SBA tools for expanding overseas

The SBA does a lot to encourage economic growth, community growth, job creation, and business expansion. One of the ways they do this is by providing free online tools and training for small businesses. If your small business is interested in expanding into exports, selling overseas, etc. then the new, free, online tools, provided by the SBA can be a huge help. These tools were developed in order to gauge export readiness, develop an export business plan, and guide small businesses through the world of entering exportation.

Exporting provides an opportunity for businesses to create new jobs, and this is a top priority for our government. Thus, SBA is committed to helping small businesses achieve this goal, and enter the exporting world, and create jobs in the process.

Whenever a small business expands, or opens up new opportunities, it takes planning and hard work. The exporting tools provided by SBA helps small businesses plan for success, and have resources available to them to answer questions and overcome roadblocks. The tool provided by SBA is called The Export Business planner. In order to access this tool, you simply have to go to the SBA government website. The exact URL for this tool is: www.sba.gov/exportbusinessplaner.

Once you get to the site, you simply download the tool as a PDF. The PDF offers ready to customize documents that are easy to save and change as you see fit for your business. The document is savable, which means it can be used, changed, tweaked, referenced, and relied on throughout the process of growing your small business into exporting.

Each chapter in the PDF document is indexed and cross-linked for convenience, and each are titled to help you find the information necessary for successfully expanding your business into exports. The chapter breakdown is as follows:

- Introduction to Exporting
- Training and Counseling
- Getting Started: Creating an Export Business Plan
- Developing your Marketing Plan
- Financing your Export Venture
- Accounting Worksheets: Costing, Financial Forecasting and Product Pricing
- Utilizing Technology for Successful Exporting
- Your New Marketing Plan: Summary, Timeline
- Updates, Transportation and Documentation

As you can see, there is information about every aspect of exporting, and useful tools, worksheets, etc. to help make each stage as simple and successful as possible. This tool will help you determine if you are ready to start exporting, will point you in the right direction to learn more about exports, and get the training and counseling you need. It is going to provide you with global market research, which can cut down on time, and provide you with worksheets to complete to help with everything from financing to marketing. It also helps you create a customizable exporting business plan and marketing plan, invaluable in today's market.Lastly, through a compilation of research, links, videos, podcasts, training, and industry information and statistics, it provides you with countless resources specifically for exporters.