How to Take Your Small Business Global

With the abundance of technological developments, it is now easier than ever to expand your small business and connect with potential customers across the globe. If you are not doing this, then you may falls behind your competitors.

Set up Virtual Communications

Start by developing your office communication system and upgrading it to virtual communications with international toll free numbers. Such numbers make it easy and free for customers to call your business, irrespective of where you are located and where the call ends. You can get international toll free numbers for specific areas that you want to target or test your product in.

To get international toll free business numbers, you will need to subscribe to an international toll free service (ITFS) provider, like globalcallforwarding.com. Such providers not only offer ITFS and toll free numbers but also additional communication benefits that enhance customer service and caller experience.

Besides setting up your business phone line, you also want to make other communication channels available. These include a 24/7 web chat option on your website, an active email address, and social media accounts. In fact, some providers even offer an SMS plan that lets you receive texts from interested customers, again, irrespective of your location. This will help you build strong international customer relationships.

Revise Your Business Plan

Taking your small business global is quite different from running it locally. For this reason, you will have to revise your original business plan to incorporate international market dynamics. You must conduct more market research to determine which international markets are conducive to growth and will be good to test your product or services. Additionally, study the competition present in those areas and how potential customers respond to products like yours.

Replan your budget to include new factors such as virtual communication set-ups, new marketing strategies, delivery costs (if applicable), remote employee hiring, etc. Also don’t forget to consider local and state requirements of the new markets you are working with, to ensure your small business is in compliance and no unforeseen issues occur.

Consider Hiring Remote Employees

Now, with virtual communications, it is not essential for your small business to set shop in these new locations. You can easily create a virtual office and run operations from your own location. This way, you can avoid paying office and equipment costs. However, you may decide to hire remote employees in these locations. This will help with language and location preferences as well as provide customer service within different time zones. Additionally, you can stay connected with your remote employees through your virtual office using: email, virtual phone numbers, chat groups, etc.

Market Internationally and Determine ROI

Increase your marketing efforts to target these new areas through social media, Google ads, location targeting, and so on. Study customer behavior and preferences. Do they prefer finding services online or through print ads? What aspects and features are they looking for in products like yours? Which locations are more favorable? And so on.

You can also use virtual numbers for call tracking purposes. That is, you assign a number for a specific campaign or location, and track the number of calls coming in to see how customers are interacting with your service. You can identify where your product is getting more traction and which marketing efforts need more work. This will help you determine whether or not you should continue marketing here or take your business elsewhere.

Expanding Your Small Business

You don’t need to conquer the entire world, but you can tap into the neighboring countries’ markets and demographics. Test and see how your product is doing and how potential customers are responding and interacting with it. Then, plan out how you can benefit from that. Start expanding slowly and the next thing you know, your small business will go global, attracting more customers and increasing sales.