5 signs that your company is ready for the world

Is your company ready to internationalize?

Your company has already passed the Brazilian death valley and is earning money. You already have a portfolio of legal clients in Brazil and it is growing steadily. The first challenges of opening the operation have already been overcome, your team is good and interesting opportunities are appearing abroad. But are you ready?

Look inside your company and identify the signs below. If they are presente, you can have the green light to internationalize:

1. “Does my product meet the needs of the international market?”
2. “Does my company have the productive capacity to serve more customers?”

If you answered yes to both questions, the next phase is to map out wheter there are entry barriers or specific legislation that you would have to adjust to enter the chosen target market.

Bilingual, Trilingual, Quadrilingual team

Language is one of the main barriers to internationalization. If you are fluent in more than one language other than Portuguese and have people on your team who are fluent in foreign languages, you can interact with others and do business with confidence. English is essential in the business world. Invest in mastering the language to open doors.

Available money

If your company has a budget available for expansion and you are thinking about where to allocate capital, internationalization enhances your company’s value and reduces Brazil risk. Having income in foreign currency, retaining talent and increasing their competitiveness are some of the benefits observed by entrepreneurs who opened their companies outside Brazil.

Experience with export

If your company has already exported sporadically or exports are part of the company’s routine, it means that you already have clients outside Brazil. This is an excellent indicator that your product is in international demand. But why not take over your international operation, remove intermediaries from the process and become the owner of your business outside Brazil? It is possible to increase the share of exports in your sales through internationalization. But that’s a topic for another post.

Potential customer invitation

If you have multinational clients, the invitation to serve you in other countries may arise. And why not? Go and enjoy the experience to capture more customers and establish yourself in a new market! Try not to be held hostage to a single contract and establish yourself in a place with potential for expanding your client portfolio. Maximize customer prospecting opportunities.

What if you don’t have one of these signs? You need to organize the house before leaving. Use these 5 signals as basic elements of an internationalization process.

Don’t have a scalable product? Organize your company to serve more customers and adapt your products to the international market, with the translation into English or Spanish of the website, systems, product labels, for example. Sebrae has many services that can help you start your business.

Don’t speak English or Spanish? Take an immersion program or intensive classes to master the languages ​​of the markets where you want to take your business. OpenCulture lists 50 sites that teach you languages ​​for free. It’s already a good start, but immersion in another country is the most effective way to acquire fluency in the language

No capital available? Start saving money or make a well-structured internationalization plan to attract investors

No experience with exporting? Go after the necessary export licenses and certifications required in the target markets. Test with samples and small customers before positioning yourself with the big ones APEX Brasil helps companies to structure this operation for their company, via PEIEX. 

No invitation from a potential customer? Participate in international events to gain more exposure. Make the initial contacts, even if the contract isn’t closed until you actually have your business out there. Prospecting is a super important exercise to test and validate your product and business model. tradefairdates shows you various events taking place in the world by sector.t

You can still ask me if the size of your company matters for an internationalization process. Any company can operate abroad with the right strategy. If your company has the above signs, size is less relevant. Through experience, companies with more than 3 years of life, with more than 15 employees and earning more than R$ 10 million per year are able to have more available people and capital to internationalize. These indicators are for reference only, as we have had cases of smaller companies successfully going through this process. Timing and team are essential in these cases.

These are the 5 signs that your company is ready for the world. Have you identified other signs?

Tell me here. see you in the world,

Sterna is the first Internationalization Boutique in Brazil. We can help you open your company abroad. Shall we have coffee? contato@sterna.co