Nibletz Staff - 38/87 - Serious Startups

New Business: New Market

So you have just set up your new business. Everything is ready to go. You’ve put time and effort into it to build your company and now you need customers to come for what you offer. It doesn’t matter what kind of business you operate, it won’t be successful if you don’t have anyone using it or giving you money. You may have run a business before, but you need to understand that different businesses have differing markets. A corner shop has a totally different market to a company offering printing solutions, for example. These tips can help you get started, but are by no means all encompassing. They will serve to stoke more ideas and help you get to where you need to be in terms of marketing.

The Mobile Phone

These are the things you may not have thought about using for marketing, but are viable and well used tools. Again, you may already use them, but if not do consider it. Cell phone marketing has become a huge opportunity, so consider finding a provider that can help you to the end. Everyone has a phone these days, so using the right messaging company can help, you should look into acquiring the SMS white label program from UltraSMSScript. You should also think about app marketing. You can advertise through popular apps, meaning your business will reach the eyes of thousands of users. You can even consider using an app of your own for your business. In it, you can promote everything new and current in your company and tell people about exciting new offers and the like.

Marketing Video

They’re becoming ever more popular these days. Marketing videos are great, and better than the usual bog standard article because people don’t have to concentrate, they just watch instead of read, which is far more easier. Making a good marketing video can be tough, which is why it is worth seeking professional help. You don’t want it looking stupid or amateurish, or your reputation will be affected for the worse. Ensure your product or service is clearly outlined in the video. Look at some of the major companies out there and how they place what they’re advertising in the video. It can give you the inspiration to do the same.

Email Marketing

Similar to SMS marketing, email marketing can work wonders. The trick is not to come over too brash. You don’t want to bombard people’s email address with rubbish. Instead, you want to make sure that each email is written well and has something of worth inside. Perhaps it is a coupon for money off their purchase, or informing them of a new range of products. Maybe you’re telling them about a new promotion. It has to have worth, otherwise people will unsubscribe. If they do that you are losing potential customers. Remember, try to compile an email list of willing and likely customers. You can purchase an email list, but you are better off forming them from past customer information, at least then you know they will be interested.

Preventing Crime At Your Business

Although a lot of new entrepreneurs manage to overlook it, security is one of the big concerns that all business owners need to think about. Paying due diligence to your security will protect the business’s livelihood, as well as the safety of all your staff. Although you’re probably strained for time as it is, here are a few essential steps for protecting your company from crime.

Go with the Holistic Approach

Shoplifting is a major issue for many retail businesses, and the options for keeping the place secure are endless. While CCTV and product tags can be a big help, one of the most effective ways to stop people from stealing from your business is simply letting them know that you’re there, and keeping an eye on them. The best way to do this is upping standards of customer service. Have all your shop staff acknowledge everyone who comes through the door, and hang around customers offering them any kind of help and information they need. You’ll not only scare away thieves, but look better in the eyes of your honest customers as well.

Sweat the Small Stuff

There are countless ways that business owners decide to protect their livelihood, and getting equipped with all the latest security gear can certainly reduce the risk of any major breach. Having said that, if you were to ask a range of security companies, they’ll tell you that one of the most important things you can do is sweat the small stuff. Dependable security gates and strong locks on all your premises’ points of entry may sound basic, but there’s a reason for this: these things work! Make sure you’re only issuing keys to the premises to the people who really need them, and that alarm keys are clearly marked to keep them extra-secure. You should also have a logging system if you ever need to loan keys out. Finally, maintain go-to numbers for reporting any kind of emergencies or suspicious activity, and have them posted all over your business premises. This ensures that if and when there is some kind of breach, you’ll be able to react to it as quickly as possible.

Carry Out a Thorough Inventory and Audit

Inventories and audits are two more simple ways you can prevent any kind of crime at your business. Maintain up-to-date employee records, including staff pictures, and keep them somewhere you can access them whenever the need arises. Make sure that any valuable equipment is accurately cataloged using serial numbers, and that it’s all included in regular inventory checks. Occasionally, you should also make sure that employees aren’t leaving any keys in doors or cabinets, or leaving their passwords written down anywhere. Every once in a while, you should also make sure that your alarm system and cameras are in good working order. Burglar alarms that don’t trigger are useless, and blurry images of an intruder aren’t going to be much help to the police.

There you have three essential steps to protecting your company from the risk of crime.

