The article explores how certain factors before a small or medium-sized business starts exporting can affect its performance. The study looks at how well the business was doing before exporting and at what age it started exporting. The researchers found that businesses that started exporting early and were not doing as well as their competitors improved their performance after exporting. On the other hand, businesses that started exporting later and were doing better than expected before exporting saw a decrease in their performance after exporting.