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.

Business Trends

More Entrepreneurs Needed: Women Hold the Key to Economic Expansion

Post author By Ethan Theo
Post date October 7, 2016

According to a report conducted by the Kauffman Foundation, supporting women-led businesses could have a huge positive impact on the economic growth of the U.S. Over the last few decades, more women have started to enter the workforce, and they began to outshine males in degrees. This led to women helping the U.S. economy by creating huge economic gains.

However, many have said that the annual economic growth of 3 percent has slowed down with the Kaufmann report suggesting that this could hit a low of 2 percent in the next few years. What’s the answer to boosting this growth again? Women.

Room for Growth

In the U.S., a third of businesses are owned by women but these tend to have fewer employees and lower revenues. And within high-growth firms, founders are made up of less than 10 percent of women. However, due to this huge under-representation, women are provided with great opportunity for improvement and growth.

Speaking about the findings, the author of the report, Alicia Robb, said that there could be a significant impact on the economy through employment, payroll and revenue if more women are given the opportunity to take part in entrepreneurialism, particularly in the high-growth area. However, in order to encourage women entrepreneurs, it’s vital that people understand what factors could be holding them back.

Learning the Art of Failing

There are hundreds of success stories out there, in the media, on Facebook and in Google searches. However, many women entrepreneurs put their success down to the fact they learned about failure. Why? Because they’ve learned from their mistakes to help fuel their next venture, and they’re more likely to do this than their male counterparts, the report suggests.

But, compared to men, women aren’t big risk takers, which means they aren’t making these mistakes from which they can learn from. Robb comments that failure is taken more personally by women, in most cases. That’s why it’s important that women realize that to be an entrepreneur you have to take risks, even if they don’t always work out. To launch and grow a business, there are going to be failures and errors, and you may hit 90 no’s before you hit 10 yes’s but this is all part of parcel of the entrepreneurial journey.

Hearing More from Role Models

The report also suggested that women need inspiring by more role models to encourage them to start up their own business and take this to the next level. An entrepreneur’s success relies on mentorship, Robb says, and due to the lack of women leaders who can provide women with advice and encouragement, this can be a huge disadvantage.

Robb feels as though showing women what they can achieve gives them the opportunity to see that they can accomplish great things and that they are allowed to dream big. She suggested that to solve this problem, it should be partly down to the encouragement for more women to invest in companies as well as starting their own.

Reducing the Financial Gap

Even though 14 percent of women had venture capital funding and 31 percent had angel investors, 80 percent still had to rely on their own savings as their main source of funding, which makes it even harder for women to save for their business ideas.

As they require the funding to get their feet off the ground to fund things like technology marketing solutions, finances play a huge role in the success of a business. And as vast amounts of external capital are required for growth-orientated companies, this explains why getting to the next level is proving too difficult for many women-owned firms.

Various studies have demonstrated how significantly smaller amounts of outside equity and financial capital are being invested in women-owned companies as they grow. In the Kauffman study, nearly a third of these types of firms had one employee – the owner. Just 15 percent had over five employees.

By providing women with better access to venture capital, bank and angel financing, Robb believes this will encourage more growth. Babson College’s study found that of the $50.8 billion invested from 2011 to 2013 by venture capitalists, just 3 percent went to a company who had a female CEO.

For future economic growth, it makes sense to tap into this grossly underused resource of female entrepreneurs. However, in order to do this, there are a number of issues that need tackling first to prevent these women from being held back from achieving their successes.

About the Author:

Christopher Hartley started his business when he was 19. Now an angel investor, he also runs business courses and gives career talks at local schools alongside his article writing.

Finance & Capital

Mastering the Market: Top Investing Apps for Beginner Stock Traders

Post author By Ethan Theo
Post date October 7, 2016

For many people, they’ve thought about one day investing in the stock market. They understand that it is a place to make returns on their hard earned money and potentially strike it even richer. The problem most people come across is that it can be overwhelming, confusing, and complex to those who don’t know what they’re doing. Many people do not invest because they don’t know how it works and that makes it riskier for them. Luckily there are both simulated and real apps that will assist in a new investing approach.

Virtual Apps

The best way to get good at something is to practice. That seems like an impossible venture for those worried to invest in the stock market. If you don’t have a lot of expendable money or want to make risks, you can use pretend services as if you were really investing. Here are some of the apps that offer just that.

We Seed: A directory app that is one of the best stock market games on the Internet. It is a free application that allows you to invest with virtual pretend money, with zero risk. It’s a premier teaching app. The money is of course fake; trades are virtual but based off of real stock exchange conditions. You’ll be able to build a portfolio and practice varying investing strategies without having to use real money.

