Category: Operations

Article Contributed by Sonal Patil

Globalization is today’s buzz word. Many believe that if you expand a business globally you will make untold riches – it’s not that easy! There are many things you have to do before you can even consider going global with your business. Knowing how to go global is just one of these.

Sure, you may have a great product, or even range of products, that sell well in the USA, or Europe or even many parts of Asia. Will it sell outside of your own country? Is it possible for you to go global? Do you even know how to expand a business globally, even if globalization would suit your business?

Here are 4 very important aspects of globalization that you should consider when deciding to expand your business outside of your own country.

1. Check Out Global Markets

What do you mean by ‘globalization’?  Do you understand what it takes to expand a business globally?  What are your global markets? Is there a worldwide market for your products, or would they sell only in specific countries?  First, you must check out local products in your overseas market sector. Are the locals in these countries genuine competitors? Would you be able to compete and take the percentage of that market you need to profit?

Identify your potential local competitors and carry out a SWOT analysis on each of them. Can you compete against them at a profitable price?  Keep in mind that you have to transport your product to their country – that costs money. Are there import taxes? Will it take you long to promote your product in a local market?

2. Compile a Business Plan and Sales Strategy

Analyze what the local competition does to attract their market. Set up a business strategy including short-term, medium-term and long-term goals – and how to achieve them. Devise a means of measuring success – or lack of it! Determine whether your products are suitable for this market or if they have to be changed in some way to meet local preferences.

Do you need no more than a branch of your existing business to be set up abroad, or will you a completely new division to meet export needs? Perhaps your product will have to be changed for the new market. Maybe you will need local sales staff. Maybe there is a language issue, and your product has to be changed to meet that?  Will Cyrillic, Arabic or Chinese characters be needed to match the product to the market?

3. How to Go Global: Local Issues

Is your product compliant to local or even national government regulations? Certifications and various form of compliance can vary between areas in a country, not only between countries. Here are some of the issues that you could face should you decide to go global. They apply even if you try to export to one other country, let alone go global and try to sell worldwide.

• Health and Safety regulations: Make sure your product meets the needs of western H&S regulations. US and European regulations are strict, and if your product meets these then it should be OK for other markets.

• Testing Certification: Make sure you are aware of local quality standards, and that your products will meet these.

• Patent and Trade Mark Regulations: Some companies are known for breaching patent law and getting away with it in their own country. Make sure you have reviewed the patent or copyright situation for your products in the countries you want to do business with.

• Language Standards: Check that your products conform to language standards in other countries. Most accept English, but others require dual language marking on equipment; English plus their own. This is understandable, but can be costly to make products language-specific in certain countries.

• Logistics and Distribution: What are the distribution costs? What are the costs of getting your product to where it will be sold? In fact, who will sell these products? Your own subsidiary abroad, or a distributor already located in that country?

These are just some of the factors you will need to address if you intend to expand a business globally. Knowing how to go global is just as important as having the products to do so. Your product must be ready for globalization, but so must you and your company’s administration system.

4. Legal Aspects of Globalization

So, you have done the market research and are confident your product will sell abroad. You can meet local and national regulations, and have a sales team set up to market your product in a number of countries. Keep in mind, globalization is not an American firm selling in the UK or in France. It is selling to a worldwide market.

You may need a legal team to ensure you are meeting all the legal aspects of globalization. You may need local commercial agreements, have to maintain corporate records to a specified standard and may also have to comply with a plethora of local and national regulations as explained earlier.

It usually pays exporting businesses to put these aspects of expanding a business globally into the hands of professionals. The same applies to the maintenance of financial and employment records. These can vary between countries, and a professional can make sure you do not default on any local law – with potentially disastrous results.

How to go Global: Conclusions

These are just a few of the more important globalization factors you must consider if you want to expand a business globally. They do not explain how to go global, but they will keep you on the right track. In fact, these points can be summarized in three words:  employ a professional!

Article Contributed by Josh McAllister

If your company doesn’t adjust routine business tasks and processes periodically, you run the risk of wasteful practices that cut into your margins. You can find many different productivity apps that improve various aspects of business operations, such as project management, communication and collaboration, marketing, and even day-to-day administrative tasks.

