Big Words start conversations and open doors to new places.
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.
Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Many forms of business require travel. Likewise traveling for business isn’t a vacation and must be treated accordingly. The following contributed post is entitled, Tips For Heading Away On Business Travel.
If you are frequently on the road travelling for business, then making the journey as easy and comfortable as possible will make the whole process more enjoyable. Unfortunately, travelling for work can be a necessity for a job and you might need to travel in a truck if you are a delivery driver, or head to meetings if you work in sales. You might have to regularly fly around the world, or you could just have to travel to different places in the country where you live. No matter where you have to travel, it is important that you are as organised as you can. Here we have put together some top tips for heading away on business travel.
Condense Your Packing
Whether you are flying, travelling in a car/truck or using public transport, the last thing you want to be doing is lugging around a large suitcase. Before heading off make a list of the key things you need for your business trip. Try to be strict with what you are picking and if there is any doubt, the chances are that you don’t need it. The lighter you travel the smaller your case can be making the journey a lot easier. If you are able to reduce your suitcase size to a carry-on when flying, you then won’t need to wait in the ques when checking in. Plus, always remember, if you have forgotten something you can always purchase it whilst you are away.
Ensure you have all the relevant insurance
As well as being prepared for the actual meetings and things when you are travelling for business, you will also need to have other insurances in place. If you are travelling abroad you will need travel insurance that will cover you in the instance that your flight or ferry gets delayed, if your luggage is lost and if you fall ill for any reason while you are out there. You will also need to know what to do if you are driving and get into an accident. In this case, it would be a good idea to look into getting a truck accident attorney who will help you.
Think carefully when book accommodation
When you are heading away on business, you will probably need to book accommodation to stay in if it is a long journey from home. When choosing your hotel there are many things you will want to consider. Price will probably be a factor as if your company is substituting they will likely give you a budget. For this, you can consider using a hotel booking engine to help you. You will also need to think about where your hotel is based. It is a good idea to be near the place where you will be having meetings or attending conferences to make it convenient for getting there and back during the day.
These are just a few top tips that can help you be more prepared the next time you are heading away on business. Business travel is necessary but these tips can help to make it more bearable.
Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Many people arrive at a place in their lives where they want and in some instances need to make a second income. There are many creative ways to do this in 2021. The following contributed post is entitled, Four Simple Ways To Build A Second Income.
* * *
One of the most beneficial aspects of technological advancements in recent years is that it now allows people to work from home and make use of their knowledge and experience. Many people have already made the decision to either start a side business to supplement their income or make the transition to working from home full-time. Even though more people are beginning to do so, there are still those who are unsure of how they will be able to accomplish this. Beginning to make money online is extremely simple, especially if you have a small amount of spare time on your hands. Some people even travel around the world while working and earning money online from the comfort of their own homes and laptops. Anyone can participate; the key is to find a method that works for you and stick with it.
Here are some of the options for working from home that you might consider:
Become An Amazon Store Seller
Making money as an Amazon seller is one way to generate a good secondary income for yourself. You aren’t even required to keep the inventory or ship the inventory yourself. Investigate the Amazon business strategy to see if it could be applied to your situation.
Put Your Photography Skills To Use On The Internet
Do you enjoy taking photographs? If you are successful, you may be able to turn it into a source of passive income. You can sell your photos on photography websites such as Shutterstock and iStockphoto, which are designed to help you make money. They may offer a percentage of each photo that is sold to a site client or a flat fee for each photo that is sold.
An individual photo can be thought of as a cash flow generator because it can be sold over and over again in this manner. You only need to create your photo portfolio and upload it to one or more photo sharing websites, after which the activity becomes completely passive. The web platform is in charge of all of the technical aspects of the photo sales transactions.
Finding Easy Tasks
Even though this isn’t the fastest way to make money online, and you’re unlikely to make enough money to quit your day job, it is a fantastic way to supplement your income while working part-time from home. The internet is flooded with websites and apps that encourage you to engage in activities such as playing games and taking surveys in exchange for points that can be redeemed for cash or Amazon gift certificates. Maintaining sufficient points to qualify for a payout may take some time, but it is something you could do while watching television in the evenings or on your way to work.