Wall Street Survivor: This is another fantasy stock market game. It uses a realistic learning platform to make trades on and signup is as easy as We Seed. The stocks page is where you create you and manage your trades. All the user has to do is enter in the stock symbol, quantity, action and order type to facilitate a trade. On the app is also a portfolio page to view current and open positions or initiate a sell off to close a position.

The idea behind both of these is to conceptualize real trading without the real risks. Once you are comfortable you can begin trading and utilizing the resources to put this into real practice on the open market with your money.

News Sources

Veterans and newcomers alike need a good source of information. Money Morning is a great source for looking at real time updates on major indexes and reading a host of helpful analyst’ articles. There are apps out there and news sites like Bloomberg and CNBC. They all provide daily coverage with real time stock quotes, access to videos and full-length programs. Each app is easily navigable and streamlined so you can utilize the features you need and want.

Educational Investing App

Once you’ve made the transition to real markets from virtual ones, you don’t have to jump into the stock market unguarded. There are applications that both help you invest real money and educate you along the way. Think of this as taking off the training wheels, but still having a directed path to maximize investing returns.

SigFig: Unlike other investing apps, SigFig lets investors manage the entirety of their investments. Right when you begin, the application will give you a set of personalized investments. There is a minimum of $2000 to start an account and put you on the right investing track. If you don’t want to direct any of it yourself, there is a 0.25 annual fee that SigFig will take out to manage your account for you. Along with the management guidance, SigFig also educates you through current news and latest research.

Acorns: The foundation of this app is built around the idea of investing your spare change to get you successfully into retirement. The company calls this approach micro investing. Anytime you make a purchase, the price is rounded up to the nearest dollar and the difference is put into your acorn account. It’s a simple concept and can help you save while your investments have the potential of growing. There is a $1 a month fee for accounts under $5000 and 0.25 percent over $5000. Don’t make this your main retirement fund, but check it out.

Jumping in the Market

Once you’ve dabbled around with virtual games and invested a small amount of money, you’ll probably be ready to invest fully. Education is the name of the game for beginning investors. Knowing what and how you’re doing things can lead to more advanced strategies and being able to turn a profit in the market. You’ll be able to call yourself, an investor.

Amelie Holt jumped into the stock market several years ago, and soon got her fingers burnt. Since stepping back and slowing down things have been going much better! She shares her knowledge with others who are new to the trading game.

Operations

When Life Gives You Lemons: Making Negative Reviews Your Best Business Asset

Post author By Ethan Theo
Post date October 7, 2016

Reading through third-party reviews has become an important part of the buying process for customers these days.

No matter what you do and what industry you are involved in, there is a good chance that customers will be leaving reviews about your business somewhere. This is great, because positive reviews are a powerful form of social proof that can help to give your business a boost.

But what about the negative reviews?

Unfortunately, all businesses will receive some negative reviews. There is just no way around it, and there is nothing you can do to avoid picking up a few. After all, you can’t keep everyone happy all the time.

But you must not worry too much about negative reviews. In fact, you can even turn them around and turn them into a business asset if you’re careful.

Here’s how.

Show How Seriously You Care About Your Customers

Every business owner hates seeing a negative review on online review sites. There is nothing worse than a big one-star review publicly splashed all over a review site for all the world to see, a blemish on your perfect record.

But the fact that the review is in the public eye provides you with an opportunity to show other potential customers just how much you care about them.

In fact, you can use it as an opportunity.

Start by finding the comment or review quickly by using a reputation management tool like Chatmeter. You don’t want to let reviews sit around for days before reacting, and a fast response time is crucial.

Then reply directly to the comment. Apologize for the negative experience, and explain that you want to help resolve the situation.

If the customer does not accept and tries to turn it into a public dispute, you may want to shift the focus to a private conversation. But by making a clear show that you want to help your customers, you will be showing other potential customers that their opinion matters, that their experience matters, and that you are a business to be trusted.

This can be great for your brand.

You may even find that the situation can be resolved quickly and easily. The person who left the negative review may change their original review, and they could even turn into a loyal customer. They may then tell their story to others about how you helped them, boosting your reputation further.

Everyone understands that things go wrong from time to time, even with the very best companies. The odd negative review is not going to put people off doing business with you, but how you respond to that review could very well help generate more business.

Use Negative Reviews to Improve Your Business

Most businesses would agree that you need online reviews these days. And while some negative reviews will be completely unfair, most of them will merely be criticism of something that clearly isn’t working.

Don’t run from criticism—embrace it instead.

