According to experts and business leaders at Monday’s first Utah County International Business Forum, international trade in Utah is good business.

“You are living in an economic nirvana. You are in the heart of it right here — as part of Silicon Slopes, Utah Valley and Utah in general,” said Derek B. Miller, president and CEO of the World Trade Center Utah.

According to WTC Utah research, Utah exports have doubled in the past decade, and the state’s economy is sixth in the nation for export growth and rising. Of the 3,544 companies exporting from Utah, 85 percent of the share of exports comes from Utah small businesses, and 22 percent of the state’s jobs are directly supported by exports, Miller said.

He likened local businesses that aren’t in the international sphere to a hot dog vendor who sells his wares only to one row of LaVell Edwards Stadium. According to Miller’s numbers, 70 percent of the world’s purchasing power is located outside the United States. Business has changed so much since in the past few decades that to compete in today’s economy, companies must think globally.

“I can promise you your business is an international business,” Miller said. “Whether you think it is or not, whether you want it to be or not, whether you believe it or not — your business is impacted by what happens around the world.”

Thus the need for an international business forum to “help Utah companies think, act and succeed globally,” as is the WTC Utah’s purpose. Miller said Monday’s event was a place for small businesses to network with those skilled in the international sphere and hear an overview of the steps for expanding abroad.

Small-business owners heard from a panel of experts: Lisa Cox, director of operations at Air & Sea International; international trade specialist Shelby Peterson of Utah’s International Trade Administration; Craig Parry, partner at Parr Brown Gee & Loveless; and Johnathan Kunz, vice president of Asia Pacific Markets at doTerra.

The panel discussed the steps and pitfalls of expanding abroad. One of those first ones is deciding where you fit in the market and deciding how your product fits in the world.

Local businesses can’t simply just wake up one morning and decide to start shipping abroad without some serious research, planning and strategy. As Peterson and Kunz pointed out, how Americans use a local product does not necessarily dictate how an international target market will interact with the product.

“Just getting that initial information, trying to understand the court you’re going to be playing ball in,” Kunz said.

Additionally, there are many regulations and laws that must be navigated both within the United States and then on the other end. But as Parry explained, the world does not need to be conquered all at once. It is better to focus and start in a promising international market that fits a product, and develop there first.

Though there are many bits and pieces to navigate, the panel encouraged those in attendance to think globally. Peterson praised Utah for its many avenues and services — many of them free — for businesses to take those first steps.

Her work with the Utah Export Assistance Center is focused solely on helping Utah small-business owners chomp off a bigger piece of the world’s pie, and she and Cox both encouraged local companies to use those resources, in addition to those of the WTC Utah.

“Don’t be afraid to jump into the international waters, because there is plenty of help out there,” Cox said. “If you don’t jump in, you are missing a lifetime of fun opportunities.”