Author: Pamela Swift

Categories
Technology

Should Small Businesses Invest in Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay and change the way we live and do business forever. This may seem like a bold statement, but take a closer look. We already have self-driving cars, cashier-less grocery stores, robotic household servants, and other marvels of modern technology around us. They are much more than passing fads— they herald the dawn of the new business age.

Namely, the compound annual growth rate for global spending on AI is predicted to reach $57.6 billion by 2021. AI startups are sprouting up at a rapid pace, automation is on the roll across the industry sectors, and that is all just the beginning. Of course, small businesses have one big concern and that is the risk of blowing the budget. That is certainly not an option, but the million dollar question remains: does AI add enough value to the organization to justify spreading precious funds a bit thinner?

The Game has Changed

While advocates hail it as a game-changer and equalizer, skeptics denounce AI as a disruptive influence, even a threat to small businesses. Indeed, many entrepreneurs are leery of this development because of the allegedly steep costs of implementation. These notions echo what we have seen before: tech seismic shifts bringing disproportionate advantages to established corporations.

However, what gets overlook is the fact that this time around, we have a level playing field. The proliferation of plug-in tools, ready-made solutions, and affordable services has diminished if not eliminated the barriers to integrate AI. There are already so many nimble and agile organizations leading the way to innovation instead of playing catch up. After all, they stand to gain much and they can reap benefits faster than large and laggard companies.

To be more precise, AI has already yielded impressive results, mostly in terms of streamlining work processes and improving efficiencies across the board. For instance, in the education sector, it has reduced the men-hours spent on administrative tasks. Forward-thinking manufacturing companies have managed to trim hefty overhead costs and elsewhere, intelligent automation solutions are reshaping workflows and business models.

Creative industries are also hit by strong winds of change. You want to hire a reputable website design agency that employs AI and machine learning tools to deliver design solutions like the industry leaders. The same goes for top-performing marketing agencies that are utilizing AI for personalized marketing. They create highly-targeted ads relevant to users and are able to reach a much wider audience with automated systems.

A Strategic Approach

All of this is not to say that the AI revolution has fully unfolded. We are still in the early stages of adoption: According to Adobe, only 15% of all enterprises use AI. Things are moving fast, though, and in 12 months, this number is expected to more than double. And while many small businesses already experiment with some form of automation, 84% of enterprises believe AI holds the key to gaining a competitive edge.

Therefore, the best time to take action would be now. And I am not talking about merely buying a voice-search assistant like Siri or Alexa for your office. If you really want to become a digitally mature organization, you have to embrace innovation and put a refined AI strategy in place. The possible applications abound and range from generating employee engagement and making sales forecasts to automated end-to-end accounting and email marketing.

What you should probably consider right away is setting up AI frameworks for gathering and collecting business data, as well as producing actionable, real-time reports. Note that the process of transitioning from on-premise servers to cloud platforms is underway. Here, we see that AI leads to better and faster decision-making. The beauty of it is that one does not need to assemble huge data warehouses and carry out extensive infrastructure overhauls.

Basically, you can take advantage of third-party tools to connect your data directly to AI and machine-learning-powered solutions. That allows you to face the ocean of available data and come on top, whether you are pulling data in order to figure out product-market fit, understand consumer market segmentation, or optimize the sales funnel. Handling an endless amount of data manually is almost unimaginable in this day and age.

Providing Service Excellence

One other lucrative opportunity for small businesses is to use AI to take customer service to the next level. According to entrepreneur opinion surveys, this is the benefit that is second only to “freeing up time and getting more things done”. So far, it seems that niche services and products offered to consumer hold the most potential when it comes to improving the bottom line.

Likewise, chatbots are one facet of this trend consumers are quickly getting used to. These sophisticated virtual helpers are capable of tackling repetitive tasks like sorting tickets, answering common questions, solving practical problems, and coming up with recommendations. Not everyone is eager to “talk” with a computer program, but many companies have increased customer satisfaction and engagement with their help.

