Startup Tips

Making a success of your startup is going to be tricky. That’s always the case when you’re trying to run a new business. And you always have that thought in the back of your mind that your business could be one of the many startups that fails in the first year. To avoid that happening to your young company, you will have to take certain steps and get some of the important things right.

Getting all of these things right will allow your business to lay the right foundations and put it on the path towards success. That’s a pretty big deal, so don’t make the mistake of just making things up as you go along. If you try to do that, you will probably never find success. So, read on now and take advantage of the information offered below.

Balancing the Books

The first rule of business is always that you need to balance the books. If your accounts are not in order, and the business is not bringing in more money than it’s making, your business will be in trouble. It quite simply won’t survive for long enough to be a success. So, rather than letting this slide, you need to be on top of it straight away. Businesses that don’t pay attention to balancing their books fail sooner or later. I’m sure that’s not something that you want to happen to your business. You can hire an accountant if you don’t think this is something you’re going to be able to do alone. Learn how to do this at www.entrepreneur.com.

A Flexible Approach

Flexibility is a really important factor when running a modern business. You have to be able to change things up and do things differently when necessary. In those early months in business, you will be finding your feet, testing things and finding out what works best for your business. It’s during that time that you have to be able to shift things and shuffle the pack to make the most of the situation you find your business in. So, try to make your business and its workforce as adaptable and flexible as possible.

Customer Targeting

Knowing who your business should target with its products and services is really important. Every business should have target customers. If your business doesn’t have these, you will be pretty aimless, and your advertising and marketing efforts might never be seen by the most important people. This is a problem that many new businesses face because they haven’t yet thought things through clearly. You can change that by carrying out some market research and finding out what kind of customers are going to be most interested in what you have to offer.

Online Marketing

Online marketing is something that your startup will need to get right from day one. If you fail to get it right early on, your business will not be able to take advantage of everything the internet has to offer in terms of making sales. First of all, you should make sure that your business is present on all of the major social media platforms, as well as some of the minor ones too. If your business sells things that are visually appealing in some way, use platforms like tumblr and Instagram. You can also go to https://www.clarkempire.com if you want to improve your SEO techniques. This will help drive more traffic towards your business’s website.

Office Management and Communication

Communication is a pretty big deal when you are trying to run a business. If your employees are not working with one another and communicating with one another in the correct way, your business will never get anywhere. I’m sure that’s not what you want to happen, so provide your employees with what they need in order to communicate with one another. A proper management structure is important too. This help everyone to know who they should report to and communicate with.

Analyse the Important Metrics

There are so many great metrics that can be used to assess the performance of your business. You should definitely try to take advantage of these if you can. When you know exactly how your business is performing, what it’s doing well, and what it’s doing badly, you can create a plan for what your business should do going forward. You could track how your business is being used by looking at the traffic figures, the bounce rate and the conversion rate. When you know how it’s being used, it will be clear how you can improve it.

In the digital age, it’s easy to assume that physical signage and other types of “real-world” branding are not as important as they once were. After all, so much of marketing today is about what you do online—from banner ads to social media to your own company web page. As of 2016, the average company was spending 35% of its annual marketing budget on digital marketing, and that money is only poised to grow. For startups—many of which get underway as online-only businesses, with no physical addresses and little need for non-digital marketing—the percentage is probably even higher.

Why Physical Signage Still Matters

Before you write off physical marketing entirely, think about your past experiences as a customer or a client. When you walk into a store or restaurant, there are certain things you expect to see as signifiers that the business is truly professional—and therefore worthy of your time and money. An attractive physical sign out front is one of those signifiers. The same is surely true if you have ever gone into an office building for a job interview or a meeting with the executives there.

The bottom line is this: no matter how much technology evolves and changes things, first impressions are always going to matter. In the digital world, some of those first impressions are going to happen on the Internet—perhaps even most of them, depending on what your company does. However, in the vast majority of cases, some of those vital first impressions are still going to happen in the physical world.

In other words, you should invest money in making sure that your website or online storefront is stunning. You should make sure that your online presence looks great, works great, and drives customer engagement. What you shouldn’t do is forget about the other side of things. Investing the time and money it takes to come up with a truly beautiful physical sign is a step that will make sure you keep one leg firmly planted in the physical marketing space—even if most of your focus is on digital platforms.

How to Design the Right Physical Sign for Your Business

So how can you achieve the right effect with your physical signage? How can you achieve a professional look while also remembering that you are a small business that needs to save money at every turn? Here are a few tips you should follow to make sure you can get the sign you want at a price point your fledgling business can afford.

