Author: Ethan Theo

Abe WalkingBear Sanchez is an International Speaker / Trainer / Consultant on the subject of cash flow / sales enhancement and business knowledge organization and use. Founder and President of www.armg-usa.com, WalkingBear has authored hundreds of business articles, has worked with numerous companies in a wide range of industries since 1982 and has spoken at many venues including the Shakespeare Globe Theater in London.

Categories
Entrepreneurs

Smart Investment Strategies for Entrepreneurs

 

Entrepreneurs often have a lot of unique qualities. They tend to be willing to take risks when it comes to business and their careers, and they’re often creative and think outside the box. That’s a lot of what propels them toward being entrepreneurs and building their own companies.

When you do have your own company, there are some unique investment strategies and considerations to keep in mind, however. There are ways that investing as an entrepreneur may be different than someone who works for a company, for example, and invests a portion of their salary.

The following are some things to consider if you’re an entrepreneur and you want to build a smart, sustainable investment strategy.

Have a Long-Term Business Model

Before you can start looking at specific investment strategies and asset allocation objectives, when you own a business and are an entrepreneur, it’s essential that you have a business model that works not only presently but also plans for the long-term.

When you’re an entrepreneur your principal investment is your business, so that should always be your top priority.

Make sure you have the components in place that are necessary to build over time, and that you’re planning for the future as far as your business is concerned, then you can move outward from there.

Be Careful with Risk Outside of Your Business

Here’s a critical area where investment strategies might be different for an entrepreneur versus a non-entrepreneur.

When you own a business, you’re already invested in something that is potentially high-risk. You might want to build much of the rest of your portfolio around more stable, less risky options.

However, if you feel like your business is at a point of stable growth where you can be a bit riskier, you might create a portfolio that pairs long-term investments such as ETFs with something that has more risk. Explore options that are diversified away from your business and your industry. For example, consider reading the Tim Sykes challenge review to see where you could invest in industries or sectors that are well outside of your business, to protect you in the event of a downturn impacting your industry.

Build Your Savings

Key to a successful investment plan for any entrepreneur isn’t just having money in diversified investments outside of your industry. You also need to make sure you’re saving money as well, and that you have access and liquidity if you need it.

This is actually an area where a lot of entrepreneurs struggle. By nature, they tend to be willing to take more investment risks than most other people, but they’re less willing to save money, instead opting to put it in the stock market or back into their business.

These are important objectives, but having an emergency fund is as well.

Protect Assets

To wrap up this list of essential investment strategies for entrepreneurs, make sure your financial and investment plans protect your assets. You want to structure your business, your personal assets and your investments in a way that protects the personal aspects of your portfolio and finances in the event your business experiences trouble.

You want to make sure you have assets structured in a way that they’re not only protected against business debts but also so that they transfer appropriately to investments for your spouse or family.

Categories
Operations

Is Shrink-wrapping a Good Idea for Pallet Delivery?

Moving goods on a pallet is arguably the safest way you can possibly transport your products. Whether you are an individual or a business, pallets allow you to pack everything together tight whether you are sending them to the next town or another country.

Because of the fact that there are very few limitations on what can be sent by pallet, ground shipping in bulk has a big advantage. Your stock can easily be sent and received. How you cover it is always important for both safety and circulation. There are four big reasons why you should consider shrink-wrapping, let’s take a look.

Keeps everything fresh

If you are moving produce or fresh goods then shrink-wrap is the perfect solution. Because it is air tight, using it will keep in the refrigeration as well as stop the arrival of any critters. This can have the added bonus of stopping any bruising or ruining of food because, if packed correctly, it won’t be moving about in the pallets.

Prevent box tears

Whatever you are sending, keeping them well sealed and in good condition has to be the number one priority. Whether they are small items or large, you can’t risk losing anything to a bumpy road or poor packing. Using a tough and durable material like shrink-wrap keeps your boxes protected and reduces the risk of losing items due to contaminants.

No more sliding packages

Due to how pallets are, they are loaded horizontally – usually with a forklift. Accidents are rare but they can happen. One example is that the prongs of the forklift are incorrectly placed and this can be a risk. Thanks to the strength of shrink-wrap, your items will be tight together and weight is distributed evenly so there is no sliding.

