Category: Financial Literacy and Money

What Does It Take To Deliver Great Customer Service?

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Regardless of the sector of business or niche, one of its key pillars is its customer service. No matter how good the product is, if the customer service component is broken, the business will ultimately be hindered. The following contributed post is entitled, What Does It Take To Deliver Great Customer Service?

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It is certainly one of the fine arts of getting a business to transcend to the next level. While there are numerous aspects of a company that needs fine-tuning on a near-constant basis of the major issue that any business needs to overcome is improving on that relationship between them and the customer. As the golden rule, customer service is vital. This means that we have to ensure that our business delivers it in spades, but what does it really take to deliver great customer service?

Keeping Behind The Scenes Well Oiled

The front of house services cannot function unless the people behind the scenes are operating at 110%. This means that come out regardless of the business you have, you must think about everything that goes on behind the front line so that the people that have the duty of dealing with customers face to face can have the ability to forge that important relationship. This means utilizing one very simple component: technology. Whether it is restaurant accounting software for your small eatery, or it’s is organizational software so that everybody knows what’s going on at any one time, as well as new changes, keep everything running smoothly behind the scenes makes it easier for the people at the front to do their jobs properly. It’s not a case that the people on the front line rely on those behind the scenes, but it’s about providing a symbiotic relationship between the two. You have to remember that the bigger picture is the important thing especially when it comes to delivering customer service. With something like a restaurant the premise is simple, you deliver food to the customer that tastes great alongside impeccable service. These things as simple to explain, but in order to ensure that everything is running like clockwork, there are so many different components to get right.

Having The Passion To Deliver Customer Service

There’s a major disparity between the millennial generation and the baby boomers. While this is not the place to get into major quibbles about either generation, it appears that the younger generations that have been raised on social media have to work that little bit harder on face to face communication and soft skills. Having that passion in a business and striving to deliver amazing customer service is the bedrock of any successful company. Customer service is about going the extra mile for them, but when we look at the skills our employees have, we’ve got to make sure that they know the basics before they can build upon those. Something like soft skills and establishing that rapport with a customer can be difficult to implement, but some tips and tricks can help, such as open-ended questions. It’s these things that our workers need to know because when an employee develops this rapport with the customer, the relationship will soon follow, and then we make a great impact on the customer. As such, when we see an employee delivering excellent customer service, even when we are the customer, we will remember this. These days, you provide feedback forms, but we remember the person more than anything, and maybe they did something for us that day to make our experience more pleasurable, or even easier. And we can see that those people have the passion, not just to deliver customer service, but it’s a part of who they are. That doesn’t mean that we need to hire exclusively people that can have a passion for customer service, but for those people who want to do well and have the skills of building a rapport, they are like gold dust.

Providing Morale In The Ranks

The focus is on the customer for her, but we have to remember about the people that are providing this service. We have to keep the morale up, and in one respect, we need to treat our employees like our customers. Giving them the respect that they need, listening to the problems they have, and being genuine in our support for their development. As customers need to see the journey that we go through, we have to remember that our employees can have much more of an insight into what we do, and this can easily filter back to customers. For example, if an employee is unhappy, we can see it plastered all over their faces, and the service they will deliver will naturally be subpar, even if they phone in the performance. This will make us think, as the customer, what is the problem here? Is it to do with them, or is it a much wider, more endemic issue? This is why we have to ensure our employees are happy, and morale is up. It’s about creating that environment which belies a dynamic and thriving workplace. It’s a very difficult thing to implement, but if we start to work on morale, by imbuing the company culture with something more than a strict hierarchy where the people at the very bottom don’t feel supported everybody can feel the benefit. It’s not enough to tell them to put a smile on for the sake of the customer, because this is fake. But at the same time, if we don’t give our employees reason to smile anyway, we can’t be surprised if we have complaints from customers.

