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Everything You Can Do To Improve Your Business’ Public Image

June 24th, 2021 Posted in Business
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When your business is starting to come into the spotlight, you want people to be able to see you in a positive light, rather than the lesser option when compared to your competitors. There are many reasons that a business might gain a poor reputation, and it’s because of a lack of care when it comes to how they represent themselves and their values. For example, higher-up members of your business being involved in controversy can be a serious issue to how the public views you, and it depends on how you handle it as a business.

Everything You Can Do To Improve Your Business Public Image - attractive store front image
Image by Scott Webb from Pixabay

Work on the appearance of your business

The appearance of your business is about more than how you act and show your values, but your physical appearance. It’s the way that you dress for work and the money and time that you’ve put into your workplace. Your physical presentation both as an individual and a business says a lot about your business. While it might not be an important attribute to everyone, there are many people who will take their first impressions from what they are presented with. Spend some money on your appearance, and your business will be rewarded for it in the long run – it will practically pay for itself!

Pay attention to your employees

If you have people representing your business, it’s important that you make sure they’re doing things according to the company values. Having a publicly known employee being outspoken on social media can be bad for business, and you want to make sure that there aren’t any individuals within the business who are bringing you a bad reputation. While you can’t control everything everyone does, you should at least make sure that your values are held up and you take that seriously through all aspects.

Evaluate employee satisfaction in the workplace

While your main focus might be on the things that are externally visible, it’s vital to make sure that your employees are happy and satisfied while they work for you. Not only is it crucial to their motivation and morale while at work, but it will help you become the desired business to work for. If people see your vacancies as great opportunities, you’re going to have a better pick of candidates, and your current employees are going to work hard to ensure they keep their job. Customer service isn’t always the most important factor, and people will favour your business more if you’re treating your employees properly.

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Image by Adam Radosavljevic from Pixabay

Work on your online presence

If you’re going to grow as a business, you want to be present in as many markets as possible. If it doesn’t put you out of pocket, it helps to make sure you’re making the most of what you have. Having an online presence can increase your reach significantly, and there’s a lot you can do with it. For example, if you’re running a social media account, you can use it as a tool to bridge the gap between you and your audience. Putting yourself out there to interact with your consumers can help to create a stronger level of trust overall.

If you have a website, you want to make sure it’s well made and easy for your customers to use, otherwise it could lose you sales. Making use of usability testing tools and services can help you to make sure that your website is well-made enough for your consumers, and if not you can figure out what you should be improving! These tools are important if you’re going to find out what changes you can make to overall improve your business and customer experience.

Hold fundraisers

One thing that’s great for reputation is giving back. People love to see good deeds, and when you’re running a successful business, you’re in the perfect spot to give something back. Holding fundraisers so that people can gain from donating money to charities can not only help you to gain a better reputation by giving a lot of your profits to charity but also incentivizes customers to invest in you as they’re doing a good deed at the same time. There are plenty of charities to choose from, and it would be no challenge at all to find one that aligns with your company’s values.

Open more avenues for feedback

It’s important to know and follow the direction you want to take your business overall, but you should still take the time to listen to what your customers have to say too. While they can’t give you too much insight on major changes, their feedback can still be of great help when it comes to making changes in small areas. Whether it be customer service, the quality of your product, or the kind of product that you sell. Listening to your customers can help you give your business the edge it needs over your competition, and there’s no one who knows what your customers want more than the customers themselves.

Don’t cut corners on quality

The products and services that you sell are going to be what contributes to the majority of your reputation. You’re known for what you have to offer when you’re running a business, and having the best presentation in the world isn’t going to stop your customers from noticing the quality of your products and services. Ensuring that the quality of what you’re selling is up to standard is key to gaining customer favor, and people will happily shop with you again knowing that they’re going to be satisfied with what they get.

Improve your security

If you’re a business that stores a lot of private data and information on customers and employees, it is absolutely vital that you know how to keep that information safe. Having a security breach and leaking any of that data can severely damage your image as a business, and clients can easily lose trust in you. No one wants to give their private information to someone who can’t keep it from the hands of those with malicious intent!

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What Are The Advantages Of Operating As A Sole Trader?

February 9th, 2021 Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship
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Setting up a new business is going to require you to make a number of important decisions, but the very first one has to be how you’re going to run that business. In other words, will you run it as a sole trader, or will you be a limited company? Although both will have their pros and cons, being a sole trader has some advantages that are hard to ignore; read on to find out what they are so you can make an informed decision and then move on to other things.

