Business is about People. Knock on the Right Door!

I’ve spent ten years as a business development consultant, starting in Brazil and continuing internationally in Canada and in Europe. Developing a business abroad can be challenging. It requires significant knowledge of the target country and its culture, language, and local habits. It’s also extremely important to define a clear strategy and set challenging yet realistic goals. But more importantly, it requires you to understand what really matters most in business: people.

Living abroad has taught me a lot about cultural differences. Instead of judging and complaining about others’ behavior, I try to understand local customs by researching and studying the origins of a population and its development up to the present time. Doing this has helped me to communicate my objectives and adapt to cultural differences more effectively. This research also taught me how to communicate my identity and personality dynamically, which has enabled me to succeed in performing my daily tasks.

Understanding people is about building strong and stable relationships; it is about sustaining efficient communication. In this way, you will not just improve your competitive advantage—you will create a prosperous and profitable business as well.

Every day, companies try to conquer new consumer markets with their products and services, designed with quality and made with the latest technology. As well as offering actual services to customers, these services come with the promise that the customer’s quality of life will be improved in many ways. Yet, all these efforts depend on the key of business: people.

A strong advantage in business may come from a smart investment in location, or it may come from the amount of finances and material resources you have, which will save time and costs and accelerate the growth of your business locally and internationally. However, in my point of view, a good location and good financial conditions may help you to start something now, but they are not enough to keep your business stable and strong over time. The best advantage you can have against any competition is the knowledge you and your company possesses about people, starting from the ones that work for your business and delivery to the final clients of your company’s products and services.

When starting a business, branding a person or a product will, without a doubt, require a step-by-step plan and a strategy for the realization of this project. Everyone has dreams of—or at least the desire for—professional accomplishment. You don’t need to change your business strategy or product; all you need is to create the right motivation to work and diversify the possibilities that already exist inside your business. Offer each contributor the opportunity to feel like a part of the business conception and product rather than an employee or a supplier.

You have to be the image and lifestyle that your partners/coworkers want to be and have, because the first sale you make is within your company. The people involved in your business, your partners/coworkers need to believe in your vision, as it would be the most concise and effective way to progress. They need to “buy” the product first to be able to sell it and understand how to connect this product with people’s needs. Achieving this level of communication with your partners/coworkers is what will leads you to the right clients, to the right doors!

Cheers!