It’s not easy running a business in the best of times, yet almost no one on this Earth would be liable to label 2020 as ‘the best of times’ so far. Unexpected and thorough societal change has caused many of us to change our habits, and this has rocked the economy and business world. Despite the fact that in some areas Covid-19 is starting to dwindle, or at least reduce in some capacity, consumer confidence is still relatively low. This is understandable.
However, as a business, we cannot simply accept this fact and wait until spending returns to normal levels. Normal levels may not be something we have the luxury of for some time. For that reason, it’s up to us as firms to encourage people to spend their money well, and to be confident and careful in our approach. We cannot use half-truths, or emotional appeals, or untoward suggestions to our clients or consumers in order to have them support us. Instead, we must get creative, but still offer our services and products in an authentic, reliable manner. With the following advice, we hope to help you get there:
Stay Honest & Open
Stay honest and open with your audience. They are fully aware that Covid-19 has caused industries to go through tough times, and they may also be going through them. It’s important not to approach this particular situation with deception or a sense of entitlement. It can be worth considering how you might gear yourself to these times and become more relevant as a result. For instance, it’s a small thing, but many supermarkets are now registered with food delivery services such as Uber Eats, and offer masks or other cleaning items as part of their library of products. Simple things like this can help you once again become a node on your audience’s map.
Improve Employee Communication
It’s important to have your employees become more effective and productive during this time. Important marketing ideas that float to the top, or the attentiveness it takes for them to deal with a support request in the best way never comes out of a vacuum. Using the best employee communication tools can help you share your formulated strategy. The business world moves fast, and now more than ever time is of the essence. Sometimes, helping your employees move through challenging times isn’t always forcing them to train harder or work longer hours, but rather removing the difficulties with which they may not be able to perform at 100%. Implementing excellent communication tools can serve as one of these removed difficulties.
Offer More Value
We need to encourage our audience to spend more and to have more confidence in their expenditure. This means that you need to offer more value. If they feel that there’s a timed element in potentially acquiring a great deal, your audience is more likely to go for it, or budget their spending to better acquire that which you have to offer. This doesn’t need to be seen as a deceptive practice, sometimes you may quite literally be offering an olive branch to help them engage with your items once more. You needn’t have to give out free gifts or make them follow your social media profiles to force this attitude to fruition. Simple acts, such as offering free delivery on all of your products, can go a long way in getting the ball rolling.
Invest In Marketing
Investing in marketing is also a valuable measure. This can seem counter to your spending aims right now. However, when we hope to start a stopped car, we turn the engine while pushing from behind. This extra ‘shunting’ action helps the engine to tick over and ultimately resume its operation. In other words, the old adage ‘you need to spend money to make money’ is relevant.
This may mean that you invest in subtle marketing methods, such as organic SEO advertising, or even take out social media banners or promoted posts as part of your new branding strategy. The importance of this is to remind people you’re still there, that you have something great to offer, and that you’ve missed your customers or clients. As people are slowly starting to return to work and potentially begin spending again, you can position yourself at the forefront in the line of companies chomping at the bit to once again establish their audience in the best possible way.
Relaunch / Motivate
Relaunching your brand or motivating your audience to take a second look can be a great idea. What have you learned from the lockdown, and what changes do you hope to make? Remember that people will have noticed how you treated your staff or processes as the world began locking down, and so now is the time to heal or promote your best actions as something worth supporting. For instance, you may relaunch your customer support line but now make the adjustment that people will be working from home to contend with their needs.
Sometimes, a full rebrand may help you change after the great cultural milestone that was this difficult experience. Some businesses will not want to invest in this, and that’s more than understandable, but even a new slogan can perform as well in this space. It’s important to bring some energy to your strategy. Your business must be seen as active, ready and welcoming. Despite the challenges we have all been through, we mustn’t limp along and slowly convince our audience to return. We must be seen as strong, able to take on business, and more than happy to stay relevant. This will inspire consumer confidence, and ultimately secure you the purchase you’re looking for.
Understand Your Place
Ultimately, if consumers aren’t confident, they’re not confident. We can pull out all of the stops on our end, but remember that people have suffered due to societal lockdown, and it’s worth keeping that in mind. This simple fact will help your strategy remain subtle, and that’s the most important measure of all.
With this advice, we hope you can learn to operate, even when consumer confidence is low.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/group-of-people-in-dress-suits-776615.jpg8001200StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2020-07-07 16:00:242020-07-07 13:13:29How To Operate When Consumer Confidence Is Low
As far as entrepreneurship is concerned, every penny counts. While you try your best to pool resources to set up your business, your employees and suppliers deserve their paychecks. To meet the growing financial demands that come with putting up a business, you may have to implement good economic policies to unlock extra cash and save more money. Here are some ways through which you can cut down your business expenses and save cash.
1. Get rid of surplus equipment
During the start-up phase, some business owners strive to acquire tons of equipment. But as operations begin, some equipment may become redundant. Examples include printers, ink, toner, and cartridges. Surplus equipment takes up much of your office space. Moreover, they wear out with time, and will gradually depreciate when you don’t get rid of them early enough. Instead of watching your unused printer ink and toner waste away in your office cabinet, why not sell them to suppliers such as Sell Toner. This way, you will make extra cash while getting rid of surplus equipment.
