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Small-Business
Leaders in Maine Hold Trade Forum
By: Bill Trotter
Small businesses are
looking for ways out of Maine, but not
necessarily in terms of relocating.
Exports are increasing for Maine's small firms
and are likely to continue to expand in the
future, according to Wes Coulam, staff director
of the U.S. Senate Small Business Committee.
Maine's small businesses exported $2.19 billion
worth of goods in 2003, which is approximately
$200 million more than they exported in 2002,
Coulam said Wednesday.
For the first quarter of 2004, $758 million
worth of goods were exported by the state's
small businesses. This is $273 million more than
was exported for the corresponding period of
2003, he said.
"Yes, it is growing," Coulam said. "Maine's
economy has a strong reliance on exports."
To help small businesses understand what
international opportunities may exist, a forum
was held last week at Husson College's Richard
E. Dyke Center for Family Business.
Coulam said approximately 70 people attended the
event and that organizers hope to schedule
another such forum in the area sometime in the
not-too-distant future.
Charles Summers, regional administrator for U.S.
Small Business Administration, was one of the
officials on hand at the forum to help provide
information on how local businesses can tap into
foreign markets.
Besides Summers, officials from the
Export-Import Bank of the United states, U.S.
Department of Commerce and Overseas Private
Investment Corp. attended the event.
The forum was sponsored by the U.S. Senate
Committee on Small Business and
Entrepreneurship, which is chaired by Sen.
Olympia Snowe of Maine.
In an interview last week, Summers said small
businesses in Maine make up 97 percent of all
the businesses in the state. Besides looking for
international opportunities, he said, small
businesses in Maine have other options for
trying to grow or improve.
Some of those options include services that are
available from SBA free of charge, he said.
"People don't realize these services are there
at no cost," Summers said. "They think they have
to pay for it."
Besides guaranteeing loans, SBA can help
small-business owners draft business plans and,
through the SCORE program, can help provide them
with free and confidential business advice,
Summers said.
Among other things, the agency also can help
facilitate loans to small businesses for
acquiring fixed assets such as buildings and
land, according to the SBA official. The
so-called "504" loan program is one program of
which small-business owners could take better
advantage, he said.
"I really think the 504 program is
underutilized," Summer said. "The usage [of SBA
programs in Maine] is very good, but it can
always be better."
The agency also supports Snowe's proposal to
create associated health plans, or AHPs, that
would allow small businesses across the country
to band together to buy health care coverage for
their employees, he said.
The agency has streamlined its services by
taking steps such as accepting paperwork from
banks and cutting back on its own, according to
Summers. As a result, it has been able to become
a smaller, more efficient entity over the past
decade or so, he said.
"Small-business people have obstacle after
obstacle after obstacle in front of them,"
Summers said. "We don't want to be one of those
obstacles."
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