So, you want to do business in another country…?

How to avoid the most obvious mistakes

You’re lying awake at 3am, thinking about the expansion.

The opportunity is real – you know that. But so are the questions. What regulations don’t you know about? What’s the filing you’ve never heard of that could derail everything six months in?

Back home, you know how things work. You know who to call. You know when someone’s giving you good advice versus just telling you what you want to hear.

But over there? You’re the foreigner who doesn’t understand the cultural context. Your usual instincts for judging competence don’t work. Even checking credentials is hard when you don’t know what credentials matter.

Here’s what you’re really worried about: the invisible trip wires. The employment law that works completely differently. The bank account requirement that seems minor until it’s not. The tax treatment that everyone locally just “knows” but isn’t written down anywhere obvious.

Most of all, you want to stop feeling alone in this.

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A personal introduction from Horacio Rocha San Miguel:

I’ve spent my career helping clients navigate exactly this uncertainty. And the most important thing I’ve learned is this: you don’t have to figure it out alone.

Over the next five days, I’m going to introduce you to something most business owners never get access to – a global network of colleagues I know personally, whose judgement I trust, and who will look after you the way I would myself.

You’ll hear real stories. You’ll learn the mistakes others have made, so you don’t have to make them yourself. And by the end, you’ll understand why our clients sleep better at night when they’re expanding into unfamiliar territory.

Horacio Rocha San Miguel
Managing Partner, TGS Mexico

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What you’ll receive over the next five days:

• Day 1: The question that wakes you up at 3am – and why it matters that you’re asking it
• Day 2: How to borrow trust that’s already been built
• Day 3: The 8 mistakes we see most often
• Day 4: The phone call you didn’t know existed
• Day 5: Introductions to the people on the ground

Yes, I want to receive the series →
(in the demonstration, on this page, the link simply scrolls to the first email)

Subject: You’re not the first person to feel this way
Sender: Demo – Horacio Rocha
To: Demo Client
Date: Monday, 23 February 2026 at 06:30

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⚠️ Demo note: The subject line above is the real subject line – exactly what arrives in the client’s inbox. In the live version, this email goes out automatically on the morning after sign-up, sent from Horacio’s own address via Mailchimp. All links in the email work as they would for the real version.
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When you plan to do business abroad, the most important thing is to know where you can find support – support you can trust.

That sounds simple. It isn’t.

Back home, you know how things work. You know who to call. You know when someone’s giving you good advice versus just telling you what you want to hear. You know how to judge competence, how to read a room, how to sense when something is being glossed over.

But over there? You’re the foreigner who doesn’t understand the cultural context. Your usual instincts don’t work. Even checking credentials is hard when you don’t know what credentials matter.

Here’s what you’re really worried about: the invisible trip wires. Not the obvious things – you’ll find those. It’s the employment law that works completely differently from anything you’re used to. The bank account requirement that seems minor until it isn’t. The tax treatment that everyone locally just “knows” but that isn’t written down anywhere obvious. The contract clause that translates perfectly but means something different in another legal system.

And then there’s the trust problem. When you can’t pop round to someone’s office – when you don’t have your usual network to ask “who’s good?” – trust becomes your scarcest resource.

You want someone who gets it. Someone who understands both where you’re coming from AND the market you’re moving into. Someone who can translate not just language, but business culture, expectations, timelines.

Most of all, you want to stop feeling alone in this.

Does any of this sound familiar? →

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I’ve spent my career helping clients navigate exactly this uncertainty. In tomorrow’s email, I’ll explain the single most valuable thing our network gives you – something you can’t manufacture quickly, but that we’ve already built on your behalf.

Horacio Rocha San Miguel
Managing Partner, TGS Mexico

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Subject: The trust you don’t have to earn
Sender: Demo – Horacio Rocha
To: Demo Client
Date: Tuesday, 24 February 2026 at 06:30

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⚠️ Demo note: Arrives the following morning. The reply invitation at the foot of this email is the first moment a real conversation can begin – in the live version, replies go directly to Horacio.
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You can’t manufacture trust quickly. It takes time, shared experience, watching someone handle difficult situations with integrity.

But here’s the thing about a network like ours: the trust has already been built – just not with you yet.

When I introduce you to a colleague in another country, I’m not passing along a name from a directory. I’m lending you my trust. Trust I’ve built over years of working alongside that person – referring clients back and forth, calling each other at odd hours to sense-check something, sitting in the same conference room watching how they handle a difficult question.

