Category: Business/Entrepreneurship

Areas of Your Business to Invest in During the Pandemic

Three focuses of my blog is Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Organizational/Management Discussions. Many businesses will have to figure out how to course correct and rebound during the Covid-19 pandemic and in its aftermath. The following contributed post is entitled, Areas of Your Business to Invest in During the Pandemic.

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The coronavirus and Covid-19 pandemic has hit the majority of us pretty hard when it comes to business. Whilst the main tragedy of the pandemic has been health consequences, the economy and business have taken a battering too. Countless businesses have collapsed – whether that’s because they have been unable to operate while adhering to lockdown guidelines, or because people are more reluctant to spend their money when their own jobs are on the line. If your business has managed to make it this far, it’s important that you know where you should be investing your money to help to keep things afloat and to keep sales ticking over. Hopefully, some of the advice below will give you a few key areas to focus on!

Marketing

With many companies looking to cut costs, many are making the mistake of cutting marketing when many businesses need marketing now more than ever. It’s going to be hard to get people to part with their cash for non-essential purchases right now, but if you’re going to do it, marketing is going to play a key role. You need to create desire and appeal around your products, placing them in your target demographic’s view as regularly as possible to encourage them to actually purchase what you have to offer. Market is what will help to achieve this. Whether you carry out marketing in-house, or whether you are using a digital marketing company, some key areas to consider include:

● SEO campaigns
● PPC campaigns
● Email marketing campaigns
● Social media marketing campaigns
● Social media influencer collaborations
● Competitions and giveaways

Your Website

If you previously had a brick and mortar based business, chances are many of your sales were carried out in-store. You may have simply had a website as a complementary presence, but may never have invested all too much in it. But now, while people are trying to spend as much time as possible inside their homes, it really is the time to make sure that your website is the absolute best that it can be. This is now going to be the space where customers engage with your brand. It’s about so much more than simply listing your products for sale and seeing if people buy them. You need quality website design and user experience to ensure that people stay on your site, enjoy being on your site and will return to your site. Now, this advice applies to all businesses. Even if you have a restaurant or cafe, you may want to consider providing online orders to generate an income during these trying times. A website is important for every business right now. There are a number of professionals you should collaborate with to get your website up to scratch. We’ll explore a few below.

Website Designers

Website designers know what they’re doing. They know what works on a website. They know what doesn’t work. If you’re avoiding paying for a web designer’s services, it’s worth remembering that various studies have shown that many people decide whether they’re going to stay on a site or click the exit tab within a matter of seconds. You need to make your site look good to get people to stay. You need to make sure your site works to get them to engage with your brand or buy. A consultation with web designers will help to familiarise them with what you’re looking for. This can include information like your brand’s style, its branded colours, its typography, its logo and more. You can also ask for extra marketing features, like a mailing list sign up form, discount pop ups and much more.

Product Photographers

If you’re selling products, you’re going to need some pretty good product photography to make sure they stand out from the crowd. Remember that photos are almost all your customers have to decide whether they want to buy what you’re offering. It gives them a look at what’s on offer. Now, nowadays, many of us try to take product photos ourselves with our smartphones. While smartphone quality is getting better, it can’t mimic the eye, the skill and the expertise of a professional product photographer. Use a professional to display your products in the best light possible.

Copywriters

Copywriters can sell your products and your brand with words. They can craft an “about” page. They can write appealing product descriptions. They can write up FAQs. You name it, a copywriter will be able to take care of it. Never underestimate the power of words on your website.

Cybersecurity

Chances are that you and any of your staff are working from home right now. Cybercriminals are also aware of this and may target your business, identifying it as vulnerable. A switch to remote working can leave all sorts of areas open to attack as you and your team get used to mobile operations. This is why you really need to ramp up your cybersecurity. Again, there are a bunch of areas you can focus on here. These include:

● Making sure staff use approved devices
● Setting up a virtual private network (or “VPN”)
● Training yourself and staff on cybersecurity
● Implementing spam filters to block phishing emails

Product Development

While you may be trying to save money wherever possible, launching a new product could, in fact, make you the money you need to help stay afloat. You may have a product development plan that you’ve been clutching onto since the pandemic hit and if you do, now may be the time to revisit and see if it’s viable to put your product idea into production. Think about how much of an investment you’ll need to make vs the time you’ll need to launch it. If you’re ticking all of the right boxes, then it might be time to put your new product into production to help your business make more money.

