Are you considering setting up a new company? If so, you might be looking into the possibility of running your business from home. It’s a great idea because you can keep costs low while still being an effective force on the market. The days are gone when running a business from home meant that your opportunities would be restricted. Now it’s entirely possible that a home run company could end up on the fortune five hundred list. That’s not an exaggeration, and the reason why that’s now a possibility is due to tech. With new business tech, you can literally do anything you want from the comfort of your home including run an incredibly successful company. The question is, what type of business should you think about running.

A Man With A Blog

Is a man with great potential, or woman for that matter. In the past, blogs were online diaries with no real purpose except to be a place people could share their life issues. Now, things are quite different. For one thing, it’s possible that a blog can be one of the most powerful marketing tools in a business’s arsenal. Essentially, when you set up a blog, you are opening up your own exclusive marketing platform. You can use this however you want and ensure that you get your message across. It’s also possible to set up a blog as a business in itself. It doesn’t have to have any other purpose other than to share your writing, your creations, and your information. The secret to success here is sponsored content. There will always be promoters and advertisers interested in tapping into your target audience. When they do this, they will be paying you for space on the blog. At that point, your little website is a moneymaking machine.

Software Development

It used to be the case that to create and manage software you needed a massive team working together in an office. Not anymore, now you can run your business like this from home with no trouble at all. In fact, it’s possible that you can use software offered from companies like QASymphony to manage software development and testing without massive numbers of employees. Multiple pieces of software can be run and tested at the same time using their tech. As such, it really is possible to be a solopreneur, developing and selling software online. That brings us to one of the final best possibilities for an online home run business.

Ecommerce

You can run an ecommerce business online selling whatever product or service you like to customers. Check out this article about SHOPIFY loyalty program for some experts that allow us to craft and fine-tune unique digital services that meet your individual business needs, category and industry. It doesn’t matter what your product is as long as you can find customers who are willing to buy it. The good news is that there are always individuals looking to buy no matter what product you’re selling. You can start by setting up a website. After that invest in marketing and soon you will see your customer base will grow and expand online. Within a few months your online shop could be completely profitable and a fantastic little income for you.

No website is ever fully complete. They are constantly evolving, incorporating new design languages and new styles.

But there is a problem. Improving a website is difficult and often requires an expert designer in the background, making shrewd decisions about how to make web pages look better.

Here are some ways top designers and website builders improve the look of websites for businesses.

Get Rid Of Sliders

Sliders first came about because of the fact that, back in the old days, computer monitors were small.  In order to present a lot of information on a single page, web builders had to include sliders to allow users to scroll through pages and use navigation windows. But now that most people have monitors that are 24 inches or larger, the need for sliders is much reduced.

It’s a good idea to ask whether sliders help improve conversions or not. If sliders do not help increase conversions, then why are they used so frequently? The evidence suggests that sliders have no impact whatsoever on conversions, and because of how hard they are to use, they may actually discourage people from staying on your website.

One of the ways that they could deter people from staying on your site is the fact that they have to spend time finding the slider and then using the slider to scroll down or across your web pages. But according to an article in Time Magazine, 55% of people spend less than 15 seconds on any given web page. If users have to spend lots of time using sliding to get to the content they want, then they may just leave your site and go to another one that is easier to use.

It’s About Them, Not You

The content on most business websites tends to be about the business or the owner themselves. To many owners, this seems like a good idea, but in reality, it is actually harming their businesses. Why? Because people aren’t interested in the life story of the business owner; they are interested in what the business has to offer them. It is a good idea, therefore, to construct all of your marketing material in such a way that you are directly communicating with the customer.

Commit yourself to creating copy that speaks directly to your customers and is written in their self-interest, not yours. You will find that users will respond enthusiastically to content that is designed to directly help them if they feel that they are gaining something from consuming it.

Robert Greene explains in his book The 48 Laws of Power that if you want to get someone to buy something from you, the best thing you can do is appeal to their own self-interest. There is no point talking about all of the amazing features of your new software product if users have no idea how your product will actually help them in their own lives.

Another expert, James Altucher,  gave a TEDx talk where he discussed with business people how they can best serve their customers. He said that the best way to get business from people is to serve them without expecting anything in return and exceed all of their expectations in the process. Of course, business people always expect something in return, but this psychological tactic has proven very effective. Simply being funny and informative can be enough to attract people to your business and if they think that you can help them, they will hand over fist fulls of money.

