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.

Take Your Business In An Unexpected Direction

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. In today’s digital world, all businesses don’t have to be run in a traditional sense within a ‘bricks and mortar’ setting. Much of business is now carried out online via E Commerce. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Take Your Business In An Unexpected Direction.

* * *

Image Source

Pretty much every small start up nowadays is being established online. There’s a good reason that many small business owners are taking to the realm of E Commerce to sell their products to the consumer market. When it comes down to it, E Commerce is a lot cheaper to set up than a brick and mortar store. You don’t have to worry about forking out for a commercial property or commercial property rent. You can also wave goodbye to commercial energy bills to keep the place up and running. You don’t have to furnish this space or pay for merchandisers to arrange your products in an appealing manner. There’s no pressure to take on security staff or pay for security equipment. Instead, you can simply collaborate with a freelance web designer on the one-off project of creating your website. E Commerce also provides low levels of commitment. By avoiding commercial property, you don’t sign up to rent a space for a given period of time, meaning you can back out of your venture at any point if things get a bit too difficult or if things just really don’t work out – there really won’t be all too much loss involved. So, we would generally recommend taking this approach if you are operating a small business or planning on operating a small business. One thing to bear in mind, however, is that with the ease of E Commerce has come an influx of small businesses establishing themselves. It seems like every Tom, Dick, and Harry wants to try their hand at becoming the next entrepreneur. The market is becoming increasingly saturated and you’re going to have to take bold steps to ensure that your company manages to stand above the rest. This could require a little thinking outside of the box. But how can you achieve this? Well, let’s take a moment to look into the matter further!

The Problem With Saturated Markets

So many small business owners make the mistake of assuming that all companies will have to take some sort of sales in a saturated market. There are so many consumers out there that at least a portion will naturally fall into your path and choose to spend their money with you, right? Well, this isn’t actually the case. When you are operating in a saturated market, you’re bound to face a whole host of problems at some point or another. Saturated markets create stiff competition and the majority will start to pull illogical business moves in order to try to stand out from the crowd – they will significantly reduce the prices of their goods to lure customers towards their company. Sure, this might work. Customers will go where prices are lowest. But by undercutting competition, these small businesses devalue their own goods and significantly reduce their own profit margins. You don’t want to get roped into using the same tactics and devaluing your own goods. However, if you are offering the same thing, you’re going to have to! There is an answer to all of this though. You just need to take your business in an unexpected direction and offer something different! Offer something that nobody else is offering. Even if the difference between your product and other products out there is relatively small, it’s much better than offering the exact same thing as somebody else. Even the slightest difference in your goods could draw people towards you, helping you to make sales and generate more of a profit.

Coming Up with Something Innovative

When you have something that is completely innovative and that hasn’t been seen before, you are going to find swaying buyers your way to be a lot easier. Your product will exist in its own right and people won’t really be able to compare it to other options on the market. But how do you come up with something innovative? Well, we’re afraid that this is purely down to you. You’re going to have to get your thinking cap on! The good news is that there are a few steps that you can take to steer yourself in the right direction.

Identify a Gap in the Market

The first step that you should take on your journey to creating something completely new is to identify a gap in the market. Take a look at what’s already out there and actively seek out a space where you could offer something different.

Offer a Service

Small business owners tend to focus more on products than services. So, why not consider providing a service instead of something tangible that can be packaged up in a box and placed on store shelves? While the market for services still has a lot of competition, there tends to be less of it than in the market for goods. Still try to be innovative. Look at how a service for off highway powertrain has taken off. This might have been something that you would never have thought of yourself, but it takes thinking up something like this to experience success!

Differentiating Your Product

Remember that your offerings don’t have to be an entirely new invention or the most astounding idea ever. They just need to tweak existing designs and items to make them slightly more appealing than current options. If your product is similar to other products on the market, people are likely to opt for whichever is cheapest. However, by differentiating you are giving them alternative choice and they may deem that whatever small addition you are offering is worth paying a little extra for! You may need to really focus on whatever differences you make through advertising and marketing. Really laying emphasis on a slight difference of features can make consumers really focus on it too!

