Author: anwaryusef

Anwar Y. Dunbar is a Regulatory Scientist. Being a naturally curious person, he is also a student of all things. He earned his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Michigan and his Bachelor’s Degree in General Biology from Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU). Prior to starting the Big Words Blog Site, Anwar published and contributed to numerous research articles in competitive scientific journals reporting on his research from graduate school and postdoctoral years. After falling in love with writing, he contributed to the now defunct Examiner.com, and the Edvocate where he regularly wrote about: Education-related stories/topics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Financial Literacy; as well as conducted interviews with notable individuals such as actor and author Hill Harper. Having many influences, one of his most notable heroes is author, intellectual and speaker, Malcolm Gladwell, author of books including Outliers and David and Goliath. Anwar has his hands in many, many activities. In addition to writing, Anwar actively mentors youth, works to spread awareness of STEM careers, serves on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the David M. Brown Arlington Planetarium, serves as Treasurer for the JCSU Washington, DC Alumni Chapter, and is active in the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Ministry at the Alfred Street Baptist Church. He also tutors in the subjects of biology, chemistry and physics. Along with his multi-talented older brother Amahl Dunbar (designer of the Big Words logos, inventor and a plethora of other things), Anwar is a “Fanboy” and really enjoys Science-Fiction and Superhero movies including but not restricted to Captain America Civil War, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Prometheus. He is a proud native of Buffalo, NY.

Stop Handling These 4 Company Calamities By Yourself

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. There are some issues that you can’t fix on your own as a business owner. In many instances, trained professionals are needed depending the nature of the problem. The following contributed post is entitled, Stop Handling These 4 Company Calamities By Yourself.

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As an entrepreneur you have a gut instinct to do everything by yourself. You came up with your business plan without any help; you handle the day to day running of your company without a worry. However, could you be taking on too much at once? When you step back and look at the ongoing issues you’re dealing with, you might suddenly feel a sense of overwhelm. Whether you’re struggling with budgeting or battling with IT troubles, you shouldn’t have to be dealing with these problems on a daily basis. Think about the following company calamities and see how you could prevent them from spiralling out of control in the future.

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1. IT Glitches

Every business owner has been there before; your IT system crashes and you spend hours and hours on the phone with a company that has no idea how you operate. This type of problem can be expensive to fix, especially if you are paying a company on an ad hoc basis. Outsourcing IT to a trusted company who understands all the ins and outs of your business might just be one of the best things you can do. When disaster strikes, you can feel at ease knowing that there is someone ready to fix the glitch in an instant.

2. Payroll Problems

When you are in charge of paying all your members of staff, you are bound to make mistakes. Instead of grinning and bearing this type of pressure, why not hire a bookkeeper or invest in reputable payroll software. Issues and disputes can be dealt with by a professional and you won’t have the overwhelming responsibility to pay everybody on time.

3. Marketing Mistakes

As a business owner, you want to have a strong handle over all aspects of advertising. However, you cannot expect yourself to deal with everything by yourself. You might need to hire a digital marketing expert or a social media whizz to help you with your online campaigns. Dealing with marketing problems can cause you a huge amount of grief, especially when you aren’t an expert in this field. Hire the relevant help you need and make the most of their talent and expertise!

4. Branding Blunders

You want to avoid branding mistakes at all costs, especially when you are first starting out. Seek out advice from a professional designer, writer or business coach and you will soon be able to put brilliant branding techniques into place. As long as you have a clear idea of what your business represents, there are so many people who can help you.

When something goes wrong you will always have an overwhelming urge to fix it all by yourself. By hiring some extra help and accepting that you can’t possibly do everything, you will have a much smoother business operation. So stop stressing yourself out and accept the help you need. Dealing with company calamities are not your main priority; you should be focusing on improving and expanding your company for the future.

