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.

Signs Your Business Is Going To Be Targeted By Criminals

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. No matter what your business enterprise is, it’s important to think of all the things that could go wrong and how you can be targeted by criminals. There are numerous ways that criminals can attack you operations. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Signs Your Business Is Going To Be Targeted By Criminals.

* * *

No business owner wants to believe that their business could be susceptible to criminal attacks, but the truth is, your business could well be a target if you notice the following signs. Business security, both online and physically, is more important than ever. Don’t wait to rectify any issues you have, or you will probably end up regretting it and wishing you had done something sooner. Read on to get a good idea of whether you could be a target…

Your Data Isn’t Secure
Many businesses have data of some sort and have to keep it safe. This might be your customer data, such as email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, and even card details. It might even be the details of your employees. Whatever kind of data you have in your possession, you need to make sure it’s secure. It should be kept on the cloud and safely encrypted so that no hacker can get their hands on it. You’ll find yourself with a lawsuit or two if this information falls into the wrong hands. Even if nothing untoward happens after, this breach of privacy can get you in huge trouble. People won’t trust your business and you might even find that your reputation is ruined.

credit

You Haven’t Taken The Steps To Protect Your Premises
Protecting your physical premises is just as important as protecting the information that you find yourself with online. Making sure your doors and windows are secure, you have metal fencing panels, and that you have a quality alarm system with CCTV will deter criminals. This doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be safe, but it does give you a better chance of keeping criminals at bay. If you keep things on your premises such as expensive equipment or money, you’ll need to look into extra precautions to ensure that crooks can’t get a hold of them.

You Don’t Background Check Your Employees
Many of the breaches that happen can be at the hand of employees; sometimes accidental, sometimes not. If you don’t background check your employees, then how can you know they are trustworthy? How can you be sure that they are who they say they are? You absolutely need to background check anybody you consider employing, or it could come back and bite you. It doesn’t matter how great somebody seems during the interview stages, they might not be who they say they are.

You Aren’t Careful And Selective With Keys And Passwords
Something as simple as password protection can help, providing you take it seriously. You should be careful and selective with keys and passwords – you don’t have to give important keys and passwords to everybody, so make sure the people who absolutely need them are the only ones who have them. Make sure your passwords are strong, impossible to guess, and changed regularly.

Have you spotted any of the signs that could mean getting targeted by criminals? Leave anything you may have found below and tips of your own to stay protected. Thanks for reading!

The Business Tasks You Can Easily Automate

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. Whatever you business is, it’s important to consider which tasks you can automate in order to save yourself time and money. The following contributed post discusses this and is entitled, The Business Tasks You Can Easily Automate.

* * *

Image source

Automation not only gives you and any employees you may have, more time to concentrate on the kind of work that really needs a human hand and brain and less time on those menial tasks that are necessary, but which are not, perhaps, the best use fo anyone’s time. Not only that, but it can often boost efficiency, and both of these things combined will help you to save money where you can, and potentially make more through greater levels of productivity and creative thinking.

So, I’m sure you’ll agree that it makes sense to automate, right? But where to start? Here are some things most small businesses can easily automate:

Social Media

Social media is obviously a vital part of modern marketing, but it can be pretty time consuming if you let it. Luckily, there are tools like HootSuite which can help you manage your content more efficiently by enabling batch writing of posts, which can then be scheduled and posted at the proper time. Of course, if you have the budget you could always outsource to a social media manager instead, which may be even better than automating.

Online Ads

If you use paid online ads to generate traffic for your business, and you aren’t already, you should think about using some or all of the Top 50 Adwords automation scripts to automate many of the processes such as controlling and interacting with your data. It will free up heaps of time while ensuring that your ads are up and running and doing exactly what they need to be doing for your company.

Email Responses

Okay so you probably don’t want to go down the route of automating all of your email responses because, quite a lot of the time, your customers will need an actual human response that is tailored to their situation, and failing to give them one could land your company with a reputation for bad customer service! However, there are lots of aspects of email contact that can, and probably should be automated such as read receipts/acknowledgements and answers to the most commonly asked question for starters.

