A personal recommendation on your growth model overseas

Recently the diversity of our clients have grew in part to 2 things – a better economy now that we are coming out of covid and also referrals thanks to our kind clients who have been putting in recommendations for us to their friends and network

As such we have seen clients in Facilities Management, IT Consulting, Engineering services, Precision Engineering parts, Automotive, F&B, Retail, Education and perhaps more niche ones like Employment Agencies, Sound Engineers, Art Groups.

Now regardless of their trade, our recommendations for market entry is always the same.

(And please do bear in mind that these are tried and tested ways of market entry strategies that we have done. We have failed, gotten cheated, succeeded, did well, hit the jackpot, bought a dumpster on fire plus a whole series of other outcomes.)

So you are reading at least 15 years of wisdom encapsulated into 1 page.

Best Case

Find a local partner who is so enthusiastic about your product and service that they buy from you, operate it well and share revenue or profit with you and hope it lasts long enough that you can pass your business to your children.

You can do that if you are a Macdonalds’s or Starbucks of your industry. Your brand is strong and your product is good enough that it sells itself.

What are the possibilities of this happening? If you are the Michael Jordan of your industry I would say high percentage.

The percentage gets lower significantly if your product and service is not very much different from the competition and your brand is not well known regardless of how good it might be in your own country.

Middle Ground

Find a local partner and get them to be your insurance. Meaning they help with your administrative stuff (legal registration, billing, etc) only.

But hold on to business development, operations and marketing and work like you are the only one in the partnership no matter how ironic it may seem.

So have zero expectations on your partner save that they are your insurance locally to help you with licenses or other administrative burden.

Worst Case

Set up your office and run everything yourself. Maybe hire a business development person who is familiar with the market to run the business if you have the budget.

Register your company, product and service and just about do everything yourself.

So what is the most ideal market entry model?

We highly suggest middle ground.

When you have a local partner, things move easier as they can speak the local lingo and cut any unnecessary process with their understanding on culture so you save a lot of time on that.

Also as most local partners already have a cash generating business that they are focused on, we found just about every local who has taken a partnership with a foreign company will lose their interest after about 6 months when the revenue generated doesn’t sustain the initial hype.

So how do you find the local partner to work with?

That’s when we unashamedly have to plug our services here. Curt & Co has helped companies set up and find local partners in Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Beyond a partner search, we also qualify and help our clients adjust their terms to ensure a win-win partnership between them and the local partner.

Find out more about us at our website!

About Us

Curt & Co. is a business consulting company focused on the South East Asian region.

We complement our clients through extensive market research and due diligence, providing thorough, feasible and financially efficient growth methods for our clients in the region.

We provide 3 main pillars of services including

· Overseas Business Expansion Consulting

· Marketing

· Business Operations Outsource

Clients have the advantage in ​accessing our network in our help whether to meet partners, set terms for franchisees or licensees or negotiate with direct clients in closing a deal.

Our offices are located in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines.

Find out more on us : www.Curtconsult.com

Contact Us : marcus@curtconsult.com