4 Tactics That Are Guaranteed To Lower The Running Costs Of Your Business!

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A key to successfully running a business is keeping costs low. Doing so will ensure that your business will survive and thrive. The following contributed post is entitled, 4 Tactics That Are Guaranteed To Lower The Running Costs Of Your Business!

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How much it costs you to run your business matters. After all, its money that comes out of your profits! That is why it is so vital that you keep the running costs of your business as low as possible. Something you can get some sound advice on in my post below.

Work from home

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Working from home doesn’t just save you money, you can put your feet up as well!

First of all, you can save a whole heap of money by choosing to run your business from your very own home, rather than setting up formal premises. After all, you won’t have to pay for a lease or pay separately for utilities either, as this will be included in your home bill.

Happily, there is a vast range of business that can be run very efficiently from a home office. These include creative enterprises such as graphic design, illustration, and writing. Although you can be equally successful when working from home with more entrepreneurial options like reselling and setting up your own online store as well. Something that makes the lower-cost work from home option a smart move for many businesses.

Shop around for the lowest priced supplies

Next, if you are looking to reduce the running cost of your business, then you absolutely need to look at how much you are spending on office supplies. After all, even if you do choose to work from home, you will still need certain things to ensure you can complete the tasks you have.

To that end, shopping around for office basics like ink cartridges, paper, post-it notes, and folders at the lowest price you can find is crucial. In fact, by saving pence on a single unit of supplies for the office, you can actually accrue a considerable saving over just a year! Something that will ensure you have fewer cost to remove from your profits.

Understand your tax forms

No one is too keen on filling in tax forms for their business. However, doing so in the correct way can actually save you a lot of money. In fact, there are two ways that this can happen. The first is that if you correctly fill in your tax forms and return them on time, you will avoid having to pay a fine.

Secondly, many costs, including supplies, can be claimed on your tax form. Something that means they get taken off the final amount you will be taxed for. In fact, if you are working at home, you can even claim for part of your utility bills, thus saving your business even more money!

Outsource on demand

While it may be tempting to employ a large workforce, so every possible need is catered for, there is a more cost-efficient way of doing things. Its to outsource tasks you don’t specialize in or do not have time to complete, to someone else. This being an option that while costing money in the short term should save you over the long haul because you won’t have to pay out a salary to so many people.

Of course, fewer salary payments, and a reduction in the other running costs mentioned above means more profit for your business. Therefore you really can’t afford to ignore this guaranteed money-saving advice!

Will Your Business Event Impress Your Guests

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success, and two key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. At some point you might want to host a business event. During such events you want to make the best possible impression on your guests. The following contributed post is entitled, Will Your Business Event Impress Your Guests.

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What would your dream business event look like? Would it be the epitome of aesthetics? Would it be filled to the brim with industry professionals? Would it be calm and casual, where your networking feels like real mingling? Well, now’s your chance to set these kind of events up!

Running a business event that’s good enough to impress each and every guest is going to be hard. It’s going to be a challenge, especially as a small business, and there’s going to be a lot of planning involved. So, in the interest of making this process a little easier on you, here’s just a few ideas you might want to employ, to make sure you’re setting the foundation just right.

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Start Your Planning Early

You know what doesn’t impress? A mishap. Sure, dealing with a mishap shows off how resourceful you are, even under pressure, but on a night like this? You’re going to want to make sure your event goes off without a hitch.

So it’s key to start planning early. Your Event Planning schedule needs to start months in advance, and even a year if possible, to make sure there’s enough time to get everything in order. You’ll need time to secure a venue, and to get in touch with as many guests as possible. You’ll need to factor in time for changes in the plan, and you’ll need to make your staff aware of the big event looming on the horizon, to make sure they can all work that night.

Create a Buzz Around Your Event

Creating a buzz means your event is going to be a hotspot for the night; it’s going to be marked on quite a few calendars, and reach the ears of executives up and down the country (or at least, the county!). And to do that, you’re going to need to market before the event, and during it as well – you never know who might be a latecomer!

