Receives $200K to assist small business exporters

The state announced its share Monday in Dover at Relyco Sales, a small business Rose said was awarded $5,000 in matching funds from the state’s share of the last round of STEP grants.

Connecticut is receiving $350,000 from the federal Small Business Administration to help boost state exports.

The federal agency did not immediately make available the match amount that each of this year’s award recipients are providing.

“With 95% of the world’s consumer living outside the United States, SBA’s STEP program ensures that America’s small business can succeed in the 21st Century global economy”, SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet, noted in the release. “It is my hope this grant program will not only support our state’s current exporters, but also those interested in entering the export market for the first time”. “Yet less than one percent of small businesses export; and of those that do, 58 percent of them export to only one country”.

This year marks the fourth round of awards since the program started in 2011.

The goal of the 2015 awards is for states to assist small businesses with export related activities or other export initiatives that are in line with the objectives of the program. That includes things like Development Office trade missions, worldwide trade shows and “Trade Winds” conferences organized by the U.S. Commercial Service.