Building a Global Team of Experts
Business owners in Africa or anywhere in the world can now build a global team, including experts at computer programming, accounting, business management, administrative services and other highly prized skills.
Many business owners in Africa cite the problem of finding highly skilled employees. Adam Saffer holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and operates Ebony Consulting in South Africa.
“The growth of our company is limited only by the restrictions we face as an employer,” said Saffer. “There is a tremendous brain drain. The young talent is being scooped up by large corporations. A lot of entrepreneurial talent is ending up at multinationals and big banks.”
Although there is a proliferation of micro-entrepreneurs, Saffer says there are not enough highly skilled computer programmers, web designers, business managers, customer service reps, and other trained workers.
In addition to skills, Saffer looks for workers with passion, persistence, patience and professionalism.
Sites like oDesk, Guru and Elance permit employers to hire skilled workers on a consulting basis who work from their laptop or home computer half a world away. Mohammed is just one of the business owners who have used oDesk. He hired a virtual assistant in the Philippines who handles work he doesn’t have time for.
They also permit African professionals to work as local representatives for companies based in the U.K., U.S., Europe or Asia.
According to Inc. magazine, this is one of the best ways for small business owners to build a global team of experts. A small business owner in Chad can hire, manage and pay employees in Botswana, Amsterdam, Dublin and Los Angeles online.
Eric is a small business owner in Cote D’Ivoire who recently set up his website. “I hired four people from four different countries — a web designer, technical writer, marketing professional and a video editor. We stay in touch by mobile phone or email, and I pay only for the services I use.”
Consultants can work on a per-hour basis, or charge a flat fee per job. Business owners save money by paying contract workers only when they are needed, rather than paying a weekly salary.
“We needed a local sales representative who understood the market in Kenya,” says Bill Forrester, CEO of a U.S. company that exports dairy supplies. “We found someone who understands the culture, and speaks all the languages we need. It has been a very beneficial relationship - for both of us.”
The mechanics of working with a team stretched across the global can be problematic - but technology supplies the answers. A number of new sites and technologies permit a business owner in Ghana to videoconference or share documents with a sales representative in Chicago - or vice versa.
Cell phones connect people across the world. More than 300 million Africans own and use mobile phones — they are the ubiquitous technology on the continent and Diaspora. Added features like texting and the capability to take and send photos, enhances communication.
If all participants have access to a computer, Skype is an excellent option. This low-cost service permits team members to brainstorm about new projects and communicate clearly with each other - for very low cost.
Shared document programs allow a web designer in Finland to update his progress on a form that can be accessed in Singapore or LIbya - or anywhere else on the planet. Two of the most popular shared document sites are Dropbox and Google docs.
Despite the proliferation of computers on the African continent, there are some unique challenges. Many areas experience frequent loss of power. In other areas, dial-up internet connections are lost when it rains. To compensate, many African small business owners rely on internet cafes or a company like Africa online when it rains.
Despite these problems, the potential market in Africa is unlimited for any entrepreneur who can put together a successful global team.
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Thanks for this article shedding light on some of the benefit Virtual Assistance add to business owners bottom-line by providing business support solutions to small business in Africa and worldwide. I believe that outsourcing to Virtual Assistants is one of the best kept secret corporate and large organization had been employing to expand globally. But small business owner in Africa are yet to understand the many benefit of partnering with Virtual Assistant to provide business support services and solutions to the growth of their business, lowering business operational cost and creating opportunity to expand globally by having Virtual Assistant to represent their business globally.http://www.afrivan.org - African Virtual Assistants Network(Afrivan)