In part 1 and part 2 of this series, we covered how to leverage global talent and unpacked some of the myths and realities international staffing.

Now it's time to take some real action to fill the blanks in your organization chart and in your staffing plan. So instead of making this an epic poem, allow me to lean into my CPA-ness and make a straightforward bullet list of actionable steps—roughly in the order in which you should tackle them.

Let's get to work!

• Find a champion on your team who will commit themselves to taking the process forward even when it gets difficult and you encounter challenges. Anything worth having is worth working for.

• Align objectives of all stakeholders. Why should your current team want to work with a global team? Why would they invest in training them? These questions aren't rhetorical and not everyone on the team may be as eager on the prospect of remote workers. Knowing their points of view will vastly improve your chances of a successful expansion. This is a journey of discovery, not a forced march.

• Ask your peers what they've done in this area and how they've overcome obstacles. Why have they chosen a certain structure? Potentially, why have they chosen not to do this at all?

• Ask providers what they have to offer and how they have worked with other U.S. teams in the past. How does it work? This is the preliminary information gathering phase, though, don't skip the below and engage right now!

• Clarify your primary motivation. Is it to get more talent on the team to support existing clients? Is it to grow? Is it to lower average labor costs? Depending on the answer, certain locations and structures may make more sense than others.

• Determine what you're willing to invest in terms of capital, time and attention. All the structures take some of each, but in different measures and with different expectations.

• Select the right structure for you. Are you a solo with little time to spare? You may need the plug-and-play simplicity of an outsourced vendor. If you're a larger firm, maybe the investment of time and money aligns with setting up your own subsidiary. Or something in between. Part 1 < https://www.calcpa.org/whats-happening/california-cpa-magazine/filling-the-blanks-part-1> of this article series may be a good re-read to help you decide.

• Look to augment, not replace. My firm has twice as many FTEs in the U.S. after using offshore labor as before.

• Map your processes and make sure you understand what your team is actually doing—not just what they're supposed to be doing based on the checklist.

• Identify portions of your process that can be most easily leveraged and with as little risk as possible initially. Start small—just as you might with integrating a new team member—and expand from there.

• Start with your wish list of skills (tasks) and knowledge (processes) that the global team will handle in tandem with your existing team.

• Determine how project management duties will be performed. If the global team is expected to fully manage a project, they will need to be able to contact clients directly or go through a point person who can. This is where alignment of expectations and authority are critical.

• Determine how client communication will be conducted. Whether the international team will be expected to have client facing duties or not is a key strategic consideration for how a client experiences your services as much as now and is a key point of determining the skills and communication that is needed by that team.

• NOW you can start engaging with providers of services to execute on the plan you've developed based on your strategic direction.

• Proactively prepare clients. Talk individually if you need to. If you broach the subject proactively and give your reasons, the majority of clients will get on board—especially if they have similar models succeed in their own businesses. If your clients trust you, they will trust your direction.

• Manage risk through your disclosures. The amount and type of disclosure that you're required to make will differ by the type of service your providing (tax being the harshest). Contact your insurance carrier.

• Stick with it! Challenges will arise. Don't let a rocky start derail the model. If a domestic new hire didn't work out, do you stop hiring entirely? Start small, learn, adjust and keep going. The skilled labor shortage is not going to go away any time soon.

These steps don't always happen in a fixed order, but the key takeaway is that there are so many critical steps needed before taking the plunge. Don't jump in blind. Remember, "Ready, Fire, Aim" is a guaranteed miss.