Get Set, Go! – 5 Tips to Help Get Your Business Off to a Great Start

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Entrepreneurship is fast-becoming a popular career option for plenty of good reasons. It enables you to flex your creative muscles, be your own boss and, in many cases, work from home. However, for all the benefits of becoming an entrepreneur, there are equally as many hardships you must endure. To avoid common pitfalls and get your business off to a great start, consider these five tips:

1. Be Smart with Money

It’s a given, starting your own business can cost a lot of money. In the early stages, it can be tempting to access capital by accruing debt in the belief that you’ll soon be generating sufficient revenue to repay it. However, in most cases achieving financial stability takes longer than people think. Rather than saddling yourself with mountains of unmanageable debt, shop around for small loans online from responsible providers for selected necessary expenses and exercise restraint for discretionary items.

2. Advertise

On your first day as a business owner, you might have had grand visions of fast growth. The reality is often entirely different. To give your business the best possible start and build your client base, you have to advertise – regardless of your industry. However, advertising costs money, so choosing the most cost-effective form of advertising is crucial.

Social media advertising is the first choice for many small businesses, but there are also other channels available as well. Find out who your target market is and choose the best way to reach them. The most popular option may not always be the best for you.

3. Know Your Market

If you’ve started a new business, it’s crucial to conduct exhaustive research to carefully identify and define your client base. The key to getting your business off the ground is knowing who you are targeting with that product or service and how to best reach them with the right messaging that resonates with that cohort. Once you’ve done this work, it’s critical to get feedback from them to help you continually improve your product or service offering.

4. Virtually Working

If you work from home, it can often be tricky to establish a perception as a stable, reliable business. While working from home keeps your overheads low, it doesn’t instill much faith in your potential clients. For this reason, it makes sense to pay a monthly fee for a mailing address and call forwarding service through a virtual office. Your mail and calls will be directed to a prominent business hub, giving you the professional appearance at a mere fraction of the cost.

5. Be Social

In the early days of your new business, it can be easy to forget that networking and socializing are likely to be a critical part of your success. After all, with so many administrative tasks taking up your time, the last thing you feel you have time for is networking. However, to get a new base of customers, getting out and about and introducing yourself can do your business and profile the world of good.

Attend trade shows, conferences, and align yourself with influential figures. Given that 95 percent of employees surveyed say that face-to-face meetings are essential for building and maintaining a relationship, there’s every reason to head outdoors with a pile of business cards.

Your business isn’t going to build itself. It needs your loyalty, dedication, passion, and willingness to go the extra mile. Implement these five tips to get your business off to a great start and reap the ongoing rewards of a growing client base and business success.

Combating Negative Thoughts While Starting Up

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If you are in the middle of getting your business off the ground and up into the clouds, you have perhaps have had some negative thoughts once in a while. It doesn’t matter if you are launching the next trendy cupcake business or a business IT consulting company – sometimes our thoughts are the ones we have to combat.

I’m struggling with the work-life balance.

Unfortunately, when you are one-person company things do get a little lopsided. It does get better eventually, but in the early days, weeks or maybe even months it all lands on your shoulders. However, a lot of entrepreneur’s rush to earn big bucks. Thus, often causing more work than is needed. Another point is, you’re unlikely to be able to manage your time efficiently yet. The best advice would be, go and do some research on time management and methods that you can put into practice and nail your balance.

Taking it all as a personal bullet.

When you have put so much time, and effort into something, and a client says you aren’t quite right for them, or a friend mentions something they’d change about your design – it isn’t meant as a personal slight. A potential client has to go with what fits their vision and just because you don’t at the moment, doesn’t mean that you won’t be perfect in the future or that you won’t be ideal for someone else.

Friends – often well-meaning – don’t always understand how much time and effort has gone into something, and how you felt after a comment wasn’t their intention.

I am doing so much, and no one knows.

