Is your business looking to increase sales and add jobs? Then consider making exports a part of your business plan.
Exports play a critical role in our community. By selling competitive products and services to meet global demand, our companies can find opportunities to grow business and benefit the economy with more revenue and jobs. Yet, this simple seven-letter word still generates fear, uncertainty and doubt in the minds of entrepreneurs and executives of small, medium and large businesses.
More Atlanta companies are capable of exporting than you may realize. While most people think of exports as manufactured goods, much of Atlanta’s exports come from service sectors such as architecture and design, consulting, engineering, franchising, legal and accounting, software and travel and tourism.
The value for companies to export is a simple one: increased sales. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates a typical business that sells to just one foreign market can generate about $375,000 annually in export sales. An increase to two to four export markets grows that figure to $1 million. For companies that continue on to five to nine export markets, the figure jumps to $3 million in annual export sales.
In addition, exporting companies grow faster and are stronger. Plus, exporting extends the Atlanta brand around the world.
While the advantages are compelling, there still are scary challenges. For this reason, the Metro Atlanta Chamber and partners have embarked on a Metropolitan Export Plan. The Atlanta plan is part of a larger, national, Metropolitan Export Initiative being driven by The Brookings Institution and JPMorgan Chase.
The initiative was created to foster export strategies at the metropolitan level, where great potential exists to engage companies in exporting. Resources and export strategies already exist at the federal and state levels — for example, at the Georgia Department of Economic Development — but like most metro areas, Atlanta lacks a complementary metro export strategy.
Locally, a coalition of organizations has come together to build a cohesive export strategy for metro Atlanta. The partners include the metro chamber, city of Atlanta, Invest Atlanta, Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, the state Department of Economic Development, U.S. Export Assistance Center and economic development representatives from various metro counties. The local chairs of the Atlanta export plan, representing the private sector, are Dwayne Meeks of UPS and David Balos of Chase.
All these partners are working to create a more effective export ecosystem and a stronger export culture in the region.
An effective export ecosystem would translate into an environment where companies, regardless of size, could more easily identify and connect with the appropriate resources and tools to start exporting or to grow existing exports.
Another outcome of the Atlanta export plan would be a stronger export culture where exports are part of the daily conversation. It would be an environment where existing exporters could mentor new exporters, and where “exports” would no longer be a scary seven-letter word. Rather, it would be an environment where “exports” could be exchanged for another seven-letter word: success.
Ric Hubler is senior director, global business growth, for the Metro Atlanta Chamber.
