Tag: Business

  • Tips before launching your e-commerce

    Tips before launching your e-commerce

    Are you preparing to launch your e-commerce? So welcome to this article where we will give you some valuable tips to better begin this new adventure and be your own boss. In addition to following current trends, discover 8 tips for starting your business successfully!

    1. Study the competition
    Evaluating your competitors will be a first step in finding out how to stand out and tackle the growth of your e-commerce. Faced with 157,300 French merchant sites, you must analyze your strengths and weaknesses, to implement a different and effective strategy. This is your best chance to succeed!

    2. Choose the e-commerce solution adapted to your needs
    The platforms to create your online store are not lacking! Study all the tools at your disposal, their advantages and disadvantages, to select the one that best suits your needs and your skills in web development. If you opt for an e-commerce CMS, answer our quiz to discover which is the most adapted to your needs.

    3. Organize your SEO and marketing strategy
    From the beginning, you must find the line of communication adapted to your activity. Depending on your target and the products sold, you must think about an editorial line that incorporates notions of SEO and a commercial aspect.

    The definition of your editorial strategy begins with an analysis of the keywords used by your consumers. You have to find the terms that they will enter search engines, to find targeted phrases that will bring qualified traffic to your e-commerce. Also think of long-tail keywords (more than 3 words) because they are often less competitive and drain visitors of higher quality.

    When you have defined the terms on which you want to position your store, you must write the pages and the product sheets of your e-commerce. Remember to embed keywords in strategic places like headlines, subtitles, images, etc. Finally, the selected expressions should also be found in the different contents of your blog. It is also the latter that will bring you the most traffic and help you boost your visibility in search engines.

    4. Develop your community
    Why wait until your e-commerce is online to communicate on social networks? The sooner you ensure the communication of your project, the faster you will make the turnover. Start now to create profiles on social networks and publish articles on collaborative blogs to publicize your name and future products. When you open your merchant site, you will have already acquired some consumers.

    5. Create a blog to talk about your project
    This will help you to grow your community, but also to get your site up in the search engine results. Indeed, the blog will influence your SEO and, at the time of the official opening of your online store, you will already be positioned on strategic keywords. Then Bang! You can be your own boss and complete the works.

    6. Collect email addresses
    Prepare a prospecting file already by offering your readers the opportunity to subscribe to your newsletter. To ensure the success of your official opening, you can send all your loyal subscribers an email announcing the launch of the site and, why not, give a discount code to thank them for their support during the implementation of your project.

    7. Check the points of our checklist
    In another article, we proposed points to check before opening your e-commerce to users. This is the moment to consult this super checklist!

    8. Find a provider for creating your e-commerce
    To be certain that your merchant site is operational and you quickly earn profits, entrust its realization to a specialist. On Encoder, you will find many ecommerce developers willing to realize the shop of your dreams. Post your ad quickly with the outline of your specifications and find the ideal freelance!
    Tips to make your point of sale more attractive thanks to its showcase
    Your showcase is the image of your business. First contact with customers, she plays a key role in the purchase process. Today, Message in a Window has decided to give you its pro tips to attract customers and trigger the act of purchase.

    Build your universe
    The environment in which we are at the time of purchase influences us. It is therefore important to create your own universe through the theatricality of the point of sale.
    But what does it really consist of? The theatricality of the point of sale is a particular and even spectacular staging of the store’s product offering. The objectives are simple: trigger the act of purchase and bring and return the customer in your business. Creating a captive atmosphere is essential! For that it is important to look after the attractiveness of your store, and that says attractiveness, says showcase!

    Treat the presentation of your showcase
    Did you know, your storefront generates between 8,000 and 80,000 views a day depending on your location. When you know that the peak of a passerby lasts only a few seconds it is imperative to look after his shop window to capture the prospect’s attention and attract him to your business. At first glance, your future customers must be able to identify your offer, understand how it is different and why they should enter your store.

    Less Is More: Simplicity & Minimalism
    Too many choices kill the choice. Do not reveal all your weapons! There is no need to display all of your store in full view. If you overload your window, you smother and confuse the message you want to communicate to the passer-by. The idea is to favor only one to five different products and bet on a simple and uncluttered showcase, while placing your products at eye level.
    Conclusion
    With these 8 tips, you know how to approach your e-commerce project in broad outline. After finding a web partner to help you in this incredible adventure, you can start communicating about your future baby and then launch your business successfully!

  • Here are the Surefire Ways to Promote any Business

    Here are the Surefire Ways to Promote any Business

    Starting a small business is dream for many. With today’s market flexibility, it is now possible to start any kind of business. However, the success of any business depends on how well you promote it and the quality of your service. Even with a great service you cannot take your business further without promoting it and making it known.

