Category: Business/Entrepreneurship

11 Ways To Make Money Outside Of Your 9-5

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success, and two key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. There’s an argument out there that the smartest way to live is to have multiple sources of income. As such, many individuals have given a lot of thought to how they can create second- or third-income streams outside of their 9-5 jobs. The following contributed post discusses how to create multiple income streams and is entitled, 11 Ways To Make Money Outside Of Your 9-5.

* * *

Making money by going to your 9-5 job every week is certainly an honorable way to earn money. However, more and more people are beginning to realize that if they want to lead truly comfortable lifestyles and build wealth, they are going to need more than one source of income to do it. In fact, the most wealthy people in the world often have 6 or 7 different sources of income. The less you have to rely on one source of income, the better!

Below, we’ll go into 11 ways you can make money outside of your 9-5 so you can begin working on bringing in cash from various sources:

1. Rent Out A Part Of Your Property
If you have a property and you don’t use all of it all the time, you could consider renting out a part of it. Even renting out your driveway could help you to bring some extra cash in from time to time! If you have a spare bedroom you could rent that out, provided you don’t mind sharing your home with somebody else. Alternatively, you could look into a site like Airbnb to rent out your entire home when you’re going to be away yourself. You could make money while you’re off on your own vacation!

credit

2. Sell Things You No Longer Use
Go through each room in your home and collect things that you haven’t used for 6 months or more. Usually, if you haven’t used something in 6 months you can pretty much guarantee you won’t use it again (unless it’s some special item that you only really need for emergencies, that is). You can use sites like eBay to sell these items and make some extra cash. If you’d rather cut out the middleman costs, selling on Facebook or even hosting a garage sale can be just as effective.

3. Offer Your Services As An Online Freelancer
If you have a little spare time, you could always offer your services as a freelancer using sites like Upwork and People Per Hour. You could proofread, write content, design logos, or do anything else that you think you’re good at! It can take a little time to get work when you’re just starting out, but it can be a nice way to make a decent side income in your own time.

4. Start Blogging/Vlogging
Blogging and vlogging should be done first and foremost because you are passionate about what you want to share. If you’re doing it purely for the cash, you’ll probably get fed up and end up giving up after a short time! You should create quality, consistent content because you have a message you want to share and you enjoy it. Enjoyment will keep you going when your subscribers aren’t growing and you’ve made a miniscule amount of money in months. Consistency is key if you want this to be a way for you to make money!

5. Turn Your Passion Into A Side Hustle
If you have something you’re truly passionate about, it could be possible to turn it into a side hustle. Maybe you like making jewelry or reupholstering furniture; if you’re serious, you could spend your spare time building up this business. Eventually, you may be able to leave your 9-5 job and work for yourself. However, you’ll want to make sure you’re aware of the reasons most new businesses fail. It won’t be easy, and you’ll still need to work hard in the beginning. You really have to love it and you really have to want it!

6. Investing
Investing can sound like a scary word, especially to beginners who have only ever put their spare cash into savings accounts. However, it’s essential if you want to ensure your financial health for the future and give yourself a chance at being truly wealthy! There’s a plethora of information out there that can help you to get started, and you only need to start small. You can even find apps like Moneybox to help you get started. The important thing is getting started and committing a portion of your earnings to investing regularly – then you’ll build up momentum and be able to learn as you go along. You’ll be glad you started now. The earlier you start, the more you can take advantage of compounding!

7. Smart Spending
Smart spending can sometimes be all it takes to help you make money outside of your 9-5. There are numerous ways you can do this. For example, by making sure you buy items that will enable you to make more money in the long run, like Disney DVDs that become more valuable once they are taken off the shelves (rather than items that lose value, like brand new cars). You can also spend smartly by using cashback sites when you buy, and you should be able to get a portion of what you spend back each time. Then you can try smart spending alongside the NFL betting guide or make a sports bet with any online site that gives you the opportunity to bet on real or imaginary games. Be warned about betting, however. Using this method comes with an element of risk that you should keep in mind, and you should be wary of if you have a gambling problem. However, if you are able to monitor your spending, you could win big if you bet wisely.

8. Create Online Courses
If you have a lot of knowledge and/or passion on a certain subject, how about creating online courses to help others learn? You can create courses about just about anything these days, and the great thing is, you only have to do the work once. The courses can sell again and again and you will continue to make money!

9. Write Ebooks
Ebooks can help you to make cash if you do some keyword research and figure out what people want to know about. Both fiction and non-fiction are an option, although you may need to write lots of ebooks to make a decent sum of money.

