VA Woman-Owned Solar Energy Firm Makes First Export Sale

Solar panels on a grass with bright sun and sky in background.

Selam Global Enterprises (SGE), LLC is a Nathalie, VA-based small women-owned trade and language service and consulting firm. SGE is also a wholesale buyer and distributor of made-in-USA products and services to Africa. SGE wanted to become a distributor and wholesaler of U.S.-made products and services to Africa and turned to the U.S. Commercial Service (CS) Northern Virginia office for assistance in achieving this goal. Since the company was very much new-to-export, CS Northern Virginia began by introducing SGE to various trade promotion resources. This included connections to the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) counselors, the Virginia Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and the VA/DC District Export Council, receiving valuable advice and market research in the process. CS NOVA, with the help of CS Ethiopia, delivered an International Partner Search (IPS) Plus service. SGE participated in the VA based Building Bridges to Global Markets exporting program, receiving introductions to Virginia-based partners and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) through whom they were able to tap into SBA’s STEP grants and obtain additional trade counseling.

As a result, in June 2023, SGE completed their first ever export sale of a solar energy storage system to Ethiopia, valued at $7,500. SGE also hopes collaboration with the U.S. Commercial Service will allow them to sign on a distributor and increase sales to this newly opened market in the future.

“… [CS Northern Virginia] provided regular counseling on export-related matters such as regulations, documentation issues, advice on distributorship agreements, as well as keeping me abreast of educational opportunities provided by their organization, such as the Africa Series webinars or the Building Bridges exporting program that I attended in Norfolk. Working with the Commercial Service, I was able to benefit from other organizations as well, such as the Small Business Development Center, the District Export Council, as well as tapping into other resources such as the STEP grants administered through the Virginia Economic Development Partnership… The assistance and advice led to my commissioning the Commercial Service for one of their overseas matchmaking services and to my making my first export sale to Ethiopia…” - Selam Legesse, Director, SGE