    There are various ways you can promote your business on any budget. With the internet technology, it is now possible to start an online business and earn profits without the additional cost of a physical office or store. Whether you are a start-up or an established business with the right strategy at hand you can easily promote your business.

    This article will tell you about how to promote a business using high-impact and low cost methods.

    1. Finding The Target Audience

    It is the quite obvious one, but very important. Having a clear marketing strategy is essential for achieving your goal of promoting your business. Be spot-on about who are your target audiences. For instance, if you have a business of carpet cleaning then your target audiences will be people with different carpets and rugs and suppliers. You will also need to target people who are looking for easy DIY solution or cost effective solution. This is the first step towards promoting your business.

    1. Marketing Strategy

    Marketing has changed drastically since the internet came into the picture. The traditional media like the radio, television and outdoor adverts are no longer the dominant medium. Today, more than 70% of your target audiences are online. You will need to come up with a marketing strategy that will easily integrate the need for traditional and online marketing. Digital marketing is now the dominant medium of marketing. However, you need to consider the pace you are in. May be the people there are still responding to the old and traditional method.

    1. Get a Website

    In today’s digital marketing scenario, having a website is a must. Having a website is now considered as an important aspect especially when it comes to establishing the authenticity of your business. Most of the people now prefer interacting online rather than face to face because it saves time. Your website will be like a display window of your business. You have all the information about your business, which will make it easy for your target audience to find you.

    1. Generate Lead Online

    Did you know that most of the lead you generate will happen online? It is true. People are now finding services online to contact them with the requirement. By having a website and social media presence, you can generate more leads. Finding your target audiences is now easy with Facebook. With the Facebook ads you can easily target your ad to the specific demographic. Having a strong online presence can help you generate more leads and hence grow your business.

    1. Use the Search Engine Local Directories

    Search engine directories are one of the best ways promote business online. Google offers free listing of local business. With just few clicks you can easily get your business listed online. It will make easier for your customers to find your business and its various services. You will show up in multiple online directories every time anyone searches for the relevant keywords based on your business.

    1. Connecting

    Makin connection is essential for any business. Connecting with people should not be limited to the LinkedIn only. You need to make local connection. If you have a store selling household goods, you will need to know the local vendors and other suppliers which can help you stock-up high quality goods and services. They will also help you get the best rates. As everyone is online today, you might find your local vendors, supplier and in social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. Connecting them online is also an effect way to do it.

    1. Get Business Cards

    This is really old school, but still effective. When you are visiting the local trade fair or groups meetings or any social gathering, you can hand out your business cards. It will help you create more connections and help you grow your business.

    1. Build-up Online Credibility

    It’s important that your online reputation is clean. People do check-up on businesses online. Some websites like the Angie’s List and Moody’s rate companies based on their performance and complaints against the company. So, it’s essential that you build a strong online presence trough quality content sharing, social media engagement and getting feedbacks and recommendation from your happy customers.

    Way Forward

    These are some of the most important and very effective strategies to tackle the question how to promote a business. You need to focus on the latest methods so that you can stay on top of the competition.

     

     

     

  • Top things to consider before plunging your start-up!

    Top things to consider before plunging your start-up!

    Starting a business is exciting and at the time, it is scary too. In actual, the facts reveal that three quarters of startups fail within the first three years, and the other after six months. To get the best chance and to survive this teething period, here are the top-most things to consider and research before taking the plunge.

    • Sole trader or limited company: What type of company to start you choose will impact directly on the tax you pay and how much legal as well as financial responsibility is laid at your door. As a sole trader, you can take all the post-tax profits, but you are also liable solely for all of your business’ financial dealings.
    • Size up the competition: Secondly, you need to study the competition around you and learn from others mistakes and also what sort of things do the potential customers appreciate. In addition to this, you also need to learn how much people are willing to pay for your product or service and alongside the techniques on how you could enhance the current offerings.
    • Define your target audience: You need to focus on your target audience from your website to your marketing campaigns. Make sure that you target the right people, speak to your customers through social media and even hold focus groups. You can also strive to involve your target customer in the development of your business and consulting from them will make them feel like they have a voice, thereby breeding loyalty.
    • Paying yourself and your business name: You need to think about the payment upfront with the best intentions to plough profits to your business. Cut the irrelevant part of luxuries and figure out what you need to live on and include it in your outgoings. Not only this, think long and hard about your business name. Most importantly, consider what your name needs to say about your business.
    • Marketing your business idea and your web presence: Without a big marketing budget, you can start small and focus on building relationships with your customers. Start building reputation with not just customers, but also suppliers, retailers and local businesses. Start thinking about how much more your business could be doing by embracing an online market.
    • Funding, business plan and route to the market: In order to launch your new business, in an ideal world you may require enough money to self-fund the launch. You should look into what business grants are available and manage to get one. If you can’t secure the funding, then you need to launch your master plan, start small and prove the business works. Later on; you can go back to the bank or investors with more evidence for funds.
    • Finding the best business bank account: Don’t just go straight to the bank, find one that understands your business and who you feel comfortable with. Most banks also offer incentives for new sign-ups and also audit your business plan to figure out what technology will enable you to save time, money, stay in control, increase sales and deliver the best results.
    • Take help from professionals: Starting a business should not be an independent journey, no matter how tempting it is. Taking help along the journey will set you up for success. Hire a coach or mentor to help you in providing training and development programs so that you learn what is important for growth. The next person to hire is an accountant as it is nearly impossible for one person to handle every aspect of the company and most important your finances should not be put at risk and a legal advisor as it is important to have assistance on the legal aspects of the business so that you are protected and going about the process in the right way.

