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About the firm
An independent, woman-owned trade advisory practice built around one idea: exporting is not complicated, it is unfamiliar.
Started at a kitchen table in Cloverdale, 2016
Joo Commerce Advisors began when Susan Smith left a corporate trade-compliance department after twenty-two years and started taking calls from local business owners who could not get straight answers about exporting. The first three clients were a pecan processor, a candle maker and a small tooling shop. Two of the three still work with us.
The firm has stayed deliberately small. We take on a limited number of engagements at a time because the work is detailed and the consequences of getting it wrong — a held container, a rejected shipment, a distributor agreement signed too quickly — land on the client, not the adviser.
Our office is on Washington Avenue in downtown Montgomery. Clients are welcome by appointment, and roughly half of our work is delivered remotely to businesses across the United States.
Four rules we do not bend
No commissions
We accept no referral fee from any forwarder, broker, bank or distributor. Our fee comes from the client and nowhere else.
Written or it did not happen
Every recommendation arrives in writing, with the regulation or source cited, so you can verify it without us.
Scope before invoice
Fees are agreed in a signed scope document before work begins. We do not bill surprises.
Teach, then leave
A successful engagement ends with your team able to run the next shipment without calling us.
Who you will actually be speaking to
Small firm, senior people. Nobody hands your file to a junior.
Susan Smith
Founder & Principal Advisor
Twenty-two years in trade operations and compliance before founding the firm. Leads every readiness audit personally and signs off on all classification work.
Advisory associates
Research & documentation
Two associates handle market research files, tariff look-ups, document drafting and partner screening calls under Susan's review.
Specialist network
Called in when needed
Licensed customs brokers, trade attorneys, translators and packaging engineers we bring in for specific questions — always disclosed, never marked up.
The plain details
| Legal owner | Susan Smith |
|---|---|
| Trading name | Joo Commerce Advisors |
| Founded | 2016, Montgomery, Alabama |
| Office | 400 Washington Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama 36104, USA |
| Telephone | +1 469 425 8431 |
| Susan@Joo.womenincomex.com | |
| Hours | Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Central Time |
| Service area | All fifty U.S. states; advisory only, no goods are sold from this website |