2. Set up a virtual office
Thanks to technological advancements, businesses don’t have to tether their offices to one location. You can run your business while staying at home by using technological tools to connect with your staff as well as your customers and business partners. Virtual offices allow you to run your business with little resources since you don’t need to have a physical building. Focus on establishing your customer base, after which you can then put up a commercial building.
3. Use Open-Source software
A lot of business software is reconfigured open-source software from volunteers in the business community. This means that they are obtained from non-proprietary sources. Comparatively, open-source software costs far less than proprietary commercial software. Whether you want accounting or bookkeeping software, there are several non-proprietary software that can help you save money while getting your basic tasks done. However, you may have to bear with the fact that the support service for open-source software is limited. But the good news is that business owners who use open-source products can join community forums to access support services from other users.
4. Find discount offers
Usually, bulk-purchasing is cheaper than when you buy products individually. Before ordering products from your chosen supplier, ask them for discount offers. Many suppliers will be willing to slash off prices for customers who have a long-term business relationship with their company. Do some research and find multiple suppliers, negotiating prices before you settle on the most cost-effective. Also, do not tie yourself to one local supplier. To increase your sales opportunities, move out of your comfort zone, and connect with suppliers who offer discounts on shipping and bulk orders.
5. Track the flow of your cash
Another vital activity for saving money is tracking cash flow. When you track the flow of your cash, it saves you from incurring late payments fees — also, you will not miss your bill payments. The majority of small businesses often fail because they are unable to conserve their cash. The opportune time to start tracking your cash flow is during the initial phase of your operation. To generate revenue, your funds have to pay your regular expenses, including the unforeseen ones that may erupt. By looking at the statements of your cash flow on an annual and monthly basis, you will understand the value of your cash and whether it’s enough.
6. Reduce your expenditure on traditional advertisement
With the rise of the internet revolution and digital marketing, business owners have the means to cut down their costs of traditional adverts. Reach more audiences via the internet by using paid advertising resources such as Google AdWords. Use search engine optimization techniques to build a great website and attract customers to your business. Some business owners are able to garner hundreds of thousands of views by creating videos on YouTube to promote their products. This is almost a free way to advertise your business to a global audience. Traditional advertising platforms are expensive, and may not broadcast your business to wider audiences.
7. Outsource some tasks
When you have a strong team of full-time employees, your business has the potential to grow. However, permanent employees also sometimes cost a business its financial resources. Salaries, insurance covers, and office spaces are some employee-related costs that businesses often struggle to settle. So, consider outsourcing your tasks to virtual assistants (VA’s) to reduce your workload, improve work efficiency, and save money. Virtual assistants are skillful people who work from locations across the globe to get your special tasks done in time. Since VA’s have their own office spaces and equipment, you can save money assigning repetitive tasks to them. As a business founder, this will free up more time to focus on building the core parts of your business. Negotiate with independent contractors like VA’s, and you are likely to make a fair deal that will benefit both of you.
8. Cut down extra expenses on employees
The Covid-19 Pandemic has turned the world upside-down. It has negatively impacted the global economy to some extent. For businesses whose finances have been hit hard by the pandemic, laying off workers may be an idea worth considering. This will have to start with an evaluation to find out which employees go and which stay. However, since employees form the backbone of your business operations, and you don’t have to fire all of them even if times are hard. If you do so, your business may suffer disastrous consequences.
Instead of laying off all your employees, negotiate with them for a pay cut. If you were providing them with free three-square meals a day, reduce it two or one. For example, assure them of their breakfast and cancel their lunch and dinner. Your employees who understand the economic burdens on your business will readily accept pay cuts. After all, half a loaf of bread is better than none. By implementing this strategic decision, you can save money to run your business even during tough times, such as the coronavirus pandemic.
9. Hire smart workers
The levels of smartness of your employees can also determine how economical your business is. On this subject, you don’t have to use only the experience factor to rate the abilities of your employees. In recruiting new employees, give chances for inexperienced people (recent graduates) provided they are smart enough to fit your work demands. Some workers may not have several years of experience, but they can learn fast once you put them on the job. Hire inexperienced people and pay them entry-level salaries. This way, your business will gain a monetary advantage. Meanwhile, your smart workers will contribute their best to grow your business.
10. Hire interns
The two main types of internships are paid and unpaid internships. Interns are usually students or recent graduates who work for companies in order to gain experience in their chosen field of study. Many times, interns work for experiences, not necessarily for the money. Marketing organizations have been able to achieve their goals by hiring interns from local schools to build their social media marketing campaigns. It is up to you to also understand your business operations, and find out areas that match the skill set of interns. By hiring interns instead of full-time permanent workers, you can cut down your expenses on salary and even office space. When this is done together with telecommuting, you can run a small business by getting tasks accomplished for a fraction of their standard costs.
