To start business abroad by itself is a great challenge. Besides that, there are many other important issues, such as making the business sustainable, profitable and growing.
What a lot of people don’t pay attention to is that it’s not enough to have a good service or product. Business abroad depends on good planning, knowledge of the market and even local culture.
To be successful abroad, naturally, your company needs to see the needs of that location and adapt to all of them, from the simplest ones, to what involves the operation of your service or product.
About the cultural factor, imagine how India and Spain, for example, have totally different habits. When I refer to habits I talk about:
• Customs;
• Communication;
• Consumption habits;
• Legislation.
All these points listed can impact a negotiation, especially in a negative way, when you do not know in depth about the customer in that place.
When it comes to collection, for instance, these factors become even more aggravating. After all, any company depends on receiving payments to maintain itself and, as in Brazil, in other countries it is also necessary to guarantee that this will happen.
But how can we ensure that this collection effort will generate positive results in other countries as well? Simple, knowing the local culture and, preferably, having partners in loco.
Communicating abroad as we do here in Brazil may sound different and disrupt many negotiations. Therefore, in some situations, the best alternative is to hand this work over to someone who can guide you and reap the rewards.
Language, timetable, way of speaking, approach and legal issues of other countries seem simple when viewed from the outside, but if they are not well worked out, they can take away the capacity of your business to grow abroad.
