Case Study: How PGC Supported SafeWaste in Their US Expansion
We caught up with Richard Ussher, CEO at SafeWaste Global, to discuss their successful North American expansion and experience of working with PGC. Keep reading for the main takeaways or watch the video above for the full interview.
Company Overview
SafeWaste produces small wheelie bin latches that you attach to keep the lid shut and secure. The latches reduce fly-away litter, improve environmental outcomes, and health and safety for you, your neighborhood, and waste collection workers. The unique aspect about the latches is that they auto-release when the bin gets tipped up by the waste collection workers, saving them from getting out to unlatch them. The company was started by Richard’s father and Richard has been tasked with SafeWaste’s expansion projects outside of New Zealand.
Global headcount: 6
HQ: New Zealand
Where is SafeWaste currently considering international expansion opportunities beyond New Zealand?
SafeWaste is currently in the process of signing a distribution agreement into South Africa, where they've got quite a unique problem; monkeys rummaging through rubbish, similar to raccoons in North America. So it’s exciting that we can offer a potential solution with our product to these problems.
We’ve developed a few relationships with bin manufacturers from all over the world, and we're also looking at doing a bigger push into Europe. Areas such as France, Germany, and some of the distribution networks in Scandinavia. We are trying to identify where the opportunities are and the problems that we will solve.
“We have to try to plan what rapid expansion would look like on a massive scale when entering the North American market.”
We do have some pretty significant clients in New Zealand. We're prominent in Wellington city, and some satellite towns around there. However, the states are a big difference in terms of scale. You could probably fit Wellington into a little town in the LA district. So, we're nervous because we know that if we can take that next step in the US market and get a little bit of traction, the growth curve that could follow from that could be unlike anything that we would ever experience in a place like New Zealand. So it's a really interesting time for the business in terms of having to manage cash flows and outgoings. It means we also have to try to plan what rapid expansion would look like on a massive scale when entering the North American market.
New Zealand compared to the US is quite a contrast. How did US expansion come about, was it organic, or was there a location that you specifically targeted that you wanted to launch into?
We looked into areas where there was massive volume potential. As a company, we went out and attended a couple of the big waste hauler expos and did some demonstrations. That’s where we met Monte, our salesman on the ground in the states. He’s a really nice guy, super personable as you expect from a salesperson. He actually got really engaged with the product and had about 25 years of experience in the industry across various different parts of the waste industry. So, he had worked for one of the big manufacturers in the states and straightaway realized what the potential of our product was.
He has been in the background and sending through a few emails to my father every now and again. One of my roles was to take that interest and turn it into something concrete. I think that that was one of the things that the COVID situation was good for. It made you think, that if you're going to do it, there's no more time to waste because you just don't know what's around the corner. So we're either going to go for it and commit or we will always wonder “What if?”.
We were looking at what the future of the product was and where it could go. So we reached out to Monte and we have been really well supported through an arm of the New Zealand government called NZTE. This is the New Zealand trade and enterprise that help facilitate opportunities for New Zealand companies who are looking to export into international markets. NZTE provides context and expertise for expanding into different markets and introduced us to PGC to help hire employees in the US.
It’s very common for our clients to start off in the US by having a salesperson on the ground. How did you hear about using an employer of record before we were introduced?
We first looked in New Zealand to see if there are agencies that could help us hire employees in the US. However, PGC talked about the employment differences in the US market and it was quite interesting trying to do business from New Zealand to the states. Half of the people in the states didn't even know where New Zealand was. For example, we would receive an order, and customers in the US would try to send us a cheque. In New Zealand, banks don't even accept cheques, so not only does a payment have to travel via post from the US and all the issues with that to get to New Zealand, we didn’t have a way to cash the cheques.
“Not having local expertise in the US was a real barrier to our business expansion…”
So not having local expertise in the US was a real barrier to our business expansion because New Zealand is so far away. Prospects in the US would wonder how they were going to get the service and product, things like that. One of the things that we looked at was the regulatory side of the US market and setting up a business there, which included all the requirements and the different employment laws.
“Using a US employer of record would enable us to make a clean entry into a new international market and employ staff compliantly…”
It was really evident that the ability to look after all the administration on the ground, around an employer and employee, was going to be a massive barrier to us setting up our business in the US. Additionally, the cost associated with keeping track of the regulatory employment side might've made entering the US market pretty untenable.
That was when NZTE introduced the concept of using an employer of record and put us in touch with PGC. It became pretty evident that it was a really good solution for a small business at the expansion stage. Using a US employer of record would enable us to make a clean entry into a new international market and employ staff compliantly.
You currently have one employee based in the US with the potential to grow in the near future. Has it been challenging managing a remote employee in the US from New Zealand, in terms of the time difference and culture?
A different way of thinking from people with the right knowledge in the US
It’s taken a little bit of time to get used to the culture and time differences when employing staff in the US, especially, with the contrasting views in New Zealand and different political systems. One of the really nice things has been getting to know each other and forming trust in each other's skills. I think our US business expansion has prompted different thinking in the way I look at the business, for example, I had no experience in the waste industry. Our US salesperson looks at the business completely differently, and it helps in the way we approach things.
I think even just from a cultural perspective, we might be asking the same questions, but in a very different way, which prompts quite different thinking and outcomes from people that have got the right knowledge. That has been really powerful to our business.
A workable time difference between the US and New Zealand
We're pretty lucky that the US is around sixteen hours behind New Zealand, essentially so they’re a day behind. We are fortunate that on the east coast of the US, we always get a couple of hours of crossover in our workdays, so there doesn’t have to be early morning or late nights all the time.
What would your advice be to businesses who want to get started in the US market?
Do not treat the US like one individual market
My biggest piece of advice is to not look at the states as one individual market or country but to compare it to the likes of Europe. It is a real collection of different markets. There’s certainly no way that you can compare the California market to the Texas, and New York markets. They all have very different needs and wants so there are different ways you have to think about things.
Work with local US experts to ensure operations run smoothly
The logistics in the US are quite hard and I don't think we would have been able to do it without a partner like PGC to help and essentially take that employment burden off us. There are still plenty of things that we have to be aware of and all the filings in the US, so it’s important to get advice from people on the ground in the markets within different states. Not having to worry about the day-to-day employment side has certainly been a huge load off our minds. We also haven't had to invest in office space in the US as we can actually do all of that remotely.
Stop planning, start doing
My biggest advice for anyone considering the US market is that at some point you've got to stop planning and start doing. Sometimes you might get it wrong, but as long as you learn your lessons and start moving towards where you think a slightly better direction is then at least you're learning what does or doesn't work.
Learn more about how we can support your US business expansion
As a US Employer of Record, we employ your US employees for you, offering a fully-outsourced solution. We take on the risks and responsibilities of employment, including payroll, tax filings, benefit plans, healthcare, employment compliance, and onboarding requirements. All without a local entity. Leaving you to concentrate on what really matters, growing your business in the US.