Category: Contributed Posts

Moving Your Marketing Methods into the Modern World

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. In today’s digital world, it’s critical to understand how to use the modern technologies to market your brand and business. Not understanding how to do so could be life or death for your operations. The following contributed post is therefore entitled, Moving Your Marketing Methods into the Modern World.

* * *

Nowadays marketing is way more than putting your business advert into a local newspaper or stocking up a sign in the post office. There are so many up and coming methods in the business world that it can be very difficult to keep up with the trends. When it comes to marketing there are so many ways in which your business could succeed or fail. Spending too much money or not being open minded might just be a few of your fall backs that could hinder your business success. Start considering some of the following modern day marketing methods and your business will be set up to thrive, even in the most crowded of industries.

Image

SEO Savviness

If you’re not already hot on SEO then now is the right time to start doing your research. There are many different ways that you can incorporate the SEO technique into your marketing strategies, one of which is Local SEO Citations. This will involve liaising with a dedicated account manager who will help you to launch your local SEO campaign, which will include everything from your location and phone number to the services you are offering. Getting your SEO on point will help people to find you more easily, so that you stand out from your competitors.

Brand Collaborations via Social Media

Finding a celebrity or blogger who can collaborate with your product and advertise it on the their social media is like gold dust. This is the type of marketing that is becoming hotter than ever right now, so it’s important that you take the right steps to get as involved as you can. Choose someone who is trustworthy and professional to market your product. You will need to negotiate a decent fee for each post and you will provide them with free products and services too. Getting this element of marketing just right will always give you the edge over your competition.

Reviews Mean Everything

It’s true that marketing can be overwhelming at times, so keeping mistakes to a minimum will always be your best bet. As well as minimizing your mistakes you might also want to call upon your previous happy customers to leave positive reviews about you. You can implement these wonderful words into your future marketing strategies and make sure that everybody who might be interesting in spending their money on your products or services can read them loud and proud.

Try to think outside the box when it comes to marketing your business. Whether you have been in this domain for years or you are just starting out, there are so many ways to capitalize on the online marketing world. Make sure you explore all of the options available to you, so that you aren’t leaving anything out. Take to social media and find some worthwhile brand ambassadors or ask your previous clients to leave roaring reviews of your products or services. There are so many ways for you to achieve greatness for your business so grab every marketing opportunity you can and run with it confidently.

Things You Should Consider Outsourcing In Your Business

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. When running a business of any kind, no one can possibly know everything, and no can has the time to do everything. This underscores the importance of outsourcing. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Things You Should Consider Outsourcing In Your Business.

* * *

Image Credit

When it comes to your business, if you’re like most business owners, outsourcing, although something you know is necessary, is often easier said than done. We business owners will make every excuse in the book, from not wanting to hand things off to someone who may do a bad job, to not being able to afford to hire someone when it comes to outsourcing, but the fact is, that in order to grow and scale your business, learning to let go and outsource the things that in your zone of genius are things that really need to be done.

The thing is about outsourcing is, that it will also free up your time to work on the things you’re good at and that make you money, but it will also help you make more money because even though you’ll be paying someone to do certain things, they’re going to be experts in these things so it will take them less time than it would take you, so you’ll be able to make money doing the things that are actually within your zone of expertise and genius.

If you know you have to outsource, but are struggling to decide which things you should start with, then in this post we’re going to share with you just what things you may want to consider outsourcing in your business.

Copywriting:

As much as business owners would like to believe that they’re great copywriters, it’s just not the case for most. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because business owners aren’t supposed to be great at everything in their business. However, good copy is essential for your businesses marketing – especially if you want to stand out online, so this is definitely one of the things you should consider outsourcing. Whether it’s the website copy, or your newsletter, copywriters will know what to write to get you noticed as well as the best tools to use, such as plugins for tracking conversions, and newsletter templates from Postman, etc.

