You decided to expand to a new country? Congratulations! International expansion is one of the most powerful and exciting ways to grow your business. But before jumping right in, it is important to take a step back and think about how you can start your expansion journey from the strongest position possible. A strong foundation helps you to face challenges and it empowers you to be ready for rapid growth.
Just as when you construct a house,
you want to build your business on a solid rock and not on sand.
Facing Challenges Expanding to a new country is challenging and there is a lot you need to learn about the new market. It can for example be more expensive than planned to open a new office and build your dream team. It takes some time to create demand for your product or service and success usually does not happen overnight. As long as you start from a strong foundation, that is absolutely fine. A strong foundation will empower you to make balanced decisions and focus on long term growth rather than on short term wins.
Being Ready for Rapid Growth Sometimes success comes much faster than you anticipated. Before building your strategy and launching that magnificent marketing campaign, consider if you are ready for rapid growth. Not only does your production need to be ready to follow demand, also your sales team needs to be able to handle the extra leads. In order to scale efficiently, you need to have a solid business and have strong processes in place. A strong foundation will help your organization to be ready for rapid growth.
Knowing Priorities and Focus Before expanding your business you need to have a clear understanding of the current state of your business. By doing an internal analysis you will uncover the strengths and constraints. Not only will you know which aspects need improvement, you will also identify the strengths on which you can leverage. A strong foundation will enable you to set priorities and have a crystal-clear focus.
There are five pillars that form the foundation of strong business. If you want to uncover the five pillars and learn how you can expand from a strong position,