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Key considerations when building your unified communications strategy

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StrategyDriven Business Communications Article |Unified Communications|Key considerations when building your unified communications strategyUnified communications are a hot topic at the moment among businesses, with a unified communications strategy having the potential to offer huge savings and impressive increases in efficiency if it is done right. To be sure that you choose the right unified communications strategy for your business, read on for our list of key considerations.

How many platforms are currently used in your office?

In your office it is likely that work messages are currently sent between staff on several different communication platforms in the mix of different chats, group messages, and inboxes. In this environment it is easy for important information to be missed or lost, and it can take a long time for messages asking for clarification from upper management to reach the top for a decision. Using a system such as Unified Communications by Gamma you can ensure that all internal communications go through one easy to trace system. This will allow for a vast simplification of the flow of information.

Consider the potential for telecommuting and better video conferencing

A large advantage of a unified communications system which should be considered to the fullest is the ability to revolutionise telecommuting. Telecommuting is another way of saying work done from home and can apply to a huge range of work done in Britain today, especially on the administrative side of the job. In the 2015 PGI Global Telework Survey, an incredible 79% of knowledge workers globally reported being able to work from home at least one day a week. The result of this was a massive saving in money and time for the relevant workers, as well as a reduction in health issues caused by travelling through highly polluted air.

However, in Britain the number of telecommuters is far lower than the global average, even though, with a powerful services-led economy, Britain is one of the countries that could most benefit from a radical rethink of the role of telecommuters. It would also offer massive environmental benefits. Investing in a powerful unified communications network can make a big difference in allowing workers the freedom to produce their best work with a lower level of stress.

If you are able to get an effective level of telecommuting going, you may be able to consider rethinking your whole approach to office space, allowing you to reduce the amount of office space you pay to use and heat without getting any use for. If you have a high level of telecommuting with a pool of employees who are not all in at the same time there is the potential to have a suite of office spaces for hotdesking them in rotations when they are in the office. This can represent a massive saving on office space.

Find the right product set for your unique needs

Each company has different requirements, but different bundles are available. Whether you only need phone communications and data in the office, or want them for any company issued device, or want a single integrated system which transfers documents and sends messages and memos, there will be a unified communications solution for you.

What are the Best Working Capital Loan Options in 2019?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Capital Loans|What are the Best Working Capital Loan Options in 2019If you are operating a start-up, you may face problems with managing the cash flow of your business efficiently and may have to rely on working capital loans. Working capital loans are not utilized for long periods or the purchase of noncurrent assets due to their short repayment period. Instead, they pay for the operational costs of a business and is a good indicator of the short-term health of the business. Every industry goes through a period where the revenues plummet and affect the amount of working capital available.

In an ideal scenario, you might be able to increase your working capital by generating more revenue, but this is not possible at all times. Instead, businesses operating on a small scale rely on loans to satisfy their capital deficiency. The following working capital loans mentioned below are being used by small businesses in 2019 to stabilize their cashflows.

1. OnDeck:

OnDeck offers working capital loans to borrowers with a minimum credit score of 680 with rates around 9%. The repayment period is relatively long around 36 months, and customers can borrow up to $100,000. It also offers a line of credit which has a repayment period from 6 months till one year. You can apply for OnDeck online with the application taking less than ten minutes to be completed. To qualify for OnDeck, you must have a credit score of at least 600 and must have a business history of one year. Although the requirement of $100,000 is not ideal for start-ups, most small businesses can meet this requirement.
While OnDeck generally has positive revenues on the website due to the easy financial process and excellent customer relations, it does charge an origination fee of up to 5%. Along with that, even if you repay your loan early, the interest rate will remain the same for the entire term of the loan.

2. LoanBuilder:

LoanBuilder is another working capital loan for small businesses that have been in operation for at least nine months. The repayment terms are from 13 weeks to 52 weeks, and you can borrow up to $500,000. This provides flexibility to the borrowers since they do not need to worry about immediate payment. LoanBuilder offers single fixed free loan pricing on working capital loans. However, you do not benefit from paying the loan early since the interest rate remains the same. You have the option to choose the repayment term, although long term options come with additional fees. In order to qualify for LoanBuilder, you must have a credit score of at least 550 and above with gross revenue of at least $42,000. Apart from that, your business must be located within the United States and does not have a history of filing for bankruptcy. The perception about LoanBuilder is generally positive and is praised for its quick process and efficient response. Customers who left negative reviews said the pricing was too expensive.

