Month: July 2013

Categories
Finance & Capital

How Crowdfunding Can Kick Start Your Business

authr-crowd-funding

Article Contributed by Carl Smith

Have you got a brilliant business idea that you’re just longing to implement? Are you in need of a bit of financial backing to help your business ideas come to fruition? If you answered yes to both of the above, then you may be interested to hear about crowdfunding, the latest way to help kick start your business off the ground and get it up and running. In this post we’ll be taking a closer look at what exactly crowdfunding is and how company Kickstarter has revolutionised the entrepreneurial opportunities for new business owners. Read on to find out how crowdfunding can help kick start your business.

What is crowdfunding?

Sometimes known as crowd financing, crowdfunding is the process of raising the necessary money to finance a business project or idea. The after effects of the recession have led to many banks turning people away when they approach for loans to set up a business. For that reason, Kickstarter.com came up with an alternative means of gaining the required financial backing, helping hundreds of thousands of young entrepreneurs see their ideas come to light.

Instead of one person have sole responsibility for financing the small business, crowdfunding takes the idea of an entrepreneur approaching a ‘crowd’ of people, each one contributing a small amount to the funding target.

What is Kickstarter?

Originally set up in the United States, Kickstarter.com is the company responsible for making crowdfunding possible. It is essentially a crowdfunding platform where entrepreneurs detail heir business plan and financial backers pledge their support. Kickstarter launched in 2009 and has since funded over 43,000 creative projects with a total of more than 4.3 million investors.

How does Kickstarter work?

–          The entrepreneur posts a description of their business project, with optional pitch video. List a set of rewards depending on pledge levels. Finally, set a funding goal and time frame.

–          Staff at Kickstarter look over the proposed project and give feedback – they decide whether or not to approve the project, which is then posted on site.

–          The business project goes live.

–          If the funding goal isn’t reached within the time frame then nobody’s card is charged and the entrepreneur receives no funding.

Pros and cons of Kickstarter

As with any company, there are the inevitable pros and cons. Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons of Kickstarter.

Pros

–          Project filtering: as each posting needs to be reviewed and approved first by the Kickstarter staff, this ensures that high quality projects are posted on to the platform. Financial backers aware of Kickstarter will understand that if your project has been approved, it must be good, and are therefore more likely to provide financial support.

–         Rule conforming: all Kickstarter projects follow the same admissions process, urging the entrepreneur to have to work hard at fundraising, networking and publicising the business venture. These are all skills you’ll need as a business owner so you could argue that Kickstarter helps to reinforce these attributes.

–          All or nothing approach: the fact that the entrepreneur receives no money if the funding target is not met is a great idea. This way, backers are less conscious that their money could simply end up going to Kickstarter should everything go pear shaped. Instead, it may make people more likely to want to invest in your cause, as they can rest assured that their cards will not be charged if the target is not achieved within the time frame.

Cons

–          Hidden costs: if you’re going to be using the Kickstart platform to drum up financial backing for your business, you need to be aware that the company will take a five per cent cut of your received business pledges and that Amazon will take an additional sum on top of that. Before posting your business venture on such a platform, you’ll need to consider whether you feel the service you’ll be getting from Kickstarter is worth the money.

–          Offline funding is difficult: if you’re looking to get financial backing by using Kickstarter, you should also realise that it will be very difficult to take that fundraising to an offline level. Unless you can find someone trustworthy enough to agree to pledge the funds you’ve raised offline, it’s likely that it won’t come to anything as it’s against the rules to pledge towards your own project.

As you can see, it really comes down to preferential choice. If you’re determined to start up your own business and the only way you can get the financial support needed is from crowdfunding, then Kickstarter is definitely worth a look. You can’t argue with their fantastic results after all.

About The Author
This blog post was contributed by Carl Smith on behalf of Parcel2Go. They offer a range of services for residents both in the USA and UK, with partners such as FedEx, TNT, City Link plus more. Visit their website today to find out more about Parcel2Go.com same day delivery and what they could do for you.

