Linguistic capabilities are important, but this is not enough. Your international champion must be uniquely familiar with challenges of developing global business, and they will need to know what issues and challenges they will face at very outset. For example, what are day-to-day business implications of managing international teams remotely? How do I do business with Germans? How do I export to India? What is my time to market if I compare acquisition vs. organic growth in Canada?

The panacea for building a global mindset is not found by sourcing all your people outside company. Very often, just bubbling beneath surface in your own company can be found a wealth of potential, just waiting to be let loose. And these are people who have been working to make your company a success in your home market, so why not give them a chance overseas? Tap into that potential, because if you don’t, you risk de-motivating your own people at outset, and you don’t want to do that. Identify that potential, then let it loose, but not before you have a training budget in place. Tailor your training to your specific needs. Perhaps you need to invest in knowing different facets of export (documentation, letters of credit etc), or perhaps training involved a negotiation skills course, or you may have a direct sales team that requires some cultural training in how to do business in a certain country.

When all is said and done – your training budget forms an inherent part of your future overseas success. You’re selling to human beings, whether at home or overseas, and if you can show that you are at least making an effort to understand your client’s culture and language, you will have made a great leap towards closing that sale. Again, you don’t need to understand laws and customs of every country – but you need to show that you are making an effort, and simply assuming that English is language of international business just does not cut it any more.

Alongside your training budget comes your retention plan, and you will need to have a HR policy in place to reflect your international activities. Identify very early individual motivations. For example, you may have recruited somebody with a Latin background to head up your international expansion. For this person, perhaps amount of time they wish to spend with their family (i.e. number of holidays per year) may be more important than amount of salary you pay them. And then you need to ensure that this particular person fits in with your staff. In some Latin cultures, lunch breaks can sometimes extend to two hours or more, simply because it’s principle meal of day. That may be perfectly acceptable back home, but here you need to ensure that this doesn’t demotivate your team. So once again, if you’re recruiting a foreign national, drill into their CV to see how familiar they are with your own business culture. If they are not – are they really right for job?

And finally, your Human Resources policy embraces an international framework. That means that worked for you at home can no longer apply as you enter new international markets. Recruitment and incentive programmes must reflect needs of everybody within your firm now, not just select few who will be driving your international expansion.

If business, whether local or international, can be defined as exchange of goods and services between people, then people aspect must play an important part. After all - people buy people. And if your staff and teams can show when they are doing business internationally that they are making an effort to know local laws, business etiquette, customs and language of country you are doing business in – your overseas clients and partners will respect you all more, over and above your competitors.

Round three in dealing with venture capitalists or corporate investors. Don't (never!) be so desperate for capital that you agree to turn over reins of company if you don't meet specific performance milestones based on a first or second round of funding. There are too many variables in marketplace for you too control and you're taking too much risk for not enough upside. If this is only way you can raise money from this venture firm or corporate investor then walk away, in end you will be better off.

Here are some "cliff notes" on how to write a business plan - there is no set formula other than covering basics about your company; i.e. technology, market analysis, marketing/business development, competitive analysis, management team and a five year set of (detailed by month from startup to year three) financials. The Executive Summary (first 3-5 pages) is most important, as it is a summary of entire plan and most investors read this carefully and scan rest of business plan.

Don't get caught in trap of endless rewrites based on investor feedback - put your plan through one or two reviews by your BOD members and or seasoned execs that will give you honest feedback. Once plan has been reviewed and approved then go to market with this iteration and stick to it - investors should be investing in you ultimately, not an artificial business plan that more often than not is out of date by time you get to market.

Think about how you are going to market your company as you would any other product or service, blending traditional (fax, direct mail) with interactive processes (web site postings, e-mail, etc.). It's a numbers game, you have to aggressively market your company and be prepared to see a return of only 1-3% versus your output - 1K in direct or opt-in email may only lead to 10-20 casual inquiries, generating 5-7 serious conversations, resulting in 1-3 term sheets (what we will invest for "x" equity) discussions.

Finally, last and most important rule of all is be tenacious, there is no substitute for absolute commitment to growing your company by raising capital or bootstrapping it! Your vision, guts and passion will very often carry day when/where others may give up!!