Category: Business/Entrepreneurship

Could You Face Hosting A Big Business Event?

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If you’re a business owner, at some point, you might want to host a ‘business event’. If you do it right, it could result in growth for your operations. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Could You Face Hosting A Big Business Event?

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Hosting a business event is taking your business to another level. It’s dipping your toes into the big side of the business world, but there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t be doing it. Hosting a business event gets you the exposure you need within the business world, and your niche that you might be struggling to dominate at the minute. But that’s not to say that it isn’t super hard to do, and that you’re not going to have your troubles along the way that might stop you from being able to host something like this. But if you do pull it off, you will have a wealth of custom coming your way, and a status in the business world that you didn’t have before. But there are a few things that you need to iron out first, which luckily we’re on hand to help you out with. Here’s how you can face hosting a business event, and the things you should be looking out for!

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The Fundamentals

There are some fundamentals that you really need to get right if you’re going to pull something like this off, and one of them is the location. A prime location would be in a business orientated city at a place known for hosting business events. The location alone can attract certain people that you need there. You then need to think about the vibe of the event. If you want it to be successful, you’re going to have to throw a business event that’s modern and innovative. You should have interactive stations all around, as well of course as the option for other businesses to have their own stand. Tickets and businesses wanting stands are the main ways that you’re going to make your money back from this. You also need to try and secure sponsors. Sponsors equal publicity and funding, so definitely something that you want on your list.

Little Things You Don’t Want To Forget

There are some finer details of a business event that we feel some hosts miss, yet could make all the difference to the view of the event. Things like having an ATM machine ready for the people attending to use, so that they don’t have to walk out of the event to find a cash point. You’ll often find ATM rentals for the day are not too expensive either! Good food sources and drinks is also essential. There’s nothing worse than a room full of people who are thirsty and hungry. Guest speaks are also essential. You need to have something informative and not based on selling, because there will be smaller companies attending the trade show who are just looking to gather as much information as possible.

Things You Need To Be Looking Out For

The main thing we think you need to be looking out for, is financial troubles. People put on business and trade events in the hope that they’re going to boost their finances in the end, and end up getting into debt to try and put on an event. You should always make sure you’re going to make a profit out of this, not a loss!

The Benefits Of Adding Manufacturing Elements to Your Business

Three of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. When you start your business, you may not be ready early on to start a manufacturing component. Once it gets further along, the time may come to do it. It’s important to understand the manufacturing element. The following contributed post is therefore entitled, The Benefits Of Adding Manufacturing Elements to Your Business.

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Manufacturing is one element of your business that at first you may prefer to outsource. When you start out, you look to simplify processes, and manufacturing your own products may have just been a step too far. Not just with the initial set up costs, but the outlay of the production line etc. However, once your business becomes established, there could come a time when you could consider the added benefits of manufacturing in your business. Here are some of the things to think about.

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You have complete control

One of the major benefits of adding a manufacturing element to your business is that you have complete control. Not only in the process of actually making the products, but it is also a chance to have control when it comes to the quality aspect. You have to think about the fact that when this is outsourced, you have no control over what is produced and how it is produced. But doing it yourself means you can learn how to ensure that the processes are followed correctly.

Invest in technology

You may not realise what you have available to you when it comes to outsourcing the manufacturing side of things, so you might want to think about the fact that you can invest in different technology. Things such as RNA Automation and other advancements in different technology could help you increase the speed of the manufacturing process, or even increase the level in terms of logistics.

The chance to change things

If you are in control of the manufacturing side of things, you can then control the chance to make changes as and when you want to do. If you do decide to leave your manufacturing outside of your control, then changing things can take much longer to implement. Whereas if you do have the control, then you can make the changes as and when you want to. Sometimes as a business, you may want to make tweaks and changes, or even offer custom designs if your business can do that. So this ends up being a great asset to your business.

