The process of expanding and growing internationally

Today, Mattias and Svea are discussing Mattias' plans of branching out his HubSpot agency to South Africa.

The process of scaling internationally

Firstly Svea wants to know how far Mattias is into the preparation process of opening an office on the other side of the world. He explains that he has an external bookkeeping company helping him with the research of a variety of things, especially in the legal and financial departments. He adds that if you're trying to scale up a company you'd be surprised about how many things actually take 3x longer than anticipated. However, Mattias is confident that he can turn his dream into reality in the course of 2022.

Growing the company and giving back

There are different things woven into the idea of iGoMoon's branch out. One part is giving back and doing good and the other part is about finding the most efficient way to build a competitive business. In addition, the job market (especially in the digital area) is doubtlessly overheated in Stockholm and it is extremely hard to find good people who are also a perfect culture fit. Having multiple people working remotely for iGoMoon already today, Mattias is eager to take it even one step further and create a whole new office in South Africa and find amazing talents there.

Avoiding silos in internationalization

His idea is to not separate the people in South Africa and treat that team as a silo, but rather to expand the team in Stockholm and have them working together remotely. In the beginning, Mattias is planning to hire about 5 new people in Africa and take it from there. He emphasizes though, that he is not focused on a number like this. The number 1 priority is to get a clear understanding of the process and the right recipe to approach the branch out. Once these processes are in place, he can scale things up.

Cultural diversity

Svea is curious if he is also researching the cultural aspects as well since there are quite significant differences between people from Sweden and South Africa. Mattias explains that he is not researching as much as some may think but adds that it might be a good idea to do so. His approach is more hands-on. He executes and learns along the way.

Wrapping up the episode, Mattias also mentions hiring a new content specialist from South Africa. That person will work for iGoMoon remotely, exactly as Tayla (inbound marketing consultant based in Capetown) has been doing it for quite some time now.

💡 EPISODE TAKE AWAY
When planning to branch out, don't focus on details in the beginning. First, get a clear understanding of a process that allows you to build a competitive business in the most efficient way.

Are you planning to branch out? Let us know if you want to know more about the process Mattias is going through with iGoMoon.