Snapshot:
The manager: Anthony Lindsey
The job: Billing manager/financial controller
The company: A Plus.NEt, an internet services provider and web hosting and design company.
In brief: Having grown with the company since 2002, Lindsey now directly manages 15 employees in the United States and Bulgaria, while also collaborating with the management of other departments, such as sales and technical support. Prior to this, he worked in lower level management in the company, as well as at Xerox XBS. His experience builds on educational degrees in international relations and business. Participates in troubleshooting sessions, oversees sales negotiations, trains staff, creates and presents daily financial reports all the while continuing the business expansion.

On any given day, Anthony Lindsey performs a complex balancing act. He must acclimate to his new life here in Bulgaria while keeping up with an ever-expanding company, A Plus.Net. As the billing manager/financial controller of the company, Lindsey moved here just two months ago to better accommodate the growing needs of the company for which he has worked since March 2002.

A Plus.Net began as a computer hardware company in 1992, primarily operating out of a small office in San Diego, California, US, with some support services in Bulgaria; they added internet services - shared hosting, dedicated hosting, web design and all manner of online business service solutions - to the business in 1995/96. Just a decade later they have expanded to three offices: Phoenix, Arizona, US; San Diego and Sofia.

Lindsey joined the company just as it began to boom. He started at an entry level position of billing clerk and became an assistant manager within eight months. He has held his current position for more than three years.

Always destined to work in an international business setting, Lindsey graduated from the University of San Diego in 1997 with a bachelor's degree in international relations, specialising in the Pacific Rim. He concentrated on Vietnam, an area of special interest to him as much of his family fought in the war there and he sought a better understanding of the regional historic, political and business climates. He also obtained two minors, one in business and one in history. To round out his education, he learned some Japanese.

He began his career at the major corporation of Xerox XBS, but soon found that working his way through the tangled web of corporate America was not for him. Realising that it would take years for him to obtain sufficient promotions to reach his potential, Lindsey decided to focus on smaller businesses where he had the potential to advance rapidly and partake in business development. A Plus.Net was a perfect fit.

The company divides its resources between all three offices. All the main departments are represented in both countries, though depending on the specialisation, some are more concentrated either in America or Bulgaria. For example, the sales department primarily resides in the United States, while development, technical support and finances operate mostly out of Bulgaria. This allows A Plus.Net to capitalise on the strengths of each location.

With its commitment to higher-level education and large number of highly skilled technological graduates, Bulgaria has long been respected throughout the global technological community. "We have a lot of people here who are brilliant and know what they are doing. They have an education and are bilingual." Known for creativity in web design and simplicity in web programming, the "techies" from Bulgaria are instrumental in the success of A Plus.Net.

Likewise, the offices in the United States provide access to and understanding of the fast-paced sales culture inherent in the world of Western business. It is their ability to convert potential clients into actual sales that generates large revenues and grows the company.

Lindsey's own department employs 11 people in Sofia and four in San Diego. This allows them to amply handle both the technological and sales aspects affecting the company's finances. In fact, this is how he perceives his department, as the glue that holds the sales and technology departments together. Since he is charged with the responsibility of monitoring the company's finances, any sales or technical support issue could potentially lead to a financial issue, hence Lindsey's involvement.

Since the client base is in the United States, and the offices there are on the West Coast, Lindsey arranges his work day around their business hours, meaning he begins work at 6pm and leaves at 3am local time (GMT +2).

Lindsey begins his night by meeting with a team of assistant managers and going through reports, which allows them to troubleshoot existing or potential problems. Such issues could include mistakes in a marketing campaign or crashing servers affecting a customer's ability to conduct business. He then reviews the escalations in the different departments, including sales and tech support. Any escalation can lead to a customer billing issue.

He spends the next part of his day training his employees. This could take on several forms. If given the time, he can engage in a more formal training session in a group setting. Otherwise, he walks the floor and works individually with people, focusing on their specific skill set and needs. On days when the escalations are high, he leaves it to the employees to assist each other, though he is available should they need him.

After creating and submitting daily reports to the top-level executives, he works closely with the sales department. With such a range of services offered, A Plus.Net attracts both individual website owners and large businesses. This leads to multiple and varied negotiations, particularly with return customers and corporate clients. Lindsey must evaluate which clients warrant a discount and decide on a fair price. This is a tricky area, he warns. "Every company has their own independent protocol. I believe we can bend it, but we don't break our protocol. When it becomes a compromise of our business, then it's not business we should have," he said.

Of course managing in a bi-national environment presents its fair share of challenges. For one, there are logistical issues, specifically communication gaps. Lindsey cites these as a disadvantage to being in two countries, but quickly adds that "we have an engineering team that makes logistics easier. I can start work each day without missing a beat".

Also, there is the issue of the time difference. What if a client in Los Angeles needs technical support at 3pm Pacific Standard Time, or 1am local Sofia time? A Plus.Net combats this with staggered work hours. The bulk of their employees work the night shift.

Previously, Lindsey managed the financial department from the United States where only 25 per cent of his employees lived. The remaining 75 per cent operated in Bulgaria, essentially rendering him an off-site manager. Despite numerous communication options - e-mail, telephone calls, instant messaging, Lindsey realised there is no substitute for face-to-face contact.

"An employee may say over the phone that he understands but unless you can see the facial expression, you don't know for sure if he really does." So he moved over to Sofia. Now, "instead of getting 11 calls with questions everyday, I may only get four", making him more efficient and able to focus on the task at hand.