Consider Stock Trading
Investing in stocks may appear to be a minefield at first glance, but with careful research and the use of online tools and apps, it can be a viable way to supplement your income at home or while travelling. Begin with a small investment and conduct extensive research into the trading markets. Keep in mind that you are investing your own money, and as a result, you stand to lose as much as you stand to gain from the investment. However, if you strike it rich with stock investing, you stand to make a substantial profit if your investment is successful.
Credit Cards With Cash Back
There are credit cards that offer cash-back benefits ranging from 1% to 5% of the purchase price. Isn’t it true that you’ll be out shopping and buying anyway?
Rewards will allow you to earn some passive “money” (in the form of lower outgoing) by doing what you’d be doing anyhow.
We’ve just begun to be more conscious about collecting reward points on our credit cards, especially because we enjoy travelling. We were able to use our reward points to pay for nine round-trip flights and a couple of hotel nights in the last year. That’s exactly what I’m referring to!
Create A Blog
Another fantastic option to make money online is to start a blog. A growing number of people are turning to blogs to share their thoughts and views with others. The fact that it is possible to make a living from it, however, is not widely known. There are currently a large number of professional bloggers and freelancers that make a living solely from the content of their blogs. You’ll need compelling content that appeals to a specific demographic in order to succeed. Whatever you want to talk about is fine, covering anything from lifestyle to health and fitness to motherhood to technology and everything in between. Even while it is not the most expedient method of earning money, once you get your blog up and running and have a reasonable following, you may begin earning money through sponsored content, free vacations and gifts, and affiliate relationships.
These are just four options for making money online; do you have any others that you can share in the comments section?
This blog post is going to involve the areas of Blogging/Writing, Business/Entrepreneurship, and Technology. As many of you know, I was able to monetize my blogging platform a couple of years ago. With multiple projects, I only have a little bit of time throughout the year to generate pieces here for myself now. Much of the content is generated by customers/collaborators. By the way, my new blog entitled, ‘Big Words Authors’ is now up and running and has a more literary/storytelling focus. Take look if you want to read creative writing narratives, stories, poetry, and my new book project entitled, “The Engineers: A Western New York Basketball Story”, and the many supporting promotional pieces that are on the way.
This piece, while it will discuss how I monetized my blogging platform, will also talk about two important aspects of starting your own enterprise: monitoring your business receipts and customer service. Over the years I’ve heard that systems are an important part of any successful business, and I’ve found that to be true. I will thus also discuss what happens if some of your critical systems breakdown, compromising important aspects of your business like your customer service.
There are currently numerous documents on the Big Words Blog Site involving blogging. Some were written by me, and some were written by a customer. A year or two after starting the Big Words Blog Site, I unexpectedly entered the business of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I plan to discuss SEO in greater detail in a separate post. For now, however, I’ll just say that I started collaborating with other entities to publish content, for which I’ve been compensated. I’ve worked with several collaborators, and each involved the generation of business receipts and customer service.
Checking Your Business Receipts
In one of my Fathers’ Day posts (2017), I shared a memorable experience where my father reprimanded me for not taking my receipt and counting my change – a life changing experience for me. It turns out there’s a business context for checking your receipts. As I’ll describe in the business context, checking your receipts not only ensures a given transaction was executed properly, but it can ultimately save your business.
In short, I was able to monetize my blogging activities through the area of SEO. I’m no expert in SEO, by any means, but essentially it involves increasing your rank in the Google search engine by being linked to other websites. This is a big thing in our modern digital age and there are companies that specialize in this. The client/company/partner I started working with created short informational pieces of all kinds, linking companies in them.
Our partnership involved my publishing the content they sent to me perfectly, meaning that the final published version needed to match the draft they sent me in terms of content, structure and the weblinks inserted in the original piece. Once I sent them the published link and it was satisfactory, they would send me a receipt letting me know that the piece was perfect. I have partnered with other customers performing the same service, and still others who simply want their links added to specific contents. When the partnership with my main customer started a couple of years ago, I couldn’t believe it. It involved me publishing large amounts of content and it became profitable.
Interestingly, in some instances with large numbers of pieces being generated and passed back and forth, inevitable mistakes occurred. These were either on my end or on theirs. This was understandable as they were generating thousands of pieces (from me and others), and I was publishing as many as they could send me. Occasionally, I would unintentionally leave a link out, to which I’d receive a polite message saying, “Can you please put the X link back into the piece?”. In some instances, they’d send me an apology and would ask me to change something to update it from the draft they sent me – an error on their part.