Reduction of costs in the long term

It may take some investment when it comes to costs. But in actual fact you may be able to reduce the costs overall in the future. Not just in terms of taking the control, but also the reduction of things such as logistics. You save on the transportation costs, from the dispatch between the factory and you for delivery, so making that saving could work in your favour in the future.

As a marketing tool

Finally, a big benefit to you as a business would be as a marketing tool. You can ensure that people realise that not only is the product good, and that the dispatch might be quick or timely,but it is also produced by you, in the country that you reside in. This can be a big marketing and advertising benefit as people tend to want to purchase things that are authentic to you as a brand. You can use this detail in your social media promotion, as well as in other advertising methods.

Let’s hope this has encouraged you to consider some of the benefits manufacturing could add to your business venture.

Taking Care of Contamination Inside The Medical Factory

A key focus of my blog is STEM. While we tend to focus most of our attention on the practitioners, a major part of the Healthcare Industry is the manufacturing. With the products being intended for use on patients, it’s critical that they have no contamination and be as sterile as a possible. The following contributed post is therefore entitled, Taking Care of Contamination Inside The Medical Factory.

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When it comes to healthcare, most of us think about family doctors or hospital staff. Some may even spare a brief thought for those in research labs. Either way; we always tend to reach for obvious choices. That’s because they’re the positions which have most impact on the experiences we have when we go to our local health facilities. Many people forget that there’s also manufacturing involved in every aspect of health care. From the machines used to treat us to the medicine we take; someone has to make it in the first place. And, it’s this neglected manufacturing process which we’re going to focus on today.

If you’re interested in health care without the patients, this could be the ideal career solution for you. Even better, the fact that this side of the business so often gets forgotten means that you could soon become a forerunner in the industry. At least, you could if you remember one important factor.

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Let’s face it; factories are usually pretty messy places. We’re talking oily hands and overalls which haven’t seen the wash in weeks. On a medical manufacturing line, though, hygiene is everything. If you approach your factory with a mess in mind, you’ll soon find yourself shut down with lawsuits on your hands.

Luckily, there are steps you can take to prevent that happening. First, let go of that messy mechanic idea you have of how your factory should be. Then, consider the following ways to make sure your health care factory is as clean as a doctor’s surgery would be.

Are you working to FDA standards?

The biggest thing you need to bear in mind is that the FDA have strict regulations for anyone manufacturing medicines of any kind. The Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMPs) should be the first port of call for anyone looking to break into this industry. You need to know the rules inside out to ensure that your factory and processes are as clean as they can be. In many ways, you may also find that this guideline helps you to get going in the first place. In short, CGMPs ensure that every process and method you have in place works towards a safe and reliable product. These guidelines are essential when you consider that you as the manufacturer can’t necessarily ensure product quality any other way. While testing is also essential, it’s not a sure-fire way to ensure quality across the board. But, CGMPs are. Once you’ve done your homework and built a safe space for production, it’s essential that you get an FDA member to approve what you’re doing. They’ll be able to pick out both what you’re doing right, and what you’re getting wrong. That alone can be a huge help in your battle against contamination.

The equipment you use

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It is also worth bearing in mind the equipment you choose. This can both help you to keep everything sterile and pose a risk of its own. First, consider whether production equipment meets with the standards mentioned above. Machinery which makes life easy is crucial in any factory, but it’s even more critical in yours. That’s because fast and machine-focused processes are your best chance at keeping things clean. You want regular sanitation along your production line, with air blowers which can dry products fast after they’ve been disinfected. You also want machines which package your products for you without risk of contamination along the line. More than being useful additions, machines like these are essential for a safe production line. You also want to make sure that you’re sanitising your machines themselves. That means cleaning them regularly, and even keeping certain devices covered when not in use. If your team also rely on one-use items along the way, you should keep these in sterile packaging until your team come to need them each day. You need to think, too, about the equipment required for your products themselves. These are at the worst risk of contamination because they come into your factory from outside. It’s worth ordering separately packaged items in coatings which you remove the moment they arrive. You can then carry all products into your warehouse, safe in the knowledge that they’re sanitary. All the better to ensure you aren’t bringing contaminants into your space.

