Other business owners might sour on exporting after what happened to David Old. His company, a 15-employee wood flooring producer in Las Vegas, N.M., had completed a $130,000 order for a new theater floor for a customer in Seoul, South Korea, in 2008. The buyer paid a deposit up front, passed a credit check, and made the first two payments on time. But the final payment of $40,000, due after the financial crisis began that fall, never arrived.

Despite the loss, Old is counting on foreign sales to expand his business from $1.25 million in revenue this year to $20 million in three years, based on a process he's developing to make high-quality block flooring out of low-grade wood. A 54-year-old Marine veteran who speaks six languages and had a previous business trading aircraft internationally, Old says customers from around the world find him online, and vice versa.

His company, Old Wood LLC, represents both the challenges and the potential that exporting presents small businesses. President Barack Obama set a goal to double American exports in the next five years in his National Export Initiative launched Mar. 11. For that to happen, he's pushing for more companies like Old's to expand into new markets abroad.

Companies with fewer than 500 employees make up half of private nonfarm GDP but only 30 percent of exported goods, according to data from the Census and the Small Business Administration. Large companies dominate exports. The top 500 U.S. exporters accounted for 60 percent of the value of all exported goods in 2007, according to the latest data available from the Census. Total U.S. exports, including goods and services, topped $1.5 trillion in 2009.

Federal 'Hand-Holding'

Skeptics argue that federal efforts will have little effect because exports depend on foreign growth and the value of the dollar. But others...