One-Size-Fits-All International Expansion Is Over

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If you can get through the ads in this article, you can uncover some new perspectives on international expansion. The big one the author claims: a one-size-fits-all international expansion is over.

• One-size-fits-all global hiring is obsolete. Today’s expansion leaders strategically blend three workforce models — entity-based employment, EOR solutions and contractor relationships — choosing the right fit for each market, role and business objective.
• Flexibility is now a competitive advantage because market uncertainty demands agility, compliance complexity is accelerating and local nuances determine success.
• Companies that scale globally most effectively master compliance that adapts to local requirements, payments infrastructure that works everywhere and the ability to shift models as strategy evolves.

Read the entire article here.  If you want to learn about a new international playbook, watch this.

When Is a Good Time to Go Global?

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From timing and location strategy to banking relationships, learn key considerations for international expansion.

What is essential is to follow global gateways to grow your business. Expanding internationally is a major milestone for any growing business.

Americans Experience Happiness When Traveling to New Destinations

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United Airlines reveals research showing 73% of Americans experience happiness when traveling to new destinations. The company partnered with cognitive scientist Dr. Laurie Santos to analyze the connection between happiness and vacation planning.

The research indicates that 68% of people need something to look forward to in January, with travel purchases providing twice the happiness boost compared to buying material goods.

The airline announced its largest-ever international expansion, adding eight new destinations including Ulaanbaatar, Kaohsiung, Nuuk, Palermo, Bilbao, Madeira Island, Faro, and Dakar.

Apple's Vision Pro Goes Global

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Following an exclusive launch in the US in February, Apple began the international expansion of Vision Pro in June. Now the company is ready to bring Apple Vision Pro to even more countries, as the company has just announced another expansion for next month to South Korea and UAE.

With the launch in South Korea and UAE, Apple Vision Pro will be available in 12 countries.

Today in Global Small Business: Making the Case For International Expansion

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Making the case for international expansion.
• How businesses can overcome barriers to international expansion.
• Quote of the week: "Development isn’t charity.  It’s one of the smartest investments we can make in our shared future – in our security and our prosperity.” – President Barack Obama
• Walmart bets on international business to drive growth in China and Mexico.
• Why the world comes to Georgia and stays.
• Six reasons to expand your business internationally.

Quest for International Expansion by Asian-Pacific Consumer Product Companies

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For Asia-Pacific CPGs, international growth is more critical than ever due to maturing domestic markets. Fortunately, the growing popularity of Asian culture enhances their chances of success.

As growth in domestic markets slows, Asian companies must expand internationally to keep thriving.  They are also wrestling with numerous strategic questions, including:

1. Which markets should we enter first?
2. Which consumer segments should we target?
3. Should we act as a category disruptor, or should we “play by the rules” of the foreign market?
4. Should we drive growth organically, or inorganically through M&A?

Bain & Company offers several approaches to success drawing from extensive experience working with leading Asia-Pacific-headquartered FMCGs on international expansion.

Think With Google and Move Your Business Into International Markets

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With more than half the world’s population now online, the opportunities for businesses to reach new customers abroad have never looked brighter. But how should companies prepare for international expansion? And just how easy is it?

Google guides you by looking at your potential customers. 

Innovation Capability Has a Positive Impact on International Expansion for Global SMEs

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According to the research paper, "Pace of innovation and speed of small and medium-sized enterprise international expansion, there is compelling evidence that innovation capability has a positive impact on the international expansion of SMEs.

Unsurprisingly, the relevant literature displays an increasing interest in SME innovation activities and how they influence a firm’s international activities. Hitherto, research has focused on the earliness of entry into a foreign market. For example, the literature on born globals argues that SMEs with innovative products internationalize soon after their inception to benefit from opportunities emerging before competitors enter the same markets.

The authors go on to say that SMEs with a greater propensity to innovate by introducing new products and processes tend to internationalize in a wider range of foreign markets. This extensive internationalization in turn, allows these firms to gain new insights from diverse foreign markets, in turn improving their technological learning and innovation capabilities.