No spillages

Pallet deliverycan be used for a multitude of things but if your items are being sent to the Amazon Fulfilment distribution centre or a warehouse, you have to ensure that they arrive in top condition. Whether you think your facilities are well maintained or not, wetter seasons can cause issues and while in transit you need to ensure that no water seeps in. Using shrink-wrap is an great way of keeping all liquids out.

How do you shrink-wrap a pallet?

Once you’ve decided to use shrink-wrapping to protect your pallet, you have two main options when it comes to how to do it.

  • Heat shrink bag – Make sure it’s snug over the items and pallet and tuck any excess around the corners and edges of the pallet. Then you just use a heat or shrink gun, using a slow back-and-forth motion and then inspect to check it’s properly worked.
  • Manually applied film – PVC is usually the choice here as it is more common and cheaper than polyolefin. You begin at the bottom, starting slow until the base is strong before building up to the top – potentially heating at the end to finish the job.
Categories
Online Business

Kajabi: Technology That Simplifies Selling Online Courses

eLearning Industry says the e-learning market is “growing at an unprecedented rate”.

Large corporations are turning to e-learning to train employees, and more and more entrepreneurs are starting to build businesses from online courses.

It’s safe to say that selling online courses is becoming A Thing.

An entrepreneur has many options to choose from if he wants to offer online content for profit, but most avenues involve pain in setting them up because up until recently, business owners would need different technologies to do everything that was needed to be done and getting all services to play together nicely was not for the feint hearted.

Newer technology is simplifying things, and for start-ups or small to medium sized businesses, the Kajabi technology makes things easier than ever before by offering everything under one roof: building, selling online courses and marketing them.

This article provides a brief look at how this new system simplifies developing an online content for profit venture.

Why setting up online courses can be a major source of frustration

The reason for the plethora of services and technologies that was needed, was that for an entrepreneur to achieve success with an online course business, they would need individual services for:

•A website where the course would be housed.
•A method of delivering course content.
•Payment gateway systems to collect payments.
•To hire a web designer so that the website would look professional.
•Visitors to arrive at the website after an Internet search.
•Traffic that arrived at the website due to marketing activities.
•Email marketing software to collect email addresses for marketing purposes.
•To spend money on an additional service in order to build landing pages for marketing campaigns.

Usually, not possessing all the know-how about how to make all of this work together, the business owner would need to employ someone to set it all up for them. And then, and only then, could they begin loading the actual course content.

How the Kajabi technology simplifies selling online courses

Kajabi is innovative technology (more on why in a mo); their customers attest to the fact that the platform obliterates the pain of setting up and selling online courses. This is because this technology provides an all-in-one solution for entrepreneurs who just want to get their stuff “out there” without the hassle.

The Kajabi platform spearheads e-learning for the small to medium sized business by not only offering a way in which to easily deliver online content, but also by providing everything needed to set up, manage and market online courses. This eliminates the need for entrepreneurs to 1) look elsewhere for any other services required to build and profit from selling online content, and 2) fiddle around with clumsy attempts at integrating it all to make it work.

All in one – the Kajabi platform provides everything that’s needed, all under one roof in one dashboard.

The technology that’s leading the pack offers business owners:

•A themed website which is used as the core to all marketing activities, as well as the platform to house and sell courses.
•An SEO friendly website, which helps bring in more traffic.
•Blogging platform in order to offer visitors value, enhance credibility and attract more traffic.
•Ability to present material in two ways: either online, or via drip content by email.
•Pre-designed landing pages by the pros, so that all the owner needs to do is tweak things so it works the way they want it to work. Landing pages are central to online marketing, but need to be designed properly otherwise they will not convert people from mere readers into paid customers.
•Email marketing functionality. No need to use a 3rd party service for this.
•Offer digital downloads as marketing “hooks”.
•Coupons to run specials, which is also a marketing tactic.

Set up coupons from the Kajabi dashboard

•Affiliate program, which enables entrepreneurs to make more money.
•To collect payments from anywhere in the world.
•Set up monthly subscriptions to earn recurring amounts.

The simplified process

The Kajabi technology has been built so that business owners would kick off the system process by adding course content, either in text, video, audio, images and downloads, in a blog-like editor, in a kind of post format.

To organize lessons, use Categories to lump the posts into an arranged lesson plan. Add categories in any way you like.

Add announcements about anything like webinars, change of pricing, new courses, etc. The system can simplify things further by emailing announcements to members, or they can read them on the website.

Now you just need to make any small changes to how your website looks, and then you can open the course to the world. Select the Appearance tab to choose a free theme to customize.

