For development shops, IT firms and consultancies that work for clients abroad and need to get paid, sign contracts, sort out tax and hire.
Guide · Proposals and scheduling
Founders should close the first 10 to 20 customers themselves, in protected weekly blocks for prospecting, calls, follow-ups and a pipeline review. Write the process down as you go. Hire salespeople once deals follow a pattern you can teach, and hire two rather than one.
· 9 min read
Guide · International hiring
At $599 per employee a month, an employer of record costs $7,188 a person each year. Your own Indian subsidiary swaps that for fixed running costs and Indian tax on a cost-plus margin. With $30,000 a year in quotes, it pays for itself at about six people. Here's how to work out your own number.
· 8 min read
Guide · Cross-border payments
On a $10,000 invoice, Wise's US account details cost $186.97 in fees including GST, Payoneer's published rates come to between about $219 and $496, and PayPal comes to about $727. Services exported under an LUT carry no GST, but you still need the paperwork. Here's how to choose.
· 7 min read
Guide · Contractors
To pay a contractor abroad, collect a Form W-8BEN, sign a contract that covers scope and IP, and pay through a low-cost rail like Wise, Airwallex or a contractor platform rather than a bank wire. For work done outside the US, there's no US withholding and no 1099. Here's the full process.
· 7 min read
Guide · Cross-border incorporation
You don't need to live in the US or hold a visa to form a US company. Here's the full process for founders abroad: LLC or C corp, Delaware or Wyoming, an EIN without an SSN, banking, payments, and the filings that catch foreign owners out.
· 8 min read
Guide · Business taxes
A single-member LLC owner pays themselves with an owner's draw, not a salary, and is taxed on the LLC's profit whether or not they take it out. Partners use distributions and guaranteed payments. S corp owners must take a reasonable salary. Here's how each works.
· 7 min read
Guide · Business taxes
If you expect to owe $1,000 or more in federal tax, you generally need to pay estimated tax each quarter. Pay at least 100% of last year's tax, or 90% of this year's, and you avoid the underpayment penalty. Here's how to work it out and pay.
· 7 min read
Guide · Cold outreach
Send cold email from a separate domain that redirects to your website, with two or three mailboxes per domain. Add an SPF record, turn on DKIM, publish a DMARC record starting at p=none, and warm each mailbox up over a few weeks. Here are the records and the checks.
· 7 min read
Guide · International hiring
Start with a contractor for a defined project, move to an employer of record when someone works for you full time, and price up an Indian subsidiary once the EOR fees for a growing team pass what running your own company would cost. Here's the math at one, five and fifteen developers.
· 8 min read
Guide · Prospecting and lead data
Define the companies and roles you sell to, collect companies from free sources like job boards, event lists, review sites and public registries, find the right person at each, and verify every email before you send. Paid databases like Apollo and Hunter save time once the free sources run dry.
· 7 min read
Guide · CRM
Start with a CRM that records every contact and email automatically, shows your deals in a simple pipeline and reminds you to follow up. HubSpot's free CRM covers two users and Attio's free plan three. Pay for more when automation, sequences or reporting start to save real time.
· 7 min read
Guide · Legal structure
Electing S corp status lets an LLC owner take part of the profit without self-employment tax. Whether that's worth it depends on your profit, a reasonable salary and the extra running costs. Here is the math at three profit levels.
· 7 min read
Guide · Cold outreach
Good cold email is a small, well-chosen list, a short first email about the recipient's problem, two or three follow-ups and a sending setup with SPF, DKIM and DMARC on a separate domain. CAN-SPAM applies to B2B email too, with penalties up to $53,088 per message. Here's the full playbook.
· 8 min read
Guide · International hiring
Use a PEO when you have a US company and want better benefits and HR help for your US employees: from $79 to $125 a month per employee. Use an EOR when you want to employ someone in a country where you have no company: around $599 a month. Here's the full comparison.
· 7 min read
Comparison · Proposals and scheduling
For one person, PandaDoc's Starter is $19 a month billed annually and Proposify's Build is $35. At ten users, PandaDoc Business costs $490 a month on annual billing and Proposify's Grow about $650. PandaDoc also has a free plan with five documents a month. Here's which one fits.
· 7 min read
Comparison · Cross-border payments
Wise charges a one-time $31 and conversion fees from 0.23%. Airwallex is free to open with a 0.5% markup on major currencies. Payoneer suits marketplace sellers and freelancers, but charges 1% to receive many payments and an annual fee on low volumes. Here's how to choose.
· 7 min read
Comparison · CRM
For three people, Attio's free plan costs nothing, Pipedrive's Lite plan starts at $42 a month and HubSpot's Starter is listed at $60. At ten seats, the gap widens, and HubSpot's Professional tier adds a $1,500 onboarding fee. Here's how they compare and who each suits.
· 7 min read
Comparison · Prospecting and lead data
Hunter is the cheapest way to find and verify emails, at $49 a month for 2,000 credits. Lusha is simple and strong for phone numbers, from $49.90 a month for 400 credits. Apollo combines a large database, filters and email sequences, with a free plan and paid plans from $49 per user. Here's how to choose.
· 7 min read
Comparison · Invoicing
Zoho Invoice and Wave Starter invoice for free. FreshBooks Plus ($43 a month) adds real accounting for service businesses. Bonsai Essentials ($25 a month, or $19 billed annually) wraps proposals, contracts and invoices into one workflow. Here's how to choose.
· 7 min read
Comparison · Cross-border incorporation
For a Delaware C corporation you'll raise on, Stripe Atlas is hard to beat at $500. For an LLC, doola's Starter plan is the cheapest all-in bundle at $297 a year, and its Tax and Compliance plan covers the Form 5472 filing. Firstbase forms cheaply but charges more for its agent.
· 7 min read
Comparison · Cold outreach
Instantly starts at $47 a month for 5,000 emails and 1,000 contacts. Smartlead starts at $39 for 6,000 sends and 2,000 contacts. At higher volumes the two land close together, and Smartlead's client workspaces make it the more natural fit for agencies. Here's the full comparison.
· 7 min read
Comparison · International hiring
Deel and Remote both charge $599 a month per employee and Oyster charges $699. Deel covers the most countries, 130+, and Remote asks most customers for no deposit. For contractors, Remote and Oyster charge $29 and Deel $49. Here's the full comparison.
· 9 min read
Guide · International hiring
You can hire someone abroad as a contractor, through a contractor of record, through an employer of record, or by opening your own company there. Here is how to choose without overpaying or taking on risk you did not mean to.
· 7 min read
Comparison · International hiring
Deel and Remote both charge $599 a month per employer-of-record employee. For contractors, Remote charges $29 and Deel $49. What decides it is where you hire, deposits and penalty cover.
· 7 min read