small businesses

Reuse, Not Refuse; Taking Advantage of Long-Lasting Products

As entrepreneurs, we often look for ways to cut costs and increase profits. Some tips on how to efficiently recycle products and purchases in your business.

In today’s business world, it’s more important than ever to be conscious of your impact on the environment. As entrepreneurs, we often look for ways to cut costs and increase profits. But what if being sustainable could actually save you money in the long run? Here are some tips on how to efficiently recycle products and purchases in your small business.

It’s important to be conscious about what we’re buying and how often we’re using it – but it’s also important to know how to recycle what we don’t need anymore

It’s no longer enough to simply be aware of what we buy and how often we use it. We should also take the time to learn about recycling what we don’t need anymore, as this is a great way to maximize the efficiency of our businesses. Recycling our used products and purchases