How to expand your business internationally

On one hand you may be feeling excited about the prospect of reaching an entirely new audience with your product or service, on the other, there is fear of failure. Growing your business overseasrequires an entirely different set of considerations for you as a business owner, compared to working within your domestic market. You must work with your team to plan your SME expansion, overcome language and cultural barriers while also meeting the differing needs in new markets. 

There is a lot to think about, but with careful planning and execution, international expansion can be a game changer for an SME’s growth:

Offering your products and services in more than one country provides a host of benefits, from decreasing your dependency on your home market to shielding your business from economic fluctuations. With the benefits comes risk. You are likely to invest a considerable amount into an international expansion, so developing a detailed, written international SME expansion plan is vital. It should contain everything from detailed market research, sources of funding (don’t forget government agencies) and details on the infrastructural footprint, if any, you may need in your new location.

One area we delved into more deeply was that of your SME business value strategy. This is the ‘how’ behind your international expansion. Ask yourself which of the many possible strategies would work best for your SME? This decision will depend on your product, the competition and how familiar your product is within the market you are entering. Options include adaptation, tweaking your product to suit local markets, intensity, going over and above what your competition are doing and many others. 

Do not let language barriers become a hurdle to the many advantages of expanding your business internationally. There is a lot your business can do from becoming lean to setting up a local office which will help you overcome this potential challenge.

When you are working towards increasing your market share by entering overseas markets it is critical you know what your SMEs competitive advantage is in each market to improve your chance of success. To understand your advantage your business must be crystal clear on the benefits it provides to customers, your core target market and who your competition is in that market. You then overlay this data with a competitive advantage model to work out exactly what makes your SME shine.  

If there is one thing 2020 has shown business, it is the need for robust operational risk planning. Operational risk is ‘the risk of loss as a result of ineffective or failed internal processes, people, systems, or external events that can disrupt the flow of business operations’. Within a matter of days millions of employees found themselves working from home because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Although you may have a management plan for your home country, expanding your business into new markets could open your business up to some extra risk. Updating your plan with how to best manage expected risk, and cope with the unexpected, will provide your SME with the best chance of successful expansion.

Ensuring you have the right people to staff your SME overseas can be a big concern. Some of the challenges your business may face when sending expats overseas include choosing the best person for the role, compensation packages and providing them with sufficient support while they are on assignment. However, there are many benefits in sending employees on foreign assignment to expand your business. They already know the business and they are aware of the workplace culture that the company should try to instil. This can help develop stronger connections with new clients and open up new opportunities for SME growth in this new country.

If you are planning to expand your business overseas and are hoping to send employees on expat assignment, there are health and safety consequences to think about. These will depend on your industry but there are some steps you can take to keep your SME on the right side of OHS regulations.

As an SME you may have built your brand identity around your domestic market. We look in more detail at how you can change or adapt to keep the fundamentals of your brand the same while appealing to audiences with different needs overseas with practical examples of how other small and larger businesses have succeeded. 

This is by no means an exhaustive list when it comes to expanding your business in another country, but we hope it serves as an introduction to some of the elements you need to think about before making such a significant move.

If you are planning on SME expansion and want to send expats overseas, protect their health and wellbeing with International Health Insurance for SMEs.