Author: Nibletz Staff

The energy industry is one of the most important sectors in the economy for most countries. Companies across the globe use as much as 15 terajoules of energy per year, meaning small businesses are often sought after for cheaper alternatives to sate the growing demand. It’s hard to find your way as a small business in one of the most competitive and large scale markets around the globe. However, startups can employ ideas that bigger companies wouldn’t consider on a larger scale, and offer cheaper alternatives to mainstream energy.

Good things about working in the energy sector

The energy sector will always have jobs and business opportunities available due to the amount of people worldwide using energy. A few extra bonuses come with a paycheck from an energy company, with another main plus being progression training schemes that start you off with basic training into a fully qualified role. Similarly, working at the forefront of technology will provide you with all the latest developments in the tech world, and award recognition not seen in any other sector.

While working in pre-established energy companies is an excellent idea for breaking out of the usual job role and expanding your know-how, creating your own energy business is a similar alternative that puts all you’ve learnt to good use. With the rising need for green, renewable energy in the modern age, many opportunities have opened up for business ideas that depart from the conventional energy flow.

How using an uncommon energy source can make you stand out

Many sources of energy exist in the world. One way to make you stand out in terms of energy needs is to use a renewable and affordable uncommon energy source, such as briquetting. By using a press to create blocks of biomass waste from materials such as excess wood and sawdust, a cheaper and cleaner alternative to traditional fossil fuel methods is easily created. Plus, they burn about 50% hotter per pound and work out as more cost effective and accessible for customers compared to logs for open fires or wood burning stoves. Briquettes can be used in a variety of areas such as residential heating, agriculture, and gasification.

You’ll be able to branch out into a more niche market with emphasis on green energy. This can work wonders for effective advertising due to green energy concerns holding over $200 billion of disposable income in the current market.

The necessary skillsets

Being active in such a busy sector would require any startup employees to be above all, hard working. Flexibility in a technological field will give you the edge due to the unpredictable nature of working with power. As the energy sector often works on a grid, having a trustworthy and reliable team around you is essential to making it further in your business goals.

Creating your own startup for energy needs is an excellent option in this economic climate as more demands for green and inexhaustible fuels are created daily on an international basis.

Manufacturing a product can take a long time. From concepts and designs to the product on the shelf, a lot of work has to be done to make sure the item comes out just right. Most of this work is done on the factory floor, with employees testing and checking goods. But, this isn’t the only thing a business can do to improve their products. Along with it, the equipment you use in your factory will also make a big difference. To help you to make your products just a little bit better, this post will be going through several of the parts you’ll need to gather to put your factory together. With this in place, you’ll see a noticeable increase in the quality you’re able to produce.

Employees

The dream of automation may not be far away for a lot of factories, but for most small ones, this sort of resource is still a long way off. Instead, little companies have to rely on people to do this work for them. The employees you choose to fill the roles in your factory will make a huge difference to the products you make. Along with this, the people you choose to design the goods will also impact them. You should always look for employees through a recruitment agency. This will enable you to avoid any bad candidates for your job, only looking at the very best of the bunch. When it comes to interviews, you can handle them yourself or have someone else do them in your place. Ultimately, though, their employment will be your decision.

The Building

With some people to work for you, it’s time to consider the building you work from. When a large company opens a facility like this, they will often have it custom built to meet their needs. Smaller businesses can’t take this sort of action, though. Instead, they have to find a building which meets their needs and already exists. The help of a commercial real estate agent can help you with this, providing you with loads of resources which you wouldn’t otherwise have. Along with this, this sort of professional can help you with the legal side of the transaction. This is one of the best ways to ensure that you don’t make any mistakes along the way.

Machines/Tools

With your building out of the way, you can start to consider the beating heart of your factory; the machines. This part of your facility will be incredibly important. The quality of machines and tools you use can have a huge impact on the products you make. Of course, though, even the cheapest manufacturing equipment is still expensive. Getting your hands on CNC machines, 3D printers, and the other gear you need can be hard. Thankfully, a lot of the companies offering these devices also allow small businesses to take loans to buy them. This gives your company a good chance to start off with the best possible machines, instead of having to deal with poor quality alternatives.

Power/Redundancy

The machines you buy will almost certainly use a lot of power. To make the most of them, you’ll also need them to be running as much as possible. Achieving this goal might require some upgrades to the building you decide to use. Factories need to have much beefier power delivery systems than homes or offices. Without this in place, you could risk fires or damage to your property. Along with this, power cuts can be very regular in some parts of the world. So, it could be worth having a battery backup to make sure that you never have to worry about being without power. With this sort of technology in place, it will be easy to keep your business running day and night.

