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The U.S. Small Business Administration will be conducting the second of its Export Matchmaker Trade Fair & Conference series in Tampa, Fla., on Sept. 14, 2011. The program is designed specifically to assist small business manufacturers and suppliers with an easy and inexpensive means for exporting their products.
The Matchmaker conferences are designed to bring together those small businesses with export management companies (EMCs), export trading companies (ETCs), foreign sales brokers and agents. EMCs, ETCs and other foreign sales representatives, also known as trade intermediaries, are export specialists that will either buy a company’s products and sell them in foreign markets or represent a company’s products abroad through a distribution or similar contract.
Engaging with an EMC or ETC can be a very cost-effective means for small businesses to either begin exporting or expand export sales, because they do not need to commit additional personnel or resources to the effort. Indirect marketing through trade intermediaries can make exporting as easy as making a domestic sale in some cases.
The conference is co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Commercial Service, the Florida District Export Council and the Florida Small Business Development Center Network.