We were recently announced as a Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 winner of 2013. This did not just happen by accident but was a result of our strategy of strong and sustainable growth. And when looking at how to grow, you of course have different options at your disposal such as: acquiring companies, focusing on organic growth in your existing markets or expanding your business and entering new markets and countries.
So if you decide to go the way of for example, opening an office in a new country or continent how do you decide where to go? One might think that the obvious choice is to go where the demand is the biggest for your specific service or product. So if your headquarters is based in the UK why not just go to Germany, the US or Japan or for that matter any of the new economic powers such as China, India or Brazil? That should do the trick.
Not quite, as one thing is to have a great and competitive service or a product that you 100% believe in. But another thing is to convince your target audience of this and if you do not understand the market you are entering it does not really matter how much buying power it has.
At translate plus, our expansions into new markets have greatly been influenced by the knowledge and experience we have in our Senior Management Team. One of our first markets to focus on was Denmark and then the Nordic region. Not an obvious choice for most people as it is a comparably small country. But certainly a win for us due to knowing the market very well from the outset and speaking the language at a Senior Level and thereby being able to establish the brand in this area long term. (We are now one of the 5 largest language services providers in Scandinavia).
Our next focus will most likely be a more traditional one as we are eager to extend our presence in the US, and this time for obvious reasons. But don’t forget – if you don’t know an apparently huge market then you may be better off focusing on a smaller market which you understand better as the rewards will most likely come faster and greater.