Running a UK or US client from Lahore, Manila or Colombo

A client in London or Chicago does not care where your desk is. They care whether the phone is answered, whether the work arrives when promised, and whether the contract and invoice look like the ones they already have. Distance only becomes a problem when you make it one. This article covers the details that make a desk in Lahore, Manila or Colombo feel local to a client who has never visited.

Hours and tone

Work the client’s hours, not yours, for the part of the day that matters to them. For a client in London that means their morning and early afternoon. For a client on the east coast of the United States it means your evening. You do not need to cover their whole day, only the part when they decide things, and you need to tell them which hours those are. A client who knows you are at your desk from their nine until their two, every day, will trust you more than one who gets replies at midnight.

Tone is about being direct in the way their market is direct. British clients soften requests and expect you to read the softening. American clients say what they want and expect a date. Neither wants an apology for the time difference or an explanation of why something was late. They want to know what happened and when it will be fixed. Keep messages short. Confirm every call in writing the same day. Say no when the answer is no.

Contracts in the client’s law

Your terms of business are governed by the client’s law, not yours. A client in England signs terms under English law with English courts. A client in New York signs terms under the law of their state. This is not a concession. It is what makes them able to sign at all, because their lawyer has seen a hundred of these and can approve yours in an afternoon. Terms under a jurisdiction they do not know go to the back of the queue and often never return.

Use the standard form of your trade in their market. Recruitment terms with the usual rebate schedule. Lead-generation terms that define a qualified meeting. A finance engagement letter that says what is in scope. The backer’s back office has templates for each of these, reviewed by a lawyer. Do not improvise clauses. The client’s lawyer will take them out and you will have lost a week.

Invoice in their currency

Bill in pounds to a client who thinks in pounds and in dollars to a client who thinks in dollars. The exchange rate is yours to manage, not theirs to notice. An invoice in a currency they do not use creates a conversation with their finance team you do not want.

Invoice from an account that can receive their currency without a chain of correspondent banks taking a cut. Match the format their accounts payable team expects: their purchase order number if they use one, your company’s registered details, clear payment terms, the due date as a date and not a number of days. Retainers are invoiced monthly in advance. Placement fees are invoiced on the start date. Meeting fees are invoiced at the end of the month. Chase politely the day after the due date, every time. Your profit share is paid once a fee can no longer be clawed back, so a late invoice is your money arriving late.

When a local entity is used

Many clients will contract with a company registered where you are. Some will not, and some procurement departments cannot. For those, the backer uses a local entity: a company registered in England for clients there, a company registered in Delaware for clients across the United States, a free zone company in Dubai for clients in the Gulf and for some who want a neutral jurisdiction.

The decision is made client by client, with the backer. The signs are specific. A supplier onboarding form that requires a local registration number or tax reference. Insurance or data rules that prohibit contracting outside their region. A client who has said yes to everything and gone quiet at the paperwork stage. When one of these appears, raise it early. Setting up the entity is the backer’s cost and work, as part of setting up and paying for the company, the brand, the tools and the back office. Your part is to spot the need before it costs you the client.

The entity does not change the deal. The business you build is the same business, your monthly allowance continues, your profit share still rises to 30% as the business proves itself, and the shareholding of 30% still arrives at $40,000 of total profit, whichever company name is on the invoice.

What clients care about and what they do not

They care that you answer. That you understood the brief the first time. That the candidate turned up, the meeting was real, the accounts were right. That you told them early when something went wrong. That the invoice matched the contract. That you are the same person next month.

They do not care where you sit. They do not care about your accent once they have decided you are competent, which happens inside two calls. They do not care about your office or team size if the work is right. They will rarely ask about your backer, and when they do, the answer in plain terms is that you are an operator who runs your own desk, with a partner who handles the back office. That is true and it is enough. A real track record in their own market is worth more to the next client than any address.

The clients who make distance a problem would usually have found another problem. We say no to most things and quickly, and that applies to clients too.

What to do this week

• Write down the hours you will be reachable in each client’s time zone and tell them.
• Get the backer’s standard terms for your trade in each client’s jurisdiction and read them.
• Open or confirm the account that can receive each client’s currency cleanly.
• Set a fixed invoicing day and a fixed chasing day and keep both.
• Check each prospect’s supplier onboarding requirements before the proposal, not after.
• Draft the two-sentence answer to “where are you based” and use it without apology.
• Reread your last ten client messages and cut every one that explains rather than informs.