     

    Certainly, Adam Radly Robert Bates created the RBI- RADLY BATES INDEX in order to track entrepreneurial activity in the United States. RBI is a part of S7 Group, which is a private investment company and this index measures the percentage self-employed workforce and it is updated every month as the monthly jobs data is released. Furthermore, it is based on the data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

    Author’s Bio

    Adam Radly, co-founder of Radly Bates Index is passionate about what he does and apart from inventing the index, he also has invented the world’s first open source philosophy while setting up a health center for a village in Mali (West Africa). He also created an event known as World Recognition Day and has donated $1 million to Nelson Mandela’s charity.

  • Your Basic Guide to Surety Bonds

    Your Basic Guide to Surety Bonds

    Business deals require guarantees. Nobody wants to make their investments without proper protection. The most elegant means of protecting your business these days are surety bonds. These guarantees are required by business entities (often government agencies) to ensure that their contractors will meet all the requirements from the contract. However, the deal is not made directly, but through a surety company.

    Why ensuring through bonds?

    Bonds serve to literally bond someone to stick to their promises and agreements. Let’s say that you own a construction business. In the bonds world your name is the principal. When you want to work for any of the government entities, from the federal to the local level, you are asked to buy the bond. This entity that requires that you buy the bond is called the obligee. That way they want to ensure you will finish your tasks on time. Finally, the mediator behind the bond is the surety. If the principal fails, the surety pays the obligee. Everybody gets proper protection when they are ensured through these bonds.

    Bonds can boost your business

    First of all, there are different kinds of bonds. They all represent a different sort of guarantee. For instance, when a business owner wants to get a license or a work permit, they need to ask for a license bond. Moreover, if you want to protect your business from fraudulent schemes, you can introduce fidelity bonds. That way you will ensure that your workers and clients cannot pull any dishonest tricks against you.

    Finally, bonds that ensure that business gets done are most often required by the government. Their main purpose is to ensure that tax payers get the services they have paid for through their taxes. Therefore, businesses that are assigned to do projects on behalf of the government actually work for the people of the USA. If your business keeps scoring public projects and delivering great performance, you will be recognized as a reliable and punctuate associate.

    Do bonds insure your business?

    What new business owners fail to understand is that bonds issued by surety agencies do not bring you any kind of insurance. They are here to ensure that you do your job properly. You are the bonded site in that process and surety bonds should force you to do all your tasks on time, to avoid being charged for deadline breaks and other postponements. This is why business owners can seek protection through other kinds of bonds, as illustrated in the previous paragraph, as well as real insurance deals.

    Additional requirements for a business

    While it is clear that the surety pays the claim to the obligee, it remains blurry how they charge the principal. Every surety agency will ask every principal to sign an indemnity agreement. By agreeing to terms of such an agreement, you accept to give your personal and business assets to the surety. They will allow the surety to reimburse all the claims that had to pay to the obligee. Because of that, it is good to know that even the most beneficial surety bonds are nothing to rush into.

    Bonding is obligatory in every field of business. What differs from niche to niche are types of bonding. Although there are dozens of protection strategies on the free market, many of them are highly risky and often cause more harm than protection. Surety agencies are licensed entities. What is more, government bodies are more often than not included in business deals with these bonds. This is why business owners should not hesitate to gain advantage from participating in deals based on surety bonds.

  • Top 10 tips for online Branding

    Top 10 tips for online Branding

    In order to shape up and create the identity of a certain company, branding is something that has to be done! Becoming recognizable for both existing and possible clients is very important for any business looking to expand and find its own place in the market.

    Create a logo

    Having a specific logo that will make people think about your products and services as soon as they see it is a great start when it comes to branding. It can be placed anywhere – at your web page, as a profile picture at social media, as a signature in e-mails, etc.

    User-friendly website

    Most people look for solutions to their problems online so make sure that you devote enough time in building your website that will be easy to use with all important information for further research presented at the front page.

