International Business

If you haven’t optimized your VoIP phone system yet, you could be missing out on several prosperous opportunities. If you are still using an analog business phone number, you may find that it lacks the features and capabilities that you could be receiving with a virtual calling system. Read on to find out why you need an Australian virtual phone system now.

Get the Edge Over the Competition

Australia has a booming business scene, and you don’t want to be left behind during this wave of prosperity. Cloud phone numbers provide an unmatched service that allows you to take calls when you’re on the move. Whether that means leaving your desk or leaving the country, you never have to miss a phone call if you switch over to a virtual phone service.

Top Benefits of Switching Over

• Appeal To The Masses: You can use your virtual phone number to attract new people by providing an Australia toll-free number and advertising the number all around the country.
• Stay Connected: With a virtual phone system, your clients and the members of your team can stay connected wherever you are located in the world. Virtual phone systems allow you to use local phone numbers to save costs on expensive international rates no matter where you are located in the world. If you are in America and your team is located in China, and your clients are located in Australia, you can remain accessible everywhere through your virtual phone system connection.
• A Great Tool For Call Centers: Call centers can be set up with your new Australia virtual phone number on the same day. You can start taking calls almost immediately. Call centers handle customer service inquiries, compliments, and grievances. Providing a call center for your business shows that you care about your clientele and that you believe in your product. Plus, at United World Telecom you can set up call recording. Call recording can be used as a handy tool for training customer service representatives as you can quickly learn what is and isn’t working.
• It’s Personalized: Virtual phone systems come with a variety of features that you can use to customize your clients’ experience every time they call.

Top Features for Business Phone Systems in Australia

• Voicemail: You can customize and record your own personal voicemail greeting where your customers can state their inquiries when you are outside of business hours.
• Call Recording: As previously mentioned, virtual phone systems in Australia come with a call recording feature. This is an excellent customer service tool for training and learning whether or not the training is being fulfilled.
• Call Forwarding: Never miss an urgent phone call with the call forwarding features. You have the opportunity to set up an international call forwarding system where phone calls can be sent to different devices or people within your company. Outside of business hours, you can use this feature to forward incoming calls to your voicemail. You can even set up call forwarding to send transcripted voicemail messages to your fax machine or an mp3 recording to your personal or business email address. It is much easier to stay up to date on business communications when you have call forwarding.
• IVR: An Interactive Voice Response is the recording that is often used as a greeting for several businesses. Usually this automated voice or a pre-recorded message by you or one of your employees will offer a standard greeting to the caller and then direct them to a list of menu choices so you can better serve them. For example, “Hello, you’ve reached Thomason Packing and Shipping. Thank you for your call today. In order to best serve you, please choose from the following options: 1 for sales, 2 for customer service, etc.”

How To Get an Australian Virtual Phone Number

You can choose your very own Australian virtual phone number by visiting UnitedWorldTelecom.com or by calling 1 (877) 898-8646. You can get virtual Australian phone numbers and toll-free phone numbers, then sign up online and start making phone calls right away with a free trial.

The world’s most advanced countries have seen global trade become stagnant because of policy changes and controlled investments. The upside of this upset is that developing countries have had a chance to begin to equalize themselves with more economic powerhouses.

These developing countries have been major contributors to global output. They are the countries that business owners should be thinking about when deciding to expand their reach to international territories. Read on to find out more about these emerging economies and the opportunities they can offer your business.

Expected Growth of Global Economic Markets

There are multiple countries throughout Asia that can maximize the growth output of your business. The OECD has sited Asia as the fastest economically growing region in the world. Growth throughout Asia in countries like Vietnam and China are expected to grow around 6.0% meanwhile the United States and Euro countries are only expected for grow by 2-3% and those numbers are expected to drop in the coming years as the countries in Asia continue to grow.

Where This Growth is Expected to Occur

The following is a list of economic growth anticipated by the fastest growing global markets for 2025.

China

China is projected to grow to 6.4% in 2025 in comparison to 6.6% in 2018 and 6.8% in 2017. The economy is steadying itself to a more reliable growth pattern rather than the extreme economic growth we have seen from China in the past decade. China’s president Xi Jinping has been working towards creating a more balanced pattern for the economy.

