When is the right time to enter a market?

If you know your core business well, and you see an opportunity for expansion, it could be time to enter a new market. This usually entails a move into a different country, with all the pragmatic challenges that brings.

Breaking into a new market isn’t always risk-free, though, and the project could cost you a lot of money if it fails. How do you know when the risk is worth taking? In order to future-proof the company and prepare to accelerate growth, you’ll need to ensure the flexibility and capacity of your existing IT infrastructure.

Have you done your research?

Overseas markets present all kinds of challenges that you may not have considered prior to expansion. Things like financial regulation, privacy and tax law and employment law are all different, and your company’s legal position could be critical to its success.

In addition, the market itself will be new to you, and will require a new approach. Local customs, competitors and conventions could make or break your venture. Market research also helps you to understand your future customers’ needs, as well as the scale of the market and the companies currently in it. This helps to set expectations and targets, as well as giving you clues as to your marketing methods and pricing.

For a variety of reasons, market research is essential when you’re looking at moving to new markets, and you’ll need to fully understand your customers and your position in order to give yourself a chance of success. The process of learning and researching should always form the foundation of your plan so you know where, how and when to go for it.

Do you have the capacity for growth?

Any company that enters a new market needs to be prepared to invest. Once the research phase is over, you should have a fairly realistic roadmap, and an idea of the costs and resource required. Your business should also be prepared to take a dynamic approach, changing tactics to overcome challenges, and making touch decisions along the way.

The difficulty here is estimating potential expansion without over-purchasing resource. IT is a classic example; how will you ensure your website can cope with the increased traffic, and do you have enough headroom to cope with a spike in page views?

Elastic infrastructure

When preparing to enter a new market, it’s sensible to buy services because of their elasticity, rather than buying excessive amounts of resource. This is a scenario where internet telephony makes perfect sense. Using VoIP, you can give everybody in the company a portable phone number, and you don’t need to spend money on expensive PBX systems.

Once the company moves into its new market, you can scale the phone provision up and down on demand, so there’s no need to pay for anything more than you need. In addition, any employee can take their phone line with them, so if they need to transfer to a different office, they simply log on once they’re there.

The elasticity of buying infrastructure as a service means you won’t have to carry a cost burden from the start. When it comes to new ventures and opportunities, cutting costs to a minimum always helps.

Try VoIP

Business internet telephony could help you confidently move into a new market, equipped with a scalable telephone system that adapts to suit your needs. If you’re thinking of expanding into another country, talk to us about how VoIP could support your business’ continual growth.