Accelerate its development in the USA, the recommendations of a lawyer

Accelerate its development in the USA, the recommendations of a lawyer

We don't do business in the United States like we do in France. Le Petit Journal New York went to meet lawyer Stéphane Grynwajc, registered with the French and American bar, who gave us both his recommendations and his warnings.

 

 

 

Lepetitjournal.com New York: What's the first thing an entrepreneur needs to do to grow their business in the United States?

 

Stéphane Grynwajc: We must already understand the particularities of the local market, which are very different from those of the French market. We must make sure to position ourselves in line with the local offer, to think about the best positioning for its products or services, the best way to sell them to the American consumer, knowing that in general, when we sell products or services in the United States, unlike the French market, you have to think vertically. When you are in France, you often believe that if you have products or services that can target all markets, it is ultimately a quality. In the US market, this is often a disadvantage. You should be able to target each of the verticals you are speaking to by explaining and giving the impression to the American consumer somewhere that the solution, or the product, was designed for them. It is very important to specialize things rather than to think generalist. In the United States, when you are a general practitioner, you are a specialist in nothing. We must try to free ourselves from this French particularism of having a service or a product that is addressed to everyone.

 

Then you have to prepare legally. When we enter the American market, we underestimate the importance of the legal. When you are in France, it is true that you have a legal relationship which is more of a reactive than a pro-active relationship. We go to the lawyer whenever we have a problem. Often, when you are an entrepreneur, you will go and see what the competition is doing in terms of general conditions of sale, privacy policy ... and, if only to save costs that you do not consider necessary. to commit upstream, we will adopt what the competition is doing in the field, by adding minor changes after all. We will not necessarily imagine that legal fees, in order to lock in position on a legal level, must be incurred upstream. On the contrary, we try to save costs, and in fact, generally, it is not in the legal that we "invest" first. I think this is the big difference with the relationship to law in the American market, which is a very legalistic market, and where citizens generally have a knowledge of their rights, in legal matters which is very important. more advanced than it can be in France. When you arrive here, it's hard to imagine that law is often the starting point for positioning an entrepreneur. This is however the case, for reasons linked to the operating rules of Anglo-Saxon rights and to the way in which these have developed through successive case-law decisions. As a result, you have to really think upstream and tuck yourself in a preventive way before considering a business development on site. You have to be prepared for things to go wrong and to find yourself negotiating an amicable solution to a dispute with a client in a situation of strength rather than a situation of weakness.

 

I think these are the most important reflexes to have when entering the American market. We really have to change this relationship with the law and reverse its orders of priority.

 

 

 

What are the problems that French entrepreneurs may encounter when arriving on the American market?

 

There is already being poorly prepared. We come here, thinking that we have done very well in France and that therefore, there is no reason why what worked in France should not work in the United States. We will therefore repeat what we did in France, here. It is a real risk to fall into some kind of ease in taking things for granted when they are not. I think this is one of the main pitfalls to avoid.

 

Beyond that, it will also be necessary to rethink its “go to market strategy” in order to adapt it to US standards, adapt a localized marketing strategy and do all the necessary market studies in order to match its offer according to local demand.

 

 

 

What are the most common types of business and which ones can you recommend to entrepreneurs entering the US market?

 

There are several types of companies. But the first question