Unfortunately, no one knows how much work the founder of a company is putting in unless they are right there with them. You have to do all of the jobs yourself until you can afford to hire people to help or you manage to get a healthy work-life balance. A common theme is that if you are working from home, people make the assumption you are in your bed till midday and do a little bit of work mid-afternoon – the reality is a lot less sleep than many people think. If you are feeling like this, there is not much you can do, and you don’t need to prove how much you are working to anyone. When you’re done building, it will all be apparent.

I wish I wasn’t the boss, and I had a boss.

When you are the one making all the decisions, it can be a short road to utter decision-making fatigue. You might wish you had someone to ask – what the hell am I doing? In the end, the reason you chose to start your own company is that you wanted to be your boss, and that comes with all the responsibilities.

It is natural to have negative thoughts when some things get tough; the trick is to remember – why you started this in the first place? To build something for yourself, by yourself.

Passion To Paycheck: Using Your Interests To Launch A Successful Startup

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Have you ever thought about using your passions, interests and skills to launch your own business? You may be perfectly happy working for other people, but sometimes, it’s worth taking a risk. Being your own boss can present amazing opportunities, and it could give you more flexibility and enable you to increase your earnings at the same time as doing something you love. If you’re considering taking the plunge and setting up a startup, you’ve come to the right place.

Making a business plan

Even if you have incredible talents, amazing skills and years of experience, it’s not always easy to turn passions into a steady stream of paychecks. Before you invest time, money and effort, you need to make sure that you can create a viable business plan. How are you going to make money out of your interests and expertise? If you’re a doctor, a dentist or a physical therapist, you could set up your own clinic. If you’re a brilliant amateur chef, you could establish a catering business. If you’re a hairdresser, you could move from a salon and establish a mobile service. There are all kinds of jobs out there that offer options to go it alone, but you have to make sure that you understand how you’re going to use your skills to generate an income. If you want to set up a clinic, for example, how are you going to fund the venture, where are you going to buy or rent premises and how are you going to attract clients? You need to be able to answer all these questions before you get started.

Catering for your customers

As a business owner, it doesn’t matter what kinds of services or products you provide. You have to ensure that there is a market out there. Do your homework, find out what types of businesses are already operating within the marketplace and get to know the people you want to target. Which demographic are you aiming for? How do they shop or find out about local services? How much would they be willing to spend on the kinds of services or products you’re offering? What are your competitors currently offering and how successful are they? Obtain as much information as you can, and use it to tailor your business plan and come up with a model that has the best chance of success.

Laying the foundations

If you’re preparing to open a brand new medical practice, there’s a lot of work to do. If you’ve found the perfect premises, focus your attention on choosing services, stocking up on equipment like medical carts, beds and nursing supplies, and negotiating the best deals. If you buy in bulk and you use the same supplier time and time again, you should find that prices decrease. You’ll also need to think about your team. Start the recruitment process and look out for people who have the skills and experience, as well as those that fit with the ethos of the business. Decide upon a name and work on branding your new venture.

Marketing

Once you’ve got a brand and you know what you’re offering, turn your attention to marketing your company and getting customers through the door. If you don’t have marketing experts on your in-house team, this is an area you could consider outsourcing.

Do you have a passion you’re keen to use as a basis for a new business? Take these tips on board, and hopefully, you’ll be enjoying startup success in no time.

Examples Of Middleman Concepts That Could Make You Rich

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Ask anyone in the business world about the best ways to make money, and they’ll tell you to become a middleman (or middlewoman.) On this page, there are some examples for you to consider that show how it’s possible to earn a fortune without working too hard. Maybe you could come up with something similar during the next few months?

The freelancer concept

There are hundreds of thousands of freelancers in the world at the moment who focus their efforts on everything from writing to web design. Launching a website that links business owners with those freelancers is an excellent move. You will earn a small commission for every piece of work they complete.

The air taxi concept

The infographic at the bottom of this page relates to the new concept of air taxis. That is a fantastic business idea because you would earn a significant commission per sale as the prices are significantly high.