3. BlueVine:

A BlueVine loan is suitable for businesses that have unpaid invoices within 90 days. BlueVine offers a loan of up to $5 million with weekly rates of 0.25%. There are no origination fees attached to BlueVine, and you do not have to apply for it again. This differs from other types of loans as it does not have any termination fees either. To qualify for a BlueVine, you must have a credit score of at least 550 and a gross revenue of $100,000. You can apply for it online with the application requiring less than 10 minutes to be filled. Although BlueVine offers the highest funding amount, your business must invoice other government businesses to qualify. If you do not invoice B2B customers, then the working capital loan would not work for your business. BlueVine generally has good reviews from customers who were impressed by its services and customer support team. Critical reviews usually came from those customers who were denied financing.

4. Funding Circle:

Funding Circle is an outstanding working capital loan for businesses needing medium-term loans with low rates and monthly payments. Although it does not have a minimum credit requirement, you need a score of at least 620 to qualify. You can borrow up to $500,000 for rates as low as 5%. The interest rates are determined during the underwriting process and generally depend on the repayment terms. The qualification terms are more stringent compared to other loans because your business is funded by a variety of investors. Some of the requirements consist of a credit score of at least 620 and an annual gross income of $120,000. Your business also should have been active for at least two years. You can apply for Funding Circle loans online, and the application gets processed in ten days. The reviews of Funding Circle are generally positive since people appreciate an easy process and transparent fees. People who criticize it do it due to its documentation process.

5. National Funding:

National Funding is suitable for those customers who have a poor credit rating. This is because you can borrow up to $250,000 with no credit score requirement. Although you can borrow a large amount, the interest rates are high compared to other available loans. The best option is to contact National Funding for a customized quote. The qualification requirements are almost negligible with no credit requirement, and you must be doing business for at least one year. Your monthly credit card transactions should be over $3000. The reviews for National Funding are mixed with customers praising its quick process but criticizing its high-interest rates.

Conclusion

For a growing business, having enough working loans is critical for its daily operations. According to online reviews, the following are the top loans available in 2019 for small businesses to capitalize on. Based on the analysis, OnDeck is generally suitable for small businesses since its terms are customer friendly. However, those customers with poor credit ratings can utilize national funding to get working capital for their business.

Are You Giving Your Customers What They Deserve?

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Customers|Are You Giving Your Customers What They Deserve?Your customers are the backbone of your business. They make sure profit is trailing in and out of your company, and they help to make sure your website is ranked at the top of google, with the amount of traffic that flows in and out of your ecommerce option day by day. Indeed, you start a business with the sole aim of finding and obtaining customer loyalty, to find the market that your product suits the best, and to guarantee they come back again and again.

And if you feel that customer loyalty is in short supply around here, it’s time to look into one of the most potential reasons why: your customers feel they aren’t getting what they deserve. They come to you for a good experience and a great product, and a couple of their expectations are falling short. But why? Well, let’s examine the idea below.

Are Your Prices Right?

Your customers may feel they’re getting a better deal elsewhere, or they feel they have the potential to from taking just one look at the prices lining your shelves. They might feel you’re overselling your products, and they’re not getting value for money, and they might just hate you for it!

So it’s key to research the market you’re operating in as well as the local area you’ll be selling from. If you’re an online only store, you need to know your niche, and the common prices across it; you’ll need to try and match them, as closely as possible. And if you’ve got a physical location as well, make sure your prices don’t stick out like a sore thumb on the high street.

Are You Shipping on Time?

Your customers may feel they aren’t being treated right in the delivery process. They might feel it takes way too long to receive their packages, or they might feel that it costs a lot of money for something they’ve bought to be shipped out to them. Of course, unless you’re offering international delivery, your customers will likely find it steep for you to be charging more than $3 for national shipping.

You can get quite a nice discount deal with various shippers, if you’re worried about not being able to get costs down. Even using third party logistics companies could work well for you – navigating away from the mainstream delivery has a high chance of saving you some pennies, so don’t be afraid to use a different shipment company to get your products out there.

Are You Offering the Right Rewards?

Finally, your customers may feel their loyalty is unrewarded, and thus, they stop shopping with you and go somewhere they feel appreciated. And this could be solved with a simple rewards program! Money off coupons, free products upon collecting enough stamps, etc. These are all viable options to keep your market interested.

