Want to extend your business empire in Europe but don’t know where to start? Have a lot of uncertainties but very much willing to invest? Well, here are the things that you should know before landing a grand in a foreign land.

Buckle up because we’re about to take off!

Businessmen nurture company growth in the form of business expansion. These include opening an additional company in another location, franchising, company merging, venturing into a new market, acquiring another company, and so on.
  • In doing this, a company needs to consider their financial capability to spend more as they expect more profit in return. 
  • Business expansion can be done locally, internationally, and even digitally using only the internet. 
If your company’s target is to extend your services or products globally, particularly in Europe, here are the things that you should take into consideration:

1. Take Notice of Employment Laws.

There are more than forty (40) countries across Europe and every one of them has a different employment system that is demographically appropriated to protect its people.

By understanding their labour law, you will be able to create employment contracts that are legally compliant. This will result in better retention and greater efficiency because your employees know that they are legally protected.

Moreover, having a good employment contract attracts more experienced professional workers, which will, of course, help your company have a good start.

2. Consider the Corporate Legalities.

If you’re considering building a corporate entity in a European country, you should study the processes involved in legalizing your business.

Among those are the taxation system, procurement of business permits, and local and national laws. All of these aside from employment laws should be thoroughly analyzed.

Moreover, it’s more time and cost efficient to hire professionals rather than do the legwork yourself. For example, it would be more convenient for you to hire payroll services in Belgium than ask your HR team to do it themselves; because it takes a lot of time to translate and understand employment laws in another language.

This will help you avoid misunderstanding, lawsuits, delays, and other possible legal loopholes that can be used against you.

3. Assess Cultural Implications.

Whether it’s in Europe or not, it’s important to assess the social and cultural norms of a country where you’re considering to expand.

It’s not just about being able to speak their languages. Rather, it’s about understanding their deepest norms. Your target audience in Paris will most likely behave differently compared to your target audience in Zurich.

Failure in capturing your target audience’s cultural differences will greatly affect your chances of success.

4. Know the Market Trends

Business expansion needs well a thought out plan and an in-depth market research. As mentioned earlier, European countries vary in more ways than just their languages.

You should have a market researcher that is well-versed with the cultural and social environment. And who could that better than a local or a native of that country?

Hiring or running your own phone survey team offshore may not give you a comprehensive answer about the market’s response to your product or services. Thus, the margin of error may be too big for you to ever recover.

You can only make an effective marketing strategy if you know the business and startup environment in European countries. It always pays to do your research.

Consider Contacting Staffing Firms or a Local PEO

Building a business in a culturally-diverse continent like Europe is a lot of hard work. It’s not just about merely renting or even constructing your own building. Rather, it’s about building connections and hiring the right people for the job.

Challenges like language barrier and cultural differences may result in more unproductive expense. Many multinational businesses consider it wise to hire staffing firms or build a relationship with a local PEO that has connections across Europe.

A PEO (Professional Employer Organization) provides services such as HR Management, Site Inspection, Accounting, Payroll, and Legal Support. They can help you speed up the hiring process so you can focus more on building your existing employees rather than hiring for more.

Having a relationship with a local PEO will save you both time and money since you will be fully informed about operational and legal costs before you even start your business. 

This will allow you to monitor your business in Europe even from across the sea.

Conclusion

Venturing into business expansion in a foreign country holds a blind spot dark enough to not let you foresee the end result of your business expedition. 

Understanding the culture, knowing its people, their ways, the trends, legalities, and everything in between ensures a smooth and less turbulent transition from your country to Europe.