The list does not end here, but we need to conclude on one crucial note. Regardless of the specific field of implantation, AI is supposed to lead to fewer human errors, less time-consuming guesswork, and minimal resource waste. So, let automation work to your advantage, first and foremost on the back-end side of the spectrum. This should give you more time focus on priorities on the front-end, such as face-to-face customer service.

Ultimately, AI should make your life easier, not more complicated.

Time to Get Ahead of the Game

As it turns out, you do not need fat budgets and data goldmines to put AI tech to good use. The most advanced solutions and platforms are accessible to organizations of all sizes there, so there is no reason for small businesses to lag behind. They can compete at scale with top dogs and even lead the charge towards the cutting-edge frontier of the future. You have the opportunity to sustain growth while keeping expenditures in check. Thus, it is time to get down to business: move to the forefront of the industry and make strides towards your goals in 2018 and beyond.

Categories
Work Life

Take the Stress Out Of Small Business

Being an entrepreneur and running a small business has its fair share of stress to deal with on a daily basis. As a business owner, you have to wear different hats that require your immediate attention throughout the day, and there are times when you have to come up with answers on the fly. From keeping your employees happy, managing your current customers, or paying your business taxes, the list of daily stressors goes on and on. But as an owner, all you can do is to bottle up your stress and move ahead.

To help prioritize this part of your day, here are the 3 best ways for small business owners to destress-

Recognize your stress and don’t try to tough it out

Once you figure out what is stressing you, you will be better prepared to deal with it. You should never try to tough it out and move on because stress has a direct impact on your mental and physical health. If you don’t take the necessary steps to destress yourself, then you could face serious implications.

  1. Make your schedule ‘yours’

If you have just started your business, then it may be easy to lose control of your schedule. You should understand that you are your own boss and if there is something about your schedule that is bothering you, then change it. If you think that the most productive time of the day gets filled up by clients, then it is better to block out time on your schedule that is off limits.

  1. Put some structure in place

Being the owner of a small commercial venture, you are wearing different caps and building the future of the organization. The future that you are planning is not always a predictable one. If possible, you should try to put some systems and order in place. Setting up a proper structure into the business will help eliminate clutter and unnecessary stress from your mind.

  1. Learn to Say ‘No’

As the owner of a small business, it may be tempting to say ‘yes’ than to say ‘no’ if you are trying to reach new heights. But if you have piled too much on your plate, you will get easily overwhelmed by everything you have to do. If you are unable to pay attention on the new projects, then surely your business will suffer in the long run making you stressed. Learn to say no to unnecessary things and your business and the stress will be better off.

  1. Get serene delegating tasks

Learning how to delegate is another way to destress and taking things off your plate. It is vital for your business to run smoothly, but it doesn’t mean you will do each & everything. The most common way to get stressed is by overwhelming yourself with projects and jobs. Dividing and distributing your tasks among your employees will enhance your energy levels and your mindset will be clear.

For the smooth running of your small business establishment, it is essential to manage your day and limiting things that can add stress to your life.

Varun Datta is a serial entrepreneur who loves to share everything he has learnt in his journey so far. He is the founder of multiple enterprises out of which 4New Ltd is the most innovative one.

Categories
Entrepreneurs

Business Sustainability Tips for Small Entrepreneurs

Business is no longer just about profit generation or plain long-term sustenance. Nowadays, many enterprises, including the small and medium scale ones, genuinely express their concern for the environment and society at large and consequently create sustainability projects. Consumers more likely patronize environmentally- and socially-conscious companies. Increased patronage translates to increased sales.

Yet the capacity to craft sustainability strategy is as relevant as the capacity to maintain it. While the intention is noble, small entrepreneurs are sometimes forced to discard the proposed or the initially launched business sustainability projects because of budget constraints or project mismanagement. But this should not be the case. There are many ways to maintain and even improve the sustainable projects over the long run.

Define sustainability the right way.