Bookkeeping

Unless you’re an accountant or you’re the only small business owner in the world who has heaps on time on your hands, don’t even try to do your own bookkeeping. There really is no need when there are numerous apps and software packages that can do the bulk of it for you just as well, and quite possibly even better!

Recruitment

Sorry, they haven’t invented a robot that will interview candidates for you yet, but there are programs such as ZipRecruiter that will take your carefully crafted job description and post it on all of the best job websites around the web, so that you don’t have to bother uploading it a million times or contacting a million different recruitment companies yourself.

Research

Don’t waste hours looking for the latest research in your niche when you can simply set a Google Alert to tell you everytime car manufacturing, digital sales or HR policy is mentioned anywhere online!

Automate the simple stuff, like this, first and your life as a small business owner will be so much easier. If you can then automate more complicated processes, well that will be of even bigger benefit to you and your bottom line.

Considering Investing in a Franchise? Here’s Everything You Need to Know!

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If you’re interested in going into business or yourself, you can either grow and nurture your own idea, or you can buy into a franchise-model. What are some considerations for this? The following contributed post is entitled, Considering Investing in a Franchise? Here’s Everything You Need to Know!

* * *

Photo Credit

The majority of people fall into one of two categories when it comes to making money – they tend to either be an employee working for someone else’s company, or they take matters into their own hands and create their own business from scratch. There are, of course, benefits that come hand in hand with each of these options. When you are employed, you benefit from contracted working hours, sick pay, annual leave, parental leave, and you are likely to get a redundancy package if your job falls through. If you run your own business, you get to keep a much larger share of the profit that you are actually earning. But it’s important to remember that these aren’t the only options out there. There are alternatives. One alternative is to take control of a franchise. Here’s everything you need to know on the topic if this is something that you could potentially be interested in!

What Is a Franchise?

Let’s start out by establishing what a franchise actually is. Put simply, franchising is a form of licencing relationship. When a business takes off, the business owner controlling it might recognise that there is demand for more branches of the company to open up, but they may not want to have to control the extra branches themselves – after all, this would be a lot of responsibility. So, these business owners may then decide to open new branches, but relinquish the majority of control over these branches to someone who is willing to buy the franchise from them (a franchisee). If you become a franchisee, you will generally have to follow rules and guidelines set out by the original business owner. You may have to keep their branding, operate under their brand name, and provide particular products or services that their brand is known for. But you do gain the control of running the business yourself and profiting from the business. There are seemingly endless types of franchises out there – you can find anything from fast food outlets to a tick control franchise for sale. So, there’s likely to be a franchise out there that genuinely interests you and that you would enjoy running.

Sticking to Terms and Conditions

If you do decide to go ahead and invest in a franchise, it is absolutely essential that you stick to the terms and conditions laid out by the original business owner. So, make sure to read through them and ensure that you are happy to abide by them before investing. The main terms and conditions tend to revolve around maintain the franchiser’s brand. This, of course, can be relatively frustrating if you want to make changes or alterations to the products and services that your franchise is offering and you are denied permission. However, remember that the brand is what is going to make you a lot of money with little input from yourself in the long run. When you invest a franchise, the business owner has already put a whole lot of hard work, time, effort, and financial investment into establishing the brand. People are already going to know what your franchise offers and there are likely to be loyal customers already in the area, who will be happy that a franchise has opened near them. This will save you the time and effort of carving a space for yourself in the market, and you can start making sales and generating profit a lot faster.

Expanding

If you do want to make changes along the line, make sure to open up a line of communication with the business owner. There’s always a chance that they will take your ideas and suggestions on board and you never know – they might grant permission for your plans to go ahead. It’s always worth at least asking.

Moving Forward

If, over time, you do find that franchising isn’t allowing you the creativity and control that you want over a business, you can always sell your franchise and move forward. But remember that engaging with a franchise is a great way to ease yourself into running a business and to familiarise yourself with how businesses work. You can then use this knowledge and experience moving forward to establish your own small business that you will have complete control over!