Team Building

Any business owner is well aware that team spirit is often what keeps companies afloat during hard times. This can be difficult to maintain when everyone’s working from their own homes and nobody is in direct contact with one another. But it is possible to keep team spirit alive virtually. Make sure to invest in virtual team building in whatever ways possible. Invest in chat or instant messaging software so your team members can chat amongst themselves. Arrange zoom calls for meetings and catch ups. Check in on everyone regularly.

These are just a few areas you may be wise to invest in right now. Each has its own significant perks, so don’t cast any out immediately. Hopefully, some of these suggestions will really help your business to keep going during this difficult year!

Resurrect Your Business Post-Pandemic Using These 4 Ways

Three of the focuses of my blog are Current Events, Business/Entrepreneurship and Organizational and Management Discussions. Many businesses were levelled by the Coronavirus/Covid-19 Crisis/Pandemic while others were able to hang on, albeit by a thread. For this who have survived and in position to rebound, it’s important to have a plan of attack. The following contributed post is entitled, Resurrect Your Business Post-Pandemic Using These 4 Ways.

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Nobody knows when the COVID-19 pandemic will end. As a result, researchers and medical experts have suggested that we exist together with the virus for the time being since it could take several months or possibly years to develop an effective vaccine. This means adherence to social distancing protocol is expected to remain a part of the new normal. But what does this mean for businesses?

A recent report has proposed that close to 7.5 million small enterprises in the United States risk closing down in the next few months as COVID-19 continues to impose enormous business challenges. However, this could be considered as one of the many setbacks faced by businesses, and you may need to gear up for a comeback. Are you wondering how? These four tips should help your business to work its way back from the crisis.

1. Create a plan for the comeback

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Lack of proper planning can only compound your challenges further, therefore, you must develop a clear strategy that will guide you towards your targeted business goals. The list must be explicit on what must be done today to achieve the results you want tomorrow. Per the current situation, businesses are more focused on survival than growth. To develop a good plan, find answers to questions such as the following; what parts of the business are collapsing rapidly due to the crisis? What part of the company can I change to adapt to the times? In answering them, think deeply and broadly, and into the future.

2. Understand the impact of Covid-19 on business culture and identity

Just as the pandemic has affected different aspects of our lifestyle, it is very likely to impact business cultures and identity. Challenges can bring people together or likewise set them apart depending on their level of trust. This moment presents an excellent opportunity to view your business perspective and how it might evolve. How prepared is your business to handle this crisis? Will the pandemic unite people or set them apart? How different will they see your business post-pandemic? Your answers to these questions will inform what you can achieve after the pandemic.

3. Do you need to launch new products?

Like “Black Swan” events, the current pandemic has increased innovation and more resilient start-up businesses than before. What opportunities does the COVID-19 pandemic present? Growing challenges present businesses with ideas worth exploring, but in doing so, you need to set priorities to avoid starting multiple projects which will depend on the same limited resources. For example, COVID-19 has led to the increasing demand for protective equipment like face masks, hand sanitizers, and HDPE gloves. Several manufacturers have therefore shifted to PPE production for health workers and the general population, to combat the virus and keep their company afloat.

4. Are you ready to execute your plans and projects?

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Finally, it would be best if you considered the readiness of your business to start projects. Is your business prepared to take on and finish up new projects? You would have to consider the significant contrasts in preparedness at the individual, group, company, and public levels. Current available resources, coupled with the speed and dynamic processes required differ significantly, and these variations play a considerable role in determining whether or not you will succeed. Training is one thing that would prove helpful as a way of upgrading your business’ human resources.

Are You Making These Critical Home Business Mistakes?

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Not all businesses are traditional brick and mortar businesses and some of the most successful businesses are actually run out our personal homes. But are you running your home business correctly? The following contributed post is entitled, Are You Making These Critical Home Business Mistakes?

