Category: Recommendations

Being the owner of a small business, it’s not an easy task to maintain everything perfectly, when the aim is to keep growing and expanding under any circumstance. In today’s era, various financial and management tools are available at affordable prices, which can help any business manager or analyst to maintain or manipulate the data and statistics. Here are the options that every small business owner should look for to ensure efficiency in work, while making any task easy and seamless.

Social Media Marketing Tools: With limited resources at their disposal, it may be difficult for many businesses to either hire a social media manager or maintain their social media presence themselves. Business owners can look at multiple tools available today which allow scheduling posts and tweets in advance. A well strategized media plan, with the help of tools and correct monitoring can go a long way in creating awareness and reach for a small business.

Employee Management: While being burdened with workload, many business owners may not be taking stock of what their employees are feeling about the company and what their thoughts are on the work environment. It is very important to ensure that the employees are feeling appreciated, comfortable and secure in their work environment, allowing them to work efficiently. Employees are not only the foundation stone on which any business rests, but they are also the best source for getting the word out about your business. A happy employee is bound to say good things about their employer, while unhappy employees will do just the opposite.

Managing Money: With your business resting solely on money and on your revenue, it is very important to get your finances in place. It is essential to have an accountant who has a really good grasp of all the financial aspects of your business. Personally, managing your finances is equally essential. To ensure that your debts are taken care of, you could rely on different tools available to you – whether it is looking at the best way to consolidate credit card debt or create savings and managing your family and personal finances, step out to seek all the help you need.

The Balancing Act: As a small business owner, finding time for doing anything else other than working and growing your business may be quite difficult. However, it is essential that you de-stress and find time for your family and people important in your life or just spending time with yourself. When you are back, you are refreshed and rejuvenated and probably have solutions to problems that seemed impossible to solve before you went for your much deserved break.

Taking care of the details and minor aspects of the business which may not come across as a great deal, in fact, has a greater impact on the overall business and should not be ignored. Expanding and growing your business is an on-going process, keep focus on it and you can soon take your business to the heights of success.

The world of mobile applications has expanded exponentially since the term became known to the general public circa 2008. Instead of watching TV or listening to the radio, people today are surfing the web on their iPhones and using the latest apps.

Businesses are also finding a great deal of opportunity in the world of apps. Developing an app for a company can lead to new eyeballs on products as well as new visibility from the major search engines. If you are looking to develop an app for your company, then you should consider the following:

Does my audience really want an app?

You must understand who your audience is before you attempt to create an app for them. You must find out whether they want one at all! The world of apps is really a world of younger people. If you have this audience, then you may need to engage them through an app. If your audience is older, then creating an app for your business will be a waste of time.

Will my app actually give me an edge in the marketplace?

After you assess your audience, you also need to assess the marketplace. Are your competitors having success making apps for their customers? Would an app of your own help to create a space for your niche, or is it just a vanity project that you want for your company because you heard about apps from so many different tech blogs? You must be sure that you actually need an app in order to do more business before you put down the money and the time that it takes to create one.

What is the return on investment of an app?

Once you have assessed your own needs and the needs of the market, you must then determine how you will create the app in a cost effective way. There are very few companies with the means to create apps without thinking about the cost, especially small and mid sized businesses.

Before you spend the money on developing an app, there is definitely a great deal of wisdom in creating an ROI worksheet for your company to estimate the return that you will get from it. This does not have to be profit in the form of money; ROI depends more on your goals. Your goal may be more visibility for a brand or giving the blogs something to talk about so that you can gain some PR. Setting your goals is an important step in creating the kind of app that will actually help your business.

Will it help the people who are with your company?

Of course you want your app to help your customers, but you also want your app to help your staff as well. Even if you do not have any staff, your app needs to help you! What benefit does your app have for your company? If your app gives you the ability to perform a task with more productivity or work faster in your everyday life, then it is something that you might want to consider producing.

Have you maximized the development on the app?

You may have a great idea for an app, and it may be time for the app in the marketplace. However, you must be sure that you have created the app to the best of your development ability. Otherwise, the idea of the app may be lost and overrun by competitors with a better idea of what they want to do with the idea.

In order to maximize the development on your app, you want to be sure that your coding is as succinct as it can be. You also want to be sure that you have the latest graphic design on your app. People need to be able to get into the app in a visual way. If it is not attractive, people may turn it off before they have truly understood the value of the app. Initial development cost might be a bit pricey, but consider this an investment to your future. More convenience will mean more customers and your business will benefit too – it brings another layer of security since majority of business apps feed from the remote database, your data will always be stored safely, regardless of what happens to the input unit.

