Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics

In the age of offshoring, rising imports, and job loss concerns, it is vital to formulate strategies for export promotion. This paper identifies, examines and analyzes export opportunities for small and medium sized California services firms (SMEs), which employ the majority of California workers. The research assesses trends in services exports, characteristics of the California economy and of small (fewer than 100 employees) and medium-sized firms (100 to 500 employees), resources available from the US federal government and California state and local agencies, market research, and public and private foreign resources to identify services sectors with significant opportunities for export activity. The study focuses particularly on prospects for export growth to large, rapidly growing economies in Asia, including China and India. Services with strong export growth potential include education, energy, technical and scientific services, tourism and software. Additional sectors, where demand is strong but some institutional issues exist include, entertainment, finance, logistics, legal services and environmental services. A variety of public and private resources exist, in the US and abroad, to assist firms seeking export opportunities.