Shaheen: New Funds to Help New Hampshire Small Businesses Export

**STEP program helps Granite State small businesses reach customers in foreign markets, access financing and attend trade missions** 

**95 percent of world’s customers live outside U.S.; only one percent of small- and medium-sized businesses currently export**

(Washington, DC) – Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the lead Democrat on the Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship, today announced the New Hampshire Department of Resource and Economic Development will receive $267,866 through the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) State Trade Export Promotion (STEP) program to help New Hampshire small businesses increase exports and better reach foreign markets.

“New Hampshire’s thriving small businesses are developing innovative products that can be sold and shipped around the world. In fact, exporting and e-commerce offer a great opportunity for New Hampshire small businesses to not only reach foreign markets and the 95 percent of the world’s customers who live outside the United States, but to create high-quality jobs and bolster our economy back home,” said Senator Shaheen.   

To unlock the export potential of small businesses, Senator Shaheen created the STEP program in 2010 to help small businesses enter new markets, access export financing and attend trade missions. 

Nationwide, the program has supported more than $1.1 billion in American small business exports, yielding a return-on-investment of 19 to 1 for taxpayers.  The STEP program was extended through 2020 by Senator Shaheen in the Trade Facilitation and Enforcement Act of 2015.

For more information on the STEP program, click HERE.