The document discusses strategies for small businesses to enter the global market. It summarizes a study that surveyed small businesses about challenges in international expansion. The top challenges were lack of resources, market knowledge, and capital. Most successful small exporters used engagement with foreign companies to build reputation and revenue. The greatest risk in global expansion is competition from large multinational corporations. The study found that government support for small businesses seeking to enter international markets is lacking and should be improved. Education level of business owners affected success rates, with entrepreneurs having international business education faring better.

1. 
Abstract-The advancement of economic
globalization has prompted small businesses to
venture into the global market. The small
business owners in the United States are
considering taking the challenge of engaging in
the international commerce to increase their
customer base and get a share of the revenue
emanating from the international market; small
businesses play a key role in growing the
economies of many countries. The small
businesses have to embrace the global culture in
order to effectively make decisions regarding
international commerce, gain experience on the
global market and overcome the barriers that
exist in the market. This paper seeks to establish
the strategies that small businesses can use to
venture into the global market and get access to
the foreign customers; the paper also highlights
crucial information can assist small business
owners to become successful in the global
market.
Index terms- commerce, risk, surveys, and small
businesses.
I. Introduction
he aim of every business is to increase
their revenue, and one way in which a
business can increase its revenue is
through expanding into the new markets; the global
market is very profitable, and many businesses
Manuscript receivedJune 17, 2016; revisedJune 18, 2016; accepted June
19, 2016. Date ofpublicationJune 20,2016; date ofcurrent version July 31,
2015. Corresponding author: F. A. Author (e-mail: f.author@nist.gov),
This paperwas supportedwith the Unites States Department of Commerce.
A. Author and S. B. Author contributed equally.
desire to go global [6]. The incentives that make the
small business internationalize are: the saturation of
the domestic market which prompts the need for the
new market, the need to reduce the cost of
production by acquiring cheap production
resources, this helps in establishing a competitive
advantage. However the small business face myriad
of challenges in their quest, for instance, they lack
sufficient human and financial resource that is
available to the multinational companies. Moreover,
they face many risks that are associated with the
international market. Most of the small businesses
make a mistake of reacting to the business
environment rather by controlling or predicting it;
this makes it difficult for them to get foreign
suppliers and customers [1].
II. Literature Survey
The reports of the federal government indicate
the studies which are conducted periodically on the
start- up companies as well as the existing small
business. However, the emphasis on exporting of
the products of the two has been overlooked to a
great extent. The study shows that most
entrepreneurs who come up with startups get most
of their support from the private sector as compared
to the government. The government should
recognize the contribution that the small businesses
make on building the economy hence the need to
offer support to them to enable them expand their
operations and explore new markets [2].
III. Problem Statement
The research seeks to answers the following
questions:
Small Business Going Global
First A. Author, Fellow, IEEE, Second B. Author, and Third C. Author, Jr., Member, IEEE
T

2.  What are the challenges that small
businesses face when venturing into the
global market?
 What strategies can small business owners
use to compete effectively in the global
market?
 What are the risks involved in expanding a
small business and how can they be
avoided?
 What support do the small businesses get
from the government to facilitate their
operations?
 Does the personal education of the small
business owner a factor in the small
businesses effort to venture into global
market?
IV. Experiments and Results
The experiment conducted involved carrying
out a survey of the small business owners and
established the efforts that they make to venture into
the global market, the challenges they face and the
progress that they have made [3]. The survey
method was regarded to best tool to use for the
research study; surveys are efficient means of data
collection when the purpose of the study and the
measure of the variable in question are known. The
sample of the data used in the study was large and
involved contacting more than 200 small business
that exists in the United States, and the survey was,
therefore, the best method that could accommodate
the large sample. Besides, a survey can be used to
conduct, descriptive, analytic and exploratory
investigations [2].
The suitable sample for the study was obtained
from the government database. The data available
on the government website (www.data.gov)
provided crucial information about the small
businesses and their trends which were analyzed to
establish the facts about the small businesses [1].
The research criteria were defined to ensure that the
sample selected for the research were appropriate,
the criteria included the following:
 The small businesses used in the study were
selected from each of the states so as give
the true picture of the United States.
 The small businesses selected for the were
composed of almost 200 employees in
accordance with the definition of small
businesses
 Both the small business that exported their
products and those that did not export were
used
 All sectors of business were considered in
the selection of small businesses since every
business has got the opportunity of
venturing into the global market
The primary research involved categorizing the
small businesses into Exporting small businesses
and non-exporting small businesses. The database
from the government website (www.data.gov)
under the category of business provided the best
sample since all types of small business are listed.
Their listing on the government database also
indicated their desire to venture into the global
market.300 small business were cold called to
establish whether they met the criteria of the
research,200 small business met the criteria with 50
engaging in exporting while 150 were non-
exporting.
Since the research involved who exported their
products and those who did not export, two distinct
surveys were sent to the two categories of small
business. The survey contained questions that
related to the challenges the small businesses face,
strategies used by the small business, the risk they
face, their perception of assist that they get from the
government and the education level of the business
owners. The survey for the small businesses that
exported their products contained questions on how
they managed to break the barriers of exporting
product and their take on the foreign market, while
the survey for the small business contained
questions that related to their perception of the
barriers to exporting products and their fear of
venturing into the global market [4].
The types of the questions selected were then
examined to determine the ones that would provide
the best answers to the research question. A
decision was made to include both closed and open-
ended questions in the survey. Telephone and postal
emails were used to administer the questionnaires,
the two methods were selected due to their cost
effectiveness and their ease to use, and in addition,
they can be used to cover an extensive geographical
area. Follow up were made in order to get the
desired response rate to the surveys [5].
The survey was sent to 200 small business and a

3. response were got from 120 small businesses, this
included both the small businesses that exported
their products and the ones that did not. The
breakdown of the small businesses was as shown in
figure 1
Figure 1
The main challenges that hindered the small
businesses to go global were the lack of sufficient
resources, insufficient knowledge of the market,
lack of capital and poor networking. The results of
the study indicated that the small businesses that
exported their products concurred that lack of
marketing skills was the primary challenge that they
faced while the non-exporting small businesses
concurred that their inability to properly market
themselves hindered their venture into the global
market.
Figure 2
The results showed the mostly used strategy of
venturing into the global market is through the
engagement with a foreign company; this helped in
building the reputation of the small business
consequently increasing their revenue. Other
methods used included agencies, franchising,
formation of alliances and direct sales.
Figure 3
The greatest risk that the small business faces in
its effort to expand the business to the global market
is being outcompeted by the established
multinational companies.
Most small businesses acknowledge that the
support that they get is not enough enable them to
overcome the barriers that hinder their entry into the
global market. The government should provide
financial and networking support to the small
businesses.
The education level of the small business
owners determined their success in their venture
into the international market, most successful
owners have entrepreneurship education. The
education acquired sharpened the entrepreneurial
skill of the owners thus making it effective operate
their business [5].
V. Conclusion and Future Work
The result of the study has shown that most
owners of the small business that do no export their
products rely on verbal means of marketing. The
research has indicated that the small businesses
have the opportunity to engage in international
commerce despite the barrier that exists in the
market.

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