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Whether your startup company is in its early days or has been running for a while, it is important to stay organized to maximize efficiency, for yourself and your staff. From organizing your workspace, managing your team, and ensuring time is well spent, there are ways you can make your business more productive while reducing your stress as you try and hold everything together.

Consider the following ways to help manage your startup and ensure its efficiency.

Organize your workspace

There is an old saying, a tidy house is a tidy mind, which makes perfect sense in the workplace. To be able to focus and perform your duties efficiently, you need to get rid of anything you don’t need and have at hand those things you do. For example, take a look at your desk space. Remove any scraps of paper, used coffee cups and stale sandwiches from your desk to make it look clean and ready for use.

There is another famous saying, a place for everything and everything in its place. Whatever loose items you have lying around, from pens to paper clips, have separate pots to put them in.

Go through your filing cabinets and get rid of any out of date or useless paperwork. If something is important, scan it and save to your computer. If something isn’t important, shred it! If you do need paperwork at hand, then have a desk tray or a labeled drawer for it. In these environmentally conscious times, we all need to do our bit, so if you can work electronically, the trees, if they could talk, would surely thank you for it.

Chances are your computer screen may need cleaning up too. Gone are the days when you need to save every file to your hard drive. Cloud services such as Google Drive and Dropbox means you can easily upload and save your work without the need to have multitudes of folders littered across your computer screen.

Another area to tidy up is your email inbox. Delete anything that is irrelevant and partition valuable emails into separate folders, such as client accounts or project ideas.

It is good practice at the end of every working day, no matter how tired you may be, to have a tidy up of everything mentioned above. Returning the next day to a clean working environment will do wonders for your mental state.

Team Management

No longer do you need to be in the same building as your team as it is possible for each of you to work at home or on the go. This can cut down on office expenses and room hiring bills, and may even add to the productivity of your workforce if they can work in comfort and with their personal equipment.

With the use of cloud services, it is possible to collaborate on documents you or your team members have uploaded. Whether working on a computer, tablet or smartphone, there is the opportunity to share and edit pieces of work. You can also communicate directly on the cloud by making notes on the document, cutting down the need to make expensive phone calls.

Your team needs to feel included in some of the company decisions. You may be the boss, but that doesn’t mean you know everything. Whether you meet face to face with your team or use a video conferencing service on something like Skype, make time to share ideas across the team. By brainstorming project ideas and listening to their ideas, your staff will truly feel part of the business you are developing.

It is important to utilize your team effectively, so get to know them and understand their strengths and weaknesses. It is no good asking somebody to design a web page when they are more skilled at writing content. However, if you need them to complete work out of their comfort zone then teach them new skills or organize training to aid their development.

Another effective way to manage a team is to hold meetings, daily if not weekly. This way you can delegate tasks to each and ensure everybody has work to do. Free online software, such as Trello, will enable you to allocate a daily schedule for each member of the team and keep everybody up to date on what each other is up to.

A happy team is a productive one.

Sorting your finances

Unless you have a member of staff who is a whizzkid at money matters, you may have to sort out business accounts yourself. Whether it’s sorting staff wages, recording expenses or invoicing clients, it can be stressful and confusing if numbers are not your forte. By using a special smartphone app, the process can be simplified for you. With a couple of button presses, you can send billing reminders to clients, send professional looking invoices and calculate your expenses on the go.

Use your time wisely

Gone are the days when you need to scribble down appointment times or notes on pieces of paper and pin them to a noticeboard. Using calendar booking software, you can keep tabs on your schedule and that of your team on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Whether it’s keeping note of important appointments, booking a room, or allocating daily tasks, the information you need will be at your fingertips.

Effective time management is crucial, as some tasks will be more important and pressing than others. Make a list each day, with the most important things you need to do on top. Many of us have a habit of procrastinating on something because it appears stressful. By not doing it, however, you will likely become more stressed as it will always be there in the back of your mind. So confront it head on, whether it’s having a conversation with somebody you are struggling with or dealing with the accounts, get it done and reward yourself for it afterward.

In business, you are only as good as your reputation. In fact, if you are in the process of starting up your venture, having good feedback from customers can make or break you during such a delicate time. But what actually is customer satisfaction, and how can you harness this to ensure you have the happiest customers out there? Read on to find out more.

The goal of customer satisfaction

So what actually is customer satisfaction and what is the point of it? Well, the concept behind it is that as well as proving the products that you client requires, you also make the way that they deal with you run as smooth as possible.