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These days, a lot more businesses are being run from the comfort of people’s homes. This isn’t just because of COVID-19. Working from home provides people with numerous benefits including great cost savings. However, to gain access to the key benefits you need to ensure that you are making the right decisions from day one. Here are some of the possibilities that you definitely need to keep in mind.

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Failing To Manage Your Tech

First, when you run a company from home, you must be aware that you will be completely reliant on tech. If your tech stops working then so too will your business and that’s an issue that you’re probably not prepared for. A lot of home business owners think that they can manage their own tech but this is almost always a mistake. Without managed IT services for small business, you are going to miss out on a lot of issues. You could even sustain a hack and it can take weeks for you to realize that this has actually occurred.

Forgetting To Set Up The Right Work Environment

Next, you need to think about your work environment. When you are running a business from home, then it’s easy to assume that you can run your company from anywhere in the property. While this is technically true, it’s probably not advised. For instance, the temptation will be to not even bother getting out of bed in the morning. If you try to work from your bed, then there’s a good chance that you’re not going to reach your full productivity potential.

Instead, you should make sure that you do have a full business office. It’s important to ensure that there aren’t too many distractions around you. Working with a TV in your room is a massive faux pas. Unless of course, you need to keep up with the news for your job.

You should also make sure that your tech is set up the right way too. It’s important that you don’t get distracted when using your tech. This is why blocking some of your favourite sites temporarily through the day can be a fantastic decision.

Failing To Invest In Marketing

Finally, when you run your business from home, you’re not going to have the same level of visibility as you would with a business office. This is why you need to make sure that you are investing in the services of a great marketing team. It’s also important to ensure that you are spending enough on marketing. On average, you should consider spending about 25% of your budget on marketing. This is true, regardless of whether you are running a small or large company from your home. In the first year, you should expect to spend at least three thousand on a digital marketing campaign.

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As you can see, there are numerous mistakes that you definitely do need to avoid when you are running a business from home. If you don’t take these into account then you could put your business at risk as well as your wellbeing.

Opening Your Restaurant Safely During COVID-19

Three focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Current Events. One of the many adverse sectors adversely impacted by Covid-19 is the restaurant industry. Proprietors have been able to reopen with specific safeguards in place and adapting as time progresses. The following contributed post is entitled, Opening Your Restaurant Safely During COVID-19.

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There are some places in the world that are opening their restaurants and cafes and trying to get back to normal. In the current pandemic climate, opening the doors to anywhere to “get back to normal” doesn’t feel possible. The good news is that there are plenty of things that you can do as a restaurant owner to make sure that your restaurant is COVID safe. The problem is that people are being given mixed signals by the government about what to do.

As a business owner, you want people to feel comfortable coming into your establishment, which means that you need to do everything that you can to show them that you are confident about your service and how you are handling the pandemic. Most people will find that they won’t eat in restaurants at this time, and ideally, you will be offering a delivery service to keep business afloat. If not, it’s time to offer this as a service and appeal to the masses. Other than this, here are some things that you can do to stay safe with your restaurant opening at this time.

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Offer Outdoor Seating
If you have the space and the permission, one of the best things that you can do to show people that you are minimizing risk is to open seating outdoors. The risk of contracting the virus is lower outdoors, and there can be more space between tables if you have a garden or front yard space to fill with tables and chairs. You could always keep it bistro-style, too, where the tables outside are for those with a coffee and a pastry rather than full dinners. Advertise this service online, so that people coming to your establishment know that there are options to not be cooped up inside.

Arrange A Booking-Only Policy
It’s nice to pop into a restaurant without a booking, but with a pandemic, it will be better for your business to have people only allowed in if they book in advance. When they do this, you can plan the seating better to keep people socially distanced. Offer a texting service, too, so that people who have a booking can be reminded the day before.

Set Up Hand Sanitizer Stations
Outside the restaurant, encourage patrons to use hand sanitizer. Add some to the bathrooms and have an indoor station for on the way out of the restaurant, too. Don’t allow staff to wear gloves, as these can transfer bacteria when they’re not changed after every use.

