How to go global overnight

Technology allows start-ups to ‘think big’ earlier than ever before and enables global expansion at pace, to rival larger enterprises. As the world becomes more connected and digitised – whether that’s the internet, social media, or big data and the cloud – businesses have access to better intelligence on global events and market opportunities. When harnessed properly, this information allows organizations to make faster and more informed decisions, such as opening an office or making an acquisition in a new territory. That expansion is a significant undertaking for any SME or hypergrowth company, but when armed with this real-time market and economic data, they can take that leap with speed and confidence.
Many of the established players have been taken by surprise at this speed and the rate that their industries are being disrupted by agile upstarts expanding into them – particularly the likes of financial services, FinTech and IT. Companies like Monzo, Airbnb, Coinbase, Darktrace and Uber have all flipped traditional thinking about banking, accommodation and travel, and security on their heads. And there’s no reason why others can’t follow suit.
Taking the first step to going global is not a simple undertaking, and businesses need to ensure that they plan properly. There are a few key factors they need to consider if they want to expand successfully:
At Vuealta we are going through our own exciting expansion, having recently announced the opening of a New York office and the acquisition of Executit, to extend our offering into Northern Europe and Asia Pacific. As with all SMEs and hypergrowth companies looking to expand, we had to make these decisions quickly and decisively, but with complete confidence. By taking a connected planning approach to expansion decisions like this, businesses can have the agility and real-time insight they need. They can produce plans and projections for every aspect of the newly formed business, across cash-flow and revenue streams, through to modeling head count, customer or prospect pipelines, while accurately forecasting to mitigate against external risk factors. That “what-if” analysis shows you how the impact of the expansion could ripple through the wider organization, now, in a year, in two or five years, and beyond.There are many factors to consider and hurdles to jump when SMEs and hypergrowth companies look to expand into new markets. Five years ago, we couldn’t have taken these steps, but when you have a better understanding and visibility of the potential outcomes, you can be sure that you have the ability to do it at speed, successfully. The concept of “going global” is more achievable now than ever before.