Why is this necessary? Well, you may well have the best products on offer in the marketplace, but time is money, and if it takes too long to get the item they need, where they need it, your customer may decide that it’s not worth the trade off.

The same goes if they have to make an extra special effort to purchase the product or receive their delivery properly. Basically, you want to make the process on the customer’s side as easy as possible and provide a way of resolving this quickly if something does go wrong.

This is important because no matter how good your company is, in every department mistake do happen, so it would be naive to assume that they won’t. That means you have to have a system in place to deal with them quickly and efficiently when they do.

User-friendly website and systems

One of the most important aspects of customer satisfaction, especially in a start-up firm is using technology to enable them to have the easiest experience possible when dealing with you.

This may be in the form of a customized business phone system, that has clear options directing a user with a particular issue to the correct person the first time. Why risk frustrating already annoyed customers by passing them from pillar to post to get an issue resolved that is your mistake as the provider, in the first place?

Of course, along with an effective phone system, you will also need internal organization and communication that supports this. So everyone knows exactly who deals with what issues so they can direct the calls to the right person the first time.

Remember if someone is calling about an issue that they have they are probably already quite fired up, and annoyed, and you do not want to compound the situation by further incompetence in handling their call.

Another aspect to consider could be to do with the usability of your website. As many startups use their website as the first port of call, this is particularly important to get right. Luckily, all you need to do is take off your startup CEO hat and put on your customer one for a bit.

Then go through the steps on your website that you would if you were an actual customer.

For example, try searching for the product you need by keyword, is it bringing the right things up? Then try navigating to the product pages. Are they clear? Do they contain the right information, is it easy to see what product you can buy in what sizes?

If not, change these things because the lack of usability can easily cause the customer to become frustrated and this can lose you the sale.

Remember, folks don’t want to have to wade through a mass of issues to get to what they want. They want it to be clear, accessible, and easy to order, so make sure that your site reflects this.

Keeping promises

Essentially a sale agreement is a promise that your company will supply certain items for a set price. Keeping this promise is an essential aspect of providing good customer satisfaction. No one wants to find out halfway through the deal that the prices are increasing. Or the wait time is longer than expected.

That means it’s not only pivotal to keep the promises you make to your customers, but also that you manage their expectations throughout the whole process. To ensure that you are constantly meeting or exceeding them.

To do this, you may need to be conservative in production or delivery times. Or on the discount that you can negotiate for a bulk purchase. But remember, instead of promising high and delivering low, the other way around is much more likely to achieve a good level of customer satisfaction.

Delivering products

The next aspect of customer satisfaction that you need to ensure is working is keeping to the deliveries that you have to agree to.

For example, if you say that you can deliver a product the next day, it’s not much good if it gets delayed. As then you have broken a promise to your customer.

It may not even be anything to do with your company. As it could be the delivery provider that you use being unable to fulfill the time specified. But that all reflects back on your company, and the customer will associate the failure with you.

That is why you must choose the shipping provider carefully, and base your choice not just on price, but also on their service record.

Allowing for complaint resolution

Obviously, it would be nice if everything went well all of the time. But that’s not real life. That means you will need to make provision for customers making complaints and a way to deal with them effectively.

In fact, a complaint situation can be a vital opportunity to turn a negative perception of your company round if its use in the right manner.

If you’re letting workplace hazards linger on in your building, then you’re running a huge amount of risk. You’re allowing your employees to work in a very unsafe environment – and if the problems can be seen and felt, then they’re going to feel very unhappy!

When there are building hazards at home, the need to deal with them is usually felt really quickly. But this isn’t always the case when it comes to modern workplaces such as offices. It doesn’t seem to be as urgent. But this is the wrong way to look at it. After all, an unsafe work environment could see you getting sued by employees without them being injured or made ill.

The problem, of course, is that there are obvious hazards and subtle hazards. If something gets spilled, for example, then that’s a clear hazard that can be dealt with pretty quickly. But modern workplaces often have a host of issues that don’t seem so severe or self-evident – not until something goes wrong.

Here are some of the common problem areas you should be paying attention to as an employer. If you’re an employee, there’s some advice for you towards the lower half of the article.

Moisture

Sorry – I know a lot of people hate that word, but it needs to be mentioned. Think about it: excess moisture is a common problem at home. So much of what you and your family do at home sends moisture into the air. Cleaning, cooking, washing, breathing… now imagine what’s happening to your air when you have dozens of employees in the same area. That moisture that gets created doesn’t just evaporate – it lingers within your building.

