Once the business is well established at its headquarters, the thinking of geographically expanding it arises. Be it an international or local branch office. And this business move comes up for various reasons. Sometimes the goal is market expansion or access to a larger talent pool. In some cases, businesses already hired several people from a certain area and established a good brand image there and they would like to use the momentum.
As with every huge decision, the first step is research and preparation. Especially if you have not had the opportunity to work with staff abroad earlier. In that case, local customs, legislation and work ethics can easily come into way of what once seemed like a great business idea and the opportunity for growth.
Of course, there are a lot of disadvantages you can come across, but in this article we will focus on benefits of setting up a branch office in a foreign country and leave the potential risks for the next edition on this topic.
What questions to consider?
As the finance and cashflow are oxygen to the business, it comes naturally that the first thing to consider is how much to invest in the project.
With the financies projected, next items on the list to be considered are timeframes and milestones. Another important aspect to consider is the way of managing legislative and administrative hassle. Along with that there is also the issue of handling international employment and regulations related to it.
Of course, with all the planning and preparation for opening the new hub and new branch, it is unavoidable to take into consideration potential walking away and all the risk managament involved.
ProDevs may assist you in creating your IT center with your own branding. We are able to hire IT professionals who fit your company culture, business goals and technical requirements. We will also help you with all necessary infrastructure, administration, and generally act as a local support system for your new office in Serbia.
And it does not end when the new hub is opened and starts working. Our HR managers will create personalized benefit packages for your new team members in order to maintain high level of motivation and retention.
And now about the benefits
To begin with: one of the benefits may include more sales and access to other markets. That also means access to new customers, and when talking about Europe, it may be especially important as many countries even outside EU have collaboration agreements and access to the market in one country may easily mean expanding the customer base in another
One can hardly neglect the access to the local talent, too. This may be especially true in case of global shortage of talents, like it is the trend in the IT industry. You can easily learn about the environment and status of IT industry in the area, including the level of expertise, work ethic, and the price range.
Furthermore, alhtough it is not always a crucial point, but when arriving on a market which have high demand of resources that would be valuable to your business, it is not the worst idea to get there before your competitors and position yourself first.
Finally, if your goal is not to be a part of a market share customer-wise with opening a new branch, one of the benefits is also lowering the operational costs. Hiring local people who are well aware of legislation and business etiquette is a big plus. And they will do their best to come up with ideas how to align the working hours with your time zones for more efficiency and great business results.