As you can see, franchising could prove to be a great business opportunity for anyone considering taking a little more control over their own careers. Whether you intend to stick with franchising or use this as great experience in running a business with lowered responsibility to start out, it’s worth looking into and getting involved with!

Jordan and Mr. Troy: A mentoring story

I originally published this piece on the Examiner back in August of 2015. From 2010 to 2014, I mentored in a program called Higher Achievement which was a very educational experience. I made lots of friends there. One was a fellow mentor named Troy. Our ‘scholars’ were encouraged to address us formally. After I finished volunteering in the program, Troy passed suddenly. To honor him, I wrote this piece about him and one of his problematic scholars who at the end of it all, appreciated Troy’s efforts.

* * *

My last article outlined tips for adults looking to mentor young people. This article will reflect on a former peer and one of his mentees.

Mr. Troy was a fellow mentor in Higher Achievement, where our middle school-aged scholars (mentees) were encouraged to refer to us adult mentors formally as Mr., Mrs. or Ms. (fill in your first name). My title was Mr. Anwar. Though we had met a year or two prior, it wasn’t until the end of my fourth year in the program that we became friends. Not having a car, Troy generously gave me rides to the metro after mentoring and on a couple of instances we had drinks afterwards. He was from Detroit and with me being a University of Michigan alumnus, we were both familiar with Southeastern Michigan. Our discussions covered numerous topics, but many of them involved his scholar we’ll refer to as Jordan in this article.

Of Mr. Troy’s scholars, Jordan kept him the busiest. Jordan was a pale complexioned kid with curly brown hair. He was very energetic and pretty much did whatever he wanted to do even when instructed otherwise, similar to his identical twin Jason who was slightly taller and older. Both brothers regularly challenged authority and deviated from the night’s activity. After being told, “No,” by one adult mentor, it wasn’t uncommon for them to run to another one who wasn’t privy to what was going on to get what they wanted. There were several nights when we’d look on as they would run around the center wreaking havoc and getting into things they shouldn’t have been.

Mr. Troy, a father of two grown young adults himself, speculated that Jordan was the middle child and as such, felt the need to seek attention, sometimes in the most destructive and disruptive ways. Interestingly even though Jordan had tested his patience on numerous nights, Mr. Troy still found a space within himself to understand the kid.

Mr. Troy even decided to have some fun with the situation. One night he bet Jordan that if he could go a certain number of nights without being disruptive, he would shave his head. Mr. Troy wasn’t worried though because he felt that Jordan had little chance of controlling himself enough to win the bet. He was predictable in that way and Mr. Troy was right. Then, at the night of the graduation ceremony, Jordan said something that none of us expected.

“I want to thank Mr. Troy for everything he’s done for me, and for being my mentor over the last four years,” Jordan said in front all of the mentors, scholars and parents. We were shocked. We looked at each other and chuckled a little bit in a restrained way. The one scholar who seemed to want to follow directions the least, ultimately appreciated all of the effort that had been put into him over the previous four years. We reflected on it over drinks again at the end of that night.

Mr. Troy’s mentoring of Jordan showed that sometimes you’re making a difference in a young person’s life even when it doesn’t feel like you are. This extends well beyond Higher Achievement’s mentors and scholars. Back at Hutch-Tech High School in Buffalo, NY, a teacher once told me that several former students returned and thanked him for being hard on them because they found that the adult world could be an unforgiving and demanding place, and that all workplaces (the public and private sectors, and the military) were in need of mature and responsible individuals with internal structure and discipline.

That night of Jordan’s revelation was my last time seeing and speaking with Mr. Troy. We lost him around this time last year. We were all surprised to hear of his passing, and Jordan probably was too. He was the recipient of one of Mr. Troy’s last great gifts; a conscientious adult willing to mentor him, discipline him and provide structure for him.

