EXPORT EXPERTISE: N.C. companies are finding new markets from Mexico to Morocco, aided by lots of wise counsel.

• Author: Barkin, Dan
• Position: POINT TAKEN

If you want to learn how to export your products or services to foreign countries, call Mike Hubbard and John Loyack of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina. They know the ins and outs of exporting and so do their folks.

And it would help to take a class, like the ones EDPNC offers. This is not a casual suggestion. Don't wing it.

There are reasons to export goods: new markets, jobs for North Carolinians, sales that can keep you going when in a slump.

But it's complicated. That's why a lot of small businesses don't do it. North Carolina exported $33.45 billion in goods last year (up 17.5% from $28.46 in 2020) and an estimated $12 billion in services, according to a recent WISERTrade services estimate. Our state's GDP is about $660 billion annually; our exports have room to grow.

I talked about this with Hubbard and Loyack, but before I get to them, you should hear from some folks who export goods. Their stories may encourage you. Nobody starts out as an expert.

'What the hell do we do?'

ASI is a 40-employee company based in the small Madison County town of Mars Hill, north of Asheville. Like many firms, ASI, which makes grinding wheels for a range of industries, got into exporting when it received an order out of the blue. One of ASI's wheels was included in a shipment that one of its customers sent to a foreign client.

"And they saw the company name and they looked us up, and they said, 'Hey, we've got this wheel and we would like to buy another one,"' recalls Szucs. "And we were like, 'We don't know anything about shipping or selling to Canada or Mexico. What the hell do we do?"'

And so, at the beginning, we made a lot of mistakes. We didn't know anything about customs compliance. What are HS codes? What are the duties?

ASI got ahold of the U.S. Department of Commerce office in Charlotte, which put the company in contact with the state's international trade folks, then in the N.C. Department of Commerce, now in the EDPNC.

But from this accidental start, ASI began getting serious about exporting. It was a matter of survival.

ASI was founded in 1993 by Szucs' father, Attila, to supply grinding wheels for the tools used in woodworking, such as in North Carolina's furniture industry. By the early 2000s, a lot of ASI's customers were out of business when foreign

A Jonathan Szucs literally grinds away at Advanced Superabrasives, the Mars Hill manufacturer started by his father in 1993 companies, particularly in China, began...