Barry (5:10)

Italy and if you've ever driven in Italy, especially the south, one word comes to mind. Chaos. People are honking their horns, you're getting cut off. Road signs and speed limits are just suggestions. I mean lanes are a suggestion. People are driving in and out of them like they don't mean anything. I mean, chaos is an understatement. Life in general can be chaotic, but if you're in charge of order fulfillment.

Omar Zenhom (5:34)

For an E commerce business, you know.

Barry (5:37)

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Omar Zenhom (6:32)

To sign up for your free trial. That's shipstation.com code MBA, but it's all roses. What are the cons of hiring overseas? Well, time zone challenges Collaboration can be slower if your team is spread out, meaning that if you have a team across six continents like I had at one time, you will have to use asynchronous communication a lot. This means that when your team members are posting something on your team collaboration application like Asana or Basecamp or whatever it might be, somebody might be sleeping and then they'll wake up in the morning and they'll see that post and then they'll respond to it and then when they wake up they'll see it. So you could see everything's kind of taking 24 hours now. It's not that bad if you have long cycles of development or work or nothing's time sensitive. One of the things that you can do to challenge or to remedy this challenge is to make sure that your teams are all in the same time zone. So for example, all of the customer support team might be in the Philippines or all your engineers might be in Eastern Europe or Europe in general, so there's some overlap. Or all your riders are in North America. Whatever it might be the point is, is that when they need to collaborate with other people on their team, it's easy in terms of their time zones. Number two, this is something that a lot of people talk about, but it needs to be talked about and that is cultural differences. This isn't always bad, but it can affect how you communicate, give feedback or build relationships. What you might consider to be friendly might be rude and vice versa. So when I work with a global team, I make sure that we over communicate. We also communicate our intentions. Like I say, I'm telling you this and this is why I'm saying this, so people understand, okay, this is where it's coming from. And I never assume that people will understand me or read between the lines. No, we have to be super clear because some things are a little bit more subtle when it comes to culture and comes to communication. Let's make sure there's no subtleties. We are just clear and transparent. Number three, hiring takes more intention. You need strong documentation. When you're hiring internationally, clear SOPs, you need the tools to support a distributed team, like a great project management tool like Basecamp or Asana or whatever it might be. The point here is, is that you need to be streamlined. You just can't use Google Chat or Slack and just hope everything's gonna work out. You need to have systems in place to make sure nothing falls between the cracks. So let's talk about hiring locally. What are some of the pros? One, generally easier communication and collaboration, especially if you're building fast, especially when you're in the beginning or the early stages of your business. Number two, easier to build a strong company culture in person if you're in the same office. With real communication, your team members will trust you faster if you're seeing them every single day. Now I know this is like the age of remote work and not a lot of people want to go into an office, but a lot of startups and a lot of new businesses benefit a lot by being in the same office at least a couple or three times a week so that they can build those bonds, build that trust, communicate what they need to communicate with each other so they have some momentum and they could build faster. And sometimes for specific roles like sales or legal, having someone local just makes more sense. For example, I had a global team, but when it comes to finances and legal, I always have a local person that I'm working with. But what are the cons of hiring locally? Well, cost, plain and simple. So like I said, if you're in a western country or A high earning per capita country. Hiring locally can be expensive, especially in major cities. You also have a limited town pool. The best person for the job might not live near you. And of course, inflexible schedules, especially if you're trying to cover multiple time zones. You know, it's hard to get a hire to wake up in the middle of the night to do a night shift or a graveyard shift for customer support. So what's the right move? In my opinion, if your product is local, say you're serving customers in a specific city or country, then hiring locally may give you cultural nuances in person collaboration that matters for your business. So say for example, you have a cleaning company that cleans people's homes and you're based in a major city like Sydney, Australia. It makes sense for you to hire people that understand where the areas are that you need to go to to clean these houses. You understand the culture of Australia, you understand that you know when school holiday and that's not a good time to do house cleanings maybe and your local market is Sydney, then it makes sense to build a local team. But if your business is global, your customers are everywhere, let's say for example, then your team should be too. So if you have an online business, an online digital product that's serving the world, I recommend you diversify. Because that diversity will give you better products, because you're going to get better feedback from your team, smarter marketing decisions, and a company that reflects the world it's selling to. That's what we did with Webinar Ninja, our software company that we grew for 10 years. We had team members across six different continents and it made for a better product. No doubt about it. Here's the truth. It's not local versus overseas. It's about the right person for the role. Sometimes they're down the street and sometimes they're across the ocean. What matters is building a team that helps you serve your customers better. Your customers are the most important thing. They allow you to grow. And when you have a team, you move faster and, and you bring your vision to life no matter where they're based. Thanks, Barry for your Q and A question. Today on Q and A Wednesday, if you got a question you want to ask and you want it answered right here on the show, just go to 100nba.net q Submit your question there and we got your back. If you want more help building your business the smart way, subscribe to my Three Things newsletter at 100- MBA-NET just sign up for any of our freebies any of our guides and you'll be part of our newsletter. Every week I'm gonna send you three things. Something to think about, something that's gonna change your mindset. Number two, something to do so that you are moving forward every week. And number three, something to learn so you are growing. As an entrepreneur, it's my way to coach you from afar. It's no fluff, just practical help for entrepreneurs just like you. Again, 100- MBA-NET sign up for any of our guides and you'll be added to our newsletter automatically. Thank you so much for listening, for consuming.

Whole Foods Market Announcer (12:52)

Thank you.

Omar Zenhom (12:53)

Today's podcast episode. You are a doer. You're an action taker. You're my kind of person. You're my people. I can't wait to see you in the next episode. So I'll see you then. Take care.

Fruity Pebbles Advertiser (13:09)

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