10. Start Your Own Ecommerce Business
Ecommerce businesses are extremely popular, and for good reason. Pretty much anybody can set one up using sites like Shopify, selling items that they feel passionate about.

11. Advertise On Your Car
There are companies that will pay you to have an advertisement for their business on your car. All you have to do is fill out a form stating where you drive and how much you drive, and any suitable offers will then be sent to you. The company will remove the ad when the campaign is complete and you will get paid. Easy!

Help Yourself To Help Recruit The Best Talent To Your Team

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. One of the most powerful things you can do for your operations is to hire the right talent to work for you. Identifying the right talent isn’t easy and separates the successful from the unsuccessful business. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Help Yourself To Help Recruit The Best Talent To Your Team.

* * *

Hiring the right people for your business, and then holding onto the right talent has not been tougher than it is now. With an aging population, in the coming years there aren’t going to be enough younger people (nine percent down), coming into the workforce to replace those retiring. So if someone did leave your business, it could be hard to replace them. Plus, when you recruit the right people, it really is what makes your business. They are the ones that are out there each day working to make the business a profitable one. So for many reasons, getting the right talent for your business and then doing enough to hold onto them is exactly what you want.

So with all of that in mind, here are some tips to help you to create a great workplace culture that will attract people to your role, as well as how to keep them wanting to work for you.

image

• Put Employees First

There has been plenty of research that has shown that if you want to recruit and keep the right people for the job, then you need to create a culture within your business that makes people want to work there. This doesn’t always have to mean things like the Google offices or give them slides instead of stairs. But your employees need to feel respected and valued at all times. Show this through how you conduct yourself, but also how you are interacting with others.

• Provide Training

If you are interviewing people, then being able to demonstrate what they can look forward to, and the different ways in which they can work their way up in the business. Talking about the training that you can offer is a good way to recruit the right people and those looking for longevity in their career within your business. But apart from that, there are so many other reasons why providing training is really important for your team. Take the threat of social engineering to businesses, for example. There are many threats online to businesses, and you are likely to have some aspects of your business online. But the human aspect of hacking is where businesses can fail. Social engineering, or things like phishing, is where problems could occur. So training your team for things like this can help the business to keep thriving, and in turn, help their career to carry on.

image

• Use Emotional Intelligence

One of the worst things that a small business can do when it comes to recruiting is disengaging with the hiring process. You can see why it isn’t going to be a good thing for your business, as when it is your business, why wouldn’t you want to be involved with the recruiting and let someone else do the recruiting for you?

Part of the process of recruiting should look at the employee’s emotional intelligence as well their skills, experience, and their intellectual capability. Studies have shown that IQ alone isn’t enough to show how well someone is going to do in a job. You need to look at their emotional intelligence as well and how they react in certain social situations. So as part of the recruitment process, don’t use qualifications alone. You could look to add in an emotional intelligence evaluation so that you can see how well they are going to fit into your business. The better they fit in, the more they are going to enjoy coming to work, and hopefully, the more they are going to want to stay working with you.

Being able to be flexible in the recruitment process is really important too. If you hire someone and it is working out well and they are fitting in well, but could be better suited to a different department, then move them around to other roles. Then they can experience more and it is likely to lead to longevity with your business if they can experience a variety of different things. This is because if you find someone that fits well with your company, you will want to find the right role for them that is going to help them to stick with you.

Communication is really key and it can make the difference, so make sure you are talking to your employees about what they want to be doing and where they see themselves in the years to come. There are no guarantees in life and business, of course, but putting in the effort with employees can really help.

What Could You Outsource In Your Business?

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Depending upon the time of business you’re running and its stage of development, outsourcing parts of its operations may be the way to grow to take it to the next level. The following contributed post is therefore entitled, What Could You Outsource In Your Business?

* * *

If you’re a business owner, you will be familiar with the idea of outsourcing. Whilst some people aren’t too fond of the idea, as it can take away some of your control as a boss, there are many benefits of outsourcing, and it can save you a lot of time and money. When it comes to handing over some of your work to those outside the office, there are many different services out there, and outsourcing is an ever-evolving market. If you’re interested in the services that could help you and your business, read on, as we have brought together some of the best examples here.

Image credit

Your website creation

Coding and updating your own website can be a difficult task for any business, especially if you don’t have the skills and experience to do these things yourself. Whilst you may think that going DIY is a good way for you to save a bit of money, your website is where all of your clients will go for information about your business, and if it isn’t up to scratch, they may question your professionalism and ability to do the job right. You only have one shot to make a good impression on people who are thinking of using your services, so ensure that it is perfect and outsource it to people who know all there is to know about website creation and coding, and you’ll be glad that you did.

