Clients in the USA
Your offshore team for websites, ads and automation Smart Web Labs works with US businesses from Guwahati, India: our evening overlaps your morning, and everything is agreed in writing
Hiring a team overseas raises fair questions. Will anyone be around when you need them, how do you pay, who owns the work, and will the site meet US rules? This page answers each one specifically for US clients.
The short answer
What is it like for a US business to work with Smart Web Labs?
Mostly written, with live calls when they help. Our working day ends as yours begins, so updates are waiting when you start, and calls fit your morning. Quotes and invoices are in US dollars, payment is by wire transfer, and the proposal covers scope, ownership and confidentiality. Sites are built with US accessibility and privacy expectations in mind.
- Overlap
- Your morning, our evening
- Currency
- US dollars, by wire transfer
- Paperwork
- Your contract or ours; IRS Form W-8 on request
Hours
When can we talk, in US time?
India Standard Time is UTC+5:30 and never changes. The US moves its clocks on the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November, so the gap shifts twice a year, and Arizona and Hawaii don’t change at all. The table shows where 9 a.m. in your time falls in ours.
India timeGuwahati
EasternNew York
CentralChicago
MountainDenver
ArizonaPhoenix
PacificLos Angeles
| Your time zone | Your 9 a.m., March to November | Your 9 a.m., November to March |
|---|---|---|
| Eastern (New York) | 6:30 p.m. in India | 7:30 p.m. in India |
| Central (Chicago) | 7:30 p.m. in India | 8:30 p.m. in India |
| Mountain (Denver) | 8:30 p.m. in India | 9:30 p.m. in India |
| Arizona (Phoenix) | 9:30 p.m. in India | 9:30 p.m. in India |
| Pacific (Los Angeles) | 9:30 p.m. in India | 10:30 p.m. in India |
In practice, an East Coast morning and our evening make a comfortable overlap for a weekly call. For the West Coast, we suggest your earliest slot or a written update instead, so nobody is working at midnight on either side. Hawaii keeps standard time all year, so 9 a.m. there is 12:30 a.m. in India the next day, and written updates suit it best.
Holidays differ, too. We work through US holidays such as Thanksgiving and take Indian ones such as Diwali. You get our holiday calendar at kickoff, so a long weekend never catches anyone out.
Communication
How does a US project keep moving across the time difference?
By writing things down, so nothing waits for a call. Questions, decisions and approvals live in one shared thread, a short written update arrives before your day starts, and every call has an agenda and notes. You can run most of a project without being online at the same time as us.
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Language
American English, US conventions
Copy we write for you uses American spelling, US date formats and dollar prices. If your company has a style guide, we work to it.
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Tools
Your tools, where possible
We can join your Slack or Microsoft Teams, or work by email, with Zoom or Google Meet for calls. Files stay in your Google Drive or SharePoint rather than ours.
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Urgent
When something can’t wait
For anything urgent outside our hours, such as a site that’s down, there’s an agreed number to call. Care plans add monitoring that alerts us automatically, whatever the time.
A typical week
What does a week look like across the time difference?
Something close to a relay. You review and decide during your day, we act on it during ours, and the result is waiting when you start the next morning. Run that way, the time difference can work in your favor, because the project moves forward while you’re offline.
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Your morning
You review, decide and ask
The update from our day is waiting. You comment, approve or ask questions in the shared thread, and the weekly call, if there is one, happens now, in our evening.
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Your night
Our working day
While you’re offline, we act on your feedback: building, testing, setting up campaigns or tuning automations.
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Before you start
The update lands
A short written note says what was done, what’s next and anything we need from you, with links to see the work for yourself.
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Launch days
Changes in your quiet hours
Site launches and big campaign changes happen during your night, when few of your customers are online, and we check the results before your day begins.
Next step
Want to see whether the hours work for you?
Tell us where you’re based and what you need. We’ll suggest a call time in your morning and send a written quote in US dollars.
Payment and tax forms
How do payment and tax paperwork work?
You pay in US dollars by international wire, against invoices that match the stages in the proposal. If your accounts team needs to document that we’re a foreign business, we complete the IRS Form W-8 that fits our legal structure. The IRS instructions say the form goes to the payer, not to the IRS.
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Invoices in dollars
Prices are quoted and invoiced in US dollars, so your cost doesn’t move with exchange rates once the proposal is signed.
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Milestone payments
Larger projects are split into stages, each tied to something you can review, such as approved designs or a launched site.
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Wire fees, settled up front
International wires can carry fees at both ends. The proposal says who covers them, so nobody is surprised when the amount received differs from the invoice.
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IRS Form W-8
It documents our status as a foreign business for US withholding purposes: companies use Form W-8BEN-E and individuals Form W-8BEN. Ask for it when you set us up as a vendor; your accountant will confirm what else your business needs.
Contracts
Who owns the work, and whose contract do we use?
You own the work, and the contract can be yours. Many US companies have a standard master services agreement and statement of work; we’re happy to review and sign yours, or to work from our proposal. Either way, the code, designs and content pass to you, and confidentiality is covered.
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Ownership
Accounts are registered to your business from the start, and the contract assigns the code, designs and content we create to you.