Bullseye! Hit The Target Market

When you’re marketing your business, you need to think about your target audience. There is no product or service that is completely universal. There will always be people who will never be interested in buying, and that’s true, no matter what you’re selling. This is why it’s always beneficial to seek out your target audience. These are the individuals who match your product or service perfectly and therefore are always going to be interested in buying. For instance, for a car mechanic, a target audience would be anyone having car trouble. This might include a number of different groups of people including private car owners, managers of fleets and big businesses. So, how can you identify your target market and what options do you have when you’re selling your product to them?

Know Your Audience

To identify and understand your target audience, you need to know who they are. What do they want, what is their problem and how can you solve it? A target audience for a home cleaning company is homeowners who don’t have time themselves to clean. They’re busy, they live hectic lives, and they are tired of coming back to find their home a mess. Already you can see how recognising your target market could help you create an awesome promotional campaign. You just need to advertise as a hassle free solution to this particular problem.

But you can go further than that. With this info, you might even be able to think about the type of websites they visit online. People unhappy with the way their home looks or feels will probably be searching on designer blogs. When you know this, you can then look for blogs offering options for sponsored content. At that point, you can start marketing directly to your target audience.

Understand Socio-Economic Factors

It is possible that your target marketing is defined by socio-economic factors. If that’s the case, then you need to think about targeting people based on things like their level of income or even where they live. You can do this using mailing lists or if you’re a B2B company, business lists. Using lists like this, you will again be able to market directly towards people interested in your product or service. Niche companies do this all the time to hone in on their specific market. For instance, Bentley aren’t going to sell a lot of cars or find much interest in a working class neighborhood. They will, however, see plenty of market interest in gated streets in the suburbs close to major cities.

Make It Personal

Finally, one of the best pieces of advice we can recommend when marketing to a target customer is to make sure it’s personal to them. If a customer things you’re speaking directly to them or even someone like them you have already won the sale. You can do this by selecting language carefully. “If you are a small business owner in Brooklyn you’ll know…” You can use a hook like this on marketing materials that are going to be seen by that specific audience. Address who they are and then show them what you can offer.

Five Hats The Entreprenuer Needs To Wear Well

A good entrepreneur is someone who spots an opportunity and knows just how to take advantage of it on the market. But there are a lot of factors that play into being good at that. You need to have an acute awareness of the market, its needs, and how you fit them. But you also need to think about the hats you need to wear when facilitating that.

The visionary

It’s a cross between the leader and the salesperson. You have to be able to get people on your side, to get them engaged and facing their efforts in the right direction. A great leader doesn’t just tell people what to do. A great leader empowers them and gets them putting their all toward a goal. The visionary needs to know not only how to sell a product, but how to sell an idea to people so that they’re never short of those willing to offer what they can to the greater good of the vision.

The manager

Having a goal isn’t the only thing a good team needs in order to work alongside you. They’re also going to need someone to effectively manage the team. This means organizing workloads, helping people deal with productivity issues by finding the right tools for them and the like.

The networker

Networking is crucial in business. Especially if you’re in B2B industries, where the kind of network marketing that BradKRussell.com.au teaches is essential to finding, qualifying, and closing leads. Beyond finding customers, networking will let you find allies in the industry who can collaborate with you, from doing joint marketing to even lending you the occasional member of their own highly skilled teams. If you’re too shy to talk to others, you won’t be able to make it as an entrepreneur, so work on that.

The talent scout

While networking, you’re also a lot more likely to encounter to the fresh new faces in the industry looking to make friends and find opportunities. As an entrepreneur, finding the best new talent should always be a focus of yours. Entrepreneurs deal in people as much as anything else. They need the right friends, the right allies, and the right understudies.

The survivor

Entrepreneurs also need to learn to be able to take a hit. At the end of the day, those connections you make might fall away. But you have to have the resilience to stick it through and either find the next opportunity or stick to your guns and turn a failure into a success. The habits of resilience, highlighted at sites like Fastcompany.com, are crucial to being able to tough it out in the demanding world of business.

Getting an idea at the roles you need to be good it is crucial to make it as an entrepreneur. Without the right ability to find, to connect with, to lead, and to inspire people, you will be forced to do most of the work alone. Without resilience, you won’t even be able to do that

Moving Your Startup To New Premises

There will come a time when you decide it’s right to move your operation to new premises. This could be for a number of reasons: you might have outgrown where you currently are, may need to find somewhere more in line with the company ethos, or you might have been working out of your basement and not even had an office before. Whatever it is, you’re about to make the move, which is exciting, but also daunting. Here are a few things you’ll need to bare in mind, and some of the technological solutions that can make the move easier.