11. Understand your customers
As technology advances, so do customers evolve with time. When you know your customers’ demographics and behavior on the internet, you can streamline your online marketing campaigns to reach the desired audience. Channel your marketing investments on online platforms that are likely to pay off, instead of spreading your campaigns to several areas on the internet. When you understand your customers’ preferences, responses, and general views about pricing, then you can prepare a reasonable budget and avoid losses. Eliminating ineffective options means that you are in a better position to make wise investments by targeting the right customers.
12. Reward your hard-working profit makers
This may seem controversial, but it makes sense to motivate your workers and customers who bring you the profits. For many successful entrepreneurs, rewards take the forms of good gestures such as the occasional provision of free refreshments, leaves, promotions, and salary increments. Boost the morale of your employees, and they will be encouraged to do more for the business. Offer value-added services and discounts to your regular customers so that you can win their everlasting loyalty. If you invest in the people who bring you profits, you’re nurturing a friendly relationship that will go on to bring extra profits to your business.
To wrap things up, your ability to economize the limited resources at your disposal will determine the growth rate of your organization. The above money-saving tips may be the best ways to build a resilient business that will thrive no matter the business climate.
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Marketing is an integral element for any business. From recent startups to long established organizations, continual promotion is necessary for a number of reasons. It allows a brand to become visible to new potential customers, it keeps them in the consciousness of current customers, and it can bring instant awareness to new products or services.
With this importance in mind, here’s a quick guide on marketing your business in 2020.
Conduct market research
Research is the basis for any solid plan. To develop a marketing strategy that will deliver results, you need to gain a deep understanding of your customers. What makes them tick? Which marketing methods convince them to purchase items? How have their tastes changed with current trends?
When marketing a business, you have to decide on what to promote. While this can be the brand as a whole, the most effective plans are those that focus on a unique selling point. You have to provide potential customers with a reason to check out the business, and a USP helps to stand out from the crowd.
As for what the USP can be, this could be an affordable service or product with exceptional quality. If you are running an exclusive discount, say 30% off an item for one week only, this could help draw prospective customers in.
Select your tools
Picking the right marketing tools is, obviously, an essential aspect of advertising. Fortunately, there are many options available in that regard. Consider the following picks:
Social media
Pay-per-click ads
Content marketing
Email campaigns
Word-of-mouth
Flyers
Exhibit stand
Plus that’s just scratching the surface. Certain picks will require more money than others, and their level of effectiveness could differ on a business-on-business basis. Yet with the right research, you will have a firm grasp of which are the best choices.
Set a budget
Now you have the plan and tools in place, there’s one last element required before you can launch your marketing campaign: the necessary funding. The set budget for a promotional strategy can vary widely. It can cost thousands on a monthly basis, or it might not even require any money at all.
If outside financing is required, however, one of the best options is to acquire a loan. If your credit rating is in bad shape, Now Loans shows you can still acquire funding this way despite the hurdle.
Analyze the results
Even when the marketing campaign is well underway, there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done. You have to closely analyze your advertising ventures and see what’s producing results – and what isn’t generating conversions.
By studying these marketing techniques, you can constantly refine and improve your campaign. As with any component of business, you need to change with the times. A promotional tactic might become obsolete overnight, for instance.
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Merging your business with another entity has a number of potential benefits. It could provide you with the chance of growing your market share. You can diversify the range of products and services you offer. A restructure may also result in economies of scale.
While the advantages are clear, there’s just one issue: completing a successful merger is far from an easy task.
As you would expect, a merger is a complicated process. Many different elements need to come together before it becomes a reality, and even then that’s no guarantee it will happen seamlessly.
However, to limit the potential headache, here are five tips for achieving a successful business merger:
What are your overall goals?
Before you go forward with a merger, it’s essential you outline why it is happening in the first place. Do you want to grow your market share? Introduce new products and processes to your business? Eliminate a competitor from the competition?
Whatever the reason, this needs to be clearly defined. This means that, not only will you have a straightforward understanding about where you want your business to go, but the employees involved will also know what’s going on.
Ensure your finances are in order
It’s a simple point, admittedly, but one that still requires plenty of attention. Ultimately, do you have the right amount of money in place to complete a merger?
Remember: you might have enough money in the bank to cover the initial cost of the merge, but that’s only the start of course. You also have to be prepared to sustain the investment, aka covering the additional costs brought on by a merger.
Be clear about what’s happening
Transparency is an important quality at any time for a business, but this is particularly the case during a major change such as a merger.
First of all, this will keep everyone on the same page about the upcoming changes. In addition, it can assist with the transition process. If you put together a team to handle the transaction, the burden doesn’t just rest on your shoulders.
The right platform to facilitate the merger
When you’re ready to complete the deal and facilitate the merger, you will require the right platform to get the job done. This is where a data room m&a can be especially beneficial.
By using a specialized data room, you have the opportunity to speed up the process – a vital component of any successful merger. You can restructure activities across all related documents and transactions, and do so within a secure environment.
Performing the integration
The plan is in place. Your employees are ready to support with the merger. You have the right platform ready to go. Now there’s just one final element to go: completing the merger.