Let’s say it’s a cold day. The windows of your office are starting to fog up. You may think that’s just science doing its weird thing, but that condensation shouldn’t really be taking place. It’s a sign that there’s something wrong with your heating and ventilation. Don’t let moisture build up – it can create problems with damp and even mold.

Ventilation

Speaking of ventilation, it’s a must that your ventilation system is running at full capacity. Of course, this is more important for some workplaces than others. Let’s say you’re running a factory. Your average industrial process sends loads of toxins and other dangerous particles into the air. If your ventilation system doesn’t deal with it properly, then you’re putting your employees at risk.

This isn’t to say that you should only pay attention to your ventilation if you’re running a factory. After all, there are loads of toxins in the air of your average office, too. Cleaning products, dust, dirt, PC cleaner – this sort of stuff doesn’t exactly create a healthy environment. Remember that your employees need to stay in that office for hours every day and breathe in that air! Make sure your ventilation system is in top condition.

Electricity

When people imagine a modern business, they usually think of a place that consumes a lot of electricity. A factory, of course, needs to power all of its machines. Your average office probably has dozens of computers on at the same time. This should highlight the importance of making sure the electrical framework of your work building is fit for the task.

If you’ve ever had power outages or problems with inefficient voltage, then this can be the result of dodgy wiring in your building. But there’s also a chance that the electricity routing in your building simply hasn’t been done correctly. Overloaded plugs and loose wiring also create problems. This isn’t just an issues because of the increased risk of power outages. Where there are electrical hazards, there are also fire hazards. The most common cause of workplace fires is electrical faults, so consider getting your building checked out.

Roofing

When people think about workplace hazards and roofing, they tend to think of quite dramatic scenarios. They imagine a weak roof, attacked by wind and rain for so long, finally collapsing and injuring a bunch of the indoor employees. But the dangers of a broken roof are usually not as bombastic as that.

In many ways, problems with the roofing have a lot to do with electrical faults and fire hazards. After all, a broken roof usually means a leaky roof, and the introduction of water to the innards of your building is usually pretty dangerous due to all the electricity coursing through it. (This can also create the aforementioned problems with excess moisture and mold.) But your electrical framework doesn’t have to be faulty for a broken roof to risk electrical faults and fires. So the importance of getting your roof seen to by commercial roofing contractors if there’s a problem should be clear!

Temperature

Most people forget to consider the dangers of certain temperatures when it comes to the workplace. Of course, most people work in environments where this isn’t a particular concern. But even in an office, temperature problems are often underestimated. And this isn’t just because a temperature that’s too low or too high can affect productivity. These temperatures can also lead to illness and increased stress.

Workplaces that lean more towards the industrial are more obvious causes for concern here, especially with many machines and even rooms that are made to emit extremes of one temperature or the other. It’s worth doing more research into the safe and acceptable temperatures of a workplace. In general, if your employees are uncomfortable with the temperature – whether they’re working in a factory or an office – then you need to make some improvements to the building.

What can employees do?

Of course, a lot of what’s been mentioned here are things that only an employer or building manager can deal with. When an employee notices these sorts of problems, things become a bit more complex because they’re rarely in control. Remember: the bulk of these issues are violations of labor safety laws across the globe. If you report the issue to your employer or the business owner, then they’re legally obliged to do something about it as soon as possible. Ensure that you notify them via email, so that there’s a “paper trail” proving that you informed them.

If they’re not doing anything about it, then it’s time to take further measures. You can file a complaint to whatever authority oversees workplace safety in your country. In America, for example, that would be the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. Such complaints can generally be made in confidence.

Collecting evidence of the problem is a must if you want to escalate a complaint in such a way. If the problem is visible, then you should try to get photographs of it. You’ll also need to use the communications between you and your employer to prove that this is a problem about which your employer is aware, signifying that they’re doing nothing about it and, thus, putting their employees in danger.

A lot of employees are hesitant to take things this far simply because they’re afraid of antagonizing their bosses. But the health of you and your fellow employees is at risk. (Heck, the safety of your boss is at risk, too!) You are legally protected from any potential professional retaliation from a boss that doesn’t appreciate your telling OSHA or any other authority about the workplace safety violations, so don’t be afraid to take further action.

To the employers at whom most of this article was aimed: these last few paragraphs should help highlight just how vital it is that workplace hazards are resolved as soon as possible! Don’t be tempted to ignore them simply because of the cost in both time and money.

When you first start up your business, there is a certain amount of networking that needs to be done. It doesn’t matter how you go about it, just as long as you are doing it. Whether it’s writing blog articles on Medium and sharing them with other like-minded individuals, or talking to them in person at set events or meetings, it all counts towards what your startup will be thriving on – popularity.

