• Middle Market Forum
  • Press Release

Three-Part Series: The right steps for expanding your business internationally

29 March, 2012

Part 1: Why expand outside of the U.S?

Add to your market by expanding internationally

You have a successful company here in the U.S. — the business is growing from year to year, and you may be experiencing over-demand and under-supply. This is what we call a good problem to have.

While expansion within the US is a challenge that is relatively simple to overcome — there are easy ways to locate new pockets of demand to tap into, and calculating risk in an other city is a cinch thanks to the U.S. Bureau of Labor & Statistics — expansion outside of the U.S.requires a much heavier load of homework.If you’re even considering international expansion, the first question you need to ask yourself is: Why expand outside of U.S?

• Expansion of Your Market: You can only expand so much in one market. To continue growing, you must add to the market, and stop saturating the existing one you’re operating in.
• First-Mover’s Advantage: If you can establish a presence in a new market before anyone else in your field, you’ll reap tremendous benefits. Keep this in mind: In Latin America many locals refer to all cereal as “corn flakes” since Kellogg’s was the first cereal brand to be sold throughout the majority of the region.
• Consistently Grow by Double-Digit Percentage Points: Within the U.S, your product has tapped the market to its maximum potential. But if you enter a new distribution network (i.e., another country), you are now exposing your product to not just 300 million potential customers (U.S population), but  to millions and potentially billions more.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series, which will delve into the specific challenges of setting up an international location.

Tom McKeown is the Head of Corporate Sales for MergerID. E-mail him at tom.mckeown@MergerID.com to discuss why now might be the right time to take your business overseas.

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