Consumables

Once you buy a machine, it’s not a simple matter of powering it to keep it going, though. In fact, some machines will require almost daily refreshments to their parts. Finding an industrial supply company to support you with this is nice and easy. This sort of business will be able to provide you with everything your factory needs, from tooling and sandpaper to full-blown repairs. Centralizing your supply like this will make it easy to keep up with orders. Along with this, most manufacturing companies will set up subscriptions with their suppliers, making it even easier to keep on top of the orders. Like the quality of your machinery, the quality of the consumables you use will also impact your products. So, it’s worth looking for the very best options you can find.

Health And Safety

The law surrounding manufacturing is very strict. You have to use the right materials and tools, to ensure that products don’t end up dangerous. And, you have to make sure that your products will last for long enough. Along with laws that protect your customers, there are also a lot which are designed to protect your employees. Health and safety regulations differ from place to place but are still vital to the quality of your products. Having a safe factory will make it a lot easier for employees to carry out their work. They won’t have to deal with risks or threats, making it easy to focus on what they need to do. You can pay another business to come and audit your factory for you, ensuring that you meet the guidelines set by your government.

Hopefully, this post will give you a good idea of what can be done to your factory to improve the quality of the products that come out of it. A lot of small businesses avoid this sort of investment, leaving it until they grow. But, this can make life very hard for you in the future. As your business gets bigger, your workload will increase alongside it. This can make it hard to start thinking about better machines, as you won’t have to time to do research. By getting this out of the way early, you’ll save yourself the trouble of having to do it all at the same time.

There is article after article about improving your website’s traffic and boosting its page rank, but what about measuring its success in the first place? There’s a common misconception that most business owners know all the best tools to use when it comes to measuring the success of their website, but that’s not actually the case. There are a lot of entrepreneurs (and bloggers) who are in the dark when it comes to monitoring their online success.

A lot of newer business owners presume that if their website is sleek, smart and stylish, and easy to use and navigate, that it’s bound to be successful. However, the truth of the matter is, it’s not just about aesthetics, there’s more to website success than that. To determine how successful your website is, you need to dive into the data and analytics.

To make the process of measuring your website’s success easier, below are some hacks.

Utilize analytics tools

For tracking your website’s pageviews, analytics tools are crucial. There are a wide range of analytics tools that can be used to track your website’s data, one of the most popular of which is Google Analytics. This is one of the most popular analytical tools due to the fact that it is free to use, whereas many other similar tools come with a monthly premium. The reason that these kind of tools are so popular is because they allow you to see not only how many pageviews your site gets each month but also where these visitors come from. It’s this information that is incredibly useful when it comes to implementing a digital marketing campaign.

Measuring your site’s SEO score

Another way that you can measure your website’s success is by monitoring your site’s SEO score. It will be low, to begin with, but over time you can watch it grow. To track your score, there are plenty of tools available. If you contact an SEO company, you will probably find that as part of their SEO services they offer an SEO score checker where you can check your website’s SEO score for free. Once you’ve got your score, you can then work to improve it – teaming up with an SEO specialist could be the answer to this.

Tracking your DA, PA, and spam score

DA, PA and spam scores are all vital measurements for your website’s success, so tracking them is crucial. DA – aka domain authority – tells you how authoritative your website is and how well ranked it is in search engines. PA – aka page authority – is similar to DA except that it relates to a specific page of your website, such as your ‘About Us’ page or a page from your blog. As for your website’s spam score, the lower it is, the better. This is because websites that have high spam scores are more likely to be penalised by search engines like Google. You can track your DA, PA and spam score via Moz.

There you have it, a guide to the best methods of measuring your website’s success.

There has been plenty of blogging literature concerned with how to survive the early days of your startup. Tutorials exist detailing how to staff your departments, encourage sales growth, market your products wisely and set up an office with a tight budget. Guides exist detailing how to effectively manage your employees new to a startup firm, how to operate as a new boss, and how to implement clear fiscal planning to overcome the rock foundations upon which every startup stands.

What’s sorely lacking in this content is how you should act and plan for startup success. That’s the goal you began with. So why not plan for when it is achieved? Startups only succeed when success is considered an actual option. In the mad dash to survive and stay relevant as a startup, you might forget that success is even the goal. Daily considerations with startups are intense, and can distract you to the point where you get stuck in short term thinking, instead of long term planning.

When you do start becoming successful, it can be amazing to witness, but requires arguably more of a time investment and understanding of how to navigate these paths of growth. The following in-depth guide will give you the details necessary to achieve your growth with style and stability, all the while opening doors to even more future success and growth.

Know Your Market

You’ve made certain strides thus far, and that means you have successfully been able to market your product, gain exposure for it, and capitalize on this. If you have carved a niche out of the market you inhabit, you should congratulate yourself. However, the responsibility now rests with you to understand the market you have been successful within. Using analytic data, you might have been surprised at where the sales have accrued from, and the demographics your product has been popular within. Once you have established this data, you need to analyze it. Knowing your market serves two benefits. One, it allows you to tailor your future marketing strategies to try and retain this customer base. Two, it allows you to, while clinging to the original customer base, pivot your plan to try and make it more accessible to new interests.