Word of Mouth

There is nothing better for your business than good old fashioned word of mouth – but there is also nothing that can be more damning if you get on the wrong side of the people that you’re dealing with. Making sure that you have a great reputation starts with how you get yourself known to people, and you want to make sure that you’re doing this in the most positive way that you can. It means going above and beyond what people expect you to do to get rave reviews. Real time responses come from people experiencing emotions which are at either end of the spectrum, from anger to joy. You want to be able to hit the joy emotion every time, rather than getting the anger. Those who are fueled by anger are more likely to leave reviews either by online ratings or telling their friends. Bad news spreads quicker than good, so you’ll have to work harder to ensure that your customers are raving about you rather than ranting about you.

Internet Rankings

The higher that you can get yourself on search engine results, the better looking your business will be. Using an independent/freelance SEO consultant, such as Graeme Winchester for example, can be a great investment in terms of getting a good return for your startup. It is something else that you don’t have to think about and can pass the job on to those who know more about you and do so to your own benefit. There’s not much more that can be argued with that; it’s a simple solution to a growing problem of learning how to get yourself out there online. The internet is a big place and you definitely need to make your dent on it somewhere.

Roadshows

Depending on what your startup is, there are certain shows that will be available for you to attend to be able to network with those wanting to either invest in or buy what you’ve got to sell. Even if you are selling services rather than a physical product, this is something that you’ve got to be able to present to people in person to get them to believe in what you’re offering. If you don’t believe in what you’ve got to put out there, there is little chance that others will believe in what you have to got to give them. If you cannot be the face of your business, i.e. you are too shy or stumble on your words, consider hiring somebody who can be at the forefront with you hovering in the background for security and assurance.

So you launched a business a while ago, but despite your best efforts to make a go of it, you failed. For one reason or another, you just couldn’t make a success of your venture, and so, you decided to call it quits for a while.

Perhaps you had some setbacks? Maybe you ran out of funds? Whatever the reason for taking a break from your venture it doesn’t matter, what matters is that you’re ready to get back in the saddle and relaunch your business. The question is, of course, how should you go about doing that?

The last thing you want is to put more money into your business only for it to fail again. So you need to ensure that you know what you’re doing and can make a proper go of things this time. Otherwise, it’s just not worth it, is it?

Keen to get your venture up and running again? Here’s what you need to do to succeed:

Learn from your mistakes

The chances are that last time around you made some mistakes, mistakes that may have cost you your business. Whether you didn’t dedicate enough time to your brand, weren’t good with managing your finances, or struggled with marketing, you need to learn from your mistakes. Don’t make the same mistakes again, learn from last time around and approach your venture differently.

Ensure your website wows

If your old website was well designed, then you may want to make some tweaks to it and reuse it. Or, if you’ve decided to opt for a name change – a lot of businesses do this when relaunching – then you will need a new website, complete with a new domain name and hosting. Whether you’re sticking with your old site of having another one built by a specialist company like iPage, it’s crucial that your website wows. This means opting for a professional design, ensuring content is well written, it’s easy to use and navigate, and the site has something that encourages users to return again and again, such as a blog section.

Get in touch with your old customers

Hopefully, you still have the contact details of your old customers. If you do, it’s worthwhile getting in touch with them again to let them know that you are relaunching. The best way to do this is to send out an email that notifies them of this – not just a text email, one containing visuals and a link to your website. For this, using a service like Mailchimp is ideal as it allows you to create customized email layouts that are smart, professional, and most importantly, eye-catching.

Get your marketing spot on

The key to success when launching a brand is marketing. You want to ensure that the world and his wife knows that your business is being relaunched. One of the best budget-friendly ways to do this is via social media. As well as putting a plan in place for once you have relaunched, you want to build the hype around the launch itself, increasing your chances of success. Think a countdown to the big day, competitions, images – basically, anything that’s interesting and eye-catching. The more excitement you can build about your brand’s relaunch, the better.

There you have it, all the vital information you need to successfully relaunch your brand.

Diversity and inclusion are hot topics in the business world right now. As a business owner, there are plenty of advantages of embracing diversity that go way beyond the perception of inclusion as some sort of social experiment. We’re going to take you through some of the incredible impacts diversity can bring to your business, and hopefully, give you a few tips on how to make it work. Let’s take a closer look at the incredible advantages of creating a diverse workforce.

