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How to Boost Your Business with Conventional Tote Bags

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article | Entrepreneurship | How to Boost Your Business with Conventional Tote BagsTote bags are a great way of advertising and promoting your brand. One of the main advantages of tote bags is that you can print your logo on them. There is a lot of space on tote bags to print any logo. This is a good way of promoting your business since people get to see its logo more often. It creates awareness and popularity of your business and brand. These tote bags are also environmentally-friendly and can be reused for a long period. You do not have to worry about environmental pollution when dealing with promotional tote bags for customers.

Promotion Strategy

Tote bags are commonly used for shopping but can be used in many other settings. Supermarkets and stores may flourish if they hand out promotional tote bags to their customers. This keeps them from carrying their bags from home, buying new bags, or using plastic bags, and this takes a load off of them. Customers get some sense of pride when they walk out with a logo-printed tote bag from a store with a big brand. These customer tote bags are carried around many places away from the store that they came from, which increases the store’s popularity. Most shopping bags from prominent stores are tote bags with a logo. For such services, you can visit rocketbags.co.uk as an online option.

Businesses can control waste from plastic bags when they use promotional tote bags. The environment is choking from a lot of plastic waste because these plastic bags are not durable enough to last a long time and have to be disposed of. This accumulated plastic waste has deteriorated the health of the earth and using environmentally-friendly tote bags will restore it. The more businesses start using these tote bags to pack products for their customers, the fewer plastic bags are used, and this gives us a clean and healthy environment. Any brand that is known to protect the environment will attract many people and grow.

Alternative Strategies

For some brands without products, these tote bags can still be used to promote your brand. In talk shows, seminars, and conferences, you can print your logo on tote bags and put some merchandise in them. These bags will build your brand even after the event is done because they are durable. People like receiving gifts and gifting your customers a tote bag also helps your brand’s popularity grow. When other people hear that your company is giving out gifts, they will be drawn to your brand.

Conclusion

Although using tote bags might be costly initially, they will promote your brand and bring big profits. It is considered as a method of marketing your brand and creating awareness. The more people know about your brand, the more they follow it. Customer service is most valuable when you want your business or brand to thrive, and these branded promotional tote bags are a form of customer service. To cut on expenses, you can hand them out only to select customers who earn them. Also, buy in large quantities to make them more affordable.

Use Your Story to Sell Yourself

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Brand Marketing|Use Your Story to Sell YourselfBrand marketing is something every business should focus on if it wants to excel in its industry. If you are a business owner, you must apply this strategy to every campaign you launch to ensure that people don’t just use your service, but they keep coming back for more.

But how does a business decide on its brand? Everyone has a story. A tale of who you are and how you got to where you are, but some business owners prefer to forget the past and only focus on the future, where in fact it’s the past that can prove most fruitful for them.

Through this story, you can start building something that customers and clients come to recognize. They associate the story with your business, and if done right, this can make you more appealing.

Be Authentic, But Avoid Sob Stories

Authenticity in business is difficult to unlock. Regardless of your best intentions, a company that appears to be pandering to its customers can drive them away. A little sentimentality is okay here and there, but if it doesn’t match your brand, then it can have adverse effects on your business.

It’s also vital to avoid sob stories. It might work on reality TV, but business is not reality TV. A sob story can come across as fake, and it can distract from the service your company offers. No business wants customers that pity them, so while it’s okay to be honest, it’s perhaps best to ease off on going full superhero-origin-story.

Customers are smarter than a lot of people like to admit, and they are sure to catch on if something about your business seems a little off. In a time where information is accessible to anyone who knows how to Google, any half-truth or an outright lie can be easily fact-checked.

Freebies to Reflect You

Everyone loves a freebie, so you should take advantage of spreading awareness for your brand by investing in promotional products complete with your name, logo, and even contact details that you can give away at events.

Anyone who has ever been to a business convention knows these places are ripe for grabbing as much as you can, and freebies are up there with networking and competitor research as one of the big reasons people attend.