Is it the right time for your app in the marketplace?

You may have a great idea for an app; however, it may not be the right time for the app. If there is no demand for your app in the marketplace, it may not be because your app is a bad idea. Some ideas need to be resurfaced when there is a market for them, so if you are creating an app and you are unsure whether it will be accepted, you may want to wait until you see the business environment for the app create itself.

Article Contributed by Kate Wilson

Today, it’s cheap and accessible to film something and throw it on the web, with a chance it will become viral and be viewed by millions. The benefits of a business creating and uploading such a video are obvious; a popular video online can drive thousands of new customers to a business, as well as maintain the interest of current customers.

Of course, a video can only go viral if it’s entertaining in some way, whether it’s side-splittingly funny or extremely informative. Typically, viral videos either teach viewers something interesting in an engaging way or they make them laugh. Since most businesses aren’t in the comedic realm, businesses can most prudently expect growth out of videos that inform in some way.

Here are methods you can use to help your business grow with video.

1. Customer Testimonials

Consumer confidence is a big part of driving sales. If consumers have no confidence or are somewhat wary of doing business with you, then it’s not realistic to expect growth. Customer testimonials will convince consumers someone just like them is so passionate about your business that they agreed to talk about it. These videos usually range from 15 seconds to a minute and are typically inserted into commercials or used as a standalone on YouTube or in social media marketing. Here’s an example of a customer testimonial for Verizon Fios.

2. Video Case Study

Customer testimonials are useful, but some will still be wary of them, since they’ll be assuming that the customers are actually actors being paid to spew compliments. Even if that’s not the case, it’s tough convincing them otherwise.

Something more objective and inarguable is a video case study, which shows through objective data the benefits of your product or service. Often video case studies feature a narrator and a customer voice visually demonstrating the “problem, solution, benefit” order of events found in traditional case studies. Here’s a video case study for Nike’s Considered Design initiative to learn from.

3. Product Demonstrations

Showcasing your products via video, like CJ Pony Parts does here with its sound clips and installation guides for 2015 Mustang exhaust parts, has a number of benefits.

First, it provides interested consumers with a chance to see their product in action from the convenience of home. Also, it can bring in new customers who stumble across the video by searching for the product or service name via YouTube or Google. Since they’re searching for it in the first place, there’s a decent chance they may end up a customer if the video is informative.

4. Corporate Overview

A corporate overview can serve as a very informative piece of content that can help a variety of people, from interested investors to potential future employees. It can provide either of them a better understanding of the business by teaching about company history, key products and figures and other data that paints a favorable picture of wanting to do business in some capacity. Here Thomson Reuters offers an example of a polished corporate overview video.

5. Troubleshooting Videos

It’s easy to find troubleshooting videos that have hundreds of thousands or even millions of plays on YouTube. This is because when people need an answer to a question or want to learn some sort of process step-by-step in today’s day and age, they consult a search engine or YouTube.

By publishing videos that somehow answer a question or provide a helpful step-by-step overview of a process relevant to your business, you have the potential to bring in new customers, who will be impressed and confident in your knowledge and abilities in that particular field, consequently resulting in consumer confidence in your business. Here’s an example of Car and Driver Magazine utilizing a troubleshooting video to increase visibility for their brand.

Videos like the types above can result in enormous growth for any business type. There are few modern strategies that raise awareness of a business as quickly and effective as creating a successful video for your brand.

In the challenging cut and thrust world of the entrepreneur, it’s all too easy to let the mundane aspects of life slip by. Making a Will is one of those things. We all think we have plenty of time, with more important or pressing things to do right now in launching or growing the business.

Given the uncertainty of the future, this can prove a costly mistake should the worst happen. Are you sure your hard-won business assets will land in the right hands when you’re gone? Entrepreneurs work long, hard hours to build their businesses, yet it can vanish in a flash if you don’t make your wishes plain by writing a Will.

Non-Marrieds Don’t Automatically Inherit

Marriage is somewhat unfashionable these days, but if you’re not either married or in a legal civil partnership, your partner has no rights whatsoever to any of your estate on your passing.

In an extreme scenario, a business partner could cut out your life partner completely, leaving them high and dry should they try to claim any of your business assets.

But even if that weren’t to happen, making a Will allows you to have your say in how your business affairs are taken care of and can include such things as:

• Personal loans that may be outstanding to the business
• How the business is run during the administration period
• The sale of the business to other business partners

Tax implications can have an impact on the running of a business after your passing, so taking specialist tax advice on how to organise your affairs in a Will can be a great help to those taking over your estate.

