Startup Tips

Cybersecurity: unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last few years, you know that it’s incredibly important for modern businesses. But the threats to cybersecurity are often very vague.

Sure, we know there are hackers and other cybercriminals out there such as fraudsters. But how do they actually access our business systems? I’m not going to get into the technical aspects of how they do it – this isn’t going to be a coding deconstruction lesson! What we’re going to be looking at here are the features of your business’s IT infrastructure that are most likely to be ‘access points’ for cybercriminals, unless you take the right precautions.

The following mistakes have been found time and time again to be at the root of the vast majority of security breaches in almost all types of businesses.

Obvious passwords

May as well start with the obvious one, right? It’s worrying how many people use their date of birth or the name of their company as their password. One thing that it’s worth remembering here is that someone entering a facility after having correctly guessed a password may not be that easy to prosecute. Entering a password isn’t hacking, after all! Make sure your employees know that all their passwords need to be incredibly hard to guess.

A lack of security awareness

Speaking of your employees, how well-versed do you think they are in the cybersecurity concerns of your business? A lot of business owners may find that their employees really don’t think that much about it at all. They usually just leave all of that to the IT department. The fact is that good security is something that needs to be understood by all of your employees. After all, human error is deadly to cybersecurity! You may want to consider investing in cybersecurity training, though this may be taking things too far for many businesses. Consider developing a short pamphlet or handbook for them to use. (Or, you know, show them this article to get them started!)

Vulnerable software and applications

This is actually the most common reason for cybersecurity breaches – but it’s also the least understood of the lot. Your average employee in you average modern business will probably be using several pieces of software every day to do their job. For many businesses, the desire to cut costs by downloading free or exceedingly cheap software can be understandably strong. The problem is that low-quality software may usually comes with a bunch of exploitable problems. Input validation may be subpar; session management restrictions and password management might be poor, there may be no encryption. This is something you must remember no matter what field you’re in. If you’re in law, for example, then ensure you get the right legal matter management software.

Failure to update system

Here’s one of the biggest problems about cybercriminals: they’re always getting better at what they do. It’s evolution: just as pathogenic cells develop a resistance to things like antibiotics over generations, cybercriminals start to develop ways in which to defeat security systems. You need to ensure that your computers and their accompanying security software are kept up-to-date. Patches are an essential part of the cybersecurity of any business.

No matter what type of business you run, there are a hundred and one ways that it can benefit from having an online presence. It could be a simple website that links to your brick and mortar store, food truck or any type of physical location. You can have it list your services, products and other information, or perhaps you could even sell items on your website. Whatever you decide, there’s a simple and cheap way to get what you want.

If you want to improve your online presence and have people all over the world come and visit your business or use your services, then follow these vital tips.

Social Media Presence

People like to have a way to relate to and follow their favorite businesses. If someone hasn’t discovered your business yet, it’s only a matter of time before someone they know shares your business with them in the form of a social media mention or something similar. However, if you don’t have social media accounts in the first place then how do you expect to get noticed in a sea of busy users?

Social media is important for any type of business. It doesn’t matter what your specialty is—there’s a place on social media for you and there are circles that you need to get involved with to market yourself. Let’s say you’re running an art printing service where you print high-quality pictures onto canvases to be hung on walls. You can get your business involved with many different art communities such as DeviantArt or Pixiv. Once your name has been mentioned or someone in the community gives you positive feedback about a print you did for them, your brand will spread like wildfire and you’ll get more and more clients.

Don’t neglect the effect that a simple Twitter message or Facebook update can have on your business. Keep your users in the loop with all your latest products and services, interact with them on social media channels and follow industry figureheads to learn what’s going on in the industry you specialize in.

Create Online Promotions and Offers

The best way to gather attention to your website is to create online-exclusive promotions and offers. For example, this survey at http://customersurveyreport.com/red-robin-customer-survey/ has people answering questions about Red Robin in exchange for coupon deals and offers for their next purchases. This is a multi-layered promotion because you’re generating feedback about your business while at the same time, offering your loyal customers a little extra bonus on their next purchase.

Space out your online promotions and make sure they don’t coincide with your competition. If you’re selling video games and a popular platform such as Steam is also offering deals during the same period, then people are most likely going to flock to the more popular option unless you can offer them something a large corporation like Steam cannot.