Invest In Cleaners
You can ask that your current cleaning company is retrained to handle the deeper clean that COVID demands, but you can also hire professionals. Commercial cleaners like HOODZ need to be on standby to do the deeper clean in the kitchen, and you will be able to guarantee to your patrons that you are meeting all health regulations in the light of this pandemic. They should come in frequently to ensure the kitchens are up to cleaning standards at all times. You must be strict about this and include it in your budget.

Offer Masks To Staff
While your patrons do not have to wear masks while they eat, your staff absolutely do. Wait staff and kitchen cooks need to have masks on so as to avoid transmission of any bacteria. It also ensures that people feel confident eating in your restaurant. If they can visibly see that you are taking the pandemic seriously, they are more likely to recommend your site.

Ensure Good Ventilation
The bigger the space, the better the ventilation in the premises. Remove some tables to create that space if necessary. This will give people more room and they won’t be elbow to elbow with people at the next table over.

Promote Social Distancing
Where possible, guests need to be far apart from each other. Whether you are inside or outside with your restaurant, create enough space for social distancing to be possible. While this pandemic is still happening, you need to think of everything that you can do to stick by the rules as set forth by the health ministers.

You want to continue to set an example for your customers as much as possible. Business continuity is so important, and you can ensure that people are comfortable with your approach and set a good example for the community, too. Your business needs to be seen to play by the rules – and it will keep everyone safe when you do.

Make Your Employees Happy With These Tips

Three focuses of my blog are Business/Entrepreneurship, Organizational and Management Discussions and Workplace Discussions. Regardless of the organization that you’re running, employee happiness is critical. Management should thus always consider this as it impacts overall productivity and recruitment of new talent. The following contributed post is entitled, Make Your Employees Happy With These Tips.

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There are so many things that you have to do as a business owner to keep you business afloat, but one of the most important of them all is keeping your staff happy. If you’re not looking after your people, then they aren’t able to look after your business. It works as a team when you hire staff; you support one another and you keep them in your thoughts when you are making plans to alter the business or improve things.

Making your employees happy has to be a priority for you. Get it right, and you get a great team of people who are happy to work for you for years. Do it wrong, and you will be revisiting your HR software to figure out who you can hire next! Happiness is important in the people who spend their time in your business doing everything possible to make ends meet. So, with that in mind, here are some of the best ways you can make your employees happy!

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  1. Plenty of money goes a long way and if you are offering an attractive salary, you’re going to claw in attractive talent to work for you. We’re not talking offering minimum wage: minimum wage may be legal, but it’s certainly not liveable! You need to think about what they need to survive and do more than that. These people spend upwards of eight hours a day in your business – make it worth it for them to be away from their families.
  2. Building a company culture that thrives on fun and happiness is so important. You want to make sure that you are able to make people feel relaxed and at ease when they spend time with your time. You need to do more than beanbags in the break room, too. Reflect the goals of your staff in what you can offer them, and help them with their positive work environment. Encourage people to work together and as a team – even with other departments! A collaborative working environment makes people feel trusting, builds good relationships and fosters a more positive working environment.
  3. Where you can, offer as many opportunities to develop your staff. Yes, you will likely lose them to other companies one day but that doesn’t mean that you can’t work with them on their goals while they are working with you. Training, education, formal degrees and more could change the way your staff work.
  4. Do what you can for the wellbeing of your staff. Things like fun days out, meals, company games night and more can foster a sense of fun in the workplace, and this can go a long way to enhancing the wellbeing of your staff. Another way to enhance their wellbeing is to ensure that your people have a good work-life balance. They need to feel empowered and trusted, and you can make that happen with flexible working and giving them the freedom to work remotely.

The happier your staff, the better they work – it’s a no brainer!

How To Estimate Construction Costs

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If you’re in the construction business, a key to your success will be estimating and managing costs. Doing so will ensure that your jobs are profitable. The following contributed post is entitled, How To Estimate Construction Costs.

