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Things That a New Small Business Owner Must Expect

Business Owner

Many people dream about starting their own business, but very few are actually able to live their dreams by executing them, and even fewer make it past the first five years. This is mainly because a large number of times, some business owner don’t really know what to expect.

There are no words to describe what it feels like but in simple terms; it’s fun but scary at the same time. A large number of small businesses fail because of an inability to successfully make it past year one.

Many business gurus believe that with the right knowledge of what to expect, a new small business owner will know how to prepare for upcoming challenges. Here are a few things that any new small business owner should expect.

Be Ready to Hustle When You’re Tired

Isn’t that what being a small business owner is about? You may be thinking that as a small business owner, you can take a day off when you feel like it but that’s not the case. As the brains behind the entire operation, you need to hustle even when you feel like you’ve done enough. That’s the difference between being an employee and a business owner; you’ve never done enough.

There will always be paperwork that you need to sign, orders that you need to make and customers whom you need to talk to, especially in the first year. Just like in every other phase of life or an industry, the initial period is always make-or-break, and the end result highly depends upon how much work you put in.

You can spend each second checking and rechecking your plans and improving them, working on ideas and developing new strategies. After all, there’s so much on your plate (marketing, product development, vendor contracts and employee training)

You Can’t Make Every Customer Happy

It’s true that as a business owner, you need to retain a sense of balance in everything you do but when it comes to satisfaction, you can’t make everyone happy. As a small business owner, you’re bound to make quite a few customers unhappy and the truth is, you don’t really need to make everyone happy, either.

It’s important that you remember that the key is to have a consistent customer service policy and handling complaints carefully. If your product doesn’t impress a customer all that much, then the way you handle a complaint is sure to make them a loyal customer.

A major factor that differentiates your small business from that of a larger conglomerate’s is that you, as the owner, can give customers the attention they want, which is why they are likely to approach your brand in the first place.

Be the Master of All Trades

When you first thought of starting a business, you may have guessed that you’d only have to sign things and the wheels of your business would turn themselves. Wrong. In year one, you should expect to be able to do everything and know how every process works.

Along the way, you’ll think ‘they didn’t teach me this at business school’ as you try to find a good web hosting company for your company website or take aesthetic pictures of your products so you can post them on a social media account. You don’t learn everything about starting a business; you have to experience it hands-on.

From managing office operations during the day to writing content for your website at night, you’ll have to do most of it in the first year. You’ll be lucky to have friends or family who’ll be willing to help around but in year one, you can’t afford to hire many employees. In addition, even when you do get people on-board, you’ll have to know how to do things yourself before teaching them the basics.

Be Familiar with Laws

No this is where it gets interesting. Staring a small business will require you to be familiar with laws about hiring and taxes so that your business will genuinely be able to help people in the community by offering employment.

There are a number of regulations, laws, and licenses you need to know about before you can officially carry out operations as a business. In the beginning, you should expect to hire a lawyer for such needs because it’s impossible for you to know all the complex regulations that surround the startup of a small business.

This is crucial because no matter how hard you work on your business, it’s likely that even a small detail or legality can be held against you. You’ll be doing yourself a favor by investing in proper legal advice and obtaining all the licenses you require. Nevertheless, legal counsel isn’t cheap so you should expect to have enough financial resources.

There Will Be Some Bumps along the Road

Failure, no matter how big or small, is an inevitable part of running any business, whether big or small. You could make a product that doesn’t turn out as successful as you thought, your marketing strategy may backfire or worst-case scenario, you get a wave of negative feedback.

The first year won’t be failure-free but that doesn’t lessen your chances of reaching success. To keep yourself prepared for these situations, business experts advise that before you should quit your job, you need to have some savings. To be more specific, you should have enough money to support yourself for a year.

You need enough savings because no matter how well you plan the first year of your business, you can’t predict the future so there is always a chance that you might fail. There’s nothing wrong in preparing yourself for the worst-case scenario while planning for the best.

Conclusion

These are just some of the things that every small business owner must expect, especially during the first year after launching their business. Of course, no amount of expectation and preparedness can actually make you battle-ready to start a business but knowing a few of the most common symptoms will help you diagnose and reassure yourself that this is supposed to happen.

 

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How to Do Valuation of Your Small Business

Valuation

When you are looking forward to starting your own small business, you will have to familiarize yourself with a lot of new ideas. One of the important concepts that every business owner must be aware of is business valuation. So, what is business valuation, what is its importance and how do you do the valuation of a business? Read on to know.

Business Valuation

As the name clearly suggests, business valuation is the act of finding the value of your business in the market. It is just like finding the value of a house when you are about to sell it. You can use multiple methods to find the value of your business. However, it is always in your best interest that you hire a professional valuator to do it for you. They know multiple methods of valuation and will make sure that the final valuation is error-free.

The Importance of Business Valuation

The first thing you should know is that it is imperative to do the valuation of your business not for one but many reasons. The first reason that comes to mind is the selling of a business. When you want to sell your business to someone, you have to set a price for it. Sometimes, the owner of a business would want to plan succession i.e. the transferring of shares to an heir. The buy sell-agreement that they use for transferring the shares to their heirs requires them to know the value of the business.

