Starting Internationally

The decision to expand a company internationally requires a lot of time and resources to ensure the best decision making and effective planning. The first thing I would do would be to assemble a team whose only focus would be researching the potential for expansion in different areas and determining the possibilities for success and failure there, and what factors in each region (labor cost, demographics, climate, etc.) would contribute best to overall profitability. Among the team would also be corporate lawyers to ensure our compliance with all international business laws and regulations.

Once we determine a potential region, we would make sure the local economy is in good shape, that people there are spending money, and that the long term economic forecast looks good. We would ensure that there is a market need, and a demand for our products and services. Additionally, we would analyze any competition already there, and make sure we have ideas for improvements, or innovations that would allow us to compete with an already established brand name.

Before spending the massive resources necessary to set up facilities in the region, I would hire a foreign intermediary. In return for the fee I pay them, they will begin to market my products for me. This would be an ideal way for me to determine market need and demand before I spend the money to set up shop. Also, the products will start out being sold by a local entity that people there already trust. I would base further decision making on the results of the intermediary.

In the meantime, I would attempt to hire a sales and business professional from the region that has expertise in the customs and traditions of the area, as well as strong knowledge of successful marketing/sales techniques used in the country. I would hire them to come to the US to extensively train my top managers that would potentially be going abroad to startup the business.

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