The Great Discovery!

Money talks, in every language: If you are a course creator, you'll want to know about this: is a new monetized e-learning platform which allows course creators translate you into 100 languages! The 30-minute explainer video is from founder and CEO Tim Taylor who I met yesterday. I have signed up and suggest you do the same: https://www.thegreatdiscovery.com/powerconnector

I Operate 50+ Country Specific WhatsApp Groups - Here’s Why

At the end of the day, business boils down to two things: people and trust. Which is why I have created and curated an ecosystem of more than 300 WhatsApp groups full of thought leaders and entrepreneurs to manifest an environment where they feel safe to engage with one another. The business comes later. I’m all about relationship building. With this in mind, I have begun the process of co-creating several country specific groups with trustworthy individuals who are very well connected in any given country. The rationale behind this is to make money by helping people. For example, let’s say you know someone who is looking for a warehouse in the Philippines. I would flip that enquiring over to my trusted contact A.S. Oberoi who advises a conglomerate located there. Since most business people, myself included, are more than happy to pay referral commissions, we can all make money by not even mentioning it! I will ensure that a referral agreement is in place so that introducers get paid accordingly. Ad it stands, the list of countries for which I have a WhatsApp Group are: Marvellous Mauritius 🇲🇺 Business In Kazakhstan🇰🇿 Lovely Latvia🇱🇻 Superb Sri Lanka🇱🇰 Perfect Peru🇵🇪 Bonnie Scotland🏴 Dynamic Dominican Republic🇩🇴 Beautiful Bahamas🇧🇸 Creative Croatia🇭🇷 Magical Malta🇲🇹 Terrific Thailand🇹🇭 Perfect Poland🇵🇱 Victorious Vietnam🇻🇳 Terrific Turkey🇹🇷 Super Singapore🇸🇬 Marvellous Malaysia🇲🇾 Business In Côte d'Ivoire Israel Goes Global🇮🇱 Out of Africa Saffers Unite🇿🇦 ANZ Pod🇦🇺🇳🇿 Anglo/German Club🇩🇪 Perfect Portugal🇵🇹 Indian Masterminds🇮🇳 Chinese Masterminds🇨🇳 European evangelists🇪🇺 Marvellous Mexico🇲🇽 Taking Back Control 🇬🇧 Vorspruch Durch Technik (Germany)🇩🇪 US Business Masterminds🇺🇸 Beautiful Brazil🇧🇷 GCC Masterminds Viva la France🇫🇷 Bella Italia🇮🇹 Viva España!🇪🇸 Happy Hungarians🇭🇺 Canadian Masterminds🇨🇦 Jamaican Networking🇯🇲 Philippines Networking🇵🇭 Magical Malta🇲🇹 Marvellous Monaco🇲🇨 Electric Egyptians🇪🇬 South Korea🇰🇷 Big in Japan🇯🇵 Magical Madeira🇲🇬 Luck of the Irish🇮🇪 Forever Ukraine🇺🇦 If you are interested in joining any of them, let me know. I will then ask you to introduce yourself to the group outlining who you are, what you do and who you would like to meet in order to help meet your business goals. LinkedIn plays a key role in what I do since it is such a useful information platform. LinkedIn and WhatsApp complement each other very well. My trusted friend and advisor Lesley Batchelor CBE who used to be Director Generale of the UK's Institute Of Export can assist you in all facets of your exporting journey if needed. Making money by helping people: what’s not to like?

How Coronavirus Has Destroyed ‘In Person’ Events And Invigorated 𝑽𝑰𝑹𝑻𝑼𝑨𝑳 Ones…

It started with the cancelation of the massive Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Behemoths Facebook & Microsoft soon followed suit and also shelved plans to host their signature conferences and joined a growing group of multinationals in calling off corporate events and grounding employees from travel as a result of the outbreak. The list of cancelled events then grew exponentially.

COVID19 has truly decimated the $840 billion MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events) Industry.

However, as Napoleon Hill once pointed out, “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”

Wikipedia describes Business Networking as a socioeconomic business activity by which business-people and entrepreneurs meet to form business relationships and to recognize, create, or act upon business opportunities share information and seek potential partners for ventures.

Since the need to meet clients, prospects and partners is a requisite for any given business, new ways of doing so need to be found.

One beneficiary of recent developments is the fledgling Virtual Events industry, which allows users to connect with their audiences in the most interactive way online whereby technology facilitates the connections that matter the most – human ones.

The same technology is also being used to being brings remote teams together - all the benefits of a physical workspace, combined with all the freedom of remote work.

The coronavirus outbreak is not the only reason why working and networking this way is on the uprise – all of us are becoming aware that climate change is also very real and that by not travelling to events we are collectively reducing our collective carbon footprints. The environment is one of the few net beneficiaries of our collective lock down.

The Company leading the way in this space are Remo.co who have developed a platform which allows users to work and network virtually, globally.

Over and above Networking Events, Remo can be used for ad-hoc Meetups, Conferences, Trade Fairs and Events, Hybrid Events, Webinars, Company Events, Broadcast to Event, Online Courses, Summits/Forums, Workshops, as well as Expo & Exhibitions.