* * *

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. If you enjoyed this one, you might also enjoy:

• The benefits and challenges of using articulate speech
• Challenging stereotypes and misconceptions in academic achievement
• Challenging misconceptions and stereotypes in class, household income, wealth and privilege
• Lasting lessons basketball taught me: Three years of basketball camp
• Father’s Day 2018: Dad’s doctor, his lawyer and a discussion on careers

If you’ve found value here and think it would benefit others, please share it and/or leave a comment. To receive all the most up to date content from the Big Words Blog Site, subscribe using the subscription box in the right-hand column in this post and throughout the site, or add my RSS feed to your feedreader. You can follow me on the Big Words Blog Site Facebook page, and Twitter at @BWArePowerful. Lastly, you can follow me on Instagram at @anwaryusef76. While my main areas of focus are Education, STEM and Financial Literacy, there are other blogs/sites I endorse which can be found on that particular page of my site.

3 Tips on How to Represent Your Business Well

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A major component of building your business/enterprise is personal appearance. This encompasses both physical appearance, demeanour and actual preparedness. The following contributed post is thus entitled, 3 Tips on How to Represent Your Business Well.

* * *

Image via Pixabay

If you’re a small business owner at a trade event, or if you’re a member of a much larger organisation and have been tasked with representing the organisation in some official and formal context, it’s essential that you know how to conduct yourself in a manner which presents your business in the best possible light.

Of course, there’s a lot that goes into a professional presentation, and there are many aims that you will likely be trying to accomplish.

It will, for example, be important for you to present your business as a serious, professional, and diligent force to any competitors in the field. It will also be necessary for you to reassure your clients, or would-be clients, of your organisation’s strong ethical standards that sit above reproach.

Here are a few tips on how, specifically, you can conduct yourself to represent your business well.

Be sharp in your presentation — both your personal presentation and the presentation of your branding and marketing materials

If you’re in the position of representing your business in an official capacity, then it’s important for you to treat your own personal presentation as an extension of the kind of image you want to convey for the company at large.

This means tailoring your outfit for the day according to the image the company would most like to convey. Should you wear a suit or a pair of well-fitted jeans and a black T-Shirt? Of course, your personal grooming and hygiene should be impeccable in any case.

The next step is to carefully select the branding and marketing materials that you plan to use to represent the company more specifically. Will pull up banner displays help to make a strong impression, and highlight some of the company’s key benefits and USPs?

It’s worth spending a good amount of time considering these questions.

Be the person who accepts responsibility — let the buck stop with you

It’s all but impossible to respect people who don’t accept responsibility and accountability — certainly for issues which are essentially their own innate responsibility anyway, but even for things that aren’t necessarily their responsibility in the conventional sense.

If your company has been embroiled in recent controversies, and you’re going to be representing your company in public, expect people to raise those topics, and have answers prepared. Answers which position you as someone who is accepting responsibility on behalf of the company.

If someone raises a point of company controversy, and you shrug and say “don’t ask me, nothing to do with me, I just work here”, the impression made is not likely to be stellar.

Play it straight and stick with the truth, don’t get caught up in spin

Obviously, you’ll want to present your company or personal business in the best possible light. But you should nonetheless do so in a way that is rooted in the truth, and that doesn’t involve deceit or mischaracterization of the facts.

If you get caught up in spin, you undermine your own position, put people off you on an instinctual level, and also are liable to get caught up in your own tangled web of confusing half-truths.

Speak positively of the company, but only to the extent that your words are true. If you can’t find anything to say about the company which is both positive and true, you’re likely working for the wrong company.

Making Money From Those Major Investments

A key focus of my blog is Financial Literacy/Money. A key aspect of this is understanding how to invest money for significant rates of return. If you weren’t raised in an ecosystem where this knowledge was prevalent, you have to obtain the information and then have the drive to apply it in disciplined way. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Making Money From Those Major Investments.

