SC Firms Invited to Attend “Export University 101”

COLUMBIA, SC – The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Commercial Service is offering “Export University 101,” a full-day seminar to help local firms learn how to sell their products overseas. The event will take place on Thursday, May 22, 2014, at the Midlands Technical College Enterprise Campus in Columbia. This is the only Export 101 to be offered in South Carolina this year.

A host of experts will cover the following topics:

• How to find international contacts
• The role the international banker and freight forwarder play in the export process
• Payment methods, an overview of risk and basic export tools
• INCOTERMS and how to prepare an international quotation
• Recruiting and managing distributors

“Considering the vast opportunity to sell U.S. products overseas, we want to offer this program to local firms to get them ready to sell internationally,” says Dorette Coestee, state director for the U.S. Commercial Service. The great majority of the world’s consumers live outside of the U.S., and our goal is to get local companies ready to reach out to those markets. There are so many resources that our local suppliers of goods and services just don’t know about. We are putting them all together in one place, and I’m particularly excited about our panel of experts who will share their own experiences – good and bad – of exporting.”

For more details on this event and to register, please visit: http://www.sctrade.org/register.html

With more than 100 offices across the United States and in American Embassies and Consulates in more than 70 countries, the ITA’s U.S. Commercial Service connects U.S. companies with international buyers through export counseling and a variety of export services. In 2011, the U.S. Commercial Service helped U.S. businesses facilitate 14,200 export successes worth $55 billion in U.S. export sales. Companies interested in getting started should contact their local office in South Carolina at 803-777-2571 or visit www.export.gov/southcarolina.