That’s not the same thing as a recommendation. It’s something more valuable.

Think about what that means in practice. Your question comes up – something specific about a country where neither of us is the expert. I don’t spend hours searching online, trying to piece together whether the source is reliable. I pick up the phone. I call someone I know. Not because I’m paying for premium access, but because that’s what colleagues do.

That colleague doesn’t send back a generic answer. They ask questions first. They want to understand your specific situation – because their reputation with me, and through me with you, depends on giving advice that actually works. Not advice that sounds good. Advice that holds up.

Twice a year, the whole network comes together – from São Paulo to Singapore, London to Lagos. We sit in the same rooms. We argue about technical problems over dinner. We find out who thinks carefully about which topics. By the time I introduce you to someone, I already know the answer to the question you haven’t thought to ask yet: can I trust this person when it really matters?

See how this worked for one client →

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Here’s where you come in:

The most useful thing you can do right now – before anything else – is tell me what you’re actually worried about.

Not the polished version. The 3am version. Is it employing people in a country you don’t understand? Buying property? Expanding into a market where you don’t know who to trust? Not knowing what you don’t know?

Hit reply and tell me. One sentence is enough. In the live version of this series, that reply goes directly to Horacio – and he reads it.

Tomorrow: the mistakes we see most often. The ones that were all avoidable, and all happened anyway.

Horacio Rocha San Miguel
Managing Partner, TGS Mexico

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Subject: Eight mistakes. All avoidable. All happened anyway.
Sender: Demo – Horacio Rocha
To: Demo Client
Date: Wednesday, 25 February 2026 at 06:30

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⚠️ Demo note: Day three. The link to the full mistakes page demonstrates how the static pages extend the emails without cluttering them – the email creates the appetite, the page satisfies it.
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I want to tell you something that might be uncomfortable.

Most of the clients who’ve come to us with cross-border problems didn’t come to us first. They came to us after something went wrong. After the penalty. After the audit. After the structure they’d built turned out to have a flaw that was entirely predictable – if you knew what to look for.

None of them were careless people. Most of them were moving fast, which is what ambitious businesses do. But speed has a cost when the compliance catches up.

Here are three of the situations we see most often.

Assuming your home structure travels well. The way your business is set up – its legal form, its ownership structure, the way profits flow – may create unexpected tax exposures the moment you cross a border. What works perfectly at home can be costly abroad. Sometimes seriously so.

Missing the employment law moment. Many countries require formal contracts, state contributions, and full compliance with local labour law from the very first hire. “We’ll sort it out once we’re established” is a reasonable instinct. It’s also how penalties happen.

Moving faster than your advisers. Hiring people, signing leases, starting to trade – before the structure is ready to support it. This is the most common theme we see in cross-border problems. Not negligence. Just momentum.

These are three of the eight. The full list includes some less obvious ones – including one about bank accounts that surprises almost everyone the first time they hear it.

Read all 8 mistakes →

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One more thing while you’re thinking about this:

If you’re wondering whether your target country is one where we have people on the ground – people who’ve seen these problems up close and know how to get ahead of them -

See where TGS has member firms →

If you can see your target country on that map, reply and tell me. I’ll tell you exactly who you’d be talking to.

Tomorrow: I’ll show you what actually happens when you need help across borders. The phone call most business owners don’t know they could be making.

Horacio Rocha San Miguel
Managing Partner, TGS Mexico

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Subject: What happens when I don’t know the answer
Sender: Demo – Horacio Rocha
To: Demo Client
Date: Thursday, 26 February 2026 at 06:30

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⚠️ Demo note: Day four. The image is Ibrahim – a real member of the network, photographed mid-conversation on a Zoom call. In the live version, this image and caption could reflect a regional variant: a network member familiar to clients in whichever part of the world.
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Let me show you exactly what happens when one of my clients needs support across borders.

We’re talking about their expansion plans. A specific question comes up – something about regulatory requirements, or employment law, or a tax structure in a country where neither of us is the expert. In the old world, this is where things slow down. I spend hours trying to piece together reliable information from sources I can’t fully verify. Or I refer them to someone I don’t really know, and hope for the best.

That’s not what happens.

I pick up the phone. Or I get on a call like this one.

“I want my client to contact me after one or two years and say: Ibrahim, thank you so much for that contact – they gave me what I was looking for.” – Ibrahim Abu Yousef, TGS network member.