The staff involved

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Speaking of bringing contaminants into your space, you also need to think about your staff. They are, after all, the only outside factor aside from your production materials. The first thing you need to do is make sure that they’re well trained in the health and safety aspects of what you do. You may find it beneficial to hire those who have worked in similar fields before. That way, you guarantee that they already understand at least some of your processes. It’s also worth putting every team member through intensive FDA-approved training before letting them into your factory space. On top of all those precautions, you also need to consider the uniforms you provide. As we mentioned at the start of this post, the majority of warehouses involve scruffy overalls and hi-vis jackets. Whatever happens, you need to make sure you aren’t making that mistake. The clothes your staff members wear in this space need to be as sanitary as everything else. That means newly washed items every single working day. You should also consider sterile covering for everything from hair to shoes. Your staff may end up looking like they’re dressed for surgery, but these are necessary precautions. Think how much harm even one misplaced hair could do. It could see your factory shut down, that’s for sure, and isn’t a risk worth taking.

As you can see, a lot goes into keeping a factory like yours safe and sanitary. As much as they sound like hard work, these processes will soon become second nature to you and your team. Then, you can enjoy what you do without having to worry all the time that it’s about to blow up at you.

Protecting Your Employees

The first principle of my blog is Create Ecosystems of Success, and two of its key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. When running any organization or business, it’s critical to protect your employees. Doing so will not only help assure their loyalty, but it will also help improve their productivity. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Protecting Your Employees.

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As an employer, whether of one person or a thousand, you have responsibilities. You are responsible for creating safe and trustworthy products. For taking care of your customers and providing a service. You’re often responsible for dealing with complaints, for coming up with new ideas and motivating your staff, on top of your everyday jobs and tasks. One of your key responsibilities is to your team. Looking after them, keeping them safe, ensuring that they are happy at work, and fairly treated.

Many employers neglect this particular responsibility. They are too worried about the growth of their company. They invest time in products and services and assume that their team will look after themselves, especially if there aren’t many of them. This is a mistake. Protecting your staff and looking after their interests isn’t just good for them; it can also help to boost your business. Well cared for staff are often loyal. They are hard working and creative. If you give your team your time, they’ll be more likely to go the extra mile and give their all. It can be great for business while reducing turnover and cutting recruitment and training costs.

How you protect your staff will, of course, depend on the nature of your business and their specific roles and needs. But, here are some more general tips to help you.

Take Care of Your Equipment

If your business is office based and doesn’t use any special equipment for machinery, this isn’t something that you need to worry about. But, if it does, these items can cause injury or even illness. The risks are increased if the equipment is damaged, dirty or otherwise unable to work at its best. Take the time to have any equipment or machinery regularly serviced and get any issues dealt with as quickly as possible. If you use hot ovens or kilns in your business, invest in a high temperature camera so that you can complete safety checks yourself. Sometimes this can mean not using something until it’s fixed, but it’s worth it if everyone is safe.

Risk Assessments

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Even if you are office based, risk assessments are an essential part of keeping everyone safe and protected. Even an office with a few chairs, computers and shelves has risks. You just need to find them. Print off some risk assessment sheets and walk around your workplace, as well as any secondary work sites or vehicles, and identify risks. Even smaller ones like heavy lifting, trips and slips and reaching high shelves. Assess the risk and think of ways to minimise it. For smaller risks, it might merely be a case of using wet floor signs when cleaning and teaching team members how to lift correctly. Make sure you complete separate assessments for pregnant or injured employees who might face greater risks or need changes to their job.

Train Them

Staff training is the best way to keep your team safe. They should be thoroughly trained to do their jobs well, with detailed instruction on anything that could cause them harm. Many businesses make the mistake of training staff once and then leaving it. Offer regular refresher training, and extra team sessions when something changes.

