LEAD FEATURE
and virtual offi ce group, Regus, which has 2,000 centres across 95 countries. While you may be running your business from the kitchen table or spare bedroom, there’s no reason why clients and customers need to know quite how micro your business is. Even if you do have a manufacturing base or offi ce, there are few businesses that can afford to fund a physical location in every city around the world they expand into. “That’s where the virtual offi ce comes into its own,” says Brown. “You can set your business up with an address in cities across the world and our staff answering calls as if you are in the same building.” Every business starts somewhere. Even Google was small once upon a time, and it used Regus to help it grow and expand into new territories. Indeed, it’s still one of Regus’ customers today.
EXPORT SUCCESS: YELL Yell wanted to reduce its property costs and decided to look at its sales offi ces, which were being under-utilised. Analysis revealed offi ces were busy on Mondays, but less so for the remainder of the week. The use of mobile phones and laptops by sales consultants meant that they did not need to visit offi ces, occasionally dropping by out of necessity, such as attending team meetings. While offi ce utilisation had dropped to about 25 per cent overall, properties were costing the same to run. Yell explored the potential to use
Regus Businessworld through a pilot initiative in Watford and soon realised it could close its own under-utilised sales offi ces. Each Yell sales consultant received
a Regus Businessworld Gold card, giving them unlimited walk-in access to high quality Regus business lounges
14 | springboard |
www.ukti.gov.uk
and cafés. This enabled Yell to shed its expensive and outdated fi xed-offi ce model and also enabled Yell’s sales consultants to work more productively. Such was the success of the Watford
pilot and the subsequent roll out of the initiative that all 700 Yell on the road sales people now have Businessworld Gold cards. As a result, Yell has estimated annual savings of around £1.5m but these are likely to increase further as the company’s working practices become even more effi cient and agile.
DESPERATELY SEEKING… PAYMENT
BUSINESS SOLUTION: PAYPAL So, you’re growing overseas customers via an international marketplace and your local presence is sorted via a virtual offi ce. Now all you need to sort out is getting paid. Despite differing currencies it is now remarkably simple to make international transactions. Anyone who has ever used Ebay will know Paypal, the international payments service that is now owned by the online auction giant. Carl Scheible, UK managing director of Paypal, believes it is a fundamental part of any business seeking international expansion to make the process of making and receiving payments as simple as possible.
“Of course, you can go to your bank to
provide a card payment service for your business, but the difference with Paypal is transactions across borders are extremely straightforward and fees are low and simple to understand,” he says. “Customers do not need a Paypal
account to get money to you. They can pay using any major credit or debit card, make a transfer from their bank account to yours or, of course use their Paypal account it they do have one. It really is
very simple to set up and easy to use on your own website.”
EXPORT SUCCESS: STONE BRIDGE Stone Bridge specialises in luxury French handmade hair accessories and has become recognised as the hallmark of quality within the hair industry worldwide. Its founder, Melissa Hill, is quick to
recommend Paypal. “When I meet a business owner who’s doubtful about adding PayPal to their website, I am gobsmacked,” she says. “The benefi ts of PayPal far outweigh the few day’s time it takes to get familiar with their system, while the ongoing support is brilliant. “When we started, we didn’t know if the UK was ready for a premium quality product in our category, says Hill. “There was every chance that the business wouldn’t take off, so to hedge our cashfl ow risk we were very careful to choose suppliers that wouldn’t leave us tied into costly contracts. PayPal was an easy, low-risk way for us to start accepting credit cards when we were still at the testing stage.
“PayPal has been very important in helping us grow our business. Business is all about the transaction. If you can’t sell your product and collect payment, you’re not in business. The fl exibility of PayPal’s online system means we can take credit card payments absolutely anywhere there’s a customer, online, at a show or even in the street.
Hill says: “If we have a problem with a suspected fraud, PayPal’s customer service people are second-to-none in helpfulness and practical support. Knowing that kind of backup is available when you are confronting a criminal gives you great confi dence. This helps us crack hard on shrinkage, critical for profi tability in retail through any channel.” ■
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52