Project and Task Management

Apps for project management provide tools that help your internal business initiatives to come in on time and under budget, as smoothly as possible. These apps improve your project planning from start to finish so you can count on meeting your goals. Many project management apps not only let you schedule teams and resources to meet deadlines, but provide forums for teams to review data, ask questions, and share insights.

1. Basecamp

This app allows you to manage multiple projects from a centralized location. All the relevant information, such as lists, comments, meetings, and files can be accessed by team members and stakeholders to review progress.

Basecamp allows you complete visibility. It’s designed as a communications hub providing an overview of the entire business, with separate team sections and project areas accessible from a single screen.

2. Trello

Trello acts as a virtual whiteboard that organizes tasks. This is done through posting notes that outline steps, assign team members, and more. You can attach files, add or delete notes, and create as many boards as you need with automatic updates whenever someone moves a card. Team members can find information at a glance and, best of all, Trello is free.

3. Asana

This app is designed to streamline task and project management by allowing you to create and share lists with your team, such as requirements for materials, task assignments, and more.

Your team members can also hold dialogues, manage attached files and schedules, and monitor progress on reporting dashboards. Asana is simple but efficient; it essentially integrates a range of helpful applications.

4. Evernote

The Evernote app isn’t so much a project management tool as an organizational utility for both individuals and large companies. Evernote is based on a notation principle that lets multiple teams organize and share information or initiate dialogues from a single administrative interface. It’s simple to use, yet provides great features like search tools and synchronization across mobile devices.

Marketing

If you’re able to make lasting connections through social media you can optimize your marketing programs to draw more interest, create brand advocates, and make more sales. Social media tools can help you manage multiple platforms to schedule posts, analyze audiences, collect feedback, and much more.

5. Buffer

Buffer can be very helpful when you’re planning a new campaign or product. It can help you achieve greater reach across social sites without much time and effort. You can take advantage of its analytics to find the best response times for posting content and schedule postings accordingly. Monthly prices are scaled to business size and include a 14-day free trial.

6. Hootsuite

Hootsuite makes it easy to schedule posts to various social platforms using multiple profiles. You can also track and engage conversations about your brand as they are happening. Hootsuite includes statistical analytics and infographics reporting, all from a user-friendly central interface.

7. Mailchimp

Mailchimp has become very well known as a solution for managing email campaigns. It integrates well with major platforms like Facebook to help you build subscriber lists, customize campaigns, and access reports on how your campaign is performing. Mailchimp also provides professional templates, drag-and-drop interfaces, and collaborative tools to focus your team’s efforts.

Administration

Your staff can spend a large part of their day on routine tasks like file backups, meetings, and data updates. Fortunately, there are some good tools to simplify these chores.

8. G Suite

This is the online productivity tool from Google, specifically designed for small businesses. It’s a comprehensive package that includes productivity apps like Gmail, Google Voice, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Hangouts, and document sharing on Google Drive. It provides a central admin console for configuring and accessing a powerful collection of cloud-based apps.

9. DropBox

DropBox is a tech company providing a service comparable to Google Drive. It allows companies to store files and documents securely on the cloud. You can add, view, edit, and share media types including video.

You can coordinate designs and data with your team members anytime and from anywhere. DropBox also has the functionality to attach comments to documents and synchronize updates to numerous mobile devices.

Communications

Secure and fast communication among employees is important to success on any business operation. Misunderstandings or missing information can lead to failed initiatives and lost opportunity. Communication is especially important with remote teams and mobile workforces typical of today’s companies.

10. Skype for Business

The Skype for Business app allows end users to make individual or conference calls with video. Visual interaction is important to building team relationships and providing clues you don’t get with text. However, Skype also allows you to send live SMS messages to save time and facilitate easy conversation. Some additional features include screen sharing, secure encryption, file transfers, and integration with Microsoft Office.

In summary, your business could be losing ground if you don’t implement modern tools and technologies to refine processes and promote faster communication. The right tools for improving productivity, leveraging social media, and promoting collaboration between teams will provide advantages to both you and your customers. In a digital marketplace, the right tools can drive rapid company growth. 

Author info:

Josh McAllister is a freelance tech writer and business consultant based in New York. In his free time, he enjoys all things geeky and gadgetry, the outdoors, and spending time with his family. You can reach him on Twitter @josh8mcallister

Launching a startup can be brutal, with bottom lines frequently takes a beating in the early days of a fledgling venture. That’s especially true for young entrepreneurs, who are often low on capital and resources.

