Why you need to speak English well when you have your own business

- Is English hurting your business?

I talk to a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners

who admit that, yes, their English is holding them back

from growing their business internationally.

Now, in today's lesson, you're gonna get one strategy

to help you overcome that problem

and actually give you a competitive advantage

over some native speakers.

And the good news is, of course,

you don't have to speak perfect English for this to work.

All right, let's go.

Hi, I'm Christina,

and welcome to "Business English with Christina,"

where in this special series

you're gonna see how other entrepreneurs

and business owners solved their problems in English,

got more clients so that you can do the same thing.

And this episode is just the first one

in this special series.

There's gonna be another episode.

There's gonna be a live webinar you can attend,

all of that exciting stuff

to help you grow your business in English.

And if you want to be sure to get your invitations,

to get those lessons, go over to my blog

and sign up for the newsletter so I can send them to you.

And I'll put the link, of course,

down below the notes from this video.

Now, how does it feel when you know

that English is hurting your business or holding you back?

Maybe you already feel this and hey, that's okay,

we've all been there, but maybe not,

I wanna share a story with you

and this is from a client of mine called Fatima,

not her real name, of course,

but this is the story from a real client.

So this client, she offered training services

to other businesses, entrepreneurs,

small businesses, professionals, et cetera.

And she noticed that several clients were seeing her on,

I don't know, social media, her website, whatever,

and they started contacting her and saying, "Hey,

we really like what you do,

but we've got some international people in our team.

Can you do your training in English?"

And well, she had to say no

because she felt like she couldn't do that.

And then she got another request

and she had to say no again.

And then another request

and she had to say no again.

And at that point she said, "All right,

I have to do something about this

because this is three potential contracts

that I've had to say no to

just because of my English level.

I mean, like if you have a business, I've got a business,

if in that position, it's like, ouch, like that hurts.

Let me tell you another story somewhat similar,

but not exactly.

This is the story of Manuel.

Again, real client, not his real name.

Now, Manuel was working with a lot of clients

who were based in the US

and he was always afraid

to actually like meet with them virtually on Teams

because he said he knew that he would have to listen to

and understand several Americans in the same meeting,

then he would have to also respond to them.

He was afraid of not understanding,

not responding with the right thing, et cetera.

And so he limited himself to interacting with his clients

in the US by email only.

Now, no judgements,

but I feel like that's not the best way to run a business

and to reassure your clients

because sometimes just being able to see

and to speak with someone face to face

or over Zoom or Teams, it's just reassuring.

It makes business more human, so you have to do it.

And now maybe you're thinking like,

"Yeah, but no, it's okay.

I don't really have to worry about things like that."

But there was this article

from the Harvard Business Review

called Global Business Speaks English.

And if you're kinda wondering, "Okay, yeah,

but does this apply for me?

Is it really important for my business?"

Here's something that they had to say in that article,

not speaking English means not being able

to reach an international market.

And it means that your business is less resilient.

It's gonna have more difficulty surviving

and even growing when the economy is difficult

because you're limiting yourself

to only clients who speak your native language.

And not speaking English it means that feeling afraid

and limiting yourself either in being proactive

and going out and finding those new clients

in different countries in a different language,

or simply saying no to someone who contacts you.

And I mean, for me I feel like

that would be the most difficult part

because it's like someone found your website,

they looked at your services,

maybe they compared you with several other services

and they chose you,

but just because of English you had to say, "No, thank you.

We can't work together."

But you know that you can do better

and you know that you deserve better.

And for a lot of these people and maybe for you as well,

the thing that stops you sometimes

from taking the step and making the change

in the right direction

is maybe this fear that it's gonna be hard,

it's gonna be long, it's gonna be difficult,

it's gonna be a lot of energy.

Yeah, it takes work and it takes energy

and it's not a fast process, but it is so worth it.

And I've seen a lot of people go through that process

and then realize, all right, yes,

this is the moment I've got to do something.

It's people like Fatima, it's people like Manuel,

it's maybe people just like you,

people who stop saying no,

and who start saying yes, instead of yes

to building their business, to getting more clients,

to really going after the dream that they have

for their company because they know that they can do it.

And like I said, no, it's not easy.

And yes, it takes work,

but I mean, if you're running a business,

I have absolutely no doubt that you're not afraid

of doing the work,

that you're not afraid of trying different things,

trying new strategies,

innovating in order to reach the goal

that you have for yourself.