Graphic Design:

Like copywriting, graphic design is a certain skill that just not everyone has, but when done right it’s going to make a big difference in your business, so it’s also a good thing to outsource as soon you as you’re able to since it will be able to help make your business stand out by representing it in a good, positive way.

Admin:

Admin is not something that’s considered a money-making task in most businesses, yet it’s still a crucial part of the overall business to ensure it stays running as smoothly and efficiently as possible, so having good systems in place for your admin to keep things organized and running well is essential. Since this is likely not going to be your zone of genius or where your efforts are best spent, then outsourcing your admin tasks like replying to emails, setting up appointments and even creating filing systems and templates is definitely something that a good virtual assistant will be able to do for you and will complete in a fraction of the time that you’d be able to.

Make More Money in Less Time

A key focus of my blog is Financial Literacy/Money. If it interests you, growing your wealth typically involves leveraging the skill sets and time of others as opposed to doing everything yourself. The following contributed post is therefore entitled, Make More Money in Less Time.

* * *

Image Credit

If you’re wanting to make more money in less time, then the first thing you are likely going to need to change is your paradigm around making money.

See, the majority of people trade their time for money in a very direct and linear way… for instance, if you consider the majority of jobs, they pay based on time input, whether that’s an hourly rate or an annual salary it is fundamentally calculated on the basis of the amount of hours you work.

The challenge with this, however, is that there are only so many hours in the day and there’s a cap to how much anyone can charge for each hour they work. Of course, you can upskill and gain greater expertise in order to charge more for each unit of time you offer – but even a highly skilled brain surgeon is capped to the number of operations they can physically do each day, week, month or year.

The brain surgeon and the janitor both have the same problem – they are trading their time for money, admittedly at different rates, but their problem is the same. If they want to make more money then they need to input more time.

Similarly, if you have a business that ships physical products the more products you sell the more time you will require putting things into cardboard shipping boxes – meaning, the more money you make the more time it takes, which is a recipe for not much of a lifestyle.

Therefore, many business owners find themselves working way too many hours – creating a business that might be turning over a decent profit, but is eating into their lives and the lifestyle they dream of.

The way to make more money in less time is very simple. You need to start leveraging assets; be that a financial asset such as a property that you rent out, a digital asset such as a blog that you sell advertising space on, an intellectual asset such as an invention or even an online course, or a business system where you leverage effort (e.g. own a big business with employees).

We’re now going to take a brief look at an example of how to make money via this model of leverage, as the most important thing to bear in mind throughout the examples above is the commonality they all share in that they leverage effort rather than your own time.

Let’s look at the example of property; here you simply find a property and you rent it out. Let’s say your mortgage is $1,000 a month and you rent it out for $1,250. You make $250 profit per month without having to do much at all… then, if you want to expand your income you simply expand your property portfolio – and in this sense you can have ten properties or one hundred; you don’t have to work any more hours to manage ten properties or a hundred… because you outsource the property management to a specialist company.

Meanwhile, it’s likely that your property will appreciate in value – so, whilst you are making your profit on each property, you’re also increasing your overall capital as the value of the house increases as does your net worth.

Advice For Starting Your Business

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If you only trained to work for someone else, then chances are you’re unaware of many of the skills necessary to start a business. The world of entrepreneurship is a world all its own with it’s own nuances. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Advice For Starting Your Business.

* * *

Photo by rawpixel from Pixabay

Running a business can come with a number of issues that you are not familiar with before starting your company. At the end of the day, as a business owner your main priority will be your profit margins, but that doesn’t mean you should let the other things pass you by. Here is a look at some of the intricacies of running a company that might help you further down the line.

Starting Your Business

When starting your business, you need to ensure that a number of important details are ticked off your checklist. Firstly you must decide what your business name is going to be and under which of the four possible legal structures you are going to set up under. They are as follows:

● Sole Proprietor
● Partnership
● Limited Liability Company (LLC)
● Corporation

Once you are familiar with these types of structures and know which one is the right option for you, then it is time to start writing your business plan and opening a company bank account. However, before you open a bank account you should register your company with your government in order to get an identification number. It is vital that you follow the rules when it comes to registering your company because an incorrect registration or none at all will cause your business severe problems in the future.

