Barlow Research is one of our go-to sources on all things related to small business use of financial services.
Their article Five Truths about International Business in the Middle Market covers survey research on the exporting and importing by U.S. firms with between $10 million and $500 million in sales (midmarket companies).
As shown in the Barlow chart below (click to enlarge), the key finding is that about one-third of firms in this size category conduct business internationally.
As we pointed out in a previous article, about 28% of microbusinesses - firms with fewer than 4 employees including the owner - conduct business internationally.
Barlow doesn't include historical data in their article. But microbusiness exports have risen rapidly over the past decade, with the share of microbusiness exporters doubling.
This is primarily due to online marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy, and improvements in outsourced logistics services.
One of the most interesting parts of the Barlow article are the export challenges faced by midmarket companies.
What's so interesting to us is microbusinesses report fewer challenges than midmarket firms do.
Shipping is still an issue, as is regulation. But none of the other challenges reported by midmarket companies even blip with microbusinesses.
This is likely because they outsource most tasks to online marketplaces and logistics firms, while most midmarket exporters sell directly into foreign markets.
Historically, one of the huge advantages larger firms have had over smaller firms is the operational scale to export.
Thanks to online marketplaces and other services, that advantage has clearly narrowed.
More research needs to be done on this topic and we're adding this to our "to-do" list.
