If your business has a website you are now capable of reaching an audience worldwide. Many businesses whose trade was strictly local just a few years ago have been pleasantly surprised to find new markets in other parts of the country and even in other parts of the world. But this will only happen if your website reflects some global marketing thinking.

If a Canadian website wants to sell to Australian customers it should at least have a facility for converting prices into Australian dollars – that’s the first thing an Australian prospect will want to know. But they might also want an idea of delivery cost and time as well. And if an Australian website wants to sell to Americans, references to ‘mobiles’ (cell phones) and ‘sticky tape’ (adhesive tape) won’t have much meaning to a target audience where those terms aren’t commonly used.

Content in Other Languages

When the target audience uses a different language as well the difficulties can multiply geometrically. A half-hearted effort can be very frustrating for non-English speakers, such as when the home page contains information in their language but the following pages are exclusively in the original English.

Translation is the obvious answer, but there’s nothing worse for a business than to have its website content translated so poorly that it becomes laughable to other cultures. Even an ‘accurate’ translation can fail to communicate the feeling of the original message. Getting expert advice on the language you use on your web pages is an essential part of creating a truly global website.

It’s also essential that cultural references made in the text will be understood. For example, if you say an object is ‘shaped like a football’ you’re communicating an image of a different shape to different people because ‘football’ is played with different shaped balls in different countries.

Keep Branding Relevant and Consistent

Most marketers are aware of the importance of branding but they often overlook the need to ensure that the desired branding experience is received by every visitor to the website.  A company or a product may have entirely different brand positions from one country to another, and this has to be reflected in the experience the visitor receives. Everything from the illustrations to the text content must be created to be appropriate to the specific market.

Visuals Must be Appropriate

Graphics are always a challenge for global marketers. Showing a product in use on a tropical beach may not be the best way to present it to audiences in northern Europe. Racial or ethnic stereotypes should be avoided at all cost, and care needs to be taken with illustrations of product labels and even signage shown in the background.

Culture specific issues also need to be carefully considered when planning visual content. Certain colors can have undesirable connotations in some markets, and showing people in particular situations can be acceptable to some cultures and offensive to others.

Provide all the Information People Need to Make Buying From You Easy

Prices are always a challenging area due to fluctuations in currency values and other considerations such as the costs of shipping and insurance.  Because international shipping to some areas can involve extensive delay you might consider offering an express delivery option that will get the order to the customer much faster than if conventional means of shipping are used. Be sure to state an approximate delivery time for each country in which you’re marketing.

Globally thinking websites take geography into account and make it easy for anyone anywhere to know exactly how much something will cost to acquire and how soon they can expect it to reach them.  The search function will also need to take multiple languages into account, and to relate to the language of the visitor’s country. This can be done easily enough even in a relatively unsophisticated website by letting the user nominate the language they wish to search in when entering details for the search.

Make it Easy for People to Contact You

Contact options also need to be specific for each country, even if you’re offering them a free call. Never assume that people in other countries will know how to telephone your country from theirs; be sure to include country codes and area codes that relate to the visitor’s location.

First, you must determine what your financial needs will be during your retirement, and that means budgeting for an unknown number of years. Some financial planners use 70 percent to   75 percent of pre-retirement income as a general rule, but this only applies if your financial needs actually decrease after your retirement.

Similarly, a little forward planning can allow you to minimize your expenses and reduce or eliminate many debts by the time you expect to retire, for example, by paying off existing mortgages and other long term debt obligations.

Regardless of the post-retirement income you think you’ll need, experience shows that most retirees find they need more than they originally anticipated, so it’s always wise to include a contingency in your estimates of the income required.

Still, for many business people what they are really relying on is a good sale price for their business as the major contributor to their retirement income. That means some expert advice from an evaluator.

But there is still a piece of the jigsaw missing – you could be taking the opportunity of the years between now and your retirement to actually improve the value of your business by improving its cash flow.

As an experienced business owner you’ll have an appreciation of the importance of cash flow. It’s always referred to as the ‘lifeblood’ of a company and rightly so, and it will also have a major bearing on the value of the business at time of sale, and therefore on when you can actually retire from your company.

Cash Flow is What Buyers Want

The first consideration is that when you’re looking for someone to buy your business they’ll be looking carefully at its cash flow. The cash flow generated by the organization is what gives the business its real value. To put it another way, nobody pays for ‘potential’; what they purchase is a machine that makes money.

It’s cash flow that will enable the buyer to pay you for the business, and that’s equally important if you’re selling out to employees or expecting a member of the younger generation to take over and provide an income flow for your years of retirement.

It’s absolutely essential that you have a forecast of your cash flow up to the time of your projected retirement – and as far beyond as estimates can be made. If the forecast indicates that the firm’s cash flow won’t be sufficient to cover all your objectives then you may have to do one of the following:

• Set a later retirement date
• Phase out your departure from the business

• Find a purchaser with cash instead of financing a relative into the business

• Find ways to increase the value of the business so it brings a higher sale price

• Reduce your retirement lifestyle expectations

Take Steps to Improve Your Cash Flow

It might prove a painful reality check, but preparing an estimate of the business’ future cash flow is an essential part of retirement planning and a reminder that your long term dreams rely on how well you manage the business’ operations to maximize it.

In the world of fast moving consumer products a proliferation of branding is often the way a major, or ‘umbrella’ brand, can manage its product mix.

