Category Archives: Entrepreneur

Best Products to Enhance Employee Efficiency

Contributed article in our small business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

How efficient is your business? Are all your procedures and processes running in a streamlined way? If you are left wondering about the answer, then maybe it is time you reviewed your business procedures and looked at ways you can make things run better.

That doesn’t mean you have to consider reducing staff; it just means making the workers you have more efficient by removing duplication and unnecessary work. One of the ways you can improve your workflow, is to invest in better technology.

Skype

Communication between employees can take a lot of time depending on how you currently communicate. Emails, especially those between different buildings, can be difficult if one of the workers is away on leave. However, it could be easier if you could speak to someone else straight away; through modern technology such as Skype.Continue reading→

5 Ways You Can Ruin Your Startup Before Getting Your First Customer

Contributed article in our entrepreneurial series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

If you are planning a startup, know this: you are statistically unlikely to succeed. According to Forbes, nine out of ten startups fail. They may have run out of cash, have ineffective management, fail to properly market their product or service, or some combination of all the above.

But you are not destined to fail. Before you even think about opening your doors to the public, you need to ensure that your business is prepped for success. Here are five factors that commonly cause startups to fail and what you can do to keep your future business afloat:

1. Financing Your Startup with Predatory Loans

Getting startup capital can be a struggle. Bootstrapping your business is a challenge for most starting entrepreneurs, so getting a loan can seem like a wise move. Continue reading→

Five Work at Home Online Jobs That Aren’t Scams

Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

The allure of working from home is too strong for many to resist. Faced with the choice between slaving away at a 9-5 job while conforming to corporate standards and being your own boss, the choice seems very simple for many. The corporate culture is beginning to recognize this as well, as more and more employment opportunities offer individuals the ability to work from home either part-time or full-time.

Unfortunately, there are many notable scams and get-rich-quick schemes floating about the web these days.Continue reading→

Selecting the Right Structure for Your New Business

Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

Starting a business requires more than a great idea. You need grit and determination, plus a healthy dose of resilience. There is a lot to think about in the early stages, but one of the most important decisions is how you want to trade.

There are many considerations when deciding what type of structure is right for your business and making the wrong decision could have disastrous consequences for your future business, so it is essential that you consider the merits of operating as a sole trader/Sole Proprietor, an LLC, or an LLP, or even as a corporation as your business grows.Continue reading→

The Best Ways to Market Your Small Business on a Budget

Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

When starting your own small business, marketing is exceptionally important. You can have the best products or service in the world but that isn’t enough to make your business a success. You need to make sure people know about it. Big businesses have a huge budget to employ a marketing team to do it all for them. You might not have the resources to do this in the beginning. Fortunately, there are many great marketing strategies you can implement yourself.

Image Ref: Creative Commons CC0

 

Social Media

Social media is absolutely massive. As well as the main platforms, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, there are 100’s more you could use. Continue reading→

Marketing Tips for Startup Businesses

Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

Getting your business off the ground is hard work, regardless of how experienced you are and what industry you are hoping to break into. Those first few months of operation can take their toll, with registering your business, developing a business plan, investing in equipment, etc. The list is endless!

However, one important factor you must consider is your marketing strategy as it is a major element you simply cannot neglect. The marketing strategy you choose and develop is the difference between your businesses unwanted anonymity and having too much work to cope with.Continue reading→

Is Your Business Missing Out on Voice Recognition Software?

Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

Personal assistants powered by voice recognition software are currently the new trend among tech giants. Apple has Siri, Google has Google Assistant and Samsung is planning to launch Bixby very soon. However, that’s just consumer tech. What about business? Can your business benefit from voice recognition in any way? Yes it can and we are not only talking about warehousing and medical transcription either. If your business can benefit from a software that translates voice into text with pinpoint accuracy, you already have a reason to invest in voice-to-text software. After getting the hang of it, even the slowest typist can produce documents at the speed of a professional Grade-A typist! If you find that interesting, read on to discover how you can integrate advanced voice recognition into your business in other ways as well.

The Perfect Tool for Ideas

The thing about the human brain is that it doesn’t necessarily always work in the way we want it to. Continue reading→

The Importance of Having a Targeted B2B Email List

Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

By targeting the right business at the best time with the best offer, you will dramatically increase your B2B prospecting success. It will also help with the overall growth of your business. Not only does careful B2B targeting help maximise the chances you have to make a sale, it will also prevent you from wasting your money.

There are several steps you can follow that are cost effective, easy and profitable ways to help you build a targeted B2B prospect list.

Know Who Your Customers Are

The first thing that you will need to do is take some time and think about your current list of customers. Who are they?
While thinking about this, you will be able to complete a picture of your prospects by looking at all of the information you have about them. Some of the things you should look at are:Continue reading→

Why is Positive Cash Flow So Important to a Small Business?

Contributed article in our startup series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

Cash is the lifeblood of any business. To use a medical analogy, think of your business as a heart. The cash flows in via paid invoices (the veins) and the cash flows out to creditors via your ‘arteries’. If you have a blockage in a vein, it starves the heart of oxygen. This is not good. You might limp on for a while, but unless the blockage is cleared, your heart (the business) will stop beating.

Unfortunately, many small business owners don’t pay close enough attention to their cash flow. They are too busy marketing their products and services, schmoozing new clients, and expanding the business to think much about whether existing clients have paid their invoices. It’s only when the cash dries up and they don’t have enough money to pay a creditor that panic sets in

Why Cash Flow Matters

Negative cash flow is the main reason why businesses fail. Statistics continually show that 90% of all businesses fail in the first year. Those that do survive will fail within five years. In the majority of cases, a lack of cash flow is the reason why it all goes wrong.Continue reading→

How to Attract More Clients to Your Law Firm

Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

Every law firm wants to attract more clients. While this can sometimes feel like a challenge, there are things you can do to attract additional clients to boost your firm’s success and revenue.

Create a Niche

Instead of specialising in every area of the law, you might be able to attract significantly more clients by becoming a leading expert in one legal area within your city, take a look at Horn Law in Independence, MO car accident lawyer, as the perfect example. Continue reading→