The first few months of a startup not only serves an exercise in intense, focused business practice, but also serves as a testing chamber for new ideas. When you have limited relative exposure, you have the freedom to try new marketing strategies and product derivatives that a larger firm might not be able to try without negative corporate imaging consequences. Luckily, at this time you will be in the sweet spot of having the financial backing to try and implement new ideas, while also still being in the ‘testing stage.’ Customers simply won’t respond to bad ideas with as much venom as if you were a more established business. Through knowing the market, you can know yourself.

Assess Your Success

Of course, the only way you can capitalize on success is if you assess what went right in the first place. This should not be a self-congratulatory effort, but simply a surgical self-reflection that gives you the almost scientific data needed to try and replicate your success and emulate what you did right in your future exploits.

Some businesses fail to keep up their innovative and creative ability in this instance, in an effort to simply rinse and repeat what may have worked before. You should try and find a balance between your original vision, and refining your strategy to incorporate what worked.

Update/Add Departments

As you increase in sales capacity, grow a customer base and develop more refined methods of marketing, you will need more staff and more departments to handle this load. It’s likely that as a new startup, you have tried to take on multiple roles at once. Now your role will organically shift to more of a leadership mindset. You simply cannot balance between support, sales, leadership, and accounting as you did beforehand.

Your business will only continue to grow if you reinvest in these added departments, and staff them with at least one competent individual east, at least to begin with. The time this will free up for you will help you try and solidify that golden resource, whatever it is, that has made you successful to begin with. Upon creating these departments, you will need to make sure that you enact each one with a company policy and methodology for working. You shouldn’t simply hire employees to staff these departments and let their competency do the work. You should sit down and figure out exactly how you want to proceed.

For example, when setting up a support department, you should find out exactly what platforms of support you want to provide to your audience. Next, you should ascertain what scripts they should use. Scripts can come off as impersonal, but they help provide your support staff with the exact framework they need to understand what to provide your firm with. It will give them a clear and concise way to effectively solve many support tickets in a day. Without a script, the support team can seem unprofessional. Despite your initial startup interest in seeming human and accessible, with growth comes the necessity for compromise and change. You simply cannot cope with the overwhelming amount of support tickets that arises from successful sales and provide a neat, tailored and customized solution for each one. Compromise where needed, and excel where you can.

Dedicated Accountants

 dedicated accountant or team of accountants are required to keep up with the budgeting, accounting security, money management and tax requirements of a growing firm. Even if you are a whiz at mathematics and fiscal planning, this will be a full-time job, and your talents will be best used elsewhere. If necessary, you can outsource, but it might be more cost effective and beneficial long-term to hire someone and pay them a salary.

Develop

Always develop something new. Your established base of customers will only be satiated if you launch new product lines, new additions to your service, or some form of better infrastructure that benefits the end user. This can help you seem relevant, useful and exciting as a firm, labeling yourself as one to watch. Now have more standing,  you might find that crafting your own software through bespoke software development can give you the tools necessary to embedding your internal IT solutions with fluidity and accuracy regarding the nuances of your operation.

New Space

If you’ve been using a makeshift home space, or a small office, you can now give your staff the space they deserve and hire a proper office, with security, spacious office desks, IT support and maybe even air conditioning. Your staff have been good to them, so it’s time to reward them now you have the funds to do so. This will mean much more than simple gift rewards, as it will improve the entire working experience of your employees instead.

Solid Contracts

In the spirit of rewarding your employees, now might be the time to bestow solid, reliable contracts and salaries for your employees, as well as any benefits you might now be able to afford. This can help an employee feel like all the risk they placed into working for your startup was worth it, and now they are being rewarded with the security they hoped for. Make a big deal of this. It’s an important milestone in the story of your business journey.

Don’t Lose Your Edge

We mentioned earlier in the article about the need for compromise as your business grows, using the example of a more uniform support structure to help meet the demand of your clients. You might find that there are more and more considerations like this that become more of a melting pot of competent ideas as opposed to the efficiency of a clear vision.

If you decide to go public, you will notice that you will compromise more and more in order to satisfy your shareholder meetings and try to provide sustainable growth at all costs. Be careful. Despite the temptation to grow your operation at all costs, remember why you took the risk of opening a startup to begin with. It’s likely because you were tired of the standard corporate and semi-soulless methodology of success.

If it means retaining your integrity and preserving what made you a hit as a new standout in your field, then be sure to never lose your edge, and stay fast and true to the business plan and desires you laid out at the very beginning, when you were worried if you were going to make it through the next month.

Refine Competency

Just because you’re successful doesn’t mean you can’t keep learning. As a startup CEO, you have more of an obligation to yourself than ever to keep refining your competency. Larger businesses require better captains at the helm. Become one, making use of blogs like this one, and the free exchange of online information that can keep you sharp as a razor.

These 9 top tips can help anyone overcome the increased demands of startup success.