Integrating two companies is a stressful occasion. Nevertheless, careful preparation can ensure it is a smooth operation. To assist with the integration, tackle the entire process with bite-sized milestones. If these milestones are tied together with incentives, employees and managers will be more motivated to get it all done in a swift fashion.
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What would it feel like to have a competitor beat you to the top of the search engine results page (SERP) after all your effort and hard work in search engine optimisation (SEO)?
What if you’ve applied all the SEO tactics you know, yet a competitor’s web page keeps ranking higher than yours?
You don’t have to hate a website for ranking higher than you or beating you in the SEO game. Hating a competing website is a thing of the past when it comes to the Internet. It’s true that having a higher ranking competitor could lead to not achieving target website traffic, more time, and extra expenses.
However, the online world today has made it possible to use a better ranking site to your advantage. Your SEO drive doesn’t have to dwindle. Instead, you should monitor and analyze your competition to get more benefits from SEO and increase page rank. You should look at their content, keywords, and site optimization. You should monitor your competitors’ social media activity. You might wonder, “how can monitoring a competing website help me optimize my site?”
Let’s take a look at a few ways that can happen:
It Helps You Create Better Content
Content is king on the internet. Search engines primarily rank web pages and sites based on content. Google rates websites on E-A-T which means expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. This rating guideline concentrates on quality and reputation of the entire website content, including blog posts and landing pages.
When a website is consistently at the top of the SERP, you can be sure the site is creating epic content that meets search engine criteria. You can look at such site’s landing pages and blog posts.
However, don’t copy their work and regurgitate it on your site. That is plagiarism. Instead, put a twist on the topic or find out a recurring question by visitors in the comment and write an article to answer the question. This means you can get content opportunities from this strategy. You’ll always have fresh content in the form of blog posts, articles, ebooks, and press releases.
It Helps You Find and Use Better Ranking Keywords
While analyzing the content of competing websites, you can find out their potential relevant keywords, domains’ link popularity, and page result characteristics. You will also need to use the Google Webmaster Tool to research traffic that your site gets for various search queries.
This will show you the most effective keywords that bring in traffic. Find out how your competitor ranks for those keywords. Then, you can use the keywords to create researched, high-quality content. Once a user types in the keyword in search engines, your web page will have a better chance of appearing in the results.
You Can Improve Your Branding
Your branding is what sets you apart from your competition. It can help drive your site to the top of your niche market and create customer loyalty. SEO helps build brand awareness. A competing website will have its own branding and unique selling point too.
First, you need to research their website content. How do they promote their brand in each post? What is their brand strategy? Then, you can research their online presence, content output, and customer engagement. By doing this, you can identify the competition’s target audience, targeted niches, and customer attraction strategy.
With the information you’ve gotten, you’ll know what to do to strengthen your unique selling proposition. You can also find new methods of creating brand uniqueness and making your site more appealing to a shared audience. Through this, your online brand presence and search visibility can increase.
It Improves Your Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing and site optimization are intertwined. Let’s say your website’s profile has millions of followers, and your article has a hundred thousand shares on social media; if this is the case, your search rank will likely improve. You need to monitor your competitors’ social media activity by noticing how they interact with followers and what is shared the most. You can track their posts with tools like Hootsuite.
One way to take advantage of their social activity is to reach out to their followers with your content. Some of them won’t be following you. They can be interested in your content and visit your website, which can lead to increased traffic for you.
Another way is to analyze their marketing tactics and tweak your social media strategy to accommodate the successful methods they’ve used. You can also find out which content does well on social media. A post that’s successful on social media will rank high on the SERP. Once you identify the competitors’ content, write an article with a similar topic and mirror their content strategy on social media.
You Can Gain More Backlinks
Getting inbound links from authority sites can help your SEO drive. A competing website that is properly optimized will be building links, just like you are. You can reach out to those sites to get them to link to similar content. Also, you should track any new backlink they have and find out if they’ve adopted a new strategy.
The most important thing here is not to copy every detail of the competing websites’ link building strategy. Instead, use their methods to strengthen your SEO techniques. You can build on their strategies and incorporate yours at the same time. That way, you can have a better internet marketing campaign overall.
It Can Help You Improve SEO Activities
By examining a competitor’s SEO strategies, you’ll be able to keep up with industry trends and find out when something new is on the scene. For example, higher ranking websites may change their SEO strategy and style suddenly.
This can mean a few things. There could be a new algorithm update, and they’re adjusting their optimization strategy too. They might have found out a better way to make their web pages rank higher in the SERP. They might be trying to avoid a penalty or might be removing a black hat SEO technique. Whatever it might be, you can quickly learn from it and ensure your website benefits from it or avoids disaster.
It Can Help You Avoid SEO Pitfalls
By watching your competitors’ ranking and optimization strategies, you’ll know what works and what doesn’t. You’ll find out the SEO tactics that are not yielding much result and will likely become obsolete. This takes a lot of effort because you’re recording every detail in terms of their optimization actions. On the other hand, it helps you avoid falling in the SERP ranking because you know what strategies to copy or not.