Choose a website theme appearance and tweak it.

Simply add your Stripe account, set your pricing and there you go. Done ‘n dusted.

What’s left to do is to make sure the right people learn about what you’re offering, so head on over to the Marketing tab where you can develop customized landing pages and forms that will start building your email list.

The Kajabi marketing dashboard includes landing pages, opt-in forms, broadcasts, and email workflows

Broadcast messages to people who have indicated interest, and then, from the People tab, check out details about those who have bought your courses, communicate to anyone specifically, and monitor member’s course progress on lessons.

Conclusion

•The Kajabi technology is an all-in-one solution for building an entire business from scratch.
•Building is easier and faster than other e-learning methods.
•The business owner only needs to pay one price for everything needed to build successful online courses.
•The Kajabi system helps get more traffic to the course site because it is built for search engines.
•The system allows for customization so things can look as desired.

Categories
Business Trends

Which Supermarkets Enjoyed the Most Profitable Christmas, and Why?

Last year was a challenging one for businesses across the UK, as economic volatility and the political uncertainty created by Brexit took a gradual toll. This is was felt particularly harshly in the retail sector, which endured a harrowing fourth quarter that resulted in job losses, declining revenues and dwindling profit margins. This should not come as a major surprise, especially with many traditional retail brands struggling to survive in an age of digitisation and rampant e-commerce.

In terms of numbers, an estimated 84,000 jobs were slashed across the retail sector between October and November, which translates into a sharp quarterly decrease of 3%. The continued uncertainty surrounding Brexit played a pivotal role in this decline, as it made retailers more inclined to adopt a risk-averse approach to spending while also forcing many to increase their costs. After all, the vote to leave you has sent the value of pound spiralling, increasing the cost of imports and compelling brands to share these additional expenses with consumers.

Supermarkets Managed to Buck This Trend, While Discount Chains Are on the Rise

There were some retail giants who managed to buck this trend, however, with the leading supermarkets providing a relevant case in point. Cumulatively, these outlets recorded their best festive performance for four years, with Neilsen’s retail data confirming that revenues for the four-week period ending on December 31st were up 3.3% year-on-year. This was the highest level of growth since 2012, while it also represented a huge important on the flat rate of expansion recorded at the end of 2015.

In terms of individual chain performance, the data revealed that Morrison’s enjoyed largest annual growth of the so-called ‘Big Four’ (which also includes Tesco, Asda and Sainsburys). The relative newcomer achieved year-on-year growth of 3.4% in 2016, while showcasing a noticeable spike in revenues over the festive period. Tesco also recorded respectable growth figures of 2.7%, with the UK’s former market leader coming in slightly ahead of its established rivals.

While these four major brands all performed exceptionally well given the prevailing economic climate, however, it was discount chains Aldi and Lidl who really took the market by storm over Christmas. In fact, Aldi recorded the best growth of any leading supermarket chain in the UK, with sales having increased by a staggering 17% in the four-week period during December. The brand also gained nearly one million new customers as opposed to 2015, which will drive further and more sustained growth in the future.

Lidl also saw its revenues soar by 10% during the same period, highlighting the incredible impact that discounted supermarket chains have had in a changeable and unstable marketplace.

How Have Supermarkets to Thrive While Other Retailers Have Failed?

In some respects, supermarkets benefited from a number of favourable conditions towards the end of 201. It has also been suggested that the festive growth figures were slightly skewed by abnormal consumer behaviour, as the majority of consumers left their Christmas shopping to a later date and spent more in December than they would normally do. The week up until Christmas Eve saw sales increase by 22% year-on-year, for example, with cumulative revenues for the final two weeks of December totalling a huge £5.9 billion.

There were several factors that influenced consumer’s buying habits this Christmas, with one of the most impactful being the presence of an additional shopping day. Not only this, but the relatively mild weather and sustained absence of snow also negated the need for households to shop early and stock up on produce, which delivered huge financial benefits to the major chains.

While these factors may have helped to inflate the festive revenue figures recorded by supermarkets, however, the major chains must also take credit for the way that they have reacted to a volatile economy and changing, consumer outlook. All of the major players decided to simplify their sales and promotional strategies during Christmas, for example, present more straightforward discounts that actively increased seasonal spending.

As if to reaffirm this, the percentage of festive purchases committed to promotional products fell to 27% this year, which was the lowest rate for six years and indicative of a 4% decline from 2015 figures.