Creating a buzz creates a hype, and that’s what gets attention. If your business event is being advertised all over the place, with a bit of mystery, and plenty of shine, people are going to notice it. So make sure there’s at least 6 months of marketing to go through, before the event actually happens.

Curate the Guestlist

And finally, one of the best ways to impress is to curate the guestlist. You want the right people to attend, and that means the guests need to be relevant. They need to be within the sector you’re advertising for, and they need to be interested in what’s going on during the night. You’re going to want to get into the niche, and to make sure all kinds of people within it are interested in coming along, to make sure your guests are diversified enough.

The event you’re planning to host and run can be absolutely amazing, as long as people know about it, want to come to it, and have an interesting night at least!

How Can E-commerce Stores Reduce Their Costs

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. Much of today’s business is done via e-commerce. There are numerous benefits to doing business using e-commerce. The following contributed post is entitled, How Can E-commerce Stores Reduce Their Costs.

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When you’re in the e-commerce business, it’s not just important to reduce your costs to ensure they’re not too high — it’s necessary. While these types of businesses are relatively easy to get off the ground without having much money in the bank, as soon as you’re looking at reaching a level where you’re professional/it’s a full-time job/it’s providing a full income, it’ll be a case of spending money to make money. Fortunately, there are a few tried and tested ways to reduce costs and boost profits, as we see below.

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Reduce The Number of Returns

Making a sale is a cause for celebration, but only if it stays that way — if it gets returned to you, then that’s not a sale. That’s just one expensive journey for whatever it is that you’re selling. While you’ll be unlikely to reach a 0% return rate, there are things you can do to limit the number of returns coming your way. It all begins with your product pages. The more information there is on there, the less likely it will be that the customer will have an “oh, that’s it?” moment when it arrives. For clothes, don’t just put sizes — put the actual dimensions.

Get Finances In Order

There are many reasons why you should get your finances in order, one being that it can help save money in other ways. You’ll find it much easier to get better deals on just about everything if you have the paperwork that shows your finances are healthy, and that your business has staying power. There can be different costs for the same services, depending on the strength of the company — take a look at ‘what is high risk credit card processing?’ to get a better understanding of how. Once you’ve got your money in shape, you should see more favorable rates across the board, thus saving you money.

Repeat Customers

Many businesses are forever trying to bring new customers on board, but actually, it might be a better option to look at getting repeat custom from existing customers, rather than appealing to new people. It costs significantly less to market towards people who have used your website before, than it does to educate and entice new customers. These people have already used your service once — and they could be likely to use it again, too. In the process, you’ll have reduced your marketing budget, or at least used it more effectively.

Postage and Packaging

You’ve got to get your packages out there to your customers, but are you doing it in the most effective way possible? There are plenty of ways to package and ship your items, and if you’re offering this service for free, then it’s important that you find a system that doesn’t cost all that much. Take a look at using other companies from what you’re currently using. You can take this approach with all suppliers, actually — there might just be a cheaper way to get the same goods and services.

You Love Your Art, But How Do You Gain Fans Who Do Too?

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“At the very least, every artist wants an audience or some sort of recognition. Of course, that’s hard to achieve. You love your art, but how do you gain fans who do too?”

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The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and some of it’s key focuses are Art, Authors and Books, Blogging/Writing and Music/Entertainment. Whether it’s the cinematic media, music, the visual arts, or some sort of writing we all have some sort of creative genius inside of us. If we’re to make good on our talents and share them with other people, how do we create fans and supporters of our work? The following contributed post is entitled, You Love Your Art, But How Do You Gain Fans Who Do Too?

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If you’re struggling to create a career out of your artistic talents, then you’re not alone. There’s a reason that the idea of the struggling artist has become such a prevalent concept in pop culture. All artists struggle at some point; many of them struggle and suffer once they’ve become successful too. Still, it’s the price that many of us pay for the chance to share our innermost feelings and skills with the world. At the very least, every artist wants an audience or some sort of recognition. Of course, that’s hard to achieve. You love your art, but how do you gain fans who do too?

