Before you take your first steps to the world market, you should consider these three strategies for success on the international marketplace.
Whatever the timeframe for your company, it’s crucial to prepare for the future. A focus on the present with no ambitious objectives is a recipe for failure. For this, you’ll need a clearly defined plan.
The Harvard Business Review’s research on the importance of business planning for success in startups found that entrepreneurs with an expansion plan were a whopping 16% more likely to be successful as compared to those with no plan. Entrepreneurs with a focus on growing their startup are 7 percent more likely to have plans that incorporate innovative concepts.
More than 60 percent of scaling efforts be successful. This is a fact that attracts the attention of investors, who’re inclined to invest in projects of founders who recognize the true value is being able to help startups and expand them internationally.
The Internet is brimming with articles that can help you write your business plan, I’d like to offer some important strategies for planning your international expansion. They were developed after expanding my business to India and the Philippines as well as India. This information will help you increase your growth faster, more efficiently and without financial loss.
TIP #1. Assess the expansion possibilities
Entrepreneurs are prone to thinking that the main obstacle to expanding is competitive. In fact only 20 percent of startups fail because of being out-competed.
Our experience has proven that the biggest obstacle to an emerging market is the external market environment as well as uncertainty. When you plan, always consider the worst case scenario and a hostile environment.
Utilize these three exercises to avoid making too exaggerated predictions.
Long-term planning. When you are planning your outcomes and activities for the year. Stop and consider the ways in which every aspect of your plan could not be effective. Discuss ideas with your group and don’t be afraid of rethinking suggestions.
In particular, we did a error during a time of being relying on speed in hiring sales managers from new markets. We anticipated it would take 3-4 weeks, however it took much longer. We had to take into consideration what would be the best time in terms of training and adaptation and the employee’s requirements.
Short-term planning. When planning weekly checkpoints , or sprints, make sure you compare expectations and actuality. Don’t try to achieve lofty or large targets by setting unattainable deadlines. The reality is uncomfortable. When planning for the short-term the most important issue is “what are we not doing now?” We have a discussion with our team members what we’re not doing every week, the reasons the delay is due to, and what else we’re doing instead.
Once the planning is completed. Once you’ve formulated a strategy and completed an “what can go wrong” exercise, you should involve other authoritative experts with experience in similar situations. The completed plan should be presented to experts and allow them to challenge the plan. In our business, we request our investors to review our plans and consider the potential dangers. This helps us assess our options, and also helps us to avoid waste of cash, resources for employees, and time.
TIP #2. Know the patterns in your company
In an early stage startup, teams depend on one another. This impacts the overall performance of the business in general. As an entrepreneur, must know how these connections operate. If one component fails and the entire system is ruined. For instance, a brand new contract signed with the partner could be delayed for a few weeks simply because the required document was lost in the process of transition.
We were faced with this problem. One of our employees from our business development department was laid off for two whole weeks. In the absence of him, we could not locate the correct contact to make payments , and were unable to swiftly resolve the issues of the customer.
What could have been avoided? Think about team relations during the planning phase. Consider who is able to access accounts.
I recommend structuring your database using internal data and also establishing a business policy of creating important document for process, such as access guides, passwords, and contacts. This will help you avoid the threat of a complete interruption.
TIP #3: Plan your hiring
Finding international talent is a challenging and difficult process. In the end, your success depends on your employees It is crucial to know how to search for people who are thousands of miles away.
To make the search for talent or hiring processes successful, recommend seeking out experts from the world market. Consulting on individual requests is costly however every dollar is worth it. off.
Connecting with other founders helps. Discuss specifics of the local mindset and the common mistakes made by foreign hiring firms as well as the average salary and the significance in the branding of HR to applicants. Be specific about the small things that matter – from the language of choice for the candidate to the slang used in their the address.
If you have those answers you need to be cautious about estimating the amount of employees you’ll employ over a given time.
We didn’t know how to recruit salespeople fast. Within the initial couple of months we generated less than we could have. We realized quickly that we didn’t plan the hiring process in the same way as we could have.
Planning properly is crucial to success in business expansion and growth. However, over-optimism when planning can lead to costly costs and issues.