Breaking the language barrier

When you hire people from different cultures, you might also get new language skills and expertise in foreign markets or local minority groups. While a language translation company can help you create multilingual marketing materials, having someone in house to talk to customers directly can be incredibly beneficial. It can have an enormous impact on your ability to sell products in a new demographic, from appealing to people from other countries to attracting your local immigrant population.

Different skill sets

People with diverse backgrounds tend to have different skill sets. And that means that when it comes to problem solving and creativity, you will have a far larger set of ideas to work with than you would with a team full of people all brought up in the same culture and environment. All businesses need new ideas to survive and thrive, and if everyone looks, talks, and thinks the same, the reality is that different approaches to solving issues are unlikely to arrive. Look at every single innovative company out there at the moment, and you will see that all of them have a positive approach to diversity, and many put their success down to it.

Attracting and retaining employees

Having an inclusive working environment is important to attract candidates to your company. You want people to feel comfortable, become loyal, and know that they can be themselves while working for your organization. And when you open up opportunities to a diverse range of candidates, you are more likely to find the most suitable person for the job.

Better perspective

It can be hard to see the world through other people’s eyes if you have no experience of their situations. By embracing diversity in the workplace, however, your business has the opportunity to inform you and change your attitudes. Let’s say you are a retail store owner. While you might tick all the accessibility boxes, you might not have any idea of how someone with a disability might experience a visit to your store. If you were to hire an employee with a disability, they might be able to give you that first-hand experience, and give you the opportunity to change things around a little, and think about creating a better environment.

Creates a meritocracy

Finally, diverse workplaces enjoy an environment where everyone is rewarded for their work, regardless of gender, age, disability or nationality. This type of meritocracy is appealing to everyone, as it is a culture that recognizes performance based on results alone, and everyone starts with the same opportunities. The result is that every single person you hire knows that if they work hard, and give you their full value, they will reap the rewards in a high-performing culture.

There’s a trend right now, ironically on social media. It’s the idea of detaching yourself from the grid. People are slowly warming to the idea of leaving the internet and digital society behind, abandoning their social media accounts and instead living a simpler life. It comes from the idea that digital connections actually have an adverse effect on society as a whole. However, it is important to realize two things about this movement if you’re a business owner.

First, it’s not as widespread as people believe and as such will not dramatically alter the size of a customer base online. Second, it’s actually more important for business owners to not only stay on the digital grid but cement their position.

The role of the digital world in business grows every day, and we can look at an example of this on social media.

Updating Social Media

Social media isn’t just about staying up to date with the random updates of individuals. Instead, it’s become a key broadcasting tool for business owners. Clients and customers expect to be kept up to date on the changes with the company. One of the easiest ways to do this is to use social media effectively.

As such, business owners must make sure that they are constantly updating their social media with fresh content and new updates. To do that it’s best to hire a social media manager. They’ll keep your company in the spotlight and on top of the market. Here are a few other things you should do to make sure you don’t fall off the grid.

Keep Connection Speeds High

You must make sure that there are no delays between your business and clients who want to connect. If there are then this is going to affect their impression of your company. There is no excuse for businesses not being able to instantly connect with customers. Clients should never ring you up and find that the employee they are calling has no signal. That’s why you should look into using tech such as commercial signal boosters by Wilson Pro in your office. With equipment like this, you can make sure there are no dead spots in your office and employees always stay connected.

Similarly, you should never have to tell customers that they’re going to have to wait a little longer for the transfer of an important document. You can avoid that by using a cloud server in your business model. With a cloud server, everything will be accessible to clients and employees at all times.

Find New Ways To Connect

Lastly, you should be looking for new ways to connect and reach your target audience. One of the ways to do this is to keep track of the latest tech hitting the market. For instance, you might want to look into the possibility of using VR tech. With VR tech, you can develop an entirely new way to market to customers and bring your product to life. In a few years, VR is going to become more important as a lot more people will have this type of technology in their home. As business owners, it pays to get ahead of the curve here and start looking into ways to market with it right now.

Any startup in the hospitality, leisure and tourism industry knows the power of local knowledge. It is essential if you want to successfully sell an experience or accommodation in a particular town or city. It’s also essential that you have agents available globally who can relate to your overseas customers. This can mean that your simple vacation apartment business is already operating on a global scale.

So how can a small business manage to reach international customers as well as providing the local knowledge they’ll need? Your power is in the people you recruit. As your property portfolio grows, it will reach new destinations that you may not be familiar with. You need people with local knowledge that can advise you on the unique selling points you should focus your marketing on. They’ll guide you along the journey of reaching the customer in their favorite places and in their tone of voice.

