Inclusive Trade

Women- & minority-owned businesses are uniquely positioned to benefit from exporting. When these businesses export they are more productive, employ more workers and report higher than average earnings than their non-exporting counterparts. Still, these businesses account for a disproportionately small share of exporters.

Women-Owned Businesses & Trade

Women-owned SMEs that export pay more, are more productive, employ more workers and report higher than average sales.

• Women-owned businesses that export their goods and services average $14.5 million in receipts, compared to $117,036 for women-owned businesses that do not export.
• An average of 42 people are employed by women-owned exporters, compared to an average of eight employees at their non-exporting counterparts.
• Women-owned exporters are 1.2 times more productive on average than male-owned business exporters and 3.5 times more productive than women-owned businesses that do not export.
• Women-owned exporters report 1.6 times higher than the average pay at non-exporting women-owned businesses.
• An average of $16.3 million in sales is reported by women-owned exporters, compared to $816,000 in average sales for non-exporting women-owned businesses.

Minority-Owned Businesses & Trade

Minority-owned SMEs derive significantly more revenue from overseas markets than non-minority businesses.

• Minority-owned businesses are 2 times more likely to export than non-minority-owned businesses.
• Minority-owned businesses are 6 times more likely to conduct business in a language other than English and 3 times more likely to generate 100 percent of their revenues from exporting compared to non-minority-owned firms, regardless of size.
• Exports accounted for 14.4 percent of total receipts of minority-owned exporters compared to 5.4 percent of total receipts for non-minority-owned exporters.
• Minority-owned exporters average $7.4 million in receipts, compared to $141,776 for minority-owned non-exporting firms.
• On average, minority-owned exporters employ 21 workers, compared to minority-owned non-exporters’ seven.
• Minority-owned exporters are 3.3 times more productive than minority-owned non-exporters.
• Black-owned businesses relied on global markets for an average of 45 percent more revenue than white-owned businesses during the pandemic.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, Ownership Characteristics of Classifiable U.S. Exporting Firms, Issued June 2012;
“The Strategic Case for Women and Trade,” The Obama White House Archives;
“Want To Grow Your Minority Business Enterprise? Look Abroad,” Minority Business Development Agency;
Global, Digital & Resilient: How digital tools are powering U.S. small businesses’ global engagement amid COVID-19, Global Innovation Forum, February 2021.