Within hours – sometimes minutes – I have a response. Not a generic answer pulled from a website. A considered response from someone who has worked inside that market, who understands the unwritten rules, who knows what the question behind my question actually is.

That colleague asks questions before they answer. They want to understand the specific situation – because their professional relationship with me depends on giving advice that actually works. There’s no “let me check with my senior manager.” The person I’m calling has the authority to make decisions and commit to approaches. The conversation happens between people who are empowered to solve your problem.

Here’s what makes this different from other referral arrangements: these are people who have watched each other work. When I vouch for a colleague, it’s not based on a brochure or a LinkedIn profile. It’s based on seeing how that person handled a difficult client situation. It’s based on technical discussions where we’ve tested each other’s thinking. It’s based on years of shared professional history.

You benefit from all of that – from the moment I make the introduction.

Meet the people I’d introduce you to →

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If you’ve already replied with your situation or your target country, I have it. If not – it’s not too late. Just hit reply. One sentence is enough.

Tomorrow is the last email in this series. I’ll introduce you to a few of my colleagues personally – and then I’d like to suggest something practical.

Horacio Rocha San Miguel
Managing Partner, TGS Mexico

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Subject: You’ve done the reading. Shall we talk?
Sender: Demo – Horacio Rocha
To: Demo Client
Date: Friday, 27 February 2026 at 06:30

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⚠️ Demo note: The final email. Everything in the series has been building to this: a warm, low-pressure invitation to have a conversation. In the live version, the calendar link opens Horacio’s real booking page. The reply route is equally valid – some clients will prefer to write first.
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You’ve heard me talk about colleagues in the network. Let me introduce you to a few of them properly.

Marcus, Brazil. Grew up in the network. Spent time in California. Bridges continents for clients who need someone on the ground in Brazil. His rule: “If you refer a client to me, even if you’ve only been in the network three months, I will help you.”
More about Marcus →

Marine, France. Tax lawyer in Paris. Fluent in three languages. One of the founding firms. The person you want when something complex is happening across European borders and you need someone who has seen it before.
More about Marine →

Mikail, Indonesia. Jakarta-based, with relationships that reach the institutions that matter across South-East Asia. “You’re not an accounting network if the stock exchange doesn’t know you.”
More about Mikail →

Pelumi, Nigeria. Came to accounting by accident. Stayed for the impact. Works across West and East Africa, and thinks harder than most about what the profession is actually for. “We can’t remove the human factor.”
More about Pelumi →

Jonathan, UK. Trained at what is now BDO, built a career on his own terms, and ended up president of the network. Leads international work at Hillier Hopkins, one of TGS’s larger practices. His view of what the network is for: “Everything is about human relationships. People do business with people.” More about Jonathan →

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This network started in 2011. Eleven professionals in a hotel basement in London – some of them hiding behind newspapers so they wouldn’t be seen by competitors, or by the networks they already belonged to. They were building something new because the existing options weren’t good enough for the clients they actually cared about.

That’s still what this is. Not a directory. Not a franchise. A network of people who know each other, trust each other, and pick up the phone for each other – and by extension, for you.

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You’ve spent five days with this. Here’s what I’d like to suggest.

You now know about the invisible trip wires. You know how borrowed trust works. You know the mistakes that were all avoidable and all happened anyway. You know that when a question comes up, I pick up the phone rather than reaching for a search engine.

If any of what you’re planning feels like it might benefit from a conversation – even if you’re not sure yet, even if it’s early – I’d like to hear about it.

Not a sales call. A 20-minute conversation about what you’re trying to build. No obligation, no pressure. Just an honest conversation about whether this network can help.

Reply to this email. Tell me what you’re working on. I’ll get back to you personally.

Or if you already know you’d like to talk: Pick a time that suits you →

Horacio Rocha San Miguel
Managing Partner, TGS Mexico

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Headline: “Does this sound familiar?”

You’re not the first person to lie awake thinking about this. And the worry isn’t irrational – it’s accurate. Doing business in another country genuinely is harder than doing it at home, in ways that aren’t always obvious until something goes wrong.

Here are the situations we recognise most often.

You’re expanding into a new country for the first time. Setting up an entity, hiring local staff, establishing operations. You need someone who knows the territory from the inside – not a web search and some optimism.

You’ve already expanded, but something feels uncertain. A filing you’re not completely sure about. A tax position that seemed straightforward but now you’re less confident. An informal employment arrangement that worked fine at first but needs proper structure before it becomes a problem.

