This story appears in the
November 2000 issue of
Entrepreneur.
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Tired of the runaround when trying to find the answers to your
export questions? Here are a few sites that'll make it
easier:
Help from contacts within both the government and the
private sector is available at TradeNet's Export AdvisorWeb site. In "Getting
Started," for example, you can contact local export resources
by entering a specific ZIP code. And you'll find information
from the U.S. departments of Commerce and Agriculture Commercial
Service, the Export-Import Bank, U.S. Agency for International
Development, the Census Bureau, International Trade Data Network
and the International Executive Service Corp. The site also
provides information on finding trade financing, a link to a
database of international business op-portunities and trade leads,
and an export library.
Business owners interested in exporting can register
with the SBA's Trade Mission Onlinedatabase. Entrepreneurs can list
the products they want to export, license or franchise on this
database free of charge; the information is then accessible to
foreign companies looking for partners or suppliers as well as
other U.S. businesses. Once firms register with TM OnLine,
they're also cross-referenced on SBA's PRO-Net database. In
addition, the SBA uses the site to recruit participants for trade
missions.