Sorry, but there is no way around it – businesses have to cut costs. If they don’t, the odds of survival are not high. Considering, that 80% of new companies fail within the first year, you are going to need all the help you can get. But, it isn’t as easy as slashing away and hoping for the best because there is a human element. As soon as employees see cuts, they start to get edgy and this can affect the office’s morale. A healthy working environment is imperative to success, so you have to avoid this at all costs. The question is, how?

Keep Cards Close To Chest

As the boss, the workforce is only privy to information that you choose to release. So, if the office were to figure out that the firm was in the process of cutting costs, it would probably come from the horse’s mouth. With that in mind, think twice before telling anyone about the company’s finances. Instead, involve your trusted managers and come up with a plan to slash costs incrementally so as not to arouse suspicion. A prime example would be to address overheads and eliminate the ones that are unnecessary. That way, you can avoid widespread panic until a later date. Remember that ignorance is bliss in some cases.

Target Information Technology

The wage bill is the easiest and most tempting expense to cut because of the size. Plus, tech and software are cheaper and as productive. The problem with firing employees is the fact that the cat is out of the bag. Once people see their colleagues leaving, they will jump to conclusion and it will be chaotic. The good news is there is no reason to fire anyone if you are willing to cut the waste from the IT department. Can you access information offline? With the Office 365 package from Better Online, you can work from anywhere in the world. Do you have an in-house team? Then outsource it to a third party. There are always ways to make the business leaner.

Communicate

Last but not least, don’t forget to communicate succinctly and coherently when the truth does come out. Keeping cost cutting measures a secret is a good option, but only if the rumors don’t start to fly. Once the gossip begins, there is no way to maintain the secrecy any longer. Instead, the best option is to tell the truth and explain the situation. However, the good bosses understand that basic facts will not do, so they go one step further and appease people’s fears. For instance, you could say that you are not looking to save money by reducing the labor force. Quite simply, this is their biggest fear and they will want reassurances.

There is no doubt that cutting costs does have a negative effect on employee morale. After all, it is a small leap from cutting costs to losing a job. However, with these tips, it is possible to tackle the issue without losing the trust of the workforce. That is vital because they are the people that will help the business through these tough times.

When you’re the owner of a business, it’s incredibly easy to get into the mindset of assuming that you can handle everything yourself. After all, it’s your business; you’re in control; you know what’s best. Right? Well, even if you do know what’s best for your business, that doesn’t always mean that you’re the right person to put things into practice. One thing that you cannot do as a business owner is let your ego get the best of you. If you’re not able to step back and accept that you may need help and support, then your business is as good as doomed. To prevent that from happening, here are a few places where it might be best for your business for you to ask for help.

Marketing

Far too many business owners assume that marketing is something that they can learn easily without putting in too much work. However, the reality is that it’s an incredibly complicated, nuanced field that often requires a great deal of care and attention to pull it off effectively. This is especially true now because of the rise of digital marketing, which requires an entirely different skillset to traditional marketing. Sure, there are a plenty of places to learn about things like SEO and Adwords, but you may well be better off focusing on other things and bringing in an outside organization to deal with your marketing.

Waste management

Your business’s environmental impact might not be something that you’ve considered before but, in the modern age, your business simply cannot afford to be wasteful. Not only is it going to lead to you wasting a lot of money, but it’s going to seriously impact the way that customers view your business as a whole. By connecting with a company like Direct Resource Management, you can make sure that your business’s waste is being correctly dealt with. This is especially true for things like electronic waste, which far too many businesses tend to ignore altogether.   

Accounting

Considering how important money is to the success of a business, it’s remarkable how often something like accounting get’s left at the bottom of the “to-do” pile. This is usually because accounting is that awful combination of complicated and boring, which leads a lot of business owners to ignore it for as long as possible. By hiring an accountant, you can be sure that your finances are always being carefully monitored and taken care of, without having to dedicate huge amounts of time to wading through invoices and tax returns.

Employee care

Just because you’re a great business owner doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to be a great manager. Your ability to run a business rarely translates to an ability to motivate and engage with other people. If you find yourself in that kind of position then hiring a manager to help keep your employees on track at all times might be the best choice overall. It might sometimes feel as though you’re giving up your business to someone else, but it’s important to remember that you’re still the core of the business. It’s simply the manager’s job to relay your desires and intentions to your employees in a way that keeps them engaged and happy.

All business owners should think about ways in which they can assist their team members to progress. That helps the individual because it means they can take advantage of more opportunities. However, it also benefits the company because workers are less likely to leave for something better. The issue is that most people have no idea where to start when it comes to that process. Thankfully, there are some fantastic strategies in this article that entrepreneurs might like to consider. If bosses get this right, they will build a brilliant reputation, and they should reduce staff turnover rates.