Encourage Employees To Have Awareness Of Their Language

On the most basic level, soft skills work wonders at building a report that we’ve also got to think about how our employees present themselves. It isn’t just about the clothes, please to do with how they stand, the intonations they use, as well as the body language, all in conjunction with the words that come out of their mouths. Having employees develop an awareness of how they are in one respect, productive, but in another way, it could be counterproductive because they are constantly watching themselves. We don’t want our employees to feel that they are being marked for grammar and poise all the time. At the same time, we need them just to have some sort of awareness of what they do that inspires a certain adverse reaction. Body language is an essential thing, but when we have employees speaking to others over the telephone, we might think that it’s not so important. But body language does have a lot of sway, especially in terms of how we communicate. There have been plenty of resources over the years that highlight just how you stand can impact your vocal strengths. Something like the Alexander technique, which, in essence, is a series of stretches, can have a great impact on how somebody performs. And when we start to get into these things, we can realize just how much of an impact we can have on a conversation, by saying it in a certain direction. Naturally, we cannot afford to send all employees on a mini drama course to become aware of their body, but by asking them to get a better understanding of the words they use, the posture a present, and how they sound, these things will all work towards a more self-assured employee.

Document!

If we document times when we interacted with a customer effectively, we can use these moments as benchmarks. Documenting interactions that we have with customers gives us the opportunity to build on our rapport with them and also understand where we may have fallen flat. Going back to the soft skills it’s about those subtle movements that we can undergo within the course of a conversation, vocally, physically, and even in terms of the subtext. Ultimately, we’ve got to work at selling something to a customer, that the customer is so sorry now that they don’t appreciate the hard sell. Instead, taking the counseling approach where we offer to help and provide a resolution for their problem makes it a more subtle approach to selling. And when we start to document the approaches that work in the ones that don’t, we are investing time into research and development so we can improve our business across the board.

A business will always be judged on the prowess of its customer service. And delivering a great experience to a customer is most definitely a fine art. When we start to look at each individual component, we can be here until the cows come home. But we have to think about giving the customer the experience that they deserve. You can look at your marketing, your products, your employees, and how they all work together, but when we deliver great customer service, we can sell ice to an Eskimo. Because customer service is the pinnacle of any great business, we have to invest more time into delivering a more effective strategy. And while we can entice people in with flashy gimmicks, when they walk away, they will remember how they felt. As such, delivering great customer service is something that we need to delve deep into. It will be the savior of the company.

Is Health And Fitness The Business Niche For You?

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Health/Wellness. A major business sector is health and fitness. If run properly, these businesses can be very lucrative business niche for those who run them. The following contributed post is entitled, Is Health And Fitness The Business Niche For You?

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Health and fitness has become a huge industry in the last couple decades. If you’ve been considering starting a business within this niche, here are just several tips to help you succeed.

Choose your business angle

There are many different roles that you can take up within the health and fitness sector. You could become a personal trainer, you could start your own gym, you could start your own nutrition class or you could invent a fitness gadget (that’s only a handful of the options). Consider where your strengths lie.

Find your sub-niche

Health and fitness is one of the few sectors where it really benefits to specify in order to help you stand out. If you’re becoming a personal trainer, you may want to cater your training to a specific type of fitness – this could include long-distance running, strength training or weight loss. You could even cater to a certain group such teenagers, pregnant women or people with disabilities. The same applies to nutrition or fitness tech.

Get educated

Being an expert in your field is important both for providing the best service and gaining trust from customers. By getting educated, you can feel confident knowing that you’re qualified. You’ll find all kinds of specific courses such as physical therapy courses and macrobiotic courses online. Take your time to compare courses so that you’re getting the best education for your needs. Online courses have the advantage that they can be studied around other commitments.

Do your competitor research

Whatever sub-niche you get into, you’re likely to have competition. Researching your competition is important so that you can find a way to single yourself out. Don’t get too caught up trying to offer the cheapest service – think about what will make you unique. For instance, if you’re starting a gym, you could try investing in unique gym equipment, hosting unique classes or offering unique benefits to members (some gyms offer discounts to local services or even give out free wearable tech to loyal members).

Invest in marketing

Marketing is how you will attract customers in the first place, so it’s worth investing money into a variety of marketing channels. This could include designing a website, printing off business cards, trying SEO, getting involved in social media marketing and even designing your own app. Word of mouth is also a valuable marketing strategy and it could be worth dedicating time to networking to build connections.

Lead by example

Health and fitness is more than an occupation – it’s a lifestyle. You need to be an inspiration to the people that you’re marketing to, which means keeping in good physical shape and taking on healthy behaviours. Make sure that you’re committed to such a lifestyle and that you’re not simply going through a fitness phase.