You can use criticism to work out what is going wrong and to make improvements to your service. You may already ask your customers for feedback on their experiences, and negative reviews are just another form of feedback.

If numerous customers leave negative comments about how slow your delivery is, this is not something to ignore. Instead, use this information to make changes. Find out what is going wrong and how you can improve it.

This will lead to not only more positive reviews, but more positive customer experiences, more recommendations, and more repeat customers.

Take Full Responsibility

Honesty is refreshing. People—your customers—love honesty in businesses. So when you do something wrong, when you make a mistake, own up to it.

When a service falls well below expectations, don’t try to hide it. Don’t try to bury it. If you do, it could come back and hurt you even more.

Instead, admit the mistake. State clearly that you are going to improve the service, that you understand it is unacceptable, that you take your performance seriously, that you want to provide the best you can.

Customers will thank you for it—and you may just convince them to return to your business.

Don’t Be Scared of Negative Reviews

Negative reviews don’t always have to mean doom and gloom for your business. No one wants to see negative reviews, but how you deal with them can make all the difference.

These are some of the ways that you can take ownership of your negative reviews and turn them around to your advantage, so make sure you start taking your reviews seriously.

That means seeking them out, keeping a close eye on what people are saying about your business, and reacting to negative reviews quickly and professionally.

Then you can start to take advantage of them rather than living in fear of every negative review you get.

About the Author:

Collin Holmes, founded Chatmeter, Inc in 2009 and serves as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Holmes is a graduate of the University of California, Riverside and graduated with an MBA from San Diego State University. Prior to Chatmeter, Mr. Holmes served as Vice President of Product Management and Director of Product Marketing for xAD, Inc. (LocalAdXchange) (also known as V-enable). Mr. Holmes comes with a couple decades of overseeing and developing product roadmaps, business development and managing the process of driving applications to market.

Operations

Steps to Conduct an Efficient Risk Assessment at Work

Post author By Ethan Theo
Post date October 7, 2016

No workplace is without risks; employers have a duty of care to identify and mitigate hazards that may affect their employees in the workplace. Conducting a risk assessment is quick and easy: here are five steps to completing a thorough risk assessment.

STEP ONE – Identify the hazards

You can identify potential hazards in the workplace by carefully inspecting the work stations in your business, consulting accident and near-miss reports, and by interviewing employees and asking whether they have identified any hazards. You will also need to pay particular attention to any disabled or pregnant staff you have in your care; aspects of the work environment which are not hazardous to most staff may pose a considerable risk to these individuals.

Typical hazards in an office setting include wet floors (either due to spillages in kitchens or bathrooms, or as a result of cleaning) and bad posture as a result of sitting for prolonged periods.

STEP TWO – Identify those at risk

If wet floors are a problem, all staff are likely to be at risk; if the hazard is bad posture, staff who sit at their computers for long periods are most likely to be affected. Staff who regularly engage with demanding clients may be at risk of stress – an emotional hazard.

STEP THREE – Evaluate the risk

Consider how likely it is that the risk will be realised; in the case of staff who sit at computers for long periods, the likelihood of a problem associated with bad posture (such as back or neck ache) occurring is high. Other risks – such as the risk of staff badly burning themselves on the office kettle – are much less likely to happen, but will still need to be mitigated.

STEP FOUR – Devise processes to mitigate risks

Think carefully about how you can reduce your risks. The most effective means of protecting your staff is to eliminate risks entirely; if the problem is a dodgy shelf that is overloaded and likely to fall, get rid of the shelf. If eliminating the risk is not possible, the next best thing is to mitigate it. Help to evade the problem of slipping on wet floors by using appropriate signs to alert staff to the fact that areas are wet; put signs up in recreational areas such as bathrooms and kitchens to remind staff that the water is likely to be hot. Any hazard that can be found in a work area will have an accompanying safety sign.

STEP FIVE – Record your findings and retain for future references

Once you have completed your risk assessment and have identified all the hazards in your environment, the staff they are likely to affect, and how you should endeavour to mitigate them effectively, record your findings and keep them filed for future reference. As well as providing proof that a risk assessment was conducted, the record will also provide a basis for future risk assessments and discussions. Risk assessments must be repeated regularly to ensure that the safety procedures outlined are effective, and that no new risks have cropped up and been missed.

How-To Guides

How-To Guide to Make Money Blogging

Post author By Ethan Theo
Post date September 13, 2016

We all know the incredible power of the internet. We understand it as an invaluable tool for research, shopping, and building networks and connections. We recognize the viral influence of social media and its impact on cultural and buying habits. We can see it as a wonderful catalyst for ideas and education. And yet, even with this unquestioned knowledge of the internet’s potential, still a huge number of small businesses, even today, have little to no presence online. If you’re stunned, you should be.

