How to Build a 90-Day Export Action Plan

A Montana business does not need to enter five countries to make meaningful progress in exporting. A better first milestone might be identifying one suitable market, learning why buyers there would care, and obtaining a reliable cost estimate for serving them. A useful plan turns those discoveries into decisions before the business commits more money.

This final installment draws on the Built in the WEST interview with Justin Bilyeu, particularly the discussion of production capacity at 40:45–41:51 and product and customer understanding at 51:22–52:20. The interview supplies the starting questions. The working calendar, examples, and exercises below are original editorial planning tools, not government instructions or promises of funding.

By the end, you should have a one-page export experiment, a dated task list, a cash-flow worksheet, and a clear point at which to proceed, revise, or stop. Ninety days is a planning horizon. It is not a promise that an award, regulatory review, buyer agreement, or first shipment will be completed within that period.

1. Define a decision that ninety days can resolve

Start by completing this sentence: “By our review date, we will know whether we should invest in ___ for ___ customers in ___.” Keep the blanks narrow. “Sell internationally” is too broad to guide a small team. “Decide whether to test one replacement component with independent equipment dealers in one market” gives the team a research job.

Choose a learning milestone that the business can influence. Revenue may depend on a buyer's budget cycle or a distributor's review. Gathering three usable shipping estimates, interviewing potential channel partners, or resolving a labeling question can be realistic early milestones. None automatically proves demand, but each reduces a specific uncertainty.

Write down what would change your decision. If shipping and service costs consume the available margin, the current product-market combination may be unsuitable. If buyers require a modification you cannot support, a different product might fit better. Establishing these boundaries before a persuasive sales conversation helps keep enthusiasm connected to the business's actual capacity.

The International Trade Administration's export-plan guide provides an official planning framework covering product, market, pricing, buyers, implementation, and resources. Use that framework alongside this editorial exercise. Your plan should become more useful as evidence arrives; its purpose is to guide choices rather than defend your first idea.

2. Put one person in charge of the evidence

Assign an owner to every task, even if that owner is you. A three-person shop can use the same simple structure as a larger manufacturer: one person collects customer evidence, one checks operational capacity, and one coordinates costs and paperwork. People may hold several roles. Tasks should still have separate completion conditions.

Create a shared folder with five sections: product and customer, market evidence, quotes and costs, agency correspondence, and decisions. Give documents useful names that include the date and version. Save the questions you sent as well as the answers received. An email that says “that should work” is difficult to interpret later without the original project description.

Keep a short evidence register. For each consequential statement, record its source, date, scope, and unresolved limitation. A freight estimate for one package size is not evidence for a pallet shipment. A distributor's enthusiasm is not a purchase order. A program overview is not an award letter. Labeling the difference makes a review meeting substantially more productive.

Reserve a brief weekly meeting. Ask what was learned, which assumption changed, and what next action now matters most. Avoid reporting only activity counts. Ten emails that reached the wrong buyer do less for the decision than one informed conversation with the right purchasing contact.

3. Days 1–14: build the project brief and request guidance

During the first two weeks, choose one product or a tightly defined service offer. Record the customer problem, current selling price, production requirements, normal delivery time, and support commitment. Note which facts come from actual domestic transactions and which are estimates for the proposed foreign market.

Build an honest capacity picture. Calculate the volume available after existing commitments, maintenance, staffing, and realistic production variation. Include customer support, replacement parts, or onboarding time when relevant. Unused machine hours do not necessarily mean the entire business can handle another customer group.

Then prepare a short assistance request. Describe the company, location, product, proposed market, planned activity, tentative dates, and the question you need answered. Ask for the appropriate export adviser or program contact. Do not attach banking records or proprietary customer lists to a general inquiry. Share additional material through the administrator's approved process when needed.

Your first two-week deliverables are a product brief, a capacity estimate, and a dated list of unanswered questions. You should also know who will respond if an adviser requests clarification. A missed follow-up can stall a good project as easily as missing information.

Use Part 1 to complete the readiness assessment and Part 2 to prepare the assistance conversation. The initial request is a referral or intake step; it does not establish eligibility or reserve grant funds.

4. Days 15–30: test demand and build the full cost picture

Spend the next phase investigating the market rather than purchasing visibility. Identify the relevant buyer, purchasing process, and competing alternatives. Record how the customer currently solves the problem. A product can be unusual and still lack a compelling reason for a buyer to switch.

Use the research worksheet from Part 3. Separate broad market information from evidence specific to your customer. Then identify the smallest reasonable next test: a qualified distributor conversation, a product demonstration, a properly scoped research service, or a limited marketing experiment.

Request written estimates for the costs that test would create. Depending on the activity, those might include translation, packaging changes, professional review, samples, freight, registration, travel, and staff time. Mark exclusions and expiration dates. A quote that omits duties or destination handling should not become a complete delivered-cost assumption.

Create three cash-flow columns: no assistance, assistance delayed, and assistance received under the actual award terms. Put the full payment dates in each column before entering any possible reimbursement. The business must understand what it owes and when. Ask a qualified finance adviser about payment risk or financing where needed; the ITA payment and financing hub is a starting resource, not a funding approval.

At day thirty, decide whether the next test is affordable and useful. If a critical requirement remains unresolved, the correct next step may be obtaining an answer rather than booking an activity.

5. Days 31–60: obtain approvals and prepare a bounded test

Translate the selected test into a written scope. Specify the market, customer group, offer, budget ceiling, responsible person, and result that will be reviewed. For a partner search, define what makes a prospect suitable. For digital marketing, define the inquiry you can actually fulfill. For a trade show, define the buyer meetings you hope to earn.

