Are you considering expanding your company and setting yourself up with an international business? If so, this post will offer you some useful tips that you’ll need to take into account. Fortunately, today’s entrepreneurs have almost unlimited resources available when it comes to business expansion – technology is a wonderful thing, and the internet is a magical asset! And while international expansion has its risks, as everything does, the possible rewards are just too great to ignore. Besides, all great entrepreneurs have had to take calculated risks at one point or another in order to flourish, it’s just the name of the game. As we discussed in our post on business growth, penetrating new markets is a crucial step towards success. Stepping up onto the international platform can provide you with a safety net in case your business should suffer a decline in your original domestic market, and will obviously vastly increase your overall potential of growth and success. You can check your company with our method to find out if you are ready to conquer other markets. Download it here.

Here are 3 concise pieces of advice on how you should go about it.

3 points on how to build an international business

  1. You must plan ahead in order to successfully develop your international business. Do your homework. The fundamental reason for business failures when expanding into other markets is simply that they don’t do enough research beforehand – they jump straight into the deep end of the pool, when they should start off in the shallow end and steadily make their way along. Follow a method, so take a look to our method, inspired by Bill Aulet and his 24 steps. A good first step when exploring the possibility of expanding into an international business is to attend international trade shows. This is a hotspot for businesspeople who are looking to buy and sell, so it’s an ideal scenario for you to dip your toes into the shallow end of that pool and test the waters; see what’s out there and what the competition is like. Another vital step is to pay meticulous attention to your website: Make sure it is clear that you are open to operate on an international level. For instance, ensure that your SEO is adapted in terms of language for the searches someone might make from another country on your products. And then, obviously, the first major step is deciding which country or market is the best fit for your expansion. This leads us to our next point.
  2. Make sure you are thoroughly familiar with the culture into which you want to introduce your international business. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that the rest of the world does business the same way you do. Examine the government rules in place in the country you’re interested in, and investigate how heavily regulated your product or industry is there, as this will affect how hard it will be to do business. You should really take the time to intricately understand the culture you’re targeting. The best piece of advice we can offer here is not to rush anything, particularly to avoid making regrettable mistakes in international business meetings. Try to build a healthy relationship with prospective partners; create a relaxed atmosphere with some small talk instead of barging headfirst into heavy business discussions. Remember to find the right balance between being flexible whilst also maintaining a position of respect and authority.
  3. Find an appropriate foreign distributor who will enable you to launch your business on an international stage. Explore as many avenues as possible here, as this will make it easier to find possible distributors. An efficient method of achieving this while being conscious of minimizing costs is to take full advantage of social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, which is particularly relevant in this case. Through this you can come across various profiles that may be useful to your efforts. Also, as discussed in the first point we made, attending trade shows (as well as business conferences) can be of invaluable use when making contacts and associating yourself with businesspeople with whom you share common goals.
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