You can also utilize mobile applications to your advantage. Let’s say you run a small coffee shop in a busy city. Start a campaign with a custom-made mobile application that offers people a free cup of coffee every Monday. All they have to do is install your free application to their phones, show a specially generated code to your cashier, and then you can accept that code and award them with a free cup of coffee. You can then add a rewards scheme to your application. Perhaps each cup of coffee gives them points that can be spent on offers, such as 50% off their next doughnut or cake, or a free bagel to go with their next purchase of coffee. The goal is to keep your customers returning, and the internet is a great way to spread offers and deals.

Delivery Services

It used to be difficult setting up a delivery service for your business, but that’s no longer the case. Whether you’re operating a food business or selling computer components, you can set up eCommerce services for a low price. Depending on your web host, they might even be integrated into your web hosting package and for a small price per month, you could be taking orders that automatically accept customer payments and print shipping labels for you. All you have to do is package it up and take it to the local post office.

There are also some specialized delivery services that you can register your business with. For example, Quiqup allows customers to purchase items from almost any store, be it a cafe or supermarket. You simply register your interest, work together with the service to list all of your products, and then people can buy your items from the comfort of their home. Someone will come to pick up the goods the customer ordered, you hand it to them, and then the delivery operative will personally deliver the items.

Ever since their inception, computers have had a massive impact on the way we trade. As a business owner, you’re probably bombarded every day by ads and cold emails from businesses that want to sell you some kind of tech tool which will benefit your company massively. The only issue is this: with the huge number of different tools out there, all claiming to be essential for your company’s success, it can be hard to decide where you should invest. Here are a few kinds that should definitely get the top spots on your list.

SEO

If you’ve ever watched Mad Men, then you’ll know that marketing used to be much simpler than it is today. There was a time where all marketing entailed was getting to know your market, coming up with an eye-catching image and slogan, and then pasting it on the biggest billboard you could afford. Now, things are much more complicated. If you don’t have a keen understanding of SEO and everything that goes into it, you’re going to find it extremely hard to compete in any modern marketplace. One of the most important things in SEO is being able to monitor a campaign in-progress, and pick out all its strengths and weaknesses. This is where tools such as Posirank can make all the difference.

Social Media

Closely tied to the world of SEO, social media marketing is another major facet of modern marketing, and has totally revolutionized the way that a brand communicates with its customers. It’s also made effective marketing much more accessible, and leveled the playing field for companies with big, bad competitors to worry about. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and more can all be leveraged for greater outreach, no matter how small your company is or how stretched your capital. However, like any form of marketing, social media needs to be approached in the right way in order to get any decent results. Platforms such as Hootsuite will allow you to keep track of your posting schedule on multiple social networks, monitor the kind of engagement they’re getting, and highlight where you need to put in more work or cut back on your spending.

Finances

For you, and most other entrepreneurs, finances can be sorted more or less into one of three categories: billing, increasing revenues and tracking income. However, even when you’ve whittled it down to this kind of simplified view, managing your own finances can be tough unless you’ve got a strong background in accountancy. Fortunately, this is one niche where tech tools have really flourished. Do a little research, and you’ll have no problems finding a financial tool which comes with all the features you could need. Freshbooks, QuickBooks and Square are among the most popular, but there are dozens more which could be perfect for both your business model and your budget. Making sure you and your staff get paid on time and that you’re meeting all the right tax deadlines is essential to the success of any business, so don’t run the risk of taking it into your own hands!

Along with any current advertising method, business operators can gain a lot by adding in an internet marketing strategy. Just having a website active is only the start. The true test is how effective that site is at converting visitors or readers into customers. It takes more than what you may think to get someone to purchase a product or service online. Follow these tricks to increase the conversion rate on your website.

Know Your Customers

As someone in charge of a business, it is essential to understand the audience you are trying to sell to. People looking to buy women’s shoes are not going to be the same customers that are purchasing the latest video game consoles. Take into account gender, age, and personal preferences, and then research what appeals to them and start thinking like your customer. With the newly obtained information, you can create a message that is directed more towards that group’s needs and wants.

After knowing what gets your customer’s attention, use the details in your marketing strategy. This is one sure way to increase conversion rates.

Show Off The Positives

Do you know what makes your product superior to the competition? If you don’t, you need to find out. Potential customers are going to want to know why they should pick your company over a different one to get what they are looking for.

You have to be able to make your customers believe they are getting the best there is with what you have to offer. Go to your competitors and see what they have and how you are better. Make sure to include your findings on your site so your customers know what you have found.