Final Words
Winning in SEO means ranking at number one in the SERP, having strategic keywords, and increasing your website’s online visibility. Analyzing a higher ranking website’s SEO style can help you create better content and give you insight into what optimization strategies work best for your industry. You should always research and monitor your competitor from all angles to improve your SEO New Orleans and to stay one step ahead.
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How To Operate When Consumer Confidence Is Low
/in Customer Relationship Management/by StrategyDrivenHowever, as a business, we cannot simply accept this fact and wait until spending returns to normal levels. Normal levels may not be something we have the luxury of for some time. For that reason, it’s up to us as firms to encourage people to spend their money well, and to be confident and careful in our approach. We cannot use half-truths, or emotional appeals, or untoward suggestions to our clients or consumers in order to have them support us. Instead, we must get creative, but still offer our services and products in an authentic, reliable manner. With the following advice, we hope to help you get there:
Stay Honest & Open
Stay honest and open with your audience. They are fully aware that Covid-19 has caused industries to go through tough times, and they may also be going through them. It’s important not to approach this particular situation with deception or a sense of entitlement. It can be worth considering how you might gear yourself to these times and become more relevant as a result. For instance, it’s a small thing, but many supermarkets are now registered with food delivery services such as Uber Eats, and offer masks or other cleaning items as part of their library of products. Simple things like this can help you once again become a node on your audience’s map.
Improve Employee Communication
It’s important to have your employees become more effective and productive during this time. Important marketing ideas that float to the top, or the attentiveness it takes for them to deal with a support request in the best way never comes out of a vacuum. Using the best employee communication tools can help you share your formulated strategy. The business world moves fast, and now more than ever time is of the essence. Sometimes, helping your employees move through challenging times isn’t always forcing them to train harder or work longer hours, but rather removing the difficulties with which they may not be able to perform at 100%. Implementing excellent communication tools can serve as one of these removed difficulties.
Offer More Value
We need to encourage our audience to spend more and to have more confidence in their expenditure. This means that you need to offer more value. If they feel that there’s a timed element in potentially acquiring a great deal, your audience is more likely to go for it, or budget their spending to better acquire that which you have to offer. This doesn’t need to be seen as a deceptive practice, sometimes you may quite literally be offering an olive branch to help them engage with your items once more. You needn’t have to give out free gifts or make them follow your social media profiles to force this attitude to fruition. Simple acts, such as offering free delivery on all of your products, can go a long way in getting the ball rolling.
Invest In Marketing
Investing in marketing is also a valuable measure. This can seem counter to your spending aims right now. However, when we hope to start a stopped car, we turn the engine while pushing from behind. This extra ‘shunting’ action helps the engine to tick over and ultimately resume its operation. In other words, the old adage ‘you need to spend money to make money’ is relevant.
This may mean that you invest in subtle marketing methods, such as organic SEO advertising, or even take out social media banners or promoted posts as part of your new branding strategy. The importance of this is to remind people you’re still there, that you have something great to offer, and that you’ve missed your customers or clients. As people are slowly starting to return to work and potentially begin spending again, you can position yourself at the forefront in the line of companies chomping at the bit to once again establish their audience in the best possible way.
Relaunch / Motivate
Relaunching your brand or motivating your audience to take a second look can be a great idea. What have you learned from the lockdown, and what changes do you hope to make? Remember that people will have noticed how you treated your staff or processes as the world began locking down, and so now is the time to heal or promote your best actions as something worth supporting. For instance, you may relaunch your customer support line but now make the adjustment that people will be working from home to contend with their needs.
Sometimes, a full rebrand may help you change after the great cultural milestone that was this difficult experience. Some businesses will not want to invest in this, and that’s more than understandable, but even a new slogan can perform as well in this space. It’s important to bring some energy to your strategy. Your business must be seen as active, ready and welcoming. Despite the challenges we have all been through, we mustn’t limp along and slowly convince our audience to return. We must be seen as strong, able to take on business, and more than happy to stay relevant. This will inspire consumer confidence, and ultimately secure you the purchase you’re looking for.
Understand Your Place
Ultimately, if consumers aren’t confident, they’re not confident. We can pull out all of the stops on our end, but remember that people have suffered due to societal lockdown, and it’s worth keeping that in mind. This simple fact will help your strategy remain subtle, and that’s the most important measure of all.
With this advice, we hope you can learn to operate, even when consumer confidence is low.
12 Ways To Save Money While Running Your Business
/in Managing Your Finances/by StrategyDriven1. Get rid of surplus equipment
During the start-up phase, some business owners strive to acquire tons of equipment. But as operations begin, some equipment may become redundant. Examples include printers, ink, toner, and cartridges. Surplus equipment takes up much of your office space. Moreover, they wear out with time, and will gradually depreciate when you don’t get rid of them early enough. Instead of watching your unused printer ink and toner waste away in your office cabinet, why not sell them to suppliers such as Sell Toner. This way, you will make extra cash while getting rid of surplus equipment.
