I need help!

Dear readers,

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So if you’ve read my previous blog posts, you know that I’ve decided the time has come to expand my company into Europe.? But where?

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It’s a big, complicated place, Europe – am I right that there are more than a dozen countries?? Wait a sec… I can look that up… OMG, it’s 45!!? (I hope I won’t be tested on this.)? As a sophisticated globetrotter, I’ve already visited some of these countries – England, Paris, Oktoberfest – but now I realize there are many, many more nations than I imagined.? This is going to make the choice even harder, I suppose, since all of them will no doubt be crying out for my profitable little business to choose it as its new European home.

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Hmm, I can see this decision is going to be even tougher than I thought.

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I’ve started doing a little homework.? Thank you, Bill Gates , for inventing the Internet!? On that big beautiful WWW, I’m finding some pretty impressive stuff.? Like this article about “Europe’s new tech start-up capital”, or especially this one about a cool new institute in Working for the State of Geneva . Really loving that “Quantum” connection, by the way – it’s my company’s middle name!? I’m sure we’ll just naturally gravitate towards each other.

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Both of those articles happen to be about Switzerland.? Never been there, but it’s obvious I need to put it on my list.? (Good thing I like cheese.)

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Speaking of Switzerland, how on earth did such a small country get to speak so many languages?? Interesting video, About Switzerland – thanks for sending it to me, Serge Ballestraz !

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But coming back to the need to do some homework.? What a Godsend it is to have so much information at my fingertips, everything from GDP growth to yesterday’s price for a gallon of gas!? Which appears to be sold only in the metric system over there – I’m definitely not too happy about needing to learn all that liters and meters stuff.? (Idea: I’ll get Bob, my Operations guy, to figure it out.)

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The United Nations looks like a pretty good source of info for comparing countries as potential sites for Jackson Quantum Ventures’ new European HQ.? But gosh, do they ever produce a lot of data, though!? Not sure how relevant it is to compare things like literacy rates or daily caloric intake, since my plan is to hire only well-fed people who already know how to read and write. ?

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Frankly, I’m getting bogged down in the sheer mass of details to sift through – all this reading, comparing and contrasting!? It’s just overwhelming.?

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And it’s not just because there’s a lot of country data out there.? Of course there is, and I do need a lot of data.? But there are so many other factors to take into consideration, too. ?Things that might also affect my business, like regulations and #taxation… and things that could affect my employees, like schools and #healthcare and other quality of life issues. ?(Which reminds me: Beauregard, my CFO, asked if we could prioritize countries where the food isn’t too spicy.? Good gosh, Beauregard, grow up!? I’m never going to promise that!)?

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Bottom line: I’m worried.? Even if I jotted down every indicator I can think of that I should be looking at, I’m sure I’ll still miss dozens more that are also important – but I just didn’t think of them.? And it’s scary to imagine that the ones I can’t think of might be the most important ones of all.

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I need some help!