India

The growth rate in India is even higher than China’s and is expected to shoot up from 7.0% growth to 7.4% in 2025. This incredible growth rate is thanks to a rise in productivity. The growth potential of the market is currently accelerating and India is quickly becoming a huge economic presence in Asia.

Vietnam

Vietnam is hovering around the same growth rates as China with 6.5%. The government has been working tirelessly for Vietnam to become more attractive for world markets, and this strategy is proving to be lucrative. Huge tech giants such as Samsung have brought huge investments to the country.

Cambodia

Cambodia’s tourism sector took a plunge in the past but is now recovering and that recovery has helped to boost the economic growth in Cambodia to nearly 7%.

Deciding to invest in Cambodia is up to the personal choice of the business, however. Government corruption is still rampant in the country and transparency is not at its highest.

Bhutan

Though it has a very small population, the Kingdom of Bhutan is growing fast and strong. It is a landlocked and centrally located country between China and India. Its location makes Bhutan very important, and its economy is driven by tourism, agriculture, hydropower, and forestry. According to the World Bank, Bhutan is expected to grow at 11.1% over the next few years. The Kingdom of Bhutan uses a Gross National Happiness average over a Gross Domestic Product average to gauge the nation’s prosperity. Before you jump into investing in Bhutan take into consideration that its financial markets are not yet developed and the stock exchange is tiny.

South Korea

South Korea is not growing as fast as other countries around Asia, but it is still growing at around 3.0%, higher than most of Europe and the United States. South Korea may be seeing this boost because of its global trade deals and powerful friends.

New Zealand

Although not part of Asia, New Zealand is also in the running to become a top economic powerhouse globally. Its GDP growth is expected to stay at around 3.0% for 2025. This sovereign island country has built its GDP through agriculture, dairy farming, tourism, and a burgeoning wine industry.

Markets to Watch for Your Business’s Growth

This growth all around the world means that your brand has the possibility of expanding outside of your circle. When you understand where the money is going rather than where it is, you can give your brand a strong competitive edge. Asia and New Zealand are great potential marketplaces where your business can find new customers and can evolve prosperously over time.

Many companies from around the globe already call Puerto Rico home. These companies came to boost their opportunities for advancement and growth through the variety of industries thriving in Puerto Rico. Not to mention having a skilled labor pool and low costs.

Puerto Rico as a Business Destination

For companies expanding from the United States, Puerto Rico offers a familiarity while still providing the uniqueness and excitement of a different culture you might find further from home.

While Puerto Rico is part of the US, it is not technically a state, and there are some slight differences between starting a business in the US and starting one in the unincorporated US territory. Some people might say that Puerto Rico has a slow permitting process, and it might seem so if you compare the process to the fastest methods like those in New Zealand, which World Bank data has given the title of the #1 country on their ease of doing business list. Although it may not have the same fastest permitting process, the territory has a more straightforward process than places such as India and China.

An Excellent Location for Entrepreneurs

After being hit by both Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Irma in 2017, Puerto Rico has been struggling to get back on its feet. That may not sound like the ideal place to start your business, but the Puerto Rican government has created several incentives for entrepreneurs to open their stores. They hope that providing entrepreneurs with these incentives will bring revenue back to the country and this will help them to get back on their feet. It is a similar approach to what Singapore has done over the last ten years, while achieving outstanding results.

The Advantages of Opening a Business in Puerto Rico

1. Personal Taxes

The two biggest reasons to start a business in Puerto Rico are the taxes. Puerto Rico is exempt from US federal taxes because they are a commonwealth nation. However, they are technically part of the US which means that they retain US citizenship. For entrepreneurs wanting to be free of the US tax, all they need to do is live in Puerto Rico 183 days out of the year. Puerto Rico is the only place that US citizens can move to and not have to renounce their US citizenship to be exempt from federal taxes. Entrepreneurs in the US can have more than half of their income taxed in individual states, while Puerto Rico has a fixed income tax rate of 4%. Capital gains are also taxed in the US anywhere from 15-20% while in Puerto Rico the rate is 0.