How To Make Your Online Store a Success

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. Setting up an online store is much different than setting up a traditional bricks and mortar store. For an online store, you must become savvy in terms of technology in addition to marketing. The following contributed post is thus entitled, How To Make Your Online Store a Success.

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If you love retail and decided to create an online store instead of investing in a brick-and-mortar shop, you are up against a huge competition. It is important that you are able to make the most out of your reach, engagement, and productivity, and automate processes that would take you too long to complete. There are several things to pay attention to before you launch your store, such as market positioning, competition, and customer behavior. Find out more below.

Market Research

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It is important that you pay attention to your market research and get to know your target market. This doesn’t only apply to your potential clients, but also your competition. It is crucial that you find out about the best methods to penetrate the market and find the gap you can fill. Look for profitable underserved markets and position yourself in a smart way in the marketplace. There are so many free market research tools you can utilize, such as Google Surveys or downloadable industry reports.

Name

Your business name has to be memorable and catchy, also give out the right message about what you stand for. It might be a good idea to create a mission, vision, and values statement before you would create a logo and brand name, so you can fully align it with your target market’s. After you have created your market research file, you will be able to identify your ideal client, and choose your brand name based on their characteristics. Be careful when choosing a brand name, as it can lower the value of your brand.

Brand Image

Once you have your brand name, you can start working on your brand image, too. You should be consistent when it comes to your social media accounts, your logo, and your website, but most importantly – develop your unique brand voice. Listen to your audience and their feedback, find out what they are looking for when searching for similar products and how they choose who to buy from.

Website

Of course, if you want to launch an online store, you will need to pay attention to your web development and design. You have to make it user friendly and engaging. You need to communicate the benefits of your products, not only the features. This is where many startup online store owners make a mistake. You need to gain people’s trust as well before you can convince them to give your products a try.

Shopping Cart Software

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While the design and functionality of your website is important, you will need to ensure that your infrastructure is easy to use and tailored to your customers’ needs. If you don’t know where to start, you will need to talk to seo agencies that optimize Shopify stores so you can get enough traffic and conversion. You want your visitors to quickly find what they are looking for, add them to their basket, but you might even design a system that recommends similar or complementary products so you can maximize your sales opportunities.

Social Media

You might have already heard about Pinterest success for online stores, but you will have to make the most out of your social media reach and use different platforms. It might be challenging to keep on top of all your posts and monitor the performance of all your accounts, especially if you are busy running your own business. You might want to automate your social media so you can make the most out of your reach and get a snapshot of your statistics, to find out what type of content your audience engages with.

Review Sites

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If you want your website visitors to trust you, it is important that you get listed and featured in online directories and on review sites. People want to know that you are keeping your promises and they can get a good service. They are more likely to listen to other people’s recommendations and reviews than your own marketing messages, so it is crucial that you implement these features in your social media and your website, too. After all, your shop’s reputation is one of the most valuable assets in your business.

Starting an online store is hard work, and there is no guarantee of success. However, you can do your research and get to know the industry, your competition, and the available technology to scale up your operation and make continuous improvements that will improve your traffic, engagement, and sales conversions at the same time.

Productivity Fails That Are Eating Your Business’s Profits

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. When you start a business, it’s important to manage productivity as best you can so you can maximize profits. In order to do so, it’s important to think about where your productivity can be diminished. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Productivity Fails That Are Eating Your Business’s Profits.

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In the business world, time is money, and that means if your business is not spending your time in the right way, it ultimately impacts your overheads and so your profits. To that end, it is absolutely crucial that you avoid as many productivity fails as you possibly can. A topic you can read more about on the post below.

Emails

Emails are an excellent form of communication, in some cases. One of these cases is not between the employees that work in the same office or building. In fact, emails after a lousy way for people like that to communicate because they often cause more confusion and take up additional time in clarification that walking three desks over and actually asking the person would.