So it’s about time you use this to your advantage. The promotional items you hand out there can give future customers an idea of why they need your service, even if they don’t they do just yet. If the products reflect you, it makes it easier for people to identify with you, which will drive them to choose you over competitors.

A Brand Personality

Once upon a time, brands were brands, and people were people, and they lived in (mostly) harmony. However, the rise of social media and the ability to interact with customers, this has blended into something a little too Frankenstein’s Monster for some people’s liking.

But this is a minority, and more and more brands are jumping on the social media marketing train to spread brand awareness. You likely saw the Wendy’s phenomenon from 2017, and many companies followed suit. They understand that the general audience is sick of the corporate nonsense that plagues LinkedIn. They don’t want to talk to a representative anymore with a clean-shaven face and slicked-back hair. They want to speak to someone real.

Creating and maintaining a brand personality helps customers differentiate from similar brands in your industry. If you do it right without causing offence or being several weeks behind internet trends, then you can reap the benefits, and even if people aren’t buying what you are selling, they are at least talking about you.

Fighting For A Cause

Every company should have a cause to fight for. However, there are so many charities and fundraising opportunities that it is difficult to decide which is right for you. However, here is where your story comes in.

We’ve already established that sob stories are not always ideal, but you can still use the inspiration from your past to help choose the right cause to fight for. If you have had family members with illnesses, then help improve donations for charities fighting such diseases. If you’ve always had a passion for nature, then environmental causes are the way to go. Only you know what motivated you to start your company, so choose something based on that drive.

Fighting for a cause help you appeal to a broader market and even people who may not be your target market. They will see you have principles and be drawn to discover what you do. As long as you stick to these principles and don’t sell out for a profit, your fight could inspire others.

A Human Touch

Despite all these options, there are few better ways to use your story to sell yourself than actually getting your face out there so that customers can put a face to the logo. It’s often too easy to forget that behind the branding and the products are people hoping to do their best, so you can help people remember this by being ever-present.

You can do this by taking the opportunity to engage with your community, especially when launching a store somewhere new. This helps ease any fears they may have, and also gives you the chance to field questions regarding your business.

It’s too easy for people to be cruel when hiding behind a keyboard, but seeing you in person may change their approach, and instead of spitting bile, you might be able to have a conversation that’s productive rather than destructive.

Don’t Sell Yourself Short

A business that has a story, especially one that others can relate to, is the perfect way to guarantee that your brand marketing is on point every single time. However, you cannot solely rely on this story, as once you get big enough, it may not be as relevant as it once was. Combine your story with ideas that set you apart from your competitors so you can add chapter after chapter to a story that is only just beginning.

4 tips for starting a business in a poor economy

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At one point in our life, we’ve probably all been there. The economy is like a rollercoaster, and from time to time you do reach new lows.

Quite often, these lows give some people a new lease of life. Companies are forced to offload employees, and this means that an increased number of people are without work and ultimately asking, “what’s next?”.

Well, for many of these, a new business is one solution. The economy doesn’t make it easy, but it shouldn’t be a direct obstacle that tells you to turn around and do something else.

If you are considering starting a business in this sort of climate, it’s time to read on and find out our four most recommended tips for doing so.

The location is crucial

Without trying to be patronizing, we really can’t emphasize the importance of location, location, location. It’s something that can make or break your business in these tough times, and this infographic perhaps describes it in the best detail:

StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article | Entrepreneurship | 4 tips for starting a business in a poor economy

No, you shouldn’t be targeting those locations which are faring the best during these tough times, but you need to be shrewd about how your potential market is going to react. If you are selling high-end products, you need to assess whether the area you are about to venture into is ready for these, and vice versa.

Use the economy to your advantage

There are a lot of ways that the economy is going to hurt you during these times, so you should be trying to take advantage wherever possible.