Adding It All Up

Now is when you take everything you have discovered and turn it into something that is alluring, pleasant, and desirable. A landing page that tells your potential clients everything you have to offer has to be perfect. Share with the client all the details that they will need to fully understand what they are getting while also persuading them to make the purchase. The first landing page is going to be rough, so plan to make changes and follow the web design trends with caution not to over do it. Focus on the fundamentals of making your value proposition instantly identifiable in the simplest possible way.

Do the best you can when starting out. Nothing is final and revisions can be done. Experiment and see what works to make your conversion rate go up.

Guess and Check

As stated, the first landing page you create is not going to be the only one. A good idea is to make two different landing pages and run them at the same time. Make each landing page a little different so you can test them and see which one works and what one isn’t as effective. It will take a week or longer to fully determine which one is the most effective. Then, take the one that is creating the better results and tweak it a little bit at a time. You will then be able to see what changes convert to sales and which ones don’t. Never stop working on your site, because your conversion rate can always improve.

Gain Their Trust

Getting people to become customers can only be done if you are able to gain their trust. Sure, a landing page is important, but there is so much more to increasing conversion rates. Start by creating a brand and a name for your company. Get out on social media and make your presence known. Talk to the people that could become your clients directly. They will begin to feel more comfortable with you and your business.

Ask former or existing customers to write a review for you. Include these testimonials on your landing page where others will see it right away. Click here for an example of an eCommerce site that lists their premium clients’ logos above the fold. By showing that you have been able to help others with what you have to offer, you can prove that your business is one that can be relied upon. Through building this trust, you are going to increase your conversion rate too.

Tell The Truth

No matter what, don’t include anything that isn’t true on your landing page. People know when they are being scammed and will quickly avoid any site that is claiming something that is too good to be true. If you try and make your products and services sound better than what they are, potential clients are going to be aware of it right away.

With the suspicion that you have raised by making false promises, people aren’t going to believe that you can actually give them what they need. Stay reasonable and realistic throughout your content. Never offer something that you can’t deliver. It will only turn out negatively for you in the future.

Once you have got your startup running it can feel like a dream. Yet there are many issues your business could still potentially face. Cashflow is a major issue in any business. You need to insure your money moves fluently and on time to keep clients, customers and suppliers happy, otherwise you could end up losing money further down the line. Here are some top tips for you to ensure your cash systems are never badly affected.

Get Invoice Help

Sometimes having to invoice every client can be tough, especially when you need the money pretty quickly. Getting that fast turn around from every single client means follow up phone calls and nagging. However, there are cashflow finance professionals who can ensure you get paid on time and consistently. The funds will come directly from them, leaving them to chase the client for cash owed. It’s a great service and it means you no longer have to waste time on the phone. You’ll get your money in a timely fashion leaving you happy and ready to focus on other areas of your business. It can a great productivity tool and also stop erratic cash flow.

Use Top Payment Technology

If you run a customer facing restaurant or shop then the ability to quickly take payments is paramount. If it takes a while for card payments to be processed the customer is going to be annoyed at having to wait. The customer will also be annoyed if you don’t accept a certain kind of payment, like Apple and Android pay. Use newer payment machines, they’ll be quicker and accept all kinds of payments and not alienate a certain type of customer wanting to pay in a certain way whilst ensuring they stay happy with quick payment solutions. It can also keep your workforce productive. No longer will they be standing around trying to get some form of signal, but instead moving with purpose from customer to customer. A productive workforce means more bang for your buck and also the better technology will keep your employees happy.

Stop Using Paper

If you use computer based invoices and cloud computing you can cut out the huge amount of paper you have to purchase. If you cut that cost down you’ll be left with a tidy sum to reinvest into your business. It can also show clients and employees that you’re committed to helping the environment and going green which can actually help you lure more like minded clients to your company.

Use A Tax Consultant

A tax consultant can make sure you don’t make any mistakes in the processing of your tax, helping you avoid fine and uncomfortable situations. They can also save you money by giving you advice on any tax break schemes your government may be running at the moment. There are various grants and tax refunds you could be entitled to but not know about, so using a tax consultant at least once can really save you a tonne of money further down the line.

One of the most stressful elements of running a business, whether you’re at the helm of a global empire or running a small corner store, is the element of surprise. Surprises, in business, are not something that anyone welcomes with open arms. A business is something you want to run like clockwork, and unexpected costs throw a spanner in the works, as all plans fly out the window and future projections might have to be recalculated.

Is there anything you can do to predict unpleasant future costs? Well, unless you’re prophetic, no. However, we do have some tips and general advice that you might want to take on board if you want to have a preemptive plan of action, should an unexpected expense or nasty surprise ever arise at an inopportune moment.