If anyone is interested in becoming a virtual event agency and run virtual events for your clients, you can sign up as a Remo affiliate here. You will be paid 35% recurring commission for each referred customer as well as a 5% override commission from any other affiliates you refer. You can take Remo for a test-drive for free for 14 days. I will help you set-up and execute your first event. Your workers/clients/attendees will LOVE it!

Given the unprecedented situation we all collectively now find ourselves in, it's important that we channel our energies into an industry that has a future.

Post Coronavirus, virtual events and remote networking will most certainly be one of them.

EU AI Speech

How Global PEO/EOR Helps Companies Expand Internationally

A professional employer organization (PEO) - more commonly refered to as an Employer of Record (OR) in Europe - is an  is an outsourcing firm which provides services to small and medium sized businesses and enters into a contractual co-employment agreement with its clientele. The PEO becomes the employer of record for tax purposes through filing payroll taxes under its own tax identification numbers.

The PEO industry began in the late 1960’s in the United States, where each state has differing regulations for workers' compensation insurance and state unemployment insurance. The USA is the only country to formally recognize the PEO industry in statute.

Fast forward half a century and a new disruptive variant of PEO was born. Global PEO makes it much easier and quicker for companies to expand internationally since it eliminates the need to them to establish a legal entity in the country is which they would like to hire talent. 

I know from my own experience how slow and painful this process can be. Last year, I was asked by a US Movie Financing Company to establish a UK Company and Bank Account in the UK where I am located. The Company was itself was established within an hour, but it took many months to open the Bank account. 

By engaging in the services of a Global PEO, companies are able to legally employ international workers in days, not months. The Global PEO assumes responsibility for payroll, tax, immigration, and employment compliance in the host country, greatly reducing the risk, cost and workload for their clients.

Furthermore, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into effect this May, carries steep penalties for companies not in compliance. An effective way a company can take proactive measures to minimize the risks associated with GDPR when hiring global workforces in EU is by engaging in the services of a Global PEO - As the Employer of Record, the PEO are authorized to collect remote employees’ personal information and assume responsibility for GDPR compliance in this critical area.

Since Global PEO helps companies expand internationally without establishing subsidiaries overseas, their services are particularly useful for Private Equity firms who help them grow their portfolio globally, helping them find a home for newly acquired employees in countries where the buyer does not have a legal entity. The time and effort in setting up entities for countries with only a handful of employees, can be disproportionate to the size of the deal.

The remit of finance professionals involved in international expansion is to make sure they keep the costs associated with positioning personnel around the globe at a minimum. The hourly costs of local lawyers and other in-country partners can escalate quickly. Global PEO helps keep costs manageable and predictable. 

Over and above helping companies capture market share relatively quickly in new overseas markets, Global PEO allows them to test before they invest. If the market is no good, they can fail fast and fail relatively cheaply: the cost of closing overseas operations can often exceed the expense incurred of creating them in the first place. 

In his bestselling book ‘The World is flat’, Thomas Friedman describes the interconnected world in which we now live as a level playing field in terms of commerce, where all competitors have an equal opportunity. His book refers to the perceptual shift required for countries, companies, and individuals to remain competitive in a global market where historical and geographical divisions are becoming increasingly irrelevant.

This metaphor is particularly apt in the relatively new world of Global PEO.  

Acquisition Opportunity - Full Service Structural Steel Engineering Firm (West Coast, USA)

Business Description: The Company is a full service structural steel detailing firm and provides structural steel shop detail drawings to steel fabricators across the country.  It focuses primarily on 3D Structural Steel Modeling & Building Information Modeling (BIM) for Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing (MEP) Coordination on significant commercial projects.  The Company relies on its vast knowledge of Structural Steel Frames e.g. it started in the industry when steel detail drawings were created entirely by hand. The Company’s professionals utilize the latest technology to help deliver projects on time/on budget.

       

Market Place: The Company enjoys a distinct cost competitive advantage re: partial utilization of international engineers’ services and the ability to move projects along on a 24/7 basis.  Structural Steel Detailing is a must-have service for the construction efficiency and integral quality of major commercial buildings and structures, both nationally and worldwide.  The Company’s knowledge base combined with its strong long-term use of cutting edge technology makes it unique in the steel design and detailing business. 

Operational Strengths: Every project is backed with a strong management team who works real-time with clientele to keep projects flowing smoothly, Fast-Tracked, and cost effective.  Each project team has a Project Manager with a minimum of 10 years of experience (including steel design and detailing, fabrication shop, and field experience), and a Project Coordinator with a minimum of 5 years of Tekla Structures experience.

The Transaction: The Owner wishes to retire and sell the firm. The Company’s professional team wishes to continue and expand the business. 

Financial Summary
	2017	2016	2015
Revenue	$2.2M	$1.9M	$2.6M
Adjusted EBITDA	$917K	$635K	$1,019K

Location	Financials	Management Team in Place	Years in Business	SIC #
West Coast	Internal	Yes	35	8711

Game Changer? Game Changer!

I have honored to be bestowed as a Game Changer by theintroducermagazine.com and look forward to working with fellow game changers and both new and existing partners globally.