Find out what makes you unique

When Radiohead started out, they sounded similar to The Smiths and other big artists of the 80s. When J.K. Rowling first started the Harry Potter series, comparisons to Tolkien’s work were made frequently. Plenty of artists in all manner of creative industries have worn their influence on their sleeves. There’s nothing wrong with being similar to other successful artists. However, you just need to find out what makes you unique. Both of those artists ended up finding their own way. They defined themselves in a unique way, and that’s what attracted listeners. You need to know what you want as an artist. That’s how you’ll figure out your own personal brand.

The best way to find out what makes you unique is to keep creating. Instead of worrying about perfecting every single song you release or every single story you write, you should simply focus on finishing your work. Never stop creating. Even if you don’t like the finished product, you’ll have learned something. You can’t get better without practice. So, make sure you finish every creative project that you start. Fallen out of love with the song you started writing yesterday? It doesn’t matter. Wrap it up. Record it. Even if it sits in a private folder on your computer because you’re too embarrassed to release it, the point is that you’ll have improved simply by committing to finishing the project you started. Otherwise, how will you get closer and closer to creating that one fantastic song? After all, even Dave Grohl said that Nirvana sounded terrible when they first started making music in a garage.

Learn from other successful artists

Another great way to ensure that your art reaches people and captures their attention in the long run is to learn from other successful artists. Everybody has to make mistakes before they can succeed, but why not avoid such mistakes by learning from those who have already made them? You might want to read about Mateus Asato’s early years or explore the collaborative journey of painting partners like Marta Thoma Hall and Jeni Lila. You could learn some things that help you to find your own way to success.

Pursue a creative career

It’s not easy to get paid for your art, so you probably have to work to make money to afford your creative endeavours (and pay for your rent, of course). That’s why your career itself should be creative. You shouldn’t settle for a job you hate in an industry which doesn’t inspire you. By pursuing a career in a creative industry, it might lead to better things. If you’re an aspiring writer, then you could intern for a newspaper. If you’re an aspiring actor, then you could search for other jobs at theatres as you keep trying to make your big break. Pursue a creative career if you want to turn your artistic passion into a career too.

Benefits Of Self-Erecting Crane Hire For Businesses

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. In most modern countries, construction is a major business. Depending up what’s being built, a construction crane may be required. Thus, owing a crane for hire business could prove to be very lucrative. The following contributed post is entitled, Benefits Of Self-Erecting Crane Hire For Businesses.

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The majority of construction companies opt to hire canes rather than purchase them. This is of little surprise. After all, it proves to be much more cost-efficient to go down this route. Furthermore, the hassle is minimised because you do not have to deal with crane storage or maintenance either. In addition to this, when you consider the wealth of different construction tasks performed in the current day, you see why the same crane cannot be utilised for every task. For example, if you are in a busy and awkward setting you may require a mini crawler. Nevertheless, no matter what type of crane you purchase there is one quality you should always look out for and this is the ability to self-erect. Read on to discover the benefits you will reap if you opt to hire self-erecting cranes…

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• Small footprint – One of the main reasons businesses like utilising self-erecting cranes is because of the fact that they sit on a very small footprint. They also don’t need much when it comes to foundations either.
• Silent operation – In addition to this, most self-erecting cranes tend to run virtually silently. This is extremely beneficial when working in areas that have high populations. You will be able to get on with the task at hand whilst causing little disturbance to anyone in the area, especially those that are working as well.
• Fit into tricky spaces – Another way in which self-erecting cranes can make your task easier is because they have the capacity to fit into tight areas.
• Quick and easy mobilisation – Efficiency is enhanced dramatically because these types of cranes do not take very long to set up. In fact, most people find that they can have their crane working on-site within a mere one hour of its arrival. This ease of mobilisation is something which is highly sought after by companies today.
• Cost efficiency – Self-erecting cranes also present you with the possibility to lower costs as well. There are several ways in which this is the case. One example is the fact that you will take advantage of low siting costs. In addition to this, you don’t need to worry about any reinstatement costs either.
• Accuracy – These cranes present you with perfect accuracy via delivering materials to the exact spot required.
• Improved health and safety – Another benefit people tend to overlook is the fact that they will benefit from enhanced health and safety on their site. This is because there is a lot less manual handling involved in the operation of the equipment, making it much easier for your site safety plans. This is extremely important because as you know; it is your duty to ensure you provide a working environment which is as safe as it can possibly be.