Having reliable members of staff all over the globe can be challenging. Most, if not all of your employees are remote from you. You may never meet them face to face. You may have to outsource your global payroll to meet the challenges of local laws for each employee. Most challenging of all could be coping with the time zone differences. Live conversations could be difficult to coordinate in an emergency. How can you make sure your customers are looked after if you’re not there to manage your reps?

Customer surveys are really useful to gauge how they rated their experience and the service your rep provided. You can use them to feed back to your employees and refine the function they perform. Even your order system can help provide useful insights about what customers really want. A couple of extra questions on the order form can help you refine your marketing efforts to deliver the most effective messages.

You might ask which leisure activities they plan to enjoy while staying with you. Or you might add a question about the importance of historical attractions. When you know what your customers are really looking for, your local reps can ensure they find that straight away.

How can you better manage remote or distant workers? They may need as much contact and interaction with you as you desire from them. You want to be sure they’re putting in the time and effort to effectively provide for your customers. They also want to know you value their effort and that you’re willing to reward them going above and beyond in their duties. Schedule a time each day when you can check in and exchange customer details and events.

Once a week, schedule a video call so you can talk about successes and challenges. This is the next best thing to face-to-face meetings. You can see that they are well and enthusiastic about their work. They can see that you take the time to care about their performance and success.

Relying on others to provide such crucial information and services for your business is challenging enough. Managing that from the other side of the world can be even harder! How do you take care of your overseas workforce?

Have you ever considered investing as a way to make money? There’s so much more to invest in than stocks, shares, and precious metals. Investing in startups is actually one of the best ways to make money. Here’s 4 reasons you should invest in them!

Be A Part Of Something Great

When you decide to invest in startups, you can become a part of something great. Depending on how much you invest, you might actually begin to have a say in the company and the way they run things. Even if you don’t play a big part in how they do what they do, you still get to put your name to it.

Make A Good Return On Your Investment

Investing in startups allows you to make a good return on your investment. Of course, even investing in startups isn’t without risk. However, if you believe in the idea and the people behind it, you can feel pretty confident that you’re going to make more than the money you invested back. It can take time to do this of course, so make sure you’re patient.

Help A Business To Get Off The Ground

It can feel really good to help a startup business get off the ground. Most startups don’t have the capital that they need to get going, but you can help them to make their dreams a reality. You’re going to feel great about it too!

It’s Really Simple To Do

Investing in startups is probably easier than you think to do. The below infographic explains everything!

credit to The Fortunate Investor

Online business is a growing industry, but that doesn’t mean that it’s easy to make an online venture a success. If you’re considering taking your existing business online or you have plans to invest in an online startup, here are some tips to help you find a winning formula.

Spotting a gap in the market

If you’re eager to expand an existing business or you want to come up with a new product, you can take a massive step forward by identifying a gap in the market. Products that serve a purpose usually sell well, and if you can find a solution to a problem or fulfill a need, you’ll give yourself every chance of success. Research the market carefully before you invest in an idea or start thinking about mass manufacturing. What is already out there? How much are people paying? Who is buying products that are similar to what you want to produce or sell? If your idea has already hit the big time, there’s little point in trying to compete in a saturated market.

Get your website right

When you know what you want to do, it’s essential to get your website right. This is your online shop, your showroom or the office you take potential clients into to try and encourage them to choose you. It’s the same as operating in the real world. Your site needs to impress in the same way a shop window or a car or bathroom showroom would do. If you’re dealing in e-commerce, it pays to invest in technology that enables you to process orders, take payments, and keep an eye on your business on the go. If this sounds appealing, click here to find out more about your options. Whatever your business, your website doesn’t just have to look brilliant. It also has to be functional and reliable. If your site keeps crashing, it takes an age to load photographs, or it’s virtually impossible to make a purchase within minutes, you’re likely to lose out.

Marketing your business

Your website is up and running, and it looks fantastic. The next job is to drive traffic and let as many people as possible know about your new online business. One of the best ways to get people to visit your website is to use SEO or search engine optimization. This is a technique, which in very simple terms moves your website link up the results page when you conduct an online search. Take Google, for example. If you enter some keywords ad press return, you’ll get a host of results. Which link would you follow? The first one or one on page 7? You’re almost always more likely to go for listings at the top of the page. As an online entrepreneur, this is where you want your link to be. You can improve your SEO ranking by using content rich with adwords, backlinks, anchor texts and key search terms, and it also pays to use a customized domain name. Share optimized content, such as blog posts, on your website and your social media profiles.  