Lawsuits are a big killer of small businesses.

As a small business, it’s easy to focus on your concept, determination and expertise when it comes to the area of your industry or your specific service. Of course, you’d do well to remember that there will be other outgoing costs than the ones for which you’ve planned. Lawsuits are one such example, and, no matter how stupid the claim, you may find yourself paying them out, simply because you can’t afford the time or money needed to take such issues to court.

The answer to this one is simple: get a good lawyer. Okay, you might not be able to predict when and from where these claims will come, but you can build a solid wall of defence when they do. Get some good insurance, and preemptively plan to knock down any underhanded, cunning claims clients or potential partners might make against your business.

Unexpected maintenance can incur huge costs.

Nobody ever expects anything to break at a certain point, but you should expect that things within your business will need maintenance at some point. Some minor repairs might be repairable internally, but when it comes to technological malfunctions, the problem becomes harder to fix – both from a technical and a safety perspective. If you considered enlisting the help of electrical contractors, you might find that you avoid unexpected costs down the line – both in terms of the repair itself and time, or profits, lost through disrupted company operations brought about by this electrical failure.

You might find that it helps avoid some nasty costs in terms of both time and money if you know you can call somebody the second something breaks. Time is money, after all, and you might find you incur more costs through acting too slowly to fix any electrical problems. Moreover, this poses a safety hazard to both you and your employees.

Unexpected accidents in the workplace can be avoided.

In terms of insurance, the company premises might be covered in an accident, but the costs are bound to stretch beyond this to cover any medical costs for injured employees. Checking and re-checking all aspects of your company workplace, as well as training your employees well, could avoid a nasty cost down the line by preventing an incident from ever occurring.

Most startup owners will tell you they are keen to embrace growth. But the reality is that it isn’t always easy to grow a business. In fact, there is a multitude of problems that could leave your growth strategy falling on its face. And in some cases, they could even see your business collapse for good. In today’s guide, we’re going to highlight some of the biggest problems you might face when growing a business, so let’s get started and ensure you are in good shape.

The market

Markets are in a constant state of change, and they won’t wait around for you while you grow and adapt. And while your product might have been selling by the million this year, there are no guarantees it will be the same next year. To prevent market issues, you will need a lot of industry knowledge, and keep up to date with new businesses and developments. Failure to do so could leave your company with a lot of exposure to risk.

Cash flow

Of course, business growth takes money, and you will need funding of some description to make your dreams come true. In an ideal world, your profits will be all you need to grow steadily – but, of course, reality is never like that. You might need to approach a bank for a loan, in which case you will need excellent financial records in place and a robust business plan. You will need the same to approach private investors, but there is another caveat to consider. When a private investor hands over money, they will want t big slice of control in the business. That’s not just as a stockholder, either – they may demand to put their own management team and culture in place. Can you live with that? If not, your quest for funding may be trickier than you think.

Employees

When you are a growing company, facing a lot of change, it can be difficult to track all the new arrivals. But knowing your employees well brings an awful lot of benefits, help them feel they still have a stake in the business, and encourage productivity levels to remain the same. So, a quick question – when was the last time you used your employee directory? In fact, do you know how to find your employee directory? The truth is that it can be a great little tool for keeping valuable information on your staff, from what they enjoy doing in their spare time, to how many sick days they have had off during the year.

Customers

Finally, your customers may not be as fond of your business growth as you might have hoped. They might enjoy the personal service you gave them, and the time you spent cultivating relationships with them while you were raising your business profile. But when you become a bigger company, how are you going to avoid turning into another corporate, faceless giant? Finding the balance can be tricky, and you should be prepared for losing the odd customer who will be unhappy with changes.

There’s no doubt that the life of an entrepreneur is tough, but in a different way to what most people imagine. Those who have regular jobs think that entrepreneurship is like having a job, but on steroids. But that isn’t really what it’s like at all. Those who work in large organizations are often shielded by the company apparatus from the rougher elements of the market and generally have the people and resources around them to deal with their problems. Entrepreneurs don’t and instead find themselves exposed on multiple fronts with the fewest tools to protect themselves.

The good news is that there is stuff that entrepreneurs can do to break out and turn their careers into something desirable. It’s all about having a “can do” attitude.

