Women's History Month
Women's History Month
Empowering women in trade by sharing the experiences and advice of our women-owned and led business clients.

WHM Aeroforce

Celebrating Women’s History Month: Client Profile

Learn more about events, tools, and resources to help women entrepreneurs and executives accelerate their exporting journey by visiting our Women’s Global Trade Empowerment webpage. For more information about any of the services mentioned below, or to get help exporting your product or service, contact your local U.S. Commercial Service office!

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Heather Varney

Heather Varney

President & Co-Founder

Company: Aeroforce Logistics

Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Web: www.aeroforcelogistics.com 

About Aeroforce Logistics: Aeroforce provides parts and services to domestic and foreign militaries, operators, and repair stations. We accomplish this by using our OEM, fabrication, and machine shop partnerships. We also sell a large inventory of previously owned U.S. Government material, which is always in demand. We specialize in finding alternate solutions for hard-to-find, long lead-time and high-priced military aircraft parts and tooling. Lastly, we provide consulting services for program management, product support, warehousing, and managed repair/overhaul services. We have been exporting for two years.

As a women-owned or women-led business, what unique challenges has your company encountered with exporting? 

“Creating processes , procedures and safe guards that enable our company to efficiently and profitably market and sell to international customers”

How has the U.S. Commercial Service helped you overcome exporting challenges?

“In late 2021, I  graduated from the Exportech program, so we are in the infant stages of working with this team. They have been great at answering questions about market data and daily questions about vetting customers and import/export.”

What is your favorite thing about being a woman exporter?

“Diversifying our customer base, portfolio, adding employees , which in turn means selling more!”

What advice would you give other women-owned or led businesses looking to expand their international sales?

“Make sure your business has processes and procedures in place with all of your departments involved in exporting. Attend Exportech. Lastly, market your company using the resources provided from Exportech. Get your company’s name out there!”

What would you consider your greatest export success?

“The ability to delineate NLR items and items that required Export License on a large, 50-line order to the Netherlands. It allowed us to send a partial shipment early while we waited for the licensing on the other items. The customer was happy to get some items right away!” 

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Global Business Navigator Chatbot Beta

Welcome to the Global Business Navigator, an artificial intelligence (AI) Chatbot from the International Trade Administration (ITA). This tool, currently in beta version testing, is designed to provide general information on the exporting process and the resources available to assist new and experienced U.S. exporters. The Chatbot, developed using Microsoft’s Azure AI services, is trained on ITA’s export-related content and aims to quickly get users the information they need. The Chatbot is intended to make the benefits of exporting more accessible by understanding non-expert language, idiomatic expressions, and foreign languages.

Limitations

As a beta product, the Chatbot is currently being tested and its responses may occasionally produce inaccurate or incomplete information. The Chatbot is trained to decline out of scope or inappropriate requests. The Chatbot’s knowledge is limited to the public information on the Export Solutions web pages of Trade.gov, which covers a wide range of topics on exporting. While it cannot provide responses specific to a company’s product or a specific foreign market, its reference pages will guide you to other relevant government resources and market research. Always double-check the Chatbot’s responses using the provided references or by visiting the Export Solutions web pages on Trade.gov. Do not use its responses as legal or professional advice. Inaccurate advice from the Chatbot would not be a defense to violating any export rules or regulations.

Privacy

The Chatbot does not collect information about users and does not use the contents of users’ chat history to learn new information. All feedback is anonymous. Please do not enter personally identifiable information (PII), sensitive, or proprietary information into the Chatbot. Your conversations will not be connected to other interactions or accounts with ITA. Conversations with the Chatbot may be reviewed to help ITA improve the tool and address harmful, illegal, or otherwise inappropriate questions.

Translation

The Chatbot supports a wide range of languages. Because the Chatbot is trained in English and responses are translated, you should verify the translation. For example, the Chatbot may have difficulty with acronyms, abbreviations, and nuances in a language other than English.

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