The dropshipping concept

Lots of entrepreneurs make money from the dropshipping concept. They launch websites that advertise products for sale and then strike a deal with the manufacturer. The business owner never has to touch the products as the producer sends them straight to customers.

There are hundreds of other concepts you might like to consider. The ones mentioned on this page are just here to provide some inspiration. You now need to identify additional opportunities that could help you to become rich in a matter of months without breaking a sweat. Onwards and upwards folks!


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Profiting from Your Passion

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Many people hate their jobs. They get up each morning and dread going to work. Their days are filled with the same boring tasks, surrounded by people they’ve got absolutely no interest in, or worse, people they don’t get on with and make their working day difficult. They spend the whole day looking forward to leaving, and then their whole evening worried about going back. This is an all too familiar situation that many of us find ourselves in at some time in our lives.

Then, there are other people. Those that love going to work. That tell people what they do filled with pride and passion. These people get excited about doing their jobs, and go home happy, to enjoy a fulfilling, unworried home life.

The first set of people long to be in that second group. But, they can’t see how. They’d love to make money doing something that they feel passionately about. But, they are trapped. They need to work to earn money, so can’t quit. They find that depression about their jobs is affecting their home life and their relationships. They are horribly unhappy, jealous of those that enjoy their work but with no idea of how they could do the same.

If you fall into that first group of people, you need to learn how you too can profit from your passion.

Figure Out What Your Passion is

Sometimes it can be tough just figuring out what your passion is. We all have stuff we love doing or enjoy occasionally, but that’s not the same as being genuinely passionate about something. For this, you may need to go further back. Think about your hobbies and interests, but also things you’ve liked over the years and even the subjects you enjoyed at school. You don’t necessarily have to have been amazingly talented. For this part, just find your passion.

Write them down in a list. Everything you’ve ever loved doing. Then, try to imagine them as a career. Some things you can love doing, but still, hate the idea of having to do every day until you retire. You’re looking for that one thing you’d give everything else up for. That you’d be willing to put all of your time, effort and maybe even money into. That’s your passion.

Become an Expert

Now you’ve figured out what you want to do; you need to become an expert in the field.  Learn as much as you can. Look online, where you’ll find some great resources and advice. For example, if you decide you want to go into brewing, you could learn a lot about modern systems from drink-it.com/brewery. Visit the library, and spend some time with other businesses in the industry. Learn everything that you can.

Find a Way to Turn it into a Business

Sometimes, this is easy. If you want to be a writer, you write. If you’ve got a product you want to sell, you start a store. Other times, it won’t be quite so simple. Say you feel passionate about writing and love doing it. But, you know you’re not good enough to earn big money. Then, you need to explore other options. Would your writing style suit journalism or web content instead of fiction? Could you be good at technical writing or even teaching? There are always more options.

Make a Plan

When you know what you want to do in detail, it’s time to figure out how. If you plan to get a job, you need to tidy up your CV to include relevant key skills and start applying for work. If you are starting out on your own, you need to sit down and carefully draw up a detailed business plan.

Branding and Design

If you are starting your own business, branding can be the key to your success. Creating an instantly recognisable brand gets you both noticed and taken seriously. Spend some time trying out some designs and getting advice and feedback before you settle.

Start Networking

Whether you are starting a business or trying to find work within a specific industry, the internet can be a huge help. Start building a digital presence by following and engaging with the right people on social media. Whether these turn into clients or essential connections, they could be beneficial in the future.

Just Do It

One reason many people never fully follow their passion is that they never want to take the risk. The truth is, you’ll never be completely ready to make big changes. But, you’ll never live your dream if you don’t. Stop making excuses and just do it!

Making money from your passion is something many of us dream of. Don’t just dream, get out there and make it happen today!

The Pros and Cons Of ‘Doing Something Different’ In Business

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Business is all about innovation; finding a new idea; doing something unique and different with what you can offer to the public. Over and over again, the importance of the ability to do something different with your business is emphasized.