Lowering costs is one of these and whilst negotiating with suppliers, understand that you probably hold the upper hand. They will be feeling the pinch as well, so use the economy as an excuse to get even better deals. Whether it’s rents, products or equipment, this is something that you must use to your advantage to drive those margins up.

Start as small as can be

Of course, if you have major backing behind you, this next point might be invalid.

For everyone else, starting small is crucial advice. If you don’t necessarily need office space, don’t hire it. The same rules apply to employees, as both of these elements are fixed costs that are going to heap pressure onto your business.

Start as small as you can, and scale up when the market signals that it is time to do so.

Watch the competition closely

The competition is going to be an excellent signal on just how you are going to perform in this market. It will indicate just how flat the market is, and provide you any ideas on how you can treat it differently.

Sometimes, it might suggest that the market has become extremely price sensitive – and this might not fit within your business plan. Or, it might suggest the otherwise, and a creative marketing plan is all you need. Analyze the competition and then plan your strategy accordingly.

Why Your Business Needs Workforce Management Systems

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | Entrepreneurship | Why Your Business Needs Workforce Management SystemsWorkforce management systems are some of the most revolutionary features that can handle everything online from HR to hour registration and scheduling with one single tool. Handling paperwork for an organization is something that the HR department can confirm is not that interesting, not to mention the small errors that can lead to taking a whole day to discover why the books are not adding up.

HR is one of the departments that do not directly contribute to profits or productivity, yet it can take a huge chunk of a business’s operating budget. With a workforce management system, you do not have to print a handful of paper copies or place scanned pages in a hard to organize folder on your computer. This saves the labor needed to operate this department and you can save a lot of money. Here are some of the reasons why you should consider installing workforce management systems in your organization:

Cutting costs

It requires dozens of people to prepare the paperwork that is necessary for calculating and making the payments for labour in good time. You can save this labor and reassign those employees to more productive tasks. The workforce management system pays for itself through the savings you make from reducing labor costs. You can get this software from Synel-Americas and integrate it into all of your management systems.

Higher employee morale

The systems allow your organization to automate almost all of the payroll and timekeeping functions. The software captures the employee’s data to calculate payroll more accurately to eliminate mistakes with pay and benefits. Mistakes in benefits and payments are among the things that demotivate a workforce most and many unhappy workers cite it as a reason for attrition. It can also lead to workers organizing for collective bargaining rights, which is not a good image for the organization.

Compliance

HR is responsible for making and keeping records for legal and financial purposes. This provides the statistics necessary to prove that the business is in compliance with its legal obligations. This data is also needed by unions, individuals with employment contracts, and by company policy. A small gap in compliance can cost your business a huge sum in fines and the organization’s reputation.

Analytical function

Workforce management software helps management to obtain accurate and comprehensive data. This data can be used to evaluate the actual performance against the budget to measure the success of the management. Data management can help you discover interesting trends in your business to make better decisions. Having available data at all times and in a simplified form also saves you the time you need to react to sudden changes in the business.

Customer satisfaction

A well-motivated workforce will always give satisfying services to your clients, which is crucial for business growth. The system can be used to evaluate the employees’ performance and the organization can give rewards in a fair and justifiable manner. This leads to healthy competition within the organization and increased customer service performance.

Conclusion

Workforce management systems offer a lot of important benefits for business whether large or small. The software helps companies to move forward with the best human resource technologies available. The money saved also enables the company to attain ROI and direct the resources to more investments.

A Small Business Owner’s Emergency Preparedness Checklist

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Entrepreneurship | A Small Business Owner's Emergency Preparedness ChecklistIf a natural disaster were to impact your city or town, would your small business be prepared for it?

Many small businesses are, unfortunately, not ready for emergency situations. It’s why about 40 percent of small businesses end up closing down following natural disasters and other emergencies.

You can avoid this fate by creating an emergency preparedness checklist for your small business. You should be especially mindful of doing this if your small business is located in an area that gets hit with a lot of hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and other weather-related emergencies.

