Ireland Global Expansion Playbook

Introduction

Ireland has been positioning itself as a strategic location for companies looking to expand their international footprint. With a highly educated workforce, favorable tax policies, and a central location in the European Union, Ireland presents itself as an attractive option for global expansion. To ensure a successful execution and growth, companies looking to expand to Ireland should establish a global expansion playbook.

Research & Budget

The first step in any global expansion should be to determine why you have chosen a particular country over another. This can be achieved by analyzing macroeconomic factors, target customer base, regulatory analysis, cost of expansion, and go-to-market strategy. Once the reason has been established, a company should turn to researching technical steps, including company incorporation requirements, tax regimes, and government agencies. For instance, in Ireland, the corporate tax rate is 12.5%, the Value Added Tax (VAT) rate varies depending on the product or service, and all companies must register their employees with the Revenue Commissioners. After completing initial research, the finance team can then create a budget, including revenue targets, human resource costs, professional vendor fees, office space, and marketing.

Legal Operations

Ireland has a reputation for being business-friendly with a streamlined corporate establishment process. However, companies must still assess partners and vendors carefully. While there may be many seemingly cost-effective options, the lowest option may not always be the best. Companies should identify a trusted local partner to navigate government bureaucracy and paperwork. If a company chooses to set up a local entity instead of leveraging an International Employer of Record (EOR) solution, the corporate establishment process will need to take place before a local team is formed and sales can begin.

Go To Market

When creating a go-to-market global expansion strategy, companies must determine whether they will use a single country, regional, or global approach from day one. Companies that expand to Ireland often treat it as a regional strategy due to its central location in the European Union. By choosing one region to funnel resources into, companies are forgoing the opportunity to gain learnings from other potentially high-growth markets. Startups, scale-ups, and even enterprise companies can benefit from leveraging lean principles for planning a go-to-market strategy. By launching a minimum viable product (MVP), often in the form of the product/service in the original home market, the local team can begin to gain insights from the reception of local customers.

Hire A Team

Ireland boasts a highly skilled talent pool with a large percentage of the population having tertiary education. In order to ramp up sales and operations, hiring a team with as many local nationals as feasible is recommended. Companies planning their Ireland global expansion playbook will usually map out the first 10 hires during the budget phase. Common mistakes that globally expanding businesses make include insufficient planning for employer social contribution levels, termination protections, intellectual property protection, and common vs. mandatory benefit programs. These can be mitigated through a combination of research and working with local partners.

Build, Measure, Learn

Once a team has been hired and the go-to-market strategy is established, operators should begin the lean cycle of Build, Measure, Learn. A common mistake company leaders make when expanding globally is not treating the local operation as a startup within the company. This requires re-establishing product-market fit through MVP launches, data gathering, and iterations. Companies that enter and attempt to use their current product or service will often find that it does not meet the local customers’ expectations. The problems of local Irish consumers will vary greatly from more advanced economies. On-the-ground research from first principles is a highly recommended approach to learning and establishing which problem you are solving for. By building a global expansion playbook that is tailored to Ireland, companies can gain commercial growth.