In B2B marketing however, a multiplicity of brands will be confusing to those who make purchasing decisions. Businesses place a higher value than consumers do on the reputation of their supplier so a single, well recognized brand, can be important to winning a sale and turning that into repeat sales.

In the B2B context it’s much more effective to create a single powerful brand for the business that can be carried above the products it sells.

Research Shows Branding’s Importance

A study conducted by Accenture on the B2B sector found that B2B companies are neglecting one of the basic facts of marketing – the brand’s importance to the customer.

In fact the study showed that the brand is highly important in the customer's mind, just as important as it is in business-to-consumer selling. It found that a well known brand with reputable connotations is the single most important B2B buyer preference, even scoring higher than service, price and variety.

Branding Needs Double Sided Appeal

Whether the target is a business owner or a buyer for a large organization, the brand must appeal to both their personal and their business selves to have an impact on the selling process.

Here are just some of the considerations B2B branding has to incorporate:

1. Unlike consumer brand marketing, the targeting of B2B brand promotions is based on a person’s employment instead of their lifestyle or family needs.

2. The purchase will be made for a business and not an individual.

3. The personal characteristics of the people classified as ‘targets’ can vary widely as the only thing they have in common  is that they are making a purchase for a business.

4. Their decisions will often be based on factors of which the seller is unaware, such as the need to stay within a set budget.

5. The emotional content of the buyer’s decision making process is likely to be overshadowed by practical considerations.

6. The purchase will often be related to projects or business activities of which the marketer will have little or no direct knowledge.

To successfully brand a B2B company the chosen positioning has to compete against other companies targeting the same market. It must be at least as impressive and promise at least the same level of customer satisfaction to be competitive.

Perhaps the most difficult part of B2B branding is to find a point of differentiation that will make one company’s brand stand out clearly from all its competitors. The brand dimensions have to respond to the target group’s perceptions of what they want, and that includes such areas as wanting to be recognized for their purchasing abilities and a desire to demonstrate their efficiency to their employer.

The Golden Rules of B2B Branding

There are a few ‘golden rules’ of B2B branding that can help guide the process for any business:

• Focus on building a single, powerful brand

• Base the brand on a point of difference unrelated to any competitor

• Support the brand by outperforming competitors in areas of quality and service

• Ensure that your brand makes a promise to your target audience about something that is critical to their own success

B2B branding requires an investment of capital and time that many businesses aren’t willing to make. They become known by their products but not for themselves. In the longer term this costs them share-of-mind among their target group and can even affect such things as their ability to attract the best human talent in a competitive market.

Most businesses now have a broadband Internet connection with more than one PC connected in a network arrangement. This involves a lot of messy cabling and, until recently, the only option was to spend a small fortune on a wireless network. However, going wireless these days will cost you less than you think – and do a lot to free up your workplace.

Wireless networks aren’t really complicated. They work just like a cabled network but their communications are sent via a wireless signal similar to that of a cordless telephone. All computers on the network can share the same Internet access point, and as long as they’re within the area served by the network, can share equipment such as printers and other hardware devices.

How Wireless Networks Operate

At the center of the network is a ‘router’ or ‘hub’ that transmits a signal to the equipment forming part of the network. One computer is always used with the router and stays on whenever the network is in use. The router connects to the Internet and removes the need to log on every time you want Internet access from a computer in the network. You can stay with your current Internet service provider (ISP) but check that they will support wireless networks when problems occur.

There are currently three wireless standards in use around the world, A, B and G. As progress has been made in wireless networking technology the speed and security of operating standards has been improved, although it’s possible that the current ‘G’ standard may be superseded at some time in the future.

Why You’d Enjoy Going Wireless

The basic benefit naturally, is that you do away with all the cable connections in your office. You can move your computers and printers around without having to re-cable every time. You also don’t have to worry about hiding cables or ensuring that nobody trips over wiring between pieces of equipment.

There’s no need for users of notebook computers to have docking stations. Once they are within the network coverage area they’re wirelessly connected just like any other PC. This can be a big benefit for businesses with frequent visits from members of their field sales team. It’s also much easier to add a new PC or notebook to the network. Once their wireless connection has been configured its part of the system.

Things You Need to Consider Before Going Wireless

The wireless signal is limited in its range, depending on such things as the power of the signal source (the router), how far the signal has to travel, and what it has to travel through.

Things like walls and filing cabinets reduce the strength of the signal and therefore the distance over which it can effectively be used. Trying to operate a wireless network between two floors in a modern office building can also be a problem.  To some extent these problems can be overcome with signal boosters, although these devices have their limitations too.

Your network can also suffer from interference caused by other radio signal-emitting devices, including cordless phones, cellular phones and 2-way voice communications systems. It’s always best to use the services of an expert when setting up your network so it will do what you want it to do and work at optimum levels.

Be sure to read each article with the mindset "How could this apply to our business." Thinking of it that way will guarantee that you get value. Better yet, take notes as you read and commit to having the ideas implemented by the time the next edition arrives. Also, make copies for each team member. To really make sure something positive happens, work with your business development specialist to talk your team through the ideas and how to set a schedule for getting them implemented. We're here to help you get started.

While every effort has been made to provide valuable, useful information in this publication, this firm and any related suppliers or associated companies accept no responsibility or any form of liability from reliance upon or use of its contents. Any suggestions should be considered carefully within your own particular circumstances, as they are intended as general information only.

Terms of use

All rights to the content in this publication are reserved by RAN ONE Inc. Any use of the content outside of this format must acknowledge RAN ONE Inc. as the original source.