To that end, be sure to implement a no or minimum internal emails policy in your business. You may just be pleasantly surprised at the positive impact this can have on productivity.

IT fails

Few successful businesses work without IT these days, and in most cases, digital tech is integrated into every stage of a company’s process. This is fantastic for the most part because it speeds things up, allows users access to more information, and automates tasks, so they don’t have to be done by humans. Something that can actually improve productivity because it frees up staff to focus on critical responsibilities.

However, it also means that your entire business is dependent on your IT network being up and running effectively. Something that means when it does go down you can expect massive problems with productivity company-wide.

Happily, there is a way that you can prevent this from even becoming an issue, and it’s by ensuring that you proactively monitor your network.

In fact, network monitoring can pick up any issues before they become major ones and slow down your employee’s work. Something that can save you from having to deal with countless hours of downtime and increase your business productivity, and so your profits no end.

Workaholic culture

Believe it or not, working too hard and encouraging your employees to do the same is incredibly bad for productivity. This is because humans are only capable of focusing on a certain task for a short amount of time, and if you regularly encourage people to go beyond this, they will work slower and less productively.

To that end, encouraging regular breaks not only throughout the day but with vacations days as well is absolutely necessary.

Poor training and onboarding

When people don’t feel secure in their roles, they are unlikely to work most productively. What that means is that skimping on staff training and onboarding programs may seem financially viable in the short term, but over time you could actually be hurting your business’s profits.

In fact, staff training in both hard and soft skills doesn’t just affect productivity, but also customer service too. Something that makes it an essential aspect of running a business to get right, if you want to turn a decent profit.

Cultivating A Profitable Farm In The Long-Term

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and STEM. The agricultural industry has been around for centuries, and there are many things you need to know to get into it and to be able to turn a profit. The following contributed post is entitled, Cultivating A Profitable Farm In The Long-Term.

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The agricultural industry is one of the oldest on the planet, so it’s no surprise that thousands of farming entrepreneurs try to find their spot in the marketplace. Of course, as stable as the industry is as a whole, individual businesses have to work hard to stand their ground in the long-term. As a farmer, you have to plan and carefully look after your land so that you have viable produce to sell to the market. It can be a difficult business model to figure out. What does it take to cultivate a profitable farm in the long-term? Let’s talk about that in this post.

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Always account for overhead costs.
If you want to create a profitable farm in the long-term then you need to think about the expenses of running your operations. Many part-time farmers who make money through a career or other business ventures don’t concern themselves too much with this aspect of operations. They might not see their labor as an expense, for example, because this is all a fun hobby to them. As a result, their business seems pretty profitable. But hobby farms aren’t always profitable enough to stand on their own two feet. If you want to create a farm that is sustainable in the long-term and profitable enough to provide for you and your family if you’re going full-time then you always need to account for overhead costs. Of course, the costliness of running a farm often incentivizes farmers to increase their prices. But as a small farm that’s trying to stand out in the industry and build a client base of local grocers or consumers, you might not want to increase your prices too much. You might want to reel in customers with fair and decent prices.

That’s why the goal is to focus on your overheads. How can you cut costs without cutting the quality of your products and services? This is the question that causes headaches for so many entrepreneurs in all manner of industries. The answer is to budget smartly and assess individual expenditures. For example, you could save money on the energy bill necessary for running your farmhouse (the base of operations) by getting solar panels. It’s an investment that’ll save you money in the long run because you won’t be relying on the grid. Sometimes, in order to reduce long-term costs, you have to make wise investments. People say you’ve got to spend money to make money, but the smartest piece of business advice to remember is that you’ve got to spend money to save money. For instance, you could buy in bulk from your supplier in order to save money; that’s why it’s important to form strong lasting relationships with local businesses and people in your community. We’ll talk more about that later. If you’re going to cultivate a profitable farm in the long-term then stay on top of your monthly budget, track your expenditures, and find ways to use your funds wisely so as to keep costs low but maintain quality control.