Your IT services

When you think about how much time your employees spend on their computers, you’ll realise how catastrophic it could be if any problems occur with your IT. If your IT usually runs smoothly, and as such, you don’t need to employ somebody full-time to stay on top of it, you could benefit financially by outsourcing these services. Most IT companies will offer 24 hour support, so if any problems arise, they can be rectified straight away. They will also know about all of the latest software, and will usually implement these without even having to pay a visit to your office. If you want your company computers to run smoothly with little stress and low costs, look into these options.

Your phone calls

As a business owner, you’ll know how many phone calls you can receive each day, and it can be difficult to stay on top of all the other tasks that you have to do whilst constantly being interrupted by calls from clients. Of course, it is fundamental that you stay on top of these things, but you could benefit from outsourcing them to a different company. There are many virtual headquarters out there who can take your calls for you, answer them with the responses that you have provided, and forward the important messages directly on to you. This can save you a lot of money, as you won’t have to hire someone on a full-time basis to answer all of your calls.

Your payroll

Paying your employees, particularly if you have a large team, can take up a lot of your time, especially if you pay them weekly. Sitting there and going through all of the hours that people have worked can take up a lot of hours that you simply don’t have to give, so outsourcing may be a better alternative to keeping your payroll in-house. You also have to try and navigate the world of taxes and the regulations that come with paying your employees, which can be another stress that you really don’t need as a business owner. As with the other forms of outsourcing, this will help you to save the cash by avoiding the need to have a team member dealing with these issues.

So…

If you’re interested in the world of outsourcing, some of these services could help you to spend less as a business, and will save you and your employees a lot of time. You can stick to focusing on the things that really matter, and leave these difficult tasks to the professionals, so that you can get on with the more important duties that you have. From outsourcing your website creation to getting somebody else to answer your phone calls, there are plenty of services out there if you’re interested in saying goodbye to the mundane, and hello to business success with the help of some other companies. You’ll be glad that you did when you see the savings that you have as a result!

Try these different ways of outsourcing, and see how they could help you to achieve the business you’ve always dreamed of!

The Curse Of The One-Time Customer

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Repeat customers are the lifeblood of all businesses, and it’s critical to understand to have your customers return to your establishment time and again. The following contributed post is thus entitled, The Curse Of The One-Time Customer.

* * *

Repeat customers are crucial in business. They’re the most profitable customers you could hope for. They’re also most likely to promote you through word of mouth. If sites like www.bizjournals.com are anything to go by, customers who have been with you before are also liable to spend more.

Sadly, this isn’t a goal every business manages. In the starting stages especially, it isn’t unusual for sales to be a one-time thing. This is disheartening as it means continuing to spend a fortune on marketing at a time when every penny counts. But, this vicious cycle needn’t become your business reality. In truth, a trend in one-time buyers is often due to a few rookie mistakes. To ensure you don’t make them, we’re going to look at what they are, and how you can avoid them.

Too little follow up

Following up sales is crucial. At the very least, it helps you to collect reviews which show what you do right, and what you do wrong. From a repeat-custom standpoint, it’s also a fantastic way to remind customers you exist. Those first few customers might be a massive part of your business journey, but you’re just another company. The chances are that your shop was far from the only one they bought from that day. If you aren’t careful, then, you could fall off their radar even if they like what they got. By sending a review email, you nudge them into thinking about you again. All without having to outwardly advertise to them at all. With a bit of luck, that alone will get them back on your website looking for more.

Picture Credit

Too much follow up

In the same breath, too much follow up from a company is sure to be off-putting. As a rule, one email should be enough to cover you here. If you send more than that, you’re soon going to become a nuisance. Note, too, that even companies who only intend to send one email can often end up sending more. That’s because they haven’t dealt with a little something called data management. If your customer information is all over the place, customers may end up on more email lists than they should. This could result in a bombardment which ensures they never buy from you again. Don’t let it happen. Learn to manage customer data with the help of companies like profisee.com. That way, you can automate one follow up email and rest easy that it’s the only one which lands in your customer’s inboxes.

A stagnant business model

If a customer buys a product from you, there’s little chance that they’ll want to buy that same product again. At least, in the majority of cases. That’s why a business model which stagnates is never going to get people coming back. Instead, you need to think all the time about where to take your business next. The more developments you offer, the more opportunity there’ll be for repeat custom and increased success in the long-run.

Think Strategically About Remodeling Your Business Space

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success, and two key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Your business concept/idea is important but your business space is as well. The following contributed post discusses important considerations for your business space and is entitled, Think Strategically About Remodeling Your Business Space.