Categories
Business Ideas

Ten Creative Ways To Make Your Business Stand Out

Ten-Creative-Ways---2

Article Contributed by Kelly Richardson

If you want your business to reach more customers you will need to stand out in the crowd. Not only do you need to reach your customers where they are, but you also need to prove that your business deserves their attention and their hard earned money. Here are 10 creative ways to help your business stand out among the competition and succeed where others fail:

1. Unique Product

If you have a unique product that your customers can’t get anywhere else, you’ll definitely stand out from other businesses. You don’t need a full line of one-of-a-kind products, but having one or two will help your business. Focus on a message that tells them what truly makes your products different.

2. Create a Niche

Niche stores help you stand out because customers will know that you do one thing, and you do it well. Niches can often get away with charging higher prices, so it will help increase your profits as well. Most people are willing to pay a little more to get exactly what they want.

3. Be the Solution

Do your customers have a problem? Tell them how you can solve it. Whatever your company does that makes you stand out, be sure to advertise it and let your potential customers know what it is. Focus on what your value proposition is, and drive it home.

4. Fill a Need

If you don’t have a solution that sets you apart from other businesses, find a need that you fulfill. Study your competition; are they filling a need for their customers? If not, maybe you can.

5. Promotional Products

Give your customers small thank you gifts. Give them something that they will use so they stay familiar with your business name and your brand. Personalized pens and notebooks are always great. When your business participates on an event, bring custom t-shirts to hand out. If the event is outside, bring custom sunglasses or koozies.  People love free swag, and it’s a great way to promote your brand.

6. Value

Do you offer more for the money than other companies? Tell your customers! They won’t know if you don’t tell them. Create a campaign that tells your customers about a longer warranty, or about how you use higher quality materials, or ship faster. Find what it is that you do that brings value to them. This makes your business different from everyone else, and will attract customers.

7. Service

Great customer service spreads through word of mouth on social media and with friends offline. Treat your customers right and they will tell their friends for years to come. Soon, this will lead to more sales and revenue.

8. Offers

Most people love to save money, so offer discounts for loyal customers. Include a coupon on the receipt, or use email or Facebook to deliver coupons to your customers. The more unique the discount, the more memorable it’ll be. For example, instead of a free item with 10 purchases, make it an odd number like 9. Offer a percentage off to customers who walk in the store and repeat a phrase from your Twitter or Facebook page. Who doesn’t remember McDonald’s Two all-beef patties slogan for the Big Mac?

9. Guarantee

If you guarantee your work, create a strong call to action about your guarantee so your customers feel comfortable giving you their business. Tell all of your customers about your guarantee, and include it on your invoice and other written communication with potential customers.

10. Tell Everyone That You Are Different

After you’ve chosen one or more ways to set your business apart from other businesses, you need to tell your customers. Use this difference to help you market and advertise your products to potential customers so they know more about your company and how you can help them.

Setting yourself apart from your competition goes hand in hand with building your brand. Your brand is your business’s personality, and it should directly reflect how and what your business does. Once customers learn how your company is different, they will be more likely to spend their money with you the next time they need your product or service.

Author Bio:

Kelly Richardson is the community manager at InkHead Promotional Products. Founded in 2003, InkHead is a leading distributor in the promotional product and advertising specialty industry, offering a diverse catalog of customizable items ranging from promotional apparel to custom coffee mugs.

Categories
Branding

Not So Ordinary Custom Branding Tips For Startup Businesses

 Brand_iStock

Entrepreneurship is running in your blood and you’ve also managed to get great individuals on your team. You’re riding high after opening an office in a posh business location and dreaming you’re ready to take over the industry.

All this sounds quite fascinating, but you may be missing out on something that’s quite important for your startup to take off on the right foot from day one. You may be missing out on custom branding.

Custom branding is what creates an image of your startup in the mind of consumers. It’s what creates the reputation of your business, and defines the industry you operate in. A custom brand isn’t created overnight. It requires repeated hard work, dedication and engagement with clients, customers and anyone in particular related to the startup.

Here are some custom branding tips for your startup business:

1.  Differentiate from others

This has been mentioned a million times, but still many startup business owners fall into their ego bubble and tell others what a great office they’ve build, how awesome their employees are and how their technology is the number one in the industry.

This is not how you differentiate as a startup business. Customers want to find out themselves why your products and services are better than others. Custom branding helps startups to differentiate themselves.

Apple is a fantastic example of a company that uses custom branding to differentiate itself. As a startup business owner, you should put effort in establishing a brand for yourself by having promotional products. Some of the options available to you at the start include custom printed shipping boxes, letterheads, custom invoices, business cards etc.