Small entrepreneurs, carried away by the ongoing go-green and go-social trends, may hastily jump into the available social or environmental project. A shipping company, for example, should not just engage in a feeding program for children only because the rival company has held a successful feeding activity for the undernourished. While this is a great initiative, a sustainability program should at least be aligned with the business operations or the company core values. After all, sustainability is relative. It can mean reduction of plastic containers and it can also refer to less CO2 emission and more education programs for the local residents. A shipping company, therefore, can be better off raising coastal or roadside cleanups and a long-term ocean protection campaign. This is a more practical approach to maintaining a sustainability project. Since it is closer to the nature of the business, it becomes more of a natural response to the environmental need, rather than an obligation or an added expense.

Scale your project.

Sustainability projects do not need to be grand; they only have to be effective. In other words, there is no right scope for a sustainability project. For small entrepreneurs, scaling the project to a level that is financially and operationally doable would be a good move. As mentioned, sustainable measures hinged on the company core values or operations are ideal because they translate to a convenient application. For instance, a distribution company can monitor their monthly or yearly consumption of fuel and adopt new strategies to reduce the previous month’s or year’s average consumption. In Melbourne, many start-ups and small to medium enterprises choose to outsource the distribution of their goods via logistics companies. This is not only cost-effective but also environmentally friendly, contributing to less carbon footprint.

Over time as the business expands, sustainability projects also expand. There will even come a time when a person entirely dedicated to the sustainability aspect of the business is already needed. Indeed, the key here is to think big, yet start small.

Keep a baseline.

Business owners can easily get lost in the process of creating significant changes for the society. This is why keeping a baseline data and setting a deadline will prove to be extremely useful. Knowing how many tons of plastics had been recycled since the start of the project or liters of gasoline saved since the shift to outsourced distribution companies will increase the motivation of small entrepreneurs. While not everything can be quantified (e.g., the joy in a child’s heart after completing a scholarship raised by your company), it is still best to impose quantitative measures even as supplementary data so as to measure productivity.

Be creative with concepts.

There are many ways for a business to be environmentally- or socially-engaged. The sky is definitely the limit when it comes to sustainable concepts. A consulting firm can raise free livelihood seminars. A furniture company can plant trees. A shopping center can shift to biodegradable plastics or introduce eco-friendly bags. And the great news is that the sustainability measure does not have to incur costs. A business can conduct a fund-raising campaign for a cancer patient and it already is a social cause which the customers will advocate.

Connect to the audience.

Informing the public about the social projects undertaken by the company is more than just publicity. It is about employer branding, which is critical to business growth. With the advent of digital technology, small entrepreneurs are now presented with several options that have a wider reach and fewer costs. Social media platforms are perfect avenues for free advertising. Sustainability projects, after all, are also informational campaigns. The market needs to understand why the enterprise is promoting such advocacy, what its vision is, how it relates to the business, and how the expected changes benefit them as consumers.

Indeed, in a highly competitive market, a firm’s sustainability measures can become sources of advantage. They could even be the drivers of growth for small entrepreneurs as consumer preferences are also leaning towards environmental and social consciousness.

About the author:

Jordan Packer is the Operation Manager of Effective Logistics – a reputable logistics company in Melbourne. He has extensive experience in warehousing, transports, and logistics for more than a decade. With many years of experience, he has a depth of understanding every company’s logistics needs. Check out their website – https://www.efflog.com.au/ to know more.

Categories
Starting Up

What Kelly Hoppen Teaches You About a Successful Startup?

Kelly Hoppen- one of the most recognizable business women, an author and a celebrity interior designer is on a mission to empower young entrepreneurs who look forward to the beginning of a successful home improvement business. She has been a potential investor on BBC’s Den Dragon as well.

Her style is simply a fusion of East meets west. As she also won Britain’s Top Real Role Model Campaign in 2015, so Sandra Funk caught up with her to guide people about running their startups successfully; and here’s what the irrepressible lady revealed…

Be tenacious at all the times:

“Becoming an entrepreneur is pretty rewarding. Seeing your ideas becoming a commercial venture is an achievement beyond explanation. But sometimes, our ideas are the lifeblood of the business which fails along the way; because other people in our community do not share the same beliefs and vision.” She points.

Being tenacious is your real achievement, and especially for me, it is the difference between having an amazing idea, and turning that idea into reality.”