Choosing Your New Premises

Before you start looking for a new place for your startup, you’ll need to think about why you actually want to move. Is it definitely the right move? To determine that, you’ll have to establish your motivation for wanting to move. And once your reasons are settled, you’ll know whether you’re looking for a place that can cater for more staff, or have you more in the mix of the big companies, or just somewhere that allows you to put your own stamp on the design.

Flexible Working Hours

Technology is changing the way we think about work. It’s no longer just a 9-5 job anymore; in the best cases (and you should be aiming for this), it’s an extension of our lifestyle. There are some people out there who think that the very concept of “the office” will soon be obsolete, so bare this in mind when looking for a new space. With modern software and cloud storage making it easier than ever for workers to work remotely, it might be that your new premises might be better served if they function more as a collaborative workspace rather than a traditional office.

Modern Look, Modern Technology

The four walls and the roof are immaterial, really, to how successful your office will be. It’s all about what’s inside those four walls that matters. Have an outfit like Digital Planet implement your custom technological needs and you’ll be in a position to work productively and deliver results straight from day one. You should be thinking of your new office as a blank canvas, upon which you can paint the technology and software tools that can streamline your business operations and boost profits.

Saving Money

There are naturally plenty of costs involved in a move, but it also gives you a chance to save money too. For instance, there are plenty of ways you can use technology to cut the cost of your bills – think of VoIP communications, which run off the internet and can save you money on your phone bills. Look at everything you’ll be spending money on: there’s almost certainly a way to reduce costs.

Monitor The Results

Once you’ve moved in, you don’t have to necessarily commit to making your new office your base for a long period of time. It might not work out as you intended, or you might think you’ll do better elsewhere, so make sure you keep on top of how the move has affected your business, and adjust your plans accordingly.

Make The Bank Love Your Business Plan

If you have big dreams of starting your own business one day, then you’re certainly not alone. Countless professionals currently stuck in an unfulfilling nine to five want to start a business at some time in the future, but it’s only the brave who follow through with it, for better or worse. If you’ve decided that it’s time to take the plunge, but you’re not sure where to begin, again, you’re not alone. Every business, from the smallest to the largest, starts with a good business plan. This will help you monitor your progress, make rational adjustments, and above all, secure financing. Obviously, you want a business plan that investors will lap up, so here are some tips for making sure it’s as bank-friendly as possible.

Financial Projections

Every bank will be looking at your financial data before anything else, and will want to establish that you actually know and understand how much capital you need, and whether your business idea is financially viable. If the financial projections you come up with don’t pan out the way the bank needs them to, then you can kiss your funding goodbye. One of the two main things that investors look at are your individual cash flow, made up of personal cash flow, personal debt, business cash flow projections and business debt. The second is your debt service coverage ratio, which will indicate whether or not the business can ultimately cover the debt that it takes. If you want the bank to look at your business plan favorably, you need to get your financial projections in order, and understand your cash levers so that you can speak intelligently about what you need from your line of credit.

Your Professional Experience

Your personal, professional experience is also going to have a big impact on how credible you appear in the eyes of lenders. Have you shown previous responsibility for your profits and losses? Do you have a length of experience in the industry you’re targeting? Do you have a solid way of demonstrating that you have the ability to manage your chosen niche effectively? One useful and straightforward exercise during your business planning is creating a list with two columns. The first one should contain all the major factors you need to operate your chosen business model effectively. The second should have your accomplishments and experience that are tied to those factors. The completed list should make it as easy as possible for the decision makers at the bank to see that you and your team have all the qualities needed to run a successful business. If you draw up this list, and discover that you have some glaring hole in your professional experience, you need to work on this issue before actually asking for money.

Location, Location, Location

Although fewer and fewer businesses need any kind of customer-facing premises, you might be planning to launch one that needs to be seen by customers. If this is the case, your location and the available commercial properties in that area are all going to be important factors to lenders. They’ll want to know whether you’ll be able to establish your commercial premises on a corner with a lot of foot traffic, or far away from the high street and hard to spot for passers-by. Addressing how easy it will be for customers to find you in your business plan is essential to make sure prospective lenders will look at it favorably. Understandably, addressing these things can feel pretty overwhelming to a lot of entrepreneurs, particularly if they’re inexperienced. It’s important that you remember your overarching goal should be keeping the plan concise and thorough. The banks already know what it is they’re looking for. It’s your job to make it as easy as possible for them to find this information. You don’t need to pull all-nighters composing a 50-page document covering every little detail. However, you do need to provide clear, accessible information, and let it speak for itself. Wherever possible, make sure you’re getting input from trusted third-party advisers, such as real estate agents, lawyers, and experts in your field.