    Mobile-friendly website

    Apart from being simple to use, a website should also be mobile-friendly, considering the great popularity and rising need for Smartphones nowadays. A lot of people do their shopping and browsing on their phones, so it is very important to create a website that would prove to be useful on both computer and phone screens.

    Lead a blog

    Having a website sometimes is not enough with more demanding clients. Therefore, creating a blog that offers useful and meaningful content that explains some of the most common topics people look in their search and is related to your business is a great way to implement your branding image in the market.

    Add diversity

    Some people are just not into reading articles and find it more comprehending to receive information from an audio-visual source instead. Therefore, do not forget to include videos, pictures, charts, etc. in your blog to appeal to the wider audience.

    SEO

    Even a great website and purposeful blog will not do you any good if possible clients are not able to find you in the search. Therefore, investing in professional Search Engine Optimization is a sure way to generate more traffic to your business brand.

    Social Media

    Online social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are integral part of today’s society and you have to make your brand visible in this area as well. Moreover, people are more likely to seek answers and read reviews at social media than bothering to visit your website in search for contact form. This is why your social page should always be active and responsive.

    Social buttons

    This is related to social media but it involves your work with website and blog. Do not forget to add social buttons at pages for different products, services and blog entries so that people can share your brand more easily.

    Newsletter

    Make sure to take advantage of your customer’s email list and send them newsletters with new products and offers. This way, you can inform your clientele about any changes quickly and efficiently. A simple yet informative newsletter will play a significant role in establishing your brand.

    Marketing strategy

    In order to always move your brand further up, you need to work on your marketing strategies constantly. With many other things that have to be taken care of, no single person can do this job properly all the time and therefore it is best to seek professional help from digital agencies in Sydney in order to work on fresh and innovative ideas without any setbacks.

    If you make sure that you do not skip any of the important steps and keep working towards your goal establishing your brand online will prove to be an essential part of your overall business success.

  • Sure-fire Way to Hire Your Next Best Employee

    Sure-fire Way to Hire Your Next Best Employee

    Putting together an awesome team to work for your business will take time and you need to be aware that finding the perfect employee is a difficult and tedious process. Nonetheless, you need not rush into hiring people to have them work for you, if you are missing a key worker. Instead, figure out a way to be able to find the best of the best.

    What Is Your Method of Recruitment?

    You need to ensure that you have the right method for finding potential candidates, because if you have a lack of people applying to work for you, then you must be doing something bad. Ensure that you market vacant positions and that it is easy to find your business. On the other hand, try to avoid filling positions by outsourcing other departments, as your new employee might not be up for the task. Keep in mind that everyone has a special skillset they can bring to the table, and you should not force onto them jobs they are not qualified for.

    Do You Really Need to Hire New Staff?

    While it might seem like a good idea to hire new employees, you should consider whether it will be a good idea or not. Having more people work for you mean that you have to pay more salaries as well, which could be problematic if your profits are not doing so great. After all, bear in mind that it is better to have a good employee, earning a higher salary but making a bigger profit than a higher number of weaker workers.

    Look Beyond the CV

    Even though it is a must for any candidate to bring their CV, you should only use it as a reference to weed out those who do not fit your business. Consider the 7 Cs of what an employee can bring to the company. Commitment and competence will be the most important keys, because if your new staff is unable to perform well, you should not even consider hiring them at all.

    Let Your Employees Evolve

    Each employee will want to become better eventually, and unless you provide them with the opportunity to do so, they will avoid your business at all costs. Hiring a good worker will also mean that you will take care of them and not just look at their current skillset. Your business swill grow and evolve into something bigger as well, and you should have your staff grow together. Otherwise, you will be looking at hiring new employees every so often.

    Have Professionals Help You Out

    As a growing business, it might be hard to put together a team to assess and recruit new employees without making a mistake. Instead, it is possible to hire an outside source, who will be able to objectively evaluate potential candidates and to decide if they will be a good choice or not. Going with a recruitment agency from Sydney you will make sure that your new workforce will be the best, and that you will not have to look into hiring new ones anytime soon.

    Consider Past Experience

    With people coming freshly out of college, with earned degrees, you have to sit down and consider what you really need for your business. Experience can never be learnt, and to gain it, you will need to go through a lot. But, you should also give a chance to those who are new, to be able to grow and enrich your business as time goes on. All in all, make sure your team is mixed with those rich with fresh knowledge and experience, to help and teach each other.

    Hiring the perfect employee will be a demanding task, and you will have to look into a number of factors to ensure that you go with the best. On the other hand, you need to create a versatile team of highly experienced and knowledgeable people who will be able to take your business to the next level. While it is a good idea to give many a chance, it is not the best course of action in most cases. Take your time, and analyse each candidate when hiring, to give your business the push it needs.