Singapore Global Expansion Playbook

Introduction

Singapore is a popular choice for companies looking to expand internationally due to its strong technology ecosystem, diverse culture, and strategic location in Southeast Asia. When considering expanding to Singapore, it’s important to develop a global expansion playbook to ensure success.

Research & Budget

Before expanding to Singapore, it’s essential to research the market and understand the country’s macroeconomic factors, target customer base, regulatory analysis, cost of expansion, and go-to-market strategy. This should also include researching technical steps, such as company incorporation requirements, tax regimes, and government agencies. In Singapore, companies must have at least one resident director, and the corporate tax rate is 17%. Additionally, each industry has its own regulations and licensing requirements. Once initial research has been completed, the finance team will create a budget that includes revenue targets, human resource costs, professional vendor fees, office space, and marketing expenses.

Legal Operations

Singapore has a well-established legal system and a strong talent base of professional service options, but it’s still crucial to identify a trusted local partner to navigate the country’s government bureaucracy and complex paperwork. If companies choose 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 if they will use a single-country, regional, or global approach. Companies that choose to expand to Singapore often focus on a single-country strategy due to the country’s size and complexity. However, it’s important to keep in mind Singapore’s relationships with neighboring countries, such as Malaysia and Indonesia. Startups, scale-ups, and 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 or service in the original home market, the local team can begin to gain insights from the reception of local customers.

Hire A Team

Singapore has a highly skilled talent pool due to its history as a business hub for US tech companies and repatriation population. When expanding to Singapore, it’s recommended to hire a team with as many local nationals as possible to ramp up sales and operations. Companies should 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, it’s essential to begin the lean cycle of Build, Measure, Learn. A common mistake that companies 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 who enter and attempt to use their current product or service will often find that it does not meet local customers’ expectations. The problems of local Singapore 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 tailored to Singapore, companies can achieve commercial growth.