Make sure your customers are getting what they deserve from you. Guarantee a good experience and they’ll come back for more.

Five Innovative Approaches To Improve Your Website in 2019

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Website Design|Five Innovative Approaches To Improve Your Website in 2019Is your website taking too long to grow and reach the numbers you envision? You’re not alone. Millions of others like you are competing for the vast resources the internet offers and this means only the fittest survives and thrives here.

One of the shortest routes to internet success is to be innovative in all the critical facets of web management – from the backend to the frontend where your audience interacts with your online business. With this in mind, we share five street-smart approaches that will transform your website’s fortunes fast and sustainably.

Be customer-oriented

Regardless of the niche you’re in, there will always be that ideal audience you intend to attract to your business. With this knowledge, your goal is to maintain a style that vibes on all levels with these people. Some of the key areas to take into consideration include the content you offer them, the design used for your site, and even the site’s speed which has to be quick enough to ensure your visitors are not bouncing back.

So, how do you go about that?

For starters, ensure your first impression is superb. Use colors, themes, font types, and layouts that your ideal users find appealing to their eyes. In addition, the content should be just as good as your visuals. In essence, impress your customers by offering exactly what they expect. Give incentives if that’s what your visitors are hunting, create genuine products if you’re in such an industry, or capture the attention of your readers with rich information. In short, strive to deliver and surpass client expectations.

Optimize all web elements

Let’s face it, one of your biggest goals as an online business owner is to be able to attract a decent amount of traffic to your site. To grow your organic traffic, you will want to learn how search engines work especially the factors they take into considerations when ranking sites. For example, you might have the best designs, phenomenal content, and the fastest web host to your disposal, but if the search engine is unable to index your web elements, your visibility will suffer. So, what’s the solution?

Use web elements that major search engines like Google support and optimize them. If you heavily use videos and images on your site, be sure to add relevant SEO titles and meta descriptions to them. Besides, you need to use a speedy web host to effectively serve content to visitors and reduce your site’s bounce-back rate. Mangomatter is a good place to begin your search for a reputable host provider if you’re in the market for one. Finally, make sure your web elements are accessible within the shortest time by any browser.

Focus on providing value

Nearly every visitor that lands on your website is curious about your brand and eager to identify the value it has in it for them. To convert a big number of these visitors, how about you outline the benefits your business offers them as quickly as they reach your site?

While it can be tempting to include all the amazing things you are, avoid making the mistake of cluttering your pages as this will only end up taking away their attention from the important parts like buy buttons.
Try to focus more on the solution you have for the audience and be strategic with your calls-to-action to boost conversions.

Choose your partners wisely

Your website may have groundbreaking solutions for your prospects but without the right partners, all your efforts could prove futile. By partners, we mean your hosting provider, content creators, web programmers, and anyone else who is part of your website. These parties determine the perception that your visitors develop of your business while visiting it.

A good approach is to have these parties working harmoniously together. For example, help your content creators optimize content that your hosting provider can serve quickly on demand. Similarly, direct your programmers to use coding languages that your host supports by default.

Plan and communicate before making a move

As has been our primary theme throughout this post, your website must be valuable, informative, and flexible to the needs of its visitors. To effectively achieve this, you must make calculated moves including planning and reviewing each of your strategies before implementing it. While at it, explore how different strategies affect your existing users and ensure they don’t put them off. But above all, make sure to communicate the changes beforehand.

For example, if it’s a brand redesign, let your customers be part of the rebranding process as this proves that you value their opinions. Remember, they need to feel respected, and communicating such major changes to them is something they’d appreciate highly.

Which other approach are you using to boost results on your site and to improve user experience? Share with us in the comments below.

How to Promote Your Self-published Book

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Self-Publishing|How to Promote Your Self-published BookAuthors who have secured a traditional arrangement with a book publisher do not need to concern themselves with marketing or distribution, as this will be handled for them. However, self-published authors find themselves in a different position. Of course, some authors write simply for the joy of it, but for many people, one of the objectives of writing a book is for it to be bought, read, and enjoyed by as many people as possible. To achieve this, self-published authors face the challenge of marketing their work and securing multiple distribution channels. This guide does not include every marketing or distribution channel you might want to consider, but it introduces several concepts and marketing tips to get you started.

Create a website or blog for your book

Before you’ve finished writing the book, you could be securing your first readers if you build your own website or blog. Creating a website full of articles and engaging content on topics which are related to your target audience’s interests is a great way to gain visibility online. If your book is about divorce or family breakdown, you may want to create a website which focuses on professional insights and other books which are related. You can then start to add your own insights and excerpts from your book.