Top Tips For Creating A Good Social Media Presence As A Small Business

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. It’s a much different world than it was 20 years ago. Social media permeates everything in 2019 and everyone is using it. As such, you must effectively do business there. The following contributed post is entitled, Top Tips For Creating A Good Social Media Presence As A Small Business.

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It’s apparent now that social media is here to stay and it is quickly becoming apparent that to succeed as any business you need to be able to show that you have a good online presence on platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Just because it’s now becoming a necessity to have an excellent online presence, doesn’t mean that you will already have your plan of action when it comes to the steps you need to have in place to succeed.

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There is still plenty of time and ways that you can optimize your social media presence and with so many benefits it’s bound to be worth the time and effort. Have a look below at some of the ways you can create a good social media presence as a small business:

Look At The Networks

With so many social media platforms available it can be really hard to know which ones are the best option for your business. You should try to think about the platforms that your customers are most likely to be using or start with the four most popular. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and, Pinterest. Maintaining and creating content for each of these platforms can at times, be very time consuming and it has been known to take up almost the hours of a full-time member of staff. As it’s imperative to succeding online to be regularly seen and provide a constant flow of content it might be an idea to use outsourcing to help get you started and to maintain your accounts. By outsourcing for things such as social media videos productions you are freeing u your time for focus on areas such as your goals and strategy.

Goals Are Good

There are a number of benefits for a business that is active on social media, and there are several things you can achieve purely from having a social media presence such as being able to provide a second to none level of customer service. Not only this you’re able to engage with your customers, learn about them, expand your audiences and gain valuable insights and feedback about your products or services. In order to achieve any of this though you need to make sure you are setting goals. Think about what you want to achieve from using social media and how you’re going to get there. Think about areas such as whether you’re going to consider hosting a blog, are you going to share reviews of your products or are you planning on using influencers to promote your products?

Create A Solid Strategy

Having that plan for improving your online social media presence is all good and well but in order to achieve it you need to make sure you have a solid strategy in place. Once you have your goal you need to make sure you are putting a plan into place to help you reach it. You should start off by deciding who and how you’re going to manage the social media accounts and then set clear guidelines across each platform to make sure they are united in the flow and appearance of your business. Once you have this inplace you need to think about the content you are going to include and the frequency you plan to post, once you’ve decided this then you should try sticking to it for a while so you can monitor your engagement success.

Do you have any other tips for helping to create a good social media presence? Please share your top tips in the comments section below.

Why You Should Manage Your Money Ethically

A key focus of my blog is Financial Literacy/Money. Something that’s rarely associated with money management is ethics. Do the two go together? Who decides what ethical money management is? The following contributed post is entitled, Why You Should Manage Your Money Ethically.

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Ethical money management is a pretty niche topic but it’s something we should be talking about more. How we spend and how we manage our money has a big impact, not just on our own fates, but those around us. Indeed, the American dream is just that: a dream that is unlikely to become a reality for more than a lucky few.

When the world’s 26 richest people have roughly the same amount of wealth between them as the poorest 3.8 billion, there is a serious problem and the inequality is growing every day. But, while you might like to think that this has nothing to do with you, the reality is that everyone has spending power and your ethical practice matters just as much as a billionaire’s.

Taxes and Compliance

Paying your taxes comes first and foremost in ethical money management. Tax can be incredibly controversial and while some people believe in lower taxes and greater individual spending, others prefer a higher tax rate with more community services and assets.

You must also make sure that you comply with any relevant laws. Most compliance applies to business owners but some laws apply to individuals too. For example, you should declare any interests overseas through the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program OVDP. Whether you believe in high or low taxes and whether or not you agree with the law, this is a basic requirement for ethical money management.

Considerate Shopping

Ethics and shopping are often difficult to navigate together. As shoppers drive down prices, the conditions of manufacturing workers diminish, unsustainable practices aren’t challenged and, ultimately, everyone is worse off as products don’t last as long as they should. But considerate shopping is easier than you might think if you are willing to put some time into research.

Considerate shopping often comes down to the difference between frugal and cheap. Someone frugal will do their research, buy good quality, fair trade and sustainable products but might wait until the sales. Someone cheap doesn’t care how something was made or whether it is good quality – they are just interested in saving money no matter what.