Advertise all vacancies in-house first

Whenever there is a new job opportunity at the company, it makes sense to let current employees know before advertising the vacancy online. Lots of business owners use sites recommended by Better Team. However, the in-house method is preferable. That will give people already working for the company the chance to apply and try something new.

Of course, those employed by the brand at the moment will have a reasonable understanding of how the operation works. That should help the business owner to save money when it comes to initial training. It’s still sensible to hold interviews in the same way bosses would when assessing other candidates. However, entrepreneurs should either mention the new positions at staff meetings or promote them on a notice board somewhere in the building.

Provide educational opportunities

There are lots of ways in which business owners could offer educational opportunities to their team members. They include:

• In-house training
• Funded college placements
• Online e-learning courses

People who opt for something like the ClickMinded SEO course would then have the chance to move departments and help out with web design or marketing. Those who manage to complete a management training program could gain more responsibilities within the business. That makes sense, right? Just look for educational programs that will benefit both the company and the individual.

Create career development pathways

Many people benefit from learning on the job in the modern business world. So, it’s wise for bosses to design career development paths. That means drawing a line that shows employees how they rise through the ranks to better positions. For example, company owners might highlight a development pathway from working in the warehouse to becoming part of the logistics team. That might go something like this:

• Start as a warehouse operative
• After one year, apply for a team leader role
• After one year, apply for a team management role involving logistics
• After one year, apply to work with the logistics team

If employees have information of that nature to hand, it makes them feel more confident in their roles. The action stops workers from thinking they are in a dead-end job where they can’t improve their prospects.

All the ideas outlined in this article should assist bosses in providing the best opportunities to their employees. People who do that will experience a greater level of success in the business world because they won’t have to worry too much about staff turnover. When all’s said and done, it’s hard to work on the development of a brand when entrepreneurs have to spend all their time interviewing new candidates. So, smart bosses will use some of the ideas from this article to improve their hiring process and help expand employee loyalty!

One of the most common worries of a startup company is whether or not they will succeed. You can have a great idea, a solid business model and a business plan that is watertight for growth. However, none of that is a guarantee for a company to be a success. The world is full of opportunities and with the birth of thousands of young companies waiting to swim with the big fish out there, the competition is fierce. A startup needs a leader with enough tenacity to take on the many uncertain and ambiguous challenges that are involved with starting a company. There are many of these challenges ahead and you have to decide if you are ready for them right now.

Unfortunately, 90% of new businesses will fail in the first year. It’s your job to be one of the 10% that succeeds. It’s a difficult truth to get your head around as an entrepreneur; especially as you likely are full to the brim with boundless optimism about the brilliance of your company. Reality is a bitter pill to swallow and if you hope to get ahead, you have to face it early. Hearing the statistics shouldn’t put you off wanting to do well. In actual fact, statistics that say you are likely to fail should make you want to work better and work harder to do well. It’s classic reverse psychology for companies.

Success is about more than the location of the company headquarters. It’s about more than where you start out – usually in the spare room of the house! It’s about noticing the popularity of your product or service rising and hitting the market at the right time. It’s about expanding your business enough that the spare room no longer suffices. That you have to bring in more staff, move to a larger office space and need Windows VPS with RDP to cope with the sheer volume of work and staff numbers. Everything down to the equipment you have to expand into should be taken into consideration. It’s needing more of everything because what you have just doesn’t last you enough for the success you are gaining. Ultimately, it’s about putting your all into your startup and guiding it exactly where you need it to go. It’s because of all this that it’s important to understand what it is you need to succeed with the big dogs and not be the local one hit wonder. There are six major bites of the apple that you need to understand to get to the core of your success, and we’ve put these together for you below:

Customers.

Your company cannot succeed without customers. Identifying the potential market and figuring out their unmet needs is essential for success. You need to ask yourself what it is you can provide that others cannot. It doesn’t matter whether what you offer is that on a large scale or a more niche opportunity, you have to be able to foresee whether the work will dry up too soon. Look at the need versus the market and you should have your answer as to whether you will be able to make a long-term go of your dreams.

Product

So, we’ve talked about meeting an unmet need, but how do you figure that out? Focus groups! You see reality TV shows that portray business wannabe’s who ask focus groups about a proposed product, and do their market research, only to go against what the public want. Never do this! The only way you are going to be able to bring in more people to buy your product is to listen to what it is that they want. Research is crucial here and reading articles like this one about how you should stay steady with your product from planning through to development is going to help you. Work out your costs to make sure you are going to be able to get back some of the money you have spent in profits.

Timing

As with most things, timing is everything. You have to bring your company and your product at the exact right moment that they need you to. Every single industry has a lifecycle and there is a limit on the amount of time you have to bring the product to the public eye, before people move on and want something else. You have to time it perfectly so that you don’t bring your new innovation to market too soon, and you can read more about how that can affect your business here. When it comes to working out the best time for you, it’s going to take some research and watching market trends to know for sure.

