By Shehab Waleed, Founder, Cairo Studio 3 min read
Many of the projects on our projects page were for clients outside Egypt: Buna Holding, DAC, 32 Real Estate and Burj Jiwar in Saudi Arabia, Maison Gacha and Madame Polare in France, Makaani in Austria and 28th and Park in New York. These are the practical questions those clients asked before signing.
Time zones
Egypt runs on UTC+2, and UTC+3 in summer. That puts Cairo one hour behind Riyadh in winter and level with it in summer, and one hour ahead of Paris and Vienna all year. New York is seven hours behind, so calls with American clients sit in our late afternoon.
Working days
We work Sunday to Thursday, the same week as Saudi Arabia. European clients share Monday to Thursday with us, and Sunday gives us a quiet day to deliver work they find waiting on Monday morning.
Payments and contracts
Clients abroad are invoiced in US dollars, euros or pounds and pay by bank transfer or card. Every project starts with a written scope, dated milestones and a payment schedule, usually a deposit on signature and the rest at agreed stages. We sign NDAs when asked, and all files transfer to the client on final payment.
Languages
We work in English and Arabic, and we write Arabic natively for Gulf and Egyptian audiences instead of translating it. For European clients we build sites in the languages their audiences read.
How a project runs remotely
One shared channel, a weekly call, and a dated plan where every review point has a day and a name next to it. Nobody has to travel for the work to run well, though we are always glad when a client visits Cairo.
