Today in Global Small Business: World's Most Admired Man's Image Is Cracking

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Bill Gates spent years crafting his image.  Now it's cracking.
• What to pay attention to: Trump hits the stalemate phase of his international interventions, and it stings.
• What are frontier markets – and what do they matter for the global economy.
• Quote of the week:  “It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure." – Bill Gates
• A good data center by the International Trade Administration – from automotive industry to aluminum to energy.  Check it out. 
• Chief economists' outlook: May, 2026.

Note:  The Global Small Business Blog has been in operation since 2004 and is ranked number one in the world for entrepreneurs and small businesses interested in going global.  As of February 1, 2026, we average between 700,000-900,000 readers a month.

Discover U.S. Trade By Product

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Discover interactive dashboards and infographics providing data on U.S. goods trade at the national, state and metropolitan area levels.  In addition, see product-specific import and export trends and insights on U.S. by partner countries. 

Today in Global Small Business: The Art of 21st Century Global Leadership

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• An overview – The Art of 21st Century Global Leadership – of traits and practices required to succeed as a leader today and a look at the factory model that can help aspiring managers ascend.
• Foreign direct investment in the United States (10/1/24).
• Quote of the week: “With 90 percent of consumers living outside of the United States, the biggest economic opportunity for our country is to sell those consumers products that the United States of America makes.” – Senator Maria Cantwell, U.S. Senate
• New export services by the International Trade Administration.
• Why you should export. 
• Go Michigan small businesses who wish to export – funding is available to support your work.

Today in Global Small Business: Resources for Product Creators and Global Traders

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Resources for product creators and global traders.
• GlobalEDGE trade resources.
• International Trade Administration trade resources.
• Quote of the week:  "I believe in removing barriers in international trade. Part of the reason is that this creates huge markets for all of our products." – Petro Poroshenko
• U.S. Commercial Service – trade resources.
• Trade statistics – International Trade Centre.

Just the Facts, Ma'am or Sir, Just the International Facts

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Get the latest data, facts and reports produced by the International Trade Administration's (ITA's) team of trade specialists.  

Navigate to data relating to a specific topic where you can discover:

• Export Database
• TradeStats Express
• Metropolitan Export Series
• Marketing Diversification Tool
• Economic Research
• FTA Tariff Tool

Go to ITA's Trade Statistics to learn more.

Let's Celebrate: May Is World Trade Month!

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As the International Trade Administration (ITA) says through its International Trade Update, published monthly by the Office of Public Affairs of the U.S. Department of Commerce:

For years, May has been the time to not only recognize the benefits of international trade, but also for organizations around the country to support more American companies competing overseas.

For the United States, the benefits of trade have been great, as have our successes. We recently announced that for the fourth straight year, the United States set a record for annual exports in 2013, at $2.3 trillion. That is a 40 percent growth in total exports since 2009.

We salute all entrepreneurs and small businesses who have mastered the art and science of taking their business global!  Go celebrate your successes!  Be proud of your accomplishments!

Read the entire ITA newsletter here.

Related article:  World Trade Month the World Over

ITA: International Trade Administration (U.S.A.)

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Are you operating a business in the United States and need help with exporting and country and regional market information?

Have you looked at the International Trade Administration?  It's considered the bible of international trade information.

Kudos to International Trade Administration (ITA)

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BLOG

ITA has finally started a blog. Great to hear. The more the merrier and the far more productive we can be on the global frontiers.

Blog can be found here. Here's a good entry on Trade Stats Express. No RSS feed yet but I'm sure it's coming.


Just in direct from ITA (4/7/10) ...

Thank you for highlighting the ITA Blog but if you could please replace the old emblem (as shown at the very top) with the new one (seen here: http://trade.gov/trade-topics.asp) that has been in use since 2007, we would very much appreciate your support.

Many thanks,

Office of Public Affairs
International Trade Administration

Exporting Made Easy

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The 2007 National Export Strategy examines how the combination of declining trade barriers and advancing technologies has made exporting easier than ever. American businesses should look at the global economy as a major sales opportunity as well as a source of competition.

The goals of this report are to raise awareness in the American business community about the advantages of exporting, to convince businesses that are not exporting to consider exporting, and to get those businesses that are exporting to enter more overseas markets.
All the good stuff (resources) starts on Page 175.