Conducting Market Research

There’s a good chance that you’ve already carried out a little market research at some point in your business journey. This isn’t all too surprising. After all, market research is a business basic and is particularly beneficial for newly emerging businesses. It is a process that allows you to see current market trends, scope out your competition, and to come up with a competitive pricing plan that will encourage customers to shop with you without eating into your profits. However, it is important to remember that you should continue to carry market research out as your brand develops and grows. If you are deciding to take your business in a new direction, you really do need to make sure that there is a market for the innovative idea that you’ve come up with. Sure, making a slight difference to an existing product can help your product to stand out and can make consumers take a second look at what you’re offering. But things could just as easily sway in the opposite direction and a minor change could put customers off and make them step away from your brand. So, conducting fresh market research into any change you make to your products will help you to work out whether your demographic is showing sufficient levels of interest in these changed products in order to buy the final result from you. Take the time to determine how your new and unexpected take will fare in the current marketplace. It really is more than worth the time and effort invested into the process!

Patenting and Copyrighting

Once you’ve come up with something innovative, you need to be prepared for the fact that others out there are going to try to mimic you. This is an inevitability. The good news is that you can hinder their efforts to take your hard work and profit from it themselves. You simply need to protect your intellectual property through patenting or copyrighting. These are legal means of protecting your ideas. A patent ensures that you are the only person who can produce and profit from the product you have created for a set period of time. This gives you the opportunity to become a market leader and generate a significant amount of profit before others can try their hand at selling your idea. Copyrighting is a means of ensuring that other people can’t copy your ideas. If they do, a cease and desist letter can be sent out to them. If they fail to cease and desist, they can face serious legal action!

Constantly Moving Forward

Once you have managed to complete this entire process, avoid being complacent. No matter how innovative your product may initially be and despite your best efforts to copyright and protect your ideas, others are eventually going to catch up. You need to always stay one step ahead of the game in order to ensure that you continue to stand out from the crowd rather than being swallowed up by it.

As you can see, you really do need to take your company in a new and unexpected directions in order to experience success and generate significant profits. Hopefully, the above information will help you to achieve this!

The Highest Tech For The Best Business

Three key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship, and Technology. If you’re in business, it’s important to know the best technologies to use for your business and purposes. The following contributed post is thus entitled, The Highest Tech For The Best Business.

* * *

Technology is something a business swears by, and if you can’t say this for your business, then you definitely aren’t doing things how you should be doing them. But sometimes we aren’t using the best technology, but you just don’t know what potential is out there! So, if you want to know what the highest tech out there is at the minute, and how it can easily better your business, we’ve got a few tips coming your way. There is a whole world of technology being designed out there, all feeding off information that clients such as yourself provide. The companies developing them adapt and learn, until they get to the stage where they’re at the top of their field. So, keep on reading, and hopefully by the end of this you will have at least one piece of technology that you can look into further, and hopefully use within your business.

Image Source

Communication Systems

Every business uses communication systems, and some use them in ways that others don’t. It all depends on the line of work that your business is in, and how you might need to use said technology. But we have to admit, some companies are just completely stuck in the stone ages when it comes to technology and their communication systems. For example, you can now get state of the art gps antenna systems that will allow you to see and therefore communicate with clients, unknown people, and whatever else you might need to find in your line of work. But there are some shoddy antenna systems that will barely pick up anything at all. The same goes for things like your IT serves, which is a different type of communication system in that they will be talking to other components of software to ensure your business is running properly. If you were going to go for a server, you should definitely go for a professionally managed one so that you don’t bear the brunt of a bad server.

Office Essentials

Now to the things that you might use more and more on a daily basis, and one thing we definitely thing you should utilise is software to help you with the day to day running of your business. It really has become an office essential to have software, such as ones that help you run payroll. It’s a long task to do such a thing, but it can be made so much easier with the aid of software. So, sit and have a think about all of the things that you find hard to do in a day, and then have a quick Google search and see if there is software that can really help you with it.