In some cases, a link that was anchored to text would need to be changed to a naked link (the actual ‘https’ web address), or sometimes the other way around. Either way, the receipts were communications that we were good to go, and that I would be paid, or that a change needed to be made, and typically, quickly. These communications also occurred when I was offered a piece, when I accepted it, and in some instances, when they needed me to delete a narrative for whatever reason. They were very important communications for our partnership.
The Importance of Customer Service in Any Business
Up to this point I’ve discussed an important element for any business/organization without explicitly stating it, Customer Service. Depending on the office in which you work, many federal employees are rated for their level of customer service every year. Simply put, customer service is the proficiency, quality, and speed with which you see to the needs of your customers.
An example from a McDonald’s restaurant comes to mind. Years ago in a McDonald’s Restaurant I ordered an extra value meal. I could taste the food as I ordered it and was set to scarf it down as I picked the tray up from the register. Somehow, I tipped my tray in such a way that my fries all fell on the floor, spilling out everywhere in front of me. Embarrassed and sure that I’d have to pay some more, I turned back to the register.
“Can I have another medium french fry, please?” Within seconds the girl working at the register got me my new fries fresh out of the fryer, and she didn’t charge me for it. This was an example of stellar customer service.
In terms of bad customer service, how many of us have had to call technical support for your cable/internet provider? Maybe you’ve had to call for your new technology device you just purchased. How long did you have to wait on the line and did the person even speak English? Was your problem resolved or did it linger for hours, days and weeks? Depending on your answers, you may have experienced poor customer service and have either complained about that particular business, or you may have never returned to do business with them.
In a nutshell, they say that the reputation of your business spreads by word of mouth. Thus, if your customer service is poor, the word could spread quickly. The same is true if your customer service is stellar. You want to stay in the latter group as it can affect your profits. That goes for whether you’re in the food service industry or SEO.
Business Receipts, Your Business Systems, and Your Customer Service
It is said that the most important part of your business is its systems. When I started the Big Words Blog Site, I set up a Microsoft Outlook account to handle the email correspondence for the site. I eventually downloaded the Outlook app onto my smartphone and upon using it, I could quickly see the notifications my customers sent to me once we started working together. From the palm of my hand, I could see if the published pieces were satisfactory or if something needed to be changed. Outlook and its app allowed me lots of agility, so to speak.
Unfortunately, there is generally at least one technical glitch per year for my business. Earlier this year something disappointing happened. My Outlook account was hacked and I could receive emails, but I couldn’t send them. This threw a major wrench in my operation. If I couldn’t send emails, how was I going to accept and confirm the documents from my customers? Immediately, I had a light-bulb moment and decided to set up a G-mail account to conduct my business while the host attempted to fix my Outlook account.
In short, it worked, but it wasn’t the same. Fortunately, my customers started sending their content to my new G-mail account so that aspect of our partnership continued. One problem I encountered though was the functionality of the G-mail account wasn’t the same as the functionality of the Outlook account. With the G-mail account, I could see when new emails were coming in, but I couldn’t quickly differentiate when an action was needed. Also, when I opened the account on both my PC and my phone, it was difficult to differentiate between the new posts that were sent, when they were sent, and if they were satisfactory.
Because I was multitasking and was a little lax in terms of checking my business receipts, I was slow to accept documents and slow to react to errors in the pieces I published. My response time had become embarrassingly slow, and frustration built for both me and my customers. One issue went unresolved for a week and half, which was unfortunate because my customer worked according to deadlines. This was confounded by the fact that my blogging software didn’t always update in the most expedient way. A customer wrote me back once saying that they would slow down sending content and I came to the sobering realization that I may have permanently destroyed our collaboration.
Restoration Of My Outlook Account, Moving Forward and Lessons Learned
It took my webhost about three months to fix my Outlook account. In the meantime, my troubles using the G-mail account with my business taught me a valuable lesson. I paid much closer attention to every piece my customers sent to me, as they had not abandoned me. I refocused and attacked problems with a renewed intensity. I closely watched my business receipts and responded to customer emails expeditiously. Once my Outlook account was restored, things were pretty much back to normal and hopefully they will stay that way.
Closing Thoughts and Conclusions
I learned several lessons from the entire turn of events. They are as follows:
• Check your business receipts and ratings regularly. • Make sure your customer service ratings are as high as possible. • Have a backup plan should one or many of your business systems go down. • In the business arena, you must remain ever vigilant.
Thank you for reading this piece. For the next phase of my writing journey, I’m starting a monthly newsletter for my writing and video content creation company, the Big Words LLC. In it, I plan to share inspirational words, pieces from this blog and my first blog, and select videos from my four YouTube channels. Finally, I will share updates for my book project The Engineers: A Western New York Basketball Story. Your personal information and privacy will be protected. Click this link and register using the sign up button at the bottom of the announcement. Regards.
Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. As a business owner, one of the things you’ll want to think about is the practicality of your business’ products. The following contributed post is entitled, Dealing With The More Practical Side Of Your Business’ Products.
Running a business can be a grand new adventure. Many people are opting to start up their own companies following the pandemic, whether that’s due to job loss through company collapse and redundancy, or because they simply had enough time to realise their previous career path wasn’t for them. If you fall into this category and are getting involved in your own start up, chances are, you’ve already spent a lot of time learning new skills, areas of business management and more. There’s a lot to take on board, but all too many business owners get overly focused on more fun and engaging elements of running their company, such as market research, marketing and brand building. This is important, of course. But you do need to take time to focus on some of the more practical elements of creating your products. You can have the best ideas in the world and the best products ever, but if you don’t bring them to life, you’ll have nothing to offer your customers. Here are a few areas of focus that can help you to get the ball rolling.
Product Development
The product development stage of setting up your business may feel long and drawn out. Often, you’ll need to go through several rounds of suggesting products, receiving feedback and tweaking things until you’ll come up with your final design. But it’s absolutely essential that you grant this step the time, investment and focus it needs. It’s what will help to create a desirable, functional and sellable product that will prove the staple of your business’ success.
Manufacturing
Once you have ideas for your products, you’re going to need to bring them to life. This is where manufacturing comes into play. Manufacturing is the process of taking raw materials and transforming them into your final product. Now, you have a couple of options when it comes to manufacturing. The first is to outsource the process. When you outsource your manufacturing process, you will hand the work over to a third party who can create your products on your behalf. This will come at a cost, but it means you don’t have to invest in factory spaces, machinery, equipment or staff to create your products. Alternatively, you can invest in all these industrial supplies and bring your manufacturing in-house. Most startups find that starting out by outsourcing and then bringing things in house once they’re making profits and have created demand for their products works best.
Product Testing
Remember that all of your products will need to be tested. This will make sure that they are safe for the consumer market, saving you from liability if something goes wrong with any of your products once they reach the consumer. Product testing can also ensure that your products work and are up to standard.
These steps will take some time to get through, but the effort will all be worth it in the end. You should find yourself with a great product to confidently launch onto the consumer market!
Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A lucrative sector of business is real estate. While it’s discussed in my financial literacy curricula, there are a lot of nuances and rules to succeeding in this sector. The following contributed post is entitled, How To Invest In Property And Succeed.
* * *
Whether you are a business or an individual, investing in property is a great way to maximize the among of money you have. If you get the process just right, you can become very wealthy as a result. However, like all types of investment, there are certain risks and pitfalls you need to be aware of. Not everyone who invests in property manages to produce more wealth for themselves. These people generally do not invest with the right plan or strategy in place. Planning and mitigation is essential to succeed in all types of business, and property is no different.
Develop a Strategy A strategy is essential to your overall success. Try and bite off more than you can chew will land you in some very hot water, with huge debts you cannot pay. You could end up losing everything. So, before you buy anything, make a plan. The plan must include things such as budget considerations for each property you buy. You will need to include legal fees, and the probability is you will need to do some renovations. Perhaps you have a builder in mind, perhaps not, but whatever you do, do not overspend. You will also need to diversify your locations, as buying up too much property in one area could leave you open to over-exposure by having too many loans in one area. If you are new to investing in property, then you need to start slowly and find your feet. Start small, then build from there.
Do Your Research Research should be an absolutely fundamental part of your strategy. Because there are so many things to consider, the more research you do, the better. Look for any areas that are on the rise and are becoming more popular and affluent. This will ensure that it will be a very good long-term investment. Find out about infrastructure upgrades in the area and if there will be any new amenities created as well as transport links. The more investment that is going into the area, the better your investment will be. Think about what is near the property. By doing this, you will develop an idea of the types of people that are likely to rent from you. If it is near a business center, for example, you are likely to get professional.
Property Management It does not matter if you are a private investor, or buying property as part of your current business investment strategy. Eventually, you are going to need help from a Commercial Property Management company. A management company will be able to provide in-depth, full-time management of your property portfolio. They will find tenants and help you negotiate great deals. They will take a lot of pressure off of you while you focus on expansion rather than the everyday running of the business.
Use all the Space to Your Advantage To make the most of your investment, you will want to ensure that you are getting the greatest return. Perhaps there is scope to swap a downstairs dining room into another bedroom and rent out room individually. Or maybe you can turn a large bedroom into two or create an en-suite.
Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. As a business owner, one of your tasks is managing the finances of the business. Thus you want to determine how and where you can save the business money. The following contributed post is entitled, How An Industry Can Make Savings.
* * *
Saving money in business is one of the best ways to ensure growth, but making sure that savings are made can be a difficult thing to do – there always seems to be something else to purchase or invest in that means anything you are able to save suddenly needs to be used, leaving you with very little. However, you will find that the more you can save, the easier it will become, and anything you do need to buy won’t leave your company short of funds. Here are some of the best ways to save money.
Using the correct software to run your business can be an expensive upfront cost, but it is a wise investment. Although it is possible to buy software that will do a similar job to something that is more specific to your sector, in the end it just won’t have all the functions you need to do your work to a high enough standard. If there is something that has been made especially for your industry to use, then it is likely that it will be worth the money to start with, and it will save you money in the long term because you won’t need to buy additional software, and neither will your quality of work suffer.
Review Your Expenses
When you’re in the middle of running your business, you might not notice how much you’re spending. This is why it is essential to have a spending review once a month in order to determine what you are paying for and how much you are spending. Once you know this, you can work on reducing those costs. It also means that you can make sure your bank account tallies with your receipts, and if you do this on a regular basis rather than when tax time comes, it will save you a lot of worry and stress. Alternatively, you can hire an experienced accountant to help you do this.
Make Your Employees Responsible
If you have employees and they are tasked with finding new suppliers, searching for services, or even if they have a company credit card, it’s a good idea to make them responsible for their own spending. That doesn’t mean they have to use their own money, but it does mean that you should try to instill a sense of ownership in them. If they feel more involved in the business and they understand what it takes to run it, they will be less likely to spend without thinking, and more likely to come up with sensible ways to make savings, such as buying used ambulances for sale or renting essential equipment that only needs to be used occasionally. This can prevent unnecessary purchases and therefore save the business money.
Find Partners
Not all businesses will want or need to find partners to work with, but it can be a good thing for some companies, and it is a good way to save money. If you are working closely with someone, you can split the costs, and you will immediately have a good saving in place. As time goes on, you will be able to work together to boost your businesses as well, bringing more money into the company as a whole.
Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. As a business owner, one of the things you’ll want is for your customers to feel comfortable. The following contributed post is entitled, 3 Tips For Getting Customers To Feel Comfortable.
* * *
To break down barriers and start selling your product or service, you first need to make potential customers and clients feel comfortable about your business. Customers need to feel safe as they want to know where they’ll be putting their money towards. It also helps if they’re able to see the product, service, or even have a one-on-one conversation. Customers and clients don’t want to feel ripped off. Nowadays, it’s so easy to scam people, unfortunately.
Anyone can build a website, create ads, and begin “selling” on the internet. In-person and online shopping are both completely different experiences but both need to be presentable so potential customers and clients can feel at ease when making their decisions. Here are some tips for making your target audience get comfortable with you.
If your business has a physical location, utilize this. You want your business, whether it be a shop, service, or anything else, to look professional. Some customers and clients want to meet and have a discussion face to face. Some are old-fashioned and it should be something that’s respected. If your physical location doesn’t look the best, such as lacking curb appeal or lacking any visually appealing qualities then you’ll want to look into fixing that. Having a comfortable and professional-looking space is vital. Not only will potential customers enjoy this, but it helps employees work more efficiently as well.
You may want to look into a skip bin hire and then make some changes to your workspace. Adding some nice furniture, painting the walls, and changing up the flooring can truly transform the space. Lighting and décor are important as well, as these help out in setting a desired atmosphere to the space. You may even want to add something to the exterior such as plants so the outside looks presentable too. It may seem like a lot of work but first impressions matter as they are long-lasting.
Have a Contact Page on Your Website
If you have a business website (and you should), you need to get yourself a contact page. Yes, a professional and up-to-date website is very important but it’s also important to have the appropriate pages on there too. This contact page should contain information about the company so customers and clients can reach you. You should provide a number as well, and answer any incoming calls. Sure, there may be challenges of using articulate speech during phone calls but it’s crucial to let customers know they’re real humans and you’re running a real business.
Utilize Customer Testimonials
Reviews are one of the most important components for a customer. This is what will help them in deciding on what to purchase or who to hire. You’ll find reviews on social media ( such as Facebook), Google Business Reviews, The Bom, YouTube, and even on a website testimonials page. Whether customers want to compliment you or criticize your service, they should be allowed to. Both positive and negative reviews will let customers know that you’re a real business and it will raise their comfort levels.
Make Sure They Know How To Use Your Products or Services
It’s important that your customers know how to use the4 services or products you’re selling. That’s why demonstrations and customer training processes can be very useful, particularly in certain niches. Software as a service is the perfect example of a niche that requires customer training in order for them to get the most out of the product. Good saas customer success training makes a real difference to outcomes in the industry.
A key focus of my blog is Financial Literacy/Money. Succeeding with money usually comes down to a few simple adjustments/tips. Once you figure out what they are, you must then execute them. The following contributed is entitled, Reach Financial Stability With These Top Tips.
According to a recent study from the ABA Banking Journal, only 29% of Americans are financially healthy. Furthermore, with the full financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic yet to reveal itself, these figures may plummet even further.
However, while certain aspects of our finances remain beyond our control – there are certain steps you can take to improve your financial situation and work towards becoming financially stable. Here are some great examples to get you started!
● By now, it’s beyond clear that there is power in budgeting your money. This is because it helps you reign in any negative spending habits you might have acquired (such as online shopping). Furthermore, without budgeting, it’s near impossible to figure out exactly how much you are actually spending each month. If you’ve never budgeted before, you might want to try the 50:30:20 rule.
● If you find it hard to stick to a certain budget, you might want to check out some of the best budgeting apps that you can download onto your phone. They will send out daily/weekly notifications that help you to better monitor and control your spending.
● If you’re in urgent need of money, consider taking out a small loan to support yourself until you are in a better situation. For example, many Americans take out small loans to cover their monthly expenses when waiting to be paid for work. In this case, you must work with a reputable company you can trust, such as cash train. You should also ensure that you factor this repayment into your monthly expenses.
● If you have a little bit of money set aside each month, you might also want to consider investing. When done correctly, this is a great way to boost your finances significantly. However, it’s important to remember that investing is not a guaranteed way to earn money, meaning that you should not invest more than you can lose. If you haven’t invested before, you should check out these useful investment tips. With the likes of Energy Innovation Capital and similar professionals, getting these tips shouldn’t be difficult.
● While you must know the difference between cheap and frugal, you should also ensure that you find as many ways as possible to live frugally. For example, you can begin to grow your own fruits and vegetables instead of buying them from supermarkets that often overcharge for goods. Alternatively, you could buy these products from smaller, local businesses for a much fairer price.
● If you want to get serious about saving money, you need to set up a savings account and send a set amount of money into it each month. This way, you are less likely to spend it accidentally – especially if it’s an account that you can only withdraw money from a few times a year. Furthermore, many savings accounts offer interest on their accounts, which is a great way to earn passive income!
Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. I key component of your business is your brand. There is also engagement with your brand. The following contributed post is entitled, How To Innovate Brand Engagement.
* * *
It’s all about branding. The jury has been out on this topic for quite some time. If you’re not actively creating opportunities for your consumers to engage with your brand in active and meaningful ways, you will likely find yourself courting irrelevance very quickly. It can sound particularly nerve-wracking, especially for smaller businesses that may not have the big budget spend of their conglomerate and corporate cousins.
But the truth is far more settling than you’d think because creating innovative, fresh, and engaging brand interactions is a lot easier than you might think – and it doesn’t have to ruin your bottom line either.
There’s an adage from street-hardened salespeople: those who ask the questions control the conversation.
