Speak English Like A Native To Communicate To Your Global Customers.

The first article on the theme of taking small steps to improve your international business…

You will have heard the (very) old joke, how do you eat an elephant?

I was talking recently to a prospective customer, the MD of a micro company that is starting to stabilise and grow. ‘Yes, we really want to work with you and think that one day per week won’t be enough – there’s so much to do. BUT we are waiting for this large order to be confirmed.’

All of this is true, but as we continued talking, it became clearer that there were several small tasks that I could start to work on, that might only take a few hours a week. This could have an immediate impact and would be easier to build into their budget. For example, while it is a company small in numbers, but they have an international business with customers around the world. Their newsletter and social media posts, however, are written mainly in Finnish.

“Well,” I said, “I’ve done quite a lot of writing over the past few years. I could write your SoMe posts and newsletters in English for you. Give me the original Finnish texts and I will transcribe them into natural, native English. I’ll even try to find a way to translate the jokes!”

“I could write your social media posts and newsletters in English for you. Give me the original Finnish texts and I will transcribe them into natural, native English.”

One idea for my new company, Mark Wiltshear TMI, is to offer myself to Finnish companies for small periods of time, for example, half-a-day per week, making it easier to provide the help required by Finnish companies. Fours hour every week isn’t too much of a financial commitment but can start to relieve the strain on company owners, by focusing on tasks like:

• Creating international newsletters, social media or blog posts
• Creating content or updating your website
• Handling the weekly demands from a large retailer
• Processing incoming orders

I’m sure you can think of more tasks that you would be happy to share. Use the button below to let me know. We don’t have to do everything all at once, we can start eating that elephant together, one bite at a time.