Important Information About Expanding Your Business Internationally

Even some of the most popular and mature businesses who have accumulated success in their home country have the potential to struggle with international expansion.

Understanding different cultures, government regulations and market needs are challenging at the best of times. From problems related to the covid-19 pandemic, supply chain issues to geopolitical upheaval, businesses have had to operate in an unpredictable environment and pivot to address several global challenges.

Timing is super important when it comes to business expansion and it is therefore essential for you to ask yourself if right now is an appropriate time to expand? Before thinking about expanding internationally, you will need to closely evaluate two things whether your business has hit a saturation point in your home market and whether you have a unique value proposition that can be exported to another country.

If growth in your home market has reached its ultimate peak and future growth prospects look dismal, then international expansion might be the best option to further enhance top-line growth.

Before you decide to expand internationally you should; however, your existing business remains profitable and mature. Expanding overseas can often incur significant costs, and it may be a while before the new venture starts delivering any fruit. You need to make sure that you’re well financed and have a strong enough balance sheet that’s capable of absorbing some of the early losses you’re likely to face when entering a new market.

In regards to having a unique value proposition, you should ask yourself first: are you one of the top businesses in your home market for the industry you operate in? Do you do something that’s extremely difficult to replicate? Will your product or service be able to fill a particular need in the market that you’re planning to enter? When launching in another country, there will be competitors that will look to replicate your business model; however, if you are the best at what you do or have enough brand equity that can translate across borders this can give you the credibility and trust that you’ll need when entering a new market. You want to try and create as many barriers to entry as possible, so that it remains difficult for your competitors to compete with your business.

Furthermore, before expanding overseas you also need to decide whether international expansion is the right move for you, you will need to identify key strategic reasons for entering a particular market. There’s no point in expanding just for the sake of expanding. You need to look at countries that make sense for your business model and try to identify the tangible benefits of being located there.

There is always an element of risk when entering a new market, which could come from changing political environments, unexpected operational challenges, or even the event of a huge cultural shifts. As we’ve seen with recent events, numerous companies have had to abandon markets because of unforeseen circumstances.