• Consider all the aesthetic angles: First, start by trying to sketch out some ideas for the artistic design of your new business sign. There are a few different factors to consider here, including color, contrast, and size. You have to consider these factors, as they will significantly impact the readability of your sign. Size (as well as the material you choose for your sign) will also affect the ultimate price tag for the project. You need to balance these strategic facets with the more artistic side of the equation. What do you want your sign to resemble? Obviously, you will want to have your brand name and your logo represented. The colors you usually use for elements in your other branding materials—such as your website or your letterhead—might be able to point you in the right direction for your sign.

• Consider placement and perspective: One of the biggest differences between designing visual marketing materials for digital purposes, and doing it for physical applications, is perspective. When you are creating a logo or banner for digital use, all you need to worry about is how it looks. Color and contrast still matter, but your primary goal is to create something that is eye-catching—not necessarily something that is eye-catching and easy to read from any angle. For physical signage, you can build readability into your sign design, but the placement is going to be just as important. Putting the sign where it is going to attract the most attention, lighting it to make sure people can see it in low-light conditions, and playing the angles to make sure it is visible and readable from the road are all important considerations.

• Consider hiring a professional designer: Once you’ve brainstormed what you want your sign to look like and where you want to position it, start looking for a company that specializes in wall graphics in your area. A professional designer will be able to take your concepts and turn them into something truly stunning. Plus, a sign company can take care of printing or manufacturing—steps you might not have the capacity to handle without help.

Physical signage may not mean as much in today’s business world as it used to, but it’s still an important part of a company’s brand. While your startup might not need to invest in physical signage right away—especially if you are one of those born-in-a-garage companies, eventually, you will need a physical sign, and the tips provided in this article should help you create an effective one.

When it comes to making your brand appear smart or professional to customers, and even competing organisations, the goal is to create a picture which says a thousand words. You want to be portraying success, organisation, dedication and quality all at once. Of course, that’s easier said than done. Every other business within your respective industry has likely already honed the perfect image and might be drawing away your potential customers, even though you offer the same services. However, as you may well have realized by now, there is far more to the success of a business than its products or services. There’s an art to turning heads and convincing consumers that your business can improve on competitors within your industry. Here’s a guide to the art of making your brand look smart.

Strong marketing.

The business world is always changing, but, even if you’re a new and upcoming business, you’ve likely seen the rapid-paced evolution of marketing and business methods as a result of the digital era which dominates the modern world in which we live. It can be quite an overwhelming, head-spinning experience simply trying to keep up with the latest and greatest methods technology and the internet has to bring, but if your brand is going to take one thing from the digital revolution and run with it, it should be online marketing.

A professional and eye-catching brand uses the web to its advantage at every possible opportunity. Simply having a business website or dotting a few adverts on websites isn’t going to cut it. People are over pushy marketing; they independently browse for goods and services, which means you need to be putting your brand in their line of view. As mentioned over at http://seriousstartups.com, SEO techniques could help propel your business’ website up the rankings on Google search result pages through keywords and a responsive content layout. The latter will also serve to present your brand as professional, and the design will look appealing no matter the device on which people view your website.

The office.

A brand shouldn’t just be a pretty face on the outside, but live up to its big promises on the inside. That means your business needs to be projecting the same level of professionalism and caring values within the office. You should be treating your employees in the same way as you treat your customers, as this is what makes the brand real.

A dull working environment won’t inspire your employees to be the beacons of light and helpful customer service that you claim them to be. You could spruce up the office with a little color on the walls or look into new furnishings over on http://fsgofficefurniture.com/. A break-room kitted out with a pool table and perhaps a TV would also give your workers something to be excited about at lunchtime, rather than the simple pleasure of eating their lunch in itself.

Be sociable.

Customers want to talk to real people, rather than some cold and impersonal corporate entity. As suggested over on https://designschool.canva.com, the language which your company uses to talk with customers both current or potential on social media could be the difference between building lasting relationships and spreading your brand further across the platform or leaving consumers disinterested and frustrated with your approach. Make it clear that there’s a happy and motivated team of real life people working behind the scenes. Make it personal.

Search engine optimization is one of the most valuable tools at a company’s disposal. With the right strategy, SEO can propel a firm from the bottom to the very top. Seriously; that’s how crucial it is to a business’s success. The problem with SEO is that it is hard to see it in action because it is so obscure. Sure, the site has plenty of backlinks and keywords in the right places, but how can a company know that they work? To answer that question, here are a few signs that are always positive.

Analytic Trackers

In simple terms, analytic trackers are tools which track a strategy and report on its effectiveness. For example, a quality SEO report tool will tell a business everything from the overall score to the mobile-friendly score. Once a firm knows its score, it can tweak its strategy to try and take advantage of SEO. The key thing to remember is that not all analytic tools are reliable. Some don’t tell the truth because they have an agenda, and others only focus on lead generation. A company needs a tracker that has elements of everything to get the best results.