However, “doing something different” can actually be more of a gamble than it sounds. There may even be times, and certain industries, where doing something different is an outright bad thing; your startup could be doomed to failure before you even really begin.

Confused? Us too, so that’s why it’s worth drilling down into the realities of “doing something different” and examining the pros and cons…

PRO: You’re Offering Something New

The most obvious pro to the idea of novel innovation is that you are going to be able to offer something truly unique to your customers. Many businesses have been able to turn over billions because they offered something truly different.

Take Apple, for example. They did something different with the first ever iPhone. They took a basic idea — that we all carry a phone with us — and transformed it, asking: “why can that phone not function like a small computer?”. They added a great camera, working internet, and functionality that surpassed basic laptops– and changed the way we interact with the internet forever.

If you have something truly innovative to offer — be it your methods of approaching a service, or a new product you want to manufacture — then you have the potential to capitalize on being the first, the innovator, the great creator. The scope in this area is huge; that’s why you will so often see business guides insisting you should “do something different”– because it’s lucrative, because it works, because it’s the very essence of business ingenuity.

CON: What If You’re Offering Something “Different” That No One Wants?

Many products and services are designed to solve problems, usually problems that the entrepreneur has experienced themselves.

For example, an entrepreneur who lives beneath a flight path. This irritated them, so they got to work on a way to combat it. They decided to create a device that automatically creates white noise when it detects an aircraft overhead.  They do everything right; they design a product, use the likes of WayKen Rapid to produce a prototype; and have tested that the concept is sound. To that person, that product makes a huge amount of sense; it’s inherently useful, and it fixes a problem they are experiencing.

However… the number of people who live beneath flight paths is relatively small. The product is never going to be able to take off (if you’ll excuse the pun) because the market just isn’t there.

There’s a chance that the product or service you are innovating will suffer from the same fate. Sure, it may be useful, and it may fix an issue you have experienced, but that doesn’t mean that it has a global appeal. There might be a reason that no one has offered a service in a way you are planning to, or manufactured the same product you are designing– because other people have seen there is absolutely no call for it.

PRO: Easier Marketing and Promotion

Let’s say you’re opening a digital marketing agency. There are plenty of digital marketing agencies in the world, which means that your marketing and promotion is going to be difficult. You’re going to have to find a way to distinguish yourself from the huge amount of competition, something that draws customers to your company above all others.

However, if you are offering something new and innovative that has never been done before, then your marketing will largely do itself. You can emphasize how you have hit upon a method that no other firm has managed; how it is going to benefit your customers; and why your business is special. This makes the entire campaign easier, and also guarantees you will be more easily noticed by your target customers.

CON: The Risk Of Being Copied

If you are looking to manufacture a new and exciting product, then you don’t need to worry too much about this issue. With products, you can file for a patent and ensure that no one can reproduce anything similar to your own design. This is expensive, but at least it protects you against copycats.

However, if you are just offering a new and interesting service, you could be vulnerable to copying. There is no way of patenting a service, unfortunately. You may find yourself investing a lot of time and energy into offering a service that is genuinely innovative, only to see your competitors do exactly the same a few years later. There have been a few famous examples of this exact scenario happening in recent years, such as Instagram outright copying Snapchat on numerous occasions.

Startup Ideas: How to Generate Them

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It’s pretty basic, but you can’t start a startup unless you have an idea to work with. Of course, having an idea in itself doesn’t necessarily mean you can set up business either – you need a good idea; an idea that people will like and pay money for – but nevertheless, the process of becoming a business owner starts with the humble idea.

That means you need to know how to generate ideas. We all think we know how to do that – I mean you literally just think about things, right? Well, yes and no. When you’re looking for a startup idea, you can’t just idly sit around and daydream (although that can occasionally work out pretty well) – you need to think in the right way; you need to think in ways that will generate ideas. Here are a few ways you can do that, which might just work:

Watch TED Talks

Visit Ted.com and start watching videos, any videos you like. Pretty soon you’ll be inspired by some of the most interesting and innovative minds on the planet, and with their inspiration and your own unique way of thinking, you might just hit upon that big idea that will change it all for you.