Your Marketing Strategy

Every responsible lender will want to know that you can attract new customers to your business. Whether you’re starting out as a small, independent business, or a franchise of an international brand, the bank will need some kind of evidence that you know your customer, that there’s a target market in the first place, and you have some innovative ideas about how to dangle yourself in front of those people. This is where it’s essential to drop the “build it and they will come” attitude. This saying may have come about at a time where it was true, but it certainly isn’t today! Even if you have the most innovative product or service to hit the market in decades, you’ll need to have some kind of plan in place for getting the word out and differentiating what you do from what your competitors do. Without getting on your customers’ radars, you won’t make any sales, won’t turn a profit, and won’t be able to pay back the considerable amount that you’re planning to borrow. Take the time to study the market, find out what your most successful competitors have been doing, and how you can improve on these tactics. Again, seek out an adviser. You don’t have to be a marketing expert to come up with a decent strategy, but talking it over with one will certainly help!

There you have my best advice for drafting a business plan that will have lenders reaching for their wallets. Your plan shouldn’t be an academic exercise or a single hurdle to overcome. It should be a living document which will show your investors, partners and advisers that you’re serious about turning your dream into a tangible, profitable reality. Remember that there’ll almost always be some flaw in your assumptions and projections. Once you get approved and open the doors to your customers, look for holes in your plan and work on patching them up!

Get Your Product Out There!

So you have invented a product. It could be anything. A game, a new kind of furniture, clothing, whatever you have done would have taken hard work on your part, so well done. But, if nobody sees it, it would all have been for nothing. You need to get your product under the noses of the right people. It needs to be let free. You may be nervous. All creative types are. Yet, if you don’t give it a chance it will never succeed. There are all kinds of ways you can push your product towards success. But the key is never to give up. If the many millionaire inventors gave up on their first try then they wouldn’t be successful as they are. You must secure the future of your business and it can only be done by promoting your product. You can find many ways to do so in this article. They are in no particular order, and you may have tried some of them. But try the others and see if they work for you. If you have yet to try and sell your product, then doing a few of these at once is your best bet.

Get Your Product In A Video

Videos are watched all the time. Just look at social media and the amount of videos that pop up as you scroll down through its pages. They are far easier to watch than read. There are some great examples of video marketing success out there too, one small college increased enrollment and quadrupled endowments using targeted video marketing. It is possible to make a huge hit with it. If you get your product in the right video it could do you wonders. It all depends on the product you have created, it will dictate the video. Just look at all of the advertisements on TV. Each one is a video catered to a specific product. Look at similar products to yours and see what the competitors have been doing. Video marketing professionals can help you out, but you should be there to give some direction. This medium can reach millions and is a sure fire way to drum up interest in your product.

Pitch It

You may have seen Dragon’s Den or Shark Tank. This is the kind of things you want to do. The best way of getting your product out there can be through investment. These investors will have an insight into the world of business and can get your product out there or into the right stores. You just need to give a good account of yourself during the pitch. They are investing in you too, not just in the product. Dress in a suit or tidy businesswear. Have the facts and figures to hand. How much does the product cost to manufacture? How much are you selling it for? What is the history behind it? How will it benefit the life of the purchaser? These are all aspects you need to consider and have the answers for. Don’t be afraid to take a notepad in with you if you aren’t good with your figures. These pitches happen all the time. You could be pitching to get into a huge retail chain or simply pitching for some extra cash.

Get Some Feedback

Get a group of customers who could be interested in the product you are offering and ask them for feedback. This is one of the first steps in getting your product out there. They could come up with key issues of points of interest you had yet to think about. Getting a customer listening group together is easier than you think. They can poke holes and it may hurt, however you could really make some startling discoveries and there will be positives to take from it too. It can be a nerve wracking experience if you are yet to show it to others beyond friends and family, but feedback is a gift. It is better to have this on board before taking your product out to the major players who will decide if it is a success or failure.

Ask A Professional To Review It

This can be a tough thing to do and something that really gets your nerves on edge. However, it can really make the difference to the potential sales. People are more likely to buy a product if it is proved good by someone who really knows their stuff. If you have a game, ask pro gamers to take a look. The exposure on youtube channels will be huge. Or a game’s journalist. You can do the same for clothing or makeup. Ask reviewers to take a look for you. If the reviews aren’t good, suck it up and realize there are improvements that need to be made. If they are good, you’ve just got the seal of approval form industry experts. Their resulting article may be published in magazines or on internet websites. It’s a great way to get out there. Offer the product freely as an incentive. It could make completing the review a more alluring prospect and pull in people who would otherwise say no.

Sell It Through A Website

To start a following you can start selling it privately through websites like Amazon and Ebay. This can be your springboard to get into more prestigious sales environments. If you have a proven track and sales record then people will be far more likely to take you on. You can also see general consumer feedback and act on it. Amazon provides reviews, it is one of the aspects that make the site great. Use these reviews to work out how well your product is going down. This is a good way of picking up some initial sales for your product and a good way to gauge its success. You may think it is amazing, others may not. But, you will never know until you get your product out there for the world to see. Good luck!

Things to Consider Before Hiring Software Developers

A software developer seems to be the employee of choice when growing your startup idea. This is because creating a custom piece of software to match your exact needs can be cost effective, but it’s also highly customizable and you don’t need to fiddle with plugins or add-ons to get the right features that you need to be a productive company. This is why software developers are so highly sought after; they offer a way for companies to become self-reliant.

However, before you hire a software developer there are a few things you need to consider. Below are just a couple of points to think about before you start the interviewing process.

Is it too early to hire a software developer?

Keep in mind that it takes time before a software developer is fully integrated into your business. Developing an application for your needs can take some time, and there are a lot of extra tools needed in order to accomplish that. For instance, you’ll need something like a Stackify logging service in order for your developers to collect data on how the software they created is functioning. This adds to the additional costs of maintaining a software developer, and these costs might eat into your startup’s budget, making it an impractical investment.

You also need to consider your personal needs. A software developer can be a powerful asset, but they aren’t needed for most companies that could get by with just typical software. There is probably some cheap or even free software solution out there that can be used by your startup that doesn’t need much maintenance.

What tools and languages they will be working in?

If you already have a basis of what you need, then you should consider the developer’s credentials. For instance, if a system you use focuses on Java, then you’re going to need a Java developer. If you need something created that accesses an SQL database, then you’ll need a developer who is proficient with SQL. Web developers are also a different field compared to software developers that work in C# or C++, and program knowledge is also important because using Eclipse and Visual Basic is different.

However, the sign of a great programmer is their ability to understand and learn multiple languages. If you aren’t entirely sure what tools or programming languages you need, then a software developer will be able to advise you on additional developers to hire, programs to use and which language will suit your needs.

Summary

If you don’t have a plan for your developers yet, then it’s a good idea to hold back and wait until you have a proper use for software developers. They’re expensive to hire and their work can take a very long time to start showing results, so you have to be a hundred percent confident in the investment you make if you want to get the most out of your new employees. In short, wait until you have a clear use for a software developer before you put out a recruitment message.

Mobilise For Mobile: Engaging Customers On Smartphones & Tablets

The rise of handheld devices such as smartphones and tablets has skyrocketed in the past five years or so. And it means that there has been a shift in priority for online marketers for businesses in every industry.

The trend towards accessing services and searching for products is now firmly in the direction of mobile over a desktop, and if you aren’t looking for ways of embracing the change, your company will suffer.

With this in mind, how can businesses mobilise their marketing efforts and put a bigger focus on mobile to engage their customers? We’re going to look at a few examples of some of the techniques that might prove fruitful for your company – let’s get started right away.

Free Wi-Fi

First, let’s take a look at something that every shop or physical business can benefit from – offering free Wi-Fi to everyone that enters your building. Let’s say you are a coffee shop, and want people to order another drink, or prolong their stay by ten minutes or so. Given the amount of time people spend on their phones these days and their demand for constant connectivity, it makes sense that you provide them with that option. Not only will you see an increase in customer satisfaction, but you can also use your Wi-Fi service to offer discounts and deals in exchange for them signing up to your service, or following you on social media.

Mobile apps

It wasn’t so long ago that many businesses were wary of the return on investment from the cost of creating a mobile app. These days, however, it’s a different story. The technology has moved on hugely in recent years, and the top mobile app companies are capable of producing exceptional results for your business. Not only can apps help you increase your customer base, but if your service is helpful, useful, and enticing to your audience, they will use it all the time. And that gives you instant access to promote your services at any time of day.

Geolocation services

Many consumers will happily sign up to location-based services if they are offered discounts and deals in return. And that means that geolocation is a powerful marketing tool for your business. You could investigate something like Beacon technology which can send contextual, targeted, and location specific messages to your customers whenever they are nearby. It should drive footfall, encourage sales, and results in a better presence on – and off – line.

Mobile payments

Is your business embracing mobile payments? If not, you are in good company – but be aware that we are all moving towards mobile payments whether you like it or not. Giving your customers the opportunity to pay by mobile will give you vital purchase history details, which you can then use to craft specific messages to engage them better and encourage a return.

As you can see, mobile engagement isn’t just beneficial for your business – it’s also incredibly important. As we move towards the future, smartphones and tablets will become even more ubiquitous than they are already, and savvy business owners and marketers should be acknowledging that fact right now.

Mobile App Development For Beginners

Mobile apps are essential if you’re serious about making your business a success. They provide you with a way to tap into the mobile market, can help increase sales, and also bring in more money for your business too.

With that being said, here’s a guide to creating an app for your business:

The Idea

To begin, you need to think of an idea for your app. To come up with this idea, consider how it will benefit both your business and consumers. There are so many different ideas you can pursue with regards to a business app. If you sell products, your app could simply be an extension of your online store, a place for people to shop and buy your stuff. Some businesses use apps to help customers manage their accounts, others make apps that provide customers with a tool they can use – the list goes on and on. Before you move on, make sure you have your idea nailed down.

The Cost

Next, you have to figure out how much money you can afford to spend on your business app. Suffice it to say, if you wanted to know how much does it cost to create an app? Then you might be disappointed to hear there’s no set figure. App development costs vary depending on the app you’re developing. For example, if you want one created from absolute scratch, then it will cost the most amount of money. However, let’s say you’ve come up with designs for your app and have an idea on how you want it to work, then it will cost a lot less for a developer to get your app up and running. Of course, you can minimize costs by trying to do everything yourself. However, you may find it difficult to get to grips with the nitty gritty of app development. Most companies outsource, it’s far more convenient.

The Platform

You also have to think about what platform(s) your mobile app will be available on. Are you creating one for iPhones, Android phones, or Windows phones? Picking one platform reduces costs, but picking multiple ones expands your reach as you make it possible for more people to download the app. It’s a tough decision, but you can always compromise by originally releasing it on one platform, then developing it for others if the reception is good.

The Profit

Ultimately, you want to make some money from your app. So, think about how you want to do this. Are you going to make money through a free app with advertisements? Will the revenue come from your app costing money to download? Or, will you have in-app payments that people can make? All three ideas have their pros and cons, and they’ll all help you make money and turn your app into a profitable resource for your business.

Make the most of modern technology and develop an app for your business today. It brings so many benefits, you simply have to invest in this idea. The present and the future is mobile, so, get your business involved as soon as you can.

Boost the Confidence of Your Employees Today

Your employees do their best work when they are confident. If they are unsure of themselves, they tend to produce work that is substandard, which is not good for you and your business. So, maybe it’s time to start thinking about how you can give your employees a confidence boost. The ideas below will allow you to do exactly that, so read on now.

Show Them That They Can Progress and Advance in the Company

No one wants to feel like they’re stuck in a dead-end kind of job. People want to feel like they’re free to try new things and advance themselves, as well as their careers. So, you should show your employees that this is something they can do within your company. Prove that you are willing to promote people who do good work and show talent. This should give a bit of a confidence boost and some extra motivation to everyone who works for the business. It will certainly stop people feeling like they are stuck in a rut when working for your business.

Offer Constructive Feedback

Feedback is really important, so you should definitely make sure that you give it to your employees. This will help to give them a confidence boost because you can highlight what they’re doing well, and offer them praise for that. And at the same time, you can give them some constructive advice on how they might want to change their working habits in order to achieve more. This feedback should always be delivered in a non-judgmental kind of way. It shouldn’t be about piling on criticism. Instead, you should aim to make them feel like they can get even better in the future.

Recognize the Good Work They Do

Recognizing good work is an essential part of giving your employees more confidence. You can get custom trophy awards and hand them out to people at the end of each month. The person who does best at the end of a particular month will get the trophy until next month comes around. It’s a great way to ensure your employees all feel like their good work and energy is being recognized and rewarded. They should then be spurred on to do even more positive work in the future. Just make sure that this doesn’t lead to infighting or conflicts in the workplace.

Give Them More Freedom and Control Over Their Work

For many employees, there is nothing better than being handed more freedom and control in the workplace. They want to feel like they are free to make their own decisions and go their own way. So, you should definitely think about loosening your grip on the direction of the work done by employees. They are the ones that put in the hard work for the business every day, so they are the ones best placed to decide how work should be approached and completed. Their confidence will grow massively when they see that you trust them with this level of freedom and control.

The Customer’s Always Right

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If there is just one thing you should know before starting your own business, it is the importance of having incredible customer service. In fact, good customer service is the probably the single most important factor for any business.

That may seem like a tall statement to deliver given all of the other facets that make up a successful company, but going above and beyond and over-delivering in the realm of customer service is going to be immensely valuable to your business and make you invaluable to your customers.

You may not believe us still, which is why we are going to rephrase what we just said. Ahem. In business, there are only two ways – just two ways – to improve the revenue, profits and operations of a business and that is to decrease costs or increase sales. That is where customer service comes in. It is far easier to increase sales through good customer service than it is to decrease the cost of what you are selling, whether that is a product or a service.

But if you are content with just taking our word for it, then read on and we will explain exactly how important good customer service will be to your startup; more important than anything else.

The Trust Aspect

It doesn’t matter what sector you operate in, or plan to operate in, chances are it is saturated with an immense amount of competition. Some will be more established, some will be more professional, some will be cheaper and some will have cornered a certain market. As such, people very rarely stay loyal to a company if they have very good reason to. The rise in competition just has a way of getting under the skin of customers. That is why it is so important you put in extra effort into the service you offer and really focus on building their trust in you. The better your customer service the more trust you will manufacture, and the more trust you manufacture the less likely they will be to take a risk with one of your competitors. Customer loyalty is going to be the best revenue source you ever have, it is as simple as that. So gain their trust and keep it.

The Price Doesn’t Matter

Okay, so it matters to a certain extent, but not as much as you probably imagine. Think about. When you go online to buy something – anything- you probably look at an average of three different options, reading reviews of each of them before buying the one that offers the best value. Not the cheapest, but the best value. People know that cheap probably means not as good, and probably means they will end up spending more in the long run. As such, people are willing to spend more on a good experience. Human errors happen, so do mechanical and technological ones, but a company’s ability to act on this mistake will go a long way. The service they offer to ensure a customer is more than satisfied with everything will resonate in their review, whether that is on Amazon, on Trustpilot, on Glassdoor or even TripAdvisor. Good customer service goes a long way.

Word Of Mouth Is Good

Word of mouth is one of the most powerful assets your company can have, especially in the early stages of business when you don’t have much money to spend on marketing or advertising. Word of mouth is essentially a free means of marketing, while also harnessing the power of a reference-slash-testimonial. There is a huge difference between you saying your product or service is good and an independent person saying your product or service is good. Essentially, it can make or break your business. That is where customer service comes in. If a customer receives a wholly positive experience and service then they are going to talk about you, you are going to stick in their minds and they are going to recommend you to people or businesses. If they have had a positive experience they are much more likely to put their name on the line. It is simple psychology.

Be As Proactive As Possible

Customer service should not just be about letting your customers come to you, but offering a great service as soon as possible this could be achieved by implementing a live support chat function on your website, which could mean researching the services from Tierpoint and considering a new partnership to maximize the effectiveness of this option. It could mean connecting with your followers on social media to make them feel valued. This could even become a solid marketing tool if you are clever about it. In the past, we have seen some Twitter responses from big supermarkets go viral as they implement a level of humour into the Twitter responses. In short, the more proactive you are when it comes to customer service the more attractive you will be to your customers and the more likely you will attract new customers. Say hi to them in the comment box once in awhile, offer to resolve any issue in the public sphere so that others can see how amazing your process is and how friendly and easily you handle your complaints.

It Reduces The Chance Of Issue

Problems arise, things happen and accidents occur. It is a part of life and it is a part of running a business, and there is nothing you can do about it. However, what you can do is learn how to react to a problem in the most efficient, effective and professional manner possible and make sure the importance of this echoes through your business. Customers are never too happy when a service or product is below par, but they become actively infuriated when the customer services dealing with a complaint are below par too. So make sure you listen to all complaints and deal with them in a polite and timely manner. Handle any and all problems in a personal manner so that they don’t just feel like a number but feel like a valued customer. Knowing they can go to you to get something resolved will be incredibly valuable to how your business grows.