She advised, “If you are struggling to launch your own home improvement business, you need to carry a detailed research. It will help you minimize the risks and costs of setting up your company. The fact is, a potential entrepreneur will never go ahead to invest his money if he knows nothing about it.”

The key to success is; knowing your customer

She also focused on knowing customer needs, which is the center of every business’s success. Once you have the knowledge about what your customer needs, it’s easy to persuade him that buying from your company is in their best interest. Spend some time in grassroot marketing, and go out to talk with the customers before setting up your business and never forget to solicit their feedback.

While doing your research for a business, make sure you analyze the competition, because there are many entrepreneurs who think that they do not have a strong competitor, but that’s not true. You will find a lot of direct & indirect competitors in your entrepreneurial journey.

An Effective Teamwork- A Secret to Success!

We always heard a successful business owner say, “It wasn’t possible without the support of my partners and team members.” If you want to learn and grow, you need to get inspiration from your business community. Even if you are a boss, there is still a plenty of room for improvement.

She also focused on a point that, nobody appreciates negative criticism, but she always recommends young entrepreneurs to implement a 360- degree feedback system for your own benefits. By doing this, you will be able to find out the strengths and weaknesses of your team and you can perform a regular analysis to spot long term issues.

Furthermore she also suggests that there might be a possibility that you end up hiring a wrong candidate which may trigger a series of fatal consequences. You spend your time training him and then wind up choosing another person which may cost your startup a lot of money.  But looking for a passionprenuer can be a good choice as they are fearless, create actionable plans, and they keep learning and growing (which smartly benefits your company).

Want to unlock your potential? Find Yourself a Mentor

Be open to learning. Let me get straight to the point, if you are lucky enough to find a good mentor, he will help you overcome myriad challenges and obstacles to make your dreams a reality. I will strongly recommend the role of a mentor to fast-track your career’s success. To be encouraged by someone else’s success, you need to choose the right direction to go the extra mile with your business. Observing how a mentor works and behaves will help you gain smart insights to make adjustments to your management style. Learn, observe, and watch that you will have to do it yourself eventually; because we all know great things never came from comfort zones.

 

 

Discover funding alternatives:                          

According to another rising entrepreneur Usman Khan who recently launched home improvement startup Renovaten, shared his opinion, “Money always matter for a startup, especially when you have to cover expenses without breaking your banks. Whether you are managing finance through a bank, credit card, friends or family, be careful.”

Kelly also emphasized on a point that, being stupid with your own money is just one thing. But when you are managing finance from members of the family, then treat it like someone else’s money. It’s similar to getting a loan from a bank. If you are not in a position to meet the timeline, it’s time to make a big decision, and one of which is to quit.

There are a lot of barriers that might come to your road of success, for instance, lack of enough money, proficient business knowledge, confidence, and people stopping you to take a leap and set up your own business. But the true key to success and happiness is overcoming those barriers effectively.

In the end, she motivated young entrepreneurs by her own example.

She says, “I have struggled with dyslexia and bullying all my life. But I didn’t let that define me as a person. We all have different things and fears to overcome, but it’s important to overcome those things for your business and career.”

Purpose- Not Just Profit!                                   

Setting up your own business is a great adventure, but basic purpose should not only be to get financial independence, but to also getting recognition, self-discovery and learning to overcome the challenges. So it’s time to embrace the challenges and see the rewards it offers.

Good luck with your startup!

Author Bio:

Ambreen Sajjad is a technical content writer and working for Renovaten. She has a passion for helping people in all aspects of Digital marketing, Call center industry and home improvement etc. In addition to writing for different high profile blogs, she also provides SEO training and consultancy to fresh graduates who are looking to boost their career.

Categories
Finance & Capital

The True Cost Of Starting A Business

Are you thinking about starting your own business? The first thing you have to think about is definitely capital – becoming an entrepreneur is always a move in the right direction, but you have to plan your budget carefully and forecast the start-up costs. Ideally you will start with a small-scale business, so you can prove yourself as a business owner by starting by generating enough cash flow to sustain and manage your business. For example, if your main goal as an entrepreneur is to open a restaurant, open a food truck first, to generate enough profit to save for a future full-scale business.