Ethical Investments

Ethical investments require a bit of research too though you can find funds that are dedicated to ethical investments alone. Choosing ethical investments can be difficult, though. Some unsavoury companies have been known to present themselves as ethical and then be anything but. However, this shouldn’t put you off trying to uphold your values.

The best way to get started is to research the areas you are most interested in. For example, if you are particularly interested in the environment, you should look for investment opportunities that align with your beliefs. Remember: you’re not going to find a perfect opportunity so you will need to think carefully about what is most important to you.

Ethical money management is perfectly possible as long as you are willing to do some research and think carefully about where you put your money. Ethics are never clear cut, so see this as a chance to grow, not a one-off.

Getting Your Voice Heard In Business

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success. Two key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. In today’s information age, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. It is thus critical for you business and operations to be heard above all others. The following contributed post is entitled, Getting Your Voice Heard In Business.

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In a world of constant information and communication, expressing your views has never been easier. All you need to do is to take it to your favorite social media platform, start a blog, or even publish a video on YouTube about it. The digital world gives you a range of opportunities to share your opinions, whether you’re acting as an individual or as a business. Nevertheless, while everybody can have a voice, it doesn’t mean that every voice gets heard. In fact, your audience is becoming more and more selective to make sense of the cacophony of opinions that are fighting for their attention.

Getting heard is a matter of smart strategy when it comes to appealing to your target audience. Ultimately, your business vision encompasses your commercial activities, your day-to-day processes, and your market positioning. What you have to say is not only designed to affect your target, but also to improve your brand awareness, your productivity, your reputation, and your revenue. In other words, as a company, your voice serves as a marketing tool, a negotiating instrument, and a growth strategy. Making sure it is heard is not about being the loudest voice in the market, but it is about being the smartest voice around.

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Give your clients a reason to listen
The market is a busy place. It’s fair to assume that your business isn’t the only one out there trying to capture the audience’s attention. You have to give your target a reason to listen to what you have to say if you want to get your message across. Prioritizing effective communication is vital to stand out from the crowd. Indeed, you have to plan your communication strategy in terms of delivering advantages to your audience. From offering updates to dealing with queries rapidly, people are more likely to listen to you if you create value.

Make sure your voice is Law
Getting your message across is crucial in a business environment where negotiation, agreement, and contracts rule over commercial relationships and partnerships. Indeed, there is a big difference between saying what you want and ensuring that legal requirements are met. That’s precisely why companies outsource help with contract negotiation experts to manage their business relationships. A change of contract with a client or a supplier, for instance, requires a specialist attorney to not only capture your message but implement it as part of your transaction process.

Stop every now and then to listen
The first rule of getting heard is to listen to what others around you are trying to say. As a business, your primary interlocutors are on the market; they, too, share their opinions. If you want to capture their attention, you need to start by listening to what your audience, suppliers, partners, and competitors are saying. Marketing research gives you a more in-depth insight into what market actors expect and want. Indeed, the first step of establishing a communication standard is to understand your interlocutors. Only then can you start a dialogue, aka respond to what is said and build a relationship.

As a business, building your voice is only the first step of your communication with the market. However, creating an environment in which your voice is heard and respected requires the creation of additional value for your audience, prior knowledge of the market, and legal expertise. Otherwise, your voice is nothing but business cacophony to the audience.

Taking Responsibility For Your Company Data

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. A major part of running your business in the modern age is managing its data. The inability to properly manage your company’s data will cost you both time and money. The following contributed post is entitled, Taking Responsibility For Your Company Data.

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Whatever your line of business, when you put the time and effort in, it becomes of value to you. It is an investment into your companies goals and as such, should be treated with the same level of care that you would treat any other investment.

This is very true of your companies digital history. Everything that you make, every document or spreadsheet is there for a purpose. It was created in an attempt to drive your business forward and as such it holds an intrinsic value.

But, data is so transitory. You can send it, move it, delete it. You could find that accidentally end up overwriting important files quite easily. Your important customer data could get corrupted by a virus, and be unopenable. Your information may get stolen, or your hard drive could completely die and you will be left with nothing.

In this day and age, losing data is like losing all of your money. If you are holding onto customer information that could put them at risk, you may be liable and end up paying some hefty fines for not properly managing your data protection. If the information is completely gone, you may not have a customer database to work from or projects that have taken many hours of work could be lost.