Keyword Rankings

Keywords are the foundation of SEO. Without them, there is no way that a website will move up the search engine rankings. That’s how essential they are, which is why they need respect. They also need tracking because keywords and phrases change and evolve, and so should the business. Start by checking the rankings (put the search terms into Google) and following them for the next six months. After that time, if nothing has changed, the policy isn’t working and needs fixing.

Traffic

The best and simplest way to check SEO is working is to take a look at the site’s traffic. The entire point of search engine optimization is to bring in more visitors to the website. If the site gets more viewers on a daily basis, it is because of the strategy. To check the levels of traffic, it is important to have an analytics tool because that tracks the number of visitors. It also tracks the number of people that bounce, which is a sure-fire sign the SEO strategy isn’t right.

The Competition

Is the competition changing their plan? Are they doing things they didn’t do before in an attempt to keep up with their rivals? If the answer is yes, everything is going according to plan. Rival firms always keep an eye on their competitors because they don’t want to fall behind. As a result, they will copy their opponents when they do something well to minimize the damage. Plus, if it works for one firm, it should work for another. Like a soccer player that gets fouled all of the time, it is a sign that they are scared. And, they are afraid because they know they aren’t in the same league.

A business that can see any of these knows that their SEO plan is working.

A lot of people dream about starting their own business, and developing it to become a powerhouse in its certain field. However, for some people it is just that: a dream. They want to start their own business but can’t see any viable way in which they would be able to start it up – finances, family, and dubiousness can all come into play to leave a negative effect in the mind, meaning that the potential entrepreneur will simply settle for their job working for someone else in a corporate company or a small business. They will always dream about owning their own business but they just do not have the right situation or determination to follow through with their idea. But, there are of course people who do go through with their idea for a business and manage to get any potentially detrimental situations that could affect their startup sorted out before they go ahead with their entrepreneurship. These situations can range from: saving enough money, putting a business plan in place, to scoping out potential clients and underlying their targeted customer base.

When deciding to take the plunge and to go ahead with your business idea, it is important that you realize that it will take time for your business to properly develop and flourish. It is rare that a business makes any sort of substantial profit within the first year, and profits do tend to come in after the first year when the business has settled down. It is likely that you will be working from a home office for a while as business offices do tend to cost a lot of money – and you will want to save your cash for the essentials. One important aspect of beginning your business is to ensure you invest in the right software and hardware for your needs. Without the right choices, it is likely that you will not be able to do jobs properly and could end up frustrated at the programs you have chosen. You could take the time to do some research on https://www3.technologyevaluation.com/ec/customer-relationship-management-crm.html to ensure you make the right choices. The same goes for hardware, if the hardware you are using is old and worn down, then there is a chance that it may not work to its full potential and could leave you lacking in the right technological needs.

Before you decide to start your business, it could be important for you to think about the structure of your business, the policies and procedures, the target market, and the services your business is going to offer. Without thinking about the right way that you would like your business to align and proceed to, you could be leaving yourself open to the business failing even before it starts up. Research when developing a business is key to allowing it and enabling it to grow, prosper and flourish properly. The last thing you will want is for your business to not be structured properly, and ready to fail.

When it comes to business idea inspiration, a lot of people are encouraged down well-worn routes such as drop shipping or starting a craft business. That’s because they are relatively easy entry, not requiring extra qualifications, and generally accessible to a large volume of people.

While general new business ideas are useful to some, for others, they’re not great. If you have prior experience in an industry – especially if you have qualifications – then you might not want to start a business away from that industry. You might just want the freedom to kick out on your own and experience the wonders of being your own boss.

In fact, it’s probably the preferable way to go about things. After all, you went through all the training and the cost of education – why turn your back on it?

What If… You’re Sick Of Your Existing Industry?

If you’re looking to start a business to escape your existing industry as it’s getting you down, then yes, the generic ideas are going to sound appealing. You can imagine your life, refashioned, turning you into someone new as you develop new skills and grow a business from scratch. It’s idyllic to imagine.

But think about why you no longer want to work in your existing industry. Have you grown tired of the job? Or just the way the job is done? A bad boss or a company that’s no fun to work for, with restrictive employment practices, can strip the passion out of anyone. Chances are, the passion that led you down that road is actually still there, lying dormant, under the stress of being an employee.

What If… You Don’t Think You Have The Other Skills?

Let’s say that you hold a law qualification and are tired of your existing firm. So you do as above and want to work in the legal field, but for yourself.

Then you realize what would go into setting up your own practice. You don’t know the ins and outs of accountancy, how to hire staff, or even the basics you’d need in terms of managing a client list. So wouldn’t it just be easier to turn to a no-skill entry business idea?

No – because you’re still going to have to learn a bunch of new skills whichever you choose. It’s a natural concern; a trained lawyer doesn’t understand business tax returns, a doctor doesn’t know how to handle clients, a graphic designer has never had to worry about hiring staff before. So what use is their existing industry when faced with those problems?