* * *

If you’ve got plenty of entrepreneurial spirit, and a zest for savvy financial decisions; there’s no doubt that you’ve got a couple of the attributes needed to gain financial success and a comfortable future. The fun part (mostly) is in the process; deciding how, where, and when to invest your money, and work hard at something, so you can reap the rewards is also the challenge. But, you’re not here because you’re shy of a challenge, and you won’t be fazed by making some major decisions. You’ll already understand how crucial it is to hold as much knowledge as possible regarding your investment; you’ll have worked hard for what money you have, and won’t want to waste it due to a poor, or ill-informed choice. Therefore, whatever it is that you’re thinking about; prepare, plan, and acknowledge as much as possible beforehand.

It’s time to push forward with your plans, and ensure that your major investments are an excellent way to reap some financial reward. Don’t expect instant success, as this is a rarity in a heavily saturated market; however, put plenty of time and effort into where you put your cash so that the return will keep you smiling. Whether you want to be the CEO of a new venture out of your investment, a pot of money for a rainy day, or you’re just happy to see where it takes you; your work ethic and decision-making need to be on point. The following are some ideas, advice, and inspiration for those who have made, or are about to make a significant investment so that they can gain more from their money.

Image source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/analytics-blur-business-close-up-590045/

Investing In A New Venture

So, you feel like you’re born to do a certain job, provide a particular service, or create an empire; however, the difference to most people, is that you want it to be as part of your own company and venture. Fortune often favors the bold and the brave, but, only if they’re smart about it all. Focus on your business’s USP so that you can really set yourselves apart from the crowd. If you want to become a serious competitor in the hospitality or leisure industry; you need to push something different. As a hotelier, your venue needs to make an impact as soon as it opens; consult with both design and service experts so that every review is an excellent one. Perhaps you want to take hospitality into the sky, and invest in a private jet service; the luxury market is forever growing. You could even push your skills into the water; looking into marine engineering and naval architecture will allow you to investment in a yacht or boat, that’s ideal for your brand and business. Keeping your potential patrons in mind, at all times, will help you budget as you create something truly unique.

Maybe it’s your products that you believe in, or your curation skills in regards to stocking a business that offers consumers something different. Remember that many are bored with the mass-produced items that they see everywhere, all the time; so focus on being something a little different so that a customer feels like they’re buying into something niche, without being off-putting. Become a business that stocks and supplies other businesses; this is great for entrepreneurs with a particular knowledge or skill in a specific area of the market, who are adept at large supply and demand. You’ll need to be brave will your initial investment; however, your reward could exceed that of the consumer market.

Upcycling may bring about thoughts of small garages and home projects; however, there’s a huge demand for vintage, and antique items, due to their rarity. If you have an eye for value, and a knowledge for what’s in demand, perhaps it’s a good idea to spend your time in an auction house. Restore items that need some TLC so that your markup and profit will be far greater than the time and money you originally spent on it. There’s some luck and timing involved in this venture, but if you’re the sort of entrepreneur that thrives on that, you’ll be perfect in your fresh role. Build-up a friendly, and more importantly, trustworthy, reputation, with both customers and your various suppliers so that grabbing a bargain and selling it on will be as straightforward as possible.

Image found here

Building-Up Your Cash In Something

Perhaps a quick-paced supply and demand, or opening a venue or service, just isn’t for you. That’s more than fine; there are entrepreneurs out there making money in a huge variety of ways. If investing in something solid (quite literally), and building-up your cash over the years, is how you want to kick things off, then real estate and property could be your ideal option. Even those who buy to live in a property, will add value to their original investment eventually,; however, there are ways to get that bit extra at a distance. Buy-to-let properties are an excellent way to pay off your original spend, and continue making a decent income into the future. You can also re-invest the profits so that you can build-up a portfolio of homes for people. Utilizing a letting agent is the perfect way to take a lot of the stress out of looking after tenants, so it might be worth considering if you have other things you need to focus on each day.

