In May 2024, Payoneer hosted the regional Payoneer VIP Connect Manila event. This brought together experts and influencers to share insights and action-oriented strategies for SMBs to overcome obstacles and seize global growth opportunities.
Attendees– founders, C-suite executives, and industry experts – were drawn from SMBs across different industries and regions, liked by their aims to expand their businesses across borders.
In the second of the two panels at the event, business leaders discussed the challenges and opportunities they faced in a post-pandemic world, and how they leveraged new technologies to meet them.
Revisiting how people are treated
The pandemic opened up a variety of models for a business to run. As Andrew Dingcong, Senior Vice President, Country Manager, CarParts.com, explains, companies now have to ask if their staff will be working from home, or going fully back to the office, and how to maintain “people investment” either way.
There are no one size fits all answers to this question. Andrew felt that as a tech company, his business could run a hybrid model that ensures staff continue to deliver necessary output, while saving personal resources like gas, or hours spent going to the office.
Similarly, Carlo Silva, Co-Founder & CEO, Shoppable shared that his CTO in his company was able to handle the technical details of a move to hybrid work, and granted employees the right to work at home so long as they met their projects and deadlines. Different teams had slightly different approaches based on their function – for example, marketing teams would “draw and call”, working from home but meeting to do creative sessions. Others had arrangements of working three days in office, and two days at home.
On the other hand, Marla Rausch, CEO, Animation Vertigo shared how that was more difficult as an animation studio, and not something her company could sustain. “What we’re doing is under a very strict confidentiality agreement… everybody here knows that not everywhere has reliable internet. Not everyone here has reliable electricity. Employees had to take a machine home that had to be secure. We had to do everything to be able to make sure that the client’s data was protected.”
Given the excitement surrounding new video games or movie releases that her studio worked with, “it’s very difficult to trust, not so much the employees but those who might be around in the in the houses.” Additionally, the close team collaboration needed for animation work to ensure consistency in the results over different shifts, made it necessary to maintain a more on-site model, despite the costs.
Choosing payments providers that support your business
With the boom in e-commerce that occurred after the pandemic, having secure and reliable payment solutions is key to success. As businesses take up more transnational opportunities, these solutions can also be a matter of consolidation. Dingcongdiscussed how, though businesses opportunities in both the US and the Philippines were equally vital, it “just didn’t make sense having to work with two banks.” A payment solution helped to manage the situation. What are some questions companies should ask themselves when seeking out new payment solutions partners?
Gregg Daly, Financial Director, Boldr, shared that besides the robust compliance and security of the provider, cost was a big part of the decision. Small decimal differences in exchange rates may not look like much, but when the spending gets large, they become substantial really quickly. Another factor was the relationship that the provider can give. “Do I enjoy working with a provider that I’m going to have a conversation with? And can I share with [them]?” were considerations he made. When breaking into new markets, considerations arose as to whether a single global provider was better, or smaller local providers with more specialised access.
Again, flexibility and a willingness to seek out the provider that gives the best balance of cost with access is what he recommends. Reliability, of course, goes without question. It only takes one bad experience where money doesn’t arrive, he explains, to prompt an exit.
While these may seem like difficult and compilated decisions to make, the payout can be well worth the trouble. Rausch shared how payments providers can give needed agility to small businesses swimming in the larger global oceans. Working with Payoneer that had secure capabilities in both the Philippines and the US allowed her to pivot her operations away from North America when the market there was in downturn. It also allowed her to reorganise and pursue new aims of producing more original Philippine content. The pivot was easy because the company funds remained accessible.
Subsequently Silva highlighted that a good payment provider that goes beyond just being a consolidated bank can greatly assist these cross border operations. Features like being able to invoice clients, paying out contractors quickly, and gaining access to direct support from the company are all important to look out for. These features should ideally be easy to use. Rausch explained the difficulties trying to get subcontractors to also use the same Payoneer account for ease of transaction. Asking people to change providers can be challenging, so the smoother the signup process, and the reliability of the operations would be a crucial factor in deciding whether she continues with a provider or looks to find something “a little bit more easy on both ends”.
For Dingcong, personalisation and communication are important in choosing a vendor to partner with. This allows businesses to choose one that can align to company needs, rather than one that provides many features that may not all be relevant. By way of example, he related that he has a vendor right now, who knows that I’m more responsive on Facebook, compared to other channels, making their communication faster and more immediate. “And we make good business, Make it fast, efficient, effective.”