There are always ways and means of filling in the gaps. The lawyer can do a short accountancy course; the doctor can bring in the likes of Groove Medical, the graphic designer can use a recruitment agency.

Whatever way you do things, you’re still going to need to learn new skills. It’s a lot simpler to learn business support ideas than an entirely new craft.

What If… You’re Not Sure What To Do Within Your Industry?

If you’re a doctor and have grown tired of patient work, you can always look to start a company in research or development. That applies across the board: while you might have training for one thing, it doesn’t have to be specific. Think about all the steps that go into facilitating the way companies you have worked for are able to operate. Somewhere, there’s a link in the chain that’s just waiting for you to offer a new enterprise within.

It’s not as easy to get a business loan as some people make out. Here’s an essential read for those who are having difficulty getting that loan!

Considering the alternatives

Getting a big business loan from a bank is often seen as the best way to get capital for your business – often, it’s seen as the only way. But the fact is that there are plenty of others ways to get capital that you may not have considered.

There are the more famous and modern methods such a crowdfunding. Don’t rest all your hopes on the likes of Kickstarter, however – many budding entrepreneurs seem to assume that Kickstarter campaigns are always successful, but you should never underestimate how much you have to really impress the public with your idea. Alternatively, you could look into more long-term money-raising efforts like trading. You could develop your business idea further while allowing an investment to grow. Find out more at https://www.binaryoptionsexpert.net.

Full steam ahead

Really, the best thing you can do if you have a business idea is to develop that business with what you’ve got. Do the best that you can with the resources to hand! If you just let a business idea stagnate until you’re able to get a loan, or money by other means, then you’re simply wasting time and potential.

See how far you can take your business without the large amount of capital for which you were initially planning. It will probably turn out to be far more realistic than you thought – in fact, there are business owners out there who ended up regretting getting an expensive loan once they realized how far they could have gotten without it! Read more about starting a business with little capital at http://seriousstartups.com.

Research is your friend

Of course, there’s no point denying reality: starting a business without any capital isn’t really ideal. Everyone interested in starting a business should just go ahead and get started before they get the capital – but, eventually, the growth of any business is going to need some sort of cash injection.

A lack of a big business loan from a bank isn’t going to doom you – this is the important point to take away from this. But in order to get your head around the situation, you’re going to need to reassess how much you actually need. This is going to require further research – as will finding cheaper options for all of the business needs you originally envisioned.

Figuring out how much you need

Don’t start with the question “do I need a loan” or “how do I get a loan”. Answer the question “how much do I really need to start this business?”. Try to boil it down to the minimum you would need – work under the assumption that you won’t be able to get a loan. Be brutal!

A lot of people don’t take this line of thinking because the “common wisdom” is that you should always aim to borrow more than you actually need. Of course, if you can easily get a loan, this is sound advice. But if you’re not in such a comfortable position, you must be more strict. Read up on proper cost assessment at https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246079.

It wasn’t so long ago that modern marketers were declaring the death of traditional marketing methods. Social media came along and all of a sudden people wanted to be engaged and connected to brands, rather than watching ads on TV. And people just wanted content – lots and lots of content – whatever that is. Brands started putting significant amounts of money into creating conversations with people because people love having chats with companies that make baked beans. And, of course, advertising companies pumped millions into banner ads on websites, despite that fact that over half of them were only ever displayed to bots.

Unsurprisingly, it turns out that the traditional marketing methods devised over more than a century are still relevant. And while there are some incredibly talented and clever companies working with online marketing and digital ‘content,’ there is also a heck of a lot of people out there who don’t seem to have a clue what they are doing. Sure, they might be great at SEO or posting pictures of cute cats doing funny things on social media, but marketing of any kind is, ultimately, about driving sales. And the simple truth is that, on the whole, online marketing is massively failing in this regard.

With this in mind, we thought we would go through some of the online and offline marketing techniques that many businesses are using today. And, we’re going to explore whether or not they will work for your company. Let’s take a look at and kick things off with digital marketing – the up and coming challenger to more traditional methods.

SEO

The first step you will take in online marketing is to look at search engine optimization – or SEO. It’s basically to do with being visible online, and driving traffic to your website – and it is important to get it right. SEO is seen as something of a mystical art, but the truth is that it is actually quite straightforward – just incredibly time-consuming, and a little technical.  

It’s for this reason that many website owners prefer to pass on duties to third party SEO firms or online marketing companies, and also experience varying results. The trouble is, traffic can be manipulated, by fair means or foul. And if you land yourself with an SEO specialist who enjoys the darker side of search manipulation – known as ‘black hat‘ – then you will eventually pay the penalty.