In addition to making sure your company is registered, you should also start looking into and obtaining any permits that you require to start work. Once again these depend on your structure and type of business, so research your needs before pursuing permits. These might need to be obtained at a nation or federal level and a state level so be prepared for plenty of paperwork. The same applies to obtaining your business license which is a requirement in most cities.

Photo by geralt from Pixabay

Employees

Should you require them then the next logical step is to start hiring employees so that you can start production in your chosen field. There are several things to remember when hiring staff, many of them to do with tax and payments. Motivating your staff is one thing to consider in the future, but there is no greater demotivation than not being paid.

Once again there are a number of legal hoops for you to jump through, this time you only have to get these licenses if you intend on hiring staff, do make sure you are doing the right thing. You should also look into what your business can do at a local level when it comes to things like taxes and healthcare. There are usually many different types of initiatives on offer but you must find them for yourself, such as in the UK they offer a Construction Industry Scheme that assists contractors ensure the tax of their subcontractors is paid. There are similar schemes in other parts of the world and taking the time to find them will be a great assistant to you.

Starting A Restaurant: The Short Guide

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Food is something we all enjoy and if you have a niche in the restaurant business, you can make a lot of money. That said, there are certain important considerations for this class of business. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Starting A Restaurant: The Short Guide.

* * *

There are always guides out there about starting a business, and the steps are largely the same: write a business plan, get funding, market your business and open to the public. These are the core steps that every business in every industry needs to follow. When it comes to starting a restaurant, you have all of those steps plus more.

The way that we enjoy our meals out has changed massively in the last ten years. We want new cuisines and quirkier ways to eat it. From fine dining in restaurants with a dress code, to the delicious burgers from a street food van, customers want something new. If you have the right restaurant idea and the funding, then you can bring your service to the high street, but you need to consider your time, money, legalities and the commitment that is required to be successful in this industry.

After you have decided on your concept, gained your funding and started your market research, you next need to think about the premises that you need for your business idea. This is largely down to the fact that you need to fit in people, plus a kitchen area and commercial refrigeration installation alongside dishwashers, ovens and sinks. So, while you need to consider what your restaurant looks like from the outside, none of that is any good if you have no room for what you need where the customers won’t be allowed. Your premises has to meet the expectations of your customers, your staff, your energy consumption, your ability to provide good, well-cooked food and it has to be clean, too.

Image source


Once you have your location locked in, you need to go back to the start. Your funding has to cover everything from premises rental costs to the utilities that you pay out for. These are a huge contribution to rising business costs, and the running costs of the restaurant or food service truck are the biggest overheads for your business. Do your research properly into all of the various energy companies out there and make sure that you compare the prices across the board. You want to work well with your suppliers, and that includes your utilities suppliers, too.

An efficient food service business needs the right equipment, and we’ve already mentioned refrigeration installation, but you also have to think about the smaller apparatus that will keep your business going. You need to start researching suppliers of this equipment when you are setting out your budgets for your finances, because without the right budget in mind, you have no idea which suppliers will work for you. Customer service has to be a hugely deciding factor in choosing your suppliers. You need to know that you can work closely with them and that your restaurant is a priority for them.

Starting a restaurant isn’t going to be something that is easy, but it’s going to be so worth it if you manage to keep on top of it.

How Do You Find The Best Company For Professional Transcription Services

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. No matter which business you’re in, identifying a quality transcription service can be critical. In order to find the right one, you have to know what to look for. The following contributed post is thus entitled, How Do You Find The Best Company For Professional Transcription Services.