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If you are considering renovating your property, there are costs around every corner. Particularly if it is a large property which requires a lot of work, there is much to be done to budget your renovation without missing anything out. Working out the costs of labor, materials and time constraints takes organization and time, as well as patience and professional consultation. Here are some criteria to consider when planning construction work on your property!

The Nature of the Renovation

All renovations are unique in their needs, and in order to find an accurate estimate, you will first need to understand the nature of the renovation you want to undergo. Carefully plan what exactly needs to be done for the renovation, and the desired effect you want to achieve. In order to do this accurately, it is best you consult a contractor who can explain all that would need to be done for each stage of the renovation and how much it might cost.

The Materials

Many people are surprised by the cost of raw materials needed for a large renovation. Depending on the type of wood, metal and other materials you will need for the renovation, you may be charged less for a bulk amount of the material, and may be given discounts or deals based on the contractor you go through. Wood costs and the amount of wood needed are shown using Lumber Takeoffs which are professionally estimated by experts. This will give you the best accuracy for understanding how much material you will need, and how much it will all eventually cost.

Manpower

Of course, any construction work will need manpower to implement it. Your contractor will help estimate how many construction workers you will need to complete the renovation, and for how long they will need to work. Manpower is a significant part of the operation which is often included in the price of construction, depending on the company you use.

Collateral Budget

In any construction work, things go awry that were unexpected. Perhaps the right materials are not available at a certain time, or something like the COVID-19 pandemic comes along and shuts the place down. Whatever it may be, your budget needs to include some money for collateral costs which you did not plan for. Without it, you could be stuck halfway through a construction project with no way of finishing it. This can be a nightmare scenario for any property owner who just wants to get the job done.

Conclusion

Construction costs do not have to sneak up on you when you least expect. While this happens much of the time, with proper organization and professional consultation, you can get an accurate estimate of your renovation costs which doesn’t leave you surprised and disappointed when the time comes to pay up.

3 Ways To Prevent Your Ideas From Being Stolen

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If your business involves the creation of some sort of ‘intellectual property’, it’s critical that you protect it as there are thieves who will readily steal it from you in order to profit from it themselves. The following contributed post is entitled, 3 Ways To Prevent Your Ideas From Being Stolen.

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Good ideas are rare to find – especially if they’re unique. If you’ve come up with an excellent idea, the last thing you need is for it to be stolen. People have their ideas taken from them all the time. Even if someone gets a portion of your idea, they can take it and run. So, how do you stop this from happening? In an age that’s full of technology – and everything is connected – can you stop people from stealing your ideas?

The short answer is, yes, you can. It involves a bit of legal work, and there are other steps you should also take before reaching the legal stages. Here are the three ways you can protect your ideas from being stolen:

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Get a copyright

Copyright law basically means that you own the rights to something that others can’t copy. Typically, this refers to intellectual property – like product designs, brand names, etc. I don’t think you can get a copyright for things like general business ideas, but you should speak to intellectual property lawyers just in case. Regardless, you need to copyright key parts of your idea that other people can steal. If you’ve come up with a new product, be sure you have a copyright on all of the designs. So, if someone manages to get a glimpse of them, they can’t use your ideas. If they do, you have the power to sue them and gain a lot of money.

Avoid conducting business on unsecured networks

The strict security layer enhanced by the norton vpn review makes it one of the best private networks you should consider using. Utilizing open WiFi can be less stressful with this network system since you will be less worried about losing personal metadata. You can also enjoy working from any place because it boosts your ability to keep business communications private. Its benefits extend beyond security and privacy to offering a chance for business cost reduction by lowering communication and support charges.

Have you ever gone to a coffee shop and started doing work on your laptop? Perhaps you’ve created documents with business ideas on them; maybe you’ve emailed some thoughts to colleagues? In doing so, you put all of your ideas at risk due to the unsecured network. Coffee shops – and other public places – offer free WiFi for people to use. The downside of it being free is that it’s an open network for anyone to use. There’s no security, making it easy for a hacker to see what you’re doing. Who knows if someone is watching your every move and subtly stealing all of your knowledge? It’s best to conduct business on a secured network at all times. Password protected networks are the best, but you can add another layer of security with a VPN. Often, a VPN will also let you use open WiFi networks with more protection.

