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Foreign Languages and Markets for The Entreprenuer

Thanks to my friend David Askaripour the creator of Mind Petals for the inspiration to write this post. I’ve been thinking for quite sometime about how foreign languages are perfect for entrepreneurs. Foreign languages are great for entrepreneurs because of the amazing business opportunities they can give them. The United States is a hard market to enter because there is so much competition, established markets, and a lot of people with more money than most new entrepreneurs. However, if you a brave, adventurous and willing to learn a foreign language there are millions of opportunities available.

In foreign countries where economies are weak or gaining strength the same industries that are already dominated here are practically non existent there. Think if you created a premium coffee brand in Russia, well someone already has but you can take the same type of American models and apply them to foreign markets. (Coffee Entrepreneur Story). What if you took the Borders Bookstore model to Brazil, created the Ebay of China (again that’s been done.),or any other nationally recognized and successful model to another country. There are huge opportunities out there but you need to have certain skills to navigate the complicated world of foreign economies.

Obviously you need to be able to navigate the foreign legal system, understanding the needs and wants of your market, but most importantly you need to be able to communicate. If you cannot communicate with local professionals or customers and understand their needs and wants you won’t succeed. The only way to understand and connect with a culture or market is to speak it’s language.

So how does a busy entrepreneur start learning a foreign language. Well lucky for you you have the advantage of being and an entrepreneur and the number one rule of entrepreneurialism (is that a word) is to JUST START. So here’s your entrepreneur language learning checklist.

1. Pick a country or language where you would like to start a business.
2. Start studying
   1. Remember the secret to studying is actually practicing the language by speaking.
   2. Don’t forget to not only study the language but the culture and history of the country
3. Make friends locally that speak the language and ask them tons of questions
4. Take an investigative trip to the country to scope things out and to practice the language with natives.

So go take advantages of all of the opportunities available in the world. Don’t limit yourself to just the English speaking countries just because you are intimidated by language barriers. Anyone can learn a foreign language and if you have the desire to be successful you will.

*If you are starting your business locally you can still apply all the same lessons that I just mentioned just focus on the local immigrant populations that speak the language.