Look at Existing Products

Spend some time looking at the products you own. Think about what they do, what makes them good and particularly, what could make them better. Taking an existing product and adding a feature or making a change so that ti performs better and gives more value is one of the best ways to set up a successful startup. Good examples of this would include clik clik magnets, which make it possible to renovate ceilings without the need for ladders and other tools and astroturf which makes keeping a clean, tidy, well-mowed lawn practically effortless. There are hundreds more examples of companies who have taken an existing idea and improved it to make their fortune, too, so it is a great way to get ideas!

Keep a List of Your Pet Peeves

On a similar vein, it might be a good idea to keep a notebook in which you write down your pet peeves. Writing down the things you’re grateful for might be more in-vogue, but if you want to generate new startup ideas, nothing will help you faster than identifying the things that annoy you and then coming up with ways to solve them! Unconventional?Maybe. Effective? Definitely!

Read Reviews

Again, in a similar vein, reading the bad reviews that companies and products get can help you to come up with ideas to do what they’re doing, but better. They might not be totally original ideas, but if you implement them well, you will get business!

Think of the Future

By this, I mean think about how future generations will view us. How will they consider us backwards in the ways we think, act and work? Those are the areas where innovation is most likely needed and by thinking carefully about them, and how you would rather we’re viewed, the ideas will just flow.

Now, all you need is a little extra help from the startup muse, and you’re good to go!

How To Modernise Your Enterprise

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Standing at the helm of a successful business in the modern day is not something easily achievable. What it takes to remain modern and inline with current trends today will be entirely outdated tomorrow. There is no single answer to running a modern business, as the consumer market is constantly changing, as are the industries in which they are interested. There’s an exponential rate of growth in progress, and it’s partly due to the advancements of the digital, technological age.

If you want to remain up-to-date and modern your enterprise, you need to be consistently and constantly keeping up with the trends of your respective industry whilst also trying to stay ahead of the pack, rather than following at the back like a sheep. If you’ve no idea how to modern your enterprise and achieve a greater level of success, then here are some tips which just might help your business.

Look outward.

The first step to modernizing your company lies in looking not only at what your business is already doing, but what other businesses in your respective industry are doing. The outside world will tell you a great deal about what’s modern and what isn’t. As mentioned over at smallbiztrends.com, the customer is your guiding light towards what the target market expects from a modern day business. Rather than just assuming what the best practices are and getting to the punch far later than your competitors, you could be asking your customers what they want. If you ask what you can do better, you’ll be moving towards a modern, caring and up-to-date company.

Update your tech.

This is a big piece of advice. Outdated technology or software will be setting you far behind the competition in the game, as your operations will be far less efficient and far fewer opportunities will be available to you. You could look into sites such as www.hrispayrollsoftware.com if you want software to help make life easier for your human resources team, as an example. You could also look into outsourcing IT work to help relieve the strain on your small team in your upcoming enterprise. You might even look into using cloud software to backup important company data. Simply “using” technology isn’t enough, as every business in the twenty-first century has discovered computers, at the very least. You need to be honing in on technological solutions which can save your employees time, money and sanity.

New marketing strategies.

On the topic of technology, which is the driving force of all progress in the digital era, it might be time to modernize your marketing strategy using the beauty of the internet. As explained in an article here, the online world is the platform you need to be using to get your voice out to the greatest number of potential customers in your target market. Perhaps you’re already placing adverts on websites, but this may not be the best route to finding your demographic. Instead, you should be letting them come to you using browsing engines such as Google and Bing. Optimizing your website to rank more highly in search results, using SEO, is a great way to not only put yourself in a customer’s line of view, but impress them with a responsive site design or other sharp, professional content.