To conclude, when you take these seven important benefits into consideration it is quite easy to see why so many construction companies opt to hire self-erecting cranes time and time again. There are no real disadvantages associated with going down this route.

4 Effective Tips For Dealing With Back Pain

One of the key focuses of my blog is Health and Wellness. One of the most debilitating chronic pains a person can deal with is back pain. Once you start having problems with back pain, it’s important to know how to manage it. The following contributed post is entitled, 4 Effective Tips For Dealing With Back Pain.

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Back pain is something that most people will deal with at some point in their lives, especially as they get older. It’s also a particular problem for people that work in an office because sitting down all day is not good for the muscles in your back. If left untreated, back pain will get a lot worse and eventually, it will affect your ability to go about your daily life. But you don’t need to let it get to that point because there are plenty of ways that you can deal with the pain and relieve it before it starts to get worse. These are the best ways to deal with back pain effectively.

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Don’t Self Diagnose

Self diagnosing is very common these days because it’s easy to put a few symptoms into an online search and get a load of results about serious health problems. But there’s a big danger with self diagnosing because it’s likely that you’ll convince yourself that you have a serious problem like a slipped disc or something and end up rushing to the hospital even though there isn’t really anything wrong, it’s just tight muscles.

If the pain is severe and you’re really worried about it, don’t go online and start looking through all of the potential problems that you might have, just get yourself to a back doctor and get a professional diagnosis. If there is something seriously wrong, they will be able to offer treatment. However, they might just tell you that you have tight muscles in your back and it’s nothing to worry about.

Keep Moving Around

One of the biggest mistakes that people make when they have back pain is that they stop moving around. They think that the pain will only get worse so they stop all activity but often, that isn’t the best thing to do. Inactivity is often the cause of the back pain, especially if you don’t move around at work very much, so sitting down and doing nothing is the worst thing that you can do. Try to stay active as long as it doesn’t cause you too much pain and you will see more improvement.

Heat And Ice

Heat and ice are both good ways to treat back pain depending on the cause. It may be muscle inflammation or swelling, in which case, the cold will help a lot. Try getting an ice pack and pressing it on the affected area for a while. In some cases, the pain is caused by tight muscles and if you apply a heat pack to the area, it will help to loosen the muscles up and work out some of those knots.

Stretches

Stretches are another great way to get rid of the knots in your back and loosen up your muscles. If you start doing daily back stretches you should find that the pain is lessened and your back doesn’t feel as tight. It’s a good idea to do these stretches even if you don’t feel any pain because it can help to prevent the problem in the first place.

Before you start diagnosing yourself with any serious health issues, you should try these simple methods for relieving back pain because usually, it’s just tight muscles and you can deal with it easily.

When Others Want You To Fail – Keep Yourself Focused

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success, and two key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Business in a lot of ways is competition and it’s critical to understand the keys to making your particular operations successful. Knowing what to do at the key junctures can pay big dividends later. The following contributed post is entitled, When Others Want You To Fail – Keep Yourself Focused.

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While it takes immense optimism and positivity to establish a brand and hope to develop a business from an idea – it can be that fervent competition makes certain markets anything but. Despite their size, Coca Cola would likely be quite content if other drinks manufacturers decided to close up shop. By default, as good business sense, it’s natural for other businesses to wish an end to your operation.

