40 Years of Small Business Development Center at UGA

Who would have thought that an idea in 1975, promoted by William C. Flewellen, Jr., former Dean of the University of Georgia College of Business Administration, would flourish into a network of almost 1,000 service centers at colleges and universities across the country. With Flewellen’s vision and former UGA President Fred Davidson’s support of what […]

Is My Product Exportable?

International Trade

In reference to the futility of trying to close a business deal, you may have heard the expression “This is like trying to sell sand to the Middle East.” Well as a matter of fact, the U.S. does sell sand to the Middle East. Almost any product is in demand beyond the borders of the […]

Veterans and Federal Contracting Business Opportunites

Armed Forces, Veteran, Handshake.

In FY2014, the federal government awarded $445.6 billion in contracts, with $91.7 billion awarded to small businesses. In the same year, veteran-owned small businesses received $19.0 billion in contracts. Veterans are 9.1 percent of all business owners in the United States. The federal government is committed to seeking veteran owned small-businesses (VOSB) to buy from. There are two main programs in use today. The first is the Small […]

Can I Export My Products …. and Where?

International Trade

American companies make excellent products; they really do. And many of these products are sold all over the world, but some never leave the country. There are several reasons things can or cannot be exported, including their price, overseas demand, technical competitiveness, and sometimes a company’s own willingness or reluctance to undertake the export process.

Nut Tree Pecan, Inc.

Francis “Putt” Wetherbee is president of Nut Tree Pecan, Inc., which does wholesale cleaning, weighing, batch separation, production and sales, both domestically and to China. His family has grown pecans for five generations. “Nut Tree has been a vertical provider since 2006, loading bags and preparing shipping documents for other exporters, but not directly to our own customers in China,” says Wetherbee. “When I […]