2. Set up a virtual office
Thanks to technological advancements, businesses don’t have to tether their offices to one location. You can run your business while staying at home by using technological tools to connect with your staff as well as your customers and business partners. Virtual offices allow you to run your business with little resources since you don’t need to have a physical building. Focus on establishing your customer base, after which you can then put up a commercial building.
3. Use Open-Source software
A lot of business software is reconfigured open-source software from volunteers in the business community. This means that they are obtained from non-proprietary sources. Comparatively, open-source software costs far less than proprietary commercial software. Whether you want accounting or bookkeeping software, there are several non-proprietary software that can help you save money while getting your basic tasks done. However, you may have to bear with the fact that the support service for open-source software is limited. But the good news is that business owners who use open-source products can join community forums to access support services from other users.
Usually, bulk-purchasing is cheaper than when you buy products individually. Before ordering products from your chosen supplier, ask them for discount offers. Many suppliers will be willing to slash off prices for customers who have a long-term business relationship with their company. Do some research and find multiple suppliers, negotiating prices before you settle on the most cost-effective. Also, do not tie yourself to one local supplier. To increase your sales opportunities, move out of your comfort zone, and connect with suppliers who offer discounts on shipping and bulk orders.
5. Track the flow of your cash
Another vital activity for saving money is tracking cash flow. When you track the flow of your cash, it saves you from incurring late payments fees — also, you will not miss your bill payments. The majority of small businesses often fail because they are unable to conserve their cash. The opportune time to start tracking your cash flow is during the initial phase of your operation. To generate revenue, your funds have to pay your regular expenses, including the unforeseen ones that may erupt. By looking at the statements of your cash flow on an annual and monthly basis, you will understand the value of your cash and whether it’s enough.
6. Reduce your expenditure on traditional advertisement
With the rise of the internet revolution and digital marketing, business owners have the means to cut down their costs of traditional adverts. Reach more audiences via the internet by using paid advertising resources such as Google AdWords. Use search engine optimization techniques to build a great website and attract customers to your business. Some business owners are able to garner hundreds of thousands of views by creating videos on YouTube to promote their products. This is almost a free way to advertise your business to a global audience. Traditional advertising platforms are expensive, and may not broadcast your business to wider audiences.
7. Outsource some tasks
When you have a strong team of full-time employees, your business has the potential to grow. However, permanent employees also sometimes cost a business its financial resources. Salaries, insurance covers, and office spaces are some employee-related costs that businesses often struggle to settle. So, consider outsourcing your tasks to virtual assistants (VA’s) to reduce your workload, improve work efficiency, and save money. Virtual assistants are skillful people who work from locations across the globe to get your special tasks done in time. Since VA’s have their own office spaces and equipment, you can save money assigning repetitive tasks to them. As a business founder, this will free up more time to focus on building the core parts of your business. Negotiate with independent contractors like VA’s, and you are likely to make a fair deal that will benefit both of you.
The Covid-19 Pandemic has turned the world upside-down. It has negatively impacted the global economy to some extent. For businesses whose finances have been hit hard by the pandemic, laying off workers may be an idea worth considering. This will have to start with an evaluation to find out which employees go and which stay. However, since employees form the backbone of your business operations, and you don’t have to fire all of them even if times are hard. If you do so, your business may suffer disastrous consequences.
Instead of laying off all your employees, negotiate with them for a pay cut. If you were providing them with free three-square meals a day, reduce it two or one. For example, assure them of their breakfast and cancel their lunch and dinner. Your employees who understand the economic burdens on your business will readily accept pay cuts. After all, half a loaf of bread is better than none. By implementing this strategic decision, you can save money to run your business even during tough times, such as the coronavirus pandemic.
9. Hire smart workers
The levels of smartness of your employees can also determine how economical your business is. On this subject, you don’t have to use only the experience factor to rate the abilities of your employees. In recruiting new employees, give chances for inexperienced people (recent graduates) provided they are smart enough to fit your work demands. Some workers may not have several years of experience, but they can learn fast once you put them on the job. Hire inexperienced people and pay them entry-level salaries. This way, your business will gain a monetary advantage. Meanwhile, your smart workers will contribute their best to grow your business.
10. Hire interns
The two main types of internships are paid and unpaid internships. Interns are usually students or recent graduates who work for companies in order to gain experience in their chosen field of study. Many times, interns work for experiences, not necessarily for the money. Marketing organizations have been able to achieve their goals by hiring interns from local schools to build their social media marketing campaigns. It is up to you to also understand your business operations, and find out areas that match the skill set of interns. By hiring interns instead of full-time permanent workers, you can cut down your expenses on salary and even office space. When this is done together with telecommuting, you can run a small business by getting tasks accomplished for a fraction of their standard costs.
11. Understand your customers
As technology advances, so do customers evolve with time. When you know your customers’ demographics and behavior on the internet, you can streamline your online marketing campaigns to reach the desired audience. Channel your marketing investments on online platforms that are likely to pay off, instead of spreading your campaigns to several areas on the internet. When you understand your customers’ preferences, responses, and general views about pricing, then you can prepare a reasonable budget and avoid losses. Eliminating ineffective options means that you are in a better position to make wise investments by targeting the right customers.
