How Companies Screw Up Their Global Expansion

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Growing your startup internationally has plenty of benefits and earns you the title of Global CEO or your business defined as a global small business — but getting there is no easy feat.

International expansion can be your key to growth, but the path to taking on the world is long and arduous. There are many roads to success, but failures tend to have a lot in common.

To ensure you don't screw up your global expansion effort, focus on these six key areas.

How To Take On the World

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Well, well, well ... Mr. Malone, Silicon Insider columnist for ABCNews.com, has lots to say on things Washington can do to help the U.S. compete. Here are six of his points.

1. Build up Brand America.

2. Create a Fat Pipe.

3. Revamp Nafta.

4. Promote a Free Internet.

5. Reform patent laws.

6. Make education more open.

And my own ... 7. Help more small businesses take on the world!

Take a good long look at one of his points:

Ultimately, our strongest competitive advantage is the ingenuity and entrepreneurship of the American people. One of the miracles of the last few years is how, in places like Silicon Valley, smart young men and women have still managed to create great new companies in the face of every impediment Congress and the regulatory agencies have thrown at them.

Read his commentary here (took me about a half hour to find). Very interesting.