When the kids go back to school, I also return to a more regular work schedule and able to sit back and think about my business plan. One thing I’m sure I will complete soon, is a book that I write for people who are looking to start up a business. As a start up, have you thought about to go beyond your country? Or you try to keep small and work locally?
When you have a passion in doing something, you would like to go for big I am sure. Though I start up my business in Hong Kong where I was born and raised, I always think of going global. Not only will this strengthen our branding with a global presence, but would able to open up new business opportunities.
I tried, but as you can imagine, it is not easy at all. It is not just the investment concern, but also the cultural difference that would take up a lot of time to deal with the management people, the marketing message, as well as the export custom/duties etc. Hence, do your research before you make your step out. Here are a few areas that worth to pay attention to:
- Do you have the right local people that you can trust and assist you on the ground? You can start off by engaging them as your agents, sales representatives, or even find a local “trustworthy” business partner who are willing to invest.
- Do you understand well of their culture? Language? Employ the right people to use their local language and way of communication to do marketing! This is important.
- The export custom/duties, tax etc. – check it out carefully as it can be a lot of monies for certain imports (e.g. there is at least 20% custom import duties for my jewelry to go into China!)
- The currency fluctuation and the control of currency flowing in and out.
- The respective business license application. For some business, you may need to apply different licenses from different bureaus. Check it out carefully.
- Check out with your local trade association as they are more than happy to give you the required information, contacts, or any support that you may require. For example, I find the Hong Kong Trade Development Council very helpful as they have a very good database that can facilitate in all sorts of research, and most of their services are free!
- Participate in certain overseas exhibition so that you can get a feel of the customers’ purchase behavior. A very worthwhile test before you invest big in another country. Check out with certain trade association or government funding for any potential subsidies. For most of my overseas exhibitions, I got 50% of the subsidies from Hong Kong Government. Ask around and google it!
- Don’t forget the after sales services. You may need the local people to support, or offer a generous guarantee policy that make the buyers feel confident to buy. After all, if you are confident with your products/services, the refund rate should not be too scary, it could be just a small portion out of the profit that you can generate from there.
Seems a lot of work there, right? Nevertheless, it is still easier for a start up to make such a global move than a big corporation, because you know what you want to do and can make decision quickly, without going through too much potential corporate politics. May be set up a website that can support online global business first, this might be the easiest thing to start with. So plan it well and burn your passion like fire!