Are you ready to take on the world of online business? If so, bear these helpful tips in mind. Good luck!

When you read a blog, article or column that focuses on the best bits about being an entrepreneur, one of the things that always crops up is the fact you won’t have to do any more job interviews. But this isn’t strictly true because when you are looking to raise further funds – for whatever reason – you will need to look for investors. You’ll very quickly realize that this is your equivalent.

You’ll have to find the right one, say the right things, look the part, and you’ll have to tailor your pitch to suit each and every one of them because each and every one of them will be different.

That’s why it is so important to know how you can impress a potential investor. From the little things to the big factors; all of these variables will have a say in your growth potential. So, here’s how to start impressing.

Present Well, Present Clearly

Investors have been around for a while; they tend to be switched on, perceptive and impatient. That’s why you need to get straight to the point, which should be your promising margins. It is as simple as that. They are investing in you as a business because they want to make some extra money, and so your vision isn’t going to be enough on its own. So, show them the figures, but make sure you present them in a polite, professional and enthusiastic way too. Perception is reality, and so something as small as passion when you speak will help.

Your Team Is The Best. Period.

When an investor is looking at an entrepreneur, one who is selling them a promise of growth, they will want to see the team that they have pulled together; the team that is going to deliver this promise. They will want to see their talent first hand, their passion and belief, and their skill. They will want to see they are the best. Perception can go a long way here. Something as small as bringing on BCI Janitorial to help make your office space as clean and organized as possible will show that you are an organized unit, as will ensuring your team are correctly presented. Investors will be looking at other opportunities and so the smallest detail could make your dreams, or crush them.

Show The Problem And Solve It

The most successful companies ever made are the ones that managed to identify a problem and a clever way of solving it, whether it be a product or a service. The larger a number of people who then fall within this bell curve the better because, well, the opportunities as a business will be better. Sure, hitting a niche market is a great way of starting out, but it isn’t going to attract an investor when you’re looking to grow. Nonetheless, the clearer the problem and the clearer your solution, the better. And remember, business success is built on simplicity, so don’t over-complicate your solution. It could even be worth looking at it again to see whether there is a more direct route you can take. It will be bad news if a potential investor spots an easier way of doing things before you.

Achieving success in a startup company is difficult, especially in the early days when you need everything to align so you can pay your employees, get the website up and running, preparing the promotional materials and everything else that your business needs to thrive. Above all else, your employees need to be working to their strengths. Your employees are the backbone of your company, and you need them to be firing on all cylinders. If you don’t have engaged employees, mistakes are made, and you will pay the price. Finding the balance of developing them and keeping them engaged can be difficult, but here are a few suggestions.

Set Up Achievable Goals

To develop your employees at a reasonable pace is to set targets that are not too short in timescale, but not too long either. A lot of businesses give annual goals, but this doesn’t instigate any sense of urgency to complete the task, but instead, it is likelier to encourage a last minute rush to complete the task! By setting up a quarterly task to complete, the goals are easier to complete, and the results are easier to see. From the perspective of the employer, a quarterly goal is much more quantifiable, and you can see the progress easily.

Offer Individual Growth Opportunities

Everyone learns things differently, and for a lot of people, they would prefer to learn skills they can utilize in and out of the workplace. As the employer, you need to address what skills they would benefit from in the structure of the company. Sending everyone onto a skills course is not beneficial because it is not something that everyone would benefit from, which wastes company time, plus it is a cost you could do without! By addressing each staff member’s individual strengths and weaknesses, they can be guided towards a learning program that is much more tailored to their current ability but also to their long-term goals in the company. The University of Maryland offers an online mba program that can be completed in 21 months, and an online course is a useful way to help your staff develop. An online course doesn’t take them away from their work, and it can be done in their spare time.

Keep In Touch Regularly

A common approach to giving feedback is to do it once or twice a year. How can you expect anyone to improve if you only give them information on their progress once every 6 months? As well, the end-of-year or bi-annual performance review is likely to be something that each staff member would dread. It should be a useful session to address certain issues and discuss how best to approach them, it shouldn’t be an exercise in chastising the person! By keeping in touch on a regular basis, it gives staff members the opportunity to address smaller issues and build on them rather than trying to fix massive problems before the next annual review. Improving on smaller issues is much more attainable for everyone, and it is easier for you to manage.    