This can come from undercutting costs and taking a loss in order to outbid you in the market, corporate espionage, directly suggesting they are better than you in marketing, and a range of other tactics many of us see businesses pull all the time. However, as a small business, it’s unlikely your local area is going to be awash with this kind of trouble.

It’s worth keeping in mind how your strategy will evolve in this direction, though. Thankfully, there are many measures that anyone can put in place to ensure a better and more competent sense of business development – despite the hidden negative wishes of others. It’s all to do with refocusing. Let’s see what that might look like:

Refine Your Game Plan

Sticking to, or refining your game plan can be worthwhile from time to time. This is because in the intense measure of planning and development you’ve likely had to experience, it’s easy to get sidetracked, particularly if having to defend yourself from criticisms, or overcoming a failure of a launch. Going back to the most time-honored elements of your plan can be worthwhile, because then you can separate the wheat from the chaff and begin anew with the ideals that hold some value.

On top of that, becoming refocused and understanding what really matters can help you avoid the deep emotional turbulence you might feel when having to justify your business to others. This way, you’ll only have to justify it to yourself, and the results you focus on. Refocusing can be a great goal for any person’s headspace.

Use Professional Help

It can be that using professional help to get you to the next step can fuse your business acuity with the acumen of a professional service. This is especially worthwhile for those who might not have the deepest of business experience yet still want to gain professional results. For example, commercial buyers agents are often the best bet to utilize when hoping to find an incredible commercial property, one that keeps you focused on the task at hand and enables you to set up in the perfect environment.
Business consultants, lawyers, outsourced health and safety personnel, all of these might further help you isolate the issues that you might have previously experienced and help you refine your goals and set about committing to the straight and narrow. This can seem like an overly ambitious goal, but it’s incredibly worthwhile and deeply human to wish to revive immediately. If you can do that, you’ll be quite stunned as to the positive results you can achieve in this direction.

Set A New Standard

It can be hard to find comfort when being set against by all competition in the marketplace, but there’s no reason why you need to stoop to that level – and you might sometimes actually subvert that into something good. Like a prism taking light and showing multiple strands of color, you may be able to foster business goodwill by acting ethical to a fault.

For example, championing a new means of developing a product could seriously get you noticed, and can help you avoid the bad publicity associated with certain competition. Let’s bring this down to a humble level. It might be that the other cafes in your area are quite happy to use battery-farmed eggs and instant gravy or other forms of low-quality food. While it might eat into your profit margins, ensuring that you use the best of produce, that you take time with each coffee or meal served, and that you champion your branding in that direction can do something similar to killing with kindness – and that’s killing with better standards.

There’s almost no better revenge than ensuring your business is on the straight and narrow path, and focuses on making its output as good as possible. If you can do this, then setting a new standard becomes the exceptional norm.

With these tips, we hope you’re better able to keep your business focused and direct from its heart – no matter the social challenges that come your way.

Reasons Why Customers Don’t Trust Your Business

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Trust in business in key, especially the trust between you and your customers. Building your customers’ trust can be the difference between your business thriving or struggling which is why it’s critical that you maintain it. The following contributed post is entitled, Reasons Why Customers Don’t Trust Your Business.

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Being liked is important in the business world, but it is trust that will secure long-term loyalty. People are much more likely to buy from a brand that they trust, even if they don’t like them, than a brand that they like, but aren’t sure that they can trust. All companies strive to make a good first and lasting impression. The trouble is, good intentions don’t always work out the way that you planned. With that in mind, here are six reasons why customers don’t trust your business.

Products Differ From Descriptions
When marketing materials mislead consumers, whether it be intentionally or not, it can cause a lot of problems. After all, customers will have bought your products because of the promises that you made about them. If none of those promises can be kept, then a lot of people will have spent their money for nothing. Only promising what you’re sure you can deliver will prevent this issue.