Becoming a shareholder in a startup, is yet another way to make money at a bit of a distance, and over time. You’ll need to be really savvy regarding who and where you invest, as many new businesses can fail in the first year. However, ensuring that you’ve chosen something smart, and ensured that you’ll receive a set percentage at a certain time, will help to alleviate any concerns, and bring you a lump sum. Depending on your agreement, you can arrange to receive a certain percentage each year instead, which is great for a long term option, and will mean that you don’t need to worry about selling your share. Get the right information and advice, and you could well be onto a winner.

Image from Pexels

Six Ways To Handle Workplace Stress

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Career Discussions and Health and Wellness. Regardless of which career you’re in, the workplace can cause you quite a bit of stress if you’re not careful. It therefore becomes critical to understand how to manage it if and when you get into a position where the workplace is impacting your quality of life. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Six Ways To Handle Workplace Stress.

* * *

We’ve all woken up in the morning and dreaded heading to the office at least once in our lives. Whether it’s because deadlines are looming, the traffic on the commute is getting worse and making you late, or the fact you’ve been passed over the promotion yet again, it’s all tough when it comes to the workplace. Stress is one of the hardest things to cope with, because trying to manage the stress can be difficult when you’re also trying to keep up the momentum with your boss on your back.

Image Source

It’s important to try to overcome stress in the workplace, though, because without trying, you’re not going to get anywhere, ending up more stressed than you were already. So, whether you start advance checking for traffic and road closures, or you hold a meeting to ask about that promotion from the higher ups, you need to start thinking of ways to reduce stress. Below, we’ve got six ways to do just that, without you needing to lose it.

Fresh Air. Going for a short walk during the work day can make a real difference. Whether you go on your lunch break or you head out quickly for a coffee, you really need to think about that fresh air. Offices are notoriously stuffy and breathing in recycled air is not the most fun way to spend the day. If you feel your tension rising, get out for fresh air
and get a little exercise with a walk.
Have A Stretch. Whether you get up or not, stretch your body. Sitting down for a long time can cause a lot of pressure on your back, and prolonged sitting can really place a lot of stress on the body as a whole. Every hour at least, get up and stretch. It doesn’t matter if it looks weird, it can allow you to keep concentrating on your work and not feel wound up.
It’s A Mental State. Stress is all in the mind. It may manifest physically for a lot of people, but it starts in your head. You can simply put on a meditation app and relax for a few minutes, concentrating on your breathing and slowing your heart. It’s in the mind, and the mind can be controlled; remember that.
Divert Your Focus. At work, the pressure is on. If you start to feel closed in, start helping someone else for a moment. A problem shared is a problem halved, and then ask them for some guidance on your issue. Even if all you do is open the door for someone else when they’re coming through, it’s helpful and it can take your mind off your stress.
Dance It Out. Head to the roof space, the bathroom, anywhere private. Put your favourite song on your headphones and dance madly. Blast out the energy and the jitters at the same time, and release your stress that way.

No one needs to feel pressured, hurt or put upon by their workplace. With a little help, you can dispel the stress as fast as possible.

Getting Your First Small Business UP and Running

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. They say that the majority of business fail with the first couple of years, but even to give your idea a chance to succeed you have to start it. There are some key considerations to getting it up and moving. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Getting Your First Small Business UP and Running.

* * *

Photo Source

Nowadays, increasing numbers of people are opting to set up their own small business in an attempt to escape the rat race and work towards building their own dreams rather than making someone else’s dreams a reality. But setting up a business can actually prove to be a relatively complex process. So, it’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with the start up process before throwing yourself in the deep end! Here are just a few areas you should focus on to get the ball rolling in the right direction.

Company Formation

One of the first steps that you need to take when it comes to setting up your company is to engage with company formation. If you are unfamiliar with the process of starting a company www.yourcompanyformations.co.uk will be able to help you out. This process will essentially establish your business as a distinct legal entity, making everything official!

