What Key Issues Arise When Doing International Commerce/ Business?
Doing business globally can provide your business with exciting new opportunities for growth and profit. However, if global business were easy, everyone would do it, and there are significant risks and challenges associated with going international. You'll need to employ people you can trust to supervise your global operations if you want your business to succeed internationally.
Legal Issues
When you conduct trade in another country, you'll have to be familiar with that country's laws. You may also have to pay additional taxes and import duties in the United States if you are importing products from other countries. The legal complexities of international business can be challenging, and without proper legal advice you might be subject to fines and penalties. Make sure you have excellent international lawyers who have a firm grounding in the laws of their home countries.
Language Issues
Language barriers are an obvious downside to doing business internationally. You may need to rely on translators when speaking to business contacts, and the intricacies of what your contacts say may be lost in translation. If you are outsourcing customer service to another country, your customers may struggle to understand people whose first language is different than your own.
Cultural Barriers
Different cultures have different values, and sometimes these differences can be stark. Gender, for example, could prove problematic in countries where women are not given equal rights to men. You may find yourself wondering if you can safely send female employees to certain countries. Marketing styles in other countries may differ, and polite behavior in the United States may be impolite elsewhere. Some cultures don't take contracts as seriously as others, and many cultures view the group as more important than the individual. It's important to learn the cultural intricacies of the places you do...