2. Corporate Taxes

Companies in either the manufacturing services or export divisions can qualify for a 4% fixed income tax rate as well as a full tax exemption on total earnings, including profits. In a few cases, some businesses can qualify for a property tax exemption as well. And most startups get a full property tax exemption for the first five years they are in business. The savings in Puerto Rico compared to the US are nearly unbelievable.

3. Skilled Workforce

Puerto Rico suffers from a “brain drain” of sorts. While the island graduates thousands of STEM students every year, a majority of the grads decide to leave the country. In spite of those numbers, Puerto Rico believes that the opening of new businesses will help to keep these graduates in the country and even offers a 50% tax credit for companies who are working towards research and development.

4. US Perks

Businesses in Puerto Rico still get to enjoy many perks of other businesses in America despite not having to pay the tax rates. All products that a business creates in Puerto Rico get stamped with “Made in the USA.” There won’t be any shady business with your intellectual property either because it will be protected by US law. Puerto Rico is due to receive $17 billion in funds from the US, which is expected to create an increase in budget.

Opening a business in Puerto Rico does come with its fair share of obstacles, but if it is done correctly, the savings will be staggering.

Communication is a fundamental element in running a business. As a business owner, you should ensure you are remaining in regular contact with customers, partners, and remote employees. You should also ensure that the customer communication journey is unified. In other words, no matter which department they speak to within a company, everyone should be on the same page, so that customers leave with the impression that the team within the company is a cohesive one.

Digital Communication Trends

The forms of communication, which support team collaboration in turn, enable the scale of your existing business to increase. Whether this means opening a new branch, finding new clients, or expanding your sphere of activity either domestically or internationally, digital communication trends are playing a significant role in this area. With that in mind, here are some of the top digital communication trends enhancing today’s businesses:

Cloud Services: The concept of cloud computing is not particularly new, but developments in this area are new. Cloud storage is generally safer in comparison to standard data centers and is more tolerant of faults. Retrieving and transferring data from the cloud online is also simpler than it may be with physical storage. This is important when putting VoIP networks in place. VoIP technology, for example, is more commonly being used in telephone systems today. The use of a cloud-based system versus traditional landlines for telephonic communications allows for mobility, flexibility, lower costs and the use of many corresponding features that perhaps would not be offered with the use of a traditional phone line.

Internet of Things: The concept of the Internet of Things has gradually begun to enter the sphere of business communications. This allows mobile device users to keep in touch from anywhere in the world with the use of different types of wireless connection, such as WIFI, GPRS, and Bluetooth. In addition, IoT allows business owners to provide large-scale awareness of how business processes are put in place. M2M technology, for example, accompanies the IoT concept and provides the capability of gathering important business data on an ongoing basis. M2M technology maintains a constant symbiosis between all electronic active devices that exist within your business.

Artificial Intelligence: The AI concept is best explained by referring to the well-known Siri for iPhone. The software is based on the voice requests of the user and operates based on the chatbot principle. It searches the browser and implements various processes in the mobile device. These types of software solutions are now even more advanced. There are various mobile apps that have been developed for different business purposes, including remote communication processes. In essence, users acquire full-fledged virtual assistants that are able to take up some of the duties of a real employee.

Communications Tools for Modern Businesses

Each and every year brings us significant developments in business communications. As far as top digital communication trends enhancing today’s businesses, the aforementioned three emerging trends in digital communication present great opportunities for those who develop software to create new software solutions.

With the intensity of competition ramping up amongst various business owners in virtually every sector, it is important for business owners to stay ahead and remain informed of the top digital communication trends enhancing today’s businesses. Communication tools are arguably one of the most powerful tools available for reaching out to customers and forming lasting relationships with your customers.

Related: Top Business VoIP Trends You Must Pay Attention to in 2021

Digital Communication: the Path to the Future

Emerging technology is constantly raising the bar and changing the customer communication space. From cloud-based communication systems, chatbots, and artificial intelligence to the Internet of Things, consolidator sites and communication ecosystems, these technologies are challenging the way we have always thought about communication and forcing everyone to stay abreast of top digital communication trends enhancing today’s businesses or face being left behind.