12. Reward your hard-working profit makers
This may seem controversial, but it makes sense to motivate your workers and customers who bring you the profits. For many successful entrepreneurs, rewards take the forms of good gestures such as the occasional provision of free refreshments, leaves, promotions, and salary increments. Boost the morale of your employees, and they will be encouraged to do more for the business. Offer value-added services and discounts to your regular customers so that you can win their everlasting loyalty. If you invest in the people who bring you profits, you’re nurturing a friendly relationship that will go on to bring extra profits to your business.
To wrap things up, your ability to economize the limited resources at your disposal will determine the growth rate of your organization. The above money-saving tips may be the best ways to build a resilient business that will thrive no matter the business climate.
A Guide to Marketing Your Business: 2020 Edition
/in Marketing & Sales/by StrategyDrivenWith this importance in mind, here’s a quick guide on marketing your business in 2020.
Conduct market research
Research is the basis for any solid plan. To develop a marketing strategy that will deliver results, you need to gain a deep understanding of your customers. What makes them tick? Which marketing methods convince them to purchase items? How have their tastes changed with current trends?
One of the best research methods is to look at the competition. See what they’re doing right and wrong, and use this information to your advantage.
Decide on a USP
When marketing a business, you have to decide on what to promote. While this can be the brand as a whole, the most effective plans are those that focus on a unique selling point. You have to provide potential customers with a reason to check out the business, and a USP helps to stand out from the crowd.
As for what the USP can be, this could be an affordable service or product with exceptional quality. If you are running an exclusive discount, say 30% off an item for one week only, this could help draw prospective customers in.
Select your tools
Picking the right marketing tools is, obviously, an essential aspect of advertising. Fortunately, there are many options available in that regard. Consider the following picks:
Plus that’s just scratching the surface. Certain picks will require more money than others, and their level of effectiveness could differ on a business-on-business basis. Yet with the right research, you will have a firm grasp of which are the best choices.
Set a budget
Now you have the plan and tools in place, there’s one last element required before you can launch your marketing campaign: the necessary funding. The set budget for a promotional strategy can vary widely. It can cost thousands on a monthly basis, or it might not even require any money at all.
If outside financing is required, however, one of the best options is to acquire a loan. If your credit rating is in bad shape, Now Loans shows you can still acquire funding this way despite the hurdle.
Analyze the results
Even when the marketing campaign is well underway, there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done. You have to closely analyze your advertising ventures and see what’s producing results – and what isn’t generating conversions.
By studying these marketing techniques, you can constantly refine and improve your campaign. As with any component of business, you need to change with the times. A promotional tactic might become obsolete overnight, for instance.
5 Tips for Achieving a Successful Business Merger
/in Managing Your Business/by StrategyDrivenWhile the advantages are clear, there’s just one issue: completing a successful merger is far from an easy task.
As you would expect, a merger is a complicated process. Many different elements need to come together before it becomes a reality, and even then that’s no guarantee it will happen seamlessly.
However, to limit the potential headache, here are five tips for achieving a successful business merger:
What are your overall goals?
Before you go forward with a merger, it’s essential you outline why it is happening in the first place. Do you want to grow your market share? Introduce new products and processes to your business? Eliminate a competitor from the competition?
Whatever the reason, this needs to be clearly defined. This means that, not only will you have a straightforward understanding about where you want your business to go, but the employees involved will also know what’s going on.
Ensure your finances are in order
It’s a simple point, admittedly, but one that still requires plenty of attention. Ultimately, do you have the right amount of money in place to complete a merger?
Remember: you might have enough money in the bank to cover the initial cost of the merge, but that’s only the start of course. You also have to be prepared to sustain the investment, aka covering the additional costs brought on by a merger.
Be clear about what’s happening
Transparency is an important quality at any time for a business, but this is particularly the case during a major change such as a merger.
First of all, this will keep everyone on the same page about the upcoming changes. In addition, it can assist with the transition process. If you put together a team to handle the transaction, the burden doesn’t just rest on your shoulders.
The right platform to facilitate the merger
When you’re ready to complete the deal and facilitate the merger, you will require the right platform to get the job done. This is where a data room m&a can be especially beneficial.
By using a specialized data room, you have the opportunity to speed up the process – a vital component of any successful merger. You can restructure activities across all related documents and transactions, and do so within a secure environment.
Performing the integration
The plan is in place. Your employees are ready to support with the merger. You have the right platform ready to go. Now there’s just one final element to go: completing the merger.
Integrating two companies is a stressful occasion. Nevertheless, careful preparation can ensure it is a smooth operation. To assist with the integration, tackle the entire process with bite-sized milestones. If these milestones are tied together with incentives, employees and managers will be more motivated to get it all done in a swift fashion.
Ways Monitoring Your Competition Can Drive Your SEO and Business
/in Online Marketing and Website Development/by StrategyDrivenWhat would it feel like to have a competitor beat you to the top of the search engine results page (SERP) after all your effort and hard work in search engine optimisation (SEO)?
