The purpose of business is to make a profit and the same principle applies when your business expands the borders of your country. Any successful business person will tell you that at the moment they have decided to scale up, the point was not to work harder and put more hours of work. It was all about setting up a system that can operate as smooth as possible and serve more people, be that across time zones and on the cloud available worldwide.
Day after day it is confirmed that overnight success does not exist: Pokemon Go has been created for 20 years and the same strategy applied to old bricks-and-mortar brands. To push our businesses towards success, we need to set the right foundations and eliminate activities that do not produce results.
This list of tech apps for running global business will remind you of small hacks that must not be overlooked at any cost.
1) Make regular breaks.
If you are a frequent flier and you work in multiple time zones, taking breaks may not come to your mind as frequent as your body craves it. Still, this productivity hack also applies to professionals whose businesses are not global.
Recently the Latvian start-up wonder, Draugiem Group has tested the productivity of workers with the time-tracking app Desk Time. They have realized that 10% of employees who were most productive did not work longer; they actually took 17-minute breaks for every 52 minutes of work.
This result brings Pomodoro technique back into vogue and although we cannot always take such structured breaks, we should definitely set aside several minutes when we feel we are zoning out.
How would it feel to use the best apps and stretch your back , take your legs for a walk, eat nourishing, well-planned meals as well as rest your eyes that serve you for so many hours in front of the computer?
2) Get into the flow with your team.
Trello is my favourite tool for working remotely as it motivates teammates into Get-it-done mindset. Its mobile and desktop versions are equally user-friendly and you can figure out both details and big picture of any project you are conducting.
I have not used Slack so far, but many friends in IT industry state that it is a life-saver. If your clients and team members are scattered around the globe, scheduling becomes a piece of cake with Time Zone tool.
Even though we prepare in advance for meetings, it may happen that Skype connection does not work properly. Room solves this problem as your video meeting starts within seconds and if you hate sign-ups and downloads like I do, the good news is that both are not required.
3) Always upgrade your value proposition.
Another challenge with running business, especially the global one is that we look at it as our child: it is beautiful to us and we are reluctant to change what needs improvement.
Business model canvas is the good old reminder in case we get stuck. We just need to keep asking questions that made us successful in the first place and keep everything as simple as possible.
What is our value proposition?
What are the benefits of our product instead of what are the features?
How do we intend to build relationship with customers?
What are the most important channels to focus on?
4) Study the market.
When I was not getting the results I wanted, my coach shared with me a really powerful question,''What am I learning from this?'' Businesses and people that achieve success beyond average are the ones who learned more within a shorter time span and were at the forefront of key information because of their mentors, access to industry leaders and curious personality.
The good news is that with steady internet connection and the networking mindset you can do the same.
In case you encounter a meaningful piece of information for your business that you cannot process right now, put it in the Pocket and read it later.
When it comes to people who may be interested to champion your business, literally erase any boundaries. Managers in Chambers of Commerce and industry associations in your country, as well as Economic attaches in the embassies of the countries you want to work with are all the potential supporters for what you are doing.
For example, if you want to do manufacturing business directly with China, Fenam Sourcing will provide sourcing advisory for you, continuing tradition of eight years of successful work for clients from 60 countries. Their acumen brings together the expertise in engineering processes, in the break-down of the cost structure as well as the local market throughout different Chinese provinces.
5) Speak the language of the market.
Once you learn the laws in the market your business operates in, you should learn to speak the language of this market. In other words, you need a reliable team of representatives who will transform the vision of your business to clients, either in the local office you establish or remotely.
Do not forget that if your business does not excel in some aspect, you should outsource it because you want to focus on providing the key value proposition. For example, you may consult with a translation agency not only about the legal documents, but also about operating in the local culture and potential linguistic misunderstandings.
Andrew Reeves, CEO of Luxe Translation explained that as they were specializing in delivering translation into 20+ languages they had to streamline their Los Angeles based business so well and now they offer a guarantee for the translation quality.
''Diverse cultures understand the concept of time, price, respect, or successful business deal differently and to see your business from the perspective of your clients the insiders on the market can help you multiple times,'' explains Reeves.
6) Harness financial trends
Imagine the bank which gives you 86,400 dollars every day to use. Yet we receive such an irresistible offer every day because we receive 86,400 seconds in 24 hours.
The rapid pace of a business requires from us to understand financial trends and to manage both our personal finance and the cash-flow of our business better than the generation of our parents.
Jeff and Walter Cruttenden behind the highly acclaimed Acorns app understood that what prevents people from investing is that they perceive this decision to be quite overwhelming and they are uncertain where to start.
Investing with Acorns app is quite simple because they ''round up'' your every transactions to the next dollar and invest them in so called ETFs or exchange-traded funds: low-cost group of stocks, commodities and bonds. If your lunch costs 9.58 dollars, 0.42 cents will be sent into your Acorns account by connecting your credit or debit cards.
To learn more about money management, read the books, stay abreast with FinTech trends and model those who are succeeding, such as Warren Buffet.
7) Grow emotionally, not just business-wise.
Global business requires incredible vision, stamina, and perseverance. Every milestone that you accomplish will be much more valuable as you did not give up after the initial failure. The good news is that the lessons that made you emotionally stronger become integral part of you and hopefully you do not have to start all over again. It is like climbing the stairs of success: you take several steps and then stop to overcome the obstacle; once you did so, you go up from that level. Build your muscle for emotional intelligence and your glocal i.e. global and local business venture will become a new source of joy instead of stress.
And one more thing... your paradigm of success will shift when you stop being focused on Have-Do-Be, and start with Be-Do-Have. In other words one of key questions to ask yourself should be, ''What kind of person I need to Be in order to Do what I want and then I will Have what I think will make me happy?''
Do you feel determined to move to a next chapter in your life, but you are uncertain how to start? To book a consulting session with Milena Milicevic, reach her out at LinkedIn.