I'm sure all young entrepreneurs dream about creating a company that will grow to become a multinational corporation like Coca Cola, Microsoft or my favourite multinational Macdonalds (just sent the missus out to get my lunch, a large quarter pounder with cheese meal, plus six nuggets with sweet curry sauce, "what drink would you like sir?" full fat coke). Unfortunately this blog is not going to be about me telling you we've launched The Building Experience Azerbaijan office. Of course our priority is to become a recognised local brand in sunny Essex after which we want to become a recognised national brand. So obviously international expansion is some way off. However one thing many entrepreneurs have in common is they like to look at the global/big picture and we like to dream. So on my recent travels i started to wonder could The Building Experience ever become a multinational corporation?

A multinational corporation is a company or enterprise that manages production establishments or delivers services in more than one country. Thus i suppose if we do a job in Wales or Scotland we would have achieved my dream, but i don't think that would really count. A multinational corporation in my eyes is one that operates in numerous countries like those companies i highlighted earlier. Multinational corporations can be divided into three main types, horizontally integrated, vertically integrated and diversified multinationals. I'm not going to go in to detail about the different types but if you want to know more i'm sure you'll find a good description somewhere on the internet.

But back to my question, can The Building Experience become a multinational? Obviously it would need a great deal of hard work, investment, time and some luck. But this isn't the real issue here. The real question is do people in other countries do DIY? Something i genuinely don't know the answer to. Do they have Wickes in the Ivory Coast? Is Ultimatehandyman.com a popular website in Tibet? Or most importantly is Nick Knowles an international icon and as popular with the ladies in Peru as he is with the ladies throughout the UK? 

I know of quite a few people who are doing up houses themselves in France, but they are English (i call it the peaceful invasion, but i'll save that for another blog). But i don't know if Frenchman do DIY or rather faites-le vous-même? I think they probably do and i suspect most of northern Europe have a DIY industry of some note. But i can't be certain and what about the rest of the world? As i said i really don't know. So i suppose with this blog i'm asking you the question is DIY a purely English phenomenon?

Anyway i suppose i'm getting ahead of myself with all this talk of multinational corporations. Perhaps we should concentrate on expanding into Norfolk first!