Scenario
Your company has reached a critical stage in closing a deal with a company based in another continent. Communication and even traveling back and forth has been going on but things have increased in intensity as the deal comes closer to being sealed. You have now come to the point where you need to make a temporary move to that city for the final leg. You will be there for 30 days but you also need some core members of the team.
Another thing you need is the whole office and staff. If you had your way or if you could make a wish, it would be to lift your entire team and office to the country for the last leg.
You cannot do that. You do not have to do that. You can rent an office and an entire support staff in the country where you are going.
What do you need?
You would need translators. You do not trust your Spanish at this stage. Besides, other core members of your team that will be coming can even say water in Spanish.
You need an office that is fully equipped to communicate with home base.
You need the Nitty-Gritty of IT specialist and every essential office personnel like cleaners, drivers, office assistant i.e. people you never knew were essential until you find yourself in a foreign country.
You also need accommodation and a hotel will not do.
Okay, you have a serious situation there. Renting an office with an entire support staff is possible. There are different kinds of services, this could be one of the novel ones that still provide a critical service for businesses on the go. There are serious deals to be made while still keeping the overheads down. Opening an international office may be out of the question for practical reasons but renting an office with a complete support staff could be the only solutions that answer to your needs. Moreover, they can liaise with estate agents to provide the needed accommodation for the period of time you and your team would be around.
This is actually happening across the globe from Nigeria to New Zealand. Support companies providing this kind of service are springing up delivering on what they promise. There are businesses that provide cross continental solutions. You find them in Oil & Gas, Banking & Finance, Energy etc. There services are highly sought after by other businesses and they have to be literarily running a mobile office.
They cannot be having offices everywhere because that will not be feasible. Such businesses have found an answer in support service companies that gives them customized offices with specialist staff on request. The staff ranges from translators to IT personnel, House Keepers to Gardeners.
Advantages of Renting Support Staff
focus
They make you focused and what you should while they provide support in making sure your team has everything they need to successfully execute their tasks. They are not there to get in the way. Rather they are there to facilitate and make your task go smoothly.
knowledge
They are local and know the terrain better than you ever would. They know the short cuts to getting you there on time.
Grasp of business culture
They understand both the social and business culture of the terrain. That translator will natural bow or curtsy because that is part of the local and business culture. This takes away negative attention from you who know no different since you took time to get someone in your team that is home grown. They can also tell you what to do in terms of social protocols. These are things that could score you great points and help smooth the way over the deal you are pursuing.
Unique Expertise
Using the service of a support staff company is critical not just when you are in a foreign land, some of them provide unique expertise that you might not be able to hire permanently because you cannot afford it. They could have a department for translators and you would need such because of the international nature of your business. It may not be feasible on your part to employ individual translators but using the service or such companies would be it a choice that is cost effective.
They generally provide critical B2B service that helps other businesses to concentrate their resources in areas where they can get the most reward. Such support service companies are here to stay and will keep on increasing in value as the business world keeps on shrinking.
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