- America has a reputation of being a difficult market to crack. This is true, it is large, diverse and multi faceted in every aspect but the rewards are potentially huge too.
- Over the years there have been many British companies that have attempted to enter the US market that have failed
- Of course most companies, in reality, know nothing about America, and don’t know anyone, especially in business. McDonald’s, Disney and George Bush are not America
- When attempting to learn about the US most companies use international corporate entities; accountants, attorneys, government. Whilst good for “big picture” advice these entities usually have little “hands on” real experience on the ground
- My experience has shown that many top executives especially of British companies think they know all about the US market and make their business decisions based on this – they are invariably wrong
- A major, invisible cause of this is the presumption that Americans speak English – they do not, they speak American, in many many respects a completely different language. Britain and the US are divided by a common language.
- Put another way – if a foreign company was opening a business in Japan then it would be obvious that it would have to deal with the language problems, and hence the culture of Japan as one of its first priorities. Most “English” speaking entrants to the US do not believe that language and culture of America is an issue
- The cost of entry in the US can be huge too, especially if the wrong decision are initially made. Depending on the business however, and by using expert third parties it is possible to develop a US business for perhaps less than you think
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