International Expansion Home

International Expansion is a guide to international business expansion tips and training courses from around the world. Although started in Chicago, this site receives contributions from our global representatives in Oslo, Manila, Shanghai, and from time to time, from many other locations.

Topics to be covered include, but are not limited to,

  • international expansion strategy
  • international market expansion
  • reasons for international expansion
  • difference between international and global expansion
  • setting up and managing foreign channels of distribution or gaining and managing foreign market representation
  • international franchising and licensing
  • country or region or market and competitor analysis
  • how to do business in the top markets and markets of interest
  • immigration, residency, and work permit issues
  • international transportation, including maritime law and flags of convenience
  • global financing
  • outsourcing
  • import and export
  • cross-border mergers and acquisitions

We welcome additional suggestions and contributions. We also welcome collaboration with other Internet sites covering the same or similar topics.

We will also include specific examples, such as McDonald’s, Tesco, NFL, and Jollibee Foods Corporation international expansion; as well as such topics as how to expand your business, international expansion consulting, and global business expansion. As we grow, we will also include references to other sites, such as Entrepreneur, which provide useful tips for international expansion.

Expansion Strategy

International expansion here refers to international business expansion and primarily your international expansion strategy. You may already have chosen one or more international expansion strategies for growing your business; or your business strategy is still to be developed.

At any rate, it is customary to approach this from a sales and marketing strategy viewpoint, and to engage marketing consultants to advise on business growth. To the extent these consultants are experts at b2b marketing and start by creating a business marketing plan, not just creative product marketing or brand marketing, but strategic marketing, this approach may be useful.

The more direct route, however, is to identify international expansion as a business development strategy to be based on sound business research. A brand marketing strategy based on marketing strategy consulting can approach your true needs, but you need to be careful to distinguish marketing tips and strategy and corporate development.

When you have a growing business and some business success, you may call your expansion international to take in a broader strategic vision. When you always think “grow my business,” why not add “grow business internationally?” Today, with the Internet and advanced communication, this is highly feasible without much in the way of business relocation, and even smaller companies can into the game.

The key is a mentality that considers international market expansion among business growth strategies. Without that, are you really ready for any international business opportunity? The place to start is by defining your business plan ideas, business start up costs, business growth plan, business expansion plan, and business expansion strategies as international.

Typical business plan writing software does not consider global business expansion. Expansion business itself is treated as a step-child in comparison to business start-up. It may be said, however, that a global expansion strategy should be the immediate focus of how to grow a business.

How To Expand Your Business

So how does one start and grow an international small business? The problem is really the questions, as small business expansion is not a good candidate for an international expansion plan. Drop the word small, even if you seem to be, and simply think how to grow business.

Starting a franchise business as your business expansion strategy may help you win immediate international attention, but, again, you need to stay away from thinking in terms of franchising small business and concentrate on how to expand your business, how to deal with corporate expansion.

Expanding business globally requires slightly different international expansion plans than a plan based on stages of business growth over time. It is possible to consider a new business strategy and global business strategy and work backwards from a global perspective to formulate a more traditional type of business implementation plan.

Expansion of business globally, therefore, is not incompatible with small business international; but an international expansion business is more than expanding business internationally: it is a new identity.

Next time you say “expand my business,” therefore, make sure that you include a business international expansion perspective, which allows you to expand business internationally using a global expansion of business mentality, and your more optimized business plan for expansion.

Then get ready to hire your first product manager international, as new business and product ideas will both come from abroad.

As we develop the rest of this international business expansion site, we will return to this page to update it, to make it an overview of what is available and what is coming at International Expansion.

21 Responses to International Expansion Home

  1. Great overview.

    I’m helping growth companies to enter the European market.

    Now that GB is out of the European Union as a result of Brexit, it will be important for U.S. companies heading over the Atlantic not to go London, but to the European mainland instead.

    Setting up a business is not very complicated, but you should know what you are doing.

    TRADUM therefore offers a support package to get everything going.

    Would be great to get in touch with you to exchange thoughts and experiences!

    Best Regards

    André Panné

    Managing Partner
    TRADUM – better business
    http://www.tradum.net
    andre.panne@tradum.de

  2. Peter Weisz says:

    Very Interesting article, I have found some really good thoughts. I reckon there should be also a topic talking about fitting in into new cultural enviroments too. Doing business, building trust, networking is a completely different kind of “art” in the Southern Pacific, U.S. or Western Europe not to mention Eastern Europe or the Balkan. The last two are my playground and sometimes I see “westerners” shocked when they first meet the system. Of course with a little local help everyone learns how things work around here and find many ways how they can utilize their experience and put their Capital to work.

  3. Mark Sampson says:

    Looking forward for more posts about expansion strategy and expansion.

  4. J.V.RAO says:

    The same can be good platform for networking for international business development and technical team member .
    Please lets know if any opportunity any international infrastructure or general contractor is looking in INDIA .

    We also welcome overseas proposal for large infrastructure projects with the help of local tie up.

    J.v.RAO
    Unity infra projects ltd

    • By all means post your networking requests here. To your industry, J.v.RAO, we are currently considering up to 15 manufacturing plants and 50 distributors in India for driveway, parking lot, sport facility, etc., surface maintenance products and equipment (under license from US industry leader). Same in other regions of the world.

  5. This is a great Article, Vegard. The thought behind expansion needs to be thorough and well planned; These steps are critical and will assist with the translation and localization stage of global expansion as well. We assist thousands of companies all around the world with the language barriers associated with expansion, and I often visit this site to see what the latest being talked about are.

    • Thanks Matthew. I have not been active here lately, but will be again soon. If you would like to post a relevant article and link back to your site, I am open to that. Let me know.

    • Rick Wilson says:

      I have had difficulty finding information on expansion strategies. Our company has recently open in Latin America and has been wildly successful in a very short period of time.

      I have been looking for information and advice on other markets in the region.

      • Vegard Vevstad says:

        Hi Rick, we are just now developing Latin countries, and we are recording the steps right here on this website (under the heading Latin Markets Expansion Case Study): you contributions to that discussion were most welcome.

  6. Very interesting article concerning international expansion and business.
    Looking forward to more articles targeted at expatriates and doing business abroad.

  7. EJ says:

    This is interesting.. i would like to see it developing more to exchange the ideas and learn from each other. i particulary liked it that pointed out the key is a mentality of accepting the international market expansion among business growth. Thank you!

  8. Mark Meisels says:

    Most interested to see the development of ideas regarding international transportation and maritime law. A forum around the topic might be quite useful.

  9. Vigdis Vevstad says:

    Looking forward to visiting this site as it develops.
    Suggest adding comparable information USA/Europe in regard to work immigration.

  10. I like it.

    Very good idea for involvement in an area where expertise is in short supply.

  11. Bill Rodgers says:

    We look forward to learning more about how we can effectively expand in the international marketplace. Thank you.

  12. This is our first post, which we may well change to make sure that it adequately reflects what we want to accomplish with this site. Suggestions are welcome.

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