Did you know that American companies with international export are less likely to go out of business? International export gives them an 8.5% advantage compared to companies that don’t ship internationally.
Are you thinking about going global? Make sure that your business is ready for the task.
If you have global expansion plans, you have a tough road ahead of you. Successfully expanding to international markets isn’t easy, so you need to know how to lay the proper groundwork and take the right steps.
We’re here to help. Here’s what you need to know to start expanding your business internationally.
Choose Your Markets Wisely
The first thing that you should do when planning to go global is to research potential markets and to find out about the opportunities that are available.
You’ll want to learn what you can about various markets and narrow down your expansion plan to only one or several different markets at first. Don’t plan on expanding too much too fast.
You should consider all of the important characteristics of a market including its size, the supply of labor and resources, geographical specifics, and regulation issues. It might be helpful to hire a reputable market research firm that can do the hard work for you and help your business research potential new markets.
Keep Finances in Mind
When planning to expand globally, you need to be realistic about the financial implications of doing so. Make sure that you carefully consider how much capital you have and ensure that you’ll have a way of funding your ambitions.
Chances are that you won’t be able to become profitable immediately, so you need to make sure that you have the funds to handle the expansion smoothly as you work to build profits and gain a local customer base. Keep your expectations in check and remember the financial aspects of your expansion.
Build a Great Network
To understand how to expand a business internationally, you need to build connections in your target market. You should do as much networking as you can when expanding into a different market and should leverage relationships to get a firm understanding of it.
Be sure to seek out industry influencers and experts in your target market and use them to learn about the market. The more you know about the market and the demographics, the better time you’ll have with preparing the product for the market and crafting marketing messages.
It’s a good idea to visit a market that you’re expanding to in person as much as possible. This way, you can start meeting with vendors and partners, any outsourced employees you’ve hired, and customers.
Strong personal relationships will be essential keys to success when expanding. Make sure that you give them the priority they deserve.
Understand the Culture
It’s also essential to pay close attention to language barriers and cultural issues when expanding a business abroad. You need to develop a strong understanding of any market you’re thinking about entering and ensure that you’re approaching the culture in a tactful and respectful way.
Remember that different visuals and marketing materials may work well in one country but do poorly in another. Your product itself may also require some adjustments in order to engage a new market as well.
The more you can understand the cultural barriers and differences in a market, the better chance you’ll have of making a successful entrance into it.
Start Hiring Employees
You’ll need to hire employees in your new target market sooner or later. Hiring new employees in the market can help you to establish operations in your new locale and can help as you transition from one market to another.
Keep in mind, however, that the legal intricacies of hiring abroad can be tough to handle. Because of this, it can be a great idea to use employer of record services when moving into a new market.
An employer of record can become the legal employer of any new hires in the market and can navigate the ins and outs of taxes and legal considerations for you. This can make your transition much easier overall.
Create a Strategic Marketing Plan
Another key step to spreading your business to a new market is to build a marketing plan to use in the region.
If you’ve done plenty of research beforehand, you should have some good ideas of where you might best reach your target market. There might be certain social media channels or websites that they use or certain channels that are specific to the market you’re entering.
Make sure that you carefully plan your marketing strategy and focus your efforts where you know your target customers will be.
Take International Payments
One of the important things to think about when moving into a new market is how you’ll set up payments and billing internationally.
Using billing and payment software and tools that allow you to work in different currencies and languages can be very helpful. There are also useful international credit card processions tools that allow you to accept payments.
You’ll want to evaluate all of the various payments tools that can help. Decide what you’ll use as you expand abroad and start accepting new currencies from your chosen markets.
Going Global By Following These Tips and Strategies
There are a lot of things to consider if you want to start going global. Be sure that you do enough research, that you prioritize great networking, and that you understand cultural differences if you want to succeed as an international business.
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