Tech That Will Push For Growth

Now isn’t this something that will have got your ears up. Growth is the number one goal of a business, and it’s best done by using software that allows you to monitor your sales patterns, rather than you trying to work it all out manually. It becomes an easy process to figure out what it is that your business needs, and where the sales might be going wrong.

Careers to Pursue If You Want to Help Others

A key focus of my blog is Career Discussions. While some people are motivated by money, others are motivated by sincerely helping others. What are some careers that can will allow you to do this? The following contributed post is entitled, Careers to Pursue If You Want to Help Others.

* * *

Photo Credit

All of us are motivated by different things when it comes to work. Some of us want jobs that bring a huge salary home. Some of us want authority positions where we are respected. Some of us want a role that is flexible around our home life and other commitments. However, if you’re a compassionate and empathetic individual, you may find the most fulfilment in a role that allows you to actively help others. Here a few for you to take into consideration.

Medicine

The first jobs that tend to spring to mind when we consider careers that help people are medical positions. Doctors, nurses, and other professionals in the field all work hard every day to save the lives and improve the health of the people who approach them. Any medical position will take a whole lot of education and training before you will be put to work. But this will be an exciting and insightful journey and by the time you are done, you’ll have specialised and will be competent in the area you are focusing on.

Politics

Politics tends to be a point of contention in any context. Many people avoid talking about it in order to avoid offending others with their personal viewpoints. After all, we all have a different opinion in regards to how the country should be run and how people should be treated. However, when it comes down to it, someone has to remove themselves from the fence and make some serious decisions that pave the lives of the majority. People need to be protected and someone has to stand up for their rights! If this sounds like something you’d be interested in taking the reigns of, you could consider a career in politics. This will be intense. You will be actively involved in shaping laws and policies and representing the people. Like Mayor Vauss, you could make decisions that significantly and positively impact the lives of the people in your constituency.

Counseling

Most people tend to go through a lot in their personal lives at some point or another and they may feel that they need to reach out to someone. Whether this is to vent, cry, or gain some advice, they can generally reach out to counselors. They may be based on helplines, in support groups, or you might be able to contact them in other ways. So, why not become a counselor? There are paid positions and voluntary positions within this field, but if you’re considering doing it for money, keep an eye out for paid positions. You will generally receive training before starting the work to ensure you feel completely comfortable in your role and can cope with the pressure!

These are just a few different positions that you might want to consider if you really do want to dedicate your career to helping others in the world. There are plenty more out there, but hopefully this can work as a springboard for you to progress from!

How To Relieve Your Chronic Pain – Easy Ways

A key focus of my blog is Health and Wellness. Chronic pain can really take a toll on your life and affect your overall happiness. Once you have it, managing it becomes key to functioning properly everyday. The following contributed post is thus entitled, How To Relieve Your Chronic Pain – Easy Ways.

* * *

When you’re a sufferer of chronic pain, it’s likely that you’re always trying to find new ways of relieving the pain. Whether you’ve injured yourself and as a result, you’re in pain, or you’ve got a condition that causes the extreme pain you’re feeling, it can also affect you mentally and change your general quality of life. Chronic pain is no song and dance but there are many ways in which you can relieve it without having to try weird and wonderful remedies. So, here are some tips on how to relieve your chronic pain – the easy ways!

https://unsplash.com/photos/IoWoHiea4VY

Change what you’re eating

Food might not be the sole reason for your pain, but did you know that what you’re putting into your body can greatly affect the kind of pain you’re in? People who suffer from pain from conditions such as psoriasis can actually greatly improve their general quality of life by simply changing what they are eating. There are many diets that are tailored to psoriasis, and there very well might be one for yours too! Consider looking for a specialised diet for your condition to see if it can improve the pain that you’re in.

Take your medication properly!

One of the biggest mistakes that people with chronic pain make, is not taking their medication properly! It’s likely that when you injured yourself, or you had your condition diagnosed that your doctor prescribed you medication to help relieve your symptoms – take them as directed! LifeBrite Labs have discovered that half of all chronic pain sufferers don’t take their medication as prescribed, yet wonder why they are still in pain. Make sure you’re taking your meds properly and you may notice a difference in how you’re feeling.

