Top Tips to Expanding Your Company Globally

When you have a thriving business, it can be easy to sit back and relish in your achievement. However, any successful business person will tell you that standing still is dangerous. Instead, you need to keep moving forward and continuously look for the next opportunity. For some companies, their next step is trying to conquer the global market and expand their business into other countries. Even though the world is a smaller place now thanks to planes and the internet, there is still a lot to do for the company that wants to explore other areas and countries. Here are some top tips if you’re looking to expand your business globally, no matter what industry you’re in.

Test Your Finances

Moving into a global market is an expensive thing to do, and you need to be sure that your company can deal with the financial impact. A key thing to remember is that you might not make a big impression straight away, it might take time for your approach to be recognized by the customers. While that process is going on, your company needs to keep trading and spending money on your existing market. It is important to see if your finances can cope with this burden until the global sales start to pick up. It might be that you need to secure additional funding from this site, or your investors. Whatever path you choose, you will need a detailed plan that shows them what they can expect.

Your Plan

As with any big decision in your company, you need to have a plan. Entering the global markets needs a highly detailed plan that will spell out what you need to do and what you can expect in return. Part of this plan is research; you need to find out if there is a demand for your product in the country you are targeting. If they have no use for it, then selling it will be difficult. You also need to know how you will get the product to your new customers. Will you have a distribution center in the country, or will you ship it directly from your existing center? How much money will your company need to invest in order to make this move work and how much return are you expecting? Part of the reason the plan is so important is that it can show you how viable this move will be. After all the research and calculations, it might be that your company isn’t ready yet. The plan is also important to show your investors, especially if you are seeking additional funding.

Establish a Team to Travel Out to the Country

Before you can think about selling your products, you need to go to the country you are targeting and set up a base there. It will give you the opportunity to evaluate the market there and see how your products will sell in the stores. Some companies like to use local people to set up the base and start from the beginning. While this might be a cheaper option, it will also take valuable time to get the base up and running. To make things easier and quicker, it is best to send out executives from your existing team to set it up and recruit additional staff. When they are there, they need to set up a financial infrastructure and help to train the new recruits. Once the new office is set up, they can then be recalled and let the office run remotely.

Get Your Product Ready

The next step is to get your products ready for sale in the other country. To make this work effectively, you need to find out if your product needs any alteration or adaptions for the new market. For example, if your product runs on electricity, you need to ensure that it can handle the local voltage requirements and that it has the correct plug attached for the local sockets. You should also look at the name of your product, can you use the same name in the new country, or does an existing product already have it? It might mean changing the name of your product locally and changing the information on the packaging. Once the product is at the local base, you need to conduct quality assurance tests so that you know it meets the local standards. It might need to obtain certification before it can be sold so this phase is important. The local team also need to set-up a distribution network and discover who can sell your products. It might be that you will be looking for a couple of stores to sell in one area initially rather than across a whole country.

Prepare for Legal Requirements

Some countries that you move into have a high level of legal process that you need to be ready for before you sell your products. Use the team you have out there to establish any legal requirements the country may have and set up agreements with local stores and the government of the country to make sure you are following protocol. You also need to adhere to the local laws regarding shipping, immigration, and dispute resolution. For example, the way you legally deal with complaints in your own country might differ greatly from those of this new outpost. Another issue is record keeping; you need to maintain good record keeping locally in the new base and ensure you keep them for the required length of time.

Tax and Finances

Your new base needs to ensure that they have the right financial structure in place to deal with local tax and payroll legislation. They need to set up new relationships with the local banks and start to run their base financially independent of the main office. Of course, there will need to be money exchanges between the two offices, and this should be made within the scope of the local regulations. The records of your tax payments and money transfers need to be open and available to the local government and your government at head office. That will ensure that all the procedures are being followed properly.

Marketing

To make customers in this new country aware of your products, you need to start thinking about your global marketing strategy. The strategy you use might differ greatly from the one you currently use as cultural and language differences need taking into account. As with everything else, you also need to ensure that you are adhering to the local advertising laws. To make the marketing as authentic as possible, you need to use local people for the voiceover work or the script on the posters and online ads. It also ensures that the wording is correct and that there are no grammatical errors. Where you choose to place your ads needs to be assessed in advance by your local team. They need to discover where the customers are and find a way of getting the ads in front of them. Set up a locally recruited social media team that can monitor and run the social media channels in the chosen country. It needs to be a different entity from your main accounts, especially if there are language differences. Set up relationships with the local media so that you can advertise and get them on board for promotional work. It is also a good idea to contact local companies that might be able to show your ads or perhaps do some collaborative work together with selling your products or advertising.

Manufacturing of Your Products

Deciding whether or not to take production to your new base is a tough one. There are many pros and cons to this, including if it’s financially viable to set up a new manufacturing site. In some cases, the decision can be better than expected. For example, some companies have found that it is cheaper to have all the production in another country including the price of shipping. The new base needs to establish the cost and logistics of setting up a dedicated manufacturing plant including perhaps a new building and local workers costs. There may also be local laws or regulations that make it difficult to manufacture your product.

The Final Checks

Before you start to sell your products, you need to do a final check of all the systems and procedures to make sure they are all working correctly. If you have a local store, then you need to ensure they have all the stock they need and that the store is ready to open. Ideally, your marketing campaign should have been running for a few weeks prior to the beginning to get people’s attention. Once all of these checks have been completed, you can begin to roll out the new products to your customers. With the right promotion, you should have some anticipation from customers and the media.

Starting in a new country can be a long and difficult journey, however, with the correct plan and people in place, it can be a big boost to your company.