In phpmyadmin you can dump the entire database to a file or if you have the latest version it can even zip that file.
An .sql file is basicly just a text file. It's named .sql to tell your its a database backup or related file rather then a .txt file.
If you have telnet or ssh use the above commands to dump your database OR you could hire someone to do it for you. There are many guys here that could help you out.
