Startup Tips

You know you want to start a business of some kind. Well, what if your startup is centered on a blog? Whether the blog is the business or an accompaniment to it, this right here is some essential advice.

Identify the tone of voice and style

Is your blog going to be funny? Are you going to write relatively short posts that can be read in a minute or so? Will you write longer ones that could take about seven or perhaps longer? Will you incorporate current events into your writing? (Answer: Yes, you probably should.) If you’re going to have several writers, will you all adopt a similar tone of voice? Consistency here will help foster loyalty among readers.

Read as many blogs as you can

No, not so you can copy their ideas. It’s so that you can learn from the people who are writing successful blogs. More important than the “big” blogs, however, are other blogs that are in your niche. All of this will help with topic ideas, strategies, and identifying what works for readers.

Look into guest blogging

If you love to write, then it follows that you’ll want people to read your writing. If you’re starting a blog, then this is a pretty easy conclusion to come to! But you shouldn’t only be willing to write for your own blog. In fact, with the right help, you could create content for other blogs. This will help you and your blog gain recognition. Guest blogging is perhaps more popular than you think. All the biggest blogs, including Lifehacker and The Huffington Post, host guest blogs. Check out this influencer marketing guide for more details.

Your priority should be ‘informing’

Okay, so if you’re running a comedy blog, then your main purpose should probably be to entertain! But with most other types of blog, what people really want is to be informed. Don’t take too long getting to the point. Don’t confuse the issue. Don’t flood the article with words that sound impressive just for the sake of it. Articles that are informative will always capture hearts and minds more than more sensational or lazy articles.

Optimize for mobile

You may think that a blog is simple enough for reading on a mobile phone. But you’d be surprised. If you haven’t optimized your website for mobile phones, your blog could be in trouble. Don’t assume that your website will be user-friendly and easy to read on mobile. Get it optimized so your blog is responsive to all types of screen sizes. So many people read blogs on mobile devices these days. You don’t want to lose out on that potential audience.

Keep an eye on design

Design is an extremely important factor when it comes to successful websites. Don’t think you’re exempt from having to keep an eye on design just because you’re dealing in the written word! Sure, a lot of people will appreciate simplicity. But a lot of those standard website templates you can get for blogs these days aren’t too impressive. Plus, everyone’s already seen these templates a million times before. See if you can get some unique design for your blog.

Planning for an exhibition requires knowledge of what to do beforehand, during the exhibition and what you should do afterwards. It is not enough in today’s competitive markets to have a simple exhibition, expecting people to flock to your exhibition space just because you are there.

Knowing how to have a successful exhibition includes having the proper tools and materials to draw people to your stand. Your responsibility is to bring in visitors and prospects and make them want to hear what you have to say, or to learn more about your products or services.

Here is some advice on how you should plan and prepare for your next exhibition, and why just turning up is not enough to guarantee a success and return on your investment.

The importance of proper planning and preparation beforehand

It is important to understand that proper planning and preparation are crucial aspects of any exhibition. Even more important, perhaps, is understanding that there is a difference between planning and preparing. The preparation stage requires that you determine key issues of your intended audience and how well you successfully predict their response or behaviours while at your stand.

Planning requires that you understand your objectives, who your targets are and your intended outcome.

But, feeling confident that you worked out all the details of preparation and planning is not enough to ensure a successful exhibition. You cannot sell, negotiate, build relationships or successfully communicate your ideas or proposals to an exhibition audience if no one is there to see you.

You must maximise your presence at every exhibition event. One sure way of doing that is to have an exhibition stand that sets you apart from your competitors, brings your message to life and attracts everyone’s attention.

What to do during an exhibition

To put it simply, it’s essential that you have an effective exhibition stand if you want to draw people into your space. Maximise your exhibition presence with a custom built exhibition stand that draws visitors over to your business, makes people interested in hearing what you have to say, and fundamentally makes them interested in hearing more about your products or services.

When you invest in a custom-built exhibition stand, with help from an agency with experience and expertise, you set yourself apart from competitors, tell visitors who you are and what you have to offer them. Customised exhibition stands help convey your message and quickly turn the attention of visitors to your stand.

While having a custom-built exhibition stand is an outstanding component of bringing in traffic during each exhibition, that on its own is not enough. Consider showing a short video or having an interactive activity inside your exhibition stand, or perhaps have other visual hooks. Be prepared to confidently answer questions while making personal appearances in your exhibition space.

What to do after an exhibition

Some exhibition participants dread the end of an exhibition because of having to tear down their exhibition space. However, when you invest in a custom built exhibition stand, clever innovation allows for easy setup, takedown and transport.

After the exhibition is finished, it is time to get to work following up on all your leads and prospects that visited your exhibition. Close deals and make sales by getting in touch with people while your exhibition is still fresh in their mind. If you wait to follow up until two months later, they may have lost interest and forgotten who you are, meaning you potentially risk losing the return on investment that you envisioned.

Remember to follow up with personalised messages and calls to everyone that visited your exhibition stand. The personal touch potentially goes a long way towards gaining and retaining new customers or clients for your business.

Being a hands-on manager is great. It shows that you care about your employees and the work being done by them. It means that you’re not the inattentive sort all too willing to take credit but fob off responsibility. However, you can get carried away with it. Are you the kind of boss who shoulders the burdens of the team by yourself? If so, you’re cutting yourself and your employees short. To get more out of them, you have to learn that being hands-on doesn’t mean always handling the reins.

Make less of a hassle over managing them

Let’s talk about the most obvious way that micromanaging your employees can damage the company. By holding you back. As a person with authority, you have the ability to make decisions and do work that they can’t. If you spend all your time worrying about what your team is doing, then you don’t do the work that actually makes you money. Managing the team is important, but it can be done a lot more effectively and efficiently. For example, things like workforce management software can help you automate many of the tasks you’re doing yourself. You don’t have to pay attention to each individual record, but rather only get called in when your intervention is necessary.

Be aware of their individual contributions

It’s not enough to reward good work. It also needs to be recognized. Your employees need to learn that they don’t always need you hovering over their shoulder. Empower them to take more responsibility. Follow the rule of keeping criticism negative and praise public. Then once they’ve got the handle on something, don’t stick around to make sure they keep doing it right. You need to learn to value that they can contribute whether you’re there or not. You can do a lot better by using key performance indicators to simply track their progress towards goals. Then you catch up to discuss how work is progressing. People can do a lot better when they’re allowed to take control of their own productivity.

Get them engaged

Are you making every single decision that they could be making? Then you run the risk of directly hamstringing their potential to get involved. They’re less engaged since they have no reason to be creative or forward thinking in their job. They’re simply another cog in the machine at that point. But everyone has something to offer to the business overall. Get them more engaged. Let them contribute to decisions that affect their work. With those simple changes, they get used to offering their own thoughts. By taking the time to address their concerns and questions in team meetings, they learn their voice is valued. When they learn that, they start thinking in terms of what is best for the business. Not just how they keep performing to an expected standard.

Help them step up

The point that this should all be getting to is the point where you can step aside and give more responsibility to people. That is, letting go of some tasks that are taking up your own time. Delegating things that should no longer be your responsibility. Even helping someone grow up the ranks in the business. One of the reasons that is so important is that it makes your business a lot more likely to retain staff. If they see someone working up the ranks, it proves hope for them to do the same. They see your business not only as a place of employment but a place for a career.

Building an environment of confidence

Even more important than retaining people and building a team is building a workplace. Company culture and corporate mindset are important. If a business subsists off employees who feel like they’re in a dead-end job, that becomes their company culture. No-one’s satisfied, no-one’s confident. If you’re willing to let people be in charge of their job, that builds a company culture of creative thinking and engagement. It makes it easier for new people to accommodate to that culture. To bring their own skills sooner rather than later. The engagement of the individual is essential to the success of the whole. So make sure that building engagement, motivation and confidence are common parts of how you communicate to staff.

Too many bosses today let their insecurities and micro-management get in the way of the strength of the company. You have to learn to use your tools to manage smarter, not harder. Give them the push they need.

It’s hard enough trying to get a startup off the ground. The last thing you want is to be piled with error messages by a faulty Windows operating system. It’s alright if it’s a quick glitch in a software package. But, when that glitch turns into an entire system malfunction, you’re ready to throw the computer out the window.

These are the errors we’re focusing on today. They’ll make you tear your hair out, and you’re bound to have come across plenty of them. Think of this as a sort of self-help guide to get you through the stressful times!

The BSOD

Ah yes, the mother of all error messages. The BSOD is otherwise known as the Blue Screen Of Death, and it’s an error message that almost everyone has experienced at some point or another. It is often complimented with these words: “A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down…” The problem with the BSOD is that it can signify any number of catastrophic errors. You might need the help of an IT support company if you get this one.

Unable To Sync

The problem with an error like this is that you rarely find out the cause. We have to sync all sorts of things in this modern digital world. In the business sector, it’s normally our emails that bounce between devices. When they’re unable to sync, we get mad. It can be a deep-rooted issue that is tough to solve, especially if you’re syncing between different software. Microsoft Outlook isn’t always willing to play ball with mobile-centric apps and tools.

Windows Explorer Has Stopped Working

Picture the scene. You’re browsing your files and folders in Windows Explorer, and you’re looking for an important document. It’s deadline time, and you need to get it sent across via email as quickly as you can. Then, it hangs, and nothing is responding. You’re faced with the message of ‘Windows Explorer has stopped working.’ It doesn’t get much more annoying than that! Again, this can signify a minor or major error, so it’s not always easy to rectify the issue.

There Are Currently No Logon Servers Available To Service The Logon Request

This isn’t an error message that most personal users will come into contact with, but it’s a regular in the business world. If you’ve got multiple staff logging into a server-based network, they’ll all have individual logins. When this message shows up on the screen, it can be tough to understand why they can’t access their profile. There are a few resolutions depending on the scenario, but it’s still a perplexing issue. Luckily for you, this shouldn’t require too much maintenance.

Your Upload Failed

This shares many similarities with what we said earlier about syncing. Why did your upload fail?! In many cases, you’re only limited to three words as an explanation for your inability to upload a file. It can signify a multitude of things, from a bad connection to a formatting error. But, it’s often far too difficult to get behind the scenes and figure out exactly what went wrong with that upload.

Device Is Not Compatible

We’re extending beyond the confines of the Windows operating system with this one. Unfortunately, the downside of using so many devices is that we can’t guarantee compatibility. We might want to use old software from years gone by, or we might want to use the same software across multiple formats. While some systems can get around these limitations, it often takes a long time to figure out how to do that. Ultimately, a message like this spells trouble and frustration for any business.

You Are Not Authorized To…

Don’t you just hate when you’re the owner of a business, and you’re told you’re not authorized to do something?! You own the business!! Unfortunately, this message can result from poorly implemented server processes by the administrator. Or, it can come about as a result of a glitch in the server, failing to give anyone access to certain files. This can become a real issue if left untreated, but it’s not for the faint hearted. You don’t want to be messing with any important system files if you’re not an expert.

Installation Failed

What’s worse than learning of incompatibility before you install something? The installation failing. It’s like getting your hopes up on Christmas morning, only to find the presents have been stolen from under the tree. To start with, the installation process lures you into a false sense of security. Then, an unintelligible error message presents itself at the 99% mark. Unless it’s a small oversight on your part, this error message normally indicates a much bigger issue. It’s not a fun thing to deal with.

Starting any company is one that requires hard work, determination and a whole lot of investment capital behind it. But what about if you are starting a business that deals with properties, such as an estate agent or a letting agency? In many ways, the fundamentals are the same as running a business. You have the product (the home), you have the customer (the tenant), and you have the same occurrences that arise with dealing with customers. When it comes to the basics, there are a few things you need to have in stock.

The Tech

When it comes to dealing with customers and clients, you need to be sure that you have the relevant systems and software in place to ensure a smoothly run operation. Having the right Property management software will cover your general day-to-day running of the business. From your admin tasks to lease management. Financial reporting to accounting. These all need to be accounted for to keep everything in check. In any small business, the systems will give the organization its structure, and this is no different. Having the best CRM software in place will act as a healthy database for clients and customers alike. And it will keep the back-office functions working steadily.

The Papers

To trade as a real estate agency, it requires the passing of state and national exams. In addition to this, you may have to provide a criminal background check. Between the courses, exam and license fees, you can expect to pay at least $200 or more. Although prices vary depending on where you are.

When you start to trade, you need to choose a real estate brokerage. This is the agency or office from which real estate agents and brokers work. Working with a broker is a requirement to practice. You will need to contact a broker before graduating from your training course. Brokers have at least three years additional real estate training. They can guide you through questions you have when it comes to working in the field, as well as listing and selling homes.

The Staff

Again, much like a small business, your staff will be the asset you need to make a connection with your customers. Having staff that is skilled in customer service or from a customer service background will serve your business well. A common complaint with real estate agents can be that the staff is not the friendliest of people as the common goal is getting a fast buck. Having your employees establish that bond with the customer is a skill that will go a long way. Especially as a relationship needs to be cemented.

The Marketing

It’s not just about having a snazzy website! You need to be networking, and to build your portfolio of clients to get your name out there. The best way to build your portfolio is in two ways. Either get a mentor or use your personal network. If you find a mentor in the real estate agency, you can choose who guides you towards buyer or seller contacts and splits commission. You’ll learn the profession from them while gaining your first commission checks.

It’s easy to see why starting a business can be so tempting. Getting to do business your way. Being in charge of your own decisions. Providing the market with a fresh, new service or product it sorely needs. It’s exciting and has the potential to grow into something great. But when you’re starting your own business you can’t afford to do things by halves. You need to make sure to do your research to ensure that you’re running your business as well as possible. The trouble is, there are so many different elements that go into creating and running a business that it’s easy to miss some important ones. Here are some aspects of running a business you might not be aware of, but will definitely want to keep in mind.

How will you pay yourself?

It seems obvious right? Of course, you need to be able to pay yourself! That makes it all the more ridiculous just how many people forget to think about this when setting up a business. The passion of starting something close to your heart can be overwhelming. Not to mention the focus on turning a profit can leave things like personal payment in the shadows. The last thing you want is to realize you’ve been budgeting for everything except actually being able to eat, sleep and stay warm. You might want to plow all your profits straight back into the business. But shaving enough off the top to provide yourself with a wage is more important than that extra profit. If you’re not able to run the business at all, it will work out worse for everyone in the long-term.

Is your website good enough?

You know you need a website. That’s pretty obvious. But how well is that site functioning? It’s not sufficient just to have a site with information about your service and products. You’ve got to make it your central hub of all online activity. Not only that but you’ve got to make sure it’s SEO optimized as well as easily usable. Make sure that your design is simple and elegant. Provide your customers with clear information and easy ways to reach your blog, products, and social media. Not only that but you’ve got to make sure the site itself is actually working. A slow, unresponsive site will hurt your rankings in search engines, making it harder for customers to find you. Make sure your not letting things like ttfb and security fall by the wayside.

Who are your customers?

Again, this might seem obvious. But too many businesses go forward with only a vague idea of who their target customer really is. Make sure that you’re thinking beyond just age and gender. Create a clear and detailed profile of your customer. That way you can focus your energy on providing them with the best product, service or user experience possible. Focusing in this way will end up being far more useful and productive than trying to please everyone.

Getting paid on time: it’s a perennial problem for almost every small business. Something like 85 percent of small businesses say that they have had a problem with getting paid on time at some point. And it’s a problem that often threatens their very existence. What’s so sad about this is that clients are usually able and willing to pay. It’s just that making the actual payment slips their mind. For small companies reliant on revenue, this is a big problem.

So what’s the solution here? Well, clearly it’s not a good idea to stay silent, especially if your business is about to go under. At the same time, high-pressure tactics might not work. Plus, you may actually end up losing business in the future. As entrepreneurs, we’re always looking for a win-win outcome. So let’s take a look at some of the smart ways you can get your clients to cough up the money they owe you on time.

Use Positive And Negative Reinforcement

There’re two ways that you can motivate people to do something. The first is through positive reinforcement. This is where you incentivise the payment itself. For instance, you could offer money off to people who pay early. Or you could offer reward points to people who pay on time. The trick here is to provide just enough of a reward to get your customers to send you payment.

Negative reinforcement is the reverse. If payments arrive late, charge a late fee. If the client refuses to pay, come up with an amount that the agree to pay. Which methods you use depend on the type of business you are in. Payday lenders might want to charge late fees, cement suppliers might not.

Make Payment Convenient

We live in a society where so much is possible with just the click of a button. In fact, people have gotten so used to convenience that invoicing has become a real chore. The good news is that with the rise of e invoicing, it’s now much easier to bill clients. Invoices can be sent via email with payment methods attached. Paying an invoice from a business is theoretically no harder than buying a product through an online store.

Start Making Use Of Retainers

Charging customers one-off bills for every job you complete is a time-consuming and risky endeavor. There’s a large admin cost, and the payment can easily be late. Setting up a retainer is a much better idea. Clients who pay a retainer fee pay a given amount to access your services each month. Because it’s a recurring payment, it’s more likely to be paid automatically. And that means that you get a more consistent and predictable income. There is a cost, though. Retainers will usually net you less money overall than charging for services a la carte.

Ask For Payments Up Front

Starting work on a job before you’ve been paid is risky. But it’s something that happens all the time in business. For customers you know well, this isn’t a problem. But for new clients, it can be tricky. Ask new customers for a deposit or small payment upfront to build trust. This way, you know you’re more likely to get paid and feel good about the project.

These days, being eco-friendly is incredibly en vogue. Not only that, though, but it is also becoming increasingly important as studies show just how much we are damaging the planet. So there is no wonder that so many creative entrepreneurs are trying to make their business greener. Have you been wondering how you can cut down your business’s carbon footprint and make it eco-friendly? Here are some tips that you can use to do just that.

Pull The Plug

You won’t be working around the clock. Neither will any of your employees. So do you really need to keep all the lights on in your office overnight? And do you really need all your computers plugged in when you aren’t using them? The answer is no. Make sure that everything is always turned off before the last person leaves the office. If you see anyone has left a cell phone charger plugged in without a phone connected, you should disconnect it. They still drain a lot of electric.

Watch What You Print

One fantastic way to go green is to only use digital documents. This will greatly cut down on the amount of paper you have to use. However, you won’t be able to get away with this for every contract and document. There may be some that you need a paper copy of. Ask yourself whether you really do need the contract in a paper form. If you do, you can use managed print services as a green method of managing your printing.

Leave The Car At Home

Of course, it isn’t just the things that go on inside your office that will affect just how eco-friendly your business is. Any business related action that you do outside the office also has an impact. And the one that has the biggest effect is driving to work. This will be increasing your carbon footprint each day. The only way you can tackle this is by leaving your car at home. Consider taking public transport or cycling to work. If your office isn’t too far from your home, you could even walk.

Encourage Recycling And Reusing At Work

Do your employees always grab a coffee on their way into work each morning? Those disposable cups aren’t good for the environment! Instead, encourage them to start making their own coffee once they arrive. That will cut down on a lot of waste! You should also set up a recycling bin in your office and the office kitchen. Anything that can be recycled should be placed in there. You should also start buying bulk condiments and coffee for the kitchen. These are much greener than single-use packages which create a lot of unnecessary waste.

Buy Local

If you ever need to buy anything at all for your office, make sure you get it from a local company. That way, you aren’t increasing your carbon footprint by buying something that needs to be shipped to you. Not only is this good for the environment, but it also helps promote local businesses!

Most businesses start off in rented premises. Many even begin in people’s homes, run from a home office or garage. As they grow, they will often move into buildings owned by the company. Some businesses will even choose to build a new property to use for their operations. Sometimes, business owners might even choose to build a location from the start. Building new business premises can be a time-consuming and not to mention expensive task. There are some mistakes you can’t afford to make if you want to get it right. Before taking on the project, make sure you pay particular attention to these areas.

Choosing a Location

Once you’ve built a new office, store, hotel or whatever, you can’t move it. At least, not without paying a lot of money. Choosing the right location is more important than ever because it will be harder for you to go somewhere else. There are a few things you need to take into account when selecting the right place to buy land. Firstly, you need to think about whether it’s a good position for your customers or clients. Secondly, is it a good location for your staff? Another thing to consider is if you can buy clear land. You may have to buy an existing building and knock it down.

Safety on the Construction Site

When it’s time to start building, ensuring you have a safe construction site needs to be a top priority. Of course, your choice of contractors is one of the important factors in this. You need to pick firms with good track records when it comes to working safely. You may need to work closely with the site manager to ensure everyone as what they need. There can be a huge range of equipment and policies that will improve safety on the site. For example, you may need crane mats to ensure that machinery is on stable ground. It’s best to work with your contractors, so you know what they need.

Construction Insurance

Insuring your business is always important, and it’s no different if you want to carry out a construction project. You can get specialist construction insurance for the duration of your project. It will help to protect the site during the construction and may cover materials and the work being carried out. It is also important to protect your business from negligence and other things that might cause accident or injury.

When to Move In

Deciding when to move into your new business premises can be a dilemma. While you might want to wait until it’s finished, moving in earlier may be a possibility. If you’re considering it, you’ll need to think about a few things. For example, how will you ensure that the business can operate while work is still taking place? What will your timeline for moving in look like? You might want to start bringing in furniture but perhaps not have any staff in until later.

Constructing a new building for your business is a large feat. Don’t make any mistakes that will be difficult to fix.

When first starting up your business, the internet is a tool you must get to grips with. Today, most business is done online. You need an online presence to attract customers in the first place. Most potential clients will look first to see if you have a website. If not, they’ll just move on to someone who does. Clients like to be able to see what services you can offer from the comfort of their home. But what if you’ve never made a website before? A lot of us aren’t internet savvy, and so the internet is a minefield of potential mistakes. Getting it wrong can be catastrophic in those crucial early stages. So how do you get a website?

GET SOME HELP

If the world of the internet completely overwhelms you, it might be best to opt for digital marketing services. For a fee, you can have someone do it for you. This is an option that takes the stress from your shoulders for the foreseeable future. Marketing services can also maintain the site for you. That way, you won’t need to worry at all. All you have to do is give them an idea of what your company is about, and let them take it from there.  

DOMAIN NAME

Your domain name is the first thing to consider. This is going to form the basis of your website address. You want to keep it snappy and relevant. A domain name with a lot of numbers included is not going to draw the customers. If possible, try and bag the name of your company. If that’s already gone, pick the closest thing to it. Whatever you do, make sure it’s relevant. You want your domain name to reflect your company from the off.

MAKE YOUR SITE USER FRIENDLY

A complicated site will put a customer off right away. Keep your website as simple, yet appealing as possible. The first page should state what your company has to offer. Customers won’t want to click on multiple links just to find that essential information. Clear subheadings are a must so a client can see exactly where to go. Remember, people browse the internet quickly. Make sure they don’t have to trawl through endless information to get to where they need to go.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

This may sound like complicated jargon, but it’s actually quite simple. You want as many people as possible to stumble across your sight, right? The best way to do this is using search engine optimization. This means that when people search the internet, your website will appear early on in the results. The amount of traffic your site receives will play a part in how high up it comes in the search rankings, but that’s not the only way to get yourself seen. Ensuring your website is as good as it can be will make it more appealing to search engines. It’s worth doing a little research into the topic. Good optimization will help you massively.

The world of a start-up is a one of uncertainty, late nights and dedication. People will be putting their heart and soul into the work. But there will be a point when they cannot put any more in. You’ve pushed your staff to the breaking point, and you cannot afford to take on new staff, so where can you go? What other options are there for you? And more importantly, how can you make it easy on your staff? Well, you can install systems that will make life easier for everybody. Such as running the back office functions and completing the smaller tasks.

EDI

This stands for Electronic Data Interchange.  This is now used a lot by emerging businesses. Essentially put it is a data transference system. The data is transferred from a company to another one. One of the main positives of using this is the reduction of time spent on tasks. It would reduce the amount of time that it would take to send reams of information to a company that is based very far away or in another continent. There are issues when it comes to this, such as in integrating to the EDI language. But there are ways around this if you get EDI translation software. The other option is to pay an EDI service provider or an IT company like computer-eyez.com to integrate the systems for you.

Landing Page Tools

In the world of startups sometimes you need to make do with what you’ve got, and sometimes that’s not much! Creating a homepage for a website can prove very tricky if you do not have the technical skills necessary. If you are running a smaller than the average sized business, you might be able to get away with a WordPress site in the short term. But this will not show your business in the way that you want it to, as WordPress sites do not have the bells and whistles needed to carry off a very swish website. Using landing page tools you will be able to create a really presentable front page for your website using web forms that are already built into the tools. With a lot of these landing page tools they have many different templates so you can pick a style that suits your business feel.  As well as this a lot of these tools have the function to test the website out before you launch it. This where you can see how it looks “live”.

HR Software

Having a really good HR software package will pay for itself in the long run because it really helps speed up the most basic of tasks. An example, using an HR software package that is based within a Cloud system will access the most up to date information on local regulations. So regarding a payroll based query the software could access the most relevant information on tax laws. This would save the business a lot of funds as they would not need to hire an accountant or a tax specialist.

The surroundings we find ourselves in can influence our moods and behaviors much more than we realize. Dimly-lit spaces can make us feel more relaxed and sleepy, while loud, bright areas can be distracting or even anxiety inducing. And many industries utilize the psychology of space, color, and sound to influence the behaviors of individuals within those spaces. Fast-food chains, for example, often choose the color red in their decorating because it subconsciously encourages people to leave quickly.

And of course, the design of office spaces is incredibly significant if you want to get the most from your employees. Being a manager or new entrepreneur who places office space design low within the ranking of your priorities can unfortunately cause a number of unforeseen consequences. Generally speaking, we spend a great deal of our lives in our work environment – approximately almost as much time as we’ll spend at home in any given week. Ensuring that your office is designed to be a space where every employee feels productive, safe, and comfortable can dramatically improve workflow. Even if your budget might not match that of famously employee-friendly companies like Netflix or Google, simple ideas and changes can dramatically improve your employee’s experience with work.

Want to improve your office design? Look for office space planning tips and tricks below that can help you increase employee satisfaction and productivity.

Don’t Box In Your Employees

There’s a reason that cubicles feature heavily in anti-work comedies like Dilbert and the feature film Office Space. They stifle light, creativity, and increase clutter. According to various studies, increasing natural light can improve productivity, mood, and health. Most companies have begun to create streamlined office-spaces in rows without dividing walls, or clustered bullpens around windows and sources of natural light.

Organize By Department

Different departments in your new business have their own goals: and their workstations should emphasize this fact. But the goals of one department could interfere with the work of another if it’s placed too close. For example, departments needing to make frequent calls to customers or leads could be distracting to those who need unbroken focus. Emphasize workflow by placing departments who must speak or interact frequently close together, and give them easily-accessed areas for daily collaboration.

Give Thought to Communal Areas

All of your employees will need their own desks or offices; but communal areas are just as important. Most people can’t (and shouldn’t) stare at a computer screen for all eight hours of a workday. But rather than shoving communal areas off to the side, placing some communal areas near workspaces in such afashion that they can facilitate brainstorming and work-sharing can increase productivity. For example, providing coffee near some sofas or a multi-desk area close to the bullpen rather than in a closed area further away can be a dramatic improvement.

Aim For Minimalism and Simplicity

Visual clutter can be distracting, and even claustrophobic for some employees. While your office design doesn’t need to be modern, you should absolutely aim for minimalism: showing clean surfaces, and utilizing negative space well. Light, open floor plans and streamlined pathways. This means that your office should not have an overabundance of art or decor, and that employees should be encouraged to keep clean workspaces.

The Bottom Line

When positively impacting the mood and productivity of your employees can be as easy as changing the office layout, there’s no reason not to give more forward-thinking office design a try! Veer away from cubicle design, and give consideration to your office layout, lighting, furniture, and colors. Whenever possible, go to your employees for their thoughts on the design, and emphasize a design which helps make daily tasks and processes easier to accomplish.

To a lot of us, millennials are an extremely odd species. They’re happy to go for weeks talking to people through text and nothing else, they take selfies rather than ask strangers to take pictures of them, and some use the word “hashtag” as part of their face-to-face speech. There’s certainly a big fixation on this generation, notably in the world of marketing. Millennials make up a massive proportion of a lot of business’s consumer bases, so it’s no wonder that so many business leaders are striving to tailor their marketing efforts to this niche. If you want to be more popular with this niche, here are a few things you need to know about marketing to millennials.

The first thing you need to understand about marketing to millennials is that brands mean a lot more to them than previous generations. Millennials use brands to express themselves, and are more attracted to brands which are much more than a logo. Before they make a purchase, they need the brand to have a personality which they like to experience, and feel they can relate to. So, what does this mean for you? When creating new marketing materials, you need to do everything possible to ensure that millennials either aspire to be like your brand, or are already like your brand. Many are very comfortable paying extra for a product that reflects the image which they want to get across themselves. To harness this phenomenon, you may need to brush up on your understanding of millennial culture, and plan steps to create a brand that meshes smoothly with it.

The next thing you need to understand about marketing to millennials is that they’re friendly, both with other individuals and with brands. Millennials tend to have larger friendship groups than older generations. This is hardly surprising when you think about the massive social buzz which they’ve all grown up in. These are people who had internet access from their childhood. From the moment they hit their adolescence, they were surrounded by a web of IM apps, Facebook groups and Instagram business pages. For the first time in history, it’s become semi-normal for someone to develop strong relationships and bonds with people scattered all over the world. The point here is that if you play your cards right, and portray a brand persona which is attractive to the millennial age group, then they’ll want to “befriend” it. Create a brand identity that comes off as genuine, sociable, mature, humble and trustworthy. Once you pin this down and exert it in every little facet of your marketing materials, the millennials you’re targeting will come flooding in! If there’s one example of this that’s really stood out, it’s Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign. This was the first time that Coke made any major changes to their product packaging, and was a direct reaction to them losing their brand relevance and share of the market. The campaign was meant to reinforce their core attributes and brand identity in a way that resonated with millennials, and that’s just what happened!

Another important thing to understand about millennials is that they want to experience brands, rather than simply buy from them. Your parents may have advised you to “spend your money on experiences, not on things”. Well, for my money, millennials are going to be saying this to their kids a lot more than any previous generations! Most millennials have a pretty clear memory of the recession of the late noughties, and took some of its anti-consumerist sentiment with them. In recent years, this generation has also been the one that’s gone to the most festivals, parties, gigs, and so on. Ask pretty much any millennial, and they’ll tell you that their best memories are from some live event, trip or another kind of experience. This is reflected in various marketing studies which have shown that millennials are more inclined to make a purchase from a brand if they have some kind of face-to-face interaction with them. I know that this doesn’t really match up with the massive role social media plays in their lives, but it’s a fact we have to work with! You don’t need to set up your own permanent, customer-facing premises to get your millennial target market on your side. However, you should look into some experimental marketing which will engage with them in a unique and memorable way. Again, you can take a page out of Coca-Cola’s book with their “hug machines”, which were set up in college campuses around the world. Dove tried their hand at experimental marketing too with their “Choose Beautiful” campaign. Gimmicks on this kind of scale can cost a lot, and you may not have the resources to pull one off. However, you can still be a little more experience-orientated by sponsoring events or organizing free product tests.

Finally, remember that millennials don’t take too kindly to traditional marketing. This is why it’s become less and less visible since 2010. When Facebook first started taking off, a lot of brands used their ads. When they saw that millennials weren’t reacting to them, the sponsored post was born, and immediately soared in popularity. As marketing leaders began to realize that millennials were carrying out extensive online research before they bought anything, inbound marketing was invented, and became a cornerstone of modern campaigns. Make sure you’re playing ball here if you want millennials to see your brand as something personable, rather than another big bad corporation. Instead of posting a traditional ad titled “Click here for cheap Spring Break trips” write a blog post titled “5 great places to spend Spring Break”. You don’t have to go overboard about keeping your call-to-action nice and subtle. Pretty much every millennial will take the time to read sponsored content, provided that it has something interesting to say!

Marketing to millennials can be tough, but it’s certainly not impossible! Take this information on board, along with your own findings, and tailor all your marketing materials to millennial sensibilities.

Link building is one of the most important aspects of SEO, but it can be tricky for startups to acquire these all-important links. After all, you have no history as a company, and no one knows about you – so why would they link to your site?

However, while it might be tricky to get up and running, it is more than possible to start a positive link building campaign. And today, we’re going to explore how startups can begin looking for and acquiring links. Let’s take a closer look.

Directories

The first step is to get yourself some nice and easy free links in business directories. There are hundreds of these, although not all of them will be suitable. Look for industry-specific business directories, and you can also seek out local directories. In general terms, the best business directories actively check their submissions, and these are the ones you should go for. Avoid lower quality directories – it just isn’t worth the time or effort.

PR

Good old fashioned PR is another great way to get links pointing to your site. It takes a small amount of work in creating a compelling press release. Then, it’s a simple case of finding the right journalists and outlets who might take an interest. Look for industry-specific writers and publications. Just make sure that your story is interesting and relevant to them and their audience. You can also contact local media journalists, who will often laud the praises of local businesses.

Competitor research

You should also be looking at your competitors and finding out where they are getting their links from. Why? Well, if a blogger or journalist has given them a link, the chances are they might do the same for you. Use tools such as Majestic or Ahrefs to find suitable links, and take advantage of your competitor’s hard work!

Bloggers

Links from industry-specific bloggers are also worth investigating. At this stage, it might be worth hiring an SEO company to help, as the process can be time-consuming. The idea is to find bloggers who have authority in their field, and then approach them – known as outreach. If you can strike up a positive relationship with an authoritative blogger, it can have a big impact on your rankings.   

Create a linkable asset

Are you struggling to get any traction with your outreach programs? If so, consider creating a linkable asset. It’s a great way to develop a reason for people to link to you, and also for you to reach out to bloggers. But what makes a linkable asset? Well, in simple terms it is just a product or service that people can use to make their lives easier. It should be industry specific, of course, and, preferably, free of charge, offered in exchange for an email address. Not only will it help you build up an email list, but it will also get a lot of organic shares if it is good enough.

These simple processes can take up a lot of your time, but they are essential for getting your backlinks up and running. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.