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Confidentiality
Send your mutual NDA before sharing anything sensitive. Our proposals also carry a confidentiality clause, so nothing you share is left uncovered.
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Governing law
Which state’s law governs the agreement is set in the contract itself. Your lawyer should review any agreement before you sign, ours included.
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Ending the agreement
Either side can end it on the notice period written into the contract. You keep everything delivered and paid for, and your accounts were yours all along, so there’s nothing to wait for or negotiate over.
US rules
Which US rules do your website and campaigns need to respect?
There’s no single US law for privacy or web accessibility, so we build to the standards that cover the most ground and make compliance easier to keep up. Your lawyer has the final word on what applies to your business; our job is to make sure the site and the campaigns don’t get in the way.
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Accessibility
The ADA and the web
The Justice Department says the ADA covers what businesses open to the public offer online, and points to WCAG as helpful guidance. We build to WCAG 2.2 level AA and test every page with a keyboard and a screen reader.
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Privacy
State privacy laws
California’s CCPA gives residents the right to know what’s collected about them, to have it deleted and to opt out of its sale or sharing, and it applies to businesses above set thresholds. Other states have their own laws. We add privacy notices and opt-out links where your lawyer says they’re needed, and wire tracking so an opt-out actually stops it.
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Email
CAN-SPAM and follow-up emails
Under CAN-SPAM, marketing emails must include a valid postal address and a clear way to opt out, and opt-outs must be honored within 10 business days. The automated follow-ups we build include both by default.
Built in
Planning a site for US customers?
Tell us what you’re building and who it’s for. Accessibility, privacy notices and opt-outs are part of the written quote, not extras added later.
Before you hire
What should you check before hiring any offshore team, including us?
The same things you’d check with a local agency, plus a few that matter more at a distance. Ask every team you’re considering these questions, and treat a vague answer as an answer. We’ve answered each one for ourselves on this page and on the How we work page.
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Whose name are the accounts in?
Your domain, hosting, ad and analytics accounts should be registered to your business from day one. An agency that sets them up in its own name can hold them over you later.
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When will we overlap?
Get a specific call time and a commitment to written updates. “We’re flexible” isn’t a plan.
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How do they handle access?
They should ask to be invited to your accounts with a limited role, never ask for your passwords, and use two-step sign-in everywhere.
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What does the contract say about ownership?
Look for a clause that assigns the code, designs and content to you, and check what happens to work in progress if you part ways.
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What are they guaranteeing?
Treat a promise of first place on Google, or a fixed number of leads, as a red flag. Google itself says no one can guarantee a top ranking.
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Can you test their work?
Look at sites they’ve built on your own phone, and run them through free speed and accessibility checks. This site is ours to show, and the About page lists the tools.
What we do
What do we do for US businesses?
The same three services as for any client, adapted to US buyers. The difference is in the details: American spelling and US payment options on the site, US audiences and hours in the campaigns, and US tools in the automations. Each service page explains the full scope.
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01 / Build
Websites
Sites and stores in American English, built to WCAG 2.2 AA and tested on the phones your customers use, with checkout through payment providers US customers expect, such as Stripe, PayPal or Shopify Payments.
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02 / Grow
Ads and search
Google and Meta campaigns aimed at US audiences, scheduled for US hours and reported in dollars, plus local SEO for any US locations you have, each with its own Business Profile.
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03 / Automate
Automation
Assistants and follow-ups connected to the tools US teams use, such as HubSpot or Salesforce, with every message respecting opt-outs.
Questions
Questions from US businesses
Practical questions US companies ask before hiring a team in India: where data lives, how payment works, how we fit alongside your own staff, and what happens when something can’t wait until the next working day.
Is our customer data stored in India?
Usually not. Your website, CRM and ad data stay in the services you choose, wherever they host it, and we work in them remotely. If we ever need to hold personal data ourselves, we keep it to the minimum and agree in writing how it’s handled.
Do we need to pay in rupees or open an account in India?
No. You pay in US dollars by wire from your usual US bank, against an invoice from us.
Our vendor form asks for a W-9. What do you send instead?
Form W-9 is for US persons, so it doesn’t apply to us. The IRS instructions point foreign businesses to a Form W-8 instead, and we’ll complete the one that matches our legal structure.
Can you work alongside our in-house developers?
Yes. We can take one part of the work, such as tracking or the marketing site, and follow your team’s conventions, code reviews and release schedule.
What if we need you on a call outside the usual hours?
Book it a day ahead and we’ll make it work for the moments that matter, such as a launch or a board deadline. For day-to-day work, the written update and the shared thread keep things moving without one.
We have locations in several states. Can you handle that?
Yes. Each location gets its own Business Profile and, where it offers something different, its own page. We don’t build copies of one page with only the city name changed, because Google treats those as spam.
How quickly can we start?
Usually one to three weeks after you approve the proposal, depending on the scope and how quickly accounts, content and approvals arrive from your side.
Get a free quote
Tell us about your project and your time zone
A few lines are enough: what your business does, what you need and where you’re based. We’ll reply with questions or a written quote in US dollars, and suggest a call time in your morning.
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