Ten Things That Helped Lingo24 Go Global
Editorial note: This is a guest post by Christian Arno, the founder and managing director of Lingo24. While the company is not from the Nordics nor Baltics, the story shares experiences on how Christian went on to create a multi-million dollar business internationally.
From having a simple business idea, to running your own international company is a world of difference, but with a good plan and a bit of courage you can take a leap of faith and put your ideas to the test.
Thanks to the internet, entrepreneurs across the globe can launch their business easier and cheaper than ever. With the World Wide Web connecting people far and wide, reaching customers can be a mere click away.
I founded my translation company Lingo24, in 2001 after I’d graduated in French and Italian. Initially I worked from a spare bedroom in my parents’ home in Scotland and today Lingo24 has over 150 employees and clients in over sixty countries. Here’s ten top tips that I believe helped me build my company – and hopefully, budding business people can take something useful from this.
Start-up cash
Although running an Internet-based business is generally cheaper than running a physical bricks-and-mortar business, you still need money to put your plans into action. I used a £5,000 loan from the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust (PSYBT) and I also invested £500 of my student loan on the stock market, which yielded a return of 3000%.
How you get your start-up cash will probably be different. But you must spend your initial funds wisely and don’t throw money at anything without planning it carefully.
Work from home (and keep overheads down!)
Working from home can reduce many costs when starting your business. By not paying rent, utilities and other things that an office needs, you save money for equipment, salaries and web professionals.
In the early days, I worked from my parents’ spare bedroom in Aberdeen and I built a client base gradually.
Not having to pay for offices meant I could offer prices up to 30% cheaper than our competitors. This was an important factor in competing with well established names from the start.
Do your homework
Before starting the business you want to make sure there is room for you in that sector. Find out what services other companies offer and think about how you can improve on them.
Take advantage of online marketing
Online marketing is a lot cheaper than having to pay for newspaper, TV or radio ads - and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a good way to get visitors to your website.
Although SEO and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising were relatively new concepts when I launched Lingo24, I realised the potential of using the Internet to market our services.
PPC allowed us to test different online marketing techniques for a very little money. Setting up a nominal monthly budget meant not spending the entire marketing funds at once. Online marketing was integral to Lingo24’s growth, both in the UK and abroad.
Expand to other markets
Why sell your product or service just in your domestic area? Go hunting online for a country that could be your ‘El Dorado’. Although the majority of the Internet is in English, 75% of the world doesn’t speak English. I soon realised the potential of expanding into foreign markets.
Using of online marketing, I created a number of websites in German, French, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and several other major European languages, which have enabled the company to tap into new international markets.
Localize your website
Creating a website in a foreign language is just the start. You must also consider the cultural differences and nuances between languages.
Don’t translate your keywords directly, you must research them for each market. My early online marketing initiatives meant that I researched key search terms used by local customers and incorporated them into the translated websites, which achieved good results in foreign search engines in a relatively short period of time.
The saturation of key industry search terms on the foreign language internet is nowhere near what it is in English. I also invested in country-code top level domains (.Fr for France, .De for Germany etc) to increase visibility in local search engines.
‘Virtual’ and physical offices
When you first start out and need to save every penny possible, meeting with clients when you work from home can be a problem.
Here is where ‘virtual’ offices come into play, you can hold a meeting for a few hours and not have to worry about spending a fortune on rent and utilities. I opened virtual offices in New Zealand and China in 2003 and 2004 respectively.
The big change came when I decided to open physical office spaces, starting with Romania in early 2005, Panama in early 2008 and Edinburgh later the same year. Operating on multiple time zones allowed us to operate around the clock. And we opened our first physical London office in April.
Outsource
Outsourcing is a very effective business strategy that allows you to pay for services only when you need them. Hiring a third party for you accounting, HR management, marketing and design means you only pay for something when you need it – ensuring you have extra funds for other things.
Outsourcing work to freelance translators rather than having tens or hundreds of in-house linguists has meant we only need to pay for services when necessary. The need for certain language combinations vary from day-to-day and week-to-week, so there’s little sense in Lingo24 employing full-time Swedish to Swahili translators.
Online telecommunication
Why pay a fortune on expensive international calls? Save the money for something else. I’ve been a big advocator of the online communications from the beginning, by using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services like Skype.
Stay green
Running a ‘green’ company doesn’t just help the environment but can also aid your finances. I’ve always had a green philosophy and have instilled this in the Lingo24 culture.
Harnessing the power of digital communications has meant less travelling for meetings and more virtual conferences. If less pollution isn’t enough to motivate you, think of the money you can save on travel!
Good luck…now go forth and prosper!
About Christian:
Christian Arno is the founder and Managing Director of professional translation company Lingo24. Launched in 2001, Lingo24 now has over 140 employees spanning four continents and clients in over sixty countries.