SEM

Search engine marketing – or SEM – is a little more similar to traditional marketing in that you pay for it directly. In a similar manner that you would pay for an amount of flyers, say, you pay for a volume of ad displays online. SEM results in paid traffic, while SEO is for attracting what is termed as ‘organic’ traffic. There is a multitude of different options in SEM, from banner ads to Pay per Click (or PPC) from services like Google’s Adwords. And, as any digital marketer will tell you, SEM is just as important for attracting traffic to your site as SEO.

However, as we mentioned in the intro, SEM is just as rife with hooky behaviour as SEO. There is something of a scandal about display ad banners at the moment, and there are some major players in the advertising world who are starting to feel a little uneasy as their biggest clients cotton on to what is, actually, fraud on a massive scale. Undoubtedly, SEM can work for your business, but when you consider the whole industry has been taken for a ride, it’s difficult to trust anyone with 100 percent confidence.

CRO

So, if you set up your SEO for success, you should have a whole bunch of visitors coming to your website, right now. But what happens if they don’t stick around for too long, or never seem to buy anything? The trouble with SEO is that it doesn’t necessarily result in your company making any money – a million visitors are just as good as none if they don’t buy anything.  And, if they aren’t buying anything, the answer lies in something called conversion rate optimization – or CRO. CRO is the process of refining your website to make people do the things that you want them to do. It could be to buy a product, or sign up for an email newsletter – or just follow you on social media.

You will need to look at the words that you use on your sales page, and you will also have to think about how easy it is for them to find what they are looking for. For example, if your customer knows what they want to buy, they don’t want to have to trawl through dozens of pages and take hundreds of actions to buy it. They just want to click a button, enter their details, and pay. That’s it. Despite the rumors you might hear, conversion is the most important thing to look at on your website – not SEO. There’s absolutely no point spending money on more traffic if nobody ever buys anything, or you are getting zero return.

Content and social media

The final string to the online marketing bow is, of course, content and social media. Both were thought of as essential in the not-too-distant past, and it’s fair to say that both can give you great results – but only under the right direction. Take social media, for example. When the likes of Facebook first started, digital ‘gurus’ proclaimed that it was the end of traditional advertising.

These days, however, it’s near on impossible to get any exposure on Facebook as a business, unless you are paying for ads – making it just another advertising platform, but with a modern twist. And as for content – well, thanks to the Content Is King proclamation, you now have millions of websites all pumping out the same old, dry, boring information as millions of others. Excellent, informative, and inspiring articles, videos, podcasts and other media can work – but they also take investment if you want to do it right.

Print and local marketing

With all this in mind, where, then, does traditional marketing stand in this new, digital era? The truth is that it is doing very well. Take estate agents as the perfect example. You see agent’s windows full to the brim with attractive properties everywhere on UK high streets. Look at houses up for sale on any road in the country, and you will see advertising hoardings – not just to notify a house is up for sale, but also advertising school fetes and local events. And how many times a week do you get print materials through your door, created by estate agent flyers design and supply companies? Tech-savvy estate agents are investing in drones to fly over properties and give a much better overview of the local area than was possible before. Yes, there is a huge market to fight for in the online world, but in a competitive arena such as the estate agency industry, a local presence is, possibly, a lot more necessary.  

Traditional media

TV and radio advertising are not dead. In fact, the figures have ever been better. According to statistics, it is the most influential medium for enticing consumers to make a purchasing decision. More people than ever are watching TV. And the digital world is only helping TV, rather than being the cause of its destruction. Radio ads are also incredibly successful – and cheap. With so many companies pouring millions into online advertising, many are forgetting about the impact of a simple radio ad and jingle. In fact, the only traditional advertising medium seemingly disrupted by digital is the newspaper – but there is still an opportunity to get in front of millions on a daily basis.

Trade shows and events

While the Internet explosion means that many people are happy to shop online, they are still incredibly attracted to live events, and trade shows. In fact, given the nature of business existing online more than off these days, it’s often the only chance people get to be personal. We’re human, after all, and we all prefer that face-to-face contact – it’s in our genes.

The link

To conclude the argument, there isn’t really a fight between digital and traditional marketing, of course. The truth is that we should just call the whole thing marketing and have done with it. Yes, things are changing, but not as much as the online gurus and ‘thought leaders’ would have you believe. Ultimately, the things that inspire people to buy – psychology, social proof, persuasion – are all the same whatever format they are presented in. So, as a business, you should be trying to take a whole approach to your marketing. Use digital to complement your offline efforts, and vice versa. Focus on creating an end goal, and develop a marketing strategy to achieve your aims. And finally, don’t fall for the next big thing, until the next big thing can be proven with the right results.

What are your thoughts on traditional and digital marketing? Let us know in the comments section below!  

The success of any business, of any size, in any sector, depends heavily on its marketing. The success of any marketing campaign is not only tied up in how much you sell your products or services, but also the methods you use. Starting a business is now easier than ever, and with such an over-saturated market, it’s more important than ever to make your brand stand out from the competition. Here are some tips for going about this…

Invest Heavily in Your Website

These days, when any consumer wants to find a specific product or service, the first thing they do is search for it on Google. Your website is going to be the first taste a lot of people get of your business, and the quality of it will have a massive impact on the way people perceive your brand. This is what makes it so essential to invest a decent amount of time and money into creating your website. While it’s certainly possible to create a good website on your own steam, without any hard technical skills, you’ll be very hard pressed to achieve the things a professional can. An experienced web designer will have a keen understanding of what works and what doesn’t, and will be able to align your site with your overarching business goals.

Use Both Traditional and Digital Marketing

Traditional marketing is now nowhere near as necessary as it has been in the past. These days, you can plan out and execute a highly effective marketing campaign sitting in front of a computer, and maintain the strength of your brand using purely digital means. However, with so many new businesses taking this digital-only route, it’s become more important to set your brand apart from the rest of the business arena by throwing some traditional marketing into the mix. Traditional flyers, billboards, pedicab advertising and other tactics can all be highly effective for making your brand stand out. While they’re constantly being bombarded with digital advertising, your target market will be more likely to notice something they see in the real world, and will want to chase it up online. You can also combine the two sides of marketing, using QR codes and promotional voucher keys on print advertising. Just because some traditional marketing tactics are old doesn’t mean they’re obsolete!

Be Social!

When starting a business, a lot of entrepreneurs will set their brand up on several social networks, but then leave it at that, and won’t pay much attention to them afterwards. We come to a pretty inconvenient truth here, in that having no social media presence at all is often better than having one that looks barren and inactive. Make sure your social channels are constantly being monitored, and that you’re responding to all your customer’s questions, comments and complaints promptly. The more you interact, the more you’ll begin to form a unique tone to your brand’s communications, which will be exceedingly useful for distinguishing your venture from all the others it’s up against.

Employing new staff members is always hard. You need to make sure that you don’t just hire people because you like them. And, you need to make sure that you’re getting the best fit for your business. A lot of companies struggle to do this. And, it makes sense. A lot of the time, you’ll have loads of applicants for a job. So, going through them all can be hard. If you don’t choose the right one, though; you could regret it. To help you out this post will go through some of the important parts of the employment process. And, what you should be considering at each step.

A lot of companies try to recruit their staff on their own. Of course, this can be great. It saves you money and means that you will have less applicants to deal with. But, it could also be very negative. Having less people able to find your business or job will mean that you’ll have less chances of getting a quality worker. And, you will have a lot of work to do. Instead, it can be better to get the help of an agent who can do most of the work for you. The type of recruiter that you use will depend on your business. For example, if you’re a luxury restaurant, you may need to use a top 10 executive recruiter. Or, if you have a factory; a temporary agent might be able to do the job. People in this position will even be able to help you with the interviews.

When it comes to interviewing people, you have to be asking the right questions. This is someone that you’re thinking about trusting with your business. This means that it’s critical that they’re the right person. So, you need to think about what you want from them; but, don’t be direct. For example, if you want someone who is a quick thinker; you should have them solve some weird questions. This will give you concrete proof that they can think on their feet and will be able to handle your challenges. Always encourage them to ask questions, too.

Choosing the best candidate will be hard. In some ways, it can be better to go with your heart. But, in others, it can be better to use pure logic. So, you need to use a mix of the two. Start by thinking about it logically. Who is the very best candidate on paper? Once you’ve found some options, you can start thinking with your heart. At this point, you can think about the office or work environment they will be in. And, their suitability for it. This can be very hard. And, it will take some time. But, it’s worth doing it right.

This should give you an idea of what needs to be done when you’re considering hiring a new employee. A lot of companies make mistakes with this that can costs them a lot of money. And, these mistakes can also impact your current staff.

Businesses tend to live in a bubble. For most firms, the immediate plan is to deal with the people that are the nearest because they are the easiest to reach. Then, the plan inches forward to increase the customer base. Although there is nothing wrong with this approach, there is a glaring gap between the people you market to and the overall internet users. Almost 40% of the world’s population is online, which equates to around 3 billion people. With your current tactic, you will be lucky to reach 1% of this number.

The reality is that there’s an enormous amount of people surfing the web, and they don’t stick to their boundaries. They are happy to view content on any site from anywhere in the world because the cyber highway is limitless. This means you are a potential host, yet your strategy is inhibiting the site’s ability to go global. Going global is the right thing, and you have to localize your content to the customer’s surroundings to do it.

Don’t know where to start? Don’t worry because everything you need to know is underneath.

Analyze The Market

Over time the strategy will change, but it begins like any other. How do most plans start? They tend to start by analyzing the market to figure out things like the geographical market. Plus, you also want to know who your target customer within the location is and what language they speak. When you have this information, the business can come up with a plan with how it will tackle the major problems. Intelligent companies always want to know how the customer acts and reacts before they decide to go live. Whether that is your current plan or not doesn’t matter. What is important is that it becomes the plan, and it happens as soon as possible.

Plan Keywords For SEO

Search engine optimization is crucial for any business in 2017. The right strategy can increase the traffic rate by hundreds of percent, and that’s not an exaggeration. However, with regards to your normal strategy, it’s time to throw it out of the window. Ok, don’t get rid of it all together because it’s still a major player in for your traditional platform. But, you do have to begin to plan for the people outside of your prism. Localized SEO is unique because it involves a host of words and phrases in a foreign language. Just like you would for an English speaking site, it’s vital to maximize customer searches in their language. To hit this target, a native speaker is a must, and a background in SEO would also be welcome. Anyone that wants to go the extra mile can develop multiple versions of the site in different languages. It doesn’t take much effort, and it’s much better than translating it through Google.

Use A Translator

As far as advice goes, it’s hard to stress how important this tip is to localizing a site. In plain language and without trying to be harsh, free translation services aren’t very helpful. They seem that way because they are free and look like they do a good job. The truth is that you can’t be sure they are effective because you don’t speak the language. What is well worth remembering is that different languages don’t always follow the same rules as English. As a result, words and phrases don’t always have a direct opposite but apps translate it this way all the same. When it appears on the site, it may look odd and turn the reader off or won’t make sense. A professional translator, on the other hand, understands the language and uses their expertise to your benefit. That way, the site, wherever it looks to target, will always make sense and keep the reader turned on.

Know That Google Isn’t King

Speaking of Google, here’s something you might not realize. The search engine might be the most powerful and influential in the western hemisphere, but that isn’t the case around the world. In China, for instance, Bing is one of the most popular search engines. So, trying to maximize a website strategy through the normal channels won’t work. Well, it might work, but it won’t work as effectively as usual. The trick is to figure out which engines are the most popular in your target areas and then adapt the SEO plan. If Yahoo is the number one in Australia, for example, it’s imperative to research the keywords that rank with that search engine. This is a great tip simply because most firms don’t think Google isn’t the king of the castle around the world.

Choose The Right Content

Content continues to be the great equalizer for sites that want to lead the market. If you don’t know, firms with quality content flourish because customers flock from miles around to read unique posts. The good news is that the content won’t have to change much to have an impact. In fact, if it ranks back home, it will rank around the world. However, there are still tweaks that need addressing before you can be confident the site will thrive around the globe. Of course, it goes without saying that the content is in their first language. It is possible to translate a page, but this can make consumers bounce because they can’t be bothered. They are much more likely to look for and read the content if it appears in their native tongue. Also, always address the cultural differences for maximum impact. Something that seems benign might be offensive in a particular area, which is why you need to brush up on your politics. For example, a food site aimed at Middle Easterners which promotes pork dishes isn’t going to be successful.  

Structure The Site Accordingly

Experts in online presence will tell you that the site structure is imperative, and they are correct. The way that your visitors tackle the site is critical in their final judgments. Take the landing page as an example. The landing page is the most commonly visited page on almost every website. Logic dictates, then, that this should be where you foreign visitors land when they type in the domain name. It also dictates that this page should have as many keywords and phrases as possible, as well as lots of interesting content. People make their mind up within seconds of landing, which is why you should go big from the beginning as there is less chance they will bounce. And, the ones that don’t also tend to make conversions such as buying a product or registering to the site. It goes without saying but the landing page needs adjusting for every audience.

Don’t Dismiss Psychology

Psychology works, and that is a fact. What is also a fact is that certain cultures respond to particular cues, and you can use these cues to your advantage. Colors are always the best example because they are so effective. In the Orient, red is a color that they associate with prosperity as red letters signify money and so forth. Although you won’t be offering any money, you will trigger the part of the brain that deals with this emotion. The audience won’t realize it, but they will still react in a positive manner as their mind is programmed to do to particular stimuli.  On a different note, Australians respond well to cues which they deem to represent manliness. Although not every Aussie thinks this way, the society does use stereotypical ideals of masculinity in a big way. So, if you use content with ‘banter,’ there is a higher chance of a positive response.

Optimize Social Media

Just like billions of people surf the web, billions of people use a variety of social media platforms. What you need to know is what areas use what platforms to add value to the site. Like Google, you don’t want to assume that Twitter or Facebook are the two main protagonists as it could be a costly mistake. Instead, it’s vital to find the evidence which shows what social media mediums are popular around the world. Did you know that Russia, in particularly Moscow, has an affinity with Instagram? Now you do, you recognize that a page aimed at Russian-speaking people should contain the Instagram widget. Every country has a different preference, and it’s your job to find that preference for the sake of the site.

Use Analytics

In a lot of ways, there is nothing too dissimilar about this tip when you localize a site or when you set one up normally. Still, that doesn’t mean it isn’t important. Regardless of your intentions, analytic software is essential as it provides the firm with all the details. As long as you can decipher the information, you can tweak your site so that it performs better with the audience. To be honest, you don’t have to be Alan Turing to crack the code as the data speaks volumes.

Don’t let those billions of online users slip through your grasp – localize your site and snatch them up now.

Saving money is an important part of life for every business owner. But, as a new business owner to a small start-up? Counting pennies and looking after pounds is crucial. Cash flow problems are notorious for new ventures, especially in the first two years. So, how can you save money as a new business and ensure longevity and profitability?

Be reluctant who you hire

OK, so you need a kick ass workforce to help you realize your dreams, but you also need to make the right appointments in your business. When it comes to hiring, be savvy. A virtual assistant can be as good as the real thing in the early days, and this can be said for your payroll ‘department’ too. Look at virtual ways that you can replace people, for the short term and in the early days, so that you don’t have to pay out a significant sum of cash in wages. Once you’re more established, then get bums on seats.

There’s an app for that

Have a look at the full range of business apps that you can get hold of; accountancy, marketing tools, scheduling and appointments and so on and so forth. Apps are a cost-effective way of making sure that your business looks bigger from the outside. And, you can stay right on track with all of your operational duties.

Never give credit!

The golden rule of business (and life) is that you never lend what you can’t afford to lose, and there is never a truer adage than that. While bigger, more established organizations may have large credit lines for their existing customers, this is not something that you can consider in the early days. Always make sure that goods are paid for with cash and invoice accordingly. It’s the only way to save yourself financial heartache in the future.

Networking: it’s who you know not what you know

Who said there is no such thing as a free lunch? Well, many networking events are exactly that. Make sure that you are heading to the right events with the right people. Use networking events to meet the right people in your industry and learn from them. Use them as a free consultancy for all things within your sector. Of course, you will need to give something in return; perhaps a discount when they use your services? Think about how you can leverage relationships and learn more about your sector in the process.

You don’t need everything right now

“If in doubt, go without” seems somewhat apt for the entrepreneur. While it’s tempting to go for the shiny new office and the top of the range equipment, it’s not always feasible to do this. Afterall, you don’t want to go broke because you bought an all singing and all dancing printer. It’s time to put your sensible hat on. Do you need it right now? Will it add value to your business or your customers? If not, put it on the backburner for a while. Apply some common sense to your business purchases.

When you’re marketing your business, you need to think about your target audience. There is no product or service that is completely universal. There will always be people who will never be interested in buying, and that’s true, no matter what you’re selling. This is why it’s always beneficial to seek out your target audience. These are the individuals who match your product or service perfectly and therefore are always going to be interested in buying. For instance, for a car mechanic, a target audience would be anyone having car trouble. This might include a number of different groups of people including private car owners, managers of fleets and big businesses. So, how can you identify your target market and what options do you have when you’re selling your product to them?

Know Your Audience

To identify and understand your target audience, you need to know who they are. What do they want, what is their problem and how can you solve it? A target audience for a home cleaning company is homeowners who don’t have time themselves to clean. They’re busy, they live hectic lives, and they are tired of coming back to find their home a mess. Already you can see how recognising your target market could help you create an awesome promotional campaign. You just need to advertise as a hassle free solution to this particular problem.

But you can go further than that. With this info, you might even be able to think about the type of websites they visit online. People unhappy with the way their home looks or feels will probably be searching on designer blogs. When you know this, you can then look for blogs offering options for sponsored content. At that point, you can start marketing directly to your target audience.

Understand Socio-Economic Factors

It is possible that your target marketing is defined by socio-economic factors. If that’s the case, then you need to think about targeting people based on things like their level of income or even where they live. You can do this using mailing lists or if you’re a B2B company, business lists. Using lists like this, you will again be able to market directly towards people interested in your product or service. Niche companies do this all the time to hone in on their specific market. For instance, Bentley aren’t going to sell a lot of cars or find much interest in a working class neighborhood. They will, however, see plenty of market interest in gated streets in the suburbs close to major cities.

Make It Personal

Finally, one of the best pieces of advice we can recommend when marketing to a target customer is to make sure it’s personal to them. If a customer things you’re speaking directly to them or even someone like them you have already won the sale. You can do this by selecting language carefully. “If you are a small business owner in Brooklyn you’ll know…” You can use a hook like this on marketing materials that are going to be seen by that specific audience. Address who they are and then show them what you can offer.