Also, one of the things

that I've heard from a lot of people is,

"My English is not good enough.

I have to just go and live in an English speaking country

for a few weeks or a few months

and that's the only way I can solve the problem."

That is one way to solve the problem.

But if you don't have the possibility to do that,

then that just becomes an excuse.

And I know that hurts, but I'm sorry,

but that's the truth.

If you're saying the only way I can do something is this

and oh, I just don't have the possibility

to do that one thing.

Well, then you can find another way to do it

and it might not be the same exact approach,

but it will get you the same result.

You can start with the English that you have

because if you're watching this video, you've got a level

that allows you to follow an entire video in English

and that is already pretty good.

So I mean, be proud of yourself

and let's start with the English you have.

And like Fatima and Manuel,

the first thing that you need to do

is identify one problem to fix and focus on that

and maybe make it your biggest problem

so that you see results

and you see a change after you solve that problem.

And that's gonna keep you motivated

to continue working on solving your problems.

Pick the thing that's gonna have the most impact,

maybe that is focusing on putting your LinkedIn profile

in English,

maybe it's getting the right emails

to be able to contact potential clients confidently,

maybe it's putting your website in English,

whatever your one thing is,

start there and start with the English you have

to make that thing functional, let's say.

As we say, done is better than perfect.

And then when you've got that, what's gonna happen

is you're going to start having exchanges, conversations,

or contacts from international clients.

And at some point you will have to meet with them

maybe in person face to face,

but probably virtually on Zoom or Teams.

And yes, that can be scary,

but if you know how to do it the right way

and you've actually got a strategy,

that can help you actually have a competitive advantage

over some native speakers

who don't have these business techniques.

And in a lot of business conversations,

especially those first conversations,

the way that you begin your conversation

can determine the result,

the way that you end the conversation.

And if that sounds a little like, I don't know, meta,

a little like Yoda or just a little woo woo and you're like,

"I don't know what you're talking about, Christina."

Go over to the blog,

I've gone into more detail what that means

so that you can understand how important this is,

but also what you can do to put this in place

for your own business.

And I've put actually a link over to the article,

the original article that was the inspiration

for this episode.

And in that article they talk about superstar sellers

and what makes them different from, let's say,

regular people.

I don't know what makes them different from people

who don't have these strategies and these techniques.

And it's things that you can do already

with the English you have,

it's things like building rapport with the other person,

really listening and paying attention to them,

really focusing on making the first 10 minutes

of your conversation dedicated

to building, establishing rather,

establishing that relationship

so that you have the confidence of the person,

they feel like they like you, they can trust you.

And that can really make a huge difference

in the rest of your conversation.

And it also means that you are in control

of the success of your English,

the success of your business.

You're not just waiting for someone

to come and do it for you

or to present to you with the perfect opportunity,

you take action to make sure

that you create the right conditions for success.

So are you ready to give yourself this advantage

in doing business in English?

Maybe the way to find out is to take a little quiz

on your confidence in English

and that you will find over on the blog post

for this episode.

And of course, I will put the link down below this video.

Like I always say, if you don't use it, you lose it.

So here's your question for you today,

what is blocking you from reaching your business goals

in English or from contacting clients in English

or saying yes to international clients who contact you?

What is the thing that's stopping you from saying yes today?

Put it in the comments.

Like I said, don't be afraid, don't be ashamed.

We have all been there,

we all face these situations and these problems,

it's part of growing

and the more we share our experiences,

the more others will see, hey, this is normal,

but I can solve the problem.

So you can actually maybe be the inspiration

that someone needs.

And if this lesson was helpful for you,

I would love to know

and there are three ways that you can tell me.

You can give this video a thumbs up on YouTube,

YouTube love thumbs up and subscribes and all of that.

So if you do that, it will help me help more people

and that's what I'm all about.

You can go over to the blog and get the quiz

that goes with this lesson.

And you can watch this next lesson

all about how to pitch your product or service in English.

And of course, thank you for learning with me.

Thank you for improving your business,

improving your English.

Thank you for making it to the end of this lesson

because I feel like this is gonna be a longer lesson,

but it's an important one.

Anyway, thank you for all of that.

And I am very much looking forward to seeing you

in the second part of this special series very soon.

See ya, bye.