Retrieving Lost Data

There are a number of ways forward when you hit this situation. The first thing to consider doing is to bring in a specialist who can deal with backup & disaster recovery. There are occasions where information can be restored. It may be helpful to utilize the services of a managed IT service provider to look after your data needs. That way, when the worst happens, you will always have their support on hand.

Implementing Better Systems

One of the best ways is to avoid this kind of situation altogether. By utilizing a system where your data cannot even be lost completely, you will be protecting your business from catastrophe. Cloud-based systems offer this exact thing. Your data is saved in realtime as you create it. It is not stored physically on any of your devices and can be accessed anywhere as long as you can log in. You can choose to share your documents with others, and you won’t need to email them copies. Any changes that you ever make will be visible at their end.

Using systems such as these not only protect your data, they make the handling and management of it far easier. You will have a much more streamlined and efficient office when it comes to using cloud-based systems.

Manage Your Permissions

Be sure and devote some time to getting your permissions and access levels set up correctly on all of your important files and folders. While you can share editing functions across an entire team, you may not want some of your staff to be able to do this. Having the correct settings in place will also protect your data from those within your organization.

How You Can Maximize The Security In Any Business

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. One of the most important parts of any business is it’s security. Maximizing the security of your business will insure that can continue doing what it’s supposed to do, and that’s to make money. The following contributed post is entitled, How You Can Maximize The Security In Any Business.

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In order to ensure that all the work you’ve put in reaps all of the rewards it deserves, you need to be able to get over the line safely. You can put in all of the effort, and get all of the formalities sorted, but you never know who or what might get in the way of your prosperity. That’s why you need to have all kinds of security. Keeping everything safe and away from trouble is key, and every successful business has all kinds of measures in place.

If you’ve started up a new venture, and you feel as though you lack in terms of some fortification, then you should probably look at what you can do to shore things up a little. For now, though, here are five additions you could introduce to your business:

Guards

If you’ve got some pretty valuable items or your workplace requires a lot of privacy, then bringing in some big guns to stand guard might be a great idea. Whenever people see a place with a large individual stood outside it, they immediately think twice before misbehaving. Even those that aren’t scared of guards, stewards, or bouncers still back away because they don’t want to cause a scene. There will be heaps of security firms out there that will have trained and experienced guards readily available. Make sure you choose a guard that’s appropriate to the size of your business and the assets that you have inside your premises, as you may need some kind of armed guards if your facility contains more sensitive, expensive or dangerous stock that needs extra protection. Check that they have the necessary equipment like a level 3 plate carrier and subsequent self protection so that they can keep your business as safe and secure as can be.

Cybersecurity

You’re probably going to be spending an awful lot of time on your computer or laptop during your working hours, so you’re going to need to make sure everything is safe and sound digitally. IT companies can help you out with all of that stuff with what’s called ‘managed IT support.’ They’ll oversee everything that your computer systems do and feel. They’ll be able to detect any threats, and put out fires before they’ve even thought about starting. You can also get many Data Backup Solutions from lots of IT companies – they’ll basically store all of your valuable files and data, and keep everything secure on their end.

Cameras And Alarms

Nowadays, we have lots of great technology that can deter criminals from causing any trouble. CCTV cameras work wonders for companies trying to protect themselves. Again, people will see the piece of high-tech equipment and think twice and commit anything stupid. If they do, in fact, go through with it, then they’ll be caught. Alarms will also help out – if any ne’er-do-wells decided to break in, then everyone will be alerted to their presence. Make sure you choose an alarm that’s reputable and known for its reliability, as you want to be able to leave your business knowing that your assets are safe and sound. Check a few reviews left by other businesses before you invest in an alarm.

Fences, Gates, And Locks

You’ve probably got some locks for all of your doors, windows, safes, and everything else, but you could always do with more. The more puzzles in the way; the more problems criminals are going to have. If you want to take things one step further, consider added extras such as anti-climb paint that makes it very difficult (and very dirty) for someone to scale your walls or fenced or install barbed wire – always notify people using a clear sign when using barbed wire to cover yourself legally.

Finally, literally adding a few more pieces to fortify your premise would be a good idea. People won’t be able to reach you if you have genuine obstacles in the way. Have some extra fences or gates build around the perimeter if you’re able to do so.

