Sunday, March 13, 2011

Things to Consider when Moving Overseas


Moving Overseas can be a very hard decision to make. Some move overseas because their jobs require them to. In order to advance in their careers, some must make the decision to move. Some people move because of their family. When people wish to stay together, someone must sacrifice and move to another place. Some move because they want something to change in their lives. Moving overseas is like experiencing a fresh start in life. It is often the case that people who decide on moving overseas do so because they feel that they will be leaving their mistakes behind.

There is an Asian saying that goes: “he who does not know how to look back where he is coming from will never get to his destination”. Simply put, moving overseas may seem like a fresh start in life, but we must be careful never to truly forget our origins. Some people, when they go overseas, lose their identities. They easily become assimilated into the culture of their new home. Generally, this is not such a bad thing. However, if you forget your heritage, then you might end up making the same mistakes that you did in the past. Remembering your origins is like reviewing all the lessons that you have learned within the great classroom of life.

Before you make a decision concerning moving overseas, there are three voices you should listen to:

a) Your initial reaction – this, of course, is the reaction that you get before you take the time to truly consider the dilemma. Your initial reaction shows your instinctive decision. Many people have been saved by making decisions based on instinct. However, before you decide based on this, you should also consider other voices.

b) The opinion of others – after you have heard what you want, take the time to listen to what others think. This can be very helpful in assessing the situation as there may be some things which you fail to see from your perspective. This is especially important if other people will be affected by your moving overseas.

c) What needs to be done – your initial reaction constitutes what you want to do. After you have assessed the situation, ask yourself what needs to be done. Take the opinion of others and the demands of the current situation and see what you really need to do.

Some people might say that these things are contradicting. There’s really nothing that one can do about that. What you need to do is to find the heart of the contradiction. The decision regarding moving overseas is hard enough without having multiple voices inside your head. If you find the heart of the contradiction, however, you will learn that there is one voice which contains all of these opinions. And you would be able to make the right decision.

Think of moving overseas as a whole new adventure. Think of it as a new chapter in your life waiting to be written. You should always remember that life is just one big adventure and there are times when you have to take risks to enjoy it. You should also remember that no one can make you do anything that you truly do not want to do. In the end, the decision to move overseas will still be yours to make.


Moving Overseas: As Easy as One… and Two


Moving overseas is like starting on a new life in a new place that is far from what you have considered your home. But it may not be as difficult as many would say.

In the course of planning to move, there are a lot of hard decisions to make and preparations to do. If you have not organized your move well, you will be faced with headaches that will take a long time to overcome.

It would help a lot if you have your family with you to help you in the process of planning and organization. This way, you will not carry the burdens alone. You will have persons to depend on and to assure you that everything will turn out great.

At first, you will feel torn between moving overseas and just staying where you are right now. But if you think of all the benefits your move can give you, all your doubts will eventually go away. The only thing that will matter to you is getting everyone and everything prepared for that much needed new environment.

To help make your move a little bit easier, below are some things that you need to consider. These things will more or less minimize the headaches that you will encounter when moving overseas.

1. Learn everything there is to know about the place you will move into.

By having first-hand knowledge about the place or country you will move into, you and your family will be prepared for what is in store for you. This will also ensure that you will not be surprised at the type of surrounding and culture that you will face.

The best place to start is your local library. There are a lot of books and reading materials there that will give you basic and comprehensive idea about different locations. Moreover, you can look at photographs of important landmarks that the place is known for.

The internet is also another source of gathering information about certain places. The good thing about online resources is that they are updated frequently. You can find fresh information from the internet that will satisfy your curiosity and help in your decision making process.

In your reading, do not forget to note where embassies and other important places are located. Familiarize yourself with business establishments that you may have a need of once you get there.

2. Packing your stuff.

When packing your things, keep in mind that the main purpose behind it is to have your belongings arrive safely in your destination. If you are not capable of making this work, you can enlist the services of professional movers to do them for you.

These people are aware of the standards that are set for every destination. They can advice you on how best to secure all your belongings and how best to ship them to that certain location.

Do away with furniture that you will not need. You can always buy new ones in your new home. Leave them with your relatives. Not only can you save on the shipping expenses, you will also make other people happy by leaving some part of you behind.

Moving overseas is really not as difficult as it seem to be. You only need proper planning and preparation and off you go…

Why Move a Business Overseas


Many people wonder whenever they hear of somebody moving a business overseas. They often wonder at the reasons behind the move. Reasons for moving a business overseas may either be good or bad. These reasons can be categorized into three:

1) Opportunities – often, people move their business overseas because of an opportunity. Opportunities are events which, when reacted to properly, can cause the improvement of a business. People often need to look very far in order to find opportunities. Sometimes, opportunities can be found overseas.

One common reason why people move their business overseas is an open market. There are times when people have a hard time with a business because of competition. Because of competition, people often lose a lot of cash. A good entrepreneur, however, will not give up because of competition. He will look for new opportunities and new markets where he or she can dominate. People moving their business overseas often do so for the reason that their business may not have a lot of competition over there. They might move their business overseas because they see a potential market for their product which they can dominate.

Another opportunity is a reduction of costs. Some people move businesses overseas because doing so will increase their profit. Think of Nike and Adidas. These companies have factories in Asia because of the fact that labor can be much cheaper there. This means that their profits will increase by moving their business overseas.

2) Threats – there are people who move their business overseas because of the fact that there may be some threat in their current location. As said before, most move because of heavy competition. This is a threat. If you say that this example is not really distinguishable from the first reason then you should be enlightened. In the first reason, an entrepreneur sees a new opportunity in another place and therefore moves the business overseas to take advantage of that opportunity. When facing a threat, an entrepreneur moves the business overseas because not doing so could spell doom for the business.

Threats are events in the environment which, when not handled properly, can cause very bad things to happen to a business. Often, moving a business overseas can be the best way to evade those threats.

3) Miscellaneous – there are people who move their business overseas for no apparent reason connected to the business. If moving the business overseas does not take advantage of an opportunity or does not really get rid of a threat, then moving the business overseas must be for a reason related to the entrepreneur.

There are times in a person’s life that he just wants a change. He might want to feel the thrill of starting a new life. We all know, however, that people cannot just move without some means of supporting themselves. Sometimes, moving a business overseas can just be a part of the person’s migration.

Moving businesses overseas may seem like such a random thing to do. However, you need to understand that everything has a reason. It may not be understandable by other people, it may not be very smart, it may not even be reasonable, but it is there. By knowing the reasons for moving a business overseas, we are given a glimpse into a person’s mind and that is a small part of knowing the entire universe.