Kit out your home

Chronic pain can last a lifetime and unfortunately, it’s something that you’re going to have to adapt your life to. Many sufferers refuse to accept what’s going on in their lives and tend to refuse any help in day to day life. However, this will make life much harder in the long run and can lead to further problems with your health. Give yourself a helping hand by kitting out your home with aids such as handrails and a seat in the bath so that you can make your day to day life that little bit easier.

Do some gentle exercise

Finally, exercise is likely to be the last thing on your mind right now, but did you know that not moving at all or very little can actually make your pain worse? Being stationary for long periods of time can cause your joints and muscles to seize up, so try and do some gentle exercise each day to make mobility as easy as possible. Don’t forget to speak to your doctor before doing so as they may be able to give you a guide on what kind of exercises will help relieve your pain!

The Dos And Don’ts Of Being Successful In The Modern Age

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success. What it takes to be successful today has changed from what it took just 10-20 years ago. It’s very important to understand the attributes and qualities of successful people and then cultivating them in yourself. The following contributed post is thus entitled, The Dos And Don’ts Of Being Successful In The Modern Age.

* * *

Being successful in the modern age can be tough. Success doesn’t come easy, you have to work at it consistently – plus, it isn’t linear, which means you might think you’re making progress and then be faced with evidence to suggest otherwise. In no way should your ‘journey to the top’ be a straight line. Here, we’re going to discuss the dos and don’ts of being successful in the modern age, so you can avoid some of the pitfalls and figure out how your dreams are within reach for you:

Do Forge Your Own Path
First of all; you have to go after what you want. Oftentimes, this means forging your own path. Other people and their journeys can inspire you, but the path has to be entirely your own.
You shouldn’t be comparing yourself to anybody else, or trying to copy step for step what they did. There will be things you have to change and tailor to yourself, and that’s fine. Ask anybody in the same industry how they got their and their answer will be different. Ask any CEO how they started their business and the answer will be different.

Don’t Let Mistakes Stop You
There are always going to be mistakes when you’re trying to do something big. The key is to appreciate mistakes, as you can learn from them. You can learn a valuable lesson from each and every mistake that you make, so make sure you assess what it is your lesson could be.

Do Trust Your Gut Instinct
As a business owner, one of the most important things you’ll learn how to do, is trust your gut instinct. Being able to listen to that feeling in your gut that something is or isn’t right is a valuable skill. Humans have gotten pretty great at ignoring their intuition, what with technology taking over and so many things out there making us doubt how we feel. However, if you can sit and meditate over something even just for a small amount of time, you should be able to assess how you truly feel about it.

image

Don’t Get Distracted
There are many, many distractions that can take you away from your goals. Social media is just one thing; you also have things like emails, work that doesn’t matter (why not automate?), and multitasking. All of those things can be a big distraction and stop you from doing what you set out to do.

Do Keep Your Family And Friends Close
Making sure you keep your family and friends close can be considered an achievement in itself, these days. Some people have the misconception that they will have to live in the office and work ridiculous hours in the beginning. While you’ll definitely have to work hard, you shouldn’t neglect the people closest to you. Success should be about balance just as much as it’s about working hard and getting things done. It could help you if you take a look at some of the most successful people and their families to get a feel for how they may have helped them, such as Saud Bin Saqr al Qasimi family history. Have a look at a few people you admire or want to be like and learn as much as you can about the process (but don’t forget, this is your path to forge).

Don’t Underestimate the Importance Of Your Mindset
Your mindset is going to be absolutely imperative to your success. If you’re doubtful of whether you can actually succeed and you’re not sure if you’re just being crazy, there’s every chance you won’t make it. You literally need a ‘can do’ attitude, or even an ‘I am going to’. There should be very few doubts in your mind about whether you’ll be able to do what you’re setting out to do. The fewer doubts you have, the higher your chance of success creeps up.

Do Track Your Progress
In order for you to ensure you’re heading in the right direction, you should make sure you find effective ways of tracking your progress. There are numerous ways to do this depending on what you want to achieve. You can use your business plan to track your progress, for instance, although it’s advisable that you stay flexible with your plan just in case anything changes – things often will, in this day and age. You could also use project management systems and software to ensure that you’re on track.

Don’t Use Goals As A Hindrance More Than A Help
Goals can be used to help propel you forward, but if they aren’t set properly, they can actually encourage unethical behaviour. Unrealistic goals have led companies to lie about sales in the past, just so they could say they met a goal. Goals should be achievable, and they should be as detailed as possible. How do you want to achieve your goal? Why do you want to achieve your goal? Make sure your goal is also easily measurable.

Do Continue Learning No Matter What
As the owner of your business, a lot of what goes down is all on you. You don’t have to know absolutely everything there is to know, and in fact, many business owners choose to learn a lot of stuff as they go. If you wait until you know everything, you’ll be waiting a ridiculously long time. That being said, always continue learning; read books every day, go on courses and to workshops, and do all you can to expand your knowledge both personally and professionally.

Don’t Go It Alone
You don’t have to go it alone. There are many things you can do to ensure you have support and perhaps even another viewpoint, if you need one. Many entrepreneurs and business people choose to get a mentor, as they have often been in their shoes and can help them to see what needs to change.

Being successful in the modern age is tough, but some may also say that it’s easier than ever, what with the plethora of information out there. There’s no better time to follow your dreams!

Why Your Business Goals Might Actually Be Redundant

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of success and two of its key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Goal setting is important for anything you want to achieve. In some instances though, goals can be a hindrance. The following post discusses how to set reasonable goals for your business and is entitled, Why Your Business Goals Might Actually Be Redundant.

* * *

Almost everybody talks about the effectiveness of setting goals. Everybody says how goals can help to keep you focused, help you to achieve more, and be beneficial in a plethora of other ways. However, that’s only really if you’re setting goals the right way and taking the correct approach. For those who aren’t pros at goal setting, they can actually be more of a hindrance than a help. That’s right; in some cases, setting goals can actually slow you down and stop you from achieving what you want to achieve. Let’s talk more about this below!

Focusing Solely On Reaching A Goal
When your team is focusing solely on achieving a goal, they may not be performing other tasks.
In short, your focus can become too narrow when you are focused on a goal, and you might even find that you sacrifice one goal for another goal. Something has got to give when you’re hyper focused on achieving a goal. More often than not, you will experience issues in other parts of your business. While you can get help from companies like WGroup IT Management consulting if you’re finding you haven’t got time for other aspects of running your business, you will still need to be realistic and balanced about what you are able to achieve.

Goals Can Be Limiting
Most people don’t realize that goals can be limiting, too. People tend to relax and take a break once goals are achieved, which often means they have overexerted themselves and won’t be motivated to do regular work for a while. People can get so used to having a goal that they don’t do much when they don’t have one to work towards.

Goal Setting Can Cause Bad Behaviour
Goal setting can actually encourage people to lie and cheat. For example, it isn’t unheard of for businesses to create falsified earnings to reach goals. This can cause no end of issues for the company.

image

When Do Goals Work?
Goals can work when you know exactly what you want to happen, and you’re not too concerned about secondary behaviours. You’ll also need to figure out whether unethical behaviour is a big risk or not. Always set goals with caution, and discuss the steps needed to be taken. Do what you can to prevent unethical behaviour. Research has shown that having individuals do an activity because they find the work rewarding in and of itself is much more effective than doing it because they have been given a goal. In fact, being given that goals can undermine this intrinsic value of work.

Most business owners don’t realize the negative effect that goal setting can have on their business and the people within it. However, now that you are aware of when goals can go wrong and when they can actually work, you may be able to set more effective goals when you need them and get more done in the long run.

How will you set goals moving forward? Let us know!

Liquid Technology Which You Use Every Day

A key focus of my blog is Technology. Liquid technology is around us and something we use daily. Few people know about liquid technology and what its applications are. The following contributed post is entitled, Liquid Technology Which You Use Every Day.

* * *

(Image Source)

When most people think about technology, liquids aren’t often the first thing on their minds. Being notorious for killing the devices which people love the most, it’s natural to want to keep them away from the stuff, but this isn’t always possible. To give you an idea of where liquid technology is found in the modern world, this post will be exploring three different options, giving you a clear picture of what you have available in this area. There are few areas more interesting than gadgets which have the power to fry themselves.

Smart Water

Crime is always something which people are working to tackle. Regardless of how much time and resources are put into an area like this, though, you will always find people who are able to break into things. Smart water promises to help with this, but not in the way which most people imagine. By using a special chemical compound which can be altered very slightly for each bottle, companies making this material can leave a criminal’s skin stained with a liquid which is completely unique. This is the modern equivalent of being caught red handed, as you simply won’t have a way to argue with a court if you’ve been found with loads of this material on your body.

Lubricants

Modern cars move faster than ever before, and often have to rely on manufacturing methods which don’t make room for much error. To make sure than engines are able to cope, lubricants are used, usually coming in the form of oil. Companies like Peakhd have been working for decades to create products in this field which are able to outperform their more traditional alternatives. Creating a liquid which doesn’t change its state as temperatures and pressures around it vary is no mean feat, though this is exactly what you need in your vehicle, making it hard for companies to hit the sweet spot.

Phase Changes

Not a lot of people know how their refrigerator works. Much like the radiator in your car, these large appliances use an array of fins to cool down a fluid on the inside. As the fluid changes temperature, it also changes state, becoming a gas as it heats up, and a liquid when it cools down again. This sort of system is found in loads of different types of machine, not just fridges. Of course, though, it also isn’t the only way to cool something down, and there are modern methods which don’t require any harmful chemicals to get started.

With all of this on your mind, it should be a lot easier to see the power which liquids have to support society. A lot of people struggle to see where these tools can fit into the world, even though they are already commonplace, and this keeps the wider population oblivious to the liquids they are using on a daily basis. It’s always worth working hard to build a good understanding of the technology and tools you use on a regular basis, especially when they are so strange.

Getting More Feet Through Your Business’s Front Door

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If own a ‘brick and mortar’ business, it’s important to get as much traffic into your establishment as possible. As such you must figure out how to get potential customers to want to come in and do business. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Getting More Feet Through Your Business’s Front Door.

* * *

Brick and mortar businesses are finding it difficult in a world of business that’s growing increasingly digital. Even if your business has no online equivalents, you’re still working against the fact that fewer people are out-and-about since they can have most of their needs fulfilled online. So, you need to make sure you can get as many people in off the street as possible. Here’s how you can ensure your business gets more feet through that front door.

Picture by Clem Onojeghuo

Make a big deal of it
If you’re looking to draw customers, then few things work than making an occasion of it. While throwing a launch event is usually saved for the opening of a business, it doesn’t necessarily have to be. A launch event can also be used to celebrate the unveiling of a new product or service. Marketing and spreading the word of the launch event in advance is crucial and using your industry contacts can help build the buzz around it if they’re willing to give it a shout-out on their own platforms. The launch event gets people in through the door, helping them become familiar with premises and giving you the perfect opportunity to sell them on the products and services that can see them coming back soon, too.

Choose the right place
If you’re just starting your brick and mortar business, then you should pause to ensure you’re choosing the best potential property for it. Location is key and using online tools like dental listings can help you find the properties best suited to the kind of business you need to run. However, the most important part of the location is the fact that it’s highly visible and accessible to customers. If it’s tucked away and hard to find, then you might have more trouble getting people through the door organically, as they’re not as likely to see it and be reminded that they need or were thinking about whatever service you provide.

Picture sourced by John-Mark Smith

Say hi to the neighbors
Many businesses that don’t sell goods that are immediately attractive might not rely as much on the storefront as others. Important service providers, such as dental practices, law firms, and property agents need to find other ways to inform their local community about the fact that they are there. The online world can help, as we will explore further, but don’t underestimate the power of old marketing methods, either. Physical mail marketing is still one of the most cost-effective tricks in the book, and leaflet distribution is one of the most effective methods of it. It gives you the opportunity to share all the necessary details of the business at a glance and gives your future customers and clients an easy-to-keep remind of your location and contact details that can help drive further into the marketing pipeline.

