You’re a small business that is making waves and the industry is paying attention to what you’re doing. The press may have run a story about you and your business, you may have appeared on several news networks and you are establishing yourself as a voice in the small business community. Being at conferences and making speeches about important issues in your industry, and showcasing your products and services to the world. Being that you’re a figurehead now in the world of business regardless of size, you will be garnering much attention all over the world. What should you do if you are contacted by a foreign business that wishes to meet up with you, have a meeting and potentially sign a deal with you? They may want to be supplied by you, or they would like you to become a partner so you supply only them in their respective country. The first time you react to the company that is interested is crucial as they will be judging your professionalism as you are them.
Do your research
Before you get too friendly, or maybe even before you reply to their initial contact, learn more about the company. Where are they based, what do they do, and how successful are they? You do this because even though they may have contacted you with the hopes of securing a deal, they might not be as successful as you would hope them to be or how much they say they are. You should research the company in various search engines using the news category. Have any articles positive or negative been written about the business? What kind of reputation do they have with customers and clients? You don’t want to attach your name to a negative business so do the proper research.
Breaking down the barrier
If you like what you see and you are impressed with the company that has contacted you, you may want to hire a person that will mediate for you. For example, if the company is from Japan and they don’t have a team that speaks English, then you can still have great conversations back and forth. In terms of the contract you will draw up between you, the details need to also be translated for you. The Japanese company has their own set of rules and culture so they will want from you different things than you might expect so contact technical translation services that can change the contract to your language. The legal wording is very important in any kind deal as it could affect your business growth in the future. You have to think 5 or 10 years ahead and judge what your performance will be then so you don’t want to be entangled with a bad deal that hurts your prosperity.
First impressions between two companies in different countries is sometimes a nervous occasion as you want to impress each other. However once the intentions of both are clear, you need to understand each other in the legal wording of any contract. The technicality of the deal will need to be translated to avoid signing something detrimental.