4 Innovative Marketing Solutions To Grow Your Business

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Arguably the most important part of your business is it’s marketing. Figuring out how to properly market your business can be the difference to outlasting your competition and further propelling you forward. The following contributed post is entitled, 4 Innovative Marketing Solutions To Grow Your Business.

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How do you grow your business? It starts with finding more customers, making more sales, and generating a larger revenue. The more you earn, the wider your profit margins become. As a result, you have extra money to invest back into your company, allowing you to expand.

Business growth is centered around your marketing strategy. By marketing and advertising your company, you make everyone more aware of it. You reach consumers that may have never heard of you before, and you can generate a lot of new leads, which convert into sales.

Naturally, there are various marketing ideas you can try out. But, it helps to be a little bit creative. Keeping that in mind, here are some innovative marketing solutions that will grow your business:

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Create an affiliate program

Affiliate programs are basically a way for you to create a little marketing team. The idea is simple; you let people sign up for the program, and they promote your business for you. In return, they get a commission on any sales that occur through their promotion. If you have a look here, you can see some actionable steps to create an effective affiliate marketing program. It’s an innovative idea because you’ve come up with a low-cost way of, essentially, paying people to promote your business. The benefit of this is that it only costs you money in commissions, which will only occur when sales are made. So, you’ll be making money as well; perfect!

Get taxi drivers to advertise for you

Taxi drivers, or private car hire drivers, represent a unique marketing opportunity for your company. Think about how many people will get in a taxi during one day. A single driver has multiple clients, and this continues throughout the week, month, and year. Imagine if you had a way of advertising your business to all of their clients – you’d tap into a massive market. Well, you can – and it’s all thanks to promotional air fresheners. You can click here for more info, but the idea is that you create air fresheners with your brand on them. Hand them out to taxi drivers for free, and they can hang them from their rear-view mirror. Now, all their clients will see your logo and might be intrigued. Add some contact details on there as well, so people can get in touch with you. The drivers won’t object as they get a nice smelling car and don’t have to do anything or pay you a penny!

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Guerilla marketing

Guerilla marketing is a modern way of marketing your business out in public. Essentially, the aim is to take people by surprise and make a big statement. Typically, guerilla marketing happens outside and uses the existing surroundings to promote your business. For example, some companies have created artistic graffiti displays on walls or the pavement. Others will create props and station them in areas with heavy foot traffic. Even a pop-up stall or event is a form of guerilla marketing. There are plenty of examples out there, and it’s a proven way to make people stop and take notice. Often, you’re applauded for your creativity, which makes people respect your business and think you’re different from the rest.

zoom in on the syrup pic.twitter.com/omRBupjrXq— Denny’s (@DennysDiner) March 1, 2017

Take advantage of memes on social media

For those that aren’t aware, a meme is anything that’s become incredibly popular and is spread and shared far and wide across social media. Usually, they’re videos or images, and they can be manipulated for various uses. Now, social media marketing is one of the fundamentals of running a business, but using memes can take your campaign to new heights. The benefit of doing this is that you can increase your engagement because people are already aware of the memes. It shows your business is current and up-to-date as well, and people will have a laugh too. So, this creates a positive perception of your business, which can increase your follower count and have a knock-on effect with lead generation and conversion. You’ll also see more engagement on your posts as well – just look at the example above where Denny’s used a popular meme to their advantage.

By all means, continue using more mainstream marketing ideas as well. But, if you’re looking for a way to give your company a boost and encourage more growth, then be innovative. These four ideas are a little bit different, which makes them stand out. Also, they’re all cost-effective too. None of these ideas will break your marketing budget, so you avoid overspending and causing a loss of revenue.

Three Undeniable Benefits of Adopting AI-Powered Business Technology

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is steadily growing. Numerous businesses are incorporating it as it has the potential to make operations more efficient and profitable. The following contributed post is entitled, Three Undeniable Benefits of Adopting AI-Powered Business Technology.

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Whether your startup is the new kid on the block or you’re already a fully-fledged business, staying informed of the latest advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is crucial if you wish to remain viable within your competitive industry and the ever-changing market as a whole.

Of course, embracing the latest technology in our lives does come at a cost. That said, there are tremendous benefits on offer, especially in the world of business, as long as we understand how to use technology without becoming dependent on it. Leveraging new developments in AI technology for business is a great way to streamline laborious processes and boost the productivity of your growing operation. Adopting new AI technology is also one of the primary ways to announce to the market at large that your business embraces innovation and change.