Product and Service Development

Now that the ball is rolling, it’s time to start seriously considering what kind of products or services you are intending to provide the consumer market with. If you already have an idea, that’s great. But if you’re feeling lost and are unsure what area you’d like to specialise in, choose something that you are genuinely interested in and try to identify a gap in the market within this field. The marketplace is already a very saturated place, so it could prove extremely difficult to offer a product or service that already exists – someone else will have already established their company as a leading brand or force and chances are that they have more money to play with when it comes to advertising and securing brand loyalty. Identifying a gap means you have a good opportunity to dominate an area of the marketplace for yourself.

Conduct Market Research

No matter how good you might think your idea is and how much encouragement you might have from friends and family members, it’s absolutely essential that you conduct market research. Market research is essentially a process where you pitch your products to your target demographic and see what they think of them. You can gain a whole lot of information, including:

● Whether your product concept appeals to people.

● What they feel could be improved about your product.

● Whether they already source a similar product from someone else and who these alternative products are being provided by.

Engaging with this process will give you unbiased information and advice from the exact people you are targeting. These are the people that your company relies on for sales and profit, so who could possibly be better to ask? At the end of the day, no matter how much time, effort, and money you pump into your business, everything will be wasted if people don’t want to buy what you have to offer them. Once you’ve got the go ahead with your product concept, you can also use market research to determine whether your products will be financially viable and potentially profitable. You can ask target consumers questions about:

● Their income (this will help you to figure out an average so you know how much the average consumer you are targeting earns and has disposable).

● How much they would be willing to pay for the product that you are offering.

This will help you to come up with realistic price points and you can then work out profit margins. If there’s a large margin, it could be worth going ahead. If you’d be making a minimal amount of profit after forking out for manufacturing, packaging, shipping, and other factors, you might want to give creating this product a miss. As you can see, conducting market research before going any further ahead will help you to only make wise investments and only move forward with bringing concepts to life that will actually sell. If you are unfamiliar with conducting market research yourself, not to worry. There are plenty of different tutorials out there that can help you find participants and ask the right questions. However, generally speaking, it’s best to outsource this service. This ensure your market research is conducted with as little bias as possible (as it will be carried out by a third party) and you can better spend your time focusing on other areas of your business’ progression while market research is being carried out.

These, of course, are just the starting blocks of starting your own successful business. But everyone has to start somewhere and focusing on these areas should get things off to a good start!

7 Words You Need To Understand Before Starting Up In Agriculture

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Agriculture is a fascinating sector in that it merges business with the plant sciences, Botany and Ecology. In order do business in Agriculture, there are key terms that you need to understand. The following contributed post is thus entitled, 7 Words You Need To Understand Before Starting Up In Agriculture.

* * *

Agriculture is a thriving sector of the economy and currently going through enormous change. That means that there are big opportunities available to people who can see them.

But part of understanding any industry is knowing some of the jargon that people in that industry use to communicate with each other. Jargon isn’t pointless, as many people contend: it’s just a way of expressing shorthand with other people with a high level of knowledge of a particular subject. So what words should you know if you’re planning on setting up in the ag business? Let’s take a look.

Yield

If you grow your own crops, you need to understand the concept of yield. Yield, put simply, is the weight of crop produced, divided by the area required to produce it. Modern farmers will usually speak of “tons per hectare”, but old-fashioned metrics might include “bushels per acre” where a bushel is an imperial measure for a quantity of a crop. Visit this website to find out more.

Bushel

Pixabay

Speaking of bushels, what exactly are they? Bushels are just a unit of measurement for a crop, Traditionally, a bushel was 8 gallons of grain, but the weight of a bushel varies with the type of plant. Eight gallons of oats, for instance, weighs about half as much as the same volume of wheat.

Polyculture

Wikimedia Commons

Take a look at most modern farms, and what do you notice? The same crop is grown in all directions, mile after mile. But is this the best way to grow? Polyculture refers to the process of growing complementary crops next to each other, boosting the yield of both.

Seed Drill

Seed drills are pretty self-explanatory. Before mechanisation, farmers used to drill seeds into the ground mechanically using horse or cattle-driven ploughs. Today tractors pull seed drills along fields, allowing farmers to plant seeds at set depths and intervals.