If you have ever pitched your business to an investor, you must be aware of the fact that they always ask for business valuation. They are trying to assess a few different things based on the valuation you give them. First, they want to know how much their investment is worth. Secondly, they want to know whether or not you are fair with your investment demand if you are offering them equity for their contribution.

The Three Business Valuation Methods

Even though there are other business valuation methods as well, you will be reading about the three most common ones.

1. Valuation Based on Market Value

You also call this method the relative valuation method. It is a fairly straightforward way of knowing how much your business is worth. The valuators have to look at other businesses in the market that are similar to yours. They look at their selling prices and determine the value of your business based on those prices. Now, as simple and plain as this method sounds, it does not always work. For example, you don’t find the records of sole proprietorships that easily. So, when it comes to the valuation of a sole proprietorship business, finding records of similar businesses can pose quite a challenge.

2. Valuation Based on Business Future Earning Potential

This is an ingenious way to know the value of a business and one that helps you a great deal when it comes to obtaining investments from interested investors. This is quite a realistic approach but pitching it to investors can be a daring task.

First, you have to make sure that you have done proper calculations based on your current and past records to come up with the future earning potential of the business.

Secondly, you have to stand confidently with your decision because investors would often question you and your integrity a lot when they deem that you have valued your business much higher than you should have.

Capitalization of past earning is quite a frequently used approach to do this type of valuation wherein you look into the past financial reports of your business, smooth out any extraordinary earnings or expenses, and find the product of the normalized cash flow with a number referred to as capitalizing factor. It is not the only method used for determining the value of the business under this category. Another frequently used method is based on discounted future earnings.

3. Valuation Based on Assets

It is clear from the name that in this type of valuation you find the worth of the business based on the assets it owns. Once again, there are multiple ways to approach this valuation too. A common way to do this type of valuation takes liquidation of the business into account i.e. calculate how much money you would have if you sold every asset that your business owns and then subtract every liability from that sum. The other way is based on the ongoing status of the business wherein you look at the total value of your assets on the balance sheet and subtract your existing liabilities from them.

Once again, it is the sole proprietorship that poses challenges when it comes to doing the valuation of a business using this approach. Why the valuation of sole proprietorships is difficult using this method is because the owner in this case does not use the assets for business purposes only but personal as well.

You now know from the information given above that it is imperative for you to complete the valuation of your business. Whether it is for legal purposes or to sell your company at the right price, knowing the right value of your business is crucial. In the end, you should prepare your business financial documents regularly to help you find its value with convenience.

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Enterprise Turn to the Right with the Help of Angel Investors

Enterprise

You have a business enterprise, but it’s just not taking off the way that you planned, or business has slowed down significantly after a stellar few years. Along the way though, you have been able to learn much more about what the market demands and can amend your approach with great success with the right funding. Sometimes it’s necessary to reinvent your business to fit the marketplace and take advantage of what you have learned to date through missteps or experience. It’s a sharp turn to the right that can help a business take off again and angel investors can help you turn the wheel with angel funding.

Sometimes entrepreneurs have a good idea that needs tweaking, but they don’t know it needs adjusting until they enter the marketplace. In the age of technology, customer needs can change rapidly, and you must be able to accommodate those needs through innovation. Business based on excellent ideas aren’t always successful after a period of time simply because they need a new look, a new approach, a refined marketing plan or an adaptation.

All too often businesses are driven into the ground because owners refuse to acknowledge that the economy has shifted or that their market niche has changed expectations. It’s a case of stubbornness in many circumstances because it’s tough to consider changing a brand that has time, money and effort behind it. However, your brand won’t do you much good if your company dies a slow death because you failed to listen to what the market is telling you.

Turning Towards Success

Reinventing your business with the help of angel investors can change a struggling business into an adaptable one that is always one step ahead of customers. Angel investors don’t just fund brand new businesses. They also fund existing businesses ready to change course to take advantage of a changing economy or a changing marketplace. Companies reinvent themselves every day with enormous success and many are companies well recognized – Apple computers, HP, GE and others. However, you don’t have to be a major corporation to understand that market adaptability is one of the most important keys to success.

Unfortunately, there are thousands of entrepreneurs who refuse to admit they need to pivot in place and head in a new direction. The advantages of adapting is overshadowed by the fear of failing, so the business is allowed to die a slow death while reinvention ideas are left languishing in the dark. It’s not for lack of funding either. Angel investors are investors willing to accept risk for financial gain and are looking for companies that have a new idea and a new way to penetrate a changing economy. Angel investors, like venture capitalists and equity partners, embrace innovation, new approaches and new ideas.

Reinvention can take many forms.

  • Technological changes in products or processes
  • Response to competition in the form of new products or services
  • Upscale reinvention of brand
  • Change or expansion in products or services in response to changing customer base
  • Expansion in the definition of the niche market

Angel investors are more than willing to invest in companies that are ready to take a new path. In fact, you have a lot to offer angel investors right from the start because you have a business track record. The fact you are currently in business is a major benefit and selling point and often enough to get an investor’s attention sooner rather than later.

Pivoting on Core Competences

If you have a desire and need to take a sharp turn to the right in your business, the first step is developing a business plan around your core competencies. Those core competencies are the strengths of your business around which you will pivot your plans for new products or services, increased market penetration or business expansion based on a reinvention platform.  Clearly explain your new idea, track record, the problem you will solve or the market you will serve, the benefits offered to the marketplace, the revenue opportunities and how reinvention strengthens and rather than weakens your enterprise, and angel investors will have plenty of good reasons to join your efforts.

Who we are:  Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com

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10 Need To Know Things Before Starting A Business

Starting

Establishing a starting business – especially for those who do not have experience – is a very complicated and difficult task. More than once, the business owner’s lack of experience would often lead to regrettable, if not disastrous, outcomes. If you are planning to start a new business, here are ten things that you must know if you want to avoid startup failures:

1. Put everything on paper. Some people might tell you that you should avoid contracts as much as possible. Unfortunately, they are wrong. Before starting any deal – whether with a supplier or investor – work first on the terms of the agreement and put in on paper. This will assure you that you have a written documentation that might help you in case issues about the arrangement that was earlier agreed upon arise.

2. Formulate an effective business system. Businesses to tend to rely on efficient systems that ensure optimized operations. As the owner, it is your task to create, evaluate, and re-evaluate this kind of system that will guarantee quality and profitable results not just from your employees but from everyone and everything involved in the company.

3. Know your finances. Businesses rely heavily on your capital and profits. Even if you hire a professional accountant to handle your finances, it is important that you have more than just an inkling of knowledge about this aspect of your company. Know your financial limits. Likewise, have an idea on when will you receive payments. You would not want to wake up realizing that you don’t have the money to pay this month’s electricity bill.

4. Have an attorney. It might appear over the top, but having a person who will be there to offer legal assistance may be one of the best decisions that you will ever make. Keep in mind that attorneys are not just about legal suits and court trials – they can also assist in contracts and other agreements. In the end, you will realize that their worth is more than what you have paid them.

5. Decide on whether to hire an employee or get an independent contractor. The decision is up to you, really. It basically depends on the job that is needed to be done. You have to consider the risks of hiring one over the other. Employees, for instance, are good for long term tasks while contractors are the best choice if you are looking for someone who can work on specific assignments.

6. Be ready with your legal agreements. This is basically a combination of this list’s first and the fourth items. Like what was stated, contracts should be signed before the implementation of any deal. And that includes arrangements with your employees and contractors. Familiarize yourself – with the help of your attorney – with non-disclosure, intellectual property, and other forms of agreements that might come in handy.

7. Be careful with joint ventures. Teaming up with another business – especially with established ones – are very enticing for startup owners. And while this is an indication that your business in on the right track, be wary of these partnerships. Ask the question, what will you get if you sign that agreement?

8. Do not muddle up your personal and professional lives. Sure, you own the starting business. But that should not encourage you to put your personal money and your startup’s capital in a single bank account. Keep everything separated, especially with accounting. Businesses flourish if you professionally – and not personally – handle the finances.

9. Be ready for additional tax types. Taxes are part of our everyday lives. And don’t be surprised if it becomes a part of your every hour’s life once you establish your startup. Businesses tend to pay a lot of taxes, and you shouldn’t lose your mind because of this. There are tools available in the market that might help you. Or better, hire an accountant.

10. Look for the right tools. There are many services that can help you operate your business. Browse through a number of software, applications, and programs that can be downloaded from the Internet.

Establishing a starting business requires passion. But more than that, would-be entrepreneurs are also encouraged to have some knowledge on what they are about to do. It might sound difficult, but it sure is fun.

Who we are:  Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com

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Common Spending Mistakes in Small Businesses

easy way

There is no denying that running a business is not always easy. There are plenty of challenges that reverse growth or halt progress. Precisely, if these challenges have a direct impact on business finances, it may cause several other risks that your business needs to face. In other words, managing finances is pivotal to stay on top. And if you’re a startup, finance management becomes as important as serving existing customers or finding new leads.

But, if you are like business owners who find managing money or bookkeeping a daunting task, you must know your common spending mistakes to stay ahead in the business domain. This is one way you can mitigate not only financial risks but also monitor the cash flow of your business. In other words, by controlling your spending and cash flows, you improve success chances and your profitability also.

We have enumerated a few common spending mistakes to help you steer clear of the financial management of your business.

Common Spending Mistakes in Small Business

1.     Failure in Keeping Personal and Business Expenses Separate

This might sound trivial to you, but many business owners when entering the business world make this mistake. Remember that you are in the early phases of your business, it is vital to keep the expenses separate. Although sometimes you need to rely on the personal finances to support business expenditures, you need to ensure that you h have a separate budget for your business.  Also, relying on the personal expense to fund business may cause problems in the long-term.

Once your business is operational and starts serving the customers, separate finances by making a separate business credit card. Make sure you have a separate bank account for your business. Doing so can be extremely helpful in managing tax problems and avoiding bookkeeping confusion subsequently.   It will also empower you to evaluate potential or existing cash flow issues and overall business finances before they turn into a major problem.

2.     Not Creating a Budget

You might find easy budgeting, but you cannot deny its long-term value that outweighs all initial stress and effort.

Creating a budget means analyzing how much have you earned and how much you can invest. An organized budget helps you make informed decisions about all business matters that include everything from supplies purchasing, staffing, and training to inventory. Conversely, when you work without a budget, all these tasks become challenging and may cause you significant cash flow problems. This particularly affects your business if it works with seasonal shifts, and you need this cash flow to maintain business operations during the slow months.

Fortunately, there is a wide variety of apps such as Scoro, Centage, and Adaptive insights that can help entrepreneurs not only create but also maintain a budget. Not to mention how these budgeting apps keep track of your business expenses and send you a handy report at the end of the month or year. This allows you to do preparations for tax seasons and review performance.

3.     Failure to do Financing at the Right Time

All business owners know that working capital is an essential thing to operate the business and increase its growth. If working capital runs low, your business might face a lot of issues that not easy to resolve it right away, and that may vary from unpaid bills, mounting fees to lower credit scores.  Not only that but making payrolls also become a challenge while tackling such issues. The situation may create problems when it comes to retaining your potential employees. The problems like staff shortage, inventory, and supply management lead to decreased revenues and unsatisfactory customer services.

Ultimately, the failure to meet your business financial obligations can impact different areas of business. That is why it is important not only to identify but also address the cash flow issues and to prevent poor working capital in a easy way. It is better if you seek assistance about taking control of financial matters before they become problematic for your business.

4.     Ignoring Poor Credit Scores

Recognizing the right time to consider alternative financing options like a line of credit or loan is important. However, your due diligence will not benefit you if you fail to qualify as a borrower. That means, it is essential to be vigilant about both your personal and business credit scores.

It is also important because your credit scores impact your ability to use financing solutions with suppliers or vendors. The arrangements often help business owners easy fill the gaps in their cash flow.  Moreover, with a good business score, you can reduce the insurance premium and interest rate on your loan.

Sometimes, your credit scores contribute to secure many affordable financing terms; particularly when you opt for loans, credit cards, and line of credit.  The phenomenon is confusing for many people since they are advised to keep their personal and business financing separate as an ideal practice.  

However, it is important to understand that when you sign a lending agreement as a primary applicant,  banks use your credits to determine your eligibility, repayment terms, and interest rates.  Customers are sent an annual credit report, and it is good to use it for your advantage.  Although the business credit report is hard to obtain, you can get them through various platforms.

5.     Overspending on Startup

When starting a startup, you are naturally optimistic that your business will produce good revenues if you invest a large amount in it. This optimism sometimes leads to overspending, which is another common spending mistake. To avoid overspending, research carefully about how much inventory or staff you need to take a good start.

Final Thoughts

When running a business, you may face many financial issues, and to plan for all potential scenarios is not easy. However, when it comes to cash flow, various things can be done to avoid cash flow issues. The most important thing is to be proactive in whatever approach you use to manage your business finance.  Besides this, budgeting and healthy credit scores play an important role in keeping business finance issues at bay.

Thus, the given spending mistakes are very common when a business is in establishing phase. However, you can avoid them by planning and evaluating everything in advance.

Who we are:  Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com

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What does it take to run an Online Business?

OnlineOwning an online business allows you to work from anywhere you want.  All you need is to set flexible work hours and establish your presence. Not only this, online businesses have significantly low startup costs and that is what makes it ideal, especially for new entrepreneurs. This is one of the main reasons why traditional brick-and-mortar businesses are gradually declining. They are now more focused on being globalized and ubiquitous.

To put it simply, running an online business has a plethora of benefits if you are an experienced entrepreneur. However, if you are a startup and facing troubles in creating a presence, you need to understand that starting an online business is easy, but running it requires your attention. Whether your digital set up is in its initial phase or has achieved some milestones, knowing key details of the mainstream market and understanding it is of paramount importance.

Another major aspect that is essential to consider when it comes to running an online business successfully is familiarity with technology. If anentrepreneur lacks knowledge of digital marketing or other tech-based strategies, reaching the target audience becomes a daunting task.

If you can relate to this, then the provided details might be useful for your online business. All you need is to consider the following steps while running your online business.

How to Run an Online Business?

Establish Your Business Market

There is no doubt that without understanding the target market you want to focus on, you cannot increase your sales. However, if you know where you will find your target audience online, developing marketing strategies become a breeze.

According to expert marketers, when an entrepreneur understands their core audience, it will help them find the right ways to offer the products that interest the audience. The point is, researching the market position and analyzing the needs and interest of customers is substantially important before launching your product.

 Register Your Domain Name

Your online business requires a domain name. Without registering it you cannot run your business as it is your online address, spot or place where people will find you on the internet. The good news is that there is a myriad of companies that sell a domain name.  Google Domains, in this regard, is one of the common choices you can opt for.

Your domain name plays a critical role when it is comes to branding an online company. Here is when you need to come up with a domain name that truly reflects your company and its goals. While choosing a name, make sure you use the name checker tool to help you see what is available.

Host Your Business Domain

Hosting a business domain is an integral part of running a business online. Through a web host, your online business gets space on various servers. Sometimes both registering a domain and finding a host for it can be achieved with the help of one company. Following are the key features you need to consider when you choose a web host.

