It has never been easier for a foreign competitor to enter your market! Likewise, it has never been easier for you to enter a foreign market. Just about everyone can achieve some level of success in a foreign market regardless of how much experience they have to begin with.
Those that achieve their business goals understand that every activity involves a degree of uncertainty, therefore tacking a new market may not be that different than expanding capacity at home, launching a new product or service or adding a new distribution channel.
The questions you should be answering are:
Motives
Why do you want to go overseas?
Is it simply more sales or is there some sort of strategic goal you are looking to achieve.
It is really important to understand your goal and motivation when you are looking to go abroad, only once you do can you align your costs and your benefits. You are going to spend capital and other resources and you need to understand what the likely return will be.
Commerciality
Why do you believe that your company will succeed in a new market?
This question should be addressed from the perspective of potential customers in the new market. If there is no product or service advantage, what can you do to change so that your business will offer something different and valuable in this new market. What do you do better than anyone else?
Costs
The decision to go abroad is a question of capacity and of opportunity costs. To succeed overseas you must be prepared to invest time in building relationships with potential customers, suppliers. Employees or employers, distributors and even perhaps government officials.
All of this has a physical and emotional cost that must be considered. Exporting your companies product or service is an exciting way for your business to grow. Now get started, do not feel that you have to have perfect information before doing anything about this, once you have done it, you can learn and then adjust your strategy accordingly.
Best of Luck