Take a look at some of the things you should do as a small business owner to protect your property and, more importantly, yourself and your employees.

Identify Potential Emergency Situations

There are some emergency situations that will pop up out of the blue and catch small business owners completely off guard. If, for example, a car drives through the front of your business, that’s not something you would have been able to predict.

But most of the emergency situations that small businesses face have to do with the weather. And while some of these situations can catch small business owners asleep at the wheel, most of them should be things that are on your radar.

Depending on where your small business is, it could be subjected to:

  • Hurricanes
  • Tornadoes
  • Earthquakes
  • Blizzards
  • Flash Floods
  • Wildfires

Your emergency preparedness checklist should include details on how you’ll respond to each of these things. But it all starts with identifying which of them are most likely to impact your small business.

Figure Out Ways to Respond to Each Specific Type of Emergency

Once you know which types of emergency situations your small business could potentially face, the next order of business will be to figure out how you’ll handle each one. This will require some careful planning on your part.

Sit down and take a look at each type of emergency situation and think about how it could affect your small business. This will help you decide what you’ll need to work your way through an emergency situation.

For instance, if your small business is positioned right in the middle of a city that gets hit with bad hurricanes every few years, you’ll need to find the best ways to respond to hurricanes. You should plan to do it by:

  • Boarding up windows and doors prior to a hurricane touching down in your city
  • Moving electronic equipment to a place where it won’t get wet if water makes its way into your small business
  • Securing anything that could get washed away during flooding in your area

Every emergency situation is a little bit different and will require you to take different steps. The key is outlining a detailed response plan for each individual situation.

Outfit Your Small Business With the Right Tools to Handle Emergencies

In order to respond to emergency situations, you’re going to need to have more than just response plans in place. You’re also going to need a series of tools that will help you carry your plans out.

Prior to a hurricane, for instance, you’ll need to have everything from hammers and nails to plywood and sandbags on hand to prepare your small business. Without these things, it’s going to be difficult to get your small business ready for an emergency.

Yet, you would be surprised to see how many small business owners wait until the very last minute to try and obtain these tools. Some end up not being able to get the tools they need to shore up their small businesses and make emergency situations worse for their businesses.

See which tools you will need to respond to different emergency situations and invest in them long before you ever have to pull them out. It never hurts to have these tools stored away since you never know when you could need them.

Put a Communication System Into Place for Emergency Situations

Communication is going to be of the utmost importance when an emergency situation strikes.

You’re going to need to communicate with your employees to let them know what you need them to do to keep your small business safe. You’re also going to need to communicate with other small business owners in your area so that you can lend a hand to one another.

And of course, you’ll need to communicate with your local police station as well as your local fire station in many cases. You might need to have them come out to assist you with an emergency.

Figure out who from your small business is going to be communicating with others during an emergency situation. Whether it be you, your general manager, or someone else, there should be a point person in place for all communication efforts.

Get Out Ahead of Emergencies as Best You Can

As we mentioned earlier, it’s impossible to predict all emergency situations. There are going to be emergencies that sneak up on you from time to time.

But you can get out ahead of many emergency situations by paying close attention to what’s happening in the news. If there is a hurricane threatening to touch down in your city, you can map its progress and see how much damage it could potentially do to homes and businesses in your area.

This will help you prepare for emergencies so much better than you would be able to otherwise.

Start Checking Items Off Your Emergency Preparedness Checklist Today

You don’t have to allow a hurricane, an earthquake, or another type of emergency to cripple your small business. By creating an emergency preparedness checklist, you can limit the amount of damage that an emergency does.

Use the tips listed here to formulate your own emergency preparedness checklist based on the potential emergency situations your small business might face. You won’t have to worry about an emergency shutting your business down for good when you prepare for it ahead of time.

Read the articles on our blog to find out more about the emergencies that could bring your small business to a halt.