Richard Butler Creagh on Starting a Business

Welcome to the Richard Butler Creagh blog. A brilliant business idea is not enough to beat the competition on the US market according to Richard Butler Creagh because most business ideas and business models are easily copied by local companies who have a big advantage over non-US companies, among others: very good customer service, countless contacts, and access to sellers can use to physically sell products or services. What should a company launching on the US market do to increase its chances of beating the local competition and business success in the USA? The efforts of a European company to launch a new product or service on the US market should focus on three elements: speed, building a good team in the US, and wise spending of cash.

A new product introduced to the American market cannot be "perfect", there is no time for it. Often the engineer or European manufacturer behind the new product would like to perfect all the details related to the product. This approach will not work for a non-US company that is just trying to create its business model for the US market. A product in an "unfinished" form must be presented to potential US customers as soon as possible. A company with a new idea for the US market should not only overtake the local competition but what is much more important to get the so-called customer feedback, finding out potential buyer’s needs,

Unfortunately, a business cannot build in the United States in the long run by working from abroad. A company entering the US market must build a team of people. Team USA, who not only knows the product very well but also believe in the product. Most often in practice, this also means that Team USA should include someone who knows the local business reality and culture of doing business in the USA.

It is very easy to spend money from third parties, e.g. an investor; it is harder to spend money wisely only on the most necessary things related to building product sales on the US market. For example, not all employees in the company immediately need to work on the latest Mac Pro computers. It takes time to launch a new idea or product on the US market. It is a period of 2 years or more. Since a company introducing a new product to the US will not receive funding in the US, the company should have enough cash to survive the period of introducing the idea-product to the US market.