesses impacted by COVID-19 to keep their workforces employed during the COVID-19 crisis by providing eligible businesses fully forgivable loans to meet payroll and other eligible expenses. 

Alerted to the PPP program by his then-commercial lender, Molanes set about applying for PPP funds, ultimately receiving that funding. Thanks to that SBA COVID-19 relief, Argentek weathered the COVID storm, using the SBA funding to retain its employees.

Taking on the Future

In 2021, the world remained in the throes of the COVID-19 tumult, but Molanes and the Argentek team’s sites remained firmly set on surviving the storm. Now, perhaps more than ever, relocating Argentek’s headquarters to corporate-friendly Delaware made abundant sense. So, when a warehouse facility equipped with a loading dock became available in Wilmington, Del., the Argentek team did not hesitate to lock it in as the firm’s new headquarters. Aregentek’s new Delaware location was vitally convenient to distribution arteries, connecting inventory with Argentek’s global clientele. Equally, the security that the First State’s favorable real estate, legal and labor market environment provided best set the firm up for both future success and to provide its growing workforce with career paths and living wages—Molanes personal passion.

…with a Little Help from the Delaware Small Business Development Center

Having absorbed both an early COVID-era consumer electronics demand lag that turned into an epic surge – thanks to COVID-related shutdowns and a worldwide shift toward work-from-home employment—as well as a corporate headquarters relocation at the height of a global pandemic, Argentek had successfully balanced a veritable “tightwire” of small business survival. And, for all intents and purposes, Molanes, at the helm, had carried his firm through the upheaval alone, with no entrepreneurial support network to guide him.

But, thanks to Argentek’s new Delaware homebase, that was about to change for the better.

In 2021, Molanes tapped the SBA-backed Delaware Small Business Development Center counselor Margo Reign to help him build Argentek new growth-focused connections and himself, as the firm’s CEO, an entrepreneurial support system. SBA advises entrepreneurs on everything from business plans to day-to-day operations to breaking into new markets like exporting or online ventures through its own website, as well as through SBA-backed SCORE mentors, Small Business Development Centers, and Women’s Business Centers in every state across the country. And, best of all, these services are offered free-of-charge or for a nominal fee to cover included materials. With its Delaware SBDC counselor’s guidance, Argentek worked with the U.S. Commercial Service to master exporting’s regulatory environment, SBA lending specialists to connect with lenders to secure conventional financing, and the State of Delaware’s ‘Export Delaware’ office to secure SBA-backed STEP grant funding for receivables insurance and website translation services.  The STEP program makes matching-fund grants for states to assist small businesses to achieve their international exporting goals.

Today, Argentek continues to grow. With offices in four nations and clients worldwide, Argentek fills orders for Logitech, Amazon, JBL, Apple products, and more. In 2023, Argentek’s success was recognized with the award of SBA Delaware’s ‘2023 Small Business Exporter of the Year’ Award, for which it was nominated by its mainstay advisor, the Delaware SBDC.

To learn more about how your small business can tap into SBA assistance – including free and low-cost small business counseling from the SBA-backed Small Business Development Centers– to start or grow your Delaware small business, visit https://www.sba.gov/de.