What Are The Advantages Of Operating As A Sole Trader? - steps on the pavement choices image
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Control 

As a sole trader, you are going to have complete control of your business. You’ll be the one making all the decisions and you won’t have to involve anyone else in that decision-making (unless you want to, that is. Sometimes being able to gain advice from those in the know like Barr Rosenberg when it comes to business finance can be very useful indeed). This ‘keeping control’ can be a big reason why a lot of people choose to take the path of sole trader rather than anything else. 

More Personal

Sole traders also tend to have a more personal relationship with their customers. This is something that can drive people to choose to use a sole trader, a smaller business, rather than a larger limited one that can often seem faceless and corporate. The personal touch means a lot, and if it’s the difference between a sale or not, then it’s worth considering. Being a sole trader essentially means you can get closer to the ground when you’re working, and by doing this, you’re showing your customers you’re just like them. 

Easier To Start 

Starting a limited company is not a difficult thing to do, but when you compare it to starting a sole trader type of business, it is more complicated and it will take more time. It can even cost more. For example, a sole trader won’t have to register their business with Companies House (although they will still have to register as being self-employed) and you won’t have to fill in any long, official forms which can be tedious and, if you make a mistake, can cost you time, effort, and money. 

Fewer Regulations 

Sole traders are always subject to fewer regulations and have fewer legal requirements they have to meet. Altogether, as well as meaning that you are much less likely to accidentally fall foul of the law, you will also have less paperwork to do, and when you’re running a small business and trying to grow it, this can only be a good thing; who has time for lots of paperwork? 

More Privacy 

When you run a limited company, there isn’t much privacy around. You have to file all your accounts which can then be looked over by the public if that’s what the public wants to do. This can be uncomfortable, whether you’ve made a nice profit or you’ve suffered a loss. As a sole trader, your accounts are private and no one need ever know if you’ve been making money or not. No one apart from HMRC, that is, of course. On top of that, your personal details will stay private too; the same can’t be said of a limited company director. 

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Why Knowledge Is Power In Business

February 8th, 2021 Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship
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The saying ‘knowledge is power’ is one that is proffered up plenty, but for those who are just starting out, entrepreneurs who are coming to the idea of business later in life, perhaps, the idea that knowledge is power can be a confusing one. When you think about it carefully though, it does make sense; the more you know, the better you can be at running your business, and the more you can grow that business in the future. But there is more to the idea than this simplistic explanation; read on to find out what we mean.

Why Knowledge Is Power In Business - education chalkboard image
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Knowledge Removes Fear 

Starting a business is not easy, and it can bring with it a lot of worry, stress, even fear. This is perfectly normal, of course, especially if you’ve never done anything like it before. Most of the time, the excitement of what you are doing will help to counteract at least some of the worries, and with a good plan in place to launch and build your business, that fear will eventually disappear. 

The problem is that the longer that fear stays, the less likely it is you’ll want to build your business as you’ll be happier staying at the level you are. The longer that fear stays, the less likely it will be that you want to try anything new which would have the potential for great success. Fear holds you back, so you’ll want to reduce it or eliminate it as quickly as possible.

Knowledge will allow you to do this. If you are knowledgeable about marketing, you’ll be more confident in creating a marketing campaign that will bring you more customers. If you are knowledgeable about your target market, you’ll be more confident in trying new products that you know they will like. If you are knowledgeable in easy restaurant accounting, then you can see exactly how much profit you’re making and decide on what to do next thanks to those figures. The list is endless, and some online study, a night-class, or simply reading up on the subject can be all it takes to give you the knowledge you’re looking for. 

Knowledge Brings Confidence 

To run a business successfully, you need to be confident in what you are doing. This relates not just to the products and services you are selling, but to the way you are running the business overall as well. 

The more knowledge you have about how your business works, the more motivated you will be to let others know, and the more confidence you will have in what you are saying. Therefore, even if you outsource some elements of your business, or you have employees who carry out some of the tasks, it is wise to learn as much as you can about the jobs that you don’t do as well as the ones you do. When you do that, you can truly position yourself as an expert in your field, showing any potential customers or clients that you know exactly what you are talking about and that you are the one they should come to for advice (and purchases). 

Knowledge Gives You Opportunities 

When you run a business, you must always be on the lookout for opportunities for growth and expansion. Whether it’s a new product to the market that you can start selling before your competitors (perhaps even becoming the exclusive license holder), a business partner who can help boost the business or a new method of marketing that is going to help you find the right people to sell to, you must constantly be aware of what is happening and what new ideas are coming your way. 

This requires knowledge. If you don’t have knowledge, you won’t know which opportunities are going to be right for you and your business. If you don’t have knowledge, you might not even spot those opportunities at all because you just won’t know what to look out for. The more you know, the easier it will be to see new ideas and new paths to take. 

Conclusion 

It’s clear that knowledge is, indeed, power in business. Having knowledge about your own business and about the business world in general is going to help you become much more successful and, ultimately, happier. 