Do your consumer research.
If you want to cultivate a profitable farm in the long-term then you need to do your consumer research. Making money is all about giving the market what it needs. You can’t push products or services successfully if there’s no market for them. Run surveys or simply talk to people in your local area. Get an idea of what people want from farms such as yours or your farm specifically. This is how you get an advantage over the competition. You need to talk directly to existing and potential customers. In turn, you’ll be able to develop a business which stands out from the competition in the marketplace.

Your goal is to create a brand for your farm that resonates with people. You need to make a connection so that clients want to choose your business over the competition. You might be selling similar types of produce to your rivals, so how are you going to stand out? Perhaps you could run your business in an eco-friendly manner so as to prove to the market that you care about the planet and not simply making money. You might want to look into getting an ASC certification in sustainability if you farm salmon produce. That’s an example of taking a step towards creating a more ethical business that impresses consumers. Just make sure you do your research so that you can start to create a farm which your target audience wants to see.

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Build a local reputation.
If you want to cultivate a profitable farm in the long-term then you need a loyal client base. This is true of any company in any type of industry. But in the world of farming, it’s all about the local community. Unless you build an international farming empire, you’re probably not going to start connecting with corporations and consumers all over the world. That might be the dream for your business in the future, but you need to take things one step at a time. For starters, you need to build a local reputation. You need to target retailers and consumers in your area so as to build a name for yourself. Go to the local market and pitch your produce to sellers. Find your place in the local industry. Once you win over the hearts (or bellies, rather) of local businesses and people, you’ll start to build up a loyal following. That’s how you’ll get repeat sales and achieve stability through a regular client base. It’s also how your business will start to grow. Happy clients spread brand awareness through word of mouth. But your farm can’t expand until you start building a reputation in your local area. Start small.

Make money with your land in many ways.
You might want to focus on your particular niche in the agricultural marketplace, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore opportunities to utilize your land in other ways. If you want to cultivate a profitable farm in the long-term then you need to pursue every potential opportunity to monetize your land. You could offer riding lessons if you own horses, for example. You could even sell tickets to people who might want to look around your farm to admire the animals or simply learn how the entire process works. You own a business that’s fascinating to people in many ways, so make the most of that fact. Look for all potential sources of revenue so that you can make your farm as profitable as possible.

So many small farms fail before they even get started. It can take several years to start making a decent profit from the land, so it’s important to keep working at it. It’s a gradual process. You need to continuously grow your business, as entrepreneurs do in any industry. The key to cultivating a profitable farm in the long-term is to create a viable and sustainable business model. You need to learn to continuously budget, research, and develop your business so as to keep it relevant in an ever-changing and ever-competitive agricultural marketplace.

How a Poor Name Can Lower the Value of your Brand

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. When starting a business, one of the most important components is building and maintaining your ‘brand’. A key component of your brand is your name. Choosing the right name can be the difference between life and death in the business context. The following guest post comes courtesy of Squadhelp.com and is entitled, How a Poor Name Can Lower the Value of your Brand.

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When you are brainstorming a name for your brand-new startup, you might notice that certain people you run into will tell you not to worry about the name you select for your business. They will say to you that a startup name lacks any tangible value because they believe that names are just frills. They will tell you it is not worth investing your time and resources into, but they would be wrong. In actuality, research shows that easy, memorable names outperform non-captivating and lackluster names on the stock market by 33% or more.

A Poor Name Won’t Set a Solid Brand Foundation

In today’s fast-paced market, first impressions matter more than ever before. Generally, your brand name will be the first thing that a possible client or customer will learn about your brand. You brand encompasses many aspects of your business including your logo, beliefs, values and name.

The name is basically the foundation and the identity of your new company. If the name is too weak, it will not be able to support the weight of your brand and will hold your business back from growth. You ideally want to choose a name that sets the stage for your success.