Competition

Every startup that has an idea they want to bring to the market will be aware of the fact they will have competition out there. The key is to make sure you don’t have too much of it before you bring your product to market. If you are finding that you have a lot more competition than you realize, then it’s worth noting that you are entering a saturated industry and your product likely will not succeed, unless it can offer something above and beyond. This is the reason that studying the competition is so important. Not just what their product is, but how they market it and who they aim it towards. This type of insight will allow you to understand how you can best your competition.

Finance

Money makes the world go around. It also will be the thing that brings your product to the market. Planning ahead is key here, as you have to understand how much up-front capital you will need to put into your product development. You also have to plan for the gap between accounts payable and accounts receivable. The financial risk you will be anticipating doesn’t have to be huge, but it does have to be enough to give you time to plan solidly. Your business – as like every other one – will require money to get started. Business loans like these can get you there, but you have to work out your profit and loss projection and come up with contingency plans in case something goes wrong.

Team

It’s a given that as a startup, you need to have the best people on board with you to get your product ready. You should have specialists in all departments, and the most important will be those who can understand the customers even better than you can. Technical experts, IT experts and those who are charming enough to handle marketing and PR will be essential assets to the team that will bring your product to success. The costs of hiring the right team can be high, it’s true, but is this an investment that you would be willing to skimp on? We didn’t think so!

Your success is going to very much depend on these six elements working in perfect synchronicity. You want to be able to bridge the gap between rushing in too far to impress the customers, with having a successful product model that you can offer. It’s important that you evaluate every opportunity, identify every weakness and look for the ways your startup can fail before it does so you can catch it early. You success will depend on you – are you ready to go and get it?

As online consumers are becoming increasingly savvy, skeptical and demanding in an increasingly complex digital marketplace, it has never been more important for online retailers to find creative and intelligent ways to connect with their consumers and build strong levels of trust.

It is common for most eCommerce business strategies to revolve around more short-term persuasion techniques, developed to grab consumers attention and to gain quick rewards. Whist these do have a place, what should be the main focus is aiming towards building long-term trust as this is what really builds customer loyalty.

If you are looking for better ways to build long-term trust with your consumers read on for our top tips on how to do just that.

Be Transparent

Transparency has been found to be one of the most important ways to build trust with consumers and particularly online consumers. Websites that give off an air of anonymity or seem to come across as even a little secretive have been found to be the worst performing websites and the ones that suffer from the least amount of sales. Therefore it is really important that all eCommerce sites are providing information on company identity and are seen to be open and transparent.

Consumers can be skeptical about online retailers and so it is natural that they will want to run for the hills when it comes to websites that appear to be withholding certain information. Therefore making your site as personable, open and friendly as possible is essential. You will want to build up a personality that makes your brand approachable and warm, yet professional, so that your consumers feel that they can trust you with their hard-earned cash.

Reduce Complexity

Having an overly complicated website may look impressive but is it user friendly? You want to strive to offer the best-in-class e-commerce solutions when it comes to both the usability and functionality of your site. The more obstacles in your consumer’s way the more likely they are going to get frustrated with the process required of your site and go looking elsewhere. We all know that in the world of eCommerce a lost opportunity to grab that potential new consumer means they are never going to come back so there are no second chances to build that trust.

Therefore all eCommerce site owners should all be focusing on killing off any uncertainties on your site. So you should be working towards simplifying both the shopping experience on your site whilst also simplifying the information provided on your website that allows consumers to better understand you and your products.

Publicize Failures

This sounds rather daunting we know, but we promise it can go a huge way in building long-term trust with clients. Sites that hold their hands up to errors and problems and inescapable facts is an essential part of building up a transparent business. There have been many cases in business where cover ups, have been discovered and have caused great damage to companies and to the way that consumers have perceived those companies.

Therefore the damage done to businesses is far greater once discrepancies have been discovered as being slyly hidden away, than if companies can boldly own up to their mistakes. All companies make mistakes but what makes you trustworthy is how you deal with them and how sincere you come across.

Be Likeable

This can sound all too obvious to even be considered, but you would be surprised at how easy this is to forget with so much else to focus on. However there is a basic psychology when it comes to buying products online and aligning yourself to the better nature of your consumers is one of the most important things that you can do. This is because consumers build trust with brands and businesses that project values that they feel are similar to their own. Therefore you should be spending time on going through the values of your brand and focusing on how to promote those values in order to connect with your target market.

Humanize

Trust, has been defined before as ‘anticipated cooperation’. This is an extremely relevant definition when it comes to explaining the commercial context and requirements of building trust. Online shopping requires trust, on the part of the consumer, as they pay money in the anticipation of receiving goods that match up to the value of money paid.

That anticipated cooperation is the cornerstone of any solid seller, buyer relationship and that has never been more true that when it comes to online shopping, as consumers have to put their trust in the retailer. Therefore finding ways to humanize your business so that consumers feel confident to put their trust in you should be the main focus for all eCommerce businesses in order to retain customers and ensure healthy and long-term growth.

