Expanding a Business Overseas: 3 Key Factors to Consider

Lots of business owners have dreams of expanding their businesses internationally. Expanding this way not only helps them enter new markets and gain new customers, but it can also be a key strategy in increasing revenues and profits. When doing so, there are some challenges that businesses have to overcome and some factors they have to consider. Each of these challenges and factors can make a huge difference. It is, therefore, important to take a closer look at what businesses need to consider when expanding internationally.

Business Registration

The time it takes to register a business as well as how complicated the process is are huge determinants of how quickly a business can get going in a new market. The time it takes to complete a business registration varies by country and businesses should do their research to find out what the timelines are like.

Once registered, businesses have to also think about how long it takes to get the business doing. Other factors like space availability, additional licenses, technology, living quarters, and others will affect how long it takes to do so.

Cultural and Language Barriers

It is never a good idea to start a business in a country that is not ready for your products or services. When expanding internationally, therefore, it is important to understand both the business and consumer culture. One way to overcome cultural barriers is to use a registered entity that acts as both a legal representative and employer on record on your behalf. This way, there will not be any clashes between your business and the local culture.

Language is another important barrier that businesses expanding internationally have to overcome. Businesses have two main options here: hire locals to help you with translations or hire a translation company to do it for you. Hiring locals is a great idea because they will help you with both the cultural and language barriers you might experience.

While it is great to hire locals to handle day-to-day translations for you, things can get complicated when it comes to technical translations. Technical translations are an important part of introducing new products into the new markets you are entering and have to be done right for product launches to be successful. A company like International Language Services provides technical translation services to support your international business while ensuring the technical translations are done right and promptly.

Political and Economic Stability

Political and economic stability is a lot more important than many of the other factors that businesses have to think about. Even when all other factors like finding the right talent and being able to register a business easily align, all of it can be wiped out in case of political or economic instability.

It is often best to do thorough research and be cautious when expanding into countries and markets whose economic and political stability is unknown or cannot be trusted. Businesses can also use an employer on record arrangement to rest the waters.

While expanding a business internationally has become easier in recent years, there is still a lot business owners should think about before doing so. Thorough research as well as testing the new markets before entering them are both very helpful steps.

 

Diversity and Inclusivity Set the Tone for the Future of the Workplace

With the backdrop of today’s social justice movements, both employees and consumers are demanding that companies improve their diversity, equity and inclusivity (DEI) in the workplace.

Recruiters play an integral part in creating a more diverse work environment and culture. There are even tools at their disposal to help reduce subconscious bias during the hiring process. Unfortunately, as reported in Harvard Business School’s “Hidden Workers” study, AI resume scanners already filter out some 27 million people by focusing on a person’s credentials over their capabilities.

The same research found that using AI resume scanners results in fewer applicants from underrepresented sectors of society – despite recruiters’ insistence that they’d like to diversify the talent they’re exposed to, in order to advance innovation and round out their teams’ skills.

Apparently, many AI-powered recruiting tools are failing minorities, and, as a result, failing HR teams and their business objectives.

Making the Case for an Inclusive Workplace

Amid the challenge of rebuilding following the economic shock of the pandemic, it’s even more important for companies to draw on diverse opinions and to employ a committed and engaged workforce.

For example, research from Boston Consulting Group finds that organizations that have stronger than average diversity are more innovative, see more revenue from their innovations and are overall more profitable.

Having a diverse workforce helps create an inclusive and welcoming culture that attracts better talent. Employees look to employers to drive change in society, thus top talent will choose employers that meet their standards. In fact, 40% of millennials won’t accept jobs with organizations that are not inclusive.

According to Deloitte's 2020 Human Capital Trends report, 93% of respondents believe that a sense of belonging is a key driver of organizational performance. Backing up this claim, research by Gartner indicates that 75% of companies that are focused on improving their DEI benchmarks surpass their financial goals.

How to Avoid Bias in Recruitment

One of the building blocks of an inclusive workplace is diversity in recruiting; a company’s workforce must reflect its inclusive agenda. And in recent years, companies have started relying on AI-powered software and tools to help them achieve their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goals, especially in the enterprise.

Without denying the incredible advances in machine learning and AI, it still has one major flaw: it was created by imperfect humans, so a machine can make biased assumptions. Recruitment diversity models might have been trained on datasets with a built-in bias from their human creators.

The American Economic Review found that not only was there bias against applicants with ethnic-sounding names, but that AI-based applicant screening software was skipping over highly qualified applicants based on factors such as having gaps in employment, choosing to work versus doing an unpaid internship, or working remotely as a freelancer. These are examples of socio-economic bias that largely affect minorities.

To course-correct and cut the cycle of bias in recruiting, new HR tech is emerging that focuses on underrepresented candidates and attempts to eliminate bias against talent that is typically undervalued. One such company, Joonko, self-described as a diversity recruiting platform, has created a pool of job seekers who are ethnic and gender minorities, as well as army veterans. Joonko’s tech connects directly into a company’s applicant tracking system (ATS) in order to help recruiters bring about a truly diverse workforce.

Joonko uses metrics that have been proven to prevent discrimination by holding onto the information of “siver medalist” candidates who are also highly qualified and surfacing them in the ATSs of partner companies for suitable openings. In this way, Joonko offers a dedicated ATS feed, to help recruiters achieve their DEI goals, and it does so by training algorithms for desired results.

