Cloud-computing, Google scheduling and social media figure prominently in Mob4Hire’s day-to-day operations. King says networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are “vital lifelines” for maintaining ties with clients in far-off locales. “I see a real trend where I think technology is bringing the world closer together, albeit in 140-character-length Twitter thoughts,” he laughs.
Successful firms are distinguished by more than tech-savvy, however. Although he lightheartedly dismisses traditional offices as “the bricks and mortar thing,” King relies on a good deal of old-fashioned business know-how and best practices. It’s the difference, he says, between attending international trade shows and centralizing distribution in your parents’ basement.
“You really have to work at making your business have a personality and having people not seem like it’s an empty shell,” he notes.
In practice, the idea is to temper technology with a personal touch. King blogged about his experience at the Barcelona trade show, writing daily roundups for Techvibes.com that relayed the comings and goings among the event’s contingent of Canadian companies.
“I can take that experience and get it on to my blog so people feel like they’re connected to us in a grassroots kind of way,” he says. “You cannot remove the importance of human relationships from business, no matter how much distance you have.”
Adhering to a business 101 mindset can be challenging. King keeps an irregular schedule, particularly when co-ordinating meetings with businesses and staff in Asia and the Pacific from an Internet café in southern Alberta.
What’s more, the big mobile carriers Mob4Hire sometimes works for demand immediate results from disparate locales. “You’re operating across international borders, so there’s the expectation that you’re going to get back to people right away.”
“Any business is faced with constraints,” he continues. “Whether it’s human resources or time or money or whatever – in a small business it just seems to be amplified.”
Imran Bashir might relate. When the CEO and founder of Heaven Fresh, which sells air purifiers, wanted to connect his company’s satellite office in Lahore, Pakistan, to its U.S. and Canadian affiliates, he ran into a problem common to small companies – raising capital to pay for necessary infrastructure.
The phone system required for the job cost Bashir in excess of $7,000. “It’s so expensive,” he recalls, marvelling at the teething pains of a young company. Still, the new office cut payroll costs, and after a period of adjustment now employs 10 staff.
Bashir, who calls Toronto home, credits the slimmed down, international approach for seeing Heaven Fresh through the global economic slump that crippled many a small business. His firm survived the credit crunch, in part, because its European branches offset declining sales in North America.
Says King: “When you can sell in every inch of the planet, the chances of actually making revenue are much higher because you have such great scale. You can move where the work takes you.”
A longtime tech-marketer who got his start in computer science some 25 years ago, the Mob4Hire boss describes the proliferation of micro-multinationals in recent years as nothing short of “absolutely phenomenal.”
“There are not many days that it escapes me. Where we’ll be in five years is going to be night and day to where we’re at right now.”
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