Once here, there were some definite cultural issues to contend with. "We Americans are overbearing. We want something, we want it right now." This was not necessarily the case in Bulgaria. Since the bulk of their customer base comes from the United States, he wanted his staff to understand "Western business, that everything is right now, right now. Once they understand that, it gets over a major hump". Lindsey found he needed to adjust his own style while simultaneously training his staff to deal with a new culture.

In order to better understand the two cultures, A Plus.Net frequently swaps employees. Based on performance, they send an American employee to live in Bulgaria for three months and a Bulgarian employee to live in the United States for three months. "You can read about it (culture) all you want, but when you see it and hear it firsthand, you know how to deal with different types of people," Lindsey explained. "Nobody understands a Texan unless they have had experience in the United States," he joked.

Citing strong management principles, Lindsey explains that a good manager needs to "be flexible because I cannot manage one person the same as another, just like in teaching". All the employees have different learning styles and paces and he believes it is his job to meet them at their varied levels.

This also requires him to have patience. While one employee may learn the job in just a few weeks, it may take another person several months. Ultimately, he says, "you have to understand potential. If you don't, if you have a set guideline, you might be missing out on a great employee". A great employee, he contends, "is someone who is ambitious, hardworking and honest".

Furthermore, he believes in creating self-sufficiency: "I set up my department to be an inter-working department so anybody could train anybody, anybody could help anybody else…One thing I do believe in is it's a job, yes, but it's an individual career as well, so I want you (his employees) to know everything about it".

It should come as no surprise that a multitude of companies offer the same services as A Plus.Net. There are literally hundreds of internet service providers in the United States alone, not to mention internationally. A Plus.Net must institute business practices to both attract and keep their customer base. Such practices include hiring energetic and knowledgeable employees, staying current on technology, and effectively managing the company finances.

But above all else, Lindsey believes it is quality customer care that separates his company from their competitors. "We are more about customer service. We have an open-door policy towards management. If you have a problem, it can easily get escalated up to a manager, no matter what customer you are." The little guys receive the same quality service as the big corporations. And customer service is how he spends a good deal of his time, despite the fact that in a similar company, he would seemingly be involved in internal financial matters almost exclusively.

And the strategy is working. The company continues its boom even now. With the impending accession to the European Union, Lindsey predicts a flood of businesses migrating here. For many years, Bulgaria has remained an untapped source of expertise. Now, the world will learn of the potential that is present here. Luckily, A Plus.Net has been established in Bulgaria virtually since the company opened its doors. This puts them in fine position to take advantage of all the forthcoming EU benefits. "Joining the EU will make business easier to transact, both with employees and equipment," he says.

In the area of employment, people will soon experience an easing of immigration laws. In fact, Bulgarians will be free to live and work throughout the European Union. Realistically, this could lead to some employees leaving the company to relocate in other countries. Lindsey, however, predicts that such attrition will be offset by people immigrating into Bulgaria to seek new opportunities.

Furthermore, with the trade laws opening up, businesses will have an easier time importing the necessary equipment to continue their expansion. In the case of A Plus.Net, this equates to more access to computers and telecommunication devices.

"We haven't reached our potential. We're still growing. That's one of the key elements for me being here. We're still growing, I see it, I'm excited about it!"

Such enthusiasm facilitates Lindsey's personal adjustment to life here in Bulgaria. Here, he relies on his education in international relations. He finds comfort in the fact that "people are people" all over the world. People here have similar trials and tribulations as any other group of people, and that shared experience of humanity unites foreigners and natives. Similar to home, Lindsey has found that once a connection is made, people tend to treat you as their family or close friend. The key is making those connections, which he knows will be easier once he learns the language. This is no small feat considering his harrying hours and frenetic pace.

That said, he is homesick for some things, especially his family and friends. He grew up in a close-knit family and finds it difficult to be so distanced from them. He also misses feeling self-sufficient and independent. He is not used to relying on people to help him with everyday life, such as traveling around town or ordering food.

And he yearns for an In-N-Out hamburger.

Nevertheless, unless something unforeseen comes up, Lindsey is here to stay.

1992 A Plus.Net opens as a computer hardware company in San Diego, California. Their office is small and employees are few. Some support services are located in Sofia, Bulgaria.

1996 A Plus.Net expands its business into the internet realm as an internet service provider. The business focuses on selling hosting plans.

2002 A Plus.Net leaves its original office to move the ever-expanding employee base into a large corporate office in San Diego.

2003 A Plus.Net broadens the Bulgaria side of their business, opening up a call centre and moving more technical support from the offices in the United States to the office in Sofia.

2003/04 Branching out yet again, A Plus.Net begins offering web design and online business services, such as SEO and online marketing.

2005 The company expands to Phoenix, Arizona.

Today With corporate offices in Phoenix, Arizona; San Diego, California; and Sofia, Bulgaria, A Plus.Net looks to further expand its corporation.

Hosting: All websites are kept, or hosted, on a server somewhere in the world.
Shared hosting: A server that hosts several or many websites.
Dedicated hosting: A server dedicated to only your website.
eTraffic: This quantifies the volume of visitors to your website.
SEO: Search engine optimisation, the ability to be recognised and promoted by search engines, such as Google or Yahoo!.
SEO Booster: Search engine optimisation that allows you to be better recognised on a search.
Online marketing: Promoting your business across the internet.