It’s important to keep in mind that in order to start any business you have to first understand the costs specific to your venture. If you’re able to estimate these costs, you’ll also be able to determine the financing options available, or even find out that you have enough personal capital to start a business; find out what it’ll take you to reach break even point (when you’ll start making a profit); and help you manage cash flow once the business is up and running.

Understanding start-up costs

Start-up costs are the costs you’ll have before making an income. These can be broken down in expenses (costs involved in the preparation to open a business) and capital expenditures (one-time costs to purchase assets).

The exact costs depend on your specific business and industry, but we’ve estimated an approximate number to each of the costs you have to plan for, so you can get a sense of what your total start-up costs will look like.

Equipment

These costs can range between $10,000-125,000 depending on your business type and size. For example, if you’re opening a restaurant you’ll need ovens, stoves, and cooking utensils; but if you’re opening a hair salon you’ll need styling chairs. Plus, for most businesses you’ll always need at least one computer.

Licenses and permits

These costs can go up to $500 depending on the city or state your business is located in. Some businesses may require a general business license to operate, but all businesses have to abide to state and local government licenses – the costs vary here. Plus, you might also require a professional license in order to work in your area of your expertise. And if your business requires building a structure, you’ll also need a building or construction permit, to ensure that this new structure abides by local and state ordinances – this can take these costs up to thousands.

Office space

These costs will be a big part of your fixed costs, whether you rent or buy the space. You should estimate a monthly cost of $100-1,000 per employee, depending on the type of space you acquire and the benefits your business provides. Remember to add to that cost a rough $2 per square foot of office space for utility bills such as electricity and internet, which you will also need pay on a monthly basis. In the beginning, you can try mitigating these costs by either working from home, renting a coworking space, or travelling directly to clients – depending on the service you sell.

Website

If you only need to build a common company website, where customers can find more information about the brand, location and opening times, you can probably do this yourself by using a free website template. The fixed cost here will be your domain registration and the website plan you choose, which can cost up to $25/month.

If your business is online only, or if you want to pair a physical store with an online store, you’ll need to invest more on an eCommerce site. Hiring someone to set this up for you can cost between $1,000-5,000 depending on complexity. Plus, if you’re selling online, you’ll want to have different payment options available to your customers, in order to offer a flexible shopping experience that can ultimately increase your customer retention rate. By flexible, we mean accepting credit card payments – this will definitely benefit your sales, but will also increase your eCommerce site costs, as you will have to choose a payment gateway provider and make sure your site follows all the rules in the PCI Compliance guide, so you can guarantee the security of your customers’ data.

Inventory

If you’re providing a service, these costs might not apply, but if you’re business is in retail, wholesale, manufacturing or distribution, you’ll definitely need to have an inventory setup in order to sell. If so, you should set aside 17-25% of your budget for inventory. Bear in mind you need to balance your inventory: if you have too much you risk spoilage, but if you have too little you risk losing customers. It’s advisable to invest on a high number of inventory in the beginning, as you’re building brand awareness and relationships with your audience, so turning down a sale due to lack of stock is not ideal.

Marketing

Up to 10% of your startup budget should go to marketing. You can choose from different marketing materials, depending on your business type and the audience you’re targeting. From signs and banners to paid social media adverts and giveaways, you can easily control the amount you spend in marketing your business by picking the right options to fit your budget and engagement goals. And if in the beginning you need to cut your costs somewhere, the easiest cost to cut is probably marketing – nowadays you can start marketing your business on social media, by setting up free brand accounts in different platforms and relying on the digital form of “word of mouth”.

Payroll

If you have employees, you need to pay them (including yourself!). Payroll costs should be around 25-50% of your total budget, and besides salary, these include benefits and compensations such as bonuses and overtime pay. And remember that these costs are likely to change as your business grows and you hire more employees. In an ideal business, payroll should cost you only up to 25% of your total budget, but this will highly depend on your business type and size, and if you’re a sole proprietor or not.

Now that you understand all the different costs you need to account for when setting up a business, you just need to make calculations based on our estimates and find exactly how much money you need to start your entrepreneurial journey.