Read the entire research paper:  "Pace of innovation and speed of small and medium-sized enterprise international expansion."

From Day One: Operate Globally

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For many business owners, operating internationally from day one is crucial to long-term success. But starting a small business domestically is hard enough, how can these leaders be expected to go global so quickly?

Given the incredible long-term opportunity international expansion presents for these businesses, leaders need to think and operate globally as quickly as possible. 

Here's what to know about getting started and ultimately expanding your business abroad. 

Chewy Eyes International Expansion

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“International expansion has long been a part of our strategy,” said Sumit Singh, Chewy’s CEO, during the [most recent earnings] call. “It was a matter of when, not if Chewy would take our superior value proposition into new geographies.”

Details about which markets Chewy plans to expand to were scarce but Singh said the company is considering “entry markets that possess attractive characteristics for our initial international expansion plans.”  

Growing Global Is Inevitable For Prosperous Companies

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Businesses frequently consider expanding “nationally” over time, that is, within their current nation. Many companies will consider international expansion at some point. This is the point at which an expansion turns into a “global” or “international” expansion, even if it is just into a neighboring nation such as Canada or Mexico for USA-based companies.

Although it takes guts to grow your business internationally, most businesses are forced to do so because local growth maxes out and there are greater opportunities elsewhere. 

Internationalization comes with expenses and risks, but with careful planning and a well-thought-out export strategy, overseas markets offer fantastic growth prospects.

Learn why growing global is inevitable for prosperous companies.

Mariah Carey's Black Irish Cream Liqueur Products Go Global

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Legendary songstress Mariah Carey is expanding her Black Irish Cream Liqueur products to both South America and the Caribbean by the spring of this year.  Previously only available in the U.S., it will be the brand’s first glimpse into international distribution.

“I am ecstatic to extend the reach of my cream-liqueur Black Irish to South America and the Caribbean,” said Carey in an official press statement. “My fans there have supported and given so much to me, so of course I wanted to create an opportunity for them to enjoy this delicious liqueur!”

Read more about Ms. Carey's foray into international markets with her products.

Today in Global Small Business: How to Make Your Global Small Business More Sustainable

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• How to make your global small business more sustainable.
• According to Reuters, shoppers globally are expected to pay even more for branded food items in the coming year as packaged goods production expenses remain high.
• Nearly half of small business owners (47%) say the economy is in a recession already, with an almost equal percentage (48%) describing the economy as “poor.” That’s according to the CNBC|SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey for the first quarter of 2023.
• Quote of the week: "Sustainability has to be a way of life to be a way of business." – Anand Mahindra
• Silicon Valley tech giants in the years leading up to the pandemic collected gleaming office campuses around the world as trophies for what appeared to be boundless growth. Those days of blockbuster real estate expansions appear to be over for now, however, as job cuts and profitability concerns have companies pulling back on investments.
• Here are a few tips to help your business prepare for an international expansion.

Today in Global Small Business: Global Small Business Phone Systems Market Overview

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• The global “Small Business Phone Systems Market” 2022-2027 study provides information related to the global, regional, and top players including Small Business Phone Systems market share analysis, winning strategies, recent developments, and financials.
• Answering top questions about Covid-19 and vaccines.
• The CEO of Abbott, the company whose voluntary recall of several widely sold baby formula brands helped trigger a nationwide formula shortage, has apologized for the crisis, as the first overseas shipment of formula approved by President Biden arrived in the U.S. Sunday, May 22, 2022.
• Quote of the week: “Utility is when you have one telephone, luxury is when you have two, opulence is when you have three - and paradise is when you have none." – Doug Larson
• 15 Forbes Business Council members shared their best tips for businesses considering international expansion.
• Getting close, Apple's AR/VR headset.

Are U.S. Publishers Prepared for European Legislature?