Digital marketing for your business is crucial in gaining the rightful success you need to prosper, grow and expand. In fact, digital marketing is by far the most important aspect of any advertising campaign, because there are simply more people online than there are watching traditional media forms such as television. The online world is also filled with every kind income, from low to high, so no one is excluded e.g. you won’t find luxury product adverts on t.v. Setting up a business blog is a pathway to reach out to customers, to finally, speak to the masses who love and adore your products or services. A blog is a wrecking ball that breaks the fourth wall in business and recognizes that consumers aren’t robots. At first, you might think it’s a waste of time, because a blog is essentially, like a diary. You write about updates, respond to feedback and give the future plans of the business to the audience. It’s more human than it is formal, but the connection-effect is what counts the most.

It’s all about them

It’s okay to want to give your backstory and talk about what made you decide the particular kind of business you have, but that’s what business expos are for. The blog is not a panel where the audience asks you to tell them about yourself, so make the subjects all about them. They are the ones who are buying your product, and many consumers are just passing by, they want a long droning about how you started. Write about the concerns you can see in the industry, or about a product or feature, which the feedback has been negative about. Remember that the attention span of most online shoppers, regarding a company blog is going to be short. Even YouTube has their own blog, but compared to the amount of users,  the readership is a mere fraction of a fraction. Give customers attentive feedback and updates, addressing concerns.

Stay relevant and timely

Your blog must have regular content on it, to keep the traffic high on the website. It’s not just about pumping out ideas but staying relevant. You should study competitive keyword analysis, so you have a finger on the pulse of the industry and the competition. Analyzing the keywords your rivals are using to lure customers in, is a time-consuming process but it’s an integral part of running a successful business. Studying how they incorporate certain words, how they build their paragraphs and how they link the topic back to themselves to be relevant, will give you tips to do something similar. By sticking to a publishing schedule, it forces you to have relevant topics to speak about beforehand. By studying what’s hot or trending, you can align a blog post, to how it fits into your business plan and product.  

A linear posting approach

Customers are on the move; they’re meeting friends, they’re cooking, cleaning and going about their daily lives. They don’t have time to sift through a blog post, to find the content that means something to them; they’re more likely to switch off. Therefore your blog should have a linear layout. The beginning should be short and sweet, summarizing what the post is about in bullet points; in journalism, this is called a ‘stand first.’ The introduction should be about why you’re addressing an issue with evidence to back it up; it could be a consensus, feedback comments or industry rumors. The main body should go into restrained detail, and address the topic with the use of brevity. Short sentences, allow readers to digest the topic, in small bites, allowing them to better understand and stay interested. The conclusion should be summing up what has been done or updated, and what the reader can expect from the subject next time. Be informative, but don’t lecture or condescend the customers.

Keep social media in the spotlight

Somewhere in your blog posts, should be a link to your social media pages. Social media pages should be used to give exclusive updates. This incentivizes users to follow you and keep up-to-date with your business. This way, you’ll be in their daily lives, consistently. Add in a tweet you made or post about something regarding the topic you’re talking about. This will show customers who aren’t following you, that you are on their favorite platform and also, they’re missing out on the ‘breaking news’ of your business.

User-orientated content is the best way to show you care about your customers. A lot of the time, businesses feel they have to address certain section of their products or services because consumers don’t understand the models. A blog post is a great way to keep everyone in line with your thinking, keep them focused on what you might do next, and show you care about their concerns.  

The world isn’t always a happy place. People have needs and desires they’re not getting fulfilled. They have concerns about the security, safety, and future. Businesses tend to capitalize on these worries by working against them. But they can capitalize even more by utilizing the power of positivity. We’re going to take a look at how you inject every step of the customer’s journey with that positivity and what it can offer you in terms of returns.

Keep it positive right from the start

Businesses are there to fulfill a need, ease a worry, or stop a concern. But don’t make the mistake of focusing on what your customer lacks or what your customer base, in general, is missing. Studies have shown that positive social proof in marketing and examples of what your product or service has to offer are much more effective. Create a story not of a need fulfilled in your marketing, but a customer success story.

Understand their wants

Marketing is a good first step, but many businesses will have the one-to-one conversation with the customer. Sometimes, it’s through content, other times it’s through an online chat, phone call or face-to-face. The key to success in making sales through internet marketing is making that connection. Through active listening, you’re a lot more likely to hear the crux of what might make the deal more appealing to them. That gives you the opportunity to tailor the offer just right. You’re also likely to hear little bonuses like things you share in common or personal details that you can later insert into the conversation. It shows that you’re listening, that you have an interest in not just the sale, but a pleasant interaction, and that can make your potential customer much happier. The better their frame of mind, the better any deal you offer is going to look.