Fail to Capture Audiences

Your target audience is very likely overwhelmed by the vast number of options available in today’s modern market. It’s very likely that your business offers special services or products, but without a great name that captures the attention of your audience, you might lose customers. If your name does not get their attention right away, they will move on to the next business without checking out the options your startup offers.

A name should create a strong connection between your business and your target market. Ideally, it should give them something to hold on to and remember about your brand.

Drive Audiences Away

Although making your brand name attractive is very important, you need double check that it does not drive any potential customers or clients away. Difficult, boring, or offensive names risk alienating a large segment of your customer base. Make sure that you don’t select a company name that is cringey or awkward, as something like that will likely drive customers away and send people the wrong message.

A great example of this would be a salon with the name Curl Up & Dye. Although this name is clearly descriptive and witty, but it could accidentally send the wrong message to any potential customers about the quality of services that the salon offers. The name heavily relies on the audience’s sense of humor, but you risk losing potential clients that do not find the funny brand amusing.

Audience testing is a quick and simple way to make sure that your startup name will do well with your chosen target audience.

A Forgettable Name = A Forgettable Brand

Even if a customer really wants to remember your brand name, if it is boring or too perplexing to pronounce and spell, they will likely not remember it. When your target demographic cannot remember your name even when they want to, it is a bad sign for your business.

A memorable name will ensure that your brand is something that your customers will never forget. Double check that your brand name does not fall by the wayside by brainstorming a catchy, memorable name that will capture your target audience’s attention. Peruse some of these winning company name suggestions to give yourself a better idea of what type of names catch your attention the most.

Lose Referrals

In the end, your brand name needs to be appealing and memorable enough that it establishes your brand and sets you up for success in the future. If you cannot create a solid foundation for your company with a great name, you will not only lose out on any potential clients but also the potential referrals you would have gotten from those clients.

Conclusion

Each and every tiny aspect of your brand adds up in the end, and if your name can help you get some extra of press coverage or a couple more chains of referrals from customers, it makes all the difference. A brand name really has the power to impact your business success.

When you are coming up with a business name, make sure you remember that a brand name is way more than just a word. It establishes the foundation for your business, and it can be a very useful tool making your business successful.

Grant Polachek is the Director of Marketing at Inc 500 company Squadhelp.com, the worlds #1 naming platform, with nearly 20,000 customers from the smallest startups across the globe to the largest corporations including Nestle, Philips, Hilton, Pepsi, and AutoNation. Get inspired by exploring these creative business names.

The Power Of The Personal Touch

Two of my blog’s key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Depending upon the type of business you’re running, a key to its success is its personal touch. The more customers connect with your business, the more they’ll support your operations and return. The following contributed post is therefore entitled, The Power Of The Personal Touch.

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It should come as no surprise that the personal touch matters in business. Providing a reliable point of contact for each customer can streamline the selling process. The employee in question can then get a feel for what your customers want, and sell as much as possible. On top of which, customers will come to feel at ease with that one person. As a result, they may trust your company more than they would otherwise. For proof of how important this personal aspect of business is, consider social media. Here, companies focus on building strong voices and personal connections for just this reason.

What you might not realize is that getting personal with products can also make a difference. In the same way, this personal touch can improve customer relations. Whether you make items to order or personalize as you go, it can also benefit your business in the following ways.

A chance to give customers what they want

Any company would like to cut customer complaints wherever possible. Disgruntled customers are never pleasant to deal with. Dissatisfaction can also stop people from coming back, and damage your reputation in the bigger picture. If you choose to make items to order, though, you could cut back on complaints in a significant way. That’s because each item will be tailor-made with a customer specifications in mind. That removes any real margin for error and makes sure customers can’t pin anything they aren’t 100% happy with on you. They told you what they wanted, after all. Before you know, operating in this order-by-order way can see satisfaction levels skyrocketing. Your reputation might just rise along with them. It may be more work on the outset, but you can bet it would be worth your while.