Keep your circle small

Don’t shout about your business ideas to everyone and anyone. It’s tempting, but you need to keep your circle as small as can be. Only tell people that you can trust. Otherwise, all it takes is for one person to say something to their friend, and then their friend tells someone else, and pretty soon, your idea has been stolen. Keep things under wraps until you can register trademarks and get copyrights.

All of these points are valid, but the second one deserves lots of attention. It’s so easy for a hacker to break into your computer and find all of your valuable information. They do it for fun, but they can see your idea and sell it to someone for a lot of money. Always take precautions when you’re online, and don’t forget the other two tips as well.

Finding A Niche For Your Restaurant

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Many people want to start restaurants, but even if you’re a great chef with stellar recipes, you still have to find your niche. The following contributed post is entitled, Finding A Niche For Your Restaurant.

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Looking for a way to attract more business to your restaurant? The answer might not be to try and cater to everyone but to instead find your niche.

If you’re competing with lots of other restaurants in your area, you need to find yourself a unique identity. Targeting a niche might limit the types of new customers you get through your door, but it could also grow the amount of return customers. This is because you’re creating a unique experience that these customers can only go to you for. Below are just a few ideas for carving out a niche.

Consider untapped demographics

Is there a specific group of people in your area in need of a restaurant like yours? This could be one place to start. A few large demographics that can sometimes go untapped include:

· Families with young kids
· Dog owners
· Customers with specific dietary requirements (e.g. vegans, customers with gluten intolerance)

You could decide to really home in on one of these niches. For instance, if your demographic is families with young kids, you could look into commercial swing set parts and create your own playground or build a unique kids’ menu. The more you focus on a niche, the more you risk of alienating people not in that niche, so decide whether there’s really enough customers locally within that niche to make it your full focus.

Give your restaurant a theme

You may be able to carve out a niche by giving your restaurant a unique theme. The most basic form of this is targeting a specific type of cuisine from a certain part of the world such as Chinese food or Italian food. However, if you’re setting up a restaurant in a city, you may find that there are already Chinese and Italian bistros in the area, meaning that you’ll need to come up with an even more specific theme to stand out.

If your premises is a historical building or is located in a historic area, you may be able to incorporate the history into the theme. If you’ve got a certain hobby that you’re passionate about such as movies or sports or cars, then you could even turn this into the theme. This theme could be incorporated into everything from the food to the décor to your visual branding.

Make it more than a restaurant

You may be able to market your restaurant as more than a place to eat and drink. For instance, it could also serve as a music venue for local musicians to play in. You could set up a shop on the side for people to buy books or clothes. You could even host cooking classes there, or let other people hire out the event for parties and functions. This dual purpose is certain to serve as a USP and could help you to build a loyal fanbase that benefits from both of these purposes.

Are You Ready For Catastrophe?

Three focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship, and Organizational/Management Discussions. In addition to earning profits and operating as efficiently as possible, smart businesses must foresee potential catastrophes. Having contingency plans in place can allow you to survive while other businesses perish. The following contributed post is entitled, Are You Ready For Catastrophe?

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Did you know that a quarter of all companies are unable to continue their business after a catastrophe? Their lack of preparedness stops them from being able to recover effectively enough to enable them to continue to earn a profit and keep the doors open. Large-scale natural disasters are difficult to overcome, which is why you need to be as ready as possible for any disaster that could befall your business.

It’s common to think that most larger disasters won’t ever happen to your business, but they do. Both natural and man-made disasters happen all the time, and on top of those, there are terrorists, business interruptions, hackers and more – great, right? The best thing that you can do is ensure that you are prepared for any number of these disasters to happen to your business. Preparation is the key to avoiding failure, and given that the aftermath of major disasters happen to be business-killers, you need to be ready for the “after” as much as you do to prevent things from happening in the first place. You can get more info about how to back up your power, how to save your documents and how to have a storm shelter for your business, but there are so many more things that you should do for your business. So, here are a few things that you can get started with!