You’ve had a transaction with cross-border elements. A sale, an acquisition, an investment, a property deal. These routinely trigger obligations that neither side fully anticipates – and that don’t announce themselves until they do.

You’re bringing in a foreign investor, or taking investment abroad. Due diligence, structure, and regulatory approval all need to happen in places where you don’t yet have advisers. The window for getting the structure right is usually shorter than it looks.

You’re an individual with income, assets, or tax obligations in more than one country. Perhaps you’ve relocated. Perhaps you’ve inherited property abroad. The complexity crosses borders even when the paperwork doesn’t.

One thing worth saying: most of the businesses who’ve needed our help didn’t expect to need it until they did. If you’re not sure whether your situation qualifies, that uncertainty is itself a reason to start a conversation.

Sign up for the series →

Headline: “How it worked for one client”

When a client in Mexico needed urgent advice about Italian property law, Horacio knew exactly who to call.

Not because he had searched a directory. Because he had spent hours alongside Alberto of TGS Turin – at conference tables, in corridor conversations, in the kind of long dinners where the real professional discussions happen. He knew how Alberto thought. He knew how Alberto’s team worked. He knew that when something needed to get done, it would get done.

It was a public holiday in Italy. It didn’t matter.

Alberto and his team moved immediately. A complex problem – the kind that could have stalled the client’s plans for weeks – was resolved in days.

This particular client, Raul, had worked with Horacio’s firm for forty years. Father and son. He knew what good service looked like.

“It was amazing to receive the great support from TGS Turin, especially considering the holiday season. In a couple of days it was all set.”

What made this possible wasn’t luck, and it wasn’t a premium service tier. It was a relationship built over years – the kind that means a call gets answered on a public holiday, that a colleague asks the right questions rather than sending a generic response, that your problem is treated as their problem.

This is what borrowed trust looks like in practice. Horacio had earned Alberto’s trust. Alberto had earned Horacio’s. And when the moment came, you stepped straight into a relationship that was already warm.

Alberto, TGS Turin – the colleague Horacio called when a client needed urgent help with Italian property law.

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Headline: “8 mistakes we see (so you don’t make them)”

(Linked from Email 3)

We see these situations repeatedly. Usually when clients ask for help after something has already gone wrong. None of them are unusual. All of them were avoidable.

1. Assuming your home-country structure travels well.
The way your business is set up – its legal form, its ownership structure, the way profits flow – may create unexpected tax exposures in another jurisdiction. What works perfectly at home can be costly, sometimes seriously so, once you cross a border.

2. Missing the employment law moment.
Many countries require formal employment contracts, contributions to state schemes, and compliance with local labour law from the very first hire. The instinct to get established first and sort the paperwork later is understandable. It’s also how penalties happen.

3. Underestimating permanent establishment risk.
If your employee or representative is doing business in a country – closing deals, signing contracts, holding stock – tax authorities may conclude that you have a taxable presence there, whether or not you intended that. The thresholds are lower than most people expect.

4. Getting the VAT or sales tax wrong.
Indirect tax rules vary enormously between jurisdictions, change frequently, and apply at different points in a transaction depending on where you are. Digital services, cross-border goods, and the distinction between B2B and B2C all have rules that don’t work the same way everywhere.

5. Opening a bank account too late.
In many countries, opening a corporate bank account takes weeks or months, requires in-person attendance, and depends on very particular paperwork. Businesses can find themselves legally established and operationally paralysed – unable to pay suppliers or receive payments while they wait.

6. Trusting a translation but not a context.
A contract translated accurately from one language to another may still not say what you think it says, because legal concepts don’t map neatly across jurisdictions. “Director,” “partner,” “beneficial owner” – these terms carry different legal weight in different systems, and the difference matters.

7. Leaving transfer pricing as an afterthought.
If your business operates across borders, the prices you charge between your own entities are subject to rules that tax authorities take seriously. Many growing businesses discover this at audit rather than in advance. By then, the options are limited.

8. Moving faster than your advisers.
The most common theme in cross-border problems is simply this: the business moved – hired people, signed leases, started trading – before the structure was ready to support it. Speed is a competitive advantage. But it has a cost when the compliance catches up.

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If any of these feel familiar, or if you’re about to do something that might belong on this list, that’s what the network is for.

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Headline: “Where TGS has member firms”

We started in 2011 with eleven firms. Today the network spans six continents – not because we grew for the sake of growing, but because the right people in the right places asked to be part of it.

