Do you want your company to go global? Perhaps you’re just considering the pursuit of a partnership with another firm based somewhere else in the world. Whatever your motivations, if you’re interested in making connections with specialists of other nationalities in order to further your company’s interests and improve their practices, there are a few steps you can take to make the process easier.
Hire Multilingual Staff
One of the most effective ways of confirming deals and forming partnerships with overseas professionals is to speak their language. While it’s a great idea for members of your management team to learn the basics of your foreign counterparts’ mother tongue, this isn’t always possible. Something you can do either in addition, or as an alternative is to hire a specialist who speaks both languages fluently. It’s important to remember that this individual needs to be an expert in your organization’s practices as well as speaking the required languages, or they may not be able to translate correctly. This can make the right candidate difficult to find, but the return you’ll receive upon landing them will be worth it.
Use Transcription and Translation Services
Your translator doesn’t even need to be a human. There are some superb voice-to-text transcription services now available that you can use to record conversations with your overseas partners directly onto the page in a matter of seconds. Some can function in over one hundred languages and create automated subtitles, making it far easy for you to communicate and take accurate notes at the same time. Most subtitle softwares are cloud based so all you’ll need is an internet connection to use the tool.
Make it a Two-Way Deal
Working with specialists on the other side of the world may have clear advantages for you, but what about for them? International contracts can be complex so, before you pursue one, it’s important to take a good look at your business and ask yourself what is in it for the professionals on the other side. You may need to present a pitch to potential partners that not only covers the reasons why they should want to work with your company in particular, but also why they might want to go into business with a brand based in your country as a whole.
Be Ready to Handle Your Differences
Businesses are likely to function differently depending on the territory in which they’re based. One of the most obvious matters is the impact of time differences on your working day. Then, of course, there are religious holidays and the difference between seasons. Daily routines may differ too, for example some countries may follow the practice of siesta. As well as understanding the differences in custom and practice that you may come up against, you’ll also need to take into account any dissimilarities with your counterparts’ legal systems and approaches to administration or logistics.
Do Your Research
You’ll also need to find out as much as you can about the general practice of doing business with an overseas partner. What are the legal implications of shipping goods between one another, for example? What are the tax implications of your approaches and what paperwork needs to be signed in whose country? Failing to abide by international law when doing business can lead to severe penalties, after all.
