You’ve done the work to grow your business from your local community to a nationwide presence. The next step is expanding your operations worldwide. Ecommerce makes this easier than ever, but establishing yourself in international markets is still a step that has to be taken with intentionality and planning.

Expanding to a new territory is, in many ways, closer to starting from scratch than building on previous success. The operational processes, company culture, and marketing and sales strategies that worked in one country might not necessarily work in another. For example, you may have found success on a particular social media platform, but what do you do if that platform is much less widespread—or isn’t available at all—in your target country? Expanding globally is a major step. Here are some things to consider.

Why Go Global, Anyway?

Why do you want to expand into global markets? Which countries are you looking to break into, and why? They are deceptively simple questions, but your answers will affect how your global growth strategy plays out. Maybe you’ve identified an underserved or developing market, and you want to be the first to reach those customers. Maybe you see an opportunity to take market share from a competitor. Your reasons for taking this step have to be thoroughly considered and backed by research.

It's not unusual for a business owner to get an international inquiry and get all excited about it, without evaluating if it's even a good idea. If an opportunity drops in your lap and the economics are there, that's one thing. But so often it's a minor opportunity that looks like you're “breaking into a market,” when in fact it's just a random inquiry from a smallish prospect that may not actually turn into anything other than expensive logistics and extra handling.

It might be a good idea to go international, but it just as easily might not. A small business should always carefully analyze the reasons for going international, make sure those reasons are good reasons, and weigh the effort and resources of going international against the opportunities that still exist domestically, which are almost always less expensive and less complicated to pursue than an international expansion. Making sure you’re pursuing the right opportunity for the right reasons is an essential part of evaluating international expansion.

Do Your Research

Just like when you first started your business, you’ll have to conduct some research: market research, competitive intelligence, local laws and regulations. Identify businesses similar to yours that have broken into the markets you’re looking at. What worked for them and what didn’t?

It’s also important to recognize the limits of how much you can find out on your own. Consult with the appropriate legal professionals to get a handle on the laws and regulations that might affect your business in a particular country. This is especially important if you intend to hire employees and open an office, manufacturing plant, retail store, or any other physical facility in that country.

Plan for Growth from the Beginning

Identify the possibility for international growth as early as possible so you can build scalable processes into your business strategy. If you were your business’s founder, think back to those early days when you were the only employee. There was so much to do that you were probably relying on Post-It notes and messy spreadsheets to hold everything together. Your systems may have made sense to you, but they were likely not even scalable to a second employee. As you expand to incorporate a global supply chain and employees all over the world, solid, scalable processes become the foundation of success.

Start thinking of your business as a multilingual, multicultural entity as early as possible. Bring in employees with connections in other countries, who speak languages other than English, who travel to or have citizenship in other countries, or are interested in international affairs and are cognizant of cultural differences. Having those kinds of people already in place will make the transition from local to global that much smoother.

Localization

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. That means learning Latin. Speaking the local language takes more than just popping your web copy into Google Translate. There are all sorts of nuances and subtleties of language that come together to form your brand voice. Colloquialisms and idioms that convey one attitude or emotion in one language might not make sense—or might send the wrong message completely—in another language and culture. To ensure that your marketing messages land in the right way with the right people in whatever country you’re working in, you’ll need more than just translation. You’ll need localization.

You don’t even have to be translating from one language to another to need localization. Canada, Nigeria, India, and Malaysia all have English as either an official or a recognized language but have different cultures, requiring different approaches to marketing. Localization also involves unit conversion. You’ll need to convert dollars to the local currency, of course, but you’ll also need to convert units of measurement. One of Target’s many failures in their Canadian expansion was failing to consistently convert product dimensions from inches to centimeters (which would be spelled “centimetres” in Canada, while “spelled” would remain “spelled” even though British English tends to use “spelt.” So many details!).

Localization is more than language. Every aspect of your business, from art and design to product design to customer service, has to be tailored to the local market. Aesthetic values differ from country to country, and website design and social media visuals that appeal to one country might miss the mark in another. As Walmart learned in their expansion into Germany, not everyone in the world wants everyone smiling at them all the time.

Once you nail the tone and design of your marketing materials, there’s still the question of delivery method. Consumers in different countries prefer different modes of communication. You may have found success with SMS marketing in the United States, for instance, but if you’re looking to expand to Latin America, you’ll have to learn your way around WhatsApp.

Find the Right Technology

If establishing scalable processes early in your development is the key to successful growth, the right technology underpins those processes and keeps everyone, both new hires and veteran employees, on the same page, working from the same playbook, no matter where they are. A CRM will help you manage customers and lists in different countries. An ERP will, among other functions, centralize data and keep you in compliance with record-keeping regulations around the world. You’ll want to evaluate these systems carefully and work with experts to select systems that meet your needs today and can grow with you tomorrow, wherever that growth takes you.

Get the Right Help

That’s been a recurring theme throughout this article: it’s tough to go into the unknown alone. You’ll need a plan, based in sound strategy, working toward clear, measurable goals, with systems and processes that support your goals. Book a consultation and let the growth and technology experts at StrategyWerx help you build the runway that will launch you on a trip around the world.