I’ve seen some foreign companies when they come to Asia to set up a new company, the common mistake is their initial operational expense setting too high, they didn’t try harder to spend the money wisely.
It could be the following reasons:
1) They didn’t make the research about the local market price standard.
2) They want to look elegant and high-class compare to the Asian company.
3) They have lots of money to spend without returning back to the investor.
4) They want to keep their HQ office standard.
5) They want to focus on marketing rather on sales.
6) Their ego is too high.
I would kindly suggest if you could consider minimizing your operating cost at the beginning with a reasonable amount. For example, it is important to give your expat employee good accommodation, this will help them to stay in overseas longer, but if you let them stay in the best accommodation in that country, they will have a wrong impression that they are very successful already, so they don’t need to try harder.
With careless budgeting and low-margin profit on sales could lead your new branch close sooner than earning.
If you have any question, please feel free to leave your comment, or discuss with me.