Expat Entrepreneurship
- Apr 16, 2024
- 10 min read
Small businesses on the move
“One misconception is that entrepreneurs love risk. Actually, we all want things to go as we expect. What you need is a blind optimism and a tolerance for uncertainty”
Drew Houston, American Internet entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox
“Examine at your career as a beautiful necklace”
The metaphor is the advice of MK Kim, a Korean best-selling author and motivational speaker and very successful entrepreneur. She uses the metaphor of looking at your life and career as a beautiful necklace, meaning what you need to focus on is to collect the most exquisite beads for your necklace. This you do in so many different ways but in particular by meeting different people and getting new experiences. Travelling is a great way of collecting these different beads, encouraging you to take on a challenge, explore your interests, skills and ambitions; each new experience gives you a unique bead for your necklace.
This metaphor is helpful in discovering the opportunities in front of you and cherishing different experiences as competencies even though they might not necessarily be career-oriented items for your resume. It is also a metaphor for you to embrace challenges and failure that will give your necklace character.
As an expatriate spouse you have chosen to follow your partner to another country in a supporting role to your family. Very often, this also means leaving your job behind. This is both an opportunity and a loss. It is an opportunity to pause, reflect and invest in yourself in terms of further education making it possible to pivot and follow your dreams. However, it is not necessarily easy or sometimes even as lovely as it sounds. Local employment and immigration laws can make it more difficult to find work than expected for many expatriate spouses; full-time family-project management in a foreign country can demand the utmost flexibility; not to mention, primary caregiver responsibilities are often an implicit expectation in many expatriate arrangements.
On your first posting you might enjoy the pause. You might have a high level of enthusiasm to create opportunity and rest peacefully in a career “gap year”. However, multi-year expatriate assignments, in succession, can seemingly morph a career gap into an abyss.
Being a small business entrepreneur can be an appealing way of creating your own professional path whilst traveling the world. The job follows you, it is flexible and can be productive, challenging and very rewarding. But, at the same time, it can be a daunting task. Taking the leap emotionally and financially can be overwhelming; despite all of this, potential could await.
On April 16th 2024, the professional network The Gallery took a closer look at the life of small business entrepreneurship on the move. Three skilled speakers shared their own personal experience from three very different small businesses that can be compatible with a global life. In this article we share reflections and advice from the three entrepreneurial expatriate spouses. The speakers were:
Vega Chang, owner of a jewelry company [insert instagram link]
Xuxu Li, dress designer [insert instagram link]
Leslie Chiverton, owner of a Amazon FBA
“The white fabric is calling me” - The Why
When you want to start your own business you must be clear on The Why behind your business idea. Passion is fuel for the small business entrepreneur. Our speakers illustrated that the source of their passion is varied. Some are motivated by the win itself; it doesn't matter what the company does but making it a success is motivating. Some are highly motivated by the product itself - one of the presenting entrepreneurs, a dress designer, shared that she “felt the white fabric calling to her”.No matter, our speakers do encourage you to invest some time and energy in thinking this through. Finding The Why can be a time-consuming, or even all-consuming process. For one, you will be thinking alot about it. It will fill your days, some of your nights and even your vacations. In addition to discovering the driving force for your business, you will also need to delve into costs, potential for scale, challenges, exit strategies, and much more.
Determining The Why is also a question of finding the sweet spot where your competencies match a need. A need meaning someone would be interested in buying what you are offering. Very often it is you who solves a problem (but the problem can also be “I need a dress for my wedding that is inspired by European design even though I live in Asia”). Then you have to consider to what extent this can be scaled. If the total need of your solution, service or product is very small it will be a short entrepreneurial adventure. However, if you can identify the spot where the 3 overlap - you are good at it, someone wants it, and there is potential to grow it - there is great potential. It is what a previous speaker at The Gallery referred to as “spotting the crack”.