Make sure that it sticks out
The aesthetic of the business has a huge role to play in both how appealing it is but also how noticeable it is. Improving the aesthetic of the business is all about having the brand on display. Having the right signage, planning your visual merchandising so that your best goods show in the window, and making the surroundings presentable through landscaping and general maintenance can all make it more appealing to the eye and noticeable. Even if your business isn’t in the most visible or accessible area, you can still invest in signage that can help direct customers your way.

Picture sourced by Pixabay

Don’t forget to list it online
Even though we’re looking at brick and mortar businesses, the online world still has a large role to play in driving customers in your direction. A growing percentage of your customer base is going to turn to the internet when looking for businesses and researching them, even local businesses they plan on visiting in person. Improving your local search optimization can help you gain a place of prominence when potential customers search for terms relevant to the business. Creating a Google listings profile can help them immediately learn your location and how to get in touch with you. A good website with information on your services and social media presence can make your business seem all the more approachable and with-the-times, as well. If you neglect the online world, your business is going to feel the impact of it.
Hopefully, the tips above give you some inspiration on how to draw more customers inside if your employees are feeling a little lonely and your cash flow is starting to feel the effects.

How to Maintain Safety In A Factory Workplace

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If you own a factory business, any number of things can happen as your workers are carrying out their tasks. It’s thus important to proactively think about what safety measures and protocols you can put in place. The following contributed post is thus entitled, How to Maintain Safety In A Factory Workplace.

* * *

It’s important that every business owner takes steps to ensure their worksite is as safe as possible, but it’s more important in certain workspaces than others. For example, if you have a factory, then you’ll need to think even more carefully about your safety standards and practices, because the potential for an injury to occur is higher than in, say, a traditional office environment. Below, we take a look at some essential safety tips that’ll help to keep you, your employees, and site visitors safe.

Source: Pexels.com

Identify Weaknesses

If you’re going to find ways to make your business safe, first you need to know what the dangers are. It’s worthwhile hiring a safety expert to perform a check on your site, as they’ll see things that you don’t. Once you’ve got a clear image of the practices that are “accidents waiting to happen,” you’ll be able to navigate your route to a safer worksite. This will be especially important if you’ve never performed a check like this before.

Staff Training

You can come up with all the safety initiatives in the world, but if your staff don’t know how to perform them properly, then they won’t be as effective as they could or should be. There are plenty of employees who get annoyed by the prospect of a safety training day, but it’s important that you’re able to motivate everyone enough to take it seriously. To ensure that the information your employees receive sinks in, try to find a more interactive way of getting the message across. Being walked through some slideshow presentations is not going to capture their attention in any meaningful way.

Employee Feedback

Of course, you shouldn’t just transmit the safety standards to your employees. It should be a conversation. After all, they’re the ones who are “on the front line, ”every day, most likely in a way that you never are. As such, there’ll have a much better understanding of any safety vulnerabilities the site might have than you will. To ensure that this important information doesn’t stay locked in your staff members’ heads, create a policy of open conversation. This is crucial when it comes to making sure no safety stones have been left unturned, and is also just a generally positive environment to create in your workplace.

Updated Practices

Your safety rules and practices shouldn’t be set in stone. They should be updated and adapted as needs demand. If you have a new way of operating or invest in a new machine, make sure you’re developing a safety code of conduct that’s specific to those things. This is where some of your employee feedback will come in handy, too. As a general rule, you should be reviewing your safety methods every few months or so, even if nothing about the way the factory has changed since the last review. It’s an ongoing process that will develop and morph over time.

The Surrounding Area

It’s important to keep in mind the area that surrounds your factory as well as its interior. Through the process of manufacturing, you might contaminate the soil or water that surrounds your worksite, which can lead to health complications. These may be different from the incidents that commonly occur in a factory setting, but should be treated just as seriously. If contamination happens at your site, then take a look at https://hepure.com/product-list/feroxzero-valent-iron-powders/, and begin the environmental remediation process. It’s not something that will necessarily pose an immediate threat to your business or employees, but it’s something that needs to be managed.

