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Case Upon - Are You Ready To Go International?
If you thought the property market has little to do with football. Think again! A recent study by a magazine shows that about 20% of prime country homes are bought by footballers.If you have been under the impression that the only property that football is concerned with is its pitch, think again or question an estate agent in places like Cheshire or Surrey.Country Life, a rural set magazine, annually analyses prime country homes that are sold for more than ? 2m. But the point to notice is that 40% of such properties are bought by entrepreneurs, 20% by people employed in the service sector and 20% to professional footballers.; Singaporean postcodes use numbers only, but appear in a different place in the address; all have different lengths from each other.
If your Web site includes an order form or a demographic survey, allow for postcodes that fall outside your own local format.
5. Include your full postal address
If you're addressing an international audience, include your country in your postal address. Don't expect people to just figure it out. This seems obvious, but a surprising number of businesses on the Internet forget it.
Claims by the major UK gas and elecricity suppliers that they have been forced to increase their prices in order to claw back the huge deficit created by the unprecedented rises in wholesale prices would, on the face of it, appear to be a reasonable explanation for their action.However, if this were an entirely accurate picture they would be expected to take a hit on their profit especially since they have passed on to their customers ‘… far less than the full extent of the increase in wholesale energy prices experienced….’But profits are rising and rising big time and the explanation given is that these profits come from a different source
So are YOU ready to communicate in this international medium? Whether you're building your own Web site, taking part in discussion groups, visiting a chat room, or just sending and receiving e-mail, you'll meet more and more "foreigners" on the Internet - and vice versa, of course.
Let's look at some tips for communicating effectively in this new global village.
1. Write in plain English
Write clearly, with small words and short sentences. If you're writing long messages or creating long Web pages, include a simple summary at the top.
Be very careful to write exactly what you mean. If you're writing for a general audience, avoid sarcasm, colloquialisms and other things that rely on a certain tone of voice or cultural background.
2. Watch out for phrases with two meanings
Although English is the de facto international language of the Internet, differences abound between, say, English and American English. It's easy enough to allow for differences in the way that we spell "colour", "apologise" and "organisation", but other - more subtle - differences can easily lead to misunderstandings.
For example, does "bi-weekly" mean twice a week or once every two weeks? It's different for Australians and Americans. Similarly, when Australians "table an issue", they are raising it for discussion, but for Americans, "tabling an issue" means putting it aside.
3. Include area codes in phone numbers
Any time you quote a telephone, fax or mobile (cell) phone number on the Internet, ask yourself whether your readers reside outside your local area. If you're potentially addressing distant readers, include your international code and area code in these numbers.
4. Allow for variations in postcodes
American zip codes and Australian postcodes use numbers only; U.K. postcodes contain letters and numbers; Singaporean postcodes use numbers only, but appear in a different place in the address; all have different lengths from each other.
If your Web site includes an order form or a demographic survey, allow for postcodes that fall outside your own local format.
5. Include your full postal address
If you're addressing an international audience, include your country in your postal address. Don't expect people to just figure it out. This seems obvious, but a surprising number of businesses on the Internet forget it.
<You won’t be if you accept a very simple premise. Here, in just two sentences, is your pathway to effective public relations. A pathway that lets you target the kind of stake- holder behavior change that leads directly to achieving your objectives.People act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action those people whose behaviors affect the organization, the public relations mission is accomplished.And what behavior changes they can be. Legislators who see y
Let's look at some tips for communicating effectively in this new global village.
1. Write in plain English
Write clearly, with small words and short sentences. If you're writing long messages or creating long Web pages, include a simple summary at the top.
Be very careful to write exactly what you mean. If you're writing for a general audience, avoid sarcasm, colloquialisms and other things that rely on a certain tone of voice or cultural background.
2. Watch out for phrases with two meanings
Although English is the de facto international language of the Internet, differences abound between, say, English and American English. It's easy enough to allow for differences in the way that we spell "colour", "apologise" and "organisation", but other - more subtle - differences can easily lead to misunderstandings.
For example, does "bi-weekly" mean twice a week or once every two weeks? It's different for Australians and Americans. Similarly, when Australians "table an issue", they are raising it for discussion, but for Americans, "tabling an issue" means putting it aside.
3. Include area codes in phone numbers
Any time you quote a telephone, fax or mobile (cell) phone number on the Internet, ask yourself whether your readers reside outside your local area. If you're potentially addressing distant readers, include your international code and area code in these numbers.
4. Allow for variations in postcodes
American zip codes and Australian postcodes use numbers only; U.K. postcodes contain letters and numbers; Singaporean postcodes use numbers only, but appear in a different place in the address; all have different lengths from each other.
If your Web site includes an order form or a demographic survey, allow for postcodes that fall outside your own local format.
5. Include your full postal address
If you're addressing an international audience, include your country in your postal address. Don't expect people to just figure it out. This seems obvious, but a surprising number of businesses on the Internet forget it.