A way to add sentimental value

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Sentimental value is an invaluable product addition. In many ways, all business owners would love to achieve this with their ideas. The things already have enough sentimental value for you, after all. And, if you can accomplish the same for customers, they’re more liable to remember your company and tell others about it. So, how do you add sentimentality with products? Through things like engraving, of course. By investing in laser cutting equipment, you can include unforgettable personal messages. All you would need to do is read up on something like this boss laser cutter review to make sure you’re investing in machinery you can trust. Then, you could offer this service to anyone who comes through your doors, and enjoy the rewards.

An increased chance of loyalty

Any business owner knows that customer loyalty is one of the best ways to make money which keeps on coming. And, loyalty is exactly what you’ll get with personal products like these. At least, you will if you do things well. Before you know, meeting with every customer need can see people coming back to you time and again. And, when that happens, you can really start to consider your company a success.

Finding Your Team

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. One of the key aspects of building your business is building your team. You have to find the right people to put the team possible together. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Finding Your Team.

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Your business has become, let’s face, it something like your baby. You are extremely protective of its growth and well being and are determined to see it succeed. And it’s this protective attitude that makes it so hard for some entrepreneurs to let go and relinquish some control. This plays out, more often than not, when it comes to hiring extra members of your team particularly those first hires.

In this blog, we take look at how to go about hiring for the first time and why you should let go, just a little bit for even greater business success.

Plan For Success

Whether you manufacture physical goods such as safety railing systems or sell your creative skills and talents as a service, you will have planned for growth and been prepared to expand as your business goes from strength to strength. The hard part is admitting that you now need help but you know that if you want your business to carry on its present trajectory, you’re going to need to hire someone in.

The first thing you’re going to need to do is set aside some time to figure out exactly what role you’re going to want your new hire to play. Think as specific as possible. Avoid vague headings, such as ‘admin duties’ and instead pinpoint exactly what will be required. The more specific you are, the more likely you are to find someone with exactly the skills and experience you are looking for.

Alongside your job description, you’ll also need to create a person specification document. This moves away from just the role the person will take and centres more on the skills and personal qualities a candidate should bring. You’ll be focussing in on both their hard and soft skills.

The Interview

If you have limited experience in interviewing people, then this part of the process can be almost as daunting for you as it is for the interviewee. Stay calm, professional and friendly. You want to see that your candidate can perform well under the pressure of an interview but that doesn’t require a good cop/bad cop routine.

Keep an open mind, the role of an admin officer might be easily filled but when someone brings some soft skills outside the remit such as a proven record in negotiation techniques, you might want to use this to your business advantage further down the line. Candidates who perform well on paper may not do so in person and vice versa.

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Trust Your Gut

If you interview someone who seems like the perfect person but you just don’t seem able to connect with them, that feeling is perfectly valid and should not be ignored. If your business is small and you’re going to be spending quite a lot of time together then finding a candidate you click with is vital for operational success.

The same can be said for a candidate who may have only ticked the basics when it came to the job description but shows a strong ability to adapt and learn and who you can see fitting into the ethos of your business.

Build In Some Wriggle Room

Whoever you hire you want to be sure that they are fully on board with your vision for the company and share your overall goals and short-term objectives to reach that end point. With that in mind, it’s perfectly valid to build in a six month, or less, probation period agreed to by both parties. At the end of this period, either party can step away from the role for whatever reason with no recriminations.

If that does happen, then taking some time to learn what went wrong and why is a crucial part of the learning process and will help you to avoid making the same mistakes again.

When you’ve made the right hire once, the subsequent times will become easier and easier as you figure out how to make the recruitment process work for you and become more discerning at narrowing down the right candidates.

The benefits of building a strong team are tangible. Having people on your side who share your determination and drive will give you a real boost in productivity and should help to take some of the load off of your own shoulders. Being the boss might not be natural at first but when you’re all pulling in the right direction, you’ll be glad you made the decision to let go a little of the responsibility and allowed others to help take the strain.