What if you’ve applied all the SEO tactics you know, yet a competitor’s web page keeps ranking higher than yours?
You don’t have to hate a website for ranking higher than you or beating you in the SEO game. Hating a competing website is a thing of the past when it comes to the Internet. It’s true that having a higher ranking competitor could lead to not achieving target website traffic, more time, and extra expenses.
However, the online world today has made it possible to use a better ranking site to your advantage. Your SEO drive doesn’t have to dwindle. Instead, you should monitor and analyze your competition to get more benefits from SEO and increase page rank. You should look at their content, keywords, and site optimization. You should monitor your competitors’ social media activity. You might wonder, “how can monitoring a competing website help me optimize my site?”
Let’s take a look at a few ways that can happen:
It Helps You Create Better Content
Content is king on the internet. Search engines primarily rank web pages and sites based on content. Google rates websites on E-A-T which means expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. This rating guideline concentrates on quality and reputation of the entire website content, including blog posts and landing pages.
When a website is consistently at the top of the SERP, you can be sure the site is creating epic content that meets search engine criteria. You can look at such site’s landing pages and blog posts.
However, don’t copy their work and regurgitate it on your site. That is plagiarism. Instead, put a twist on the topic or find out a recurring question by visitors in the comment and write an article to answer the question. This means you can get content opportunities from this strategy. You’ll always have fresh content in the form of blog posts, articles, ebooks, and press releases.
It Helps You Find and Use Better Ranking Keywords
While analyzing the content of competing websites, you can find out their potential relevant keywords, domains’ link popularity, and page result characteristics. You will also need to use the Google Webmaster Tool to research traffic that your site gets for various search queries.
This will show you the most effective keywords that bring in traffic. Find out how your competitor ranks for those keywords. Then, you can use the keywords to create researched, high-quality content. Once a user types in the keyword in search engines, your web page will have a better chance of appearing in the results.
You Can Improve Your Branding
Your branding is what sets you apart from your competition. It can help drive your site to the top of your niche market and create customer loyalty. SEO helps build brand awareness. A competing website will have its own branding and unique selling point too.
First, you need to research their website content. How do they promote their brand in each post? What is their brand strategy? Then, you can research their online presence, content output, and customer engagement. By doing this, you can identify the competition’s target audience, targeted niches, and customer attraction strategy.
With the information you’ve gotten, you’ll know what to do to strengthen your unique selling proposition. You can also find new methods of creating brand uniqueness and making your site more appealing to a shared audience. Through this, your online brand presence and search visibility can increase.
It Improves Your Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing and site optimization are intertwined. Let’s say your website’s profile has millions of followers, and your article has a hundred thousand shares on social media; if this is the case, your search rank will likely improve. You need to monitor your competitors’ social media activity by noticing how they interact with followers and what is shared the most. You can track their posts with tools like Hootsuite.
One way to take advantage of their social activity is to reach out to their followers with your content. Some of them won’t be following you. They can be interested in your content and visit your website, which can lead to increased traffic for you.
Another way is to analyze their marketing tactics and tweak your social media strategy to accommodate the successful methods they’ve used. You can also find out which content does well on social media. A post that’s successful on social media will rank high on the SERP. Once you identify the competitors’ content, write an article with a similar topic and mirror their content strategy on social media.
You Can Gain More Backlinks
Getting inbound links from authority sites can help your SEO drive. A competing website that is properly optimized will be building links, just like you are. You can reach out to those sites to get them to link to similar content. Also, you should track any new backlink they have and find out if they’ve adopted a new strategy.
The most important thing here is not to copy every detail of the competing websites’ link building strategy. Instead, use their methods to strengthen your SEO techniques. You can build on their strategies and incorporate yours at the same time. That way, you can have a better internet marketing campaign overall.
It Can Help You Improve SEO Activities
By examining a competitor’s SEO strategies, you’ll be able to keep up with industry trends and find out when something new is on the scene. For example, higher ranking websites may change their SEO strategy and style suddenly.
This can mean a few things. There could be a new algorithm update, and they’re adjusting their optimization strategy too. They might have found out a better way to make their web pages rank higher in the SERP. They might be trying to avoid a penalty or might be removing a black hat SEO technique. Whatever it might be, you can quickly learn from it and ensure your website benefits from it or avoids disaster.
It Can Help You Avoid SEO Pitfalls
By watching your competitors’ ranking and optimization strategies, you’ll know what works and what doesn’t. You’ll find out the SEO tactics that are not yielding much result and will likely become obsolete. This takes a lot of effort because you’re recording every detail in terms of their optimization actions. On the other hand, it helps you avoid falling in the SERP ranking because you know what strategies to copy or not.
Final Words
Winning in SEO means ranking at number one in the SERP, having strategic keywords, and increasing your website’s online visibility. Analyzing a higher ranking website’s SEO style can help you create better content and give you insight into what optimization strategies work best for your industry. You should always research and monitor your competitor from all angles to improve your SEO New Orleans and to stay one step ahead.