The power of preparation - but avoid death by planning
A useful tool in starting to plan your business is a so-called “Business Model Canvas”. This is a tool to help you organize your thoughts and define:
What is your value proposition, why should people take what you offer?
What is your plan, how will you get it out there to the right people?
How does the money look? Both the ones going in and out of the business
Example of a Business Model Canvas that can be downloaded as a free template. There are several similar tools. https://assets-global.website-files.com/64830736e7f43d491d70ef30/65d36b6f31059e94e2ff517c_A3-Business%20Model%20Canvas-2023.pdf
Creating a Business Model Canvas can be a good way to help yourself look at opportunity from different perspectives before diving headfirst into it. Of course as you go along, the Canvas should be updated. One of our speakers emphasized that it is important not to get scared from the business lingo and many new things you have to learn. You will progress step-by-step; Youtube also has excellent online tutorials on almost every aspect of getting a small business off the ground.
This is not to be confused with the misconception that absolute certainty is required before you begin to start your entrepreneurial journey. Being a small business entrepreneur very much is also about discovery, trial and error.
You need to understand and manage your transaction costs - time is money
“Transaction costs are the total costs of making a transaction, including the cost of planning, deciding, changing plans, resolving disputes, and after-sales. Therefore, the transaction cost is one of the most significant factors in business operation and management.”
Wikipedia
It is crucial to the success of your business that you gain an understanding of your transaction costs. As a small business entrepreneur, you are to a large extent the one who does everything. You are the sales department, you are HR, you are finance and you are operations. You are also the intern making coffee and copies. However, even though you should not be idle with your money, spending your time on the wrong things can be costly for your business in the long run.
Especially in the beginning of your adventure you may think you cannot afford not to use all sales channels for example. You may feel you have spare time and thus also should have another social media account. But managing an instagram account or an Etsy store takes time. Time that you then do not spend on other activities sales, network, strategy etc. It is therefore important to be very realistic on whether or not each activity creates more value than the time invested. Otherwise it is better not to. For example one of our speakers realized that having an Etsy store took up much more energy and focus relative to its generated income. Otherwise, you might be eating into your profit without realizing it. Revenue as a target cannot stand alone. You have to focus on your profit because sometimes getting money can be expensive.
This requires you to have a very good understanding of your own skills and shortcomings. You might not be a numbers person and struggle to understand the rules of book-keeping. Then it can be very costly to do this yourself. Because the amount of time you have to invest in the task relative to another person, is time you don’t spend on other important tasks and it drives up your administrative costs. Same goes for communication, sales etc. Of course you would be able to set up a website but if it is extremely difficult for you it might be a better investment to have someone else do that for you. This can seem risky as you might not yet have a profit to invest and you feel you have spare time, so is it prudent to delegate to expensive contractors? It might be more expensive not to in the long run. The things you choose not to do, are just as important as the things that you prioritize.
The power of pivot: Failure is not the end
The risk of failure is a consistent companion for the entrepreneur. Being a small business entrepreneur, your business will be more vulnerable, you will have less buffer to fall back on and as such, failure can feel constantly proximate. All of our speakers encountered failure in their entrepreneurial journeys, , but don’t let this scare you:embrace the uncertainty.
For all of them they have had experience of failure - to a different extent. The trick is not to give up but to learn and use the experience to fuel your next steps. Of course, there can be failure that is fatal for the business, but in most cases it is failure that teaches you important lessons. Thus, in Silicon Valley it was said that many investors preferred to invest in entrepreneurs that had experienced to not succeed with at least one project before getting the big investment. Because, this would imply a maturity and a humbleness to the task, having learned A, B, C the hard way.