Go a little bit further

It’s easy to say “got mine”, and abandon a customer once you have their money and you’ve delivered your product or service. Even if you think the quality of the business speaks for itself, you can take the time to capitalize on their happy reception and put the cherry on the cake, so to speak. Investing a little in extra customer satisfaction can have a profound emotional impact, whether it’s a handwritten thank you note, an email to check up on them a little later, a candy bar with a delivery. The happier they are at the end of the customer-business relationship, the fonder their memories and the higher their esteem of you. That makes them a lot more likely to come back in future or spread good word-of-mouth about the business.

Simply put, the more positive an emotion your customer can associate with your business in any step, the more likely you are to complete that step. If they’re happy during the marketing, they’re more likely to have an interest. If they’re happy with the sales pitch, they’re more likely to convert. If they’re happy with service, they’re more likely to return and refer. Keep the power of positivity in the business and make sure the odds are always in your favor.

A lot more people are turning to food in order to give a good base for their startup. The more we travel, the more we are open to different cuisines and are able to bring back our experiences with us to sell to the general public; either that, or we are using our backgrounds, heritage and culture to give us a boost within the eating world. So it makes sense to profit off what we know to be good. But with so much competition out there, how do we make the most out of what we are doing and ensure that we are putting out eateries on the map?

Start Off Small

One of the essential things that you need to make sure of when it comes to food is that it is good. If you get involved with street markets and become a frequent vendor, you’ll find that you don’t have to put the personal investment into decor, staff or environment that those who have purchased your food would otherwise expect in a restaurant. Instead, they will rate you solely based on how your food looks and tastes. This is great feedback for when you want to move into a more permanent residence, and something that definitely needs to be considered. A lot of people decide to stay on this path with their business rather than having to cover other overheads when they move into a restaurant. The rent on your market patch can be considerably less than hiring or buying a building, and in busy places the footfall can be just as much as if you were solidly based in a restaurant, if not a little bit more.

Get Covered

As and when you get ready to move into your own premises, it’s of vital importance that you have the right insurance from American Insuring Group, Ltd. or another reputable company before you start trading. Getting the policy right can be tricky business, but knowing that you have a safety net there should anything happen regarding public liability, your workers or your premises means that you can focus on your revenue. You will only be financially stable with whatever venture you are taking off with if you have right insurance in place.

Work Out Your GP Margin

The more that you look around for your products, the more that you will find the price differs depending on where it is sourced from. Getting on board with different suppliers throughout the months that you begin your food startup isn’t showing that you are fickle, it’s showing that you are business-minded.  If you aren’t fully aware on how to work out how much gross profit you are making when taking everything else into consideration, there are tools online that will help you to do so. This is one of the foremost important things that you need to get on board with to ensure that you are consistently doing the right thing and making money – which is one of the main reasons that a business was constructed in the first place.

When you start up on your own, you tend to go through a set of firsts. Your first sale, your first customer, your first paycheck – and then it moves up a notch. You’ll get your first tax return filed, get your first office, and even hire your first employee. But, when it comes to the latter, you can often hit a wall that you haven’t with any of your other first. Because with your business, making those sales was easy. But hiring people? Not so much! Especially when you’ve never done it before. So when you’re looking to take on your first employee, here’s how to nail the interview process like you’re a pro.

Know What You’re Looking For

Although this entire process probably seems alien to you at the moment, it won’t forget. Instead of worrying about how you’re going to get through interviewing candidates, you need to start at the top. First of all, you should really aim to understand what it is that you need from your new employee. The best way to do that is to write up a person and job specification. If you go into great detail on what it is you need from them as a person, you’ll know when you find the right one.

Write A Killer Ad

Once you know the kind of person that you’re looking for, you can then have a go at writing your job advertisement. Because if you’re going to get a new employee, no matter where you get them wrong, you will need to advertise. Be sure to sell the benefits of working for you in the ad as well as stating what you’re looking for. That way, you’ll be sure to get the best candidates apply. Then, choose your outlets to advertise and wait.

Compare Your Applications

With your job advertised out there for the world to see, it will only be a matter of time before you get a bunch of applications come through. As you start to get resumes and cover letters, you’re going to want to start going through them. But, it’s important that you do this with your person and job specification with you. That way, you’re able to compare the applications to what you were looking for to see how they match up.

Do Some Background Research

As you start to narrow down the applicants and compile your shortlist, you may also want to think about ensuring that you only interview the right people. If you get 50 applications and 20 of them seem good, you don’t really want to have to interview 20 people. So you need to have a cull. A way to help you decide is to do some research. Be sure to find people online, look into their work history and recommendations on LinkedIn and across their social media. That way, you’ll get a better understanding of who they are and if they’ll be a good fit.

Host The Actual Interview

With your interviewees selected, all that’s left to do is get the interviews done. Now, once you’ve invited each of the candidates in for an interview, you’re going to want to make sure that you are ready. Get your questions together and plan out the process. You may even want to practice before you go in, just to make sure everything feels right. Then, you’ll be able to figure out which person will become your first employee.