Startup Selection: Reasons Why You Should Choose A Restaurant Business

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Wanting to start a new business is a dream shared by millions. For the vast majority, though, it will remain little more than a fantasy. In most cases, those aspirations fall at the first hurdle: finding a great idea.

 The restaurant game is more popular than ever, but it’s never too late to enjoy your piece of the pie. Here are five reasons why it makes great sense for you.

 Something You Love

 Let’s face it; we all enjoy a positive relationship with food. So what could be better than working in the industry 365 days of the year?   

 Moreover, it’s an opportunity to find a niche by focusing on a specific type of food. In many cases, it even opens the door to celebrating family recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation. When added to the stability of the industry in general, it’s a fantastic starting point to encourage a career in this field.

 It’s A Real Business

 The digital world has quickly taken over, but not everyone wants to work in the virtual arena. By establishing a local business, you not only get to work in the local area. Perhaps more importantly, you get a chance to embrace creativity.

 This sense of artistic license doesn’t end with the food either. As experts at Consolidated Foodservice highlight, the branding factors can play a telling role. Quite frankly, those factors are more rewarding here than they’ll ever be online.

 A Chance To Improve Lives

 Very few businesses can actively help customers physically improve their lives. A restaurant is one of the few models that can. After all, healthy eating is one of the most crucial aspects of all human life.

Many restaurants have capitalized on society’s need for healthy eating. If it’s not helping them achieve a better weight, you could look at specializing in gluten-free menus and similar ideas. It might seem a small gesture, but giving sufferers a chance to do something ‘normal’ by heading to a restaurant will not go unnoticed.

Build A Genuine Rapport With Customers

Building upon point two, working in the real world also allows you to enjoy direct communication with customers. Unfortunately, this is virtually impossible in the digital world. If you are a people person, working in the restaurant field can allow you the best shot at championing customer success.

Fine dining is all about the experience. So connecting with customers by sharing stories and knowledge can be another great way to build a better ambiance. If it helps gain loyalty, your hopes of sustainability will gain a serious boost. You’ll be smiling as much as the customers – what more could you want?

Easy Route To Expansion

At the start of your journey, you’ll be thinking about immediate goals. However, this article at Chron shows that restaurant models are one of the easiest to franchise. In turn, this means there is a clear road to future growth and success.

If that doesn’t inspire you to want a restaurant business, I don’t know what will.

How To Launch Your Product With A Bang

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Your business is only as good as its flagship product. Where would Apple be without the iPhone? 66% of the company’s entire revenue comes from this one product. Most big corporations work in a similar way. Another thing you’ll learn from Apple is their fantastic ability to launch a product.

Launching a product determines how successful it will become in the long run. The bigger your explosion on the launch day, the further you reach. You’re looking for the biggest possible explosion of media attention and consumer interest. Followed by a long tail sales spree as more and more people hear about your product. Whether you’re a tech company or an e-commerce seller, here’s how you launch with a bang.

Make sure the product is perfect

Your product launch will only succeed if you have a killer product. You need something that gets people excited. Something the media wants to talk about. Start by honing the product to perfection. Get detailed user feedback, make a new prototype, do more market research. Don’t leave any stone unturned before you launch. You can’t go back afterwards! Another trick is to create a compelling story about your product. Something the press and media can use to write about.

Get opinion leaders on board early

There are certain people, groups, or publications in every industry that are considered ‘opinion leaders’. They are blogs, media types, and social media personalities. Send your product to the most influential YouTubers, Instagrammers, and buzz-blogs. If you can get them talking about it, the rest of the industry will follow. Send a few free samples to key individuals, along with a passionate letter.

PR company

Launching a product without a PR company on board is tantamount to failure. A PR company are experienced professionals who know how to secure media coverage. They have relationships with journalists. They know the right people to approach. A good PR company will get your product in all the right magazines, blogs, and newspaper supplements. Without them, you won’t generate the kind of buzz you need.