Are You An Accidental Criminal?

Obviously, you would instinctively answer no to that question but note, we did say accidentally. As a business owner, it’s entirely possible that you are not fully aware of legal regulations in your company. You might be vaguely aware that by copying content online you are breaching copyright laws. But do you know what content you can and can’t share? Do you understand how to source content you share online for marketing purposes correctly? This is just one example of how business legal issues might be more complex than you think.

There are plenty more. For instance, you may want to think about health and safety levels in your company. Are you sure you’re ticking off all the right boxes with the setup within your business? Again, it’s entirely possible that key information is being missed. So, how can you make sure you’re not accidentally breaking the law in your company?

Hire A Legal Advisor

Your first step should be to hire a legal advisor in your business. They will make sure that you are keeping on top of any regulations that could impact your business. You might think that a legal advisor is an expensive and unnecessary investment for your company. However, you would be wrong. First, you can get advice by using an outsourced HR team. Doing this, you should be able to keep costs low while still getting the support you need. Second, legal issues can seem as though they have been written in a completely different language. They are not intended to be understood by a lay person. Therefore, even if you are regularly reading up on the legal changes yourself, you might not fully understand how it could impact your company.

Understanding Little Details

There are so many ways you can accidentally break the law by getting little details wrong with the setup of your business. For instance, if you don’t have the right sanitary waste disposal in place for your company, you can be penalised by health and safety regulators. While this might seem like a victim-less crime, it can lead to the spread of illness, bacteria, and infection. This could be harmful to your employees and your clients, so it’s certainly something that is worth looking into.

Knowing Your Legal Accountability

You must be aware that when you run a business, you are accountable and responsible for everything that happens. So, if an employee is abusive to a client, this could be your responsibility if a legal avenue is pursued. Or, you might be held accountable if an employee is injured due to the setup of your office. While you won’t technically have broken the law someone within your business may have. If that’s the case, you will be expected to pay the price. This is just one of the reasons why it’s in your best interest to know where you stand legally.

There are defenses for employers who want to avoid accountability when an incident happens in their business. But it is important to understand that ignorance is not one of them. As such, it pays to have all the legal knowledge about running a company.

Jack Of All Trades?

Start-ups are unlike any other type of company for a number of reasons. But one of the reasons that stick out the most, for many is, as they are so small, employees need to be pretty flexible with their job description. That is, they have to be a bit of a ‘jack of all trades.’ As there is no one else in the company to pick up the slack. Even if the are employed as a specialist first and foremost. But is this a clever and economical way to work? Or could it be damaging your business? Read on to find out.

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One problem with the lack of specializing in some start-ups is that the quality of the job being done can suffer. That is why there is specialization in the first place. So someone that is trained and experienced to a high level can work solely on jobs that are relevant to said training and experience. Which of course enables that job to be done to the highest quality possible.

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However, a lack of specialization isn’t all bad. In fact, in small start-ups, it can be the most cost effective way of covering all of your bases. This is because the reality is that most start-ups only have a finite budget, to begin with. Which leaves employing a specialist for every single job role, out of reach.

Finding folks that don’t mind picking up some additional roles apart from their main job means you can get done everything that needs to be sorted. Without ruining your budget before you have even begun.

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However, you do need to consider the effect of this in the long term. Some flexible folks might not mind picking up a few extra bits here and there when you first start out. But over a longer period of time this can lead to frustration and stress for them.

Remember they have spent a lot of time and money to become fluent in the area that is their main specialism. So constantly doing work outside of this isn’t going to help them maintain much job satisfaction. That means you can risk losing good employees because you are asking them to spread themselves too thin. You can find out more about employee retention at http://www.resilium.com.au/advice-centre/staff-resources/.

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Another issue that you might want to be aware of when asking your employees to be a ‘jack of all trades’ is how effective their efforts will be. Especially in the areas in which they are not experts.

For example, you might ask your SEO specialist to branch out and have a go at your entire marketing strategy. But are they going to be able to do a good a job as a professional trained in this area? This is something to really think about before handing out extra jobs willy nilly. As it doesn’t matter how much money it is saving you, if it is not effective in bringing money in.

If you, do find yourself in this sort of situation, it can be more cost effective the long run to contract in professional companies. You can browse at flagshipdigital.com.au/lead-generation/ for more information in regard to doing this for marketing.

Using a professional for things like marking instead of handing it to someone who has a vague idea of what they are doing, can make all the difference. Particularly in start-ups, where the margins are slim to begin with.