Get Real About Your Website

Have you ever heard of the term, “Build It And They Will Come?” Well, it turns out that, at least on the Internet, that is a myth. If you build it, they won’t come, unless you make them come.

There’s no easy way to get people to come to your website, but one of the things that you can do is reach out to experts in the field. For instance, some services, like services from Poet Media, provide companies with more information on SEO tactics. SEO is imperative, but also tough to get right. It takes time, and patience, and means that companies need to develop a long-term strategy if they are going to achieve the results they want.

When you are first setting up a website, it needs to be beautiful, but it also needs to be accessible to customers. You don’t need to spend a fortune, but spending some money on making it your site more visible online will pay dividends in the long-term. The best way to generate traffic is to make sure that your website is regularly updated with helpful content and is making links with other authority sites related to your particular business.

Use Calls To Action

From a young age we are programmed by our teachers and parents to do as we are told. When somebody tells you to do something, and they speak from a position of authority it is almost impossible to resist their command. It’s just natural.

This is one of the reasons why calls to action on so powerful on websites. Calls to action are like a command or instruction, unconsciously persuading us to do something that we wouldn’t ordinarily do. For a website to be great and to get lots of conversions, businesses need to be aware of how calls to action work, where to deploy them, and how they can be used to most effectively.

Businesses shouldn’t expect visitors to do what they need them to do because they won’t. They will only do what you want them to do if you tell them what to do. The more you tell them what you want them to do, the more page views you will have, and the more leads that you will generate.

It should be noted, that many companies, including businesses like Evernote, use carefully crafted calls to action to direct customers to the products and services that are most appropriate for them. Great calls to action are those that tell users exactly what to do and stand out from the rest of the page in a clear way.

Wondering how to take your Custom Product Marketing Campaign to the next level? Believe it or not the answer might just be technology, software and outsourced services, to learn more you can click here. There’s now a wealth of tech on the market that really could make the demand for your business boom. We hate people spreading the unproven idea that your business could become a success overnight. But by investing in the right direct marketing services and the new technology that we have now, you might just see that kind of result. Manufacturers or suppliers of food supplements may seek marketing services from a supplement marketing agency. What services and tech are we talking about? We’re so glad you asked!

Content Management And Monitoring

If you check out a site such as www.chatmeter.com you’ll find there are businesses that monitor every aspect of your online profile. By doing this they can find out what’s working, what isn’t and what you should be spending more time on. Eventually, you’ll discover that your business isn’t operating anywhere close to it’s full potential. But with a little work and a lot of analysis it could be. You can set up a content management system for your business site. A CMS as they call them in the marketing biz, will allow you to easily choose when and how new content is released across all areas of your campaign. You can set it to happen automatically at the time of day when most of your customers are searching online.

Get An App, Everyone Needs An App

A report from 2014 revealed that the average person looked at their phone one hundred times each day. Think back to 2014, we know it was a long time ago. Phones didn’t have as many apps as they do today and weren’t as important in everyday life. Now, you use your phone for everything from replying to messages, to sending funny photos, to checking Facebook. So, we’re pretty sure that stat will have increased and that means if you don’t have an app, you’re missing out. You can contact an app development business and ensure that they you have a piece of software created that ticks all the right boxes.

Oh, CRO

CRO stands for conversion rate optimization, and it’s the big brother of SEO. You can find more about it on www.thenextweb.com. Once you get customers to your site, you need to think about how to keep them there. CRO provides the answer with complex data analysis. By doing this, you will be able to discover what makes customers stick around and the problem that is causing them to leave your site. The issue, we kid you not, could be as small as the wrong picture in a certain area of your home page.

Backlink Building

If you’re interested in building backlinks for your business, you need to get content that other website owners find attractive. To do this, it’s worth scrolling through the indexes of dead sites and finding content that has been successful and abandoned. You can then recycle it, using the successful info to boost your own campaign. There are plenty of different pieces of software online that you can use to do just this.

We hope you see now how tech could be your greatest weapon promoting your company.

Running a retail store takes a serious amount of hard work, and we’re not just talking about the long hours or the fact you may not get a day off every week. We’re talking about up skilling your knowledge in all sorts of areas and making sure you understand exactly how you are going to succeed in this sometimes ruthless industry. The reason why you’ll need to learn so much is that it’s not easy making sales, or keeping costs down, or making the right decision, or maintaining stock, or ensuring you have a constant cash flow. This stuff is hard. This stuff takes knowing how to do.

The Power Of A Story

The best way to start off is by understanding exactly what you want your brand to be and say. Imagine your brand is a person; who do you want that person to be? How do you want them to talk, or dress, or walk? What aura do you want them to give off? This may sound like an abstract way of going about things, but it will give you a great visual representation of your brand and, more importantly, how to sell you brand. The crucial thing to remember is, this is going to be what makes people come to your store, so you need to emphasise that in every aspect possible.

Get Online, Now.

Chances are, this is going to be your first impression to any potential customer. People check out websites, or social media pages, so you really need to get yourself on to these and understand how powerful and cost-effective they can be as a marketing tool. For most retailers – whether a clothing brand, vintage outlet, cafe, or whatever – the more visual the better. That means getting yourself well-versed with social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest and linking these to your Facebook page. Of course, knowing the ins and outs can be tricky. Knowing how to boost your followers or maximise your SEO takes some getting used to, so it could be worth hiring a freelancer that can help out every so often. In addition, if you are interested in retail media network solutions, you might want to visit sites like https://www.epsilon.com/us/products-and-services/retail-media-network-for-retailers and see how this can help your retail business grow.

The Experience

With huge enterprises like Amazon roaming the web and chains standing outside every town, it is important you offer your customers the best experience possible. That could be through customer service you operate, in which hiring shop assistants that really embody your brand is a great route to go down. It could be through ease of sale, in which the little things can make a difference, things like slick credit card processing that helps people tap and go (something that will also reduce how big a queue looks, which can often put people off walking into your store). This could also be the way your store looks and smells and feels. That all accounts for the vibe people get when they come in. Keep your place in wicked order, brew coffee for people to buy as an extra ace way of branding (as well as scenting), or get a cool popcorn machine; who doesn’t love the smell of popcorn.

It’s a global world, for sure, but don’t forget where you come from. Your local support is the bread and butter of your success. If you succeed in your local area, then you’ll have a solid foundation for the future, more widespread success of your company. Furthermore, the benefits of being successful in your community goes far beyond just its monetary value; it allows feel part of the continued prosperity of the area that you call home. Here are a few tips on how you make your local business work for both you and for the people who live there.

Be Active Online in Local Area

Just like business, the internet covers all corners of the globe, interconnecting people from Alaska to Australia. But there’s the other internet, the local one, the space where people go to find information about what’s going on in their area. You’ll most likely have a social media agenda that defines your online presence, but just make it all about specific internet users or your target demographic; have a separate goal for becoming a name in your local area. This means sharing photos and videos of local events and life and being a resource for locals to find out about events and festivals. This helps in two obvious ways: it allows to engage with the people around, which fosters good, real relationships, and also improves your local search engine optimization, which is crucial for getting the word out about your company.

Get Involved with Local Events

Wherever you live, there’s sure a number of local events that take place for no other benefit than for the community. This is where you come in Get involved with them from the ground up. It might be as simple as setting up a stall at the events, sponsoring or loaning the equipment needed, or just being a presence on the ground and contributing to its success. If you have an angle that lends itself well to events, then you can even set up your one and get the community out in force in a positive way. They’re easier than you think to organise and they brings bags of advantages.

Local Media

You want to permeate local life, and that means being a figure in all aspects of it. One simple way to become a presence in the community is to get involved in some way with the local media. This could a case of contributing a weekly blog, linking your business with the needs and interests of the readers, or being a local authority figure, so that when something happens in the area that is in some way connected to your industry, you’re on hand to give an expert’s view.

Conclusion

People want their local area to thrive, and by being a local business you’re helping that to happen. It’s an old fashioned view, but if you contribute positively to your society then the society will give back to you. Your business plan might take you far and wide in the future, but it’ll always be your local area that you call home, so don’t turn your back on it.

Business owners aren’t the most tech-savvy people around—but that’s completely fine. If everyone that created a startup knew how to handle all the tech-related challenges they’d face, then there would be no need for IT professionals and everyone that studies IT would have a really tough time finding a job related to their field.

Fortunately for all the tech graduates, that’s not the case. In fact, most teenagers who grew up with computers probably know more about technology than the average businessman, and it’s mainly because of the generation gap that’s slowly being blurred. Many successful business owners try to learn about technology to understand the risks and benefits of using something specific, but also to cut costs on how much they pay for tech support.

If you’d prefer to be someone that understands technology and how to implement it into your business properly, then read on to upgrade your knowledge and promote yourself from being tech-clumsy to tech-savvy.

Cloud solutions are all the rave—for now

There’s a reason why businesses still hire lawyers, accountants and buy expensive storage hardware. Small business owners employ the use of cloud accounting and bookkeeping software to pay their employees or send invoices to their clients. This is great for when there aren’t many things going in and out of your books, but when your business expands it doesn’t matter what type of software you use if you aren’t organised. This is why it is important to consider hiring deltek outsourced bookkeeping specialists for professional bookkeeping services to keep you stress-free from all your company’s bookkeeping tasks.

Large businesses that get a lot of monetary traffic hire accountants because they’re dedicated professionals with organised workflows that know how to handle lots of numbers. They’re irreplaceable once you get into the big business leagues, so don’t assume that you won’t ever upgrade from cloud solutions. It’s fine to automate processes and start cheap, but sooner or later you’ll need to fork out the money for a full-time accountant unless you want to stay in the little leagues forever.

Prevention is the best form of security

Much like illnesses in the real world, the best way to combat something is to prevent it in the first place. Antivirus software is rather useless once you’ve got an infection. The damage is probably already done, it may have spread across your network and more computers might be infected than you could imagine. It has probably stolen files, logged your passwords or even stolen customer information.

You can hire IT support for businesses to help you install prevention methods instead of wasting money on consumer-grade security software. A simple freeware firewall isn’t going to cut it for a business. You need a hardware firewall or an industry-grade protection solution if you want to priotect your data.

Excessive use of smartphones

It has become increasingly common for employees and business owners to rely on store apps for their daily tasks. For example, it’s possible to use your phone to log into computers or services that your staff use. While this adds an extra layer of security, it also adds an extra layer of human error.

If a business shifts so much of their business to smartphones and other mobile devices, then it’s adding to extra startup and maintenance costs and if your employee was to lose the phone due to human error or being robbed, then it’s going to take a long time to replace it and get them into a working condition again.

Your company ethos is the image you would like to portray to all prospective clients. It embodies your values and attitudes towards everything, from the global markets, your competitors, and your attitudes towards customers, employees, and the general public. Your ethos is portrayed in absolutely everything you do, from your staff’s appearance, to your letterheads and business cards and choice of marketing technique. Your ethos should be something of which you are proud, and of which your employees should be proud. It is everything from your history to your future, and everything along your journey, so it boils down to the quintessence of who you are as a company. Here’s how you can ensure your company always reflects your ethos.

In its customer service

Presumably, you’d like a company renown for its great customer service, its attention to detail, and the amazing representatives? Ensuring your company’s positive attitude towards its customers lies almost entirely with your staff. Careful hiring and thorough staff training are the best way to get your staff to treat your customers on the way which reflects the attitudes of your business. Your customer service ethos can make your brand seem aloof, accessible, fun and interesting, or anything else, all depending on how your staff members interact with customers face to face. The only way to ensure they’re expressing your values is by great staff training and regular constructive feedback.

Your customer service can also further improve their accessibility by using call center software and business phone systems, like sms 2 email, where they can conveniently contact your customers. Doing so can also build your brand reputation and customers are more likely to trust in you.

Your marketing messages say a lot

Your marketing is the most explicit way of conveying your company’s sense of ethos. Whatever the medium is, whether television ad, flyer, or business card, a user should be able to take away your company’s ethos almost at first glance. Other than maybe word of mouth, this is going to be your customer’s first impression, so it has to speak well to your target audience and explain who you are as a company, in as few words as possible. This is where style, design, and font all come in.

In its design

From the color of your business cards to the shape of your logo, many of your customers’ first impressions will be on your design. Anyone can look at a design and decide if it’s friendly, professional, arty, luxury, or anything else – even if they can put their finger on why. It’s all down to the colors, shapes, fonts, and textures used. These designs will demonstrate your ethos immediately, and usually through the subconscious, so make sure you’ve got someone on board that is proficient in Brand identity design who understands you and your company, and who’s able to reflect this in their design. Create your own unique logo design in minutes using a logo maker similar to the ones at GraphicSprings.

In your reputation

As they say, your reputation precedes you. Before most potential new clients approach, they’ll scope you out first. Either through word of mouth or online reviews, your reputation will help them to decide whether to approach you at all. So you want to be seen in a good light. You want potential clients to know your staff are happy – and believe me; they’ll talk. Customers want to know you’re au fait with the legalities of your business and doing everything you can to support equality in your workplace. Reporting gender pay services are great for demonstrating a larger company’s ethos and commitment to equality in the workplace – something which many customers will find tremendously important.

It’s in your tone and vision

The tone of voice your company chooses to use is the way it will reach its target audience. If you’re too formal for a young audience, or too hip for a more mature audience, you have a clashing of ethos and attitude. The way you choose to communicate with your target market can be very telling about your company’s ethos, and your core values should be at the center of this. Keep your tone maintained throughout correspondences to ensure a sense of cohesion and image, but also ensure that your standards and vision for the future are always the main focus.

Your staff attitudes say a lot

If your staff are happy, chirpy, and informal (think Lush Cosmetics) then that’s a particular image of friendliness and informality that you want to portray. That sort of attitude has its place, but it might not work so well at a funeral parlor – every company’s ethos has to be reflected in their staff’s demeanor. It’s also important that their dress code reflects the company’s ethos too – while you may not think that a uniform is suitable, it’s usually a good idea to give staff a guide on what clothing is and isn’t acceptable, so that they reflect the company’s attitudes to clients effectively.

Every possible means of communication between the company and its clients is another means by which to convey your ethos and attitudes. The best marketing makes the most of this ethos and results in one large cohesive picture that becomes an easily recognizable brand.

As a blogger and social media professional, I’m often asked by less techy start-up owners about the best way to incorporate more tech into their business. Hopefully that’s some consolation if you thought you were alone in finding modern tech totally overwhelming! It’s true that if you’re simply neglecting modern tech then you’re losing money, but you don’t have to go on feeling overwhelmed by all the tech that makes your business tick. Here are a few ways to keep your head above water…

Take It a Step at a Time

If your business is a fledgling start-up, then you probably won’t have the kind of budget needed to outsource all your tech and IT needs. The DIY approach may not be ideal, but it’s certainly not impossible to make a success of it. Instead of biting off more than you can chew by trying to deal with every little facet of your business tech in one big flurry, I recommend formulating a strategy for taking it one step at a time. If you can’t afford a specialised PPC copywriter, for example, and need to learn about the best practices yourself, focus on PPC for a while and put everything else off. You’ll find managing your tech less stressful, and much easier to understand.

Outsource It

If you’ve got the capital and your tech is continuing to overwhelm you, then my next best piece of advice is to outsource it, and let someone more experienced deal with the issue. It’s only the worst leaders who think they know everything. The best ones know that they don’t know everything, and when they need to reach out for help! Rather than wasting time by fighting a losing battle with your tech, find a company that offers full IT outsourcing, and pass the issue onto them. Even if your budget is a little tight, it can often be a great idea to outsource your tech issues, and invest your time in an area where you have more expertise. While I understand the want to avoid outsourcing, it’s important to consider what your most cost-effective option is.

Reach Out for Help

Finally, we have the middle-ground between the two suggestions I made above; get support from free or more affordable resources. There are many free resources available online which can provide valuable information on your tech needs. Simple tutorial videos on YouTube have helped a lot of business owners and higher-ups out of tough times, and there are many groups on social networks where people can ask questions and receive answers. Technical support should always be a big consideration when you’re buying tech in the first place. A lot of modern business tools come with in-built help resources or links to contact live advisors. Be sure to think about this before investing in any new business tech.

If the tech at your business feels like it’s doing more harm than good, try tweaking your approach with these tips, and you’re certain to make things easier for yourself!