Forget Yourself – At Least When Starting Out

Entrepreneurs often tend to have large egos – and that’s a good thing. You need a basic sense that you’re an important person who has the capacity to make waves in the world to even get your business off the ground. But sometimes your ego can come back to bite you. One of the problems entrepreneurs have when starting out is the idea that they are somehow owed success by the world, but this isn’t how things work. Entrepreneurs don’t get rich by being entrepreneurs: instead, they build their empires through passion and offering customers what they want. Don’t let human foibles, like greed or foolishness get in the way of building a business. Focus on your clients, and money will come to you.

Continuously Educate Yourself

Elon Musk is an interesting individual. He’s founded not one, but four billion-dollar-plus enterprises in the last twenty years: SpaceX, Tesla, Paypal, and SolarCity. No, he’s not the richest entrepreneur to have ever lived, but he’s certainly one of the most prevalent, and his successes are epic.

Observers of Musk, including his own brother, put this achievement down to his passion for learning. When he was a boy growing up in South Africa, he reportedly read two books a day on a vast range of different topics. This gave him a unique perspective on the world and turned him into what we might call a “learning generalist.” This put him at an advantage over those who specialized in particular areas: he was able to see links between different disciplines that they weren’t, using these connections to form inspiring businesses.

The reason for Musk’s success, many believe, isn’t so much about what he knows, it’s about the tools that he has in his learning toolbox. He works around a set of “first principles” that can be applied multiple times in different situations. That’s why he’s been able to shake up so many apparently unrelated industries, including payment systems, rocketry, and electric cars. Hence, it might be a good idea to take another look at that MBA online you’ve been eyeing up for the last year or so. It could provide valuable insights.

Deepen Your Values

Finally, it’s worth taking a look at your core values. Leaders who don’t believe in what they’re doing, or don’t think what they’re doing is right, rarely make a success out of their careers. Figure out what you think is valuable, and then go for it.

Some legacy businesses might be able to get away without a fantastic website: but startups? Not so much. Websites are the lifeblood of every growing new business, and without them, there’s little hope of success.

As a result, entrepreneurs are having to continually update and upgrade their online offering. The problem is, doing so is a massive hassle, and it’s often hard to tell whether you’ve got it right. Here’s how to nail that website redesign you’ve been dreading.

Always Put Yourself In The Shoes Of The End User

What comprises an exceptional user interface do you think? “Usable,” “predictable” and “intuitive” are all words that immediately come to mind.

It’s a good idea, therefore, to avoid complexities in the user interface when redesigning a website. Instead, focus on innovations that make the whole experience easier and faster. One of the problems that used to dog old company websites were complicated menus with tiny writing coupled with endless sub-menus and non-obvious download buttons. Safe to say, this is something you want to avoid.

Don’t Overwhelm The User With Information

As any good digital marketing agency will tell you, one of the abiding tendencies of small businesses is to overload their customers with information. Their websites are packed with essay-length prose about their products, detailing all the features as if it were a review or an article in a journal. Businesses do this because they want to make sure that they are communicating all the benefits of their product. But all too often they vastly overestimate user attention span, especially online. Web site visitors on a company website are rarely in the mood to read a five-minute segment of all the features of a particular product. They just want to know if it’ll solve their problem.

According to Ashley Saddul, an executive at a large recruiting company, the key is to make sure that each page has a definite focus. Products should be arranged intuitively, and businesses should use the fewest words possible.

Make Small Improvements Over Time

Designers, developers and entrepreneurs often work closely together, to build websites, but often they do it all in one go. According to Dmitry Koltunov, this is a bad idea. One of the reasons for this is that it precludes the possibility of gradually developing a site that suits the tastes and preferences of users. Big businesses will routinely implement minor changes to their websites, and then use A/B split testing to find out whether those changes had the desired effect. They don’t just march in, change everything all at once, and then hope for the best. The best rarely happens.

It’s a good idea, says Koltunov, to make improvements incrementally. Get feedback he says, and each week aim to improve something about the site. It could be the colour scheme on the home page, the way you generate titles for your blog or the speed at which the website back end operates. Over the course of a year, your website will be transformed – just not all at once.

You were told not to bother wasting money on a phonebook ad and that the internet was the future of marketing. And so you went and invested in a fresh new website for your business. But no-one is visiting it! You’ve seen the analytics – your website isn’t getting any hits. Was all that money spent on producing a website wasted?

Certainly not. All you need is to make a few alterations to make your website more attractive. Here are a few reasons why no-one is visiting your website and how you can start luring in traffic.