Most importantly of all, however, the UK’s leading supermarkets have done a superb job of communicating price amendments and accounting for the declining value of the pound. When ETX Capital reported that the currencies value had plummeted to its lowest level for 31 years, for example, many believed that retail prices would need to increase in order to cope with the additional cost of imports. While this has been true in most retail sectors, however, supermarkets have managed of negate potential price increases while communicating clearly and openly with their customers.

So even though some prices may have increased marginally, brands have been quick to educate and inform shoppers. They have also adopted a proactive approach and sought to offset these increases by reducing prices elsewhere, particularly on local produce that has been sourced from the UK. Discount brand Lidl have also capitalised on the fact that the company is German-owned, enabling it manage import costs without passing these directly onto the consumer.

Given that the cost of goods in Lidl and fellow discount chain Aldi is already exceptionally low, this means that these brands have so far been able to avoid the social and financial implications of Brexit.

The Last Word

Even accounting for the proactivity of major supermarkets and the natural advantages of internationally-owned discount chains such as Lidl, the growth recorded by these brands at the end of 2016 remained disproportionate to the economic climate. The question that remains is whether these figures can be sustained, particularly once Britain formally triggers Article 50 and leaves the EU.

The negotiations are expected to begin in March, and this will provide a stern test to the recent growth recorded by supermarkets. This is certainly a space to watch, however, particularly as the cost of imports will begin to eat away at supermarket’s profits for as long as the pound remains weak.

 

 

Categories
Entrepreneurs

Hiring Remote Employees: Challenges You’ll Face as an Entrepreneur

Having remote employees is becoming a standard among entrepreneurs. The concept has opened up opportunities to tap into a talent pool that may not be available locally. Also, with reduced overhead operational that demands significant budget allocation in a conventional office-based venture, entrepreneurs are being open to implementing distant working policies.

But managing staffers who are not present in the office has its own unique set of challenges. Mentioned below are some of the pitfalls of having a distributed team that can breed dissatisfaction and frustration among employees.

  1. Money Transfer Problems

Managing international salaries can be costly for your business because of the transfer fees involved. Banks usually charge a high commission on international wire payments. While freelancer service websites provide payment solutions where they accept the responsibility of transferring money from your account to the account of the remote worker, they too charge a high commission and the recipient has to go through multiple steps before being able to receive payments.

But entrepreneurs still go for these options because they’re not aware of Ria Money Transfer and other similar options. These often-neglected options provide you with a straightforward way to transfer money globally while charging low fees and providing great rates. Such options also benefit the recipient as they’re able to choose whether they want the funds to go in their bank account directly or they want to pick up cash from a specific location.

  1. Time Zone Problems

Managing a remote workforce requires you to cover the globe, in terms of time zones. It implies working with people in areas where the time is different from the time in your country. So, if there’s a work-related problem on your end and the fix lies with the remote team, you may have to wait until they’re awake to resolve the issue.

To avoid time zone issues, you must mention in the job description the origin of your company and your preferred time for communication with remote employees. This will give potential staffers an idea that as a company, you have a specific work schedule even though you’ll be logging in remotely. Experienced remote workers are familiar with such conditions.

  1. Personal Communication Problems

Lack of personal communication (face-to-face meetings, for instance) is a usual challenge you’ll encounter when managing a remote workforce. Face-to-face communication with employees ensures that the workers are in tune with the goal of your venture and their values align with your culture. It also encourages employees to stride towards the end goal as they develop a strong relationship with their employers.

If your resources allow, conduct in-person meetings periodically. If that isn’t an option, face-to-face virtual meetings is a viable alternative to stay connected. Solutions like file sharing services and video conferencing will enable you to communicate and collaborate with your employees more effectively. They also enable staffers to get together and share their thoughts, which can encourage team building.

  1. Hiring Challenges

Although many candidates will be willing to work from home and insist they love doing so, the truth is not everyone is suited to this lifestyle. If it is the first time for an employee to work remotely, he/she may develop feelings of isolation, which would affect their productivity as well as the productivity of your business. That’s why it’s critical to find people with some remote working experience.

To overcome this challenge, you’ll need to get more thorough while interviewing people. Sharp attention to detail will enable you to spot a wrong recruit and avoid restarting the entire hiring process all over. Give final candidates deadlines and mock assignments to gain greater insight on how well they’re suited for your company.

These tips will ensure you manage a remote team without stresses.