* * *

https://pixaby.com/en/transcript-study-notes-notepad-2654145

From the legal industry to the medical field, there are many companies that require frequent transcription. Most find that outsourcing transcription services proves to be the best option to go for, as it is much more efficient and cost effective. Nevertheless, in order for this to truly be the case, you need to select a transcription company carefully. That is what this post is here to help you with. Keep on reading to discover the main aspects you should consider…

Turnaround Time – First and foremost, it is imperative to discover how long it will take for your transcripts to be typed up and sent back to you. One of the main benefits associated with outsourcing transcription services is the fact that you will get your transcription completed quicker and free up time to focus on the core aspect of your business. You need to ensure the company actually gives you the platform to achieve this.

Experience – You should also select a company boasting a significant degree of experience. You want to be safe in the knowledge that they have provided their transcription services many, many times before to a whole host of different companies. Make sure they specialise in your field, whether you need real time court reporting or medical transcriptions. This will give you the confidence that they will be able to handle any task you throw at them.

Cost – Of course cost is an important factor when using the services of any company. It is important to find the right balance. You don’t want to go for a company that is too cheap, as this could easily indicate a lack of quality. Nonetheless, you obviously cannot go for a company that is too expensive, as you need to be cost efficient. The best thing to do is a bit of research to determine the average prices being charged.

Reputation – In addition to the points that have already been mentioned, you should also consider the reputation of the company. Read reviews that have been left by previous customers. What do they have to say about the service they received? Were all transcriptions accurate? Did the company stick to the turnaround time? Were they easy to communicate with? This is the only way you will get the answers to the questions you truly wish to know.

Ability – Last but not least, let’s end with the most important point of them all, the company’s ability. You need to be certain that they have the capability of transcribing anything you require. On their website they should clearly outline the type of formats they can deal with, as well as any experience they have in your industry. For instance, if you are a law firm, you will want to make sure the company can transcribe anything from affidavits, to court proceedings, to witness statements.

To conclude, if you carefully consider the five points that have been mentioned in this post, you should have no issue finding the ideal company to outsource your business’s transcription services to. The benefits you will gain by doing this are certainly worth it. You will save yourself time, money, and hassle, whilst being certain that you are benefitting from a high quality service.

3 Suggestions for Setting up a Home Office

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success, and two of its key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Many entrepreneurs must set up offices at home to carry out their operations, and this space can be critical for concentration and production. Some aspects will make your space more conducive to productivity. The following contributed post is therefore entitled, 3 Suggestions for Setting up a Home Office.

* * *

Image via Pixabay

Whether you want to embark on an entrepreneurial path and chart your own professional destiny in life, as your own boss, or whether you just want a quiet place to sit, journal, and reflect — a home office is a fantastic and multi-dimensional gift to give yourself.

A good home office should be a place where you can shut out the concerns of the outside world, and invest yourself wholeheartedly in whatever endeavour you’re pursuing. It should be a self-enclosed dimension where you can pen that novel you’ve been working on, produce your blog posts for the next week, or even just read and absorb a book without any significant external distractions.

Of course, a good home office has certain traits. Here are some suggestions for getting your home office set up to a decent standard, in short order.

Your chair is your most important tool — choose one that you can bear to sit in for hours at a stretch

Adjustable standing desks can be a great addition to any office, since it’s good to alternate periods spent seated with periods spent on your feet and moving around, for overall health reasons. In reality, though, you are likely going to spend the vast majority of your time in your home office sitting down.

Your chair is, therefore, your most important home office tool. It has to be something that you can bear to sit in for hours at a stretch. Ideally, it will even be a pleasant experience, as much of your ability to do productive work, or absorb information, will rely on your not being simultaneously distracted by physical discomfort.

Address every aspect of what make for a good office chair. Make sure it’s well-padded. See that it has the best caster wheels for ease of movement. Check that the back support works for you.

Eliminate all distractions from the area, to the best of your ability

The famous author Stephen King has written that authors should “close the door” while working on their books — at least until the draft is ready for other eyes. In this context, he uses “close the door” both literally and figuratively, and advises aspiring authors to work in isolation, to filter out distractions, and to keep their work hidden from prying eyes during the early drafts.