Do you know what separates business success and failure? A business’s owner. It is the work that a business owner puts into their venture which ultimately makes or breaks it. It is the calls they make on both the everyday and important aspects of their business that makes the business what it is. It is the ideas they have to take it forward, and the way they implement them, that does in fact take a business forward. And to stop a business going backward, its owner must be prepared to go further than the extra mile. They must be prepared to learn everything there is to learn about their business. If you own a business or are a prospective owner of a business then make sure to take heed of the advice below.

To run a successful business and dominate your industry you need to be knowledgeable. You need to know everything there is to know about your business and the industry it markets in. You have to know everything from the exact details of your business model all the way to the personal likes and dislikes of your customers. If you aren’t attuned to absolutely everything regarding to your business then you need to become so. One way to do so is to learn. And one way to learn is to take courses. Yes, going back to school may sound like a step backward. But if you do so, and you do so correctly, come your graduation you will be many steps ahead of your competition. And going back to the world of education in order to benefit your business doesn’t mean you have to take a Business Management degree. There are a whole host of different courses to take and degrees to earn out there. You just have to pick the one that will help you understand and run your business a bit better. For instance, you may take a degree in order to understand your customers a bit better. If the main percentage of your business’s customer base are of an older generation then why not take studies that will help you understand them a bit better? You could take a Gerontology degree and learn all about the behavioral and psychological habits of the elderly. In taking this kind of venture you will not only increase your chances of understanding your customers but you will show to them that you are willing to go the extra mile to make their custom special. Or you may go back to school in order to hone your skills with the hands on aspects of your business. You could take a degree in Project Management, for instance. A Master’s in Project Management online will leave you in good stead in your future as a business owner. Being professionally trained in this area will mean you become an effective decision maker. And every business needs an effective decision maker at its helm.

So, if you want be successful in the world of business make sure not to dismiss the idea of going back to school. In order to run a successful business you need to sharpen the best tool that is afforded to you: your brain. You need to make sure it is full of everything you need to know on a daily basis to make your business a success. And to fill it with these things, you need to be open to the idea of being taught.

Getting any startup off the ground is a serious undertaking, but tech startups are certainly within the right industry in this modern and digital age. Of course, your tech-based startup is going to face its fair share of competition. All the popularity and demand for technological solutions to the world’s problems means that thousands of other like-minded entrepreneurs had the same idea as you to pave their way into the technological sector with a strong and innovative business concept. If you’re wondering how on earth you can power up your tech startup to stand out from the crowd, here are some pieces of advice which might help guide you to success.

Understand the concepts.

Being an entrepreneur requires creative ideas and a strong grasp of business, but the boss of any company doesn’t always have the technical knowledge required to carry out every single operation within their company. You’ll likely be looking into either outsourcing work during your business’ early days or hiring developers to help if you have the money. Either way, you’ll want some form of team to help turn your business concept into a reality. Yet, as explained over at https://www.entrepreneur.com, that doesn’t mean you should have no technical knowledge of the finer details involving your industry at all.

You likely have some interest in technology if you wanted to create a startup in the first place, and perhaps you have some coding skills or understanding of computer hardware, depending on the specific area in which your company will be based. If not, you should be furthering your knowledge so that you can explain how you want your ideas and concepts to be developed into real systems to your developers. You need to understand the language so that you can efficiently communicate what you want to be done. As explained on https://www.theguardian.com, an idea is only as good as its realized form.

Be vigilant when faced with security threats.

Security threats are something which which every modern day business must deal, whether it’s a threat to the physical premises in which your company is based or the virtual aspect of your business accessible through the internet. Security threats are unavoidable, but their damaging effects are preventable. As a tech startup, this should certainly be a priority for you. You could even head over to http://online.maryville.edu/cyber-security/bachelors/ for qualifications in cyber security if you’ve always had a penchant for safety precautions when it comes to technology.

As the owner of a startup, there’s a lot that you’ll have to do yourself in the early days of your company. Your organization is going to be vulnerable on so many levels, and it’s vital that you protect your company from potential security threats to your data and the overall system, as such attacks could damage everything you’ve built before you’ve even properly built it. It’s important that you take extra precautions with digital security, considering that your tech company likely depends on its digital capabilities to run smoothly.

Mobiles are taking over.

As explained over at http://seriousstartups.com, mobiles certainly are taking over the world of technology. Whilst they’ve been popular since their inception, the new smartphone breed of mobiles has further pushed other technologies out of the limelight, as mobiles can do everything. Consumers spend their time on mobiles rather than laptops, and that’s why your company needs to focus on gearing itself towards the future. Google’s search engine favors websites which are responsive to mobile phones, so you know what your tech startup needs to do if it wants to remain modern and relevant.