A few months ago, Mitchell Weseley decided he wanted his company to begin doing business internationally. Since he wasn’t sure how to get started, he knew he would have to look for outside help.
Weseley, president and CEO of the Shelton-based Oil Purification Systems Inc., a six-year-old company that makes a product that keeps lubricating oil clean in motors and engines, saw an opportunity in Brazil, where clean energy technology is in high demand.
For guidance, he reached out to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s export assistance center, which has been based in Middletown for more than 20 years. But this summer, Weseley’s company and many other small businesses with international plans are finding help is closer to home because the export center has been opening satellite offices across the state in order to become more accessible.
“Our seven cooperative offices have just been launched, and we are finding that many small businesses are utilizing the services,” said Anne Evans, district director of the U.S. Commercial Service, the U.S. Department of Commerce agency that helps companies enter the international marketplace.
Starting with Torrington at the end of May, the Middletown Export Assistance Center has been opening strategically placed satellite offices about every two weeks. The plan is to open seven in total, and no Connecticut town will be more than 20 miles away from any satellite office.
“The price of gas shot up, the economy went down, so we thought this was a good time,” Evans said.
Though Weseley said entering the international market is not a high priority for his company, he knows it will eventually have to make that leap. Since working with the export office, Weseley has been in touch with a distributor in Brazil.
“Anne’s been extremely helpful in making some introductions,” Weseley said. “When we have the budget to go after this as aggressively as we’d like to, I think she’ll be even more helpful.”
The opening of the satellite offices is expected to help address a big problem: most Connecticut small businesses are not completely aware of U.S. Department of Commerce programs, according to a 2007 trade survey conducted by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association.
Of the nearly 450 companies surveyed, 40 percent said they were not aware of DOC programs and 40 percent said they were somewhat aware.
There is definite interest in exploring the international market, the survey found. About 35 percent of the businesses surveyed said they were already involved in international trade, and one-third of those who are not said they are interested in starting.
Given the weak U.S. economy, this is a particularly attractive time for companies to start exploring international trade options, said Costas Lake, state Department of Economic and Community Development director of international affairs.
“Exports are doing fantastic because of the weak dollar,” Lake said. “But as we all know, things can change quickly.”
Companies interested in expanding into the international market are often concerned with the other countries’ rules and regulations, the language barriers and the cost of transportation, said Lake, whose office works in a partnership with the DOC.
About 30 percent of Connecticut’s exports are generated by small and midsized companies, according to the CBIA survey. Lake said it takes two years to develop an international market, so a company struggling in the domestic market should not expect to look to international trade for a quick fix.
“You need to have a good business plan and you have to good staying power,” Lake said.
Noel Carmody, product development manager for Data Management Inc. in Farmington, said her company had been talking with a distributor in Germany for a few months before coming in contact with the export assistance center. Since then, Evans has been helping Data Management, which has about 70 employees, get in touch with the right people so it can sell its new, patented one-day expiring security pass overseas.
“I didn’t even know the office existed,” Carmody said. “We’re kind of starting out, so I’ve been really impressed with the office.”
In order to qualify for help from the Export Assistance Program, a company must have fewer than 500 employees and manufacture more than half of its products in Connecticut, have been in operations for two years and have a business plan.
The state Department of Economic and Community Development partners with the Export Assistance Center and offers programs to reimburse companies 50 percent up to $1,000 during the first year of participation in U.S. Department of Commerce programs.
