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Seven Steps to Grow Your Business by Rethinking the Idea of 'International'
By David Goldsmith
President, MetaMatrix Consulting Group LLC
Broaden your perspective of your market and you’ll broaden your scope of business opportunities. In an economy that has seen its share of challenges, you need to identify and ‘create’ new opportunities to weather the storm and to gain competitive advantage when that storm has given way to sunnier skies. One of the best ways to broaden your perspective is to rethink every aspect of your business by viewing it through an international lens.
The Olympic committee recently granted hosting rights to Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 summer games. As various countries and cities clamored for the honor, real estate brokers and agents from competing locales such as Chicago and Rio de Janeiro began preparations for a new surge of buyers both domestically and internationally. Now that the race has ended and Rio is making plans to accommodate the traditional influx of real-estate business, that doesn’t mean that brokers and agents in Chicago and all points in between can’t rethink their approach to gaining market share and adopting an international perspective.
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'When you begin to shift your perspective, you must rethink the different types of international clients in any market.' |
When you begin to shift your perspective, you must rethink the different types of international clients in any market. How are you preparing to meet the needs of prospects living in other countries who are seeking properties in your region? Remember, too, international prospects that are already in your locale and want to buy or lease residential or commercial real estate for any number of reasons including attending college, visiting, or working in your country. And perhaps you can capitalize on opportunities to find properties in international markets to suit the buying or leasing needs of domestic clients who want to work or vacation in other countries.
For 20 years, I’ve been the loyal customer of a Chinese restaurant owned and operated by a Chinese immigrant who goes by the name Chen. I’ve helped Chen in various ways, reviewing his telephone bill or ironing out a problem with his insurance agent when he had difficulty overcoming the language barrier. As a result, we’ve become friends. Chen is an entrepreneur who has purchased property for his restaurants in my local area of Syracuse, NY and in other parts of the country. He’s also renovated a dilapidated four-story apartment building, which today houses a restaurant on the ground floor and apartments for his extended family and friends on the other three. Like I tell my NYU students, when you design and market products and services, you must consider people like Chen and the many others who make up a multicultural market offering immeasurable business opportunities.
Rethinking international means understanding that in rural and urban community there are opportunities all around you. Cities including London, Tokyo, San Francisco, Miami, Paris, Buenos Aires are the obvious examples of multicultural populations. Smaller cities and town offer similar prospects just not on the same scale. You might be surprised to learn that Buffalo, New York, Columbus, Ohio, New Britain, Connecticut, Portland, Oregon, and Duluth, Minnesota have major Polish communities.
Here is a short list of ideas to jumpstart your rethinking and open your scope of opportunities.
- Become aware of potential multicultural groups in your community, and then frequent their events. Go to a Latin dance festival or a German party.
- Spend time learning a new language. You can’t extend your hand any more to someone than trying to speak their language. ¿Hablas español? Yo puedo hablar. (Do you speak Spanish?) Português? اللغة العربية? Русский язык? 中國人？(Portuguese, Arabic , Russian, Chinese?)
- Learn about the customs, religions and behaviors of other cultures. Understanding other people is a good way to live and to do business.
- Travel for learning and for fun. You’ll pick up new experiences to share with other people, and you can use those experiences to put you and others on common ground.
- Use technology to connect with buyers in their own language. The customized material facilitates dialog, helps clients to be more informed, and makes you look professional.
- Join international real estate groups that promote multicultural connections. Debbie Maue of Jameson Real Estate in Chicago and the Big Blue Marble Properties International, has been the NAR President’s Liaison to Costa Rica and The Vice President of CIREC (Chicago International Real Estate Council).
- When you travel, you can connect with other real estate professionals and build a referral network. Just find out when the next association meeting is in the city you’re visiting, and attend so that you can meet potential networking partners face to face. Tour some properties in person to gain first-hand assurance about the properties and to insure that those you’re working with are ethical.
You’re bound to hear about the challenges facing international real-estate markets, such as the additional 30 percent drop in Dubai’s property values, the two million American homes headed into foreclosure, the possibility of Chinese bubble burst, and the lack of real-estate lending globally. But if you rethink your perspective to include international possibilities, many of the challenges you see today will begin to reveal themselves as opportunities for you to grow your business and prosper.
Leadership and management expert David Goldsmith is an award-winning professor at New York University and the President of MetaMatrix Consulting Group, based in New York State. Business owner and entrepreneur turned international consultant and speaker, Mr. Goldsmith was named by Successful Meetings Magazine as one of the "Top 26 Hottest Speakers in America," and has been featured in media outlets worldwide. He is a regular columnist for several publications, and has published over 500 articles globally. His book entitled Paid to Think will be available in bookstores in May 2010. To learn more, visit www.davidgoldsmith.com, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or call (315) 682-3157.
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