You have no internet presence

The ugly truth is that a website isn’t enough. The internet is a crowded place and to stand out you need to advertise it everywhere, just as you’d advertise a shop in a city with signage and leaflets.

The first big step is social media. Create a Facebook and Twitter page for your business, invite all your friends to follow and like and place links on the page to your website. You will immediately notice more traffic although you’ll have to keep your social media active with engaging posts if you want to continue luring people in.

From here you can branch out to other places on the web. Get previous happy clients to write review on review sites linking your website, as well as reviewing your site on Google. Ask other companies to promote your site on theirs (and in turn promote theirs on yours). Soon more doors will open up to your website allowing more visitors.

You’re on page 50 of Google

Not being on the first page of search engines can have a massive impact on the amount of visitors you get. This may be because your website isn’t very keyword friendly and people searching for your type of company aren’t finding it instantly. Alternatively, your website might be overloaded with keywords and search engine algorithms may view it as spammy. SEO companies can help to improve your search engine rankings and may be worth investing in (Nu Studio being an example).

Your site isn’t active

A site that isn’t regularly updated can also score badly on search engines as well as putting off visitors by making your company appear to be no longer in action. Keeping your website new and fresh with regular blog posts and events can keep visitors coming back. However, once you start updating, you must keep up the work in order to keep a consistency.

Your web design needs a refurb

A relative or friend may have designed your website, or it may have been designed over a decade ago, in which case you need to give it a refurb. Hire a professional company to spruce it up so that it no longer look like a relic from the 90s or a school project. This will ensure that visitors return and don’t immediately disregard your site as unprofessional.

Your branding is off

Does your domain name and webpage immediately explain what your business is about? Poor branding could equally putting visitors off. Some of this could be less to do with your website specifically and more to do with your business brand. Pay a professional to personally review your site and brand if you believe this could be the case.

Much of business today is conducted online. E-commerce is a hugely popular sector, with many people launching new eCommerce businesses in their spare time. If you want to make your eCommerce business a success, it’s all about getting the customer experience right. You’re not face-to-face with your customers, so you have to find other ways of improving their experience. An eCommerce business’s website is one of the most important areas to pay attention to, but it’s not the only one. There are other aspects of the customer experience that are just as important. Here are some essential things that every eCommerce business owner needs to do on and off-site.

Speed Up Your Site

The first thing it’s essential to address is the quality of your website. The online shop is where everything is happening for any eCommerce business. It’s where your customers view your products and decide whether to buy them. You need to use your store to help your customers find what they want and convince them to buy it from you. One of the things that will easily put someone off is the speed of your site. A slow website can have someone turning away and looking for what they need elsewhere. Ensuring speed on different browsers and devices needs to be a priority.

Make Navigation Easier

There’s another element of your website that’s vital to providing a good experience to your customers. Being able to navigate your store is essential for anyone who wants to buy something from you. If they can’t find what they’re looking for, they may well give up and go elsewhere. There are several aspects of your store’s navigation that you need to consider. Firstly, visitors to your site should be able to find broad product categories easily using your menu. They also should be able to filter products using different criteria if you have a lot of them. Finally, a search function allows people to go straight to what they are looking for. Make sure that your search feature works well.

Be Transparent

When people buy things online, they can’t pick up and examine any of your products. So you need to offer them as much information as possible about what they are looking at. However, there are also times when you don’t want to overwhelm them with too much information. If you can, choose pictures and videos over having a lot of text. In some cases, you might need to include technical specifications, making it hard to avoid too much text. However, you can still present this information in a neat way that’s easy to read. You can also provide interactive content such as product tours or demonstrations.

Offer a Mobile App

You might have a responsive website that looks great on a mobile device. However, it’s also worth considering a dedicated mobile app. It can make shopping in your store easier and allow you to design an experience that’s ideally matched to your brand. You can use a service like Wonderment Applications to build an app from scratch and ensure that it will be useful to your customers. Mobile technology is becoming more significant in all areas of business, including eCommerce. People want to be able to access what they want and need from their phones and tablets.

Don’t Forget About Offline Elements

E-commerce businesses might be based online, but the customer experience usually has some offline elements too. If you sell physical products, you have to deliver them to your customers. The speed and the service you provide your customers when you send them your products both matter too. It’s important to take a look at how you manage your deliveries and the satisfaction of your customers when they place and receive an order. You might also make an effort to personalize orders or add some other special customer service element to them.