A little research, however, can pay off when it comes to managing and even reducing a new business’ operating expenses. Having access to experts and a knowledge base won’t cost as much as you think, and there are economical alternatives to the traditional way of investing in and outfitting a new business.

Entrepreneurs and those who are considering launching a new business would be wise to consider some or all of these helpful points.

Reinventing the Workspace

Do you really need a brick and mortar office? If you don’t see clients in an office, you may not.  In today’s gig economy, many businesses are created that rely on remote workers connected by online communication tools like Google Apps and virtual work spaces.  Naturally, creating a completely online business is easier in some industries than others, but the point is, the possibility is there.

Consider also coworking spaces.  There are plenty of coworking spaces available for relatively low monthly fees. Search Coworker for information on available coworking spaces in your area or connect with a business incubator that offers work space and other business support services.

Powering Down Energy Costs

Sometimes just keeping the lights on and the equipment running can cost more than you think. Managing energy costs is crucial. The energy market is volatile, and unpredictable cost increases can happen.

It’s easy to research what different suppliers offer, if you have the time — which you probably don’t.

Alternatively, there are experts in the energy field who make it their business to find the best energy management solutions for your company.  Companies like Active Business Services, a Burlington, Ontario energy management firm, work with businesses in a broad range of industries.  By analyzing a given company’s natural gas and electricity consumption patterns, firms like Active Business Services create effective energy solutions that can positively impact how much energy a company uses and, in turn, how large (or small) their monthly energy bills are.

Get Social

When marketing a business or product, make the most of good social media campaigns instead of paying for advertising or public relations: social media can be the least expensive and most effective way of getting the word out about your new company.

If you need to raise money for a specific project or product, think about crowdfunding through sites like Kickstarter. Many people meet — or exceed — their fundraising goals and it can be an intelligent way to generate pre-orders for or interest in a product. Each crowdfunding site has different requirements and costs, so do your homework and find the one that works best for you and your business.

To Staff or Not to Staff

Do as much as you can yourself, especially if it involves a skill you’re good at, like accounting or programming. Of course, trying to do it all can lead to major burnout. A good rule of thumb: use your strengths and delegate your weaknesses.

Startups sometimes offer employes option plans in lieu of salary. It’s not only a money-saver: People feel invested in the company and are motivated to do their best work.

Seek Out The Free Stuff

There’s a lot of high quality free — or almost free — resources for businesses out there. Save time and travel by doing as much as you can on the web with applications like FaceTime and Skype.

Cloud-based software saves time and money by eliminating the expense of buying it and downtime caused by constant updates. Google Docs is a full-featured collaborative tool for people working from different locations. Also, consider taking advantage of international conferencing services like FreeConferenceCall, which lets users set up no-cost conference calls with up to 1,000 participants.

To environmentalists (and many others), the goal of net zero is as close to clean energy nirvana as you can get – and Salesforce just hit a significant new milestone in its pursuit.

Net zero is all about reducing energy consumption so that the total amount of energy used annually by a building about equals the amount of renewable energy the site creates. Achieving it is a major aspect of the clean energy drive that’s a focus of major corporations and that’s also influencing both the residential and commercial building industries.

In 2015, Salesforce underscored its commitment to sustainable design by vowing to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 across its global footprint. That it did so only two years later and 33 years ahead of schedule sets a high bar for others to follow with its variety of innovative programs in support of the goal.

For example, Salesforce sees its role as an influencer – and not just with its peers in the corporate community, but also with its suppliers. Those are primarily building owners, as the company leases the majority of its offices and data centers and doesn’t directly pay the utility bills. That posed a potential obstacle to achieving net zero emissions. It was solved through power purchase agreements for wind power in Texas and West Virginia. The PPAs allow the company to bring new renewable energy online without having to take possession of the electricity.

Salesforce’s way of approaching clean energy goals as a tenant is worth noting, since the landlord-tenant divide has typically been a major barrier keeping developments from reaching net zero goals.

For example, there are challenges to developers recouping investments to solar PV systems when tenants pay a monthly bill to an electric utility. It’s also problematic for tenants to prioritize energy efficiency when they have little control over energy infrastructure and equipment.