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● Get Insurance. Your business, no matter how big or small it is needs insurance. Without insurance, you’re putting your business at risk of not being able to come back from catastrophe. You have to choose the insurance that covers you for all kinds of financial losses, and you should also consider business interruption insurance for things that can close roads, ports and airports – all of these things can stop your business from continuing, which you really do not need.
● Invest In Great IT. There is a bank of cloud-based software out there and it’s recommended that you have a great IT company working with you to back up all of your business files. If your IT systems get damaged in a fire, flood or hurricane, you need to be able to access the information from those computers.
● Plan For Remote Working. If you have something happen to your business, you need to know that you can continue to work. A hurricane can take your office building, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t work. Remote working and communication with staff are both important, and you can do this without an office building. Sure, it’s an inconvenience, so make sure that you have a back up plan to a destroyed office. Remote working is that back up plan.
● Emergency Training. Being ready for catastrophe isn’t always easy but if your staff are well-trained in health and safety and emergency measures, then you will all be able to work together to ensure that you are responding in the right way to any emergency that comes up. The emergency training you provide your staff will change the way you handle any disaster in future.

Maximizing Efficiency For Your E-Commerce Business

Three focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. In our new digital world, much of the commerce is done online. Even with the efficiencies already built into e-commerce, you want to make sure you’re going everything you can. The following contributed post is entitled, Maximizing Efficiency For Your E-Commerce Business.

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It’s been reported that e-commerce is the fastest-growing global retail channel through 2022. It is currently on course to become a larger retail channel than traditional grocery retail. Within the e-commerce space, the grocery sector looks set to be the fastest-growing area. E-commerce is changing how people shop for virtually everything.

One of the most important and fundamental aspects of the growth in e-commerce is convenience. Online retail allows customers to quickly and easily browse and shop. The buying process standards have increased to the extent that customers can make purchases using a single click. Consumers now have very high expectations when it comes to online purchases. A clunky website layout can be enough for someone to abandon their cart. In the era of next day delivery, e-commerce businesses must optimize operations.

Efficiency is becoming one of the most crucial elements of an e-commerce strategy. By prioritizing efficiency, companies can improve processes that ultimately lead to increased profitability in the long-term.

If you’re focusing on maximizing the efficiency of your e-commerce business, here are four key strategies you must consider implementing.

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1. Step up your digital marketing efforts

Digital marketing is the most crucial factor in promoting your e-commerce business. Ads must target specific customer segments, encouraging them to view your site or make purchases. Ensure that your adverts are keyword enabled and choose a strategy that’s best suited to your business. Consider cost per click (CPC) and pay per click (PPC) as two major advertising routes.

While there are many advertising and marketing options out there, e-mail is still one of the most important ways to advertise and grow.

By focusing on high-level digital strategies, you can concentrate on other areas of business with peace of mind that marketing is optimized.

2. Use a mail fulfillment service

Fulfillment efficiency can be the difference between retaining customers or losing them in the long-term. Logistics is tricky, particularly when you’re in competition with larger and more established companies. By outsourcing your marketing material fulfillment to a company such as Action-mailing.com, you can benefit from an existing specialized service, maximizing efficiency.

3. Focus on mobile customers

Modern companies must increase their focus on mobile customers. With increased reliance on smartphones, as well as the continued growth of social media, mobile customers are taking over a larger percentage of sales when it comes to e-commerce.

The company website, buyer journey, and purchasing process must be optimized for mobile customers. Advertising and marketing content must also take mobile customers into consideration. This makes for a more efficient sales process.

4. Utilize the data

No matter your industry, data should be used to gain insights into the effectiveness of your strategies. By utilizing the data provided by your website, social media channels, and digital advertising, you can spot opportunities to improve operations.

Pay attention to the data and look for ways to improve efficiency in all business functions. If the analysis tells you that customers are abandoning their carts on the second or third checkout page, perhaps you should consider streamlining the process to make it more efficient. SEOpressor.com put together a list of key tools to determine e-commerce performance.

Let data drive decision making and guide you toward being a more efficient business.