  • Uptime percentage
  • Available marketing tools
  • Storage capacity
  • Email features that are based on domain
  • How it offers customer response forms
  • Hosting capability for blogging
  • Accessibility for customer support

Focus on Your Business Website Design

The first impression is the last impression’ -whether you believe it or not it is undeniably true when it is about your website design. Your customer doesn’t have a place to visit or judge your market credibility; however, it’s your e-commerce platform/website that enables customers to understand your marketing skills.

That is to say, the more attractive and informative your website design is, the more customers your online business will attract. This is where both your marketing expertise and technology create a storefront for you.  If your brand is failing to grab the attention of potential customers, it is the right time to consider alternative options.

Hiring a professional web designer with sound web skills can make a huge difference to your websites’ layout.  We recommend you choose a quality e-commerce platform to not only help you customize the website, but also run an online business.

Add an Online Payment Option

The concept of online shopping encapsulates customer’s easiness whether it is about purchasing online or paying online. That is what adding online payment feature to online business makes extremely important. It gives customers satisfaction that they can process transactions without having to go through a long and arduous payment process.

Besides that, giving your customers multiple gateways for shopping can also have a significant impact on your business success. Allow upgrades and provide different packages for purchase options to make shopping fun and convenient from your online store.

Increase Website Traffic

Providing quality products and excellent user experience to your customers is your foremost responsibility if you are an online entrepreneur. It is the only way you can retain your customers while driving more traffic to your website.

For running an online business successfully, you need to make extra efforts to stand out from your competitors, which is not possible until you leverage the right strategies to attract the right customers.  Always focus on the target group to generate more sales and create more traffic online. Here are few tips o drive traffic:

  • Register with popular search engines, like Bing and Google
  • Use persuasive online advertising on social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
  • Focus on quality content marketing

Gradually incorporate advanced digital marketing strategies to increase quality traffic on your website. Remember that, driving massive traffic involves a number of technicalities and requires you to consult with digital marketing experts.  In addition to that, never compromise on the quality of e-commerce software as it will help you keep a tab on financial information, customer data and other analytics for your future business decisions.

Final Thoughts

All in all, an online business is undeniably a decent way to earn money, but requires proper strategies and planning to run it efficiently. It takes your hard work, time and most importantly market understanding to run an online business.

Who we are:  Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com

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These Are the Reasons You Are Struggling With Sales

Sales

Converting sales is a difficult task for any business but for some, it’s much harder. Whether you’re a B2C or B2B company, your sales team works tirelessly to reach their quota and help the business achieve its goals. However, no matter how hard they work, it seems like your sales team can’t lure in enough willing buyers. You know what they say, work smarter, not harder.

It doesn’t matter how much effort you are putting into the sales operation; it won’t make a difference if you’re going in the wrong direction. There are reasons why your company is struggling with making sales, and you need to understand them before coming o a solution.

You Haven’t Adapted To Change

The economic climate changes whenever a new wave of innovation and technology hits. Hence, if your business isn’t making as many sales as before, it might be because you are using obsolete systems. Ever since the proliferation of social media, analytics, and big data has come onto the scene, things have changed.

To get ahead of competitors, it’s crucial that your company adapt to these changes. Take big data and analytics, for instance. Many companies still haven’t embraced the importance of data and trends that you can derive from it. Once you do, you’ll begin to understand many things; why a sales drive failed, why you’re losing customers, and what makes a marketing campaign powerful.

You’re Putting a Cap on Commissions

For your sales team, motivation is knowing that, on a good day, they can take home a huge commission without worrying about capping. Capping commissions can stop your sales team from closing more sales and striving to go higher than a specific quota. Numerous studies prove that putting a cap on commissions can hurt overall revenue and productivity.

The results of such studies conclude that companies should remove caps from commissions. Once respective companies did so, they saw their revenue rise by almost ten percent. So don’t worry about having to pay your sales representatives large commissions, because they probably helped your company make a huge profit.

You’re Not Following Up On Every Lead

Sales representatives seem to lose their enthusiasm to follow up with every lead they come across. Instead, they only work towards ones they feel like they can convert. This guesswork makes things very confusing, especially since your sales team is relying on their gut feeling rather than an objective factor.

Take out records of how much your sales team has followed up with old leads. The reason for poor sales could be that they are ignoring certain leads, which results in your company closing fewer sales. It’s crucial that you remember how every consumer is a potential customer in one way or another, so it’s best never to ignore a lead.

Inadequate Marketing

All parts of a business have to work together to drive sales and boost customer retention. The marketing department of a company plays an integral role in giving sales representatives the leads they need. It often happens that a marketing team is unable to deliver qualified leads to sales representatives.

This step hurts your company’s numbers, and you need to improve by improving marketing efforts. This process can involve launching a well-planned Google AdWords campaign and other solutions that have the potential to boost sales.

You’re Unaware of Competition

Even though you’re looking at your competitor’s numbers, there’s a chance that you aren’t learning what they’re doing right. A large part of your understanding should come from what our competitors are doing. You need to invest in research and data about rival companies who have better sales numbers than you.

This research can provide you with valuable insight that determines what you’re doing wrong. Although you don’t have to imitate your competitors, there’s always something you can learn from them, and that’s not a bad thing.