We believe this to be true to the extent that if you’re not initiating conversations about your brand, whether through commercials or social media campaigns – someone else will likely and make no mistake, we live in a highly competitive age where not all the players in the game mean to do so with integrity.
So take the lead and develop meaningful conversations around your products or services within the marketplaces you’re serving.
“The more you engage with customers, the clearer things become and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing.” — John Russell, President of Harley Davidson.
DEVELOP A CLEAR AND CONCISE CONTENT STRATEGY
The content that you post online and across your various social media platforms should never be posted for the sake of having something “up there.” You want to ensure that content is dynamic, stimulating, relevant, and has a specific call to action hardwired in the message.
In other words, you want your content to inspire action, a movement that will give you access to the people interacting with your posts and content, access that can lead to a conversation, that can lead to a sale.
Many sportswear companies have been particularly successful at doing this by inviting consumers to post workout tips, diet advice and share conversations across platforms that guide newbies and experts alike.
Agencies like Traffik can offer highly specialized solutions that can elevate your brand engagement credentials exponentially.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou.
CREATING EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS
Take a look at this Volkswagen commercial from South Africa. From an age long before social media, when the web itself was in its infancy. It is an excellent example of the kind of emotional connections you want to create for your brand. To establish a legacy, a follow-through from generation to generation, and to appeal to the sentiment of your consumer and customer.
SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVATIONS
This should almost go without saying, but many companies and businesses still don’t understand just how valuable a resource social medial can be. Of course, it needs to be done right. You have to learn how to actively grow your base on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and more.
When you can get to the point where your customers are taking selfies and then posting images and video footage of themselves using or enjoying your product or service, that image will likely be reshared and shared again. Gold, absolute gold.
Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A key component to the success of your business is customer satisfaction. As such you want to avoid those things that would sour your customers. The following contributed post is entitled, Common Reasons For Customer Dissatisfaction.
Customer dissatisfaction occurs when your business fails to meet the expectations of your customers.
For you, the consequences can be dire. After failing to satisfy your customers, you may lose their custom in the short or long term. The reputation of your business could be badly affected if bad word of mouth and online reviews reflect the areas in which your business has fallen down. And as a consequence of these situations, you could make losses in your business if news of customer dissatisfaction spreads.
As a business owner, you know the importance of making your customers happy. Dissatisfaction is not the word you want to hear. But to understand more, let’s consider why customers may be dissatisfied.
#1: Poor quality product or service
What are you offering your customers? If it’s a particular product, it needs to be of good quality, functional, and long-lasting. Something of poor quality that breaks within days or weeks of purchase is hardly likely to satisfy your customers.
If you are offering a particular service, you need to fulfill what you have promised. The work you do for the customer needs to be of good quality because this is what they expect when they pay you. A rushed job that fails to meet their needs is going to cause dissatisfaction.
To ensure quality, you should commit to training for yourself and your team when it is needed. And if certain tasks can’t be managed properly in-house, you should outsource to experts, such as industrial sewing services if you are selling fabric-based products. By taking these steps, you will be better able to offer quality to your customers.
#2: Bad customer service
When your customers reach out to your business, they expect timely answers, polite interactions, and a proper answer to the questions they are asking. They don’t expect a long wait on the phone, rude customer service representatives, and a less-than-satisfying response to their queries.
For the benefit of your customers, you need to make sure your employees are trained in customer service skills. You need to monitor their interactions occasionally and give them guidance or warnings if they aren’t treating your customers well. And you also want to cut down on wait times when your customers try to reach you. Outsource to a call center if you need to, provide a live chat option on your website through a reputable source, such as OF chat service, and be diligent when it comes to answering emails and returning phone calls.
#3: Overpricing
You will be keen to make a profit in your business but that profit shouldn’t come from overpriced products. When a customer realizes that they have paid more than is standard for a product or service, they will be quick to let the world know on business review sites and social media.
You make a profit by gaining more customers and not by ripping them off. So, make sure your pricing is fair by conducting a pricing survey before settling on a final cost. This way, your customers won’t slam you for unfair pricing and you won’t lose them to business rivals that are offering cheaper prices.
Finally
By keeping your customers happy, you will experience return custom, better word of mouth, and higher profits. So, consider your customers. Are they satisfied with your business? Find out by asking for their feedback and by checking reviews about your business online. If you need to make changes to counter criticisms, then do so.