If you optimise your content for search engines, when internet users type related words or phrases into Google, your content could be top of the list of results. This is called Search Engine Optimisation or SEO. You could even create an email mailing list and encourage visitors to sign up to receive updates about your upcoming book or promote giveaways. These email contacts will not only give you a base audience to directly promote future releases but you can direct them to your website’s money pages when there is an offer. You can easily create an email signature with a button to download your book or direct them to a specific page on your website.

The earlier you can create your website, the more buzz you can generate around your book and the more time you’ll have to improve your website’s ranking.

Maximise your online exposure

In addition to optimising your website for search engine results, you can also increase your online exposure by getting involved on other websites. This could be by contributing to forums on related topics or genres of literature, or you could write an article for someone else’s blog. Whenever you publish content, be sure to include your byline with a link to your website. Social media is also a great way to maximise your reach, as you can set up a profile on Twitter or an author’s page on Facebook. When you share updates about your book or promotions, you can include a link to your website or the platform where you are selling the book. You can also use social media to engage with your readers.

Hold a launch party

While it’s true that digital marketing is often the strongest force when it comes to promoting and selling a book, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a place for more traditional approaches. When your book is released, you could hold a launch party and invite influential people in your community. This could be at a bookstore or a library, but if you make enough of a splash you may be able to get it covered by the local press. In addition to selling your book, you could produce and sell promotional merchandise such as t-shirt printing or other products. If people wear or use the products which are emblazoned with the title of your novel, they will spread awareness in their social circles and the general public.

Take your lead from other authors

When it comes to designing a cover, choosing a title, the typography, etc., take a look at what successful books in your genre have done. You may not like all of what you see, but you may find some themes amongst them which could suggest they are more appealing than others. You may also come across repeated vocabulary in the books, which could be useful in your book’s metadata, i.e. the description of your book which search engines will use when trying to match an online query with a result.

Source reviews for your book

Reviews are a fantastic selling tool for many products and books are no exception. The author or publisher of a book can rhapsodise all day long about its merits, but until we know our fellow readers are in agreement, we are likely to be sceptical. If you have published books before you may be able to contact people who have reviewed a previous book with a free copy and a request for a review.

If you have never published before, you could look at the reviews on Amazon for books in the same genre, as they may be willing to give yours a try. It’s best to look for reviewers who write succinctly and seem to have real insight into the books they are reading, as this will result in higher quality reviews of your book. In addition, try to contact around 3-4 times as many reviewers as you would like reviews, as it’s not guaranteed that you will get a response.

You could also promote your book on Goodreads, which is an online community with more than 65 million members. Here you can create a profile page about your book and yourself as well as invite reviews, give books away or host forum discussions about your book.

Write an effective blurb

A blurb is a promotional description of your book which is used on the back of printed versions and online. They are generally around 100-150 words long and give the reader just enough information to grab their attention and intrigue them, so they want to read more of the story. It can include an introduction to characters, plot or the overall theme or it could be a particularly exciting excerpt from the book itself. Some blurbs will also include quotes from positive editorial reviews. Read more about how to write a blurb.

Hire a professional designer for the cover

Never judge a book by its cover is one of the truest sayings out there, but all too often that’s exactly what people will do. If your book’s cover is too plain, unprofessional, too garish or generally poorly designed, you are decreasing the likelihood that someone will give it a chance. Find a professional book cover designer who can work with you to capture the essence of the book in the most visually appealing way.

Use multiple distribution channels

You need to make your book available on as many sales platforms as possible, but it’s best to target the biggest in the early stages at least. Amazon is one of the biggest names in book sales in terms of both print and digital with two self-publishing services. Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) handles eBooks and print books are by CreateSpace. Other popular eBook platforms include Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Apple’s iBooks, and Kobo. There are also eBook aggregator services like Draft2Digital, which will distribute your book to several different retailers, automatically adapting the book into the required format for each.

If you have an e-commerce website which can accept payments and process online orders, you can generate traffic to the website by linking from social media posts. The more people you can get to click through to your website, the higher the likelihood of sales. However, remember that you will need to convert website visitors into customers when they are there or they may quickly leave the website. This not only means fewer sales but also a higher bounce rate, which Google will penalise your website for, i.e. it can damage your ranking score.