Yes, you can buy a new market!

Pedro F. Hipólito
Jul 28, 2017 · 2 min read

It’s called international business development. It’s what rapid growth companies do e.g. Uber, Starbucks, just to name a couple out of the thousands of fast growth companies I could give as an example.

Slow growth companies invest in optimising products, fancy headquarters, company cars, and other assets that don’t generate fast growth because products don’t sell themselves.

Any company growing fast will saturate the local market where it’s active so — it has to expand geographically to new untaped markets.

If you don’t feel pressure to expand geographically it’s because you’re not even able to capture your current local market a.k.a you’re in deep shit.

To expand geographically there’s only one solution — “buy” a new market i.e invest to capture business opportunities outside of your current markets. This process is called international business development and involves sending commercial people to new territories.

The hardest part of this investment is the exploratory phase when you’re investing prior to start selling in that new market. This exploratory phase normaly lasts from 6 months to one year. After this starts the implementation phase that’s less risky as market potential is already confirmed and sales may start to occur offsetting the investment.

So, how much do you need to invest in the exploratory phase? In my experience, having managed tens of internationalisation processes, this phase will require a minimum investment of ~€55.500.

To recover this investment, in one year, it’s enough to sell €20 thousand per month with a profit margin of 25%. Not that tough!

I can’t think of another ~€50.000 investment that can push your business forward, faster.

Thanks for your attention. It would be great to have your feedback: please click that ❤️ button and leave your response bellow. Thank you!

Pedro F. Hipólito

Written by

CEO of Five Thousand Miles + Honorary Consul of Portugal in Lagos Nigeria + Portuguese born in Mozambique + Proud husband & father

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