Taking your business global is a super exciting venture, but it’s by far one of the most risky ones. The differences in culture, business practices and laws can make moving overseas a costly process, both time-wise and financially. Here are 4 secrets to conducting your business internationally with success.
Do your research
This is an obvious one, but doing your research on your new market is absolutely vital if you are to conduct business internationally with success. And this doesn’t mean just learning about the customs and values of your target market. It means really diving deep and researching every area of the country and its markets that will relate to your business.
It’s easy to miss small things when your research is relatively top level, and laws and bureaucratic processes can work against you, costing your business time and money in the long run. So ensure that your research has been done sufficiently and in enough depth to give you an accurate and detailed knowledge base to build your business move from.
Make the transition seamless
The most important thing to remember when planning an international business move is to make the transition as seamless as possible so that you can establish your business as a serious contender for your customers’ time and attention. This means ensuring that your website and products have been translated accurately by using sufficient literal or creative translation services.
If you try to translate your website yourself using the internet as your reference point, this will not only take longer but have a much higher chance of having errors and literal translations. However, investing in getting this done by professionals will let your new target market see that your business is serious and cares about giving its customers a seamless, accessible experience.
You’ll also need to ensure that your products or services itself have been translated for your new target market. Language is only one of the many cultural and social factors that you need to consider when conducting your business internationally. There are also other customs and traditions to take into account, as well as the attitudes and values of your new customers.
From small factors such as tastes and preferences to larger influences from religious and political sources, your product or service could run the risk of offending or going against the values of your target market if you don’t adapt your product. To accurately tweak your product or service, you can use the research you have done as well as consulting with a marketing group that are based in your new target market and have an in-depth understanding of consumer needs and attitudes. Then you can make any necessary changes to your product, site and marketing strategies to satisfy your new customers’ needs.
Local expertise is vital
As tempting as it may be to send a team of expats to head up your operations overseas, this would be a mistake. Whilst they can bring your company’s culture over to your new base, they will be lacking in knowledge about your new market, regardless of how much research they’ve done.
The local people of the country you move into on the other hand, know the system, culture and inner workings of your new target market better than anyone else. And no matter how much research you do, it simply won’t match up to the knowledge that a native of the target market has, having grown up and shared the values of your new market too. So make sure that you give local talent leadership positions so that they can ensure your business adapts fully to its new environment, with expatriates providing the company’s values and processes too.
This is even more important if you are moving into a market that is vastly different to your domestic market. For example, a move from the U.S. to Canada won’t have too much difference due to the similarities in language, culture and governance. However, moving from the U.S. to Thailand would entail a world of differences that you must adapt to if you have any chance of success in your global venture. This would include political, social, economic and even technological factors that may differ in your new target market.
The key here is to achieve a good balance between your company’s culture and the culture of the country you are moving into. This will allow you to keep a level of cohesion throughout the company, no matter which office you are in. But at the same time will cater to the individual needs of your target market and adhere to the customs and inner workings of the country you are operating in.
Choose the right trading partners
They say it takes a village, right? Well, it’s no different when starting a new business either. You’ll have a much better chance of success if you partner up with other businesses in your space and market in your new business venture. Working in collaboration with local trading partners will help the transition to your new market go smoothly and provide a source of support if you run into any trouble down the line.
They’ll provide expertise, support and understanding of your new market to help you get settled and trade successfully in your global venture. Going it alone means that you’ll have to learn the hard way how things work, which can cause you delays, possibly some common disruptions in the supply chain, setbacks and possibly even failure. But working with local traders means that every area of your business benefits from their expertise, from marketing to supply chain management to help your company fit into your new market and operate efficiently too.
There are many more secrets to conducting business internationally, but these are definitely the most important ones. Without each of these steps, you won’t be able to satisfy customer needs, pass government regulations or understand the environment which you want to move into. Seeing as pursuing new business opportunities is an extremely costly, and high risk process, you need to minimize risk at every stage of your business move, which can be done by doing enough preparation and having contingency plans in place.
