StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |Brick and Mortar Business|From Planning to Launch: 8 things You'll Need to Start a Brick and Mortar Business

From Planning to Launch: 8 things You’ll Need to Start a Brick and Mortar Business

StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |Brick and Mortar Business|From Planning to Launch: 8 things You'll Need to Start a Brick and Mortar BusinessSome people dream of opening their own brick and mortar business for years. They work for others while they plan their own future business and save money to make this dream come true. Too many businesses fail in the first year or two because the owners made mistakes in setting up the business. The loss of a dream and all the start-up money is heartbreaking and financially devastating. Why not get some help to set the business up correctly from the beginning?

Make Sure The New Business is Well-supplied by Dependable Wholesalers

Each business runs on supplies that must be delivered promptly when ordered. This can include office supplies, cleaning supplies, printing and computer supplies, and more depending on the type of business. A company such as Richmond Advantage can help a new brick and mortar business get off on the right foot and continue to have the necessary supplies month after month.

A good supplier can deliver orders promptly and at reasonable prices. The business owner can order via phone, online, fax, or email. The supplier should give the business owner flexible terms and payment types so they can keep their business running smoothly.

The business owner should also find dependable suppliers for their merchandise or equipment to help them perform the service their business supplies. Every kind of business from accounting, to medical, to merchandise, to plumbing, electrical, building contracting, or foodservice needs the right supplies delivered as they are needed.

Planning The Business Correctly

It is of utmost importance to plan the new business very well before even thinking of renting space and opening the doors. Planning is the difference between success and failure. Planning steps include:

  1. Decide what kind of business you want to open and which products you will carry. What services will you offer? Since you will be devoting large amounts of time and money to this business, you should choose a product or service that you love and have the knowledge to back up. Decide what type of things interest you and will make a successful business. Do a little research to find out if the proposed business will attract customers and is practical. Don’t open a brick and mortar business near several other very similar businesses. Your business must offer something unique and needed where you plan on opening it.
  2. You need a detailed business plan to show lenders and others what you plan for the company as time goes on. A business plan is like a roadmap to setting up a company and growing it over time. This plan finalizes the products or services you plan to offer. This plan needs to be in great detail and realistic. The new business person will need to describe the time, expertise, space, and other talents they will bring to the business.
    The business plan will need to list the products to be sold and the supply chain that will be in place to get them. How much will be paid for them and how much will they be sold for at what profit margin. What equipment will be needed to outfit the brick and mortar business location. How much will set up cost and how will those costs be covered. How much money will need to be borrowed and how will it be repaid?
  3. This brings us to business financing which will be based on the above business plan. The Small Business Administration or SBA supports many business loans from a variety of lenders. When the new business person goes for financing, it is important to address all costs so the business is adequately financed to succeed. One main reason for new businesses failing is under financing.
  4. The saying “Location is Everything” is right on target. A business must be in the correct location to succeed. When considering different rental or purchase locations, a person must consider several important factors including the style of the business and building it needs, the zoning and codes, the demographics or being near proposed customers, store visibility, parking and access, competition in the area, is there room to grow, and is the infrastructure of the building going to support the business?
    In addition, the business owner should consider the cost of renovations and setting up the business in each location. The business lease must be negotiated and signed. Study the lease carefully for fairness and terms. How long is the lease for? Can it be broken if the business fails? Get legal help before signing a binding lease.
  5. Check into all the local and state licensing requirements and what the cost will be. There will be employer numbers for taxes, sales licenses, licenses, certifications for services, and more.
  6. Make a complete list of equipment and supplies that will be needed for your particular business. You need to have everything in place that is needed to run the business before you open the doors. This equipment should be in the financing request.
  7. Hiring the necessary staff to run the business is important. Decide on hours to be open and how many people are needed to cover those hours. You may need different people to handle bookkeeping, inventory management, working with customers, scheduling, and managing all the employees. Take time to vet all prospective employees and hire the correct people for each job. Once the staff is all hired, they should be trained to do their jobs properly.
  8. Once the business is set up and ready to open its doors, the owner should plan and execute a good marketing plan and advertise a memorable grand opening.

Once The Business Is Open

Once the business is open, the owner can not relax and rest. The new business needs to be nurtured into success, Very good records should be kept to keep track of business successes, losses, and challenges. New businesses face financial challenges that must be met and conquered to succeed. The new business owner must be creative and willing to learn as the business progresses. Creative solving of problems can help save new businesses.
A new business must stand out from the competition by offering great service, unique products, and a lot of dedication and hard work by the owner. Be open to problem-solving strategies that a knowledgeable person might suggest. The business owners who are willing to sacrifice and work hard to get their dream up and running are more likely to succeed.

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Schema|Local SEO on Steroids: What Is Schema and How Will It Help You Get More Traffic?

Local SEO on Steroids: What Is Schema and How Will It Help You Get More Traffic?

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Schema|Local SEO on Steroids: What Is Schema and How Will It Help You Get More Traffic?If a business or website owner is searching for a way to improve organic rankings and SEO, something to look into is schema markup. While it may sound like some type of jargon that only industry pros use, what many people do not realize is schema markup is not that hard to understand or take advantage of.

Schema markup is an important part of Local SEO efforts. It is also easier than it may sound to implement. With a free online tool, it is possible to mark up all website pages without having to learn any new code. Also, schema markup can provide an immediate boost to organic traffic coming to a website. Keep reading to learn more about schema markup and how to use it to benefit any business and grow traffic.

Schema Markup Defined

Put simply, schema is a type of microdata that provides search engines with a better understanding of what a website is about. Remember, search engines such as Bing, Yahoo, and Google cannot actually read and understand the content on a web page. While it recognizes phrases and words, the web browsers do not know what the words mean.

This is why markup is used. For example, if a website contains the word “apple,” it is possible to use schema markup to tell the search engines if the word refers to the technology company Apple, or the fruit. This has a significant impact on what results are shown.

When search engines have more information about a page, it makes it easier to display content that is relevant to the user’s search. It also allows a website to display additional information on SERPs, which will help the site stand out from the others.

How Schema Markup Works

When used properly, schema markup allows individuals to add more information and new functionality to organic results in the top search engines. It is possible to use schema markup for all types of topics and items. Some of the most common ways that schema markup is used include reviews, organizations, recipes, events, creative works, events, videos, articles, videos, people, products, places, and people. There are full lists related to schema markup online.

By adding schema to the HTML on a web page, web crawlers have a much easier time finding it. This is something to keep in mind when trying to decide if schema markup should be used.

Creating Schema Markup

To begin the process in Google, open the Structured Data Markup Helper. The second step is to select the type of data to be marked up from the given list. Enter the URL of the page where the information should be added and then highlight an element on the left side of the page. Next, it is necessary to select the type of the highlighted item and repeat the steps until everything has the proper schema markup on the page.

Getting Help with Schema Markup

Schema markup is going to help ensure people who are interested in what you offer find your page. While it can seem confusing at first, there are professional services that can help ensure the desired results are achieved. For some busy business owners, allowing the pros to handle this process is best.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Software Tools for Office Operations|Tools For Vets: 5 Software Tools For Veterinarian Office Operations

Tools For Vets: 5 Software Tools For Veterinarian Office Operations

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Software Tools for Office Operations|Tools For Vets: 5 Software Tools For Veterinarian Office OperationsAre you looking for software tools for your veterinarian office? You might find this read useful. A veterinarian’s work nature typically becomes a hectic small business with few employees and many critical business processes. That is why modern technology has developed helpful software tools that are particularly created for a veterinarian’s use.

Software features like Electronic Medical Records tool, Data & Memory Backup Tool, Inventory Management Tool, or Email Marketing Tool are some of the essential software tools that make a veterinarian office’s processes quicker, reliable, and convenient. To learn more about them, listed below are five software program tools useful for your veterinarian office.

Email Marketing Tool

One of the most crucial software tools is an Email Marketing Tool. Trusted software like Weave, have a very reliable email marketing tool. You can access a demo of the app here at https://www.getweave.com/veterinary/. These apps help you market your veterinarian clinic to increase your local area presence, raise your brand awareness, and ultimately produce more satisfied and raving clients.

Typically, veterinarian offices are small businesses that only thrive by attracting more clients. Without customers, they will not survive. Thus, an email marketing tool is one significant element that helps solve this problem by promoting their veterinary business to different types of clients, namely, cold clients, warm clients, or hot clients.

Utilizing an email marketing tool also helps veterinarian clinics on the financial side, for it cuts costs on marketing efforts versus typical or traditional ways of marketing. This will allow you to allocate your veterinarian office’s funds to other essential aspects of your business.

Also, regulating the usage of an email marketing software tool helps you to increase your brand awareness. This is crucial because there will always be lots of existing competition, not to mention upcoming contenders in your area.

In the long-term, by consistently increasing your brand awareness, people will automatically identify you as a trusted and prominent veterinary business, and sooner or later ultimately attract customers with less marketing efforts.

Electronic Medical Records or EMR Tool

In a veterinarian clinic business, medical records are important files that they must keep. Thus, using a software tool like an electronic medical records tool will help veterinarians smoothen out their documentation and filing processes versus the traditional “paper” way of keeping records.

EMRs have several advantages for a veterinarian office for it automates a lot of tasks. EMRs provide accurate details about their patients. Their information is located quickly with just a few clicks. This helps a veterinarian business’s processes to be faster and smoother.

EMRs also provide updated data of patients and even their medical history. This allows veterinarians to track if their pet patient’s health status is progressing or getting worse.

Patient Reminder Tool

Another vital software tool that a veterinarian office must-have is software with a patient reminder tool. In a veterinarians’ work, reminders are very significant because a pet patient’s health progress, especially those pets with critical conditions, must be treated timely to improve their health effectively and progressively.

Another advantage of a patient reminder tool is that it decreases the waiting time of clients. For instance, there are times that pet patients are a little bit handful and uncontrollable, taking you over 15 mins to handle and thus consuming much of your extra time than the duration you had planned. As an effect, the waiting time of clients becomes extended.

By utilizing a patient reminder tool, you can prompt your scheduled clients for the day ahead of time for any unwanted delays or unexpectedly quick check-ups. You can readjust their schedules. Doing so will decrease their waiting time by going to the veterinarian office exactly or close to their time of appointment.

Data & Memory Backup Tool

One of the most vital software tools that a veterinarian office must have is to acquire a software program with a data backup tool. In doing so, veterinarians can access particular files quickly in a matter of seconds because of the backup memory tool in the system.

This tool is also convenient in the prevention of data loss in times of power failure. On some occasions, computers are prone to damages and data loss, which is sometimes out of control.

An example is power outages due to a storm or viruses that can delete data, including important ones. Thankfully because of data & memory backup tools, veterinarian offices can retrieve important files and data in disadvantageous times like this.

An Inventory Management Tool

Most businesses, like veterinary clinics, often need to manage inventories. That is why veterinarians need to utilize an inventory management tool to automate and improve operations, lessen inaccuracies, reduce costs, and increase profits.

For example, you can accurately analyze which products are selling faster, selling gradually, and have little to no sales at all. Because of this, you can identify what to improve in your products. Could it be about the brand and pricing? Or could it be about the quality of the product which makes little to no sales at all?

Takeaway

Every software tool above will help enhance the quality and efficiency of a veterinarian office’s operations. With the right amount of studying and planning on which tools are of great use versus which tools are unnecessary for your veterinarian office, you can create a system that works best for you, particularly on the operations side.

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | How to help your business grow in 2021

How to help your business grow in 2021

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | How to help your business grow in 20212020 will go down in history as one of the hardest years for businesses. Some industries, like nightclubs or stadiums, haven’t been able to open their doors since the very start of the year. Even the businesses that are normally in constant high demand, like fast food restaurants and coffee shops, have faced their own challenges and seen big drops in revenue. The sad reality is that some businesses won’t survive long enough to reopen their doors after the Christmas holidays. Those that do survive will be desperate to increase their profits to make up for the damage caused by the coronavirus. If you’re one of those businesses looking to recover, here are some of the best ways you can help your business grow in 2021.

Employ the right people

One of the most important aspects of any business is the people you employ. Choose the right employees and they will be your most important asset. Choose the wrong people to work with and they can cause all manner of problems, including poor productivity, inaccuracies and they could even damage your brand’s reputation, all of which will impact your ability to turn a profit.

To make sure your business can reach its financial potential, it’s important to choose a talented group of people who can work well together to produce a good product or provide a good service. It’s important that you choose people with the right skills you need to compete those all-important tasks. One of the best ways to ensure you find people with the right skillset is to seek the help of a recruitment agency that truly understands your industry. Whether you work in the construction industry or the performing arts, find a local recruitment agency that can instantly recognise what makes a good potential employee for your business. That way you won’t be wasting your time meeting up and interviewing candidates that are clearly not the right fit for your team. If you suddenly have a gap in your workforce that needs filling, they can find you the right person to fill that position before your productivity is affected.

Introduce yourself to your customers once more

If you’re involved in an industry that has been forced to close temporarily or reduce the services you provide, it’s important to remind your customers of your existence once you are able to fully reopen. Even if you have been able to remain open, it may be that the restrictions have meant many people just haven’t required your products or services. A lot of businesses are in this very situation, for example those who sell travel insurance or even those who sell suits and dresses for big evenings out socialising.

One of the best ways to attract those customers back is to act like those customers are brand new to your business. Create a marketing campaign that explains the advantages of using your products or services. Remind them of how they can buy goods from you or access your services. Make sure this marketing is located in the places where your target audience spends most of their time. For young people, this could be on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram. For the older generation, this could be in newspapers and on the radio, although an increasing number of people in this demographic are now using social media.

Revisit your pricing

Over the last few months, it’s probably not just your earnings that have taken a big hit. It’s likely that some of your customers also have a lot less money than they did this time last year, whether that’s because their hours have been reduced at work, they’ve been furloughed or they’ve lost their job completely. If this is the case, the main obstacle stopping them buying your product may be the price. Consider either reducing the price of your products or offering cheaper alternatives for those who have a smaller budget. For example, you could offer a product in smaller quantities or made from cheaper materials.

On the other end of the scale, there could be customers with lots of money saved up as they weren’t able to go on their annual holiday or they just spend less money on things like day trips and nights out. Consider offering luxury packages to encourage these customers to spend more money with you. You could group several of your products together and sell them as a bundle, offering customers a small discount for buying all of the products together.

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | 6 Ways to Increase Your Team’s Productivity

6 Ways to Increase Your Team’s Productivity

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | 6 Ways to Increase Your Team’s ProductivityLeading a team isn’t simple, no matter the size. Whether you’re in charge of a team of five or a team of 500, there are obstacles you must overcome. Your goal is efficient, hard-working staff that boost the business’ quality and increase profits. To do this, you must be a leader who promotes productivity, and here are six ways you can do that.

1. Communicate Effectively 

A crucial part of leadership is having excellent communication skills. Without them, you run the risk of miscommunication that will lead to errors, frustration, and loss of morale. Provide your staff with constructive feedback, a clearly defined task list, and have an open-door policy. This way, your team will know they can rely on you to be honest and give help where it is needed, which will boost productivity.

2. A Comfortable Environment

Assuming that you and your team work the standard 40-hour week, you are spending a third of your time in the workplace. By creating a bright, comfortable environment, you will cultivate a productive team that enjoys being at work. Add plants, install wide windows, and have an area where your team can hang out and discuss. You could even provide auto sliding doors that use sensors to open, providing your workplace with a brightened, automatic entrance.

3. Give Praise 

Acknowledging a job well done will boost a worker’s productivity. If your team is constantly hearing about where they’ve made errors, they will begin doubting themselves and it will show up in their work. By providing positive feedback, they will feel valued and have pride in their work, and they will carry on doing a great job.

4. Use Incentives 

People work best when they have a goal and a reward. Provide that reward by bringing incentives into the workplace, and you will see a definite uptick in hard work. In study findings written by Harold Stolovich, they found that incentive programs engaged participants, attracted quality employees, and that the employees valued the incentive programs. Some rewards you could employ include lunches out, coupons, and bonuses.

5. Understand Their Strengths

Each team member is an individual with their own strengths and weaknesses. You cannot expect one employee to work in the exact same way as another, so get to know your team and their strengths so that you can take advantage of them. It will benefit both you and the employees, as you get their best work while they are able to enjoy hitting their goals easily.

6. Leave Them to Their Work

Micro-managing results in a quick descent into unhappy employees. You hired them for a reason, so you should trust that they have the business’ best interest at heart and will do a fantastic job each day. Have confidence in your team by showing them freedom in their work and they will show you their appreciation through productivity. Their sense of responsibility will let them shine while allowing you to focus on other areas of the business.