A big part of running a modern business is expanding your company as much as possible, and with the Internet, it's possible to have customers and clients from the other side of the world. Either if you have a set of clients in another time zone or your most successful target market is in a far flung corner of the planet, it can be challenging to work efficiently with these types of people if you are in one place and are a small business with limited employees in the workplace. It can be difficult to try and hold Skype meetings at 3 in the morning when you've got to go and do a full day's work on top of that, so how can you achieve equilibrium on your side of the Equator?
Use Tech To Your Advantage
The one thing that can cause issues with clients in a different time zone is communication, and if you haven't had a conversation with a client or an employee for some time, due to obvious reasons, you can get that feeling like you are ships passing in the night. But there are ways to help maintain a personal approach without actually being in regular contact. You can always make the most of virtual assistants or virtual call handlers to pick up the phone for you when you are busy getting some sleep, there are plenty of virtual office providers all over the world. Virtual call handlers also serve as a benefit when you have limited staff and need to give the right impression to a client.
Treating All Employees The Same
Just because you have overseas employees that you don't necessarily speak to on a regular basis doesn't mean that you should treat them any differently. The important thing when nurturing a business is providing a working culture where everybody feels productive and as part of a team, regardless of where they are in the world. This means being respectful of other people's cultures and not just thinking they should operate in your best interests.
Don't Just Email
It always needs to be said, communication is the most important aspect of any business. Working with people on the other side of the globe doesn't just mean firing off an email whenever something's been done wrong. For starters, it's very difficult to draft an email in a positive tone when the content is very negative. And an email conversation can end up being a long and convoluted way to communicate when all the loose ends could be tied up in a simple Skype conversation. So you need to make sure that you schedule in a conference on a bi-monthly or monthly basis. You need to remember that people will react better to your personality rather than your tone of email. And if you want to get stuff done, it's a massive time saver to have a conference call at 3 o'clock in the morning once in a blue moon. Your body may not be thanking you for it at that time, but your business will!
I hope you enjoyed this article about successfully working with clients and employees based all over the globe.
Interested in more articles about business management?
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Published by Michael J Schiemer
Owner of Bootstrap Business
Money - Marketing - Motivation
Digital Marketing | SEO | Social Media
Mike Schiemer Builds Better Business
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