Responsible for running the Trade Commission of Denmark in Atlanta, assisting Danish owned firms with entering and building their business in the USA, the year 2009 can clearly be characterized as having been an uphill battle. We were engaged in 223 project exactly, spanning from assisting our incubator companies (24 companies are currently present in our incubator at the Atlanta office), but most of these projects were smaller in scope, less aggressive in market penetration ambitions, and characterized by extreme carefulness by our clients.

Our clients had an extremely tough time growing their business, it was simply a stand still in purchasing amongst their customer base. There was a lack of financing both on the supplier and buyer end, and it was a year where negative perceptions drove most all businesses to hold of their purchasing decisions, making only the necessary investments. Our clients felt it for sure, a few of them faltered, but a few of them were even more successful than they had ever been. The clients that we saw doing well were surprisingly in fashion and consumer goods industries, industries where the macro economic data showed to have hit the hardest, and where numerous companies faltered. One could argue then that what 2009 truly clarified was what are the winning business building strategies for doing business in the USA. It should be noted that the companies we work with typically are small and medium sized firms in Denmark, relatively established with exports to at least one other country, a solid portfolio of products. While mature in their home market, the companies when starting in the USA can be considered complete start-ups in the USA for all intents and purposes. The companies when starting in the USA are typically 1-2 people, they have no revenues, no customers or references, and the management is in 90% of all cases represented by foreigners implanted here from the Corporate HQ. Typically the people sent over to manage the US operation have held a managerial position in sales at the Corporate HQ in Denmark.

Having noted the above, our portfolio of clients also include more mature businesses, whom have had several years of revenues in the USA, has a staff of plus 10, and considerable footprint in the market. The characteristics of the winners are the same.

What it takes to make it in the worlds biggest market – the 5 parameters that leaders of successful foreign start-ups portray:

1. A high level of energy and a 24/7 attitude: Leaders of the winning companies went to work when the looser’s went home. The leaders in winning companies were sending emails at night, were attending client and networking events in the mornings, and had a travel and exhibition schedule that was brutal! When others stopped working, they kept on going.

2. Humbleness (A “not to proud to do anything that is necessary to succeed” attitude, in other words): The successful leaders manage across levels, and involve themselves very much in the day-to-day operations of the business. In reality this is a necessity, as with any startup, but unfortunately some of the lesser succesful companies portrayed the exact opposite behavior.

3. Intense focus on optimizing the investment vs. value, i.e. ability to operate very lean: Operating extremely lean, managing the resources, was considered a virtue in the succesful firms, while hardly remembered in the unsuccessful firms. As we advise, you must realize that it takes investments to make it big in the USA, but what some firms fail to remember is that the investment return must be higher than your outlay….otherwise it does not make sense. The successful firms carefully evaluated every single resource allocated as to the expected return, then made the choice. Follow up measures to best possibly track the ROI was an integral part, and not just on the parameter of sales, but in other ways such as contacts made, learnings and inputs, and of course leads driven and sales closed. As a closing comment, while operating lean the successful companies focused on value instead of price, with the example being their investment in using our offices versus a low-cost office solutions provider that offered no value added.

4. Having an open mind and being willing to learn (The ability to be open to learn from experienced sources, then implement initiatives that may not have been part of your initial plan): The successful firms involved us, The Trade Commission of Denmark in Atlanta, and took our advice and had input from our advisors, which are some of the absolute experts in the country. The firms that did well opened their books, shared their secrets and saw the benefits of a partner interaction vs. a supplier buyer relationship. An example is our advice to one of the more successful firms to establish themselves in Atlanta, although macro data and naivety with the client pointed to another region in the US as the place to set up their corporation and find their customer base.

5. Being pound wise: Doing only what they do best, and getting someone else to do what is none core: The unsuccessful firms could be easily identified by how much time their leadership spent doing the low value, not business building tasks, that was required but truly did not move the needle to their business’ advantage. Best example: Administrative work to include accounting and book-keeping. While every company is required to keep the books, and financial oversight is critical, the actual posting of debits and credits, paying bills, following up on missing invoices, etc. is truly not anything that is fit for any US CEO of a foreign start-up to do….this person should be out nurturing existing clients, selling and promoting the firm to new clients and potential partners, and leading and motivating. The unsuccessful companies were pound foolish and penny wise, as the expression goes, leaving them overwhelmed and frustrated to do the things that mattered.

Going into 2010 I will make it the role of myself and my team to communicate the above 5 traits to companies considering entering the US market. Behavior is often times reflective of incentive systems and are as such things that must be considered before the company starts up, yes even as early as in the planning phase at Corporate HQ.