A new estimate from the U.S. Small Business Administration offered a much wider view of American small-business exporting in March 2023. The agency said a commissioned study, based on recent business surveys, counted 1.3 million small-business exporters—nearly five times the federal government’s earlier published estimates. It put the potential market at more than 2.6 million small businesses, or 42 percent of small employer firms. [The release was dated March 14, 2023.] [story-s1]
The difference was partly a matter of what gets counted. The SBA said the latest official 2020 figure was about 264,000 small-business goods exporters. That measure omitted overseas shipments worth less than $2,500 and service exports, including software as a service. Expanding the lens to include those categories changes the apparent scale of the export economy; it does not mean the older goods-export count was measuring the same population as the new estimate. [story-s1]
The study identified exporters across manufacturing and wholesale as well as professional and technical services such as management consulting, architecture, engineering, legal work and software. It also highlighted green-technology businesses and reported that small businesses led by minority-owned women were especially likely to export. For operators, the practical implication is modest but important: looking only at customs-visible goods shipments can miss service revenue and smaller cross-border transactions. The SBA said it intended to use the research to guide resources for current and prospective small exporters. These are findings and plans described in the agency’s release, not evidence that any particular firm will succeed abroad. [story-s1]
Source documents
- SBA Research Sheds New Light on Small Business Exporters | U.S. Small Business Administrationhttps://www.sba.gov/article/2023/mar/14/sba-research-sheds-new-light-small-business-exporters