You’ve built your creative business on hard work, dedication and your talents. It’s been hard work at times but you can rightly look back and feel pleased with what you’ve achieved so far. But what if there’s more to come? What if it’s time to showcase your business offering to new markets and really put your name out there?
You might not have thought about your customer outside your home country but with the global community just a few clicks away, there’s no better time to start making connections. Could you become an international business? Of course, but it’s not easy. We talk you through some of the steps needed to go global.
Language
The first thing to consider is which countries you’d want to expand into. Look at the statistics around your current customers and figure out if those avatars exist in other places across the world and how you might reach them.
Language is bound to be a major part of that. From your social media marketing campaigns to the simple fact of your website only being available in English, you need to reach people. Consider having your website available in the languages of your target countries. Sure it’s a big job, so don’t even think about cutting corners with the likes of Google Translate. Instead bring in the professionals, such as ILS Translations, to make sure the job is done perfectly.
Practicalities
Then you need to think about the practical logistics. If you’re just selling your services, as a freelance writer for example, then you will be able to operate from your base with no problems. You may have to incorporate some travel into your working life but that will be worth every penny if you’re landing more clients and expanding your customer base.
On the other hand, if you sell physical goods there are more practical considerations to take into account. The greatest hurdle is probably shipping and figuring out a strategy that means your customers aren’t expected to pay too much, while not leaving you out of pocket.
You may have to think about opening offices and storage in the country or countries you want to target. This carries its own risks as you send your own staff over to head it up or think about employing locally.
That’s why it’s crucial to create a global expansion strategy that takes into account all these scenarios. It should go through the risks that you’re taking, both financial and reputation and prepare you for each step of the journey.
Going further afield is exciting, it’s different and takes you from a small fish to a big fish in the business pond.
It certainly won’t be easy so start slowly and build your empire one market at a time. Learn from each experience, until you have a better idea about all that expansion entails for your company. Then watch your business reach new heights as you show a whole new audience your creative genius.