Risks

Companies that expand into Europe without proper preparation and understanding face the following risks:

• Cyber crime and fraud risks increase when you expand internationally. Too often, people go into partnership with someone they "met" on LinkedIn without properly vetting them. 
  
• Turbulence in global markets means that some currencies are falling quickly, so managing financial risks in terms of perfecting your investment and managing exchange costs is crucial.
• When you enter another country with your product, you risk intellectual property violations that can be much more difficult to pursue than stateside.

There is also risk to staying on the sidelines;

• If you don't go international, you could lose your domestic market because international trade agreements have made it possible for foreign companies to now export in or invest in your domestic markets. There's a significant risk to doing nothing.

Opportunities

Companies that go international fully prepared with the right research and understandings have the following opportunities:

• When you go international, you get involved in new knowledge networks, which means you can develop your product and new products in new ways. You'll gain a new understanding of where the sector is going, what the competition is up to, what new lines of business you can develop.
  
• Going international doesn't just mean that you can increase your margins overall; it means that you can manage your risk across different markets.
• When you have an international presence, it means you can actually defend your domestic presence because you have new feedback and sources for innovating new products. With those new products, you can possibly even regain or expand your domestic market share.