Easy Tools and Tips for Doing Business Globally

One of the challenges of global marketing is gathering up all the tools necessary to do business around the world.  The only way to know if you are charging a fair and profitable price for your offerings is to use a currency converter.  But be careful that the rate you see today is not an abnomally.  To check this, put numbers into the converter and hit the “Convert” arrow.  The results will show an icon for a chart.  You can change the chart to see how the currency has changed over the past year.  If the change has been dramatic, think carefully about how you price your products or build some security measures against currency fluctuations into your contracts.

Working with people who’s native language is not the same as yours sometimes requires a translator.   Google Translator is usually pretty good, but World Lingo is another decent alternative.  One mistake people often make when using online translators is to use figures of speech within the text they want to translate.  For example, you may want to say “I am going to drive traffic to your website.”  The tool will not understand that what you really mean is “I am going to send internet users to your website.”  This same principle applies when you are speaking to people for whom English is a second language.  In many countries, English is taught in schools.  This means people can communicate well and sound like they will understand you perfectly.  However, unless they have lived here and integrated within our daily lingo, such phrases can sound confusing.

Another challenge in doing business internationally is coordinating time zones.  You can use the World Clock to check what time it is in various parts of the world or use the Time Zone Converter to quickly calculate what time it’s going to be in another place.  The International Meeting Planner lets you figure out what is the best time to meet for people in more than two countries.