Make Contact Easy

Your customers also want to be able to get in touch with you whenever they want. If you want to make it easier for them to contact you, you can do several things. One thing that will help is providing a number of contact channels, both immediate and less immediate. Some people prefer to email so that they can deal with things in their spare time. Others prefer to address issues as soon as possible by calling or perhaps using a messenger app. Consider these different communication channels to provide options for your customers.

The customer experience is an important part of any eCommerce business. Striving to improve it can keep your brand in the spotlight.

Digital marketing is actually really easy to get wrong. This probably isn’t a newsflash to you. But if you’re looking to get into digital marketing to boost your business, then it’s important to know how to get things right and how to get things wrong! (So you can avoid doing the former, not so you can do it. Obviously.)

Here’s a quick guide to some of the key dos and don’ts of digital marketing.

DO!

Set realistic expectations. None of us will get to the reach of, say, George Takei’s social media accounts overnight. Set realistic expectations – relatively slow growth is one of those realistic expectations. (And yes, George Takei’s social media accounts are mostly handled by someone other than George Takei. He earns a lot of money renting out his social media accounts for businesses and websites that need a boost!)

Put a focus on website usability. If your website isn’t actually all that enjoyable to use, then your digital marketing campaign may be for naught. A lot of new business owners forget about this crucial step. Optimize your website to the best of your ability. Those new users should be coming in to a really premium-looking website.

Get help if you need it. Yes, it’s true that effective SEO can be absolutely free if you know how to do it right. Of course, by “free,” we mean that it can cost you nothing in direct monetary cost. But it does take an absolutely tremendous amount of time to do properly. (And, as time is money, I guess it’s not really free after all, right?) So if you don’t have confidence in your ability to get results, then work with a professional SEO company. It will save you a lot of time and frustration in the long run.

Define your target market. Marketing isn’t something that you do indiscriminately, if the existence of this article didn’t already tip you off to that. Your marketing is going to be most effective if it’s aimed at the right kind of people. So make sure you know what your target market is and start aiming your marketing at areas most frequented by that demographic.

DON’T!

‘Like’ your own content. Come on, man. That just makes people cringe. Don’t hit the like button on your own content. Being proud of your content isn’t the same as calling out your own adoration of it. Besides, liking your own content doesn’t help with reach.

Spam. Your followers and subscribers are going to get pretty tired of you if they’re getting notifications several times a day from your business. I know you’re eager to get the word out, to strike gold with your content, but ease up a little!

Market before you’re ready. You have to make sure that your business, and especially your business website, is actually ready for an influx of customers or visitors. You really could strike gold with a marketing campaign in a short space of time if you do it right, but that deluge of attention can cause problems if you’re not ready. So prepare for all that traffic!

In today’s startup culture, there are a lot of logos floating around. The problem with the vast majority of them is that they are generic. Often they are mere placeholders that entrepreneurs think that they have to have in order to have a viable business. The worst situations are when a company goes to a logo generating website, chooses a logo that they like and then stick with it. Then they wonder why their customers can’t tell the difference between their business and the one just down the street offering the same range of products and services.

Here are some tips for helping your logo – the face of your company – stand out.

Make It Simple

Simplicity is one of the most important elements of any logo, says Jonah Berger, author of the book Contagious: Why Things Catch On. Take the old Apple logo, he says. This was once rainbow colored, but during that time, the company wasn’t iconic. The company then changed its logo to grayscale on a black or white background, and all of a sudden the company took off.

Of course, Apple needed a product too, but Berger emphasizes the fact that the new logo design made Apple easier to remember and more iconic. It’s important, Berger says, to limit the number of “moving parts” on a logo design. IBM, Coca-Cola, and IKEA all use very simple aesthetics which are easy for consumers to digest.

Memorability

Ask any advertising company, and they’ll tell you that a logo should be memorable. But making a logo both memorable and simple is not easy. Let’s go back to the Apple example. Apple could have gone with a regular apple symbol, but they decided instead to go with an apple with a bite taken out of it. Why did they do this?

According to Berger, it’s to create incongruity. People have seen millions of apples without bites taken out of them, so Apple’s logo wouldn’t stand out that much if it were of a whole apple. But thanks to the fact that it has a bite taken out of it, people are more likely to remember it. What’s more, the image is still very simple to remember, making it stand out from the rest.

Make It Remarkable

It’s all well and good having a logo that is straightforward and memorable, but the best advertisers know that “remarkability” is important too. According to Berger, this means using a logo that will get people talking and create intrigue.