Launch event

Remember we talked about Apple and their product launches? Well, the one thing they do better than anyone else is a launch event. They build up the buzz and excitement for months before hosting an enormous launch event. Take their lead, and invite all the most influential people to one big event. If you’ve never held a launch before, team up with an events company like Envisage Promotions. Make it a night to remember, and use the opportunity to network with the industry professionals.

Take pre-orders

The unfortunate thing about buzz and hype is that it dies as fast as it appears! If you’ve created some excitement around your product, capitalise on it immediately. Start running pre-orders so that interested parties can buy your new product. It gives the product a feeling of exclusivity, and it will encourage a flood of quick sales!

Learn from the best. Learn from Apple, who always launch a product in a flurry of excitement, whispers, and rumours. Make the biggest possible splash, and reap the rewards for months to come.

How To Convince Angel Investors To Back Your Startup

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If you run a startup company, chances are you’ve thought about chasing investment. After all, it’s the rich investors that bankroll Silicon Valley. All the new companies and promising startups are funded by the deep pockets of angel investors. If you’ve got your startup off the ground, and you need capital to take it to the next level, investment could help.

Before we get stuck into the main part of the article, ensure your business is ready to pitch to investors. Pitch too soon, and you might ruin your chance with the top investors. Make sure everything is in place first. Here’s how to convince them to part with their cash.

Show them the money

Most investors are only interested in the money. The want to see real and tangible returns on their investment. Make no mistake, your company will be one part of their bursting portfolio, and they expect returns. So, show them exactly how your business will generate revenue for them. And by ‘exactly’, we mean exactly. They want to know how your business is monetized, and when they can expect their first returns.

Tell them how you will use their investment

Angel investors got to where they are by being very cautious with their money. They certainly don’t throw it around. Investors like to know how you will spend their money, to the dollar. If you plan to use their investment for marketing, explain your marketing strategy. How will you divide up the money, and how will that benefit the company?

Business plan

Any potential investor will want to take your business plan home. They’ll study it, and make their decision. Spend plenty of time perfecting your business plan, and honing it. Outline your mission statement and ten year goals. Dig into your market research, and identify your core target user. Investors want to see that you have understood your company from the ground up.

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Exit strategy

This is a controversial one for many entrepreneurs, but it’s a vital consideration. Most investors want to know your exit strategy. Many of them will invest in the hope that you sell the company for a huge profit in five-ten years. We know your business is your baby, but be open about a potential exit, and you’re more likely to get investors on board.

Elevator pitch and presentations

If you want to convince angels to invest, you’ll have to nail the elevator pitch. This is a quick (two minutes or less) intro to your business. This is what gets you in the door with investors. Once you’ve got a longer meeting, it’s your chance to sell yourself. We suggest working with a PowerPoint design agency to get your presentation just right. The stakes are too high to rely on your dodgy PowerPoint skills!

Think medium-term

Again, this might go against your entrepreneurial instinct, but think medium-term. If you go into a meeting, don’t explain your plan for world-domination, and ask for $10 million. You’ll go home empty handed. Explain that you need $50,000 to expand your manufacturing or upgrade your office space, and you’ll have more luck. Investors are looking to build companies step-by-step.

Startups: Here’s How To Give Your Website A Boost In Search Engines

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It’s always an exciting time when you launch a new business. You can access a wealth of opportunities and get your brand recognized everywhere! A vital part of any startup’s marketing strategy is the Internet.

Websites are super simple to create nowadays; even a novice can knock something out very quickly! The only downside is that it can take some months before Google, Bing and other search engines start paying attention to your site. Of course, when you start a business, time is precious. You can’t afford not to do anything for a year before you start seeing people on your website!

If you want to speed up proceedings, there is plenty you can do. Here are a few suggestions to help give your website a boost in search engines:

Buy an established domain name

If you’re still thinking of suggestions for your brand name, there’s one thing you can do. Base it around the name of an established domain name for sale!

Lots of startups use existing brand names that are available for sale. The same applies with domain names too. But, how can buying an established domain name help your cause? One of the things Google and other search engines do is rank a site based on domain age.

