When you raise a business by yourself, you have high hopes that it will grow into a business that will take over the world. Well, not literally, but you will be daydreaming about your business being one that everyone has heard of and wants to work with. The problem is that most small businesses have these big ideas without any idea of whether they are ready to expand globally.
If you’ve gone through rapid growth at the beginning of your business and you survived, you may well be ready to go ahead and see where else you can grow! So, let’s check out six clear signs that you are ready to go global with your small business.
- You’ve got customers beating down your door and your rate of communication with customers is rising. It’s a clear sign that you are ready to pull in some more help. If you find that over half of your requests are coming from overseas, then it makes more sense that you would open that way and be in the right timezone. Whether you want to start looking at setting up a business in the UAE, or you want to go even further and head to Australia, there are options! If your goals can align with what you can achieve internationally, you’re going to do well!
- Another way to check whether you can expand globally is to walk your factory floors. If your manufacturing production lines aren’t busy enough to keep your staff occupied, then you need to think about utilizing your capacity. You want moving lines and busy staff, not the other way around. Bringing in more overseas business can help!
- Have you had an exhibition or trade show that had a lot of international visitors, then you should start doing some research. Go after the international interest that you get and choose where the interest is greatest. You can then raise your business through that market and capture new customers!
- You may well be overdoing it and saturating the local market, and there is only one place to grow after that: globally! You need to make an effort to grow outwards, but do it when you want to, not because you are forced to do it!
- If you want to head abroad with your business, you need to depend on the existing markets a little less than you do right now. You want to protect your company when you expand internationally, as you don’t want to risk your domestic sales declining.
- You can tell that you need to expand abroad if there are new applications for existing products that have been triggered. These can be offered to new international buyers. It can start with the prospective customers who understand your product and what their value is, and once you work it out, you can ensure that you are offering your customers abroad what they need.
If you feel it happening, you need to expand abroad and enjoy the ways that you can diversify your business!
