Starting a business in your home country isn’t easy, but it’s even harder to open a business abroad. Also, if you already have an established business in America, it takes a lot of research and planning to expand overseas. That’s why opening a virtual location abroad or creating a virtual store is often your best option. It can save you precious time and salvage your resources.
Virtual Locations Allow for Easy Access into New Countries
Virtual locations give businesses an option for creating a local presence in any foreign country. Having a local presence in another country is crucial for companies to earn trust from the local clients and customers that will be potentially purchasing your products. Customers are more likely to trust a business that is located in their home country because they know that they can get in contact with that business if anything was to go wrong with the product that they purchased.
Virtual offices also offer a quick and temporary solution to expansion. When you decide to bite the bullet and work to have a presence in another country, you can quickly begin working abroad and start generating leads with a virtual office. These offices are convenient because they can be managed from your original place of business in your home country. They are also very affordable because you will not have to purchase real estate in another country. It is a significant first step in order to build your contact list in other countries.
Virtual Offices Offer Instant Access
Virtual offices also offer a more accessible entrance into foreign markets since you do not have to deal with certain legalities in another country. When opening a non-virtual office, you must be aware of and adhere to the legal standards and operations of that country. With a virtual office, you only need to comply with the laws that apply to your home country. However, if you are shipping products, then you must adhere to the rules of exporting between countries as well.
In time, your customers and clients may approach you to create an entity in that foreign country. If that is your ultimate goal, then in time, you should have the means from generating leads months prior, plus the customer base to open a thriving business abroad.
The first step to opening a virtual location abroad is to set up a virtual phone system. United World Telecom offers numbers in over 150 countries. You can choose local numbers, international toll free numbers, and UIFN numbers, among others.
Why do You Need a Virtual Phone System?
To interact with your customers and clients abroad, of course! Having a phone number that your prospective customers can reach in case they have a problem with a product is the first step in building trust with your new clientele. And we all know that businesses with bad reputations never last long.
A virtual phone system also offers several different features that can be very beneficial for your business and make communication much more manageable. Some features with a virtual phone system include call forwarding, automatic greetings, auto-attendants, phone extensions, and voicemail to email.
After a few months or years, you can decide whether or not a virtual office is enough or if you want to build a brick and mortar store in your country of choice.
If you do decide to expand physically to another country, here are some tips to keep in mind:
- Do your research on business laws and taxation from country to country.
- Study and understand cultural differences and language barriers
- Educate yourself on the politics and history of the country that you enter
- Hire a lawyer to help you navigate the new country’s laws and regulations
- Network with local businesses in order to trade knowledge and build professional relationships
- Overestimate. Give yourself a longer timeline in case things pop up that you aren’t ready for