Massachusetts State Trade Expansion Program

The STEP grant is intended to offset international business development and related marketing costs for small businesses. Grant proceeds may be used for specific international business development and marketing costs.

STEP grants are offered through the Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Investment (MOITI), in collaboration with the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center Network (MSBDC), the Massachusetts Export Center and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). An application and more information are available here.

 

Grant Acceptable Uses

Grant proceeds may be used for specific international business development and marketing costs, including:

• Overseas trade show or conference exhibition and directly related expenses (e.g., booth space, shipping charges, carnets, attendance in conjunction with exhibiting, space to deliver technical sales seminars, etc.) (shipping costs capped at $2,000 per company);

• U.S. Department of Commerce Gold Key and other in-country services;

• Government-organized foreign trade missions with a business matchmaking element;

• Cost of compliance testing an existing product for entry into an export market ($3,000 cap per company);

• Design of export market-specific marketing media (including design and translation of brochures, targeted advertising in industry-appropriate media, etc. — does not include printing) ($3,000 cap per company);

• Localization of websites for target export markets (including translation of websites, technical localization, and search engine optimization for export markets) ($3,000 cap per company).

 

Companies wishing to participate in the Massachusetts STEP grant can email Mark Sullivan at mark.f.sullivan@state.ma.us or call (617) 973-8543.