Your business is doing incredibly well, so well in fact that you are considering opening an office or premises overseas. You’ve heard of a lot of other local business owners doing the same thing – branching out and opening premises in different destinations across the country and world, and you think that doing the same could be a good idea. You have the business success and the funds to feel confident doing it, you just aren’t sure about what the process will be, and whether it is a move that’s as beneficial as you think.
Let’s take a look at the ins and outs of setting up an office (or premises) overseas, and what it takes to do so successfully.
A large budget
The fact is that to launch an office or business premises overseas, you will require a large budget. Renting or buying a premises doesn’t come cheap, neither does fitting it out with all of the supplies that your business will need to run. Then there is the cost of advertising positions, training staff, and running the venture. Sure, it will eventually pay for itself, or that’s the plan anyway, but to get started you will need a large budget. There’s also the cost of moving employees from your current premises over there for a while, to help run it. This will include the cost of talking to law firms that specialize in business immigration law, finding your team accommodation, and covering any other expenses. You may also want to consider the possibility of offering your team members incentives to encourage them to get onboard with the new overseas office.
A good knowledge of the area & demographic
The reason that your business has been so successful is because you have put in the time and effort getting to know the area and your customer base. You have performed plenty of customer research, you have held focus groups, asked customers for feedback, and goodness know what else, to ensure that you have a good understanding of your customer base. You can’t presume that the customer base you will have abroad will be the same as the one you have at home, which is why a good knowledge of the area and demographic is needed.
No language barrier
You are going to struggle to run an office for your business abroad if you and your team don’t speak the local language. So it’s a good idea to consider launching an office in a country that speaks the same language as you do, as this will make the process of setting up and running it much easier. Or, if you speak a second language, consider setting it up and running it in a country that speaks that language instead, to increase your chances of success. If there’s one thing you don’t need when launching a new part of your business, it’s a language barrier.
There you have it, a guide to the ins and outs of setting up an office abroad and what the process for doing so will be.