Knowledge is something that can be gained in many forms, and applying to take a degree might work for one person whereas listening to lectures from an expert in the industry might be better for others. Once you know the best way for you to gain knowledge you can really start to make a difference in your life. 

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How To Effectively Market Your Business During The Pandemic

January 23rd, 2021 Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship
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The pandemic has hit businesses hard all over the world since coronavirus reared its ugly head, and millions of businesses have been forced to close. Subsequently, millions more jobs have been lost because of this, causing financial despair all over the world. However, some businesses have managed to make it this far, and if you’re one of the lucky, then you’ll be looking for effective ways to ensure that your business survives this pandemic. Here are some tried and tested tips on how to effectively market your business during the pandemic.

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Photo by Oladimeji Ajegbile from Pexels

Understand how to effectively reach your target audience

We all know that there’s a diverse range of people using social media in this day and age, but not everyone does, and it’s important to remember that. If your target audience is the elderly, for example, you may struggle to hit your demographic through social media as much as you’d like. Instead, opt for mediums of marketing such as adverts in magazines, newspapers and television adverts so that you can reach your target more effectively. Conduct research on your target audience so that you can choose the most effective medium of reaching them.

Save time with a marketing agency

Effective marketing takes a lot of time and effort, and if you’re busy with other operations in your business, you simply might not have the time to do it. However, you can use a digital marketing agency such as Herdl for many of your marketing needs such as SEO, website design, hosting, and email marketing. After all, if you’re going to do something right, it’s best left to the professionals! While hiring a marketing agency might be an investment, it’s one you should seriously consider to help improve your business’ visibility.

Take to social media…

Social media is the easiest, fastest, and most cost-effective method of reaching many people in one go. Create stunning graphics and videos that show what your business has to offer, and post them on all of your social media platforms on a regular basis. You should also include a link back to your website so that it’s easy for potential customers to head straight to the product they’re after. You should also do some hashtag research to ensure you’re going to hit the right people with your content. Remember when posting anything on social media to stick to your brand image so that your business becomes recognisable through colour schemes, fonts, imagery and your logo. You’ll thank yourself in the future!

…and through that use influencers to raise brand awareness

Finally, influencers are more powerful than you think, and could be extremely valuable to your business. Reach out to influencers in your industry to see if they’d be willing to review your products or services in return for a review on their social media platforms. Their followers will naturally click through and buy your products! You may have to pay an influencer too, depending on their following, but it’s an investment that will eventually pay for itself through the sales you make.

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4 Tips For Helping Your Business Thrive

October 30th, 2020 Posted in Business
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Your business is a significant investment of your time and money. If you’re tired of being viewed as mediocre and performing below your potential, then now is the time to implement changes that will turn your situation around for the better.

The following tips will help your business thrive through the ups and downs and get on a path that’s sustainable and rewarding. Let today be the day you take a good look at your goals and how your business is doing overall and commit to making adjustments to your approach. No longer will you have to sit and stress about succeeding because you’ll be well on your way to making this a reality at your workplace.  

4 Tips For Helping Your Business Thrive - smiling businesswoman image
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

1. Understand & Organize Your Finances

You can ensure your business thrives by understanding and organizing your finances. It would help if you had a clear picture of what money you have coming in and your expenses. Set and follow strict budgets and review your sales numbers to know where you stand and if you need to implement cost-cutting measures. Separate your business and personal finances and enlist the help of a professional if you need assistance with your taxes or bookkeeping tasks. It’s better to have it done right then to encounter errors and surprises.

2. Offer Better Client Service

One tip that will bring about positive changes if done right is your customer service. Offer better and improved client service, so your customers are satisfied and willing to leave you positive reviews online. You’ll be able to build trust in your brand and, in turn, win over more consumers. Set yourself up for success by offering more ways and outlets for customers to get in touch. Check out the best chat room software for website as one solution you may want to try. Many people want answers quickly and want to use online means to do so. Therefore, be prepared to answer their call by setting up this option for them.

3. Communicate Effectively

Poor and lack of communication can be detrimental to your business and how you operate. You and your employees and even your customers must be all on the same page. Commit to communicating effectively by being clear and concise in your delivery. Understand how to prepare emails professionally and hold in-person meetings that are productive and not a waste of time. Delegate appropriately to take some of the work and to-dos off your plate and keep your employees engaged and challenged at work.

4. Monitor Results

Your business will have a better chance of thriving through good and bad times when you monitor your results. It’s vital you have metrics in place and can closely track how you’re performing in cases of client service and marketing, for example. You want to know that your time is being well spent and you have the right resources in place for achieving your goals. Monitor results, so you understand in what areas you’re excelling and what areas you need to pay more attention to and make changes. 

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