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Europe’s data protection laws are still murky, differently interpreted and fully understood by very few people. But wonky data laws are just one of many hurdles for U.S. publishers to scale in order to conquer international expansion — and those hurdles are stacking up.

Publishers say they remain enthusiastic about international expansion: HuffPost has 12 global editions and 60% of readers come from outside of the U.S. Bustle Digital Group, launched in the U.K. 2018, made several hires this year and has grown to 4 million unique monthly users with positive ad revenue momentum, the publisher said. Vox Media is hiring for its second international operation The Strategist UK, bringing the total to six staffers on international.

The U.K. seems a natural step into global expansion because there’s no language barrier yet there are some challenges worth noting.

Read more about why U.S. digital-media publishers are curbing international expansion.

Today in Global Small Business: How a UK Agency Grew From Small to Global

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Small business lending by SBA in Cleveland, Ohio falls 9%.
• First Aid Beauty, owned by Proctor and Gamble, kicks off international expansion. 
• Quote of the week: “Think you can, think you can't; either way you'll be right." – Henry Ford
• Chick-fil-A has some issues with international expansion caused by their anti-LGBTQ stance.
• Patrick Reid, CEO of Imagination talks candidly about how the agency grew from a small office in London to 10 countries around the world (video).
• Customer experience is disrupting and changing the supply-chain world from the inside out.

Today in Global Small Business: 5 Takeaways on Building a Global Business

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• From sports analogies to going global, here are takeaways on building a business. 
• Widely discussed but often overlooked topics on international expansion.
• Quote of the week: “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive, but those who can best manage change." – Leon C. Megginson
• Wendy's is using breakfast to launch internationally.
• Insights on how the e-commerce market in the US is changing and what is coming in the year ahead (interview).
• The floodgates opened on Facebook Inc.’s Libra Association as no fewer than five more companies exited the group overseeing the social network’s proposed cryptocurrency: Mastercard Inc., Visa Inc., eBay Inc., Stripe Inc. and Mercado Pago.

Today in Global Small Business: The Future of the Norwegian Startup Ecosystem

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• McDonald's menu to feature worldwide favorites.
• Quote of the week:  “I find the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” – Thomas Jefferson
• Chinese brands quicken pace to go global.
• Japanese drugmaker Takeda is strengthening its roots in the United States and enriching its global research heft, by unveiling a 165,000-square-foot facility in San Diego, California, in addition to its existing R&D center in Cambridge, Massachusetts and plant in Shonan, Japan.
• The future of the Norwegian startup ecosystem.
• When international expansion can go wrong.

Lack of Clarity Can Be a Stumbling Block for Franchises Going Global

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Senior research analyst Ritwik Donde at FRANdata says that international expansion has opened numerous doors for small businesses looking to uncover new streams of revenue. But to succeed globally, business owners must successfully navigate the new territory of cultural divides.

A big stumbling block for franchises, for example, is lack of clarity for franchisors embarking on a rapid growth plan, often resulting in mistakes that can put the franchise at risk.

Among 480 small and medium-sized enterprises from 12 countries surveyed by the Economist Intelligence Unit in 2014, a majority foresaw expanding their business internationally as the future for their companies. However, very few understood the importance of finding the right advisory partner (or partners) to help them navigate the choppy waters of international growth.

Read more about the five common mistakes made by international franchisors and how to avoid them.

Are You Ready to Go International?

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You may never feel entirely ready to go international, but there are some important benchmarks you should reach before you start considering interest from overseas.  Here are six.

1. Have a profitable business model in your home country, with systems and procedures that have been proven across multiple locations.
2. Have adequate experience and maturity to interact meaningfully with foreign partners. 
3. Be the primary point of contact for your international partners, both during agreement negotiations and after the deal is signed.
4. Add someone to your team to focus specifically on identifying target markets and searching for partners
5. Have patience.
6. Be prepared to invest significant time and money before your international efforts pay off.

Read the entire article to be sure you are ready for international expansion.