Ilit Raz, Joonko’s Co-Founder and CEO, says, “Recruiting teams struggle to source, attract and recruit diverse talent due to common mistakes made during the recruiting process such as exclusionary job descriptions and unconscious biases. Underrepresented talent is indeed out there, you just have to learn to expand your recruitment practices to reach the right audience.”

The Future Is Diverse

Mirroring the public sentiment for social justice, companies should work towards building a team of individuals that come from a variety of backgrounds, ethnicities and life experiences. Finding integral team members that meet DEI standards can be challenging for a number of reasons, including simply locating candidates from underrepresented groups.

Companies with a progressive selection process are great examples for other organizations that want to integrate inclusive recruitment practices. Using solutions that are specifically engineered to help underrepresented groups get noticed such as Joonko can also help organizations reach their DEI goals.

Successfully cultivating an inclusive company culture is more than just recruitment. It’s an ongoing and all-encompassing process that plays a big part in what an organization can achieve.

 

Golf and Glasses: No Scratch Lenses Lead to Scratch Scores

 

Glasses are one component of golf that many people are unaware of the importance of. When you think about sports and excelling in a certain sport, generally what you have to wear while you’re playing isn’t something you focus on.

It is often important to have a specific uniform or a pair of shoes that will aid your performance, but suggesting that a pair of glasses is going to be a factor in how good your golf game is seems a bit crazy.

Becoming a good golfer surely has more to do with your technique right? Perfecting your swing, learning about how to get as much power and speed behind your driving as you can and about effective and clean putting.

And yes, these things are in fact, substantially more important than what you’re wearing. These are the things that you need to put the most amount of practice into. You need to spend hours and hours training to be a capable golfer.

But it’s also important to note that all of that practice might not be worth anything, if you can’t see what you’re doing. Even if you’ve done a ton of practice, it might be a good pair of sunglasses that’s separating you from achieving scratch scores every time you’re on the course. 

There’s a few reasons why this is the case:

• Playing a round of golf means spending several hours in the sun, which makes your eyes tired, irritated and will often result in you having to squint. All of these things get in the way of you being able to see well on the course and can lead to eye damage too.
• There is generally quite a bit of glare on a golf course. This comes from both the fact that it’s an open area in direct sunlight and also that there are often a lot of water features present on courses. Naturally, this reduces visibility of the course.
• Without the right pair of sunglasses, your depth perception as well as your perception of colour gets messed up, making it difficult to distinguish between different elements of the course and pick up on important nuances.

If you deal with one or all of these problems, you are not going to be performing at the highest possible level. But it is a really simple problem to fix. All you have to do is invest in the right pair of golf sunglasses. Here are the factors to keep in mind:

1.Tint

When you’re picking out your sunglasses, you will be hearing the word ‘tint’ a lot. This just simply refers to how the lenses are coloured. There are a few different common tints you can get in a pair of golf glasses and each of them have their own benefits.

If you get either brown or amber lenses, they work very well to neutralize the colour of the environment. The bright green of the grass or the blue of the sky will each be cancelled out by a brown or amber tint, making it easier to pick out your ball against those backdrops. 

Amber is also highly beneficial if you are playing in lower light. Some people prefer to play in more overcast conditions, during which it’s still important to ensure your eyes are protected, and amber tinting helps to offset the hint of dullness.

Rose coloured sunglasses are the most popular kind among golfers, and they’re great for ensuring that you can see every contour of a green very well because they make red and yellow colours nice and vibrant. 

2. Comfort

Being able to completely relax into your game without being distracted by any kind of uncomfortable clothing is going to be a huge contributing factor to your performance, and you need to consider that when deciding on your glasses.

First and foremost, you have to put a heavy priority on glare reduction. We mentioned earlier how glare can be a big issue on a golf course when it comes to planning out your shots, but it’s also just extremely uncomfortable.

This is the primary purpose that sunglasses serve, and with all of the advanced technology and research into crafting the perfect pair of sunglasses to maximise a players technique, the glare reduction often gets passed over. 

Make sure that’s a priority for you. Talk to the seller about it and try on a few different pairs of glasses with different levels of glare reduction to make sure that you choose the one which is right for you.

And then there is scratch-resistance to think about. No-scratch lenses are not an easy thing to design and perfect, but they do exist and they are important for golfers. A single scratch on your glasses could be a huge problem.

You need to be able to see every little thing ahead of you on the course and a scratch could block out an important nuance without you even realizing it. You should also request adjustable nose and ear pieces so that you can make sure they suit you, and maybe vented lenses to deal with sweat.

3. Cost

Be smart about how much you are willing to spend. Getting a cheap pair of sunglasses is counter-productive, because the likelihood is that they won’t last for all that long and probably won’t be as effective in protecting you and enhancing your game. 

At the same time, you probably don’t need the most expensive pair available. Find the medium between these two. Try on several different pairs, deal exclusively with reputable sellers and make sure that every important factor is present in the one you choose.

Set yourself a budget, and keep in mind that if you get a good pair, it should last you for years and years to come, so you should view it as an investment. If you’re trying to think of a good gift for one of your golfer friends, sunglasses might be worth looking into.

I wouldn’t surprise them with it because it’s important that they try on pairs to find one that suits them, but considering how valuable it is and how pricey it can be, a golfer would definitely appreciate sunglasses as a gift. 

So, if you are a golfer who is looking to maximise your potential on the course, and sunglasses haven’t been on your radar thus far, then it’s definitely worth looking into. You can become a much better player if you put just a bit of time into deciding on a worthwhile pair of gold sunglasses.