Common Injuries

The bulk of the injuries that happen in your factory setting will be minor. They’ll be things like everyday slips and falls, or cuts. However, even though they might be comparatively minor, you’ll need to take any incident seriously. Have an incident book so you can jot down what happened and why, even if all that was required was a band-aid. By recording everything that happens, you will, over time, begin to get a snapshot of why these incidents occur, which you can then use to adjust your safety procedures. While talking about common injuries, it’s important to note that slips and falls will be the most common injury; you can limit how often they occur by getting a floor that doesn’t lend itself to slips, and encourage your employees to wear footwear that is appropriate for your type of flooring.

Break Times

It’s rarely the machine that is dangerous, but the person using it. The majority of incidents are caused by human error. But in fact, even the human errors are created by a human error: not giving staff members enough downtime during the day. There’s an upper limit to how long a human can concentrate before getting tired. And it’s usually when a person is tired that an accident happens. Even when you have busy deadlines, make sure you’re giving your staff enough breaks. It’s usually only when a person stops working for a few moments that they realize how tired they are – by enforcing breaks, an accident may be avoided.

First aid Training

As we mentioned earlier, the bulk of incidents that happen on your worksite will be small. However, there will be times when something more serious happens. During these times, it’ll be useful if you have someone on the team who has had first aid training. It’s worthwhile offering this type of training to your employees; you may wish to offer an incentive to anyone who signs up. It might just prevent something tragic from happening.

An Orderly Space

While it’s important to have safety practices for all the machines and the factory as a whole, sometimes the biggest impact you can have it simply keeping the space tidy and orderly. If there are too many things on the floor, then it’ll only be a matter of time before an accident happens. There should be nothing on the floor that doesn’t positively need to be there. A tidy space is a safe space!

What Really Makes A Customer Choose Your Service?

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. The lifeblood of any business is its customer base as it won’t thrive without sales. As such, businesses need to understand what the customers are thinking, and what’s important to them. The following contributed post is thus entitled, What Really Makes A Customer Choose Your Service?

* * *

One of the major things that you always need to try and master in business is how to get enough customers to choose your business, your services and be loyal to your way of doing things. Marketing is all about making sure that this is more likely, but if you only ever outsource your marketing you might not really have come to grips with what makes someone choose one thing over another. Personal differences and taste will always come into it in some way or another, but there are also many things we can infer from the evidence too. In this post, we are going to discuss just three things which can often make a customer choose one service or business over all the others. Improve and work on these, and you will be moving in the right direction.

Pic Credit

A Bold Brand

The marketing is there for a reason – it works when it is done well. Arguably the most central part of marketing is the brand – as long as you have got that right, you will find that you are much more able to get plenty of customers on your side. Very often, the brand makes an unconscious difference to the point where it might even be the thing that tips the scale. If you can work on your brand to the point where you are truly happy with it, you will find that this makes a huge difference and brings that many more customers to your doors and to your products. You’ll probably want a marketing firm to help you and let you know what kind of branding is likely to work, which is fine. But make sure it is original and creative as well.

A Strong Reputation

Just as with your personal life, you want to make sure that you have a strong reputation for your business too, as it is one of the biggest influences on whether people choose your service and product, or whether they go elsewhere. There are many things which affect your business’ reputation, and it is worth acquainting yourself with some of the more important ones and working on building them up as best as you possibly can. For instance, you will find that having a good reputable address makes a difference to what people think of your business, so using a virtual office address if you don’t have a reputable one yourself can really help things along massively. Or you might want to think about acting in a manner which is ethical, focusing on, say, environmental policies. A better reputation makes all the difference in the world.

Pic Credit

The Better Product

Finally, let’s not forget the product or service itself. The most important thing is that your service or product is as good as possible, in such a manner that it will encourage people to spread the word. If that happens, then you will be drawing in more customers away from other rival businesses merely because you are actually offering the better product – that is definitely the most pleasing way to go about things.