If you’re on the fence about adopting emerging technologies in the world of AI, this list of benefits for implementing the latest AI innovations could encourage you build AI into your business processes.

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AI-powered Cyber Security

If your startup isn’t investing in advanced cyber security, your data is exposed to threat. This not only risks your customers’ safety, but also puts the reputation of your business on the line. (These days, there’s nothing as bad for business as a data breach!) One of the biggest growth areas for AI is in cyber security, with market-leading technologies like Darktrace leading the pack. One of the main advantages that AI has over human beings is that robots never sleep—they don’t get tired, either. Cyber security is an area that has made great use of this feature, enabling 24/7 monitoring with the constant vigilance that is required to protect complex systems from ever-evolving threats.

Streamline Business Processes

Robots are not the only form of AI that have captured the imaginations of business leaders all over the globe. The variety of AI applications has gone way beyond science-fiction and become totally integrated into the day-to-day of modern business operations. As AI becomes more popular, the world’s top business leaders have started to leverage the most advanced forms of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to radically change the way—and the rate at which—some of the most essential business tasks are done. For example, AI has helped to reduce the role of human error by reducing the need for human involvement in repetitive manual tasks and processes. It has also helped to streamline procedures that were previously wasteful and time-consuming.

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Make Your Team More Productive

Harnessing the power of AI in your startup operations could significantly free up the hardworking members of your team so that they can accomplish more of the tasks that demand creativity and imagination—for example, design or strategy—which will help your business grow. AI-powered business technology covers an impressive range of business procedures, from HR to manufacturing and everything in between. If you’re wondering how AI could help your business, start by identifying what tasks are the most draining for your team. Whether you get an AI-powered Payroll system or invest in a virtual assistant, harnessing AI solutions is a great way to clear your schedule of repetitive tasks and make your team more productive.

Whether you’ve just burst onto the scene or your business is ticking away steadily, AI-powered technology could help supercharge your team’s productivity, improve your security, and streamline your operation.

The Fundamentals Of Running A Successful Business

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If you’re going to start and stay in business, there are some fundamentals you must understand and implement. The following contributed post is entitled, The Fundamentals Of Running A Successful Business.

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Running any business is hard enough nowadays, running a successful business, on the other hand, poses new challenges every single day.

Owning and running a business in today’s saturated world involves more than just luck. You must have a certain attitude, and you must follow a specific path to success. This path to success has many points; today, we are going to examine just a few of them.

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Automation

When running a business, one of the most important things to appreciate is the vast amount of technology that surrounds us. Technology has advanced so far that using it correctly can help when it comes to running our business.

The number one use of technology is when it comes to your company should always be automation. Automation can not only save us tons of money; it can see your business become far more streamlined overnight.

If you sit down and analyze just how many tasks in your business could be taken from a member of staff and automated, you may be in for quite a shock. The majority of companies that turn to automation have found that staff productivity climbed to an all-time high.

If you have a member of staff distributing emails 3 hours per day, 5 days per week, you are losing 15 valuable staffing hours, and you are possibly not utilizing a staff member to the best of their ability either.

Outsourcing

Another vital thing to recognize is the value of outsourcing. Outsourcing is taking tasks out of your working environment and assigning them to external contractors or companies.

When used correctly, outsourcing can save time and a large amount of money for your business. Many companies have taken to outsourcing their accounting and even their IT departments nowadays.

The joy behind having outsourced teams like this is a bespoke service you get, and generally for half the price of paying a yearly salary.

Advertising

Getting advertising right is also vital. Using the power of video is just one of the ways to get your advertising right and making it free.

When using the power of Youtube for your business, having a subtle way of advertising is critical. Remember, YouTube won’t cost you anything is you are putting out a series of how-to videos.

With these how-to videos, just a casual name drop here and there can work wonders.

One of the most important things to consider when advertising is your marketing strategy. If you want to know some in-depth stuff about marketing strategies you can check this out https://jacksondean.com.au/. Of course, you should also never underestimate the power of social media. Social media can be a completely free tool when it comes to advertising.

Getting some advice from somebody who is extremely social media savvy can see your business maintain its success for many years to come.

These were just a few of the fundamentals when it comes to running your business successfully, taking these into account when running your business can see great things happen.