2.  Invest in free of cost branding personnel

You don’t need to carry out every task yourself. Delegate tasks to your employees and trust them with it because their expertise is the reason why you hired them in the first place. You should also focus on your startup as a whole. Concentrate on things like sharing of business processes, project management and culture at the company.

You may be wondering what all this has to do with custom branding. The thing is that at the start, your employees are the only thing your startup has. There’s no product or service at the start except for expectations of the future.

Your employees will be the custom brand at the start. How they deal with customers, clients etc. will be the source of custom brand image that gets created. Some companies are successful today just because of their customer service. A good example is the popular web hosting company Hostgator that relies on its staff to create the custom brand. ‘Friendly and knowledgeable staff’ is what attracts people to this company.

3.  Leverage the power of mobile

The mobile industry continues to grow and startup businesses have a great opportunity to use mobile to create and promote their custom brands.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Lenovo’s ThinkPad are two good examples of how both companies utilized the industry to create custom branded products that managed to capture hearts of many.

You may not have enough resources to make such big investments, but your startup business can thrive on custom branded apps and custom mobile advertisements. For example, you can get a custom app made that empowers your customers to shop for discounted products and services through mobile.

Don’t make the mistake of ignoring your brand at the start because custom branding has the potential to be your most competitive business asset after a few years.

Article contributed by Jenna Smith

Categories
Starting Up

5 Things Can Influence Small Business Success

start

Article Contributed by Victor McNamara 

When somebody starts a business it is nothing but natural that the person would want his business to prosper and succeed. Who would wish for his business to go down the drain and hope that his money and effort be wasted? Not a single sane person would want to be in this kind of situation. When starting up a business, everything is conceptualized and thought of seriously to make sure that mistakes can either be avoided if not minimized. The risks in this kind of venture are too many but if you do not try it out, you also would not know if you are cut out for this field. Nothing in this world is secure but if you play your cards well, you might end up at the top.

What Are the Things That Can Influence the Success of Small Business?

Wanting to succeed is not enough to make sure you reach the top. Determination can help to motivate you but you need to make sure you also do some actions that can greatly influence the success of your business no matter how small it is.

1.      Create a Strategic Business Plan

Similar to how you create a house to live in where you create a plan on where you place the bedrooms and the rest, you also plan on how you are going to run your business. Strategic plans will give you a chance to monitor the growth and the rest of the business process. These plans will allow you to have backup plans in case you need to add more supplies or add more manpower or even resolutions in cases wherein you need to add more funds. This will provide you with planned options in cases which are more likely to happen in the future.

2.      Choose Your Products or Services

People may look for affordable products or services but quality is what most people want. Also, make sure that you provide your customers with choices to choose from. Prices are the greatest affecting factor therefore you must make sure your prices can drive your customers in your business but not sacrificing your revenue.

3.      Manage Your Capital Well

Small businesses are not like corporations that has a huge amount of capital. Mostly, these businesses start with a small amount which is intended for the entire operation. Always keep in mind that your money is limited and that expenses for the business will be taken from it. Make sure you track all the expenses starting from what you purchased for the store, the products that you have the advertising and wages for your people and the rest of your payables such as electricity and telephone bills. It would be wise if you don’t purchase too many stocks without finding out first which ones are getting good responses from your clientele.

4.      Spend for advertising and Marketing

You may think that your business is just a small one but if your aim is to succeed then you need to let your neighborhood know what your business is all about. If your clientele is for teenagers aging 10 years old above, then it would be helpful if you spend for radio promotions such as going to local radio stations.

5.      Focus

When you try everything and you get carried away with the responses you’ll be getting, more likely than not, you will be losing focus. Make sure that you follow your plan and remain that way to avoid more mistakes. There may be some risk that needs to be taken along the way but make sure you minimize on those.

Believe in What You Can

When you invest money and effort it is impossible that you will not feel fear. As you meet challenges along the way believe that you will be succeeding in the future. There are a lot of people who made it big even if they started from scratch. These are people who were armed with determination and careful planning. You can start your own vending business if you like. Just make sure you are ready for it so you won’t waste anything.

Author Bio:

Victor McNamara works at Vending World. Vending World is a leading distributor of used vending machines. They have been selling vending machines since 1968 and can fill almost all of your general vending machine needs.