Let the Good Times Roll; Let the Small Businesses Go Global

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More on how small businesses are going global.

Just the facts:

Facilitating small-business exports of goods and services is a top priority for the Small Business Administration and Export-Import Bank of the United States, which are following Obama administration goals to double exports by 2014.

The U.S. exported a total of $178 billion in goods and services in July -- an all-time high, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis as cited by the Export-Import Bank.

In the Jobs Act signed into law in September 2010, President Barack Obama allowed for the SBA to increase its ability to provide export-related financing by raising SBA 7(a) loan limits to $5 million from $2 million on export-related loans.

The law made the SBA Export Express loan permanent, with a 90% guarantee for loans up to $350,000 and 75% for loans between $350,000 and $500,000, according to the SBA. It also provides three-year state grants of up to $90 million to help small-businesses owners grow the exporting side of their businesses.

In early August, the Export-Import Bank said it had hit a record $24.5 billion for export-related loan authorizations. The bank's financing supports more than $31.5 billion of export sales and 213,000 U.S. jobs, including 2,548 small-business export jobs.

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