Permaculture

Wikimedia Commons

Permaculture refers to a process of designing human communities so that food production and waste are closely linked. The idea is to recycle all of the raw ingredients of farming to create something sustainable.

Dry Farming

With freshwater supplies under threat worldwide, there’s a growing need for dry farming: or the practice of relying on rainfall and soil moisture alone, rather than irrigation. Traditionally, farmers relied on building channels that would transport water to their crops to keep soil moisture levels high. But dry farming is a far riskier process because farmers essentially don’t have any control over when it rains. Dry farmers tend to rely on hardy crops that can withstand water and nutrient depletion.

Herbicide-Tolerant

Weeds can reduce yields by outcompeting crops for resources: soil nutrients, water and sunlight. Farmers need to get rid of weeds, but that can be difficult. Killing weeds with herbicide is all well and good, so long as the herbicide doesn’t kill the crops at the same time.

Herbicide-tolerant crops are those which can survive treatment with herbicide. The weeds die, but the crops don’t – exactly what you want as a farmer.

So, are you ready to start up in agriculture?

3 Ways to Kick Off Your Healthcare Business

Two of the key focuses are my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. The healthcare industry is constantly evolving and will most likely not go anywhere. Thus those who choose to get involved with this industry stand to make a lot of money. The following contributed post is thus entitled, 3 Ways to Kick Off Your Healthcare Business.

* * *

No matter how much experience you have in the field of healthcare, all new business owners need a bit of help along the way. There is more to a healthcare business than providing healthcare, after all, and without some proper business sense, you won’t really get too far – and you certainly won’t survive for those all-important first five years.

Image by: Pexels

If you have just embarked on the journey as an entrepreneur, you’ve definitely come to the right place. Here is a handful of tips in terms of kicking off your healthcare business so that you can watch it prosper a bit faster and make sure that you’re able to provide the best kind of care for your clients. It’s what it’s all about, after all.

#1 Pinpoint the challenges

First of all, you know very well that the healthcare sector is full of small and big challenges. While you might be able to overcome some of them, there isn’t much you can do about the problems surrounding funding and finding enough time for each client – but you can certainly try to make it a bit better for your business.

What most clients look for in a healthcare business is a flexible and convenient place they can go to with their health problems. This means that, while other healthcare businesses in your area may struggle to find the time to fit every client and make it convenient for them, you can try to make use of technology to make it a bit easier.

Start by researching the market, from a business-point-of-view, before you attempt to solve these issues within your own healthcare business.

#2 Provide time and convenience

Provide time and convenienceLet’s start with the challenge we mentioned above first. Make sure that your business, first of all, has a system that allows you to get a bit more time with each client. This might mean that you invest in the kind of technology that allows for video consultations, for example, so that you can still meet with the clients who are not able to travel.

Your calendar system will also need to be up to date, though, to ensure that you have a perfect overview of every consultation in the future. That way, you won’t overbook yourself – and you can give your clients a bit more of your time during each session.

#3 Invest in your suppliers

You’re going to depend on your suppliers of medical tools and gadgets quite a lot, by the way, and cultivating a good relationship with these is the key to keeping your business up to date on all of the new advances. Start by having a look at this reservoir 12, for example, and consider each supplier individually before you start to make any deals.

When you start to pinpoint the specific issues with each supplier in relation to your business needs, you will naturally gravitate towards suppliers that spark a good working relationship. But this can mean if your business expands, you may work with additional suppliers. If you need to branch out into radiofrequency oriented practices, which require tools like radiofrequency ablation needles, the eye must always be towards the future and making sure that each supplier can serve your needs. But this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep up your end of the bargain; working with your suppliers is all about a two-way relationship where you can both help each other.

When your relationships with these suppliers are great, you’ll also be able to enjoy excellent service in the future – and won’t have to worry about any missing deliveries.

It’s the kind of stuff that makes it a bit easier to start your very first healthcare business and make sure that it kicks off right from the start.