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We build a profitable startup In 2 years without any outside investment we are building enterprise software(and producing hardware) for Customer Service Improvement in different institutions(Banks,Hospital, Governmental Organizations,...etc) so during that period we did pretty well for our local market selling to businesses and also build 2 different B2C business models using our knowledge and experience .But currently we experience difficulty because we were only concentrated on local market and currently local market becomes full and deals with main customers are closed so we think that we need to scale to other geographical location or try to diversify(Which I do not like at all),but it is pretty hard to sell enterprise hardware/software bundle in other region because we have lack of knowledge about that market different cultures and no production capability there,

  1. I just want to hear if someone have been in this kind of situation?

  2. What type of potential do you see selling Queueing Management Systems,Musical,Information Kiosks globally?

  3. Where to start if we want to move forward and build global distribution network?

Thanks in advance. -Vahe

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It looks like you have some good questions in here. My head is kind of spinning though. I recommend you break this up into three separate questions to be answered one at a time. – Bertrood Aug 7 '11 at 17:17

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One problem you may have is that your business model is inherently not scalable.

If you want to go from making $X / week to $2x / week you need to double the size of the company.

Compare this to COTS (comercial off the shelf) software. Wether its packaged as shrinkwrap or is a SAAS offering, To make 2X you just need to sell another X worth of copies. You don't need to hire new engineers. 1 unit of work will yield many sales. With your current business model, one unit of work yields 1 sale. To make another sale, you have to write more code.

The first thing I would try is changing your business model.

It requires more investment on your part up front (fixed costs), but it will also lower your marginal cost of production to near $0, which can be a big win.

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I think traveling would be a good start. I think you are correct that understanding other culture's is an important aspect to moving into new markets. I also think partnering or licensing the techonoly/hardware may be a good route.

  1. what are the three things about the culture of your country that makes your technology/software a good fit?
  2. What other countries culturally fit the three things that drive the use of your product?
  3. Develop pilot test programs in those countries (such as one to three products in strategic locations) to make sure you are only taking marginal risks.
  4. Hire at least one local person when expanding to new countries.
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Thanks for reply.I agree that we need to hire someone locally but hiring someone is very risky thing to do,also it will be really hard to find talented sales guys who will want to work for a company which is not globally recognized one.Regarding cultural differences I agree with you but I think the main problem here is sales-force availability and market testing capabilities which we need to build during time. – ITSamurai Aug 8 '11 at 10:19
I get what you are saying. With lack of resources, you're going to have to get creative. Explain more about the B2C models, and I may offer some more advice (maybe even in a new question, to get others in also). Either here or new question is fine. – Bertrood Aug 9 '11 at 2:54

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