Though this advice was intended for authors, it can be applied to anyone who writes, or has any sort of creative or thoughtful work to attend to, at all.

A distraction-free environment reduces procrastination, boosts productivity, and aids focus. Ensure your home office doesn’t feature TVs, videogames, or anything else of the sort.

Keep the space tidy — an organised desk (and office), means an organised mind

With the constant flow of information that we’re all exposed to, courtesy of the internet and other modern technologies, many of us suffer from chronically disordered thinking, and an inability to strategise and focus.

Keeping your home office space meticulously tidy can help to counteract this chronic low-level chaos, and aid clear thinking.

It seems to be the case, psychologically speaking, that when our immediate environments are messy, cluttered, chaotic and disordered, our thoughts come to be so as well. By contrast, an orderly, neat, and well-structured environment promotes focused and structured states of mind.

Choosing The Right System For Your Ecommerce

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. With the majority of business taking place these days via ecommerce, it’s critical to choose the right system to conduct your transactions. If this is well thought out, your ecommerce business activities can thrive. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Choosing The Right System For Your Ecommerce.

* * *

(Image Source)

Starting a website in the modern world is easier than ever before. There are loads of services around the web which are designed to help you to put something like this together for yourself, and most people have the basic computing skills required to get something like this done. Of course, though, when it comes to choosing the system you want to use, things can start to get a little more complicated. To help you out with this, this post will be exploring some of the key elements which need to go into this decision.

The Type Of Product

There are loads of different types of products which can be sold online, from things which are completely digital to services which are provided in person, and each of them will have a platform which is better suited to it. Digital products, for example, are really easy to manage through a system like Squarespace. Thanks to their integration with Stripe, you have a comprehensive suite of tools to help with your digital products on this platform. Of course, though, you have to think about the exact product your selling, too.

The Volume Of Sales

The amount of sales which your website is likely to handle should also influence your decision in this area. Some CMS systems are far better at collecting and organising data than others, with Magento coming out as a clear winner in this area. This means that stores which are dealing with high quantities of orders will benefit from an option like this, though you may find the customizability options a little lacking, as a result.

The External Services

Most people can’t build an ecommerce website from scratch, and will have to use some external services to help them along a little bit. You will need to make sure that the platform you choose is compatible with the services which will have to go along with it. For example, if you’re using BlueSnap to handle payments, it may be worth pairing it with WooCommerce in WordPress, as this will make the process of integrating the two systems far easier.

The Point Of Sale

Finally, as the last area to consider, a lot of small businesses are connecting their in-store point of sale systems with their ecommerce sites, nowadays, as this helps to make inventory management nice and simple. To make this work, you need to have a platform which will connect with your PoS system. WordPress is great for this, too, providing unrivalled compatibility with services like this, even compared to the likes of Shopify.

With all of this in mind, you should be feeling ready to take on the challenge of choosing the platform you use for your ecommerce website. There are loads of options to choose from when you’re working on something like this, and most people have the skills to find the best option for them; it just takes some patience and dedication. If you need more help with this, there are loads of companies around the web with the resources to push you further in this area.

Has The World Gone Crazy?

One of the focuses of my blog is Current Events and Health and Wellness. As we’re riding into the New Year, it’s clear that we’re living in unprecedented times. Everywhere we look, we see alarming things in politics and the media which seems to be trickling down into everyday life. Numerous people are being silenced in the media, and relationships are dissolving based upon differing viewpoints. The following contributed post is entitled, Has The World Gone Crazy?