* * *

Picture by Laurie Shaw

Choosing to remodel the building or space where your business is based is on the plus side exciting, on the other hand, it can be quite an overwhelming task to behold. Unless you work in construction or have experience in the trade, knowing where to begin, what to do and how much it’s all going to cost may leave you feeling baffled.
To remodel your business space with confidence, take on board the below tips to think strategically when creating a plan of action to give your business space remodeling some much-needed structure.

Purpose Of Remodelling

Before you begin brainstorming ideas of what you would like to change in your business space, it’s firstly necessary to consider why you want the remodeling to take place. In doing so, you will have a purpose and an end goal to work towards. The leading causes owners tend to remodel are mainly due to the following;

• To take responsibility for repairs and replace old electric and pipe systems
• To adhere to health and safety regulations
• To add personality to your office in line with your brand
• To entice clients to your business
• To update or refresh tired, shabby decor
• To change the design of the office, e.g. to open plan
• To generate new departments as the company functions and processes change
• To improve employee productivity at work by creating an aesthetically pleasing environment
• To launch a new business image

The purpose you choose for changing your business space might include a few of the above. If so, note each point down and refer to this during the remodeling process to ensure you don’t deviate from the objective.

Budget-Friendly Ideas And Next Steps

With the aim confirmed, it’s now time to brainstorm ideas and solutions to meet this goal. This will be directly linked to your chosen purpose(s). For instance, if it’s a new office image to represent a new brand you seek, with an open office plan space and an environment that increases productivity for you and your employees, your ideas will be linked with this objective in mind. This could mean;

Idea – Knocking down any existing walls within the business space, bar toilet, and staff rooms.

Next Steps – Checking whether there are any load bearing walls or walls that have electrical wires and pipes running through. To obtain quotes from a few handymen to assess the work.

Idea – To replace the existing flooring for durable, hard-wearing, modern flooring, such as concrete.

Next Steps – This is a task that would logically take place after knocking the walls down. You would need a professional such as a concrete contractor, R&M concrete to assess whether the flooring you require is possible in your building and a quote for how much it will cost.

The remodelling plans for your business space should be thought through to assess if the work is both practically possible and affordable. If for instance, the ideas you devise are not cost-effective regarding the budget you have, you will need to think of alternative approaches to reach your objective. Solutions to this could be, choosing to remodel at a later date when you have the funds to put your ideas into action or applying for a business loan to put your plan into motion sooner.

How to Use Your Business Acumen To Help a Community

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Running a business isn’t all about making money in some instances. In some cases it’s important to consider how to better the community that your business is based in. The following contributed post is thus entitled, How to Use Your Business Acumen To Help a Community.

* * *

When it comes to running a business, you feel pretty confident about your abilities. You have several successful projects under your belt so far and you’re ready to add even more to your list. You take running your business extremely seriously, so when you think about a company that could genuinely help other people it makes you pretty excited. You want to use your business knowledge and acumen to help a community and create a truly worthwhile venture for once. Instead of being in it for the money, you’re ready to find new ways to make people in your community feel wanted and included.

Build a New Community Centre

One of the first ways in which you can make a difference in your local area, is by building a brand new community centre or church. Perhaps your village was involved in a natural disaster or the pride and joy of the town was destroyed by vandalism. This is the perfect opportunity to contact a church construction company, Daniels Construction and start a brand new project. Even if there is already a building in place, you can expand and reconstruct the current one in whatever way you wish. No matter what type of budget or time scale you are working to, you know you will be able to get the job done with a team of professionals on hand at all times.

Image

Start a Campaign to Help the Homeless

Now that your new commercial building project is underway, you might be able to start thinking about how you can give back. Why not start up a church group and invite the homeless to meet new people a couple of times a week? There are so many ways that you can give back to the people who are less fortunate than you. A soup kitchen or a career support group is also an excellent idea for your new community centre.

Give Troubles Youths a Chance

If you live in an area where you know there are a whole load of troubled teens, then you might just be able to help them out in life. Offer to give those troubled teens a little responsibility, which will allow some structure in their life. Whether they’re helping to make coffee in the church or cleaning up after an event, their parents will be grateful for you reaching out to those who are truly in need of a helping hand.

So if you have been doing some soul searching recently it’s time to start considering all of your options. Nowadays it can be very tricky to start up a business venture that is really going to have a positive impact on the people around you. Whether you’re building a new community church or you’re trying to volunteer locally, there are so many big ways that you can make a difference in your area. Being a business owner isn’t just about earning respect and making money; it’s about helping the people around you and understanding the importance of giving back.

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.

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!

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.