Business Opportunities in International Markets

Introduction

There are millions of business opportunities in the international markets. However, many people are confined to their local markets such that they have not been able to exploit fully and enjoy the benefits that come with international trade. When an entrepreneur decides to venture into the international trade, he or she must first be on the lookout for the available opportunities. This means that as an entrepreneur, you cannot blindly engage in international trade as this may result in massive losses to your business. There are different platforms that information on available international business opportunities can be obtained. These are for instance Google, Yahoo, among others online business sites. The reasons why many people are not able to venture into international business are due to lack of information about how to go about the business and lack of proper assessment of the available market opportunities. The paper will identify different types of international market opportunities, their characteristics, essential information gathering techniques, and different challenges facing international businesses.

Types of International Business Opportunities

There are various types of international trade opportunities that an entrepreneur can invest in and generate huge profits. These opportunities include licensing, exporting, franchising, importing, contract manufacturing, outsourcing, joint ventures, offshoring, direct investment, multinational firms, and countertrade. Each of these opportunities if undertaken using the right approach can be quite profitable to an entrepreneur. However, the four top highly exploited international business opportunities relevant and marketable today include exporting, licensing, franchising, and direct investment.

Exporting is the first option that comes to an investors mind when he or she thinks of expanding his or her business internationally. Exporting entails selling a company’s products and services abroad through retailers or directly to consumers. As an international business opportunity, Exporting enables companies to participate in global arena through identification of international markets for their goods as they become exporters. As such, selling abroad opens a vast market for an organization’s products hence increased sales and enormous profits. Many people have also seen licensing as a perfect international business opportunity. It is important to note that no international trade can take place without the proper licensing. Different licensing firms have therefore emerged to license and offer legal advice to entrepreneurs on matters such as business registration among others.

Another international business opportunity is to diversify operations overseas by selling franchises. In this, companies benefiting from this opportunity have to adhere to terms and conditions of international franchise agreement where the franchisor gives the franchisee the privilege to make use of its Brand name and also the right to sell its goods and services.  On the other hand, the franchisee will assume responsibility for all activities by the business model designed by the franchiser. In addition, the franchisor is obliged to provide training, advertisement, and new product assistance. As such, franchising is a type of global expansion for firms that carry out their operations domestically and by the franchise model. Some of the businesses enjoying this international business opportunity include restaurant chains and hotel chains. Lastly, foreign direct investment is an international business opportunity that has enabled firms open branches in other countries hence boosting their international presence.

Writing an essay on this or any other topic? Check our essay writing service. Make sure that writing essays is what we do the best! Order custom written paper from Great-Essays.com!

Main features of International Businesses

The global business environment is very competitive and efficiently eliminates any new investors and those that are trying to establish themselves. There are key international business dynamics that each entrepreneur should understand to survive and be the market leaders in the international field. These essential characteristics include global strategic thinking, humility, and overseas experience, sensitivity to diversity in culture, a lifelong curiosity, and a deep sense of awareness, cautious honesty, well-spoken, presence and a good negotiator. Deep –sense of awareness, for instance, states that you ought to understand your beliefs as well as those of people you are going to interact with in the international scene. This enables your beliefs to be in line with those of your potential customers hence business success.

Strategic global thinking also for instance states that you should seek to use the most skilled workforce from different parts of the world to manage your business strategically and in a unique way hence its continuity. Being a good negotiator is also an essential characteristic of the international business in that you work across, regional, national and ethnic boundaries. These among other stated characteristics are key in the international business hence requires much attention from entrepreneurs aspiring greater heights.

Essential Information Gathering Techniques

There are different platforms in which you can get information on available international business opportunities. These are for instance the local newspapers classifieds pages, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, Country’s official websites, Organizations Websites, Email subscription alerts among others. With the emergence of Smartphone’s and easily available internet, many people can access different online advertisement sites hence acquiring essential information on available international business opportunities. For instance, Gulf times classified where employments and business opportunities are advertised to different parts of the world to welcome new entrepreneurs.

Challenges

In the context of international business, challenges can be classified to mean those which hinder many entrepreneurs from exploiting international opportunities and those that face the business after venturing into the international market. It is important to acknowledge that any business is bound to face challenges during a certain time of its existence. However, the approaches and techniques applied by its management towards dealing with the problem determine whether the business continues to operate or collapses.

Major challenges that hinder entrepreneurs from fully exploiting international business opportunities include financial incapacities, high level of competition, lack of adequate skills and personnel, lack of information, legal regulations, and failure to identify opportunities adequately. There are key government regulations from all involved countries that greatly hinder entrepreneurs from venturing into the international trade. Such hindrances are for instance heavy income duties, minimum reserves, business registrations, issues regarding quality and standards among others. Also, high level of competition in the global market hinders many new investors from engaging in international trade. Existing international businesses usually have the most recent state of the art equipment, skills and experienced personnel, a financial ground which new and upcoming businesses lack hence their inability to survive in the international business field.

Many investors think that by entering the international trade, their financial problems are sorted. However, this is not the case as there are key challenges that face already existing international businesses which when not adequately handled to result in risks. The first challenge is that many businesses do not have the right strategies to adapt to rapid changes in the international trade environment. Second, the businesses do not have the right management team to make the right decisions and enhance the high level of collaboration between workers from different countries. Also, the rewards and remunerations given to international workers are not favorable hence making them fails to deliver quality services. Finally, there is a lack of innovation in many businesses that operates internationally. With the rapid changes and fast growth in technology, companies should be innovative and come up with different operation measures hence enabling them to acquire a good market share.

Mini Case

The Middle East is among the regions of the world which has welcomed investors from different parts of the world. There are various reasons also that make the Middle East a preference investment grounds by many investors. These key features include the Middle East is rich in natural resources, there is a promising economic growth in the Middle East, there is a great diversity in the Middle East countries,  a demographic boom which creates a ready market, the Middle East is globally connected among others.

Further research shows that the United Arabs Emirates is one of the most developed countries across the world.  Countries in the Middle East heavily rely on their classified to advertise available business opportunities which can easily be downloaded from the counties official papers Website.  The most commercial form of international trade in the Middle East entails the export and import of manufactured goods, transportation equipment, and machinery among others. Investors who want to be successful in business, therefore, can consider the UAE countries and be sure to make massive sales.

Conclusion

In conclusion, from the above discussion, it is evident that there are numerous international trade opportunities at the dispose of entrepreneurs today. However, they need to apply the right approaches to exploit these opportunities fully. Failure to implement the proper techniques results in losses which quickly eliminates the business in the face of the market. International investors should also be aware of different challenges facing international businesses and apply the right techniques in handling them. For instance,  Also, global investors should learn to be agile to rapid technological changes in the corporate world for them to maintain market competitiveness.