For all of our presenters the ability to pivot as their external surroundings change has been a part of their journey. One of the presenters shared that she did not plan to have her small business a primary occupation, but actually as a side job while working “a real job” in Korea. However, once she arrived in Korea, conditions proved difficult to work full time. Instead she then ventured into exploring how far she could grow the family business. For another presenter , theCOVID-19 pandemic presented challenges to her businesses as a wedding dress designer. However, she took the opportunity to invest in further educating herself an investment she had long been wanting to do - much like the city of Paris that used lockdown to implement bicycling paths in major parts of the city. Different scale but same ability to pivot and make the most of a very difficult situation that otherwise was out of your hands. You update your business plan as you go along and don’t get stuck in your original plan or freeze in the fear of failure. Having a great amount of patience is then needed. Sometimes results take longer than you hoped for.
When you have to pivot, the Growth Matrix of Ansoff can be of inspiration. The framework is originally designed to help you think about your options to develop your company and discover new opportunities. Therefore, it can also be useful to discover how to pivot when you face challenges. The further away you move from your core the higher the risk. But ask yourself, can I offer the same product to a different market? Or can you offer a new product to your existing customers? Doing either of these two things will allow you to use your existing knowledge and skills in new ways of developing your company. All of our speakers had done that or were in the process of that.
Feeling like an imposter
Leading your own small business company, dealing with the insecurity, making every decision, experiencing failure and accepting risk can make you doubt yourself. For all three of our speakers the feeling of being an imposter could sneak up on them. And as the discussion developed among the participants it was clear this was a feeling recognised by many.
It is the feeling that you doubt your own talent, your skills and your accomplishments. As if it was not right even though success or impressive milestones are in front of you. Therefore, an important advice from the speakers was to work and strengthen your self-belief. A strong self-belief guides you through your uncertainty.
To do this, it is helpful to understand your own sabotaging behavior. This enables you to ask for help with the right tasks, in the right situation and to keep you on track if your insecurity takes over. Therefore, working on your self-belief, having the right people around you is important tools for the small business entrepreneur.
You are the boss!
Small business entrepreneurship is indeed an attractive and feasible way of making a career as an expatriate spouse. It is the ultimate way to have both professional purpose and the ever desirableflexibility. You are your own boss and you set the rules. Be aware that it can also be demanding at times, because the flexibility comes at the cost of a team. Thus, it can be a lonely endeavor. Creating a tricky situation where you go for social coffees to get relational stimulation but then feel bad about not focusing on the business. Of course, this is manageable but important to keep in mind. Also, considering your own personality - again self-understanding is important.
Further, as it is a job not confined 9-5, the flipside is that you cannot turn it off. If something happens you have to fix it or a special opportunity might occur that you have to jump on. So, it will follow you on holiday as well. Being aware of this is very important.
Therefore an exit strategy is also very important to consider - actually before you even start. Simply consider what happens if you do not want to do it anymore? Is it a type of business that you can just close for example consulting or other services typically has less of an investment in assets, meaning you could just stop. Unless the projects you do implies a binding long term commitment. If you are selling items then it’s a bigger consideration. Knowing how an exit strategy looks from the beginning is therefore important. This would also allow you to be strategic about this cashing out at the right time.
…Your partner is also involved
As an expatriate spouse, being an independent entrepreneur will very likely still involve your partner - like it or not. It may be your family money that is invested and no matter is the family time as the business goes with you on holiday. Of course, many jobs follow you on vacation so this might be normal. But, having your own company can give rise to other reactions from your partner. One presenter said: “They are your biggest investors without really understanding”. An advice from the presentation was to do a 5-year plan together: What do we want as individuals and as a family managing expectations. This makes it easier when things get tough.
As you think about venturing into it becoming your own boss traveling the world we hope the above can be a helpful guide of the many things to consider to make it successful, to set your own expectations, to align expectations with your partner and to give you courage as you set out to collect some beads for your personal necklace.
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The Gallery is a professional network for spouses living in Seoul with their working partner who wishes to maintain their professional identity. At The Gallery you will find inspirational talks, a network of clever peers and an opportunity to get to know Korea from a business angle although you are currently not working.
If you wish to learn more of the network follow us on Instagram:
If you wish to join the community, be a part of this group on LinkedIn:
