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Why Every Business Should Outsource

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | OutsourcingOwning and running a business is not a 9-5 role; it takes a highly committed, dedicated individual who will strive for success every hour of the day, whether that means working until 9pm on a Friday evening or waking up early to take a business call on a Sunday.

However, running a business is not a sole effort for the majority of the time. It takes an army, especially if the business owner lacks the necessary skills for marketing, web development, or even accounting.

When you need an additional skill set in your company which you currently do not have, outsourcing is your best option. This increasingly popular practice allows a business owner to receive the talent and workforce they need, but without requiring bringing a new member of staff into the business permanently.

Why Outsource?

As a business owner, if you currently lack a number of skills which could see your company grow and succeed, it can be daunting to begin the recruitment process. Plus, recruitment takes valuable time and valuable resources. You may end up spending a number of weeks trying to find a suitable candidate only for them to reject the job offer. In this event, it’s back to the beginning of the process.

An alternative path is to seek the assistance of a contractor or freelancer and outsource the role. This person will hold the qualifications and skill set you need to get the job done, except they won’t be hired for a full-time position. This way, once the task is complete, you have the option of working on another project together, or exchanging payment and thanking each other for their contributions.

When you choose to outsource, you reduce the risk of losing time, resources and money into a stressful recruitment period. Instead, you gain the experience and expertise your role requires with minimal fuss and effort.

What’s more, it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement — the business owner benefits by getting a project completed on time and within budget; the contractor benefits by earning a paycheck, boosting their experience and their reputation. After all, reputation within outsourcing is highly valuable.

What Should You Outsource?

Now you know why you should outsource, it’s time to learn what projects and roles you should outsource, including:

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is a specialist skill on its own; you need to understand the many factors, such as SEO, PPC, copywriting, editing skills, social media, and so on. It’s also a rather time-consuming role, one which needs constant monitoring and measuring of which methods are successful, and which you need to change. Outsourcing digital marketing means you get the knowledge and expertise from a reputable marketer who can help drive your campaigns to success. For a fledgling business, it’s an essential role you cannot be without.

Security

In the modern age, security is extremely crucial for all businesses. With so much private data being held on our systems, it’s critical that it’s protected at all costs. A data breach or ransom can be devastating for enterprises of all sizes, and even be the reason why a company fails. However, an experienced Chief Information Security Officer is an expensive role, something brand new businesses can’t always afford. Therefore, opting to outsource CISO is a cost-effective solution.

Web Development

If you don’t have a website, you won’t get very far in today’s digital world. It’s your virtual storefront, and as such, it needs to be attractive and easy to navigate. Website development and coding is a specialist skill, but your website isn’t something to cut corners over. Choosing to outsource your web design needs means you receive a visually stunning and technically correct site from the experts without the high price tag.

How to Get a Job That comes with the Best Benefits

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If you want a job that comes with all the best benefits, then there are a few ways to ensure that this happens.

Take a Closer Look

Job hunters who know the tricks of the trade know how to identify any job benefits that will contribute to their bottom line. The categories include child care, dental insurance, medical care and more. The most important benefit that you should be looking out for is a retirement plan. Not every employer offers this, so it’s a good idea to keep an eye out. Try and find a plan where your employer will match whatever you put in. When you do this, you can come out at the end with a generous amount and you can also feel confident knowing that you are putting away for your future as well. If you can’t find an employer who can offer that then look into solo 401k rules.

StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article | Employee Benefits
 
What do you Need?

You may see a job that comes with all the benefits you could ever need, but if you are not careful then you may end up making the wrong choice for your lifestyle. It helps to sit down and work out what you exactly need from your job. For example, do you need paid vacation leave if you never go on vacation? Probably not, but childcare support may be something that will really help you out if you are a new parent. By looking out for what YOU need rather than what sounds good, you can be sure to make the best decision regarding your job.

Negotiate

If you are in a good position when it comes to applying for a job, then why not ask your employer about any potential benefits that might come your way? Enquire about anything that could make your working life easier and ask for specific benefits as well. This could include having your own office or even the ability to work from home certain days of the year. If your employer wants you badly enough then you can easily negotiate some bonuses and this is even the case if there are none on the table to begin with.

StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article | Employee Benefits
 
Compare

If you see two positions up for grabs then you may want to compare them. A lot of people make the mistake of going for the job that gives the most money because they think that this will benefit them the most. This is not the case at all, and sometimes a lower paying job with more benefits can actually be way more beneficial to your lifestyle. For example, if another job comes with dental, healthcare, childcare, great sick pay and a good pension then this would far outweigh a job that has a salary that is just a bit higher. By looking into things like this, you can then be sure to get the best result out of your career change.

So there are many ways to make sure that you get the best benefits, and by following the above tips, you can be sure to make the best decisions for your career.

How To Get Your First Clients As A Freelancer

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | Entrepreneurship | Freelancer
 
If you’re just getting started as a new freelancer, even if you’ve run other freelance businesses, one of the first things you’re probably focusing on is how to get your first paying clients.

Although it’s going to take some work and effort on your part to get yourself out there and find those initial clients and certainly isn’t easy or something you can expect to happen overnight, if you’re staying focused on the right strategies and not trying everything all at once, then you can definitely make the process of getting clients a simple one.

In this post, we’re going to give you some actionable tips and strategies that you can use to start getting your first paying clients as a freelancer so that you can start building a freedom-focused business that allows you to help people and build a life and business on your terms.

Decide who you want to work with:

In order to be able to get clients, you have to know who your clients are that you want to be working with. The ability to choose your clients is one of the main benefits of freelancing instead of working in-house where your employer will already have the clients in place and you just have to do the work. If you’re not sure what kinds of clients you want, or how to identify them, then doing an ideal client avatar exercise is something that can really help you gain more clarity around this. It will help you identify the traits you want to have in your ideal clients, the type of budgets they may have available for the project, and also what industry they work in. There are many types of ideal client avatar exercises available that you can fill out for free online, so it’s best to take a look at a few different ones to see which one best suits you to help you come up with the answers you need.

Determine your positioning:

To make the process of attracting your ideal clients easier, then it’s important to define how you’re going to position yourself in front of them. For example, do you want to attract and work with only larger companies as opposed to small businesses? Do you want to charge high-end prices for premium work or do you like the idea of offering a more tiered pricing that would allow clients with various budgets to work with you? The other thing to think about when it comes to positioning your freelance services is whether you consider yourself to be a specialist or a generalist. Whilst both have good and bad points, it’s something that you’ll need to be clear about because it’s going to be something that will help you set yourself apart when it comes to pitching and offering your services to clients. For example, do you have strong data visualisation examples in your portfolio that you can show clients because this is something you specialise in or are you someone who has a wide variety of different examples of all kinds of copywriting you’ve done as a more general copywriter?

Create prices and packages:

If you want to get clients to pay for your freelance services, then you have to determine what those prices are ahead of time so that when you send out proposals you can come up fees that reflect your prices and not just something you’ve plucked out of the air after being asked what your prices are. Being able to offer your clients different packages according to their needs is also something that you should have in place before even looking for clients because this will help you keep your earnings in line with your goals and stay organized when it comes to looking for clients because you’ll know how many you can work with at any one time.

Be proactive in reaching out:

Even if you have the most beautiful and most expensive website on the planet, clients aren’t just going to come flocking through the door to work with you, so you’re going to have to put yourself out there if you want clients to hire you. This will involve things like creating content for your website and blog, posting on social media, reaching out to clients you want to work with and letting them know about your offers and services. Of course not every client will hire you, and you’ll probably get more rejection emails than you will replies from people wishing to work with you, but you need to keep going and stay proactive in your search because this is really the only way to build your business.

How to Market Yourself as a Freelancer

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | FreelancerIf you have a talent in a particular industry and you have the determination required to work for yourself successfully, then there are plentiful opportunities in the freelance sector at the moment. Freelancing has several advantages over setting up a business, because it requires a far lower level of investment and you don’t have to employ anyone else. All you need are the skills, computer facilities, and the will to succeed.

There are many jobs that lend themselves to freelancing; in fact, there are very few specialties that don’t have some kind of online application. For example, even the most practical, hands-on jobs such as construction, teaching, and medicine, all need web-based services such as training and consulting. If you have the urge to go it alone, there’s very little holding you back – but the critical difference between success and failure will be your ability to market yourself effectively.

Why marketing matters for freelancers

You may consider marketing to be more appropriate for a small business than a freelance enterprise, especially if you have good contacts and can start off with some ready-made clients. While it’s always advantageous to have a couple of clients on your books before you take the plunge into full-time freelancing, there are a couple of points you should bear in mind.

Firstly, if you’re planning to take clients with you from your present job, you could be heading for trouble. Somewhere in your employment contract, it will probably say something along the lines of employees aren’t permitted to poach clients from the business if they leave for a period of six months or so. You may not have such a clause, but it’s still considered underhand to take contacts with you if you leave a business.

Whether you have such a clause or not, you may feel that there’s very little your previous employer could do anyway once you’ve left, but regardless of whether they seek to claim damages against you, which they could well do in some instances, they do have the power to sully your reputation. Businesses live or die on their reputation, and if you become known in the industry as someone who can’t be trusted, your future will be bleak.

Furthermore, you can’t rely on the handful of clients you start with to keep you going or generate new business for you. To build up a sound, stable business, you need to master the art of marketing yourself.

You are the product

In a business, you’re selling a service or a product, and while you would do well to include yourself as a valuable part of the package, you wouldn’t necessarily be the focus. However, if you’re a freelancer, you need to be selling yourself – in effect, you are the product. The only difference between you and all the thousands of other bookkeepers, writers, tutors, or whatever you specialize in, is yourself. All the other freelancers in your sector will be offering broadly similar services, so the only way you can stand out from the crowd is to promote the benefits you offer potential clients.

Some people have no problem with this at all, and happily talk themselves up; others find it hard to sell themselves and promote their abilities. Being over-confident can be off-putting, as you can come across as arrogant; but failing to market yourself as one of the best in your field isn’t likely to impress prospective customers. A middle ground is usually the best approach, showing confidence in your skills without being too full of yourself. If you do struggle with self-confidence, it doesn’t mean you can’t succeed as a freelancer, but you’ll need to put a concerted effort into learning how to present yourself in your marketing.

Marketing tools for freelancers

Many freelancers underestimate the importance of having a website. If you think it’s a bit over the top to create a website just to promote yourself, think again. A website impresses potential clients and reinforces the idea that you’re a serious, committed expert in your field. You can use the website to provide full details of the services you offer, host a portfolio of previous work, and display customer testimonials. It’s a good platform to introduce yourself and help clients get to know you as a person so they make a connection with you, and it’s invaluable for being found in web searches.

If you’re not sure how to create an effective website, find out more about using a design service to create the optimum site, and compare the pros and cons of using a website builder compared to a design service. Your site doesn’t need to be expensive or complicated, just well designed, easy to use, full of relevant information, and updated regularly. In addition to your website, listings in directories not only make your business easier to find, but improve your rankings in search engine results lists too.

Social media can also be a powerful tool if used regularly, but don’t overwhelm yourself by signing up to every possible platform. Have a look at the usage statistics for each one and select one or two to start with. You want to get the hang of posting regularly and managing your accounts effectively without having too many different ones to worry about. Once you get accustomed to writing a daily FaceBook post, or tweeting a few times a day, you can always expand onto other platforms. You should also look at specialist websites and publications that focus on your field of expertise, as a presence in these will be perfect for reaching your target customers.

Many people make a very decent living from going freelance, and have a better quality of life working for themselves. Some go on to establish a fully-fledged business based on their freelancing, but you can follow whichever path appeals most to you. The important thing to remember is that you need to sell yourself, and take the task of marketing yourself very seriously if you want to bring in the right clients.

The Strategy Driven Guide to Financial Investments

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article | Financial InvestmentsEven if you intend to work right up until the day you die, you cannot go forward without some form of financial planning. From rising living costs to increased healthcare requirements, going into the future without planning on how you are going to afford it is a mistake. Especially when you consider the fact that a few simple changes can cause a massive impact on the quality of your life down the road. These changes won’t hurt your way of life, either, and instead, help keep you financially secure and allow you to enjoy every single day with less stress and even more fun. All you need to do to accomplish this feat is to follow this strategy driven guide to your financial investments.

Stabilize Your Own Budget

Creating a personal budget is the first step everyone needs to take. You cannot invest money, after all, when you don’t have anything left over at the end of the month. To stabilize your budget so that you can have money to invest, you will need to:

Go Through Your Spending Habits

By understanding where your money goes, you can work out what your actual monthly budget is. Your rent and other fixed costs are unavoidable, so cut them out from what you receive in income and work on minimizing your costs so you can comfortably live with your exact monthly budget and not your monthly income.

Minimize Your Life

The best way to reduce costs is to minimize your life. From de-cluttering to being more mindful with your shopping habits, there are so many ways to reduce your lifestyle. This doesn’t mean you need to give up what you love, but only that you give up what you don’t care about.

Save Up for Emergencies

There are so many unexpected costs that can come your way and put you and your family from comfortable to in debt before you know it. From car repairs to boiler replacements, to even hospital bills. These costs do happen, and having an emergency fund that will cover them without you needing to take out a loan will be a huge relief.

Invest in Your Future

To invest in your future, you will need to do so much more with your money than keeping some of it in an emergency savings fund. You will want to:

1. Invest in Real Estate

Owning your own home gives you a lot of options in the future, especially if you get onto the property ladder in your early twenties. When it comes time to retire, you can then sell it and downsize, or you can rent out your property and enjoy a monthly income.

2. Invest into Your Retirement

If you don’t currently have a strong retirement plan in place, go to the bank or look online today to set one up. Sure, you might think you are safe with your 401(k) plan, but the fact of the matter is you need to do so much more to secure your future. That is why having a LIRP is such a good idea because it allows you to save for your retirement, gives your family the peace of mind that life insurance provides, and of course improves your retirement’s outlook.

With just a little bit of foresight and strategic planning, you can turn your modest income into a huge savings account in the future. Follow this guide as soon as you can, and you will have a future waiting for you to enjoy.