Is your business doing well for itself in the United States?

Maybe it’s doing too well. If you feel as if you’re reaching the limits of your company’s expansion potential in the United States, or you’re simply looking to tap the wealth of the vast majority of human beings who live beyond our nation’s borders, why not go global?

It’s easier than you think. You don’t need an in-house legal team or scores of native-language speakers to set up a winning overseas presence. However, you do need to mind some considerations that rarely or never come up on the domestic side of the equation. Start with these six steps, and never, ever forget #6!

1. Match With the Right Overseas Partners

Unfounded blame by business partners can hamstring and sideline even the most promising global ventures, so be cautious.

During your overseas expansion, you’re almost certainly going to need to form formal and informal partnerships with local suppliers, vendors, fixers, and other individuals and entities who’ll prove crucial to your success. You need to subject those partners to a thorough vetting process and determine whether your organizations match culturally, temperamentally, and philosophically.

2. Gap, SWOT, and Strategize

Before you launch, you need to do your homework.

The first step in this process is straightforward: you need to gather as much information about your target market’s economy, culture, politics, and consumer behaviors as possible.

You then need to conduct a thorough gap analysis. Based on the results of your local research, what local needs aren’t being met by the players already on the ground? What does your product do differently or better — or, what can it be made to do differently or better?

Finally, conduct a SWOT analysis that pits your product or service against those already being offered. Make sure your case is strong enough to warrant an investment in the local market. If no one buys what you’re selling, you won’t get that investment back.

3. Localize Before You Launch

As a knock-on to your SWOT analysis, you need to figure out what (if anything) needs to be done to tailor your current product mix to the local market. Surprisingly small modifications to your products’ technical specs or qualitative attributes can have impressively large impacts on buyer behavior — but you need to know what to do, and how.

4. Understand What’s Expected of You and Your Products

Consumer behavior isn’t the only force driving localization. Regulatory considerations are crucial too. Before you sell a single product in your target market, you need to understand exactly what’s expected of you: what licenses your company needs, certifications your products need to have, credentials your employees must possess, inspections your in-country facilities (if any) must undergo.

5. Get Your Financial Ducks in a Row

Oh, yeah: taxes. You didn’t think you could get away without paying the local tax man, did you? While it’s true that the United States’s federal tax code is unusually complex and often punitive, other countries’ tax authorities throw their fair share of curveballs too. Before you ramp up your selling in a given market, retain an accountant and/or tax attorney there.

6. When In Doubt, Consult an Expert

Before GPS and wayfinding apps, were you the type of person who flat-out refused to ask for directions?

It’s okay — plenty of us were. But international business is very different than trying to find a new hole-in-the-wall restaurant or your overly friendly coworker’s house. If you have any doubts or worries about the next steps forward in your global expansion, seek out guidance from an expert. Better yet, find a trusted mentor before you need help, and lean on them heavily throughout the process. As your business expands internationally, what are you most worried about? What are you most excited about?