Access to funding and financial freedom are two of the most critical barriers that businesses fail to hurdle over, especially during their first few years in the market. When it comes time to expand, this hindrance can prove even more obstructive as lack of funding and investment in your business guarantees an untimely downfall. With more startups coming into the picture every day, it is essential to stand out and never limit yourself to a single locality.
Making the move abroad is a huge decision, but there are myriad ways to facilitate this transition and ensure further growth for your venture. After deciding on the foreign country in which you would like to market yourself, one of the first steps will be establishing a remote team of interpreters and business professionals to convey your message and offer your products on the foreign market.
Furthermore, in order to increase investment flow into your business, you must ensure that you are familiar with the rules of the foreign country in question. It would perhaps be wise to hire legal counsel and accounting experts to this effect. If your documents are not in order or foreign investors see that you are not complying with the relevant country’s laws, they will not take the risk of investing.
Lastly, seeking entrepreneur grant programmes (which are often equity-free and may even provide visas) both at home or abroad can give your company the boost it needs to succeed abroad while simultaneously aiding the local market and adding diversity to a previously unfamiliar culture.
Marketing team with interpreters
Hiring interpreters is paramount to any business venture taking their products and/or services to a foreign country where a different language is spoken. However, it should be considered that hiring interpreters specialising in marketing and business language could have a generous impact on your marketing capacity abroad.
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Interpreting services will be critical to enabling clear communication of your company’s goals, message, and the products and services you provide. If this information cannot be provided to the general public in a language they fully understand, they will show no major interest. This also goes for investors and grant-providers abroad, which will likely be a priority for you in the first few years of your startup.
The power of language and marketing should not be underestimated as it will determine whether the customer or foreign investor will have their interest piqued by your overall business campaign.
Familiarise with foreign regulations and legal requirements
To put it plainly, a foreign investor will not provide financial support if they clearly see that your business venture abroad is unorganised or that you are not complying with local laws and regulations regarding business and marketing in the foreign country in question.
For this reason, it is not uncommon for businesses making the move abroad to hire legal counsel in the foreign country they wish to operate to ensure that their company does not cross any legal boundaries. When working between different currencies in an unfamiliar environment outside your native country, you must also consider the importance of accounting and bookkeeping to act as a safeguard in the case of any unforeseen financial dispute.
The importance of hiring legal counsel and accountants abroad is coupled with the overwhelming documentation and regulated requirements demanded by the regional justice systems. For example, every business must comply with employment regulations (including benefits, wages, fair labour laws, etcetera), banking and tax regulations, structural and organisational regulations, as well as norms that tend to be fairly consistent in the relevant region.
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Documentation is also key to maintaining a high standard of organisation and will help keep track of everything from prices to products to competition and more.
Entrepreneur grant programmes
Finding entrepreneur grant programmes abroad is not nearly as difficult as it may seem at first glance and can actually serve as the lifeline of your company’s success abroad. Such programmes can be found almost worldwide and vary in their levels of funding and support. To give you an idea of the global nature of these programmes, here is a shortlist of current entrepreneur grant programmes offering aid to startups taking their business abroad:
- SEED Brazil
- Colombia Startup
- French Tech Ticket
- Israel-Michigan Autonomous Technologies Collaboration Program
- Start-up Chile
- Start-up Mexico
- Start-up Peru
- Sirius Programme (UK)
- Arch Grants (US)
This is just to name a few, but there are thousands of these programnes present throughout major countries in the world, each catering to different business types, investment requirements, support systems, etcetera. This is an often-favourable option because these schemes, which are typically government-funded, tend to be equity-free and can even help guide you through the process of obtaining a visa in order to commence operations abroad.
Not only are you boosting the local economy by means of introducing your startup to the new region, but you are receiving free funding to do so! This allows you to live and work in a new, unique culture without the stress of having to worry about going under due to a lack of funding.
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As long as you properly market yourself and seek out the right help abroad, your startup will thrive and give the local economy of the foreign country you selected a major boost. Such a move also adds a new cultural element to the region and introduces new levels of diversity. The importance of taking your business abroad cannot be stressed enough and, through the right amount of planning, anybody can do it with success.
By breaking the language and cultural barriers, hiring competent teams everywhere you operate, and seeking beneficial opportunities both at home and abroad—such as the aforementioned entrepreneur grant programmes—you can be sure that you will leave a lasting impact on the new region while creating meaningful impressions and connections along the way.
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