Are you an entrepreneur still stuck inside an employee's body?Many people want to have the time freedom that a serious entrepreneurial endeavor can bring them, but they don't want to buy themselves a job either.Here are 5 steps you can take to learn how to become an entrepreneur that will lead you in the right direction.Step one, find a mentor or someone who is already achieving the results you are looking for. This is someone who can help you set up a plan for success in your business.The second step is make sure the products you will be selling or marketing are something that you can be prou
Although English is the de facto international language of the Internet, differences abound between, say, English and American English. It's easy enough to allow for differences in the way that we spell "colour", "apologise" and "organisation", but other - more subtle - differences can easily lead to misunderstandings.
For example, does "bi-weekly" mean twice a week or once every two weeks? It's different for Australians and Americans. Similarly, when Australians "table an issue", they are raising it for discussion, but for Americans, "tabling an issue" means putting it aside.
3. Include area codes in phone numbers
Any time you quote a telephone, fax or mobile (cell) phone number on the Internet, ask yourself whether your readers reside outside your local area. If you're potentially addressing distant readers, include your international code and area code in these numbers.
4. Allow for variations in postcodes
American zip codes and Australian postcodes use numbers only; U.K. postcodes contain letters and numbers; Singaporean postcodes use numbers only, but appear in a different place in the address; all have different lengths from each other.
If your Web site includes an order form or a demographic survey, allow for postcodes that fall outside your own local format.
5. Include your full postal address
If you're addressing an international audience, include your country in your postal address. Don't expect people to just figure it out. This seems obvious, but a surprising number of businesses on the Internet forget it.
ACSEA, the forty year old 2bn USD South East Asian subsidiary of a Japanese pharmaceutical group suffered a blow to its pride in 2003. A competitor which started operations just ten years back now surpassed it in the volume of Pharmaceutical-A produced, and its cost was now 13% lower than ACSEA's. The only hopes of responding effectively lay in the company's South East Asian Technical Centre whose role is to provide technical support to the factories and develop process technologies aimed at cost reduction for the organisation.However morale at the centre was low, and its contributions to cost reductions for Pharmaceutical-A amounted to a measly 1%
3. Include area codes in phone numbers
Any time you quote a telephone, fax or mobile (cell) phone number on the Internet, ask yourself whether your readers reside outside your local area. If you're potentially addressing distant readers, include your international code and area code in these numbers.
4. Allow for variations in postcodes
American zip codes and Australian postcodes use numbers only; U.K. postcodes contain letters and numbers; Singaporean postcodes use numbers only, but appear in a different place in the address; all have different lengths from each other.
If your Web site includes an order form or a demographic survey, allow for postcodes that fall outside your own local format.
5. Include your full postal address
If you're addressing an international audience, include your country in your postal address. Don't expect people to just figure it out. This seems obvious, but a surprising number of businesses on the Internet forget it.
I'm writing this article because I would have appreciated someone warning me about unknowingly pushing myself into a severe relapse of PVFS (ME/CFS) a few years ago (when I was struggling to keep my full-time job).Most working ME/ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and Fibromyalgia (FM) sufferers face the same kind of problems at some point during their illness:Should they continue work? Should they cut down? Or should they stop completely? And if they stop where will the money come from?Unless you're on your way to full recovery, ME/CFS and FM and full-time jobs (especially demanding or stressful ones) can be a recipe for disaster. So if
If your Web site includes an order form or a demographic survey, allow for postcodes that fall outside your own local format.
5. Include your full postal address
If you're addressing an international audience, include your country in your postal address. Don't expect people to just figure it out. This seems obvious, but a surprising number of businesses on the Internet forget it.
6. Include international postage costs
If you're selling anything through e-mail or your Web site, cater for international orders, whether you expect them or not. Find out the cost of international postage and shipping, and publish the costs for your customers.
This is a complex area because of the variety of options, depending on the source and destination countries, methods and speed of delivery, customs and duties, and more.
Simplify this as much as possible for your customers. It's better to start with something very simple (for example, one postage price for all international orders, regardless of destination) and adapt it with experience. Or eliminate postage costs entirely, as Rachel Green does on her site by offering free postage anywhere in the world:
7. Explain your currency
If you use a currency that's common to other countries - such as dollars - make it clear which version you mean. Some Web sites quote their prices in American dollars as a kind of "universal currency", but most use local currency.
Include a link to a currency converter on your Web site to make it easy for your international visitors. Here's one to use:
8. Be aware of time zones
If you're writing a time (for example, the time when you're available in a chat room) for people in specific time zones, include their local times as well. When writing for an international audience, include the time in GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).
Include a link to a time zone converter on your Web site - for example:
9. Use icons carefully
Choose icons on your Web site carefully. For example, not everybody understands what a "STOP" sign means; and a "thumbs up" sign can offend people from some cultures.
In fact, it's so easy to misunderstand icons - even within a culture - that you should always supplement them with clear descriptions.
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