If you are married, give a thought to any stepchildren. They have no right of inheritance unless you specifically mention them in a Will and make suitable provision.

Sobering thoughts, but easily dealt with just by taking the time to make a Will.

How To Make A Will

There are various common routes to Will making:

• DIY, via Will kits you can buy over the counter in High Street Stationers. These are legal but, as you have to write the Will yourself, there is a high risk of mistakes or errors that could lead to a Will being challenged and found invalid.

• Online Will-writing services or Will writers. Also legal, but look for ones that offer to have your Will looked over by a legal specialist.

• A solicitor. The safest route, since those with probate experience can make sure you’ve considered all aspects and have left nothing out. Even if you consider your wishes straightforward, there may be complications you won’t have thought of on your own.

Take care when choosing a service because Will writing is unregulated. Chose a Will writing company that belongs to the Institute of Professional Will writers, or look on the Law Society’s web site to find a solicitor with probate expertise in your area.

It’s also possible to get Wills written through Trade Unions and, finally, several times each year a couple of organisations offer free Will months:

• In November, Will Aid offers Will writing services. They’re offered free, although it’s hoped you’ll donate at least £95.

• In March and October Free Wills Month offers Will writing services to those aged 55 and over.

Donating to Charity

Many entrepreneurs like to leave a legacy to a favourite charity in their Will, and there are various ways you can do this:

• A Reversionary Gift – leaves the income of your estate to your family but the capital passes to the charity on their passing.
• A Residuary Gift – leaves a share of your estate to a charity once dependents and friends are taken care of.
• A Pecuniary Gift – leaves a specified amount of money to a charity.

A solicitor can help you work out which method would best suit your circumstances – or contact the charity for more information.

Making a Will should move up everyone’s priority list, but for entrepreneurs who need to consider their business assets as well as their personal ones, it’s even more important to make provision for dependents.

The growing acceptance of virtual teams is picking pace among many small businesses as they look to increase productivity without restricting workers in the walls of their respective organizations.

According to Globalworkplaceanalytics, regular telecommuting increased by 79.7 percent between 2005 and 2015, and the stat doesn’t even include individuals working from home and those who are self-employed.

The perspective is that distributed teams give small companies flexibility in the makeup of their workforce, as well as offer cost savings over relying on full-time employees (you can reduce overhead costs such as equipment and office space).

In truth, there are several benefits of working as a distributed team, but there are also some challenges that can hinder the productivity of remote workers. Most of these challenges revolve around team collaboration and communication.

In a regular setting, all the staff is present in the office, where the best decisions and insights come from cafeteria discussions, face to face team meetings, and meeting new people. Working as a distributed team does make it difficult to create a company culture and collaborate effectively.

That said, these challenges can be minimized with a bit of technology. The following are some of the tools that can boost the productivity of your distributed team, make collaboration simple and keep them a part of the company culture:

Buffer

Buffer lets your staff schedule social media posts regardless of their location. This is a great tool if your company has a lot of content it wants to post, but from different employees at different times. Since being a distributed team often means a variable schedule, your team can plan social media updates in advance so they always go out at the right time.

StartMeeting

This tool lets you enhance conference calls through screen sharing, which include seating capacity of 50-1000, integrated audio, and recording. Meetings with remote workers can be recorded & shared via email and social networks. StartMeeting’s audio conferencing feature includes an integrated set of professional meeting tools where participants simply click the meeting link or dial-in to join.

Asana

Asana lets you post projects and details about them. Remote workers can then mark the project as complete when they fulfill its tasks. Apart from organizing tasks, Asana lets you assign task responsibilities and maintain projects in a single place. It reduces the need of email communication while working on tasks as distributed team. Asana is free to use for up to 15 members.

Hipchat

This is a 24/7 active chat room where you and your distributed team can hang out together each day – organizing and planning via one-to-one chat and team-specific virtual rooms. The tool can be synced with a hubot that will notify you of all the automated things, such as new comments on social profiles and new blog post updates. While some of the HipChat features are similar to Skype, the tool is geared towards the business community.

HelpScout  

When you have a lot of individuals working on support tickets, it can get messy without organization. HelpScout lets you collaborate with your workforce on support tickets. You can assign to a team member, add notes, and automate specific actions. Actionable reports show you how your support responses perform. HelpScout is free to use for up to 3 members.