No Training Programs

The only way for a company to go forward is if it invests significant time and resources into improving its employees. It’s unrealistic to expect your sales representatives to learn new things on a job that’s so demanding. When they’re following up on leads throughout the day, your employees won’t be interested in learning about new findings from sales research papers.

That’s why you need to build their skill set by bringing in the right expert. Sales mentors are one way that large corporations are boosting their numbers. Hiring an expert on sales is a valuable initiative that you can take, to improve your firm’s numbers. A sales mentorship also increases morale and helps your representatives develop stronger relationships with their colleagues.

Your Sales Team Lacks a Process

In every company’s sales department, leaders have to develop a process, which representatives should use to make a sale. When there’s no sales process in place, your representatives could be mindlessly trying to chase after leads without examining any weaknesses. At this point, it’s possible that your team is implementing a random process, so even an informal one will yield better results.

Instead of letting representatives do whatever they want, however, they want to do it, sales leaders should begin by establishing an informal process as to how they should get things done. Once you follow leads in a way that’s systematic and consistent, you can move from an informal process to a formal and dynamic one.

Conclusion

Therefore, now that I’ve listed out what your company’s sales team could be doing wrong, it’s time to recap what you should be doing to solve the problem. For starters, you need to adapt to changing climates of the industry by implementing new technology and software.

Next, you need to rethink the cap on commissions and improve your marketing strategy. After that, you should learn about your competitor’s solutions and try to understand the theories behind them. Assign focused and dedicated sales leaders to your department so they can implement a sales process. In addition, most importantly, there should be sales training and mentorship programs in place to enhances your sales representatives’ productivity.

 

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Why is Quality Content Important for Your Business Growth?

QualityBusiness strategies have changed in the recent past and so have marketing strategies. Marketers are now more vigilant when it comes to applying quality content and innovative ideas in order to persuade potential customers. Similarly, analytical marketers are more inclined toward tracking metrics.

Many companies in the industry are excelling in product manufacturing; however, when it is comes to subjective elements related to content marketing, they lack the expertise. Creating high-quality content has become crucial in order to keep business flourishing and to avoid the risks that can damage brand image.

If you are an entrepreneur, you probably have experience of dealing with directives given by SEO experts, sometimes from Google itself.  But have you ever wondered what this SEO thing really has to do with the success and failure of content market strategy have you used them for your business growth? How does it affect the reputation of your business if the quality of the content is not good enough? Most importantly, what is the way to know if you have really produced great content?

If these questions seem relatable, we can help you find out the answers. We can help you walk through all the important aspects that Google considers when its assess content quality. Plus, you will find some crucial information about how quality content influences your business growth that eventually helps you improve your digital marketing strategies. The information will also help you generate relevant and quality content to grab the attention of your potential customers.

These are the key reasons that explain why creating high quality content is important for business growth?

Importance of Quality Content for Business Growth

There is no denying that powerful digital marketing can make or break your business.  According to expert marketers, a successful business greatly relies on its digital marketing strategies. From search engines to social media, it is high quality content that promotes your business effectively while maintaining your online presence.

Quality content creation is undeniably one of the most important parts of your digital marketing strategy. It does not only connect you with your target audience, but also builds trust between you and your customers.

To put it simply, high-quality content fuels your various marketing techniques. It acts as a base that promotes and endorses your business online. That is why giving attention to the content that it deserves is of paramount importance.

Let us take a look at some key reasons that make producing high quality content important for not only digital marketing purposes, but also business growth.

1.)  High-quality Content Educates Audience

Educating your audience is the very first step to reaching potential customers, especially when they are deciding whether a service or product is worth buying or not. In other words, before making a decision, having the full understanding of the options available is extremely important. That means as a seller it is your responsibility to provide the content that educates your customers properly.

Typically, educational content refers to well -maintained product pages, blog posts, and company homepage, etc.  Moreover, it may include reviews, tutorials, and any other content that can educate customers about your product or service.  It may also incorporate resources customers require to make informed purchasing decisions.

This content is only considered high quality if it is focused on educating the target audience about your business services and offerings.

In order to create valuable content to educate your customers, you need to take the concerns and questions of your customers into account. Your content needs to address the issues a customer faces.  Plus, it should reflect on how your product or service can resolve or relieve those specific issues and how it can make your customers’ life easier.

2.)  Fuel for SEO

Search engines have become the go to solution for anyone looking for an answer to his or her concern or question.  That makes optimizing the content that you create even more important if you want it to stay relevant for the customers.

It is the only way you can attract multiple new leads to your business portal.  However, it is only high-quality content that can help you fuel your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies.

SEO is all about back links, website visitor and most importantly keyword placement. Your content allows you to build webpages that can fuel all these components. If there is no content, there will be no place for keywords, and for your visitors to get the information.

On the contrary, if you are producing excellent content that your customer is looking for and can relate to, reaching the top of search engines will not be difficult. The more customer flow you have, the more opportunities you will get for your business to grow.

3.)  Content is Important for Social Media Strategies

Social media platforms have completely revolutionized marketing strategies in the past few years.    They have become the easiest way to connect with potential customers. You can use it as a powerful tool to establish genuine relationships with your target audience to make a strong customer base.

Social media is not less than a direct way to approach your customers, maintain conversations, get customer feedback and drive new leads to your site.

However, all of this is fueled by high-quality content that basically enables you to retain your target audience. You can direct customers through your powerful Facebook post or Tweet to your website and encourage them to learn more about your services and products. This helps in establishing a better connection with the target audience. In addition to that, this is one of the ways you can make more visitors to go to your website and collect more information about your products. In other words, it can bring you more profit.

Final Thoughts

In a nutshell, there is no way an entrepreneur can deny the significance of digital marketing strategies as well as high quality content when it comes to business growth.  Keep in mind that quality content is crucial for developing connections with your target audience and driving them to your website.

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5 Surefire Ways to Improve Your Business Operations

Operations

Making consistent and regular improvements to enhance your business operations is critical toward its sustainability and success, especially in the end. An inevitable truth regarding business operations is that you cannot stand still and stay competitive. You will either get better or lose valuable ground to your competitors, which is something no business wants.

There is always some room for optimization when it comes to business operations whether you are a veteran business owner or a new entrepreneur. It is vital to remember that fine-tuning your business processes will help your business run more smoothly and efficiently while saving money. This is especially relevant in the end.

You have to know various ways to enhance operations that would work well for your organization. You will be glad to know that streamlining your operations is always achievable.  In addition, even taking a few small and simple steps in specific areas, like productivity, increasing the number of markets you serve and limiting losses could bring you huge rewards.

Here are five surefire ways to improve your business operations.

1. Clearly Define Business Goals and Objectives

Setting clear goals and objectives is a vital element of your business success. Productivity outputs surface from existing business operations; therefore, changing these results requires changing and improving your operations as well as processes them.

This usually starts with developing and defining measurable operational objectives and goals that all critical operational personnel is aware of. Remember that a lack of well-defined objectives and goals will often lead to the failure of your new processes or initiatives, no matter how great these processes or initiatives are.

“Improving operations” is too broad and not a clear goal in and of itself. Taking an approach that is not well-define, or does not include definite measures that need to be employed, is usually a recipe for disaster. You should determine exactly what your objectives are if you want to succeed. For example, does your company need to eliminate inefficiencies in the supply chain, or is the lack of quality systems your primary reason for downfall? Alternatively, perhaps human capital is where the biggest issues lie.

Make sure you have created and defined clear and measurable goals and objectives before introducing any new processes for improvement.

2. Motivate and Inspire Employees

Talented, trained and motivated staff members are likely to bring on huge improvements in the business. Remember that your employees are the ears and eyes of your business operations and their feedback is important. Therefore, if there are any weak spots or flaws in your system and processes, it is likely that your employees will know about them.

In addition, they likely need a better process to complete tasks. That being said, when your personnel thinks you are a “my way or the highway” leader who does not value their feedback, they often are not motivated and inspired to come up with valuable solutions and this will hurt your business.

Involve all your staff in improving your business operations. You should ask your employees where improvements and changes could make. It is equally important to take notes of all the flaws that they point out and solutions they offer.

Always make sure that your staff knows their opinions matter and you are open to their suggestions and recommendations. Maintain a good and positive relationship with your employees and you will enjoy a much higher employee retention rate while fewer resources will spent on hiring and training new employees.

3. Improve your Relationship with Customers

You likely have a customer database. You should take some time to tap into it to get in touch with all of your existing customers. Contact your customers by email, phone or letter to greet them. You should also remind them regularly that your business is ready and willing to serve them again.

In addition, get their opinions and feedback regarding what they think of your products and business in general. Getting regular customer feedback should be an integral part of your business processes. You have continuously looked for new and improved ways to encourage repeat business.

While there is no denying that both marketing and advertising are crucial to get more customers, service, quality as well as customer satisfaction are also vital to keep your business successful. Especially in the end.

4. Leverage Business Intelligence

We all know that information is essential for any business organization that wants to enhance its performance. Better and accurate business intelligence can elicit better results (provided you leverage the data properly). Moreover to this end businesses usually find that state of the art data intelligence software can play a crucial role in improving business processes and operations.

Business intelligence software, particularly at the highest level, allows for the timely tracking of trends and changes that can affect organizational performance. This gives managers, executives and other key decision-makers the relevant information to take suitable corrective action whenever necessary. Moreover, such insight also highlights important information that gives executives and managers what they need to figure out what is and is not working and what should be modified, so they may improve business performance.

5. Cost Cutting Initiatives

There is no denying that this is one aspect where all businesses can stand to benefit considerably from a closer look. Costs can creep up, unproductive practices can become common and waste gets taken for granted over time. Eliminating waste and cutting costs is one of the easiest ways to enhance your business operations while give yourself a competitive advantage.

From ordering shipping supplies in bulk to making double-sided paper copies, you could easily cut down wasted material, time and effort in making, promoting, selling, and delivering your product. As a result, you will see a considerable improvement in your organization’s bottom line.

Final Thoughts

In the end, working hard to improve and tweak business operations is the hallmark of a competitive and dynamic business. In addition, even if your company is current productivity is adequate it is an important end to aim for. You do not have to settle for good when you can have great!

Who we are:  Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com

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How Micro-influencers can Enhance Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Influencers

You do not need a million followers to become influential when it comes to promoting your business or brand. The concept of micro-influencers seems to have grown in popularity in the past few years. Micro-influencer marketing is gradually turning the idea that a marketer has to be well- known in order to have influence or make a lasting impression.

But what does the term micro-influencer refers to and how does it help entrepreneurs in their bending moments or in improving their marketing strategy?

What are Micro-influencers?

It might sound bizarre, but micro-influencers are considered ‘everyday people’. The strategy is incorporated to promote specific brands or products on social media. This product can be anything from cosmetics, cleanser to assortments and clothing.

That is to say, if your brand  has been trying its best to leverage influencer marketing with the help of established influencers who have significant number of followers (100,000  fans) on various social media platforms, such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, but still struggling to achieve the desired results,  micro-influencer marketing is worth trying.

However, there is no fixed definition of the term micro-influence, but it is explained as someone who’s small, but has a significantly higher following. For example, they have more than 20,000 followers on Twitter, and a few thousand on Instagram and Facebook. That means a micro-influencer makes up a large portion of digital marketers or influencers. It is possible that a micro-influencer has a modest audience, but his influence is certainly great.

The Transition from Social Media Marketing to Micro-Influencer Marketing

In the past two years, the popularity of micro-influencer marketing has grown exponentially. A survey highlighted that approximately 1.5 million people search for ‘influencer marketing’. This was used to be the case for only social media marketing in the past. That doesn’t only indicate how swiftly influencer marketing is replacing other marketing strategies, but also the rise of micro-influencer marketing in the mainstream.

Another apparent reason for this transition is that customers rely on the recommendations and advice of people they trust. Nielsen 2015 Global Trust found in its study that publicity that comes from other people is one of the credible forms of advertising. 80% of the respondents in the study contended that they rely on the recommendations and opinions of their friends and family.

Not only this, two third of the respondents of the study admitted that they trust the information they found in online opinions. Part of the drive toward adopting such strategies is really turning people’s heads and they are accessing micro influencers, depending on their target audiences. Entrepreneurs have started leveraging micro-influencers to improve digital marketing strategies. It has become a reliable way to reach potential customers.

The rise of Micro-Influencers to Rescue Digital Marketing

You must have an idea of how quickly micro-influencer marketing is moving and replacing traditional marketing strategies. While the components of social media marketing and search engine marketing are still performing well, conventional online displays have suffered an inevitable decline in their effectiveness. The two major reasons for that are:

  • People don’t pay much attention to banner ads due to banner blindness. Even if it’s in front of them, they cannot effectively see them.
  • The rise of Adblocker software usage is another reason that has adversely affected display ads. According to a survey, 30% of devices have Adblockers installed on them that removes ads from the screens.

In addition to that, the survey found another digital marketing problem. According to it, most of the social networks lack the quality of controlling ads positions on the platforms. For instance, a high-profile brand, like Coca- Cola, would not be happy to find its YouTube ad positioned next an undesirable video.

With that in mind, it is important for marketers and businesses to know why and how micro-influencers can leverage their digital marketing strategy. If you are a startup and don’t know that, we have you covered here.

How Micro-Influencers Leverage Digital Marketing Strategy?

Micro-influencers – Your Groundswell Approach

There is no denying that micro-influencers use the perfect groundswell approach to influence market when it’s about reaching a large audience. They provide you multiple avenues while channeling digital marketing strategies for exposure and brand awareness.

Besides this, micro-influencers make businesses able to saturate the current market with their product and brand.

Moreover, micro-influencers are aware of the functional significance of repetition, regardless of what kind of marketing you are engaging in.  That is why their campaigns ensure that your brand is exposed to the target audience through different channels and outlets.

Professionals at Content Creation

If your digital marketing strategy emphasizes content creation then micro- influencers are undeniably the Holy Grail! What we mean here is that even if they don’t have the huge following, they can help you produce great content to help you promote your brand.

Whether it is multi-media content, written content or imagery that you are seeking, micro-influencers get this job done keeping everything within your budget. Most importantly, you don’t have to worry about the quality of content.

 Drive Loyal and Highly Engaged customers to Your Brand

There is no doubt that micro-influencers have a loyal and highly-engaged audience. It is growing and mostly made up of people they’ve met who like the content, and who have been following them for a long time; it also includes their family and friends network. On the flip side, most of the macro-influencers have comparatively lower engagement rate.

Target Audience Related to Your Niche

One of the benefits of working with micro-influencers is that they use the right digital strategy to target the audience in your niche. It typically helps businesses align with the audience whose interests and passions match with the product that is manufactured.

It is because influencer marketing is based on the relevance of an influencer to the product, service or brand.  If there is no match, your campaign will not accomplish its goals.

Final Thoughts

All in all, digital consumers have become tech-savvy and smart and micro- influencers focus on the value and power of engagement that is of paramount importance for businesses to grow. The given reasons, in this regard, emphasize the significance of having micro-influencers to enhance your digital marketing strategies.

 

Who we are:  Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com

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