You’re not only missing out on potential customers. It’s unquestioned how much the internet has expanded and diversified over the past decade. With the rise of social media, blogging platforms, and a host of tools for quickly building websites, the internet has been re-packaged for large-scale consumer interaction. Geographical boundaries no longer matter in terms of trends, ideas or even news and the amount of fresh content that is created each day is astonishing. In short, we’ve become a culture that literally “Google” everything – we even check out reviews for the local Barber before we think about walking through the doors. So, if you’re not online, you’re not only missing out on a huge market, but you may also be in danger of losing your current customers.

This is why it’s so essential for businesses blog often and regularly be publishing quality content on the web. More than ever, businesses need to position themselves as experts in a specific area and draw loyal online readers by providing this specialized content. But for many small businesses that don’t have a blog or website, taking the first steps can feel daunting: How do I get a blog started? What should I write about? How often should I post?

The Best Guide To Business Blogging

With these questions and concerns in mind, Neil Patel has put together an incredibly helpful guide for small business blogging. It walks businesses through the steps of defining a blogging niche, brainstorming content ideas, understanding the blogging culture and making money from your blog.

Create a persona

A persona gives the warm feeling and passion to reads such that everything becomes alive. It would seem like there is someone is always around providing a friendly conversation. More often than not, sales are created when people trust what they are hearing and understanding from another person. It builds much more credibility with having a persona to go through the products or services.

Choose a domain name

Generating names for blogs is also subject to the availability of the domain name. While creativity comes into play, one has to also consciously be aware of the originality and availability of the names.It’s not enough to just come up with a good name. You need a name that also has an availabledomain name. You should try to get the “.com” domain if at all possible. This is what most people will attempt to type in when they hear your name.

The challenge of finding an available domain adds another layer of difficulty to the process, but the good news is that there are some very helpful tools (such as Instant Domain Search) that utilize the available domain name data to help you generate business name ideas.

Pick a hosting provider

Naturally you are going to need to engage a web hosting company to provide a server to store your web content. There are lots of multi-solution web hosting companies that provide storage space and even domain name registration, etc. The size and type of web hosting package you choose will be largely determined by the type of online business you are starting. Be sure to do your due diligence before choosing the vendor you will use. Find one that can provide you good customer support so that whenever a problem will be encountered, for example when you need to setup SSL security on your website.

Install a theme

A theme is basically the way how you want your site to look like. There are thousands of styles to choose from. What is really important is to create a simple and clean design for a starts. It must be easy for customers to navigate through your website and remain inquisitive enough to surf through your sites. Thereafter, you can build on more technicalities to your site to enhance users’ satisfaction.

Optimize your SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the single most important marketing activity that has given small businesses and startups a level playing field against the big boys in their niche. The increasing reach of the internet and the fact that more and more people using the World Wide Web to look for all kinds of information means that online marketing is crucial for the branding efforts for every small business. SEO makes sure that a small business’s website comes up tops on search engine rankings, which increases its website traffic and improves its sales.

Write out a list of articles

Content is paramount in today’s social marketing. It builds trust when people know that the content is genuine and imparts knowledge.

Think of what questions a reader or customer would have in mind when they go through your website and how you can get them excited about your products. Run them through and think of ten reasons how you can convince them that what you have is the best product.

You may also think of problems you would encounter from different perspective: a working parent, a campus student, an entrepreneur who might lack time and present them in your articles. This will allow them to be consciously aware what problems they might face and how you can come into the picture to provide the solutions.

For a start, find a peaceful place and brainstorm articles you can potentially write. Create a mindmap and through run your thoughts. Each of the items that you wrote down is a potential blog topic — maybe even several blog topics!

Create your first post

More often than not, it is the heading that captures the eye of the reader. Construct an attractive headline paired with good visual content is often the winning formula to keep people engaged and encourage sharing. Content should be easy to understand.

Create an editorial calendar

An editorial calendar will allow you to keep track of when you will write for the next post. This will create a routine to keep readers coming back. In addition, when you are engaged by blog sponsors, editorial calendar is very useful to provide expectations on the articles that will be posted.

Conclusion

The aforementioned eil Patel’s “The Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Money-Making Blog in 1 Hour”is one of those resources that you’ll find yourself returning back to again and again. So if you find yourself either frantic for content or simply unsure on how to move forward, grab a cup of coffee, a notepad and refer to thisgreat guide to make some money blogging. Start strategizing a new way of engaging customers online.