Author: Bizink

  • What is your succession plan?

    What is your succession plan?

    According to recent research, a staggering two-thirds of US millionaire-owned businesses are operating without a succession plan—and even fewer small business owners around the globe are prepared for their CEO’s eventual exit.

    Recent stats from PWC Global show that family-owned businesses are no more prepared: 43% don’t have a succession plan in place, and only 12% survive to the third generation.

    No matter whether your company has one employee, a hundred or a thousand, a succession plan is essential to minimize the risk of financial loss.

    succession planning

    Read on to help prepare for a stress-free transition when it’s time to sell or transfer ownership of your business.

    Define your objectives

    The starting point for any succession plan is a reflection on your long term goals, both personally and professionally.

    Where do you see yourself in five or ten years? What would you like your retirement to look like? Who are the best people to take over if you have to step away from the business suddenly – and how can you best prepare them for the task?

    Once you’ve tackled the big picture questions, your next step is to seek planning advice from your lawyer, accountant, wealth management, and business advisors.

    At the same time you’ll be able to start grooming your predecessor and training your employees for a smooth transition when you leave.

    Tips for successful succession planning

    Most entrepreneurs find it daunting to think about everything they’ll need to do before they can leave the company they’ve worked so hard to build. It takes time to create a useful, well-thought-out succession plan—so start early, and don’t rush the process.

    One of the most important elements of succession planning is clear and timely communication. Be sure to keep key stakeholders, business partners, employees, and family members involved in the planning process early and often.

    Set a reasonable timeline for the creation of your succession plan and try your best stick to it. Once you have a plan in place, schedule a review on a yearly basis. It’s always wise to have contingency plans in place in case any sudden life changes require an unexpected exit.

    Many business owners time an annual review of their business plan along with a review of their succession plan to ensure both are always up to date.

    Final tips

    A wealth of information is available online for small business owners ready to start succession planning. Free and low cost tools—including this self-paced e-course—can help you get started and stay on track throughout the process.

    Although it’s impossible to predict how long it might take for a small business to sell, a good guideline to keep in mind is two to five years. In addition to the other professionals you’ll want to consult as you draft your succession plan, you may want to consider the services of a business broker.

    Ask your business colleagues for a referral to a local broker with experience in your industry. A good broker can really streamline the sales process and maximize the perceived value of your business to buyers.

    It can be heart wrenching for a business owner to walk away from their company, and some entrepreneurs will plan to stay involved in some way for a few months—or indefinitely. Many find maintaining an ongoing role in their business can mean a more satisfying, and financially stable, retirement.

  • How to Survive the Emotional and Financial Devastation of a Job Loss

    How to Survive the Emotional and Financial Devastation of a Job Loss

    The loss of a job is one of the most devastating things a person can go through. The results of a job loss can be long lasting and the implications go far beyond the financial. While losing your job will most likely put your financial life at risk, the emotional consequences can be just as damaging.

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    When you consider that most of us spend more time at our jobs than anywhere else, the sudden loss of employment can mean losing our identity as well as our paycheck. If you’ve just received the unwelcome news that you will not be returning to work tomorrow morning, you need to step back, evaluate your situation and find a way to move on.

    Stop Panicking

    The first thing you should do when you lose your job is to stop panicking. Losing your job is devastating, but the loss is a temporary one. Life will go on, and you will most likely find a suitable position sooner rather than later.

    There is no reason to panic at the sudden loss of a job. Panic can blind you, and that can be just as dangerous as the loss of a paycheck. We tend to make poor decisions when we let our emotions get the best of us. No matter how hard it may be the best strategy is to detach emotionally and let your brain take the lead.

    Gather Your Resources

    The immediate aftermath of a job loss can be very difficult, but how you handle the first couple of days can make all the difference in the world. Now is the time to gather your resources and start your job-hunting strategy. If you still have access to the email addresses and contact information of your former colleagues, record that data as soon as you can. Your former co-workers can be valuable resources going forward, but you will want to give yourself a few days to cool off and take stock.

    You can use that time to start building your online network and get ready for the job search to come. If you do not already have a LinkedIn profile, now is the time to create one. If you already have a profile, spend the next few days polishing it. Take the time to update your resume and post it online. Make sure the information is up to date and that the document meets the recommended formatting guidelines.

    Assess Your Monthly Expenses

    The sudden loss of a regular paycheck can be financially devastating but taking some proactive steps now can reduce the pain substantially. Grab your checkbook, pull out your monthly bills and do some serious financial planning.

    You may not be able to afford a high-end mobile phone bill and you may need to stop eating out for a month or two or kick your morning Starbucks habit. Making a few temporary changes now can reduce your expenses and make surviving on unemployment a lot easier. You may even find that you do not miss the fancy phone or daily latte. If so, making your temporary changes permanent could give you more money to save and invest once you do find a new job.

    Get What You Have Coming

    Most large companies offer laid-off workers some sort of severance package but the rules are not written in stone. If your tenure with the company was a positive one, you may be able to negotiate a much better severance package than the one you were originally offered.

    Do not be in a hurry to sign your exit paperwork; that impatience could cost you a lot of money. Take the time to read the documents carefully and negotiate a better package if you can. Whether you negotiate a longer severance period, company-paid health insurance, or both, you will put yourself on the firmer financial footing and reduce the stress of your sudden unemployment.

    Stop Blaming Yourself

    Most people will suffer an involuntary job separation at some point in their careers. Losing your job does not mean you were not a good worker or that you are not worthy of respect. Stop beating yourself up and place the blame where it belongs –on the financial conditions that forced the company you worked for to cut back.

    Even if the job loss was partially your fault, you can learn from the experience and be a better worker going forward. It is easy to be defensive when faced with an unexpected termination but paying attention to the reasons and moving forward is the best strategy.

    Nothing can fully soothe the emotional and financial devastation of a job loss, but making the right moves now can make recovery faster and easier. Whether your job was an integral part of your life or just a way to pay the bills, you can recover your financial independence and your dignity. In the end, you may end up with a much better job and a more secure future.

  • Do you share this habit with the world’s most successful business leaders?

    Do you share this habit with the world’s most successful business leaders?

    What do Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, and Arianna Huffington have in common? All of these smart, savvy, successful business leaders share a passion for self-improvement through reading.

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    If you want to improve your skills as a business owner, why not spend a bit of time each day reading books that guide you to greater success?

    This reading list of 4 inspiring business books will help you get started:

    • “Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-being, Wisdom and Wonder” by Arianna Huffington
      President and Editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, Huffington is the author of fourteen books including this best-selling guide to a more healthy and rewarding life. Drawing on the latest scientific research, she demonstrates how we all benefit personally and professionally when we forgo traditional measures of success in favour of more mindful living. Check out Huffington’s Ted Talk with simple advice on how to succeed.
    • “Screw Business As Usual” by Richard Branson
      Founder of Virgin Group (which currently controls more than 400 companies), Richard Branson is also known for his philanthropic ideals. In this unusual business book Branson shares his unique vision for the future of business, arguing for a radical shift from a singular focus on profit to a more caring approach to decision-making that puts people, communities, and the planet first.
    • Winners and How They Succeed” by Alastair Campbell
      Selected by Richard Branson as one of his list of 70 must read books, this guide to what it takes to succeed was authored by Tony Blair’s chief spokesman and strategist. Based on in-depth interviews with successful athletes, entrepreneurs and global leaders, Campbell identifies four key traits shared by the world’s most successful people. Learn how you can cultivate a winning mindset and achieve your goals with Campbell’s blueprint for winning.
    • “Persuasion: A New Approach to Changing Minds” by Arlene Dickinson
      Best known for her role as an investor on Canadian reality show Dragon’s Den, Arlene Dickinson started out in business as a 30 year old divorcee and single mom before becoming partner and CEO of Venture Communications. In her autobiographical rags to riches story she shares what she’s learned about success along the way—in particular, the lost art of communication in the digital age.

    Final thoughts

    It’s a well-known fact that Warren Buffet used to read between 600 and 1000 pages per day at the start of his investing career and still devotes 80% of his day to reading.

    If you still need extra motivation to make daily reading a habit, consider the many benefits to your health and wellbeing.

    In addition to helping you build a more successful business, reading has been shown to enhance empathy, confidence, and improve decision-making—and can help combat stress, depression, and dementia.

  • 5 Tips to Improve the Conversion Rate on Your Site

    5 Tips to Improve the Conversion Rate on Your Site

    If you want to increase sales on your e-commerce site, you should not only focus on traffic but also on your conversion rate. The higher your conversion rate, the more money you can make with the same number of visitors. Here are five tactics to help you increase your conversion rate.

    Test

    Testing is an important part of improving your conversion rate. Split testing can help you determine what aspects of your content influence conversion. You will need to create two different versions of your page and monitor which version garners more sales.

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    Use clear language

    It is important to use clear language on your site and avoid jargon. Customers should be able to easily understand the products and services you sell when they visit your website. You should provide as much detail as possible about your offering to encourage customers to make a decision on the spot. If they need to visit other sites to get more information, chances are that they will not come back to your site to complete the purchase.

    Gain trust

    Trust is important if you want a customer to purchase from you. Visitors are more likely to make purchases from a site that appears professional and clean. Make sure that you have a proper privacy policy, terms and conditions page, and shipping information on the website. People also like to have a phone number through which they can contact you. Having all this information available makes your company appear professional and helps you increase your conversion rate.

    Offer payment options

    You should make sure that you have different payment options available. This will ensure a wider target market. Many customers will abandon their purchase if they find that your site does not accept their desired payment method.

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    Allow returns

    People feel more comfortable completing a purchase when they know that they can return the product. The more favorable your return policy is for clients, the higher your conversion rate will be. Take some time to consider reasonable return policies for your site and make sure you display the information prominently.

    Knowing what your conversion rate is and continually striving to improve it is an important aspect of online business. Implementing some of the strategies discussed here should help you boost your conversion rate, and hence the profitability of your business.

  • How to Create a Personal Brand

    How to Create a Personal Brand

    The words ‘personal brand’ is still somewhat controversial, and carry an unfortunate cast of self-promotion and vanity. The truth is that personal branding is more important than ever in the job market, and those without a clear personal brand or mission to create one are lagging behind the competition.

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    What is a personal brand?

    How you present yourself has always been important in the workplace. In the corporate heyday, it was established that to get a good job and be considered for promotion, you had to dress, speak and act appropriately for the company with which you were employed. Consider this the forerunner of the personal brand; now you simply are creating an impression of yourself that companies want to hire.

    Though companies are growing ever larger, there is more competition for fewer jobs; yet rarely does someone stay in a job for more than a few years. This makes it vital to ensure you always look employable to other companies and remain visible within your own organization. You must update your personal brand and create an image of yourself that showcases not only your proficiency in your current job but your transferable skills and achievements.

    Personality versus personal brand

    Do not mistake your personality for what constitutes an attractive personal brand. In the age of social media, everyone is Googling prospective employees and personal information is available at their fingertips. If there are unattractive photographs of you on Facebook, personal details about your family, or complaints about your work, delete them or make them private. Now would be a good time to set up work-only accounts and separate your social and corporate friends lists.

    Promote yourself professionally on the Internet. When creating a profile or website, what photographs are you using? What typefaces and colors do you use? What are you saying? The handwriting font may appeal to you, your favorite color may be baby pink or that picture of you wearing a Halloween costume may show your best side, but ask yourself: would you hire you based on your personal tastes?

    Remember, this is not about changing who you are, but highlighting your best assets.

    Present yourself in your best light

    First, determine what brand you wish to project. Are you an excellent communicator, or highly organized? Highlight successes in these areas and build your reputation by constantly seeking tasks in your workplace that allow you to demonstrate these skills. If you’re not so good at time management or do not work in a team well, work on these valuable skills or convert them to assets by saying you “use a spontaneous approach to problem-solving” or “are independently motivated.”

    Curate a professional image

    Now that you have decided how you will present yourself, translate that into the nuts and bolts of branding. Give your website a makeover, overhaul your social media accounts and even change the way you dress in the workplace. Even small changes like using a different font for emails can present a radically different version of you. Refresh your CV, and focus on the skills you want to use to advance your career.

    Remember that branding is just another word for marketing. You are selling yourself in the workplace every day by making yourself available and preferable for different responsibilities. Do not be afraid to ask for others’ input. Ask managers why they chose you for certain tasks, or ask your co-workers what word jumps into their minds when they hear your name. Reliability? Professionalism? Authority? Or is it something negative? Ask for honesty, and receive criticism with grace.

    You can use personal branding to advance in your current workplace, look for a similar job elsewhere or instigate a complete career change. If you have been working as an office temp and would rather work for a start-up selling ethical cosmetics or alternative clothing, consider your personal brand.

    Communicate the hard skills you learned in your office and do not be afraid to incorporate your hobbies and volunteering experience; if it is relevant to the job you wish to acquire, your personal brand should reflect it. Bold, illustrated CVs and outspoken opinions on social media have their place if they align with the company’s image and goals.

    Personal branding is a powerful tool ­– you can use it to your advantage or to your detriment. Use it wisely, and it might be the most important thing you ever did for your career.

  • Paying down debt

    Paying down debt

    Debt can be a crippling problem for small businesses wanting to grow or just break even during difficult times. By reducing debt you’ll improve the value of your business, its financial situation, and its ability to continue operating into the future.

    Assess your debt situation

    Take a detailed look at all of your debts – both current and long-term. Evaluate which ones are more urgent and which can be parked until some progress is made.

    The key determining factor should be the interest you’re paying on your debts. For example, those with the highest levels of interest should be paid first.

    Also, list your debts from smallest to largest. Maybe some of those smaller debts can be paid off quickly without much hassle to enable you to focus on the larger ones. Consider consolidating all your loans into one payment if possible.

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    Cut costs and free up cash

    Try to cut any unnecessary costs and free up some cash in the process. Think about how much you spend on each of your daily expenses – is there room to cut some of those costs?

    For example, a building firm may shout takeaway coffees for its workers a few times a week. Maybe a cheaper way can be found to continue providing coffee, such as instant coffee on-site with hot water from a thermos, rather than expensive takeaways.

    Have a look at how long it’s taking your debtors to pay you. If your customers aren’t paying on time, come up with some solutions for encouraging them to pay quicker.

    Early payment discounts could work well but make it clear on each customer’s invoice. Alternatively, tighten up invoice periods so there are fewer days for your debtors to pay before penalties. Make sure you let them know about any changes and the reasons for those changes.

    Reassess funding

    Have a look at how you’re using funds to pay off your business’s debt. Do you have funds available that could be better used to reduce debt further? Perhaps you have money in a current account that isn’t being used optimally – lowering debt and hence future payable interest could be a wiser choice.

    Examine your cash cycle, when payments come in and when they go out to pay your creditors. Where does the incoming cash go before it gets allocated? Is there any you can reassign to debt payments?

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    Sell your assets

    Another option for freeing up funds to reduce your business’s debt might be to sell some assets. What do you have money tied up in, but don’t use often enough to justify?

    Any equipment that’s not being used could be sold off. One example could be a builder who has an oversupply of power tools – making a detailed list of all their tools and how frequently they’re used might reveal some surplus assets.

    Make sure you’ve calculated depreciation correctly

    Have you depreciated all the assets in your business that need to be depreciated? It’s important to get these figures correct including the ratio of personal to business use if you use an asset for both.

    For example, a company vehicle will need to be accurately depreciated in relation to its usage over time. We can help you calculate depreciation correctly and also check whether you’re entitled to any tax rebates.

    If you need assistance with paying off your debt, please feel free to contact S & H Tax Accountants. Our Accountants are able to guide you through your debt and advise which strategy would be suitable for you, whether it would be cutting costs or calculating your depreciation. Book a consultation today, call us on 03 8759 5532 or you can email us on info@sahtax.com.au.

  • Tips for writing effective performance reviews

    Tips for writing effective performance reviews

    Without knowing your break-even point, you can’t make informed business decisions.

    The performance review has become a rite of passage in the business world, yet many managers and employees fail to make the most of the opportunities these important discussions can provide. When used properly, the annual review process can provide managers with real insight into everything from employee perception of the company to ways to make the firm better and more profitable. When not properly used, the annual review process is worse than useless – a waste of time and a way to foster resentment and bad feelings among the rank and file workers.

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    Whether the firm you work with has been using annual reviews for years or has just implemented such a policy, it is important to use the process to its full potential. While managers will need to adapt these ideas to meet the needs of their own companies and their own employees, there are some things all supervisors can do to make the reviews they give more useful to themselves, their workers and the companies they work for.

    Concrete Goals

    One of the most frequently cited sources of frustration on the part of workers is the lack of concrete goals. Many companies and individual managers set goals that are vague at best, making it difficult for employees to tell how they are doing.

    That lack of specificity can be a real problem when annual review time rolls around. Without concrete goals that can be measured fairly, it is difficult for managers to assess each of their workers and assign proper grades for each area of responsibility.

    Setting goals that are easy to identify is one of the smartest things managers can do to make the annual review process smoother and more productive. If the company you work for has not already established clear goals for your department, a talk with your own supervisor may be in order. Using that discussion to provide more concrete goals for your workers can help everyone and allow you to get more out of the annual review process.

    More Than a Once a Year Discussion

    Another problem with the annual review process is it takes place just once a year. Just think about how difficult it would be to manage your employees if you only had one discussion a year, and you will quickly grasp the inherent limitations of the annual review process.

    If you want to make the most of the annual review process, you can use the goals identified at the last review to guide frequent discussions with each of your workers. These sessions do not have to be extensive, or even formal. They can consist of something as simple as a quick chat over lunch about an ongoing project, or a post-meeting discussion about an important goal for the company.

    No matter what form these discussions take, they can be incorporated into the annual review process to make it more useful. The more you know about where each of your workers stands regarding previously identified goals, the more effective the annual review period will be when it finally arrives.

  • Using KPIs to monitor and improve business performance

    Using KPIs to monitor and improve business performance

    The key performance indicators (KPIs) for one company will invariably be different from the KPIs of another firm.  What both hypothetical companies share, however, is the challenge of selecting which KPIs are best suited for measuring the goals and progress of their particular business model.

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    Indeed, entrepreneurs have a vast array of reports and data sets from which to choose and select, but that data needs to target those specific areas that are most critical to answering the questions that managers need to make cogent business decisions.  As such, effective managers are able to distill down the essential information that is hidden deep within the mounds of data that emerges from an improperly targeted search.

    What Are Key Performance Indicators?

    Key performance indicators are the tools business organizations use to define their goals and establish quantitative measurements designed to determine whether any progress is being made towards those goals.  They provide data that can be used to spotlight performance characteristics across a variety of matrixes such as financial performance, customer relations, marketing efforts, and even employee productivity.

    Financial Performance

    At the end of the day, the bottom line is why we are all in business, and understanding how well your financials are doing is the equivalent of knowing what is going on in the center of your car’s engine when it’s rolling down the road.

    For instance, if you are losing sleep at night over whether or not your latest marketing plan was worth the check you signed at the bank on Monday, you will want to explore your Return-on-Investments (ROI) with a detailed ROI KPI.  Conversely, a KPI can highlight underperforming net profit margins or lackluster revenue growth rates, and the information obtained can present valuable information to ensure the meeting of the company’s original financial goals.

    Customer Relations

    As noted, a profitable bottom line is the ultimate goal of businesses, and customers are the key to achieving enviable sales numbers.  As such, understanding what motivates your clients provides inestimable advantages to the entrepreneur who knows what they are looking for.  Utilizing customer relation-focused KPIs, merchants can track levels of customer engagement and subsequent retention rates.  If customer satisfaction scores are sagging or turnover rates are high, the worried business owner can target their reports to help develop meaningful responses to address these lapses.

    Marketing Efforts

    Without a viable marketing plan, few businesses can expect to prosper.  With KPIs designed to highlight marketing performance, you can break down your cost per lead, brand equity positions, conversion rates, social networking footprint, and more.  Get the most of every marketing dollar by discovering what is working and what is not moving you towards your sales goals.

    Employee Productivity

    While your marketing functions are designed to drive in the customers that you are hoping will add to your bottom line, your employees are typically tasked with closing the deal.  Indeed, when you are tallying up your operating expenses, locating, screening, hiring, and training new employees looms large in any budgetary considerations, so using KPIs to measure employee performance just makes sense.  Savvy entrepreneurs use KPI to monitor the average revenue per employee, engagement level, and average employee tenure to name just a few of the reports that can be tailored to get a feeling for the pulse of your workforce.

  • How to find a domain name for your business

    How to find a domain name for your business

    Domain names play a key role in how visitors to your website identify your business. This is precisely why you should spend sufficient time finding the domain name that best suits your brand. But finding a suitable name for your website is not always as simple as it looks: the name you want is already taken, the catchy four-letter domain is too costly, or you may just lack inspiration. Let’s look at how you can mount a successful search for the ideal domain.

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    Buying existing domain names

    If you know the exact domain name you want, but someone else already owns it, you should begin by visiting their site to see what’s there. There is a chance that the current owner runs a similar business to yours and is fully utilizing the domain; in this case, there is little chance of them selling it to you.

    However, there are also many people who invest in domain names as others do in stocks and shares. They buy good names and either leave them idle or set up a generic landing page, often with a link for those interested in buying the name. In this case, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to get your ideal name, though you may have to pay a premium price for it.

    A third possibility is that the current owner hasn’t updated the site for a long time. They may have lost interest or their business may have closed, for example, but the site is still online. It’s definitely worth contacting the owner of a lapsed site to see if they will sell the name. You can find their details by checking the WHOIS information for the domain name: every domain must have a contact name and email address to retain registration.

    It is important to understand that shorter names which can be easily pronounced are worth a lot more than long ones. Virtually all common English words have already been registered and demand extortionate prices as well, so you’ll need to be inventive – or willing to spend!

    Generator tools

    If your ideal domain name is unavailable or the price is too much for your budget, you can try looking for variations on the same name. This can be a long, arduous task, requiring hours of sitting in front of your computer, trying to come up with new ideas based on your business, then searching for them to see if they’re available. Thankfully, there’s a quicker alternative!

    Online domain name generators, such as NameBoy or BustAName, create a large number of variants based around your chosen keywords, and they typically check availability as well. The advantages of using these tools are many:

    • They help you find good names for your brand by using prefixes, suffixes and other keyword options
    • They check domain name availability quickly, for all extensions
    • They help you find ideas for names that you may not have considered

    Remember, once you choose a domain name for your brand, it’s very difficult to move to a new one, so choose carefully. You should also be aware of wandering too far from your original idea: generators create so many different names that it’s easy to get distracted!

    Exact match domains and slogans

    The search engines used to give a significant ranking bonus to “exact match domains”. If your domain name matched your site’s keywords, the site ranked higher in search listings for those keywords. In other words, a site called “MakeMoneyOnline” (with any extension) which was built around the key phrase “make money online” ranked a lot better than a similar site with a different name. Recent changes have negated this ranking bonus.

    If your business has a short tagline, you can also consider a longer domain name that still works well with your brand. Great examples are Nike’s “Just Do It” and Apple’s “Think Different”, both of which have been used as domain names to send more visitors to their main sites.

    Whether you’re lucky enough to get the ideal domain name for your business or have to settle for a snappy alternative, always remember that your web address is an integral part of your business and brand. Treat it as an important investment in your future success.

  • Tips for more productive meetings

    Tips for more productive meetings

    Increasing efficiency and minimizing costs is essential to running a profitable business. Yet many small business owners waste countless hours on meetings that lack focus, run on too long, and pull staff away from more productive tasks.

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    Follow these seven tips to make your meetings more efficient and cost-effective.

    What’s your goal?

    Every meeting should have a clear objective, and a reason the meeting is needed (versus an email or informal conversation). Your meeting goal should be focused – see if you can state its purpose in five words or less. One study showed that a simple, brief statement outlining a meeting’s objective can reduce meeting length by 17 minutes.

    Draft an agenda

    Outlining a meeting’s discussion points in advance can keep everyone on track at the meeting. If it seems the discussion is veering off course, any attendee can point to the agenda as a reminder of your objectives. Distributing an agenda a few days in advance with supporting paperwork can help everyone arrive prepared.

    Invite the right people

    The cost of including staff in meetings for which they have no stake in the outcome is costly. This infographic suggests the annual cost of wasted time in work meetings is approximately $37 billion in the US alone. Consider including only those directly responsible for carrying out the tasks required in your discussion. You can ask your managers to pass on information to staff later.

    Start on time

    Begin every meeting promptly, no matter what. Those who arrive on time will immediately start to feel restless if they have to wait for others. Schedule meetings for mid-afternoons on Tuesdays rather than 9:00 am on Monday. People need time to get back into gear after the weekend, and by Tuesday afternoon, they’ll have had time to prepare for your meeting.

    Keep it short

    Perhaps business owners set meetings for 30 minutes or an hour out of habit, but the ideal meeting length is somewhere between 15 and 18 minutes. Any longer attention spans wane and productivity drops. Follow your agenda and invite a timekeeper to help everyone stay focused. Your timekeeper can signal when the discussion is running too long, or time is nearly up. When the timer rings, make it clear the meeting is over.

    Ban devices

    Ask meeting attendees to turn their cell phones off, or better yet, leave them at their desks. Devices are an annoying distraction in meetings, and some people find it difficult to stop checking their phones for incoming texts and calls, even when set to silent. Ask staff to leave their laptops at their desks, too. Research shows that conceptual recall improves when we handwrite notes rather than type them. If a record of your meeting discussion is needed, appoint someone to take minutes.

    Facilitate the discussion

    If you’ve invited more than one or two people to a meeting, act as a facilitator, ensuring everyone gets a chance to contribute. Often one or two people do much of the talking in a meeting, but a meeting is most productive when shier personalities share in the discussion, too. Often introverts are highly creative thinkers, but they need encouragement to jump into a discussion.

    Final thoughts

    A final point to consider when scheduling meetings is how long it takes staff to re-adjust to the day’s workflow when they’ve been pulled away from their desks – additional support for the notion that meetings should be brief whenever possible, and only include those that absolutely need to be there.

  • Identify your break-even point

    Identify your break-even point

    Without knowing your break-even point, you can’t make informed business decisions.

    To cover the costs of your business you need to sell enough goods or services to reach your break-even point. Knowing where that point is, and how long it will take you to reach it, can be fundamental to your success. This is especially true if you’re thinking about starting or buying a business.

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    Calculate fixed and variable costs

    The first step is to establish your fixed and variable costs.

    Fixed Costs

    Fixed costs are bills your business always has to pay, regardless of its level of sales. Also known as overheads, they could include:

    • Salaries for permanent staff.
    • Rent on your premises.
    • Insurance.
    • Interest on debt.

    Variable Costs

    These are costs that increase with your levels of sales – materials and production costs are two examples. Others include sales bonuses, part-time wages, and freight.

    Now work out:

    • The total fixed costs bill for the year.
    • An average overall variable cost for each product or service sold (the Variable Cost per Unit).

    Some bills might be a combination of fixed and variable costs, such as a phone bill split between a line cost and toll call charges. Separate these bills into fixed and variable parts for greater accuracy.

    If breaking them up is too time-consuming, choose which element is greater in the bills and classify it as that. For example, if you don’t make many calls to mobile phones or outside your local area, you’d classify the phone bill as being fixed.

    Determine your break-even point

    Let’s assume you manufacture shoes with the following details:

    • Budgeted fixed costs of $60,000.
    • The average cost to make a pair of shoes is $110.
    • The average sale price per pair of shoes is $250.

    Calculating your break-even point requires the use of a few formulas:

    1. Sales Price per Unit ($250) minus Variable Costs per Unit ($110) = Contribution Margin per Unit ($140).
    2. Contribution Margin per Unit ($140) divided by Sales Price per Unit ($250) = Contribution Margin Ratio (0.56).
    3. Fixed Costs ($60,000) divided by Contribution Margin Ratio (0.56) = Break-even Sales Volume ($107,142).

    Based on these calculations, if you sell more than $107,142 of shoes you’ll make a profit. That equates to 429 pairs.

    Breakeven

    Using your break-even point

    Once you’ve worked out your break-even point, the next step is to work out whether the sales volume you’ll need to break even is realistic and achievable.

    You can also use your break-even calculation to see the effect of changes in costs on your business. If you were able to source cheaper materials and reduce the variable cost per pair of shoes, you’d need to sell fewer pairs to break even.

    If your sales remained the same, you’d make more profit.

    To be of real value to you, your fixed and variable costs calculations need to be accurate. Putting inaccurate figures into your break-even calculations will give you an inaccurate result. It’s worth investing time to work out your figures accurately.

  • How to Attract and Retain Top Talent

    How to Attract and Retain Top Talent

    The best companies attract and retain top talent. Finding the best people takes time, but it is an investment that can save you money over the long haul. The more effort you put into finding the right people, the less likely that they will move on when another opportunity arises. Here are some strategies for attracting and retaining top talent.

    Give Yourself Time

    A senior manager has quit, leaving a gaping hole in your business. It is a hole that you desperately want to fill and you will make every effort to fill that position as soon as possible.

    Hiring anyone under trying circumstances can be stressful. You cannot afford to take shortcuts, otherwise, you risk hiring someone who is not a good fit for the position.

    You need to employ your regular hiring procedures when replacing a key individual. That means carefully reviewing applications, speaking with other managers, setting up interviews, and going through the entire screening process. References must be checked, background checks performed and a salary package carefully put together. Rush the process and you may have a wrong hire on your hands.

    Cv On The Table

    Offer Competitive Remuneration

    You are more likely to keep an employee around if you offer them a competitive package from the start. It is nearly impossible to make up a salary deficiency down the road. And by that time a key employee may leave for greener pastures.

    You should understand what a competitive salary represents for the position. Government data can provide details about thousands of positions. You can generate localized reports too, which will give you a good indication of how much a job prospect should be paid.

    Beyond salary, there may be a list of benefits that can make a difference in attracting top talent. Consider offering health and dental benefits and other perks.

    Job Hiring Vacancy Team Interview Career Recruiting

    Skills and Profiling

    It simply isn’t sufficient to interview potential employees. You need to have your managers meet with them too. You must assess their skills to determine whether they have what it takes to perform their job. You may need to work with a third-party agency to have those skills assessed.

    Another area of concern is their personal temperament. This individual may be smart and able to get the job done, but she could be impossible for some people to work with. This deficiency may not show up through normal interviewing means. Again, you may need to call upon a third-party service to help you vet this candidate.

    Elicit Feedback

    Once a new hire has been put into a position it can be easy to overlook how they are doing apart from their workplace performance. It is important that you maintain an open-door policy with your best employees to ensure that they feel comfortable bringing whatever troubles or concerns that they have directly to you.

    If an employee feels overworked or otherwise overburdened, he may begin to look for work elsewhere. The cost of losing top talent can be large. So it might be worth your while to hire a temporary individual or a part-time person to provide some relief.

    Feedback is also a two-way street. You may commonly provide annual reviews, but with top talent, you should offer your feedback much more frequently. You want to help these individuals grow and succeed – make a point to stay involved to help them be most effective.

    Top Talent Considerations

    Employees who feel that they contribute to a company are much more likely to stay put. Even so, you will always lose top talent no matter what you do.

    It is important that when your best workers leave, you also perform exit interviews. You want to uncover the reasons why they are leaving, including problems that were not addressed earlier. From there, you can make changes to reduce your turnover rate going forward.

  • Five Undesirable Customer Types

    Five Undesirable Customer Types

    Every businessperson knows that not all customers are created equal. Some customers are loyal, while others will stray if they’re offered a slightly lower price elsewhere. Some clients are demanding, while others only call when they wish to place an order.

    Every business must deal with a variety of customers. But there are certain types of customers who do more harm than good to your business – they drain your resources while adding little to your revenue.

    Many Paper Bags Full Of Bought Things

    Here are five undesirable customer types that every businessperson should learn to recognize.

    1. The customer who returns most of their purchases. Return policies are intended to offer customers a reasonable period of time in which to reconsider the purchase decision. However, some customers abuse such policies. Some buy a product (such as clothing) with the intention of using it only once or twice and then returning it. Others buy two similar items with the intention of comparing them, keeping only one, and returning the other. Such customer behavior increases staffing costs and warehousing expenses, and it can strain your relationships with suppliers.
    1. The customer who makes unreasonable demands on your customer service staff. If every little problem that the customer encounters with a product (such as computer hardware or software) leads to a call to your customer care department, the resulting personnel costs may ultimately exceed the revenue resulting from the original purchase. Customers who behave this way – instead of consulting the instructional documentation and/or the frequently asked questions – also reduce the standard of service available to other customers by clogging the phone lines.
    1. The customer who complains publicly about your company’s products or services. The growing visibility and influence of social media have made this type of customer more dangerous than ever. This is especially true if your business is a large and well-known company. Social media sites like YouTube and Twitter give disaffected customers the means to broadcast their concerns to a very large audience.
    1. The customer unreasonably takes advantage of special offers or incentive deals. If a customer repeatedly signs up for a service to take advantage of a low-priced introductory offer and then cancels when the introductory period comes to an end, the customer is not helping your business succeed. Such customer behavior may be perfectly legal, but it is nevertheless outside the boundaries of appropriate contractual interactions.
    1. The client in a B2B (business to business) supplier arrangement who constantly makes demands of your sales representative, takes advantage of free delivery by placing numerous small orders (in order to reduce inventory costs) or frequently threatens to take their business elsewhere if they don’t get special deals. At a certain point, it is necessary to acknowledge that such clients are more trouble than they’re worth.

    After a businessperson identifies a customer (or client) as undesirable, the next stage is to develop an appropriate response. Where possible, try to educate the customer – in a respectful and courteous manner – about reasonable and acceptable interactions in the marketplace. If this fails, you may have to consider “firing” the customer.

    Shedding your business of undesirable customers has multiple positive impacts – in addition to improving the bottom line, it improves employee morale and allows you to focus more resources on other customers.

  • Optimizing Your Website for Local Searches

    Optimizing Your Website for Local Searches

    Local search engine optimization (SEO) is an important part of any online marketing strategy for traditional businesses which serve a specific geographical area.

    Local SEO works in much the same way as normal SEO, although there are some important differences to consider. Taking the time and trouble to optimize your website for local is essential due to the fact that about a fifth of desktop queries and more than half of mobile searches have local intent.

    To capitalize on this fact, you’ll need to make sure that your website appears in local searches. Fortunately, local SEO is actually somewhat more straightforward than regular SEO, and this is large because it is less competitive.

    Searching Engine Optimizing

    The first step to optimize for local searches is to include your regional keywords, such as the name of your town or city or any other areas which your business services, in the following areas of your website:

    • Your website URLs (particularly for landing pages)
    • Page titles
    • Meta titles and descriptions
    • h1 and h2 HTML heading tags
    • Throughout the content of your site, provided it is relevant and done sparingly

    Any local business should also have a footer that appears on every page of their website. The footer should contain your address, postal code, and phone number. All information must be identical to that of any other online listings you have either on social networks or local directories. You should also provide a link to your Google Local listing.

    Another key element of local SEO is to have appropriate landing pages. Your landing pages should include keywords and phrases referring to your business’s location or service area – just be careful not to overdo it, since Google will penalize sites for over-optimization.

    Businesses that have multiple service areas should ideally have separate landing pages for each one so that people will still be able to find you in Google when carrying out local searches. Each of your landing pages should provide relevant content, including information that is specific to the particular service area it applies to.

    Other Online Resources for Local SEO

    Optimizing your website is only one part of the local SEO process. There are many other important online resources that businesses should use to increase traffic and raise awareness. The most important ones, which any local business should use, including the following:

    • Google Places. The most important resource of all for local businesses, even if you don’t have your own website, is Google Places. Claiming and verifying your business’s listing on Google Places will help enormously in your efforts to appear in local search results, and your business will also appear on Google Maps and mobile devices running Android.
    • Bing Places. Microsoft’s version of Google Places might not be as popular, but it is still too important to ignore. It works in much the same way, allowing you to claim and verify your business’s physical location and have it appear in Bing Maps and on mobile devices running the Windows Phone operating system.
    • Yelp. Yelp is an online urban guide providing local business listings. Yelp recently replaced the rather unsuccessful Apple Maps app for iPhones and iPads, and these devices now use data from Yelp to display local information with their included mapping apps. Given the enormous popularity of iPhones, the advantages of getting listed on Yelp should be obvious.
    • Foursquare. The number one location-based social media website, Foursquare allows users to find local businesses easily and ‘check in’ to specific locations. Setting up a profile on Foursquare is a quick and straightforward process that will also help you in your local SEO efforts.

    Local SEO is largely about getting listed in local online resources and optimizing your online content both on your website and other platforms in such a way that it makes references to location-relevant key phrases and regional names rather than using generic keywords.

    It’s essential that your business listings be completely consistent across all of the platforms you use, particularly since it won’t be easy or practical to change them later on.

  • 8 easy ways to promote events online

    8 easy ways to promote events online

    Online marketing tools make it inexpensive and easy to promote your events online. If you want to expand your business and offer webinars or offline events, these eight tools will create online buzz about your event to a worldwide audience. When interacting with people on the Internet, remember to always act in a polite and courteous manner. Don’t spam invitations or promotions about your event 24, 7. Use common sense and put your best professional foot forward online.

    Laptop Shopping Bags Online Shopping Concept 1423 189

    Set up a Facebook event – Set up an event on Facebook and invite your friends and fans. Don’t be an annoying spammer and send unsolicited invitations to people you don’t know. Facebook makes it easy to set up events and reach diverse audiences. If you don’t have a Facebook account, you need to sign up for Facebook before you can create an event.

    Create a hashtag on TwitterTwitter makes it easy for you to market your event online. If you host a webinar, create unique keywords that briefly describe your event (i.e. #b2bmarketingwebinar). A hashtag also creates buzz around your event and generates further interest. Include the event hashtag when posting pictures and updates about the event. By using a hashtag, it helps Twitter users find your event when searching for keywords. You can also create and post hashtags on Facebook – include these same Twitter hashtags in your Facebook updates.

    Use LinkedIn as a resource – Create an event and post to your LinkedIn groups. Invite your personal connections, colleagues, former co-workers, etc. Do not blast invitations to people you don’t know as they could report you to LinkedIn as a spammer.

    Send email invitations – Save a tree by ditching the paper invitations. Create a simple, visually-appealing email invitation and email to your contacts list. Use Evite (free online invitations) or a similar free invitation program. This saves you a lot of time and you won’t have to make follow-ups with tedious RSVP phone calls.

    Advertise on free event listing sites – There are free sites that promote event calendar listings. This is very helpful especially if you plan to host a large event in a big city. Some sites allow you to set up the event by city, region, and postal code. Check out the free event listing sites such as Yelp, Eventbrite, Eventful, Tweetvite, and Zvents.

    Write a blog post about your event – Write a short blog post about your event and add the link to your Facebook and/or LinkedIn event pages. Don’t oversell the event, and keep the post brief. Bullet point the key benefits of why your event will be beneficial to your blog readers. Speak to their “pains” – how will your event help them and what problems will it solve? If you plan to take online registrations, make sure to include the link in the blog post.

    Add a banner to your website/blog – Another simple way to promote your event is to advertise a banner on your website or blog. Make the banner visually appealing to quickly capture your audience’s attention. Stick to basic event information such as date, time, location, cost, contact information, and relevant sign-up links. Add a shopping cart feature to your site if you plan to take online registrations. This makes it easy for attendees to sign up via your site.

    Take advantage of cross-marketing opportunities – Create relationships with other industry leaders. Work as a team and promote each other’s events. Their online reach may be larger than your lists so take advantage of marketing resources beyond just social media. It helps if you first develop a genuine, solid relationship before you ask an industry influencer for marketing assistance. It is considered professionally rude to ask them to promote your event, especially if they don’t know who you are.

    By implementing the above internet marketing tools, you can easily expand your event marketing campaign to a large audience, grow your attendees’ list and increase event sales.

  • So you’ve launched your business – now what?

    So you’ve launched your business – now what?

    Good news for small business owners: according to the US Small Business Administration, nearly 80% of small businesses survive their first year.

    However, that number begins to drop as time rolls on. Only half of the small businesses pass the five-year mark, and a mere third celebrate their tenth anniversary.

    Business

    Taking steps to create a good foundation in the early days of your business is essential for a sustainable and profitable future. Here’s how.

    Keep your eyes on the numbers

    If you’re just starting out, you may be surprised by just how quickly those day-to-day expenses add up. It’s important to make sure, right from day one, that you consistently track your spending, file your receipts, and monitor your income and expenses with an easy, reliable accounting system.

    Cloud-based accounting software (like Xero or Sage) can help you know exactly where your finances stand in real-time—with secure access to accurate, up to date financial data anywhere, anytime.

    In addition to being able to collaborate more efficiently with your bookkeeper and accountant so you can get advice whenever you need it, you’ll avoid the stress and hassle come tax time—and be empowered every day to make better, smarter business decisions.

    Don’t neglect marketing

    All entrepreneurs are incredibly busy, and it can be a real challenge to find the time to promote your business. The other challenge for new businesses is money—but every small business needs to invest in marketing activities that will bring in more sales and keep the cash flow flowing.

    It’s wise to be wary of costly large-scale marketing strategies when you’re just starting out. The best use of your time in the early days is to really get to know your customers and how they tick, so you can design (or hire an expert to mastermind) highly appealing, cost-effective campaigns.

    And don’t turn a blind eye to what you’re competitors are up to. Monitor how they attract new customers and think about how you can improve on what they’re doing—or take a completely different approach to promoting your business that will help your young brand stand apart.

    Touch base with a business advisor

    Every successful entrepreneur learns from experience—not to mention failure, which can be the greatest of all teachers.

    While it’s true that “you don’t know what you don’t know”, you can shrink your learning curve by reaching out to experienced mentors for guidance.

    Consider working with a small business consultant who can provide personalized advice to help you make it through the first year—and an ongoing objective perspective on your business, industry, and market going forward.

    Final thoughts

    It’s been said many times that a business is like a baby—and it can be incredibly difficult for entrepreneurs to trust someone enough to hand over any aspect of it. Many business owners work themselves to exhaustion because they can’t let themselves take a weekend off. They neglect their most important relationships and never get to enjoy their successes because there’s always more to do.

    The most successful entrepreneurs know they can’t do it all—nor should they—and build in time for rest so they can be more productive at work. Train someone early on to run the business in your absence so you can take a rejuvenating vacation, and enjoy the freedom you likely dreamed off when you first imagined going into business for yourself.

  • 7 Ways to Improve Workplace Productivity

    7 Ways to Improve Workplace Productivity

    The success of any business, large or small, depends largely on nurturing an efficient, productive workplace. While improving employee productivity should always be a priority when the ultimate goal is a sustainable and profitable business, the process is easier said than done. Below are some of the most effective methods of managing a productive, happy workplace while increasing output.

    Establish Accountability

    Productivity depends on every employee understanding that the jobs they do come with specific responsibilities, and that their actions have consequences. Employees that lack accountability are more likely to slack off, procrastinate, or blame others for their shortcomings. Establishing accountability from the beginning results in higher-quality work output and an increased focus on informed, efficient action.

    Happy Female Professional In Glasses And Suit Holding Tablet

    Avoid Excessive Micromanagement

    There is no denying that management is absolutely crucial, but too much of a good thing can have adverse effects on productivity. Excessive micromanaging creates employees that feel as if they are not trusted and that their decision-making processes are not valued. Instead of encouraging employees to put forth their best efforts, it results in an eventual dependence on micromanagement that can sink productivity levels.

    Recognize Success

    Just as employees must be held accountable for their actions, they should also be recognized for their success. Even small efforts, such as verbal recognition or occasional awards, can encourage employees and make them feel like their hard work is being rewarded. For businesses that can afford it, larger rewards, such as holiday parties, improve morale and create camaraderie in the office, all of which lead to happier, more productive employees.

    Break Out of Ruts

    While it is generally advisable to assign tasks based on an employee’s particular competencies, keep in mind that doing the same tasks repeatedly over an extended period of time can make even a skilled employee feel as if their work has become monotonous. If possible, it may be useful to expose employees to other tasks and even other departments. This renews motivation, offers new skills to learn and apply, and grants the employee a broader understanding of how the company operates.

    View From Above. Business,startup, Teamwork Concept. Startup Partners Sitting At Coworking Space Talking About Future Project, Looking Through Examples Of Work On Laptop And Digital Tablet.

    Cut Down on Meetings

    Oftentimes meetings serve as nothing more than temporary breaks from productive work. If a meeting does not have a specific purpose, an organized agenda, and a plan of action, it will probably only function to diminish productivity. Meetings can be a great way to share ideas and establish goals, but don’t let them get in the way of delivering actual results.

    Embrace Technology

    While many workplaces still see new technology as unnecessary or even distracting, the simple truth is that it can have a significant positive impact on productivity. Updated hardware, software, and machinery ensure that work can be performed in less time and with minimal error. While it may not seem like a big deal, even minor issues such as temporary connectivity problems or hardware breakdowns can quickly add up through the course of a fiscal year.

    Think Outside the Box

    Studies have revealed several productivity-boosting techniques that may seem counter-intuitive at first glance. While social media has been demonized in workplace settings, data shows that allowing occasional breaks to access such sites can boost workplace productivity by nearly 10%. Likewise, allowing employees to listen to music while working – when it doesn’t interfere with the job, of course – can also improve efficiency. Providing such perks can pay off tremendously if it means happier, more motivated employees.

    Balancing the needs of a business is never an easy job, but a focus on increased productivity can have a positive impact on nearly every other facet of the workplace. By using the techniques above, it is possible to eliminate unnecessary pitfalls and ensure that employees are personally invested in efficient, quality work output.

  • Using blogs to improve your business

    Using blogs to improve your business

    Showcasing a business online is an increasingly effective tool for attracting new customers. Blogging is a great way to start to communicate with your target audience.

    Photo 1499750310107 5fef28a66643

    Blogs are highly effective tools for sharing your expertise with others, increasing web traffic and brand awareness, and for attracting and interacting with new customers. WordPress and Blogger are free web hosting platforms that make blogging available to businesses of all sizes.

     

    What is a blog?

    It’s best to think of a blog like an online journal – a web page made up of chronological posts published at regular intervals. Unlike personal journals, blogs have a comments box accompanying each post. This element provides feedback and creates a direct link with readers, sometimes generating a hotbed of discussion that drives repeat traffic.

    Blogs first drew widespread attention in 1999, around the same time web-hosting tools became commonly available. Since then blogging has snowballed, with The Nielsen Company estimating that there are now more than 170 million blogs online worldwide.

    The benefits of business blogging

    Blogging is a low-cost, easy way to establish a presence on the Internet, start communicating with existing customers, and find potential new customers.

    A blog can be a powerful channel of communication to share business-related knowledge with a large audience. They’re generally shorter than articles making them easy to read, topical, and sometimes lighthearted.

    You can answer Frequently Asked Questions on your blog. It’s both useful for your readers and saves you from having to answer questions by email.

    You can also share business news, advise people when your website has been updated with new information, promote sales or discounts, encourage people to sign up for newsletters, provide sneak previews of what’s coming up, or even run contests to generate some interest.

    How to start blogging

    To start blogging, you’ll need a computer, an Internet connection, and a web host to host your blog. You can either add a blog to your website or cut your teeth using one of the free blog options like Blogger or WordPress.

    It won’t take you long to set up an account, choose a blog name and start blogging. Define your target audience – people who’ll read your blog and why. That’ll help you choose an appropriate name and description for your blog site.

    Before you invite everyone to comment on your first blog post, take some time out to plan your blogs. How often are you going to post on your blog? One of the keys to successful blogging is consistency. What are you going to blog about? Brainstorm ideas ahead of time and plan your blogs in advance each week.

    Basic rules of blogging

    There are a few basic rules of blogging that’ll get you up to speed:

    • Put time aside to blog regularly. The most successful blogs put out new content at least a few times a week and stick to a regular schedule.
    • Blogs are part of the social media mix. They’re about online conversations not promoting your product. You want your content to be personal and engaging.
    • People expect blogs to be open, honest, and personal.
    • Cross-promote your content over various social media channels. If you’ve just posted a new blog entry, tweet about it on Twitter and link to your Facebook page.
    • Keep your writing short and make it easy to scan. Most people will scan your posts before they decide whether they will read them or not. This means writing short sentences, using subheadings, and avoiding long blocks of text. You should also make use of images and bullet points, and highlight keywords.

    With these handy tips, you’ll be able to begin blogging with the aim of improving your business.

  • Essential Tips to Help You Sell Your House Quickly

    Essential Tips to Help You Sell Your House Quickly

    Once you’ve made the decision to sell your home, chances are you’d like to do it as soon as possible. While some houses sell almost as quickly as they hit the market, others sit for a considerable amount of time without generating any offers from prospective buyers. Fortunately, there are several steps that you can take to increase the odds that your house is in hot demand and sells quickly.

    Choose the Right Real Estate Agent

    While every area has a handful of real estate agents who make a name for themselves by outselling their competitors, that doesn’t necessarily mean that one of them is the right agent for you. While a top seller may be just what you need, it’s more important that you choose an agent with whom you can work well and feel comfortable. Whether you choose a realtor who is an outgoing overachiever or a laid-back professional who takes a more relaxed approach is entirely up to you.

    Pick the Right Price

    There’s nothing that will knock your home out of the running more quickly than a price that’s too high. Before pricing your home, do your research and find out what comparable homes in your area are selling for. While your real estate agent will help you determine where to place your asking price, it is always a good idea to be an informed party in the process. Perform internet searches to locate homes in your neighborhood and the adjoining ones to find homes similar to yours and see how they’re priced and which ones are selling.

    Hosue For Sale

    Stage Your Home

    Although not all sellers invest the effort required to create a warm, welcoming atmosphere in their home so it looks inviting when potential buyers come through, smart sellers do. If you’ve ever watched the real estate shows on the home improvement channels on television, you’ve probably been exposed to the concept of home staging. De-cluttering, improving curb appeal, cleaning, and creating a neutral atmosphere are all key components of staging your home in a way that helps prospective buyers be able to imagine themselves in your home and encourages them to make an offer.

    List Your Home on the Internet

    Nowadays most home buyers start their search for a new house on the internet. What that means to you is that you should get your home listed on the internet as early in the selling process as you can. Ensure that your realtor gets your house, along with numerous attractive photos of the interior and exterior of the home, onto as many real estate search sites as he can. The more people that view your home, the more likely you’ll attract the buyer that is going to come through with an offer for your asking price.

    While selling a house in a hurry can pose challenges, they’re nothing that you can’t overcome with proper planning and action. Before you know it, you’ll have a signed contract in hand and be happily packing boxes for the move to your new place.

  • 10 quick growth tips for your small business

    10 quick growth tips for your small business

    Small businesses can grow in boom times as well as periods of difficulty by working smarter and taking advantage of opportunities. Put these following effective tips into practice to help grow your business.

    Business

    1. Utilise new technology

    Modern technology can save you time, improve productivity and reduce your operational costs. Make use of Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media tools to market your business.

    Dropbox is a cloud-based service that can be used for document creation and sharing, while Skype is commonly used for calling or video conferencing.

    2. Communicate better

    Always take a friendly but professional approach to any form of customer interaction including written invoices, quotes and emails. Create guidelines for dealing with customers in writing and over the phone. Reply to messages as soon as possible. If you take too long to return a call or email, you may lose a potential customer to a competitor.

    Try writing a blog or column about your chosen industry. Think about sponsoring an event or gifting your products or services to a local sports team, community group or school.

    3. Become more innovative

    Even if your products and services are selling well, always look out for new ways to refine your business. Organise regular brainstorming sessions and invite staff to share their ideas on ways to improve products or services.

    4. Tighten up your credit policies

    For any orders, make sure your customer completes a credit application and that they understand your terms of trade. Encourage your customers to clear payments quickly by emailing or posting invoices and giving clients a clear time frame to pay. Revisit your terms of trade and make any necessary changes if need be.

    5. Improve your record keeping

    If you’re selling products, keep a record of every product sold and ensure you’re aware of how much stock you have. There are free or low-cost point-of-sale (POS) computer programs that can manage stock inventories and provide a record of each product sold. Create a database for future follow-ups by recording clients’ names.

    6. Join business associations and organisations

    Business associations and organisations give you access to industry leaders about current innovations and developments within your chosen market for an annual membership fee. They hold regular events, seminars, short courses and networking evenings which can be incredibly valuable for meeting business owners, identifying investors, and learning more about your industry.

    7. Develop a website

    If you’re a well-established business, potential customers will be searching for you on the Internet – often before they pick up the phone or walk through your door. An effective website needs to be functional, communicating what you offer and your point of difference.

    8. Manage your time more effectively

    Take note of where your time is going each day. Some tasks could be consolidated, or completed at a dedicated time each week. There are free or low-cost time management tools such as Toggl and Google Drive that monitor your daily workload and can generate weekly reports.

    9. Buy good quality business cards and use them

    Take any opportunity to hand out your business card when you meet new people – even outside of work.

    10. Generate referrals

    There are many ways to create referrals and grow your business. For example, you could pay for them per lead, write a blog, attend trade shows, or simply advertise through various media.

    Your small business will need to harness a variety of methods for it can grow sustainably, so take the time to plan ahead and try some new approaches.

    Good luck and let me know how you get on.