Northwest Aerospace News Issue No. 25 February | March 2022 | Page 48

“ The Thrive ! program helped us restructure the supply chain framework and manufacturing team , provided data on a secondary site and identified a new marketing segment . These were significant and tangible results !”
~ Rich Fowles , CEO Scratch and Peck Feeds , Burlington , Washington
Amandine Crabtree Washington State Dept . of Commerce www . commerce . wa . gov
WASHINGTON STATE DEPT . OF COMMERCE

Commerce ’ s Thrive ! Program Ramps Up Second-Stage Business Growth for Washington State Businesses

By Susan Joseph Nielsen , EGc , APR and Amandine Crabtree , Washington State Department of Commerce
WASHINGTON STATE DEPT . OF COMMERCE
Susan Joseph Nielsen Washington State Dept . of Commerce www . commerce . wa . gov
48 NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS

In some of our past articles , we talked a lot about the Small Business Export Assistance ( SBEA ) programs supporting small businesses positioning their brand globally ( e . g . the STEP grant ). However sometimes companies are not quite ready to look outside the borders , and that is how the Washington State Department of Commerce ’ s Thrive ! Program can be invaluable to prepare your business for domestic growth first . Second-stage businesses in Washington State are growing and expanding faster and more profitably with nationally recognized expert-level research and systems data to guide their growth through this initiative .