Where assistance is relevant, build around the current activity-specific application rules. Keep the application, correspondence, award terms, and permitted spending period together. Ask whether deposits, contracts, or work begun before approval can affect eligibility. Do not treat a submitted form or receipt confirmation as authorization to spend.

Prepare the customer-facing material before the test begins. Check specifications, delivery language, response routes, and any translations. Decide who answers questions across time zones. Establish an internal rule for escalating a product, payment, or regulatory question rather than improvising an answer to keep a conversation moving.

A bounded test also needs a stop rule. You might stop advertising when the agreed budget is reached, pause sample shipments until a classification question is resolved, or postpone a show if the business cannot support the follow-up. These are management choices for your project, not universal standards imposed by an agency.

The deliverable at day sixty is a test package that another team member can understand: scope, approved internal budget, relevant outside approvals, customer materials, operating instructions, and a review date. If one essential piece is missing, record the dependency and move the test date deliberately.

6. Days 61–90: run, document, and decide

Run the test only after its prerequisites are satisfied. Keep a simple contact log showing buyer role, product interest, question, promised follow-up, and next decision. Collect permission and handle personal information under the rules that apply to the activity. The goal is useful records, not the largest possible spreadsheet.

Review outcomes against the original question. Website visits are different from qualified inquiries. A qualified inquiry is different from a sample request. A sample request is different from a paid order. Record movement between stages so that an attractive headline number does not hide a weak customer fit.

Reconcile actual spending with the budget and preserve supporting records as the work occurs. If assistance was awarded, follow that program's reimbursement and reporting instructions. Set the payment-request deadline separately from the final management review. Completing your ninety-day plan does not extend an agency's filing deadline.

At the final review, choose one of three decisions. Proceed means the evidence supports a defined next investment. Revise means the product, market, channel, or timing needs a specific change. Stop means the current opportunity does not justify further spending. None requires pretending the initial idea was wrong or right forever.

Write a short decision record with the evidence, remaining uncertainty, next budget, and owner. Include a future recheck date if circumstances could change. The strongest result of an early export experiment can be a well-supported decision to focus elsewhere.

7. Use an actual calendar without inventing a program deadline

Dates: The dates below are a hypothetical business planning calendar in America/Denver. They are not an announced trade show, application window, or publication schedule.

An owner choosing November 2, 2026, as day one would reach day fourteen on November 15, day thirty on December 1, day sixty on December 31, and day ninety on January 30, 2027. Those are calendar-day milestones. Move internal meetings to suitable working days, account for holidays, and confirm staff availability before relying on any response date.

Suppose the hypothetical activity begins February 15, 2027. A thirty-calendar-day backward calculation lands on January 16; a fifteen-calendar-day calculation lands on January 31. The first is a Saturday and the second is a Sunday. These arithmetic dates are not a recommendation to file on a weekend or at the last possible moment. Ask the administrator how it counts days, which timezone and closing time apply, and what happens on holidays. Set an earlier internal submission target.

For reference, the published STEP international exhibition instructions state a minimum thirty-day lead time, while the domestic Trade Show Assistance Program instructions state fifteen days. These belong to different programs. They do not establish current funds, an eligible event, or a guaranteed decision date. Confirm the actual activity and award cycle before applying.

8. Work through a hypothetical Montana manufacturer

Consider a fictional shop making a specialized maintenance bracket. It has domestic customers and enough spare production time for a modest pilot. The owner initially wants a major overseas show. The team instead defines a narrower question: will a specific type of maintenance dealer consider the bracket at a price that covers fulfillment and support?

In the first fortnight, staff document the customer problem and usable capacity. During the research phase, they discover that buyers need dimensions in another format and want a replacement policy explained. Neither finding proves demand. Both make the next conversation more useful.

By day thirty, the team has a translation estimate, a shipping estimate, and a list of unresolved import questions. It postpones the show decision. It budgets a smaller research and demonstration project, subject to the relevant reviews and any required permissions. No grant award or customer purchase is assumed.

The ninety-day result is a clearer channel decision. If dealer conversations reveal an unsupported service requirement, the shop may revise the offer. If the economics remain credible and buyer evidence improves, it can price the next test. The lesson is sequencing: spend to answer the next consequential question before funding the largest activity.

9. Complete your export action sheet and book the review

Copy these prompts into a document and answer them in plain language. Keep detailed evidence in the shared folder rather than turning the action sheet into a long report.

1. Decision: What exactly will we decide at the final review, and on what date?
2. Scope: Which product, customer, market, and channel are included?
3. Evidence: What do we know, and what must still be established?
4. Capacity: What can we fulfill without displacing existing commitments?
5. Economics: What is the full test cost, cash needed, and payment timing without reimbursement?
6. Requirements: Which product, shipping, customer, or market questions need qualified review?
7. Assistance: Which program or adviser fits, and what has actually been confirmed in writing?
8. Calendar: What are the official application and reporting dates, and our earlier internal targets?
9. Ownership: Who completes each task, and what constitutes completion?
10. Decision rule: What evidence would lead us to proceed, revise, or stop?

For a practical application packet, add the administrator's current checklist, project description, dated estimates, required eligibility evidence, and the written answer to any timing question. Use the official application route for that program. An adviser referral, marketing-provider proposal, or downloaded worksheet does not submit an application on your behalf.

Return to the series index for the appropriate application or referral resource. Part 9 is the preceding sector guide; the earlier parts remain useful as individual references when your next question involves research, marketing, partners, or shipping.

Your next step is to choose one export decision, name its owner, and put the first review on the calendar. A clear question, a manageable test, and an evidence-based decision give a small Montana business a practical way to move forward without assuming that every opportunity requires immediate expansion.