In the mind of any entrepreneur or owner of a small or medium business with moderate success, there will always be thoughts of expansion to new markets, whether locally, regionally, nationally or even (which takes up the largest and most complicated thought to fulfil), expansion to foreign markets. Expanding our company to one or more foreign markets is not an easy task, there are many barriers that we must cross and many problems that we will encounter along the way, which is why as entrepreneurs we must take this decision calmly and measuredly.
But first of all, in order to expand our business to a foreign market it is very important to have a translation company that has enough experience to help us through the whole process, and that also knows a large variety of languages that can help us expand our business to the number of countries we believe necessary. But not only is experience important when it comes to trusting a translation company to help us in our expansion process, it is also important that they have a large group of translators to ensure maximum responsiveness and that they have different methods and tools that can organise and give greater quality to our translation work.
After choosing which translation company we are going to work with (this is a key point in order to expand or expand our company abroad), we must try to avoid a series of mistakes that are very common when going to a foreign market, including:
Not planning properly. To expand our business to any market we must have an action plan in place with which we can best deal with any eventuality that may arise. It is advisable to try to add different possible scenarios to our action plan to find out how our company might respond to those scenarios.
Lack of market analysis. This is a mistake that is often made when expanding a company. It is very important to analyze the market that we hope to exploit and it is often advisable to invest in the capital of the foreign country. However, occasionally there are other factors that can complicate this choice and therefore it might be more convenient to invest in another city.
Partnerships are key points in every market and it is a mistake to think that our company can succeed in the best way if we do not build proper relationships before entering a new market.
Hire unskilled personnel. As entrepreneurs our goal is to save costs, but when expanding our company it is important to hire staff with good knowledge and to have a reliable team to help us with the expansion.
Another common mistake is to believe that all foreign countries work in the same way and that their people will behave in the same way. The reality is quite different and although the world is quite globalised, it is important to bear in mind that each country approaches things differently.
Expanding our company is not an easy task, but trying not to make the mistakes mentioned above and hiring a translation company (we can easily find a very good translation office in London) will ensure that our expansion process will be much simpler and much more effective.