One cool example is the search engine TalentBin which helps companies find quality personnel. Their logo is a cartoon squirrel riding a unicorn. It’s a bizarre image, but it contains a meaning that is familiar to the industry it serves. In the recruiting industry, the term “purple squirrel” is ascribed to people who are really hard to find. Using the symbol of a purple squirrel helps to emphasize the fact that TalentBin is always on the lookout for individuals who are generally hard to find. Berger suggests that startups might want to try a similar strategy.

Without a doubt, one of the most helpful departments in a large business is human resources. Most organisations assign at least one person to deal with employee relations so that the business can continue to run smoothly. A single dispute or argument could have lasting consequences that might severely hinder your business’s ability to grow and provide services and products to your customers.

Unfortunately, a small startup cannot afford to hire a professional to deal with human resource issues. Most of the time another employee is given the task as an additional job to coincide with their regular duties. However, this might severely hinder their ability to perform regular work and they might end up becoming a HR staff member full-time, meaning you’re back to square one and facing the possibility of hiring someone for a HR role.

Take it into your own hands

As the boss, you’re one of the most influential members of the office. You pay salaries, you’re the visionary and you’re in control. Don’t abuse that control, but don’t neglect it either. Your presence alone in the office could become a motivational force that drives employees to work better, make fewer errors and procrastinate less. Because of this, you should be making regular appearances around the office instead of staying locked up in your own office or going out on business meetings unless absolutely necessary.

Take it a step further by interacting with employees and handling their problems on your own. Although you might have a lot of work to do as well, you can’t ignore the power and influence you have on your employees. If they see you interacting with employees and taking their concerns on board, then you’re establishing a trust bond between boss and staff member that can do wonders for the productivity of your business. There’s nothing better than a member of staff that’d go the extra mile for a boss they actually enjoy working for. They’re less likely to call in sick, they’re more likely to do overtime and they’ll be loyal to your business and stay for the long term.

Managing your employees

So how do you start managing your employees? You can use time-tracking software such as the one found at www.Avaza.com/online-timesheets so you know what their tasks are and when they need to be done, and you could also monitor them from your office and take regular walks around the workplace to interact with and check up on your employees. It’s important that you understand the role of each and every member of staff you have employed so that you know what new staff members to hire, what areas of your business need more work and how to improve productivity in your office.

You should always have some kind of spreadsheet or employee reports folder so you can continuously manage and monitor each employee, understand their tendencies and take note of any concerns they may have. A notepad also works because you can quickly jot down notes about each employee, but you could just as well use an application on your smartphone to record your thoughts.

Settle disputes and encourage teamwork

A dispute can be extremely disruptive to your workplace and it can even dishearten other employees that aren’t directly involved. You never want it to reach a stage where a fight breaks out in the office that could leave your staff members injured or your office equipment damage. If you notice tension in the air between two members of staff, take them aside and let them settle their differences in front of you by talking. It might feel like you’re treating them like school children, but it’s necessary because you need to make them come to their senses and work together instead of being at each other’s throats.

Take teamwork seriously in the office. You want to promote teamwork among your staff members so they can get along and cooperate instead of being in competitive with each other all the time. Some competition in the workplace is great and can foster good results and a productive environment, but it’s important to manage it so that it doesn’t become a race to see who can make sales or finish their work fastest. You should give your employees incentive to work harder, but don’t make it materialistic things such as “employee of the month” awards or a pack of chocolates.

For example, if your employees have worked hard as a team and they’ve successfully helped you grow your business this year, then treat them to a team-building holiday someplace nice. It’ll make a dent in your budget, but the cost of team bonding is priceless if you want to create a long-term business plan.

Empower your employees with important decision-making

Deep down, every employee wants something more than just a salary: they want the satisfaction of knowing they did a good job. An employee wants to hear that they’ve just made a decision or completed a piece of work that has grown your business exponentially. They want to hear that they’re making a difference and affecting more lives than just their own. Because of this, it’s important to empower your employees with some degree of freedom as opposed to pigeon-holing them down a set path.

Don’t micromanage your employees to a point that they’re just sheep listening to your orders. They don’t want to be ordered around—they want to have freedom to make decisions they think will benefit your company. You can start easy with this type of thinking and move up as they gain your trust.

For example, when ordering supplies for the office, allow your employees to pick what each of them needs at their desk. One employee might order a few pens and pencils, some might order nothing, and someone might order a backrest for their chair. Instead of asking them what they need and making a decision, let them decide for themselves what they need to make their time at work more productive. From here, you can move on and let them make design decisions, how to communicate with clients and how to approach potential business partners.