TGS member firms across six continents.

If you can see your target country on that map, you’re not starting from scratch. There’s already someone there who knows someone here – and that changes everything about how quickly you can move and how much you can trust what you’re told.

If your target country isn’t on the map yet, that’s worth a conversation too. The network is still growing, and there are things we can do even where we don’t yet have a permanent presence.

Either way: reply to any of the emails in this series and tell Horacio where you’re headed. That’s all it takes to start.

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Headline: “The people on the ground”

(Network Hub – linked from Emails 4 and 5)

The network is ultimately about people. Not firms, not offices, not directories. The reason this works is that the people involved know each other – have worked alongside each other, tested each other’s thinking, shared difficult client situations. Here are a few of the colleagues you might work with.

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Marcus, TGS Brasil.

Marcus joined his childhood friend’s family accounting firm in 2008, bringing international experience from his time in California. Fluent in English, he works with clients coming into Brazil from North America, Europe, and China – setting up entities, managing payroll and accounting, navigating transfer pricing.

His approach to the network is straightforward: “If you refer a client to me, even if you’ve only been in the network three months, I will help you.”

For Marcus, the value of TGS comes down to the personal connections built at conferences – and the confidence of being able to tell a client: “Yes, we have someone there.”

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Marine, France

Marine is a partner and tax lawyer in Paris, fluent in French, English, and German, with over a decade of experience in international tax law. She advises companies and individuals on tax audits, transfer pricing, VAT, and cross-border taxation – with particular expertise in Franco-German tax issues.

As International Business Coordinator for TGS France – one of the largest and longest-standing firms in the network – Marine helps clients navigate complex situations across Europe and beyond. For her, the network means access to colleagues who share the same values: diversity, entrepreneurial thinking, and solutions that are genuinely tailored to the client’s situation rather than taken off a shelf.

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Mikail, Indonesia

Mikail is a partner in Jakarta leading audit, tax, and advisory work across Indonesia – a country where many international companies establish subsidiaries after setting up regional headquarters in Singapore. He maintains relationships with key institutions including the Singapore Stock Exchange and the Indonesian European Chamber of Commerce.

His view of what a network needs to be is clear: “You’re not an accounting network if the stock exchange doesn’t know you.”

His firm both sends and receives referrals as Indonesia’s economy expands. For Mikail, TGS is more than professional development – it’s a catalyst for ideas, and a way of maintaining integrity while navigating the genuine complexity of operating across very different cultures and markets.

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Pelumi, Nigeria

Pelumi is a chartered accountant in Abuja who came to the profession by accident and stayed for the impact. She leads audit and advisory work across Nigeria, and within the network has built close working relationships with colleagues in South Africa, Senegal, and Kenya.

A regular presenter at TGS conferences, she is particularly interested in how accountants can use new technology without losing what matters most about the work. “We can’t remove the human factor,” she says.

For Pelumi, the network means being able to tell clients – with confidence – that whatever they need, across whatever borders, there is someone who can help. “It gives me the confidence to handle whatever my clients need.”

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Jonathan, UK

Jonathan is a partner at Hillier Hopkins – one of the larger firms in the network – where he leads on international work and heads up marketing. He trained at what is now BDO before setting up on his own, driven by a determination to stay independent. That instinct has never left him, or the firm. Now TGS president, he brings the same fiercely independent streak to shaping the network as a whole.

Hillier Hopkins nearly didn’t join TGS at all. They were close to signing with a much larger network when a regulatory issue intervened. Jonathan had stayed in touch with Andrew, and when that door closed, he walked through this one instead – attracted by the prospect of being influential rather than insignificant, and by TGS’s strength in Europe at a moment when, post-Brexit, he expected European complexity to create plenty of work.

For Jonathan, the network is less a financial driver than a mindset one. It means being able to sit across from a client and say: yes, we have someone there. “Everything is about human relationships,” he says. “People do business with people.” He goes to the conferences, works hard, sleeps little, and finds it thoroughly enjoyable.

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Headline: “Let’s talk”

You’ve spent five days learning how this network works. If something in that time has felt relevant to what you’re planning – even if you’re not quite sure yet – this is the moment to find out.

A 20-minute call. No preparation needed. Just tell Horacio what you’re working on, and he’ll tell you honestly whether the network can help.

(In this demonstration, Horacio’s calendar would appear here. The link returns to the top of the page.)

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