A second office is not a market

The expansion plan usually starts with a city and a lease. It should start with a buyer. Who signs, who influences, how long the paper takes, and whether a foreign firm is even invited to the conversation. Those facts are local. A flight schedule is not.

In several markets we keep returning to — parts of West Africa, the Nordics, Brazil, Southeast Asia — the work can be delivered from anywhere, and the introduction cannot. A respected local partner is not a logo on a slide. They are someone who will decline a bad-fit client in your name, because their reputation is attached to yours.

Open a desk, not a headquarters, once you have repeated revenue and a person who already lives in the market. Give them authority to price within a band and to refuse work. Visit on a rhythm, not for a launch party. The office, if it comes, is a consequence of a pipeline, not the cause of one.

If you cannot describe the buying path in one page, you do not have a market entry. You have a travel budget.

A partner who can say no on your behalf is worth more than a floor of empty desks.

MB