The older the website domain, the more trustworthy it becomes. Aim for domains that are at least a year old. And it goes without saying to avoid anything spammy!

Install Google Analytics on your site

Once your website is up and running, you need to track who visits it and where they come from. The best way of doing that is by using the free yet powerful Google Analytics.

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All you do is insert some small tracking code into your Web pages, and it does the rest. It doesn’t interfere with your visitor’s experience on your site, nor does it slow your site down.

The idea is to identify visitor trends with Google Analytics. Stuck by the myriad of options? A search engine optimisation professional can help you. They can also check if any SEO issues are stopping your site from getting ranked by search engines.

Optimize your content

It’s likely you will have some direct competitors. One thing you can do is learn more about the types of visitors that go to their sites. Of course, you should only target established, popular competitors. Not startups like yourself!

There are various keyword research tools that you can use online. All you need to do is enter the URL of their website into them. The research tool will provide you with a list of relevant keywords and phrases.

You can then select the best of those keywords and build your site content around them. Just make sure you create unique content on your pages. Copying and pasting content is a no-no! Check your website text with Copyscape to make sure it has no duplicates on the Web.

Connect with industry influencers

Last, but not least, get social with leading figureheads in your industry. If you create an article their website readers might find useful, email them! You can then get vital website links to your site from theirs.

Thanks for reading. I hope this guide will help you!

Follow These 7 Steps To Avoid Startup Failure

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One of the biggest concerns that a startup business owner faces is the prospect of their firm failing. Although many startups go on to grow and become prosperous, quite a few fail within the first 12 months. There can be many reasons why that happens, and each case is different.

If you’re starting a new business soon, what can you do to avoid startup failure? The good news is there are plenty of actionable steps you can take. Here are seven examples to help you on the right path:

  1. Make sure you define a clear vision or purpose

It might shock you to know that some startups have no idea what they are aiming for! Making money might seem like an obvious goal, but what do you do to achieve it?

Your answer might be to revolutionize your industry. Perhaps you want to offer something fresh and new to the market. Or you may wish to provide a different way of reaching a particular achievement. It’s important that you consider what your brand’s vision or purpose is BEFORE you start!

  1. Stick to the plan

All startups should have a business plan. It’s a document that provides a “roadmap” of where they see themselves in the future. Don’t get tempted to deviate from it. You’ll have no way of measuring whether your ideas are a success or not.

  1. Ensure your products and services are attractive

You need to walk in the shoes of your target customers, in a metaphorical sense. Would you buy your products and services? If not, why not?

The things you sell must be attractive to your audience. Otherwise, how do you expect to sell anything?

  1. Come up with a killer online marketing strategy

The Internet plays a huge part in generating revenue for most businesses these days. It’s crucial that your online presence offers real results.

Many business owners don’t know how effective their online branding strategies are these days. It could be worth investing in conversion optimisation services to boost your online revenue.

  1. Make sure there’s a market for your wares

The biggest mistake any startup can make is selling something that nobody wants to buy! Before you even formalise your new business, there’s one thing you need to do first. I am, of course, talking about market research!

  1. Don’t forget to add value to what you sell

Let’s say that your business makes and sells toasters. Sure, you might have an impressive range of products on offer. But, what value do you add to the toasters you sell?

Examples of adding value could include selling complementary products like grills. You might even wish to offer an attractive product guarantee. That way, you can entice buyers from your competitors.

  1. Don’t forget about your customers

The people that buy your products and services are your customers. Without them, you won’t make any money. Yes, it’s important to focus on strategies to grow your business.

But, you should also think about your customers. Listen to their feedback on your service. What could you improve? And what is it they’d like to see you do in the future?

Good luck!

EP 29: Angel Investor Tatyana Gray Explains What Investors Are Looking For

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Angel investor Tatyana Gray explains shifts in the investment world, and shares different things that turn off investors to founders and ways to impress them.

Lightning Round Answers: