Startup Tips

It’s true that the majority of startups fail. But you shouldn’t let that deter you from opening a company because this is just the law of averages, hard at work. For one or two to succeed, countless others have to fail. The main reasons for these failures are usually mistakes made early on in the business model. In particular, new business owners tend to spend more than they can afford. The costs drive their prices up, leaving them unable to compete on the market. There are ways to avoid this situation, though, keeping your costs low and your business model healthy.

Price Check

You price check when you buy at home, we’re sure, so why wouldn’t you for your business? Most business owners simply don’t have the time to do this. Instead, they select a company for supplies that has moderate reviews and favorable buzz online. Not a bad idea by any means. But if this is your method of finding business partnerships, we guarantee you’ll miss the best prices available. The cheapest business, offering high-quality supplies might not be the easiest to find. You should scour the market and make sure you know, you’re buying with the best deal.

Unpaid Bills

Some business owners love to push their costs onto other companies. This is the problem with the B2B model that you’ll soon find yourself caught up in. Instead of your invoices being paid straight away, companies leave them until they shift what they bought from you. That could be months and during this time, you’re out of pocket. The best option in this situation is to use an invoice factoring service. Through invoice factoring, you can pass on your unpaid invoices to another business, and they’ll buy them off you. They’ll then collect on the debt of your business partners, leaving you with money to keep your business running. Commonly, this tactic is used in the manufacturing industry.

Outsourcing

Whatever business you are running, you should consider outsourcing as a possibility to save money. With outsourcing, you can pay for a service and avoid the costs of part of your business. For instance, HR is valuable for any business that has hired employees. Without it, you’ll find employee problems drive productivity in your business to new lows. But, HR is also expensive and requires hiring a full team of staff. You can avoid this with an outsourcing service. You still get all the benefits of an HR team without the extra paychecks.

Homeward Bound

Lastly, a lot of new businesses are cutting costs straight away by operating from home. If you don’t need a business office, why bother renting or buying one? Instead, cut out this expensive cost, working from home. You can get everything you need online anyway, through e-commerce companies. There are very few businesses that still need physical addresses to operate on the modern market.

One your best advantages as a new startup is that you are the cheap, personal option to bigger businesses. Don’t squander this by letting heavy costs eat your company from the inside.

Sadly, struggling startups are all the rage nowadays. It’s easy for a small business to find difficulties early into its reign. Most of the time, I find that the problems stem from their employees. If your business is struggling, it could be because of this.

How? Well, let’s take a look at the main ways your employees can damage your company:

Unproductive Employees Reduce Work Output

There are clear correlations between the productiveness of your staff, and the amount of work that gets done. If everyone is working at peak productivity levels, they’ll get more things done. Consequently, your business will receive a boost. The more work you do, the more money you can make. It might mean you’re making more sales or bringing in more customers. When your staff are unproductive this, leads to a reduction in their output. What this means is that your business tends to slow down. Often, a struggling business can be pinned down to unproductive employees. The clear solution is to bring productivity back up to a high level. Get people working hard, and you can speed up your business once more.

Human Error Can Cause Data Breaches

There’s no denying that humans can make errors from time to time. Nobody is perfect, we all have moments where our judgement is questionable. The problem is, in business, you can’t afford to have your employees making poor judgements. Human error can lead to big problems, most notably data breaches. It’s common for scammers to send emails to your employees that cause them to reveal sensitive business information. This is known as phishing, and it can damage your company. They may reveal things you don’t want people to know, and give access to key areas of your company. As a result, your company can be in a tough position. You may lose information on leads or give up vital accounts info. Your employees don’t intend to do this, but, human error can make it happen. This is why it’s important to cancel out the chances of your staff making bad judgements. Get phishing protection to flag up any fraudulent emails. This can stop them before your employees have a chance to make an error. As a result, your business is safer and well-protected.

Poor Customer Service Leads To Loss Of Customers

It’s simple, if you aren’t providing a good level of service, your customers will leave you. The way your employees act towards all of your customers is vital. If they make one wrong move, it could be curtains. You need to train your staff to ensure they know how to treat your customers. Make sure they know the key rules of customer service. Treat every customer with respect, make them feel valuable, and solve their queries as quickly as possible. Doing this builds trust and helps your business have better relationships with everyone. Don’t let your business struggle just because your employees are providing a poor service.

Your staff can be a problem for your business if you aren’t careful. But, turn things around, and they can be a big benefit. Ensure your employees are doing the right things, and business will be booming.

When you first decided you were going to start your business, you probably had visions of your revolutionary products, your swanky new office, and the amazing leaps in growth you’d be able to achieve. What you probably didn’t think so much about was the drier parts of running a business, like staying on top of taxes. Though you may want to put all of this off, you need to start thinking about your taxes long before April. Here’s some advice to simplify the whole issue.

First of all, make sure you’re using all the preparation tools you have at your disposal. There are many resources available which can help you find out which information and records you need to gather, and explain various tax guidelines to you. By getting a simple tax organizer or worksheet, you’ll make organizing and paying your taxes so much easier. There are many different accounting firms which will offer these kinds of forms to their clients, and walk them through the different terms and nuances. Alternatively, if you’re trying to save money, you can download them for free from a few different websites. It won’t take you long to find some handy tax calculator apps as well. All of this is before we get into professional tax software and small business applications. There are countless tools out there which will simplify your taxes for you. You may not need to suffer all those headaches you’ve been anticipating!

You can make dealing with your business taxes so much easier by being aware of some of the most common mistakes business owners make when filing their taxes. One of the main things you should never do leave all your responsibility to a tax professional. You might have gone through the founding stages of your business thinking that this is what they’re there for. Yes, these individuals can be a big help. However, that’s no excuse to pass the buck completely. As the business owner, you’ll ultimately be responsible for all the information that’s presented on your tax return. When it’s being processed, make sure you’re reviewing your tax return regularly, and asking any questions you have. I’m sure you don’t want to have to pay for an accountant and an MCC4Tax attorney.

Finally, make yourself a checklist of everything you need to do before filing your returns. The smallest of details can cost you a massive amount of time and money, and drop you in all kinds of stressful legal troubles. You may not think that you’re going to miss out on anything, but bringing a checklist into the mix will make sure. The most important steps are filing your payroll forms, sending out 1099s to contractors, getting your income and expense records together, and organizing all your miscellaneous files. Set yourself a reward at the end of it all, and check things methodically off your list. You’ll give yourself a little more peace of mind, and may dodge some serious legal ditches!

Hopefully this post has given you a clearer picture of your small business’s tax.

When you’re starting out as a business, there are two ways you can manage it. You can take things slow and steady, focusing on saving money for the long term. Or, you can ramp things up and start generating a lot of business from the get-go. The latter will take more work, and be riskier, but it can often be the most rewarding option.

If you want to get your startup off to a flying start, prepare to sacrifice a lot of money and time. There are a lot of ways you can do things faster at the beginning of your business. It’s risky as, if you can’t keep up with demand, your company could be in trouble. But if you’re confident you can handle it, here are some tips to get your startup booming from the get-go.

Get Plenty Of Funding

To maximize your startup’s potential from the beginning, you’ll need plenty of funds. You may want to get a large, long-term business loan. You could also speak to investors. Often, investors can give you valuable business advice as well as money.

Another option is to use a crowdfunding site such as Kickstarter. This will bring your company to people’s attention before it even starts, so it’s a great way to get business fast. Getting funds from many places will give you more to invest in the start of your business.

Invest In Major Operations

The first thing you should invest in is your primary business operations. For instance, if you’re planning to sell fashion online, the first investment will be buying the right apparel. In some cases, you might not need much investment, for example, if you’re providing consultancy services.

You should also focus on operations that will drive up profits. A good idea to start bringing in customers is to use reliable sales enablement services. Services like these will handle marketing for you, so that you can start making money fast.

Customer service is also vital, and many kinds of marketing can help. Renting an office and hiring a few valuable employees can get things going quickly.

Push Your Name Out There

You’ll want to get your company noticed fast. Luckily, there are ways to do this quickly. For a start, social media usage is essential. Start using Twitter for your business. Networks like Facebook and LinkedIn will also help you build a following.

You should also go to events. Things like trade shows and conferences allow you to bring your services to people’s attention. They also give you an opportunity to network with other professionals in your field.

Put Extra Work In

The benefit of getting your business booming fast is it’ll soon be generating money like clockwork. But you’ll need to expend a lot of effort for it to get to that point. If you want a flying start, be ready to put in long hours.

You might need to sacrifice some free time to maximize your business’s potential. You could read eBooks on business. You could also start posting on social media. Another idea is to start a blog or YouTube channel to create engaging content. This can draw a large audience to your company.

Get ready for long, rewarding days if you want to get successful quickly!

All business owners will admit that they have a secret desire for their company to expand as well as possible. For many, this is one of the primary aims or motivation for having the business at all. One thing is for sure: it is often seen as a strong sign of ongoing success. However, that is not to say that owning a franchise is a walk in the park. Even once you get to this stage, there are countless potential problems and issues which you may have to deal with. Indeed, your work does not end when you franchise; in many ways it has just begun. In this article, we will take you through some of the key considerations you should bear in mind if you have a franchise to run. Let’s take a look at what those might be.

Brand Loyalty

One of the main reasons that you will successfully springboard into being a franchise will be because of a strong brand. It is this which will enable you to spread your resources thin and still operate well. Of course, this means that this is also one area which you need to focus on in a strong way. You need to ensure that you are remaining loyal to your brand, no matter where you operate. This is something which can be difficult to maintain, but ultimately it just comes down to communication. As long as you are keeping in touch with the management of your various chains, you can ensure that the brand is being adhered to. It might even help to set out a style guide for your people to go by. That way, you can make sure that everyone knows exactly what you expect of them. Doing this will ensure that every limb of your expansive company remains as brand loyal as possible. And the more brand loyal it is, the stronger the brand itself is. This itself leads to a better performing business in the long run.

Hidden Costs

Many business owners find themselves franchising out a business because it is a good way of making more money in a short amount of time. This is true, and it is one of the main benefits of doing this. However, there is another side to it all as well. When you have a franchise to look after, you will soon find that there are also a huge number of hidden costs which you should be aware of. Knowing about these beforehand will help to give you a head start when you go through with it. A lot of these costs are simple multiplications of what you will already be paying out. Yet, many people forget to take them on board. Let’s take a look at rent, for example. It goes without saying that you will be paying rent on all of your buildings. But have you calculate just how much that is? And are you sure you can afford it before the next profit comes in? You need to be absolutely certain that your business can take this kind of hit first of all. And that is not to mention utilities and so on. On a more personal level, there is also a good chance that you will have to spend considerable money on travel. Chances are, you will be travelling from one outlet to the next. Make sure you can definitely afford the entire venture, otherwise there is little point.

Operating Locally

Of course, having a franchise means that your business is operating in many different locations at once. The ultimate goal is for these to operate as one seamless whole. Yet, there is a strange paradox here which needs investigating. While you do want to make sure that your business operates as a single unit, you also want to afford the same kind of existence to your individual chains. It is essential that you allow each part to operate locally, as ultimately that is where they are actually carrying out their business. In fact, it is all related. If you look after the way in which the business runs locally, you are looking after it as a whole. It might help to use a local brand analytics service like chatmeter to ensure that this is landing correctly.

Improving Efficiency

Here’s something they don’t always tell you. When you first franchise your business out, it will actually experience a drop in sales for a short time. This happens to almost everyone, and there is a very good reason for it. At first, your franchises do not know how to operate optimally. It takes time to get used to this, even with a lot of experience and money behind you. Bit by bit, however, you need to put some effort into ensuring that the efficiency improves. This can actually be achieved quite easily. Ultimately, it is all about integrating the various processes from the bottom-up. Doing it this way round gives your people the power they need to succeed. It also takes advantage of any local differences that there might be. A more efficient business will get back on its feet a lot faster, so this is vital.

Expanding At The Right Rate

Chances are, you are keen to continue expanding long into the future. Again, for many this is the whole point. If that sounds like your dream, then there is nothing wrong with that. Just bear in mind that you should be careful to expand at the right rate. What does this mean, exactly? Ultimately, it is about taking it slow enough that you can be sure of any continued success. Yet, you don’t want to take it too slow, or you might end up stagnating. Finding the perfect balance can be tough, but all it takes is some forward-thinking and a little practice. With the right approach, you will soon find your business expanding at just the right rate. Then it is just a matter of knowing where you would like to take the business next.

If you’re looking for startup ideas, there are a few things to think about. At the top of that list are costs and profits. How much does it cost to start a particular idea, and how much profit could you make? Typically, you want something that doesn’t cost a lot to start up, and will bring in big profits.

And, that’s where today’s startup idea comes into play. Running a painting company doesn’t cost a lot of money at all. Anyone can do it; there isn’t a great deal of skill or expertise involved either. All you’re doing is taking a DIY task, and making money from it. You’ll charge people to paint their buildings, both on the inside and outside. There’s a high demand for this, so, plenty of money can be made.

Here are a few tips to help you get started if you want to pursue this startup idea:

Get The Essential Equipment You Need

Obviously, you’ll need some equipment to run this business. I’m talking about various paint brushes and tools to help you paint walls on the inside and outside of houses. You need to split your equipment up into two categories; things you always need, and things you might need. My advice is to buy all the things you do need and rent things you might need. For example, buy plenty of brushes and paint spray devices as you’ll always use them, so it’s a wise investment. You could rent an elevated working platform if you ever have to paint a building that’s too tall for a regular ladder. But, it doesn’t make sense to buy this as you may not use it every time. There are plenty of other things you should rent too, to save money.

Make Your Business Look Professional

When someone is looking for a painter, they want the best in the business. More to the point, they want a professional company they can trust. If you don’t look professional, no one will be interested in you at all. First things first, get yourself an authentic website. This makes you look a lot better, and also acts as a way for people to find your company online. You should also consider getting your brand logo printed onto the vehicle you drive around in. Again, this makes you seem more like a legitimate business, rather than a random person that paints.

Broadcast Your Work

The best way to get customers is to impress them with previous work. So, upload pictures of your finished work on your website for people to see. This gives them confidence as they can see how incredible you are. Trust me, showing off your work will bring in more customers than you can imagine. With something like painting, people want to ensure they get a good job done. No one wants to take a risk when their house is being painted. So, these pictures will help people come to a decision, and give you a call.

It’s so easy to start a business like this. You can run it from home, it doesn’t cost a lot, and you’ll find plenty of work.

All business owners who know what they’re doing are aware that the people they employ are the number one concern. Your employees are what makes the business what it is. If they are not operating in the best way possible, then it soon shows in the rest of the business. It doesn’t take long for it to trickle down to the customer, who then gets the brunt of it. If you are keen for your business to do as well as possible, then you should make sure that you are making the most of your employees. To that end, let’s take a look at how you can expect to make your workforce more productive without any fuss. We will look at some of the quickest and easiest ways of achieving that.

Value Them & Their Roles

Above all, people feel the need to be valued by the people they work for. This is something which often becomes a major issue for those who work for big corporations. When the company gets too big, it can be too easy to let the individuals feel swamped in the masses. The best way to avoid this is to find the time to genuinely value each and every person who works in your business. And the best way to do that is to make sure that everyone knows what role they play in the larger machine, and why. As a rule, if people know the effects of what they are doing, they are much happier to do it. If you can explain to everyone how they fit into the business’ grand vision, they will work much harder as a result.

Teach Them

Your people will need constant training and teaching if they are to function as well as possible. This much should be obvious, but it’s amazing how often it is forgotten. If you want to make the most of your staff, then remember the importance of keeping them as well trained as possible. It is important to remember that enhancing your skills is crucial. Learn why, and then pass that learning onto those beneath you. This is the surest and quickest way to ensure that your workforce function as well as possible.

Embrace Their Individuality

One of the biggest mistakes that managers make is they try to mold their workers into certain shapes. This might seem logical at first, but it rarely holds for long. In fact, when you try to make people into something they are not, it never lasts. If you want your workforce to do as well as possible, you need to bear in mind that each person is an individual. The best managers are those who embrace the individuality of their workers. Doing so encourages people to bring their best ideas to work, for one thing. But it also makes for a more positive working culture, one in which people feel comfortable to be themselves. If you want your business to do well in the long run, never forget the basic human nature of the people you employ.

When you’re looking to sell more of your business’s products, you turn to your advertising techniques. Which tricks and techniques are the best ones for convincing people to buy more from you? That might seem like a difficult question to answer. But if you think about it, we’re all aware of the tricks that advertisers use. That’s because they are used on us every day. No one can escape the power of advertisers these days, even if you wish you could. If you want to sell better, then adopt some of these ideas and learn more to sell more to more people.

There are all kinds of tricks that you might not be immediately aware of either. Let’s face it; the world of advertising is very sly and clever. Most people don’t exactly understand how they’re being targeted with adverts, but they do have a psychological impact on us. If they didn’t, then they wouldn’t be quite so effective at making us buy products from the biggest brands in the market. So, which of these advertising tricks is it best for small businesses and startups like yours to adopt? Keep reading and you’ll find out.

Inject Some Urgency

Customers are often made to buy more and buy faster if they think they are about to miss out on a bargain. It’s a classic advertising trick. That’s why companies always emphasise the time and date at which a sale will end. They want people to rush out and buy products quickly. And that’s exactly what many of us do. It’s a trick that really does work, so it shouldn’t be ignored. By injecting some urgency into your advertising campaign, you can give people that push towards a purchase they might need. If you are putting on a sale, this is essential. Never unveil a sale unless you’re clear about when it will end.

Offer a Wide Range of Prices

Have you ever been to a restaurant and looked down the list of wines? We’ve all been there. And we all look at the bottom of the list and see how much the most expensive costs. Of course, we never buy this wine, but we look at it anyway. After this, we pick a wine that is not the cheapest, but not expensive either. Most people choose a mid-range wine. By adding more expensive products to your range, you can encourage people to buy mid-range rather than low-end products. It’s something that restaurants do very well, but the same principles can be applied to any company.

Create the Impression of Irresistible Value for Money

If you can make people believe that they are getting a lot for their money, they’ll be more likely to buy from you. Everyone wants to feel like they are being presented with a deal that allows them to get value for their money. This is normal. But you don’t always have to offer much more to get a big and positive response from customers. For example, packaging plays a big part in how much people feel like they’re getting. Strong, professional packaging is a sign of quality. And some companies even create bulkier packaging to make it look like they’re selling more.

Learn How to Present Deals

When you are offering a specific deal to customers, you need to know how to present and frame it. There are all kinds of ways in which you can tell people that you have an offer on. Do you want to tell them that some items have “10% off” while other have “25% off”? Or is it better to say that your range of products is on sale with discounts of “up to 25%”? This is one example of how the same offer can be presented in two different ways. And whenever you have two option to choose between, one is always a little better than the other. So, you need to learn how to frame each offer or deal that your business has for customers.

Get Specific Online

As much as you might wish it were so, not everyone is going to be interested in what you have to offer. This is something that you need to accept and keep in mind when you are formulating your approach to advertising. This is a particularly important point when it comes to online advertising. Online adverts are unique because they can often be targeted, especially if you use social media platforms. Facebook is known for offering companies the ability to target specific groups. These people are chosen by looking at their particular interests and likes. This can be a major advantage when you are looking to sell more. To truly make the most of these opportunities, you should work alongside an ad management company.

Don’t Tell People What to Do

Sometimes, people can be put off buying from a company if they feel like they are being told what to do. These days, you have to be a bit more clever when you are coming up with slogans and phrases that can be used in ad campaigns. You should make a joke or be a bit more self-aware. People don’t simply expect to be told to “buy now” anymore. It comes across as too direct and forward. That’s not what you want, and you can’t afford to put people off by choosing the wrong words. Every person who doesn’t like your choice of phrasing is a customer lost. And that’s not what you need when you’re looking to sell more.

Professional Images

There are two ways in which images matter to your business. First of all, images matter a great deal whenever you are trying to sell items to customers on the internet. People want to be able to get a proper look at the thing you’re trying to sell to them. If they can’t, then they simply won’t buy. It often is as simple as that. But for advertising campaigns, strong images are even more important. You need to show off and emphasise the very best that your product has to offer. The images you present should show your products or services from the very best possible angle. An image really can be better than any amount of words, so spend some time on this.

Provide Things That Turn Browsing Into Buying

There are certain items that you can give to customers. These items can turn them from browsers into buyers. You can do this online if you’re clever, but it’s easier to do it in a physical shop. For example, all good retail outlets will provide customers with a stack of baskets next to the door. These are easy to pick up as you walk into the shop, and it’s known that they make buying more likely. When people have an easy way to carry around the things that they are interested in buying, it’s good for them and you. So, why not consider doing this if you own a shop. Making it easier for people to add things to their basket online is good too. Don’t make them create an account or sign in before being able to do this.

Now that you know what you should do to improve your advertising success, you just need to take action. Knowing what to do is not the same as putting those ideas into practice. This should be your next step, so what are waiting for? The door to greater sales figures and more customers could be just around the corner, so it’s time to get to work.

A successful online business operation requires a whole host of elements to be performing at their peak. The end goal of any company, however, is to see customers purchase their products. So if your sales figures are slacking, this needs to be the first issue you address over the coming weeks and months.

But how? If winning new customers was easy, every entrepreneur on the planet would be out earning millions. In truth, keeping your clients interested and active is a tough task. Then again, as with many elements in business, eradicating silly errors will go a long way to boosting your cause.

Here are some of the most common issues that could be holding you back. Fix these immediately, and greater success beckons.

Poor Brand Image

As a business, you may only get a few seconds to attract a customer. Sadly, if you fail to grab that opportunity, you could risk severing those ties before you’ve even established a relationship. Quite frankly, being successful straight off the bat is crucial.

No two companies are the same, and you have to show customers that yours is worth investing in. People like to invest in people, so gaining a likeable presence is key. One of the best ways to do this is to support worthy causes and conduct your business in an energy efficient manner.

Above all else, you need to come across as friendly and professional. Seriously, gut instincts count for a lot. If customers feel positive about your brand, you’ll be in a far better position.

Not Reaching The Right Audience

One of the biggest mistakes you an make in business is trying to please everyone. Of course, you want to gain maximized revenue. However, diversifying too much can lead to your key audience feeling alienated from the brand. That’s the last thing you need.

You already know your niche, so it’s important that your marketing schemes are tailored accordingly. Whether it’s improving your social media campaigns or your offline ventures doesn’t matter. As long as those activities are geared towards conversion rates rather than exposure, you will see positive outcomes.

Inadequate Selling Platform

When it comes to online selling, most companies spend a lot of time and money on getting people to visit their site. Sadly, a large percentage are let down by the most basic error: the ecommerce software isn’t up to scratch.

Imagine having a physical shop and refusing card payments; you’d miss out on huge sales figures. If your website doesn’t accept as many payment types as possible, there’s a good chance that your online selling will suffer the same fate.

Just make sure that the software utilizes the best data encryption too. Otherwise, one breach of security could be disastrous for your reputation.

Customer Frustration

From the client’s perspective, using your services should be a positive experience. Whether it’s a consumer or a B2B client isn’t important, smooth interactions with the business are vital. If those transactions encourage frustration, they’ll take their business elsewhere.

Preventive maintenance will ensure that your applications don’t fall victim to regular downtime. By keeping your doors open on a 24/7 basis, you’ll reach more customers and gain better responses from those individuals too. Efficiency is crucial to any business, and your customers expect to see it at all times. Make sure they do.

No Trust

No customer is going to use a business that they don’t trust. However, it’s not all about making a great first impression and boasting the best selling platform. Quite frankly, the level of service you provide is equally important to your long-term success. As such, you must look to offer the very best standards throughout the entire process.

Customer care is a commonly overlooked element of modern business. But your company cannot afford to ignore it. Add Live Chat facilities to your website, as well as using telephone services, to attend those enquiries. In terms of gaining client loyalty, it could be the most important thing you ever do.

Lack Of Incentive

How many times have you thought about buying a product but resisted the urge? In most cases, the reason for not completing the transaction is that there is no sense of urgency. From a business perspective, you must ensure that this doesn’t become an issue.

You don’t want to be too forceful. Nevertheless, it’s important to give the customer a nudge in the right direction. Automated email marketing streams are a fantastic way to do this in a gentle way. By offering time sensitive deals, it forces the user to make a decision. If you’ve done things well, that will often mean increased sales.

As long as you follow this up with great products and a friendly service, there’s no reason that you can’t turn them into regular customers. Once you’ve achieved this, success is assured.

If you’re serious about your startup, then you’ll want to do everything you can to get ahead of the game. There are plenty of solutions that can help you drive a new business forward. Every entrepreneur knows that the startup phase is the hardest. It’s easier to rectify mistakes if you make them further down the line. However, a big mistake during the startup process and your business will fail to make it off the ground.

So, as I said, you want to try everything to get ahead of the game. My advice is to look at what some of the big, well-established, businesses are doing. See what sets them apart from the smaller ones just starting up. Most of the time, there are many differences. But, one of the key things is technology. A big business will incorporate technology far better than a small startup.

Why is this? Mainly, it’s because they know what they’re doing. They have all the knowledge to use technology in the best ways possible. Plus, many new business owners neglect the importance of technology. If you’re a small startup operation, surely there’s not a great need for technology, right?

I’m sorry, but you’re wrong. Every startup needs to embrace technology and give their business a boost. Don’t be fooled into thinking it has to be complex too. There are many solutions that are simple and very effective. In this piece, I’ll show you some great ways you can use technology in your startup. Then, I’ll conclude by summing up the benefits it can bring.

Specific Business Software

All startups should download and install specific business related software. There are many things out there that help with various processes. I find that a lot of small businesses only use a fraction of the software they should be using. For example, you’ll be hard pressed to find a company that doesn’t use payroll software. It’s an easy and effective way of paying your staff and managing your finances. Will this get you ahead of the game? No, because it’s the absolute minimum that you should be doing.

There are loads of things in your business that can be improved using software. These days, there’s been a spike in HR software for small companies. This gives you a better way of managing your employees. It can help keep absences to a minimum, and track the progress of your staff. In short, you can improve your business by looking after your employees better. Then, you have things like contract management software to help you keep things in order. There’s loads of software like this that focuses on keeping your business efficient. With software, you can automate certain processes too. It means you don’t forget important things, and they’re done automatically for you. All small startups should scour the web for crucial software that can help with various processes.

Impressive Business Hardware

Along with software, your business must make good use of hardware too. There’s lots of hardware out there that includes state-of-the-art technology. A small startup can get a significant boost from using it. The obvious thing that comes to mind is office computers. The better your computers, the more productive your staff will be. You can catapult your company ahead of the competition by getting quality computers. You’ll be surprised at how many startups don’t care about this hardware. They buy the cheapest there is, and it’s usually old and worn too.

But, computers are just the beginning for your business. Think of all the office hardware you’ll need. Ensure you get state-of-the-art stuff that functions quickly. Again, this helps increase your workflow and maximize your output. Then, think about hardware that can help your business in different ways. If you have a point of sale, you can use amazing hardware here too. By point of sale, I mean the place where customers pay for things. In some businesses, you’ll have a main till at the front of a retail store. Then, you have other companies that have a small card reader to charge customers. Either way, unless your business operates online-only, you’ll have a point of sale. And, the hardware you use can be very important. These days, everyone should have hardware that accepts contactless payments. It’s the future, so, get on board while you can. It makes things convenient and quick for customers. Depending on your business, there’s impressive hardware out there for you to use. Don’t be afraid to invest in new technologies, as they will serve you well over time.

The Benefits Of Technology For Your Startup

So, I’ve given you some great advice on what technology you can use. I tried to keep things as simple as possible, to make it easier for you to understand. That’s why I split things up into two key sections; software and hardware. Understand that you need both of these things to give your business the push it needs.

Now, what are the overall benefits of using technology? You’ll note that I’ve touched upon a few earlier, and now I’ll go into more detail:

Productivity & Efficiency

There’s no denying that technology can make a business more productive and efficient. A combination of great software and hardware will do this. Your staff will find it easier to work to the best of their abilities if they have great hardware at their disposal. I can tell you it’s much better trying to work from a modern, fast, computer, compared to a slow, old one. Then, you have software to help make things easier still. Like I said, it can automate some processes. So, the software saves a lot of time and effort, allowing you to focus on more pressing issues. The all around effect is that your company gets more work done, in a shorter space of time.

Reputation

Another interesting benefit of technology is that it can improve your reputation. Think about it, how many people look down their noses at startups? We all know it’s true, they see your business as small and insignificant. With technology, you can reverse this perception of your business. Let’s say someone walks into your shop and see’s that you use state-of-the-art payment methods. They’ll walk out of there thinking you know your stuff. They’ll be impressed by this show of recent technology. It shows customers that you’re on the ball, and they like that. Post photos of your office on social media showing off your computers, etc. I know, it sounds a bit silly, but the effect is impressive. People will marvel at your hardware, and they’ll start to think highly of your company. It improves your reputation and public perception all in one.

Future Preparation

Finally, technology can prepare your business for the future. You can’t escape the fact that technology will soon take over the business world. Before you know it, every company will be forced to use it to survive. When this happens, it means you can fall behind the competition. You’ll be trying to get to grips with things everyone else has been using for ages. So, if you start implementing technology now, it will help you in the future.

And, so concludes my introduction to technology and your startup. My aim was to provide you with vital information that can help you out. Now, you know how to use technology for your small business. The tips I’ve provided should help you get started, and move on to better things. When you start making good use of technology, you’ll see the benefits I spoke about above.

Ecommerce is becoming a huge industry. So many people choose to shop on their home computers and smartphones these days, so selling online can be very profitable. The sector is also set to grow, becoming even larger with each coming year.

It’s also one of the best industries to operate in. So many resources are available for creating and building an online shop, making it easy for anyone. Most physical stores also sell online to make even more sales. Some people even sell online as a hobby to make extra money on the side.

If you sell online, then you’ve already made a good choice. The next step is to expand your online shopping company for even more sales. Even if you’re a one-person company, there are many services you can use to get the most out of your online shop. Here are some effective ways to maximise the potential of your ecommerce business.

Make The Most Of Your Website

Every ecommerce business will need an eye-catching and practical website. A highly accessible site makes it easy for customers to find precisely what they want and pay for it instantly.

Most people use online shopping cart software like X-Cart to handle this. Ecommerce software like this will make your website into an attractive digital storefront. Customers will be able to find items by their categories, and sort by popularity, price or other factors.

Make sure your online store is accessible for all browsers, as well as smartphones. People shop online in different ways so it’s best to have all bases covered. Offering a range of payment options also helps to please any potential buyers and maximize growth.

Outsource Your Logistics

As you sell to more people, you have to put more and more work into postage and packaging. You also have to have a lot of storage room to keep all your stock. Renting storage can be costly, plus individually packing and posting every item can eat up a lot of your valuable time.

That’s why many sellers make use of fulfillment companies. These kinds of services can store your products in an order fulfillment center, ready to pack and send away when needed. They’ll have staff that can handle the careful packaging and shipping of your items so you don’t have to do it yourself.

This saves you a lot of time and money to focus on other operations. You won’t have to hire more people to handle more orders since a logistics company will do it all for you. They can also handle returns and refunds. Utilizing one of these services helps you grow and fulfill more orders.

Sell On Multiple Websites

While your website may be your main port of call, selling on other shopping sites can help you reach even more customers. Just like real businesses grow by opening more branches, online shops grow by selling in more places.

Websites like Amazon and eBay attract an enormous amount of visitors each month. They also allow you to open a page for your shop, and sell directly through their site. This may mean paying some commission, but the amount of extra business you get for it is worth it.

Boost Your Marketing

Marketing is essential for online shops to bring in more customers. A common form of digital marketing is search-engine optimization (SEO). SEO gets your website seen on search engines for particular search terms. You can also take things a step further with conversion rate optimization (CRO). CRO services will make sure that the people coming to your site turn into customers.

Another big way you can market your online store is to get on social media. Twitter and Facebook are goldmines for potential new customers. Instagram is also useful for online shops. You can post high-quality photos of your product range and link to your store to persuade people to buy.

Social networks allow you to use hashtags. You could use hashtags relating to your business to attract your target market. For instance, if you sell necklaces and earrings you could add #jewelry #accessories to your posts. Social media websites are also a great place to post competitions and promotions. Viewers will share exciting offers to more potential customers.

Improve Your Product Range

When your business is running smoothly and your products are selling well, it’s time to offer even more to customers. Businesses use various strategies to improve the quality and quantity of their products, all of which can lead to growth in profits.

You might want to improve the quality of your existing products. A buyer who liked an old product might like an improved version, and you can sell it for a higher price. Offering new products entirely will excite your loyal customers and boost their spending. For example, if you’re known for selling phone cases, you can make even more money by also offering chargers and earphones.

You could also branch out into other areas. You might start by selling cooking ware, but expanding to offer home decorations as well can appeal to a wider market. If you have done a good job of attracting customers, more products will create more profits.

Go To Events

An effective way to reach even more people is to take your online shop to events. Things like trade shows, fairs, and exhibitions are great for appealing to new contacts and customers.

Setting up a fancy stall and engaging with visitors at an exhibition will get your name out there. Be sure to bring some products to show off and sell and hand out business cards. You may even be able to find events for your particular sector. For example, crafts fairs are popular for online stores dealing in handcrafted goods.

Make Customer Service A Priority

Excellent customer service goes a long way to keeping customers coming back. Give buyers ways to contact you with feedback. Deal with any complaints instantly. Make sure every customer goes away satisfied. Happy customers will give you good reviews, which will boost your reputation. Shining reviews attract new customers, so excellent customer service keeps your business growing.

Moving into a new office space is always a big step for your business to take. When you do it, here are some things that you shouldn’t forget.

Setting Up Electronics and Technology

You’ll have to set up all the technical things before you actually move into the office properly. No company can function these days without the right gadgets and technology. So, get this done in advance. That way, you can get straight down to work when the time comes to eventually make the move to your new office. You might want to invest in new technology rather than taking the time and effort to transport the old items though. The business could really benefit from this. You can then protect your new computers by using things like Windows performance monitor. If updating your tech options is long overdue, grab the chance to do it when you move.

You’ll Have to Use the New Space Differently

Every office space is different, so you can’t treat your new space the same way you treated the old one. You should embrace the chance to changes and do things a little differently. It could completely change the way your office functions, which might be a positive thing. You might even want to take the opportunity to make the space more collaborative and free. Breaking down the barriers that separated people in your old office can encourage people to share ideas and be more creative. Take a look at the space you have available and then work together with your colleagues to make it work for you.

Putting Your Stamp on it Will Help

When your office has your business’s stamp on it, it quickly starts to feel more like home. This is something that you should keep in mind during those early days and weeks. If the office doesn’t feel right just yet, reserve judgement until you’ve decorated it and put your stamp on it. Adding the business’s logo on the wall and using your company’s trademark colours could make a big difference. Plus, it takes time to get used to a new working environment. This will be the case for everyone, so give it some time. It can even be a good idea to get the decorating done in advance. That way, it will feel right as soon as you move in.

It Can be a Fresh Start for Everyone

Lastly, remember that a new office also means a new start. You can take the opportunity to refresh the business and start from a clean slate. It’s a new chapter in the story of your business, so make the most of it. You could look for ways to encourage new ideas and work in different ways. It’s not uncommon for a move like this to be the catalyst that helps the business grow and push on more than ever before. When you first arrive in the new office, hold a meeting with everyone who works for the business and make this clear. That way, everyone will feel included in the future of the business.