* * *

Well, you have to admit, it definitely isn’t the place it once used to be. We get that some aspects of our changing world are totally amazing, but you have to look around and wonder, would it not be better for the whole world to be plunged into an old fashioned way of thinking. There are no so many rules and regulations that we have to follow for everything, and arguments over social media and through television programmes with regards to political matters is now out of control. In a world where the governments are always fighting, and there’s a new thing that you can’t say or do each day, how can you ever find peace amongst it all? Well, we have to say it’s not easy. Because for the most part, we can’t help but think that the world has just gone crazy! Carry on reading to find out more…

Image Source

The Politicians Have Gone Mad

This is definitely something that should be said. In the UK and US for example, the politicians of their governments are steering decisions that are quickly affecting the public. In the UK, you’ve got the whole Brexit issue that only ever seems to be taking steps backwards, instead of steps forward. Politics news is often hard to follow, especially when you have so many conflicting views from the media. Even if the information isn’t exactly true, you could read articles that are full of false information, purely because they’re trying to sell the story. But for the most part, we definitely do think politicians have gone mad. The decisions they’re making is changing the course of history, and some would say completely ruining it. More and more people are saying that topics should go to a public vote more often, rather than just letting a set group of people decide it, especially in the UK.

Restrictions Are Crazy

There are now so many restrictions in life, especially over social media. Everyone is so quick to turn it into a racism issue, or gender, or anything else under the sun that you can think of. It’s now rumoured that you can’t sick the baa baa black sheep song anymore, because it could be classed as racist. Some people are now even asked for the male title of Santa Clause to be strippd, because it’s favouring on gender. Freedom of speech is slowly dying in a way, and we think the world is getting out of hand with all of the restrictions the world now has.

It’s So Hard To Find Peace

If you look around you in the world, it’s actually harder to find peace than you would think. Or perhaps you can expect that with all the acts of terrorism, gang violence, and political hate, it’s going to be hard to find peace. We think the more people who look for it and fight for it, the better place the world is going to be. So many of us rally against the wrong thing, when the main thing we should be fighting for, is peace.

Warehouse Fixes That Will Wow Your Employees

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. A key component of many businesses is its warehouse operations. An optimally functioning warehouse can make or break a business and there are several keys to running an efficient facility for your employees. The following contributed post thus entitled, Warehouse Fixes That Will Wow Your Employees.

* * *

Image Source

When business owners are looking for ways to improve and upgrade their company, most of them are mainly concerned with their office. It’s true that the office is a very important part of the business overall, but there is one other equally critical area that is so very easily overlooked – the warehouse. Every company that has a warehouse will find that it is an essential part of their operations, and ensuring that it is streamlined can really help with the company’s overall efficiency.

So, do you think that it is time you took a look at your warehouse and considered how you might be able to improve it? Here are a few ideas that you may want to consider.

Automate Processes

One of the first things that you might want to think about is automating some of the warehouses that take place in the warehouse. This can make the workload a lot more manageable for all of the employees who work there. For instance, you might want to use software that can automate the delivery notification process. So, when a customer orders something online, a quick notification will be sent to the warehouse to let everyone know that they can start the whole shipment process.

Make The Layout More Efficient

It might also be a good idea to reconsider the whole layout of your warehouse. A poorly organized warehouse can quickly become a pain to work in, and it can reduce the overall efficiency of your staff. So, make sure the layout is an easy one to work in and doesn’t promote any disorganization. It’s also necessary to try to reduce hazards by improving the layout as much as possible.

Give It A Face Lift

Do you remember when the last time you updated your warehouse was? If it hasn’t been for a while, then it could be due a bit of a facelift. You might want to install a new concrete countertop onto a workstation and it might also be time to replace any flooring that looks past its best. Keeping all of the warehouse in good working order will ensure that it stays a lot safer for a few more years to come. It can also be a much more pleasant working environment for all of your staff.

Improve Staff Training

Don’t forget that it is also essential that each of your employees gets sufficient training throughout the year. This is even the case for all your employees who are based in the warehouse. Ideally, they need at least one training session each year. However, all of the most successful companies ensure that their staff are well trained with various courses throughout the year. This ensures that they can always carry out their job to the best of their abilities and that they are up to date with all the modern warehouse practices.

If you follow all of these tips, then you should find that your warehouse processes greatly improve, and this can help you turn over a larger profit.