MEMBERTOU, N.S. — As a new business owner, Cory Moore has a lot of questions he needs answered. Specifically, how to target a market and to get his product to those who want and need it.

Moore, who works out of his home in Portage, outside Sydney, has been selling his own line of specially made soaps and skin-care products since early September.

Having spent most of the past two decades outside Nova Scotia – including 12 years living in Germany – he says there will be customers wanting to buy his product online and have it shipped overseas.

“There’s a lot of resources for start-up companies. The exporting (process) isn’t as scary as it seems when you talk to the professionals who do this,” said Moore, 42.

“I’m a start-up. I’m one man so to be able to move on and grow, you need the help of all these guys.”

“These guys” includes import and export professionals who can educate clients about export regulations, country-specific requirements and changes within the industry.

In an effort to streamline the process and bring information directly to small and medium-sized businesses looking to move their products across the country and over international borders, the federal government provided a $135,000 grant to the Cape Breton Partnership in June to launch a two-year pilot program to assist island businesses that want to enter the export market.

At a recent export roundtable at Membertou First Nation, entrepreneurs, including Moore, and economic development officers from a few government agencies such as the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Nova Scotia Business Inc. and the Business Development Bank of Canada laid out some of the basics in preparation to market a product or service abroad.