In: Economics
The overriding reason to go global, of course, it to improve
your potential for expansion and growth. And there are too many
international opportunities for us to catalog them all here-or even
in a much longer book than this one. The obvious opportunities are
the markets in Canada, Mexico, Europe and Japan.
If your business is plagued by destabilizing fluctuations in your
markets due to seasonal changes or demand cycles, you can even out
your sales by tapping markets with different or even
countercyclical fluctuations.
You can reduce your dependence on the markets you have developed in the United States.
You can extend the sales life of existing products and services
by finding new markets to sell them in.
Along with promise, going global carries an equally heavy load of
peril. From chasing too many opportunities to getting whacked by
currency fluctuations, the game of international expansion has many
threats that domestic-only businesspeople never see. You can grab
the brass ring of growth by going global, but only if you avoid the
pitfalls.