But a new net zero development in Boulder, Co. has overcome that divide with the first net zero lease for any multi-tenant development of its size. The lease agreement at Boulder Commons, two commercial buildings with 100,000 square feet of office space and restaurants is with the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), which has its own net zero energy innovation center in Basalt, Co. Its space in Boulder Commons would allow it to continue to walk the talk.

The net zero lease gives legal teeth to shared net zero goals. Among other aspects, it incentivizes RMI to stay within a set plug load or, if it doesn’t, to offset the overage with renewable energy certificates. Transportation related emissions are similarly treated. Parking costs are separated from space rent to incentivize RMI to encourage alternative commuting and see the benefit in lower rent over time.

The next frontier on the net zero front is for residential development, according to Denis Vranich, a longtime Ontario redeveloper of multi-residential and commercial properties. His UrbanLife Residential construction arm focuses on green building techniques and aims to reduce the carbon footprint of his buildings to as small as possible.

Most sustainable homes are currently net zero ready; builders have been reluctant to offer full net zero homes given the $35,000-plus extra they can add to the price. However, Denis Vranich mentions that he has seen more of these projects underway in Ontario, showing that the price is not necessarily a deterrent to the growing numbers of people who want to reduce their personal carbon footprints.

Even so, for many, homes that are merely green, through such technologies as solar and wind power and other features like spray foam insulation, will also serve their purposes. Savings can be tenfold over the life of these buildings, as Vranich adds, and owners can feel satisfied they’re doing something positive for the environment.

It’s no longer a hidden secret that the volume of data being created by humanity is quickly outpacing physical storage capacity. Personal file-sharing systems such as Google Drive and Dropbox periodically upgrade their service to offer higher storage capacities. This allows users to permanently back-up an increasingly growing collection of files, music, images, and video without having to rely on limited physical hard drive capacity. Similarly, virtual data rooms (VDRs) provide businesses with a comparable amount of information storage capabilities but add an extra layer of security in order to account for sensitive information such as customer details, inventory, and transaction history. Despite their marked similarity, it’s important to note that VDRs lack collaboration capabilities which are a defining feature of personal file-sharing solutions.

Being a large repository of information, VDRs have become a vital tool in business mergers and acquisitions as information required for due diligence (profitability, health, and company potential) is easier to discern digitally than with stacks of paper files in a physical storage room. Whether it is a pharmaceutical firm looking to acquire an upcoming player with a promising drug pipeline or a venture capitalist looking to invest in a startup, VDRs help to reduce the risk of decision-making during acquisitions. However, this doesn’t mean that a VDR’s sole purpose is to streamline the sale of a business. It’s also useful for audits, setting up joint ventures, and improving internal communication.

Run Quick and Efficient Audits

As with most public companies, audits represent the natural cost of doing business in order to ensure fair play in the marketplace. In such circumstances, having third-party auditors rummage through a physical data room is not only inconvenient but also inefficient. A VDR improves this process by letting your business provide online access to every document required by an audit team to perform their tasks. This also prevents auditors from having to visit their clients which cost valuable time and resources.

Partnering Up For Joint Ventures

If your business is in the midst of establishing a partnership for a specific project, a VDR serves as an ideal medium to equally share responsibilities of cost, upkeep, and maintenance. With a VDR, all parties involved will be able to add, monitor, and remove documents with time-stamped records. This aids in accountability, which can often be a common roadblock in finalizing partnership deals involving physical data rooms. In this case, a single partner deciding to host data on their site can alone increase risk of foul play and data tampering. Selecting a location that is uncommon to both parties can be a security disaster.

Organize Internal Work-flow

Not all functions of a VDR are defined to serve the needs of external third-parties. Rather, VDRs help refine internal work-flows so that the focus remains on your bottom-line rather than chasing down loose ends. Files related to business operations can be shared within teams and departments to provide an extra layer of context, leading to a more informed-decision making process which otherwise would not have been possible. Beyond team collaboration, VDRs also simplify the problems with remotely located high-ranked individuals who are required to sign-off on decisions. To do their job, they need to look at the proper documentation to justify how a certain decision was reached and a secure digital file makes this task easier and cheaper than having to ship these documents.

VDRs have been designed to help businesses reduce risk and burden of finalizing high stake decisions. Whether you’re trying to finalize an acquisition, or run your company more efficiently from within, the last thing you want is to have documentation and paperwork slow you down.