Return Policies Are Complicated
Although purchasing a product that you don’t need isn’t an ideal situation, it is one that can be easily solved by a simple and prompt return policy. If a customer tries to return a product to you for a refund, and they find it to be a difficult process, it will result in a lack of trust. It may seem like a counterintuitive solution, but making it easy for customers to get their money back is helpful.

Only Cash Is Accepting
Making payments using a credit card offers a lot more protection than paying cash. This is why many consumers prefer it. Unless you’re a very small business, no customer is going to understand why they can’t pay with their card. Because of this, you should invest in credit card processing. This will make payments quicker and easier, as well as safer for everyone.

Extra Fees Sneak Up
Charging a late payment fee is an effective way to ensure that consumers make payments on time. That being said, this will only work if you warn customers about the charge. Although these fees might mean more money in your pocket, they will damage the relationships that you’ve built with your customers. Warning them about the fees, however, will show you care about them.

Lack Of Customer Reviews
A customer will always trust another more than they do you. This is why many people read reviews before they decide to make purchases. If you’re missing reviews on many of your products, it can put customers off from buying them. Providing an incentive, like a discount code or free gift, should be enough to convince buyers to leave reviews after making their purchase.

Complaints Are Always Ignored
Having no reviews can often be worse than receiving bad ones. After all, when you get bad feedback, you’re given an opportunity to respond to it. In this response, you can tell customers exactly how you intend to improve. The problem is, many businesses don’t bother to do this. Rather than ignoring your customers, you should talk to them, especially on social media.

Building trust with customers can be difficult, but breaking it is very easy. To avoid doing so, ensure that you don’t make any of the mistakes listed above.

3 Tips For Your Online Business

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. Most business is conducted online today. You online business strategy is there are part of your business that you have to keep sharp. The following contributed post is entitled, 3 Tips For Your Online Business.

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Whether you are just looking into starting up your online business, or you have been established for some time, these tips will stand you in good stead to make some savings both in terms of costs and time, and help to ensure that your business continues to thrive.

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Make the best use of technology

There are IT solutions to cover pretty much every conceivable area of your business nowadays, so do ensure that you make good use of them all.

As your business is run wholly online, this is an area that you simply have to invest in, and it might be worth getting an IT consultant involved. You need to maintain the highest levels of security and ensure that there is minimal downtime.

It is then worth using technology to assist you with the administration side of your business. Rather than having to run things manually or employ someone in-house to take tasks on, you will find you can get accounting software, payroll services such as CloudPay and bookkeeping apps that can take care of everything for you. These options will not only be speedy, but also highly effective, freeing you up to focus on your business.

Maximise your traffic from every source

Many an online business has been built on one primary source of traffic, and then has sadly crumbled as that source dried up.

Take the recent Instagram changes, where business profiles receive less exposure as an example. Businesses that gained most of their traffic and promotion via this social media channel have suffered significantly and are now scrambling to gain traction on other platforms or elsewhere.

As such, you need to be ensuring that you are covering as many bases as you possibly can with your marketing and lead generation. Online businesses can do very well from social media, but spread those efforts out more evenly. Utilise Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter equally and closely monitor all content to understand what you are best sharing.

You should also always work to maximise your SEO, as if done correctly, this can be relied upon to deliver long term traffic to your website. This will not rise and fall on current trends and you need not be reliant on social media platforms changing their algorithms.

Build a strong brand and reputation

You are battling amongst thousands, hundreds of thousands, of other online businesses within your sector. In order to succeed you have to stand out.

You need to focus on your branding and ensure that you are conveying all that you are about within your design, website and logos. People need to land on your website and instantly understand your product offering, and they need to recognise you when they stumble across you elsewhere on the internet. Strive for something unique and something that says what it is that you do.

You will then have to monitor what people are saying about your business online. Your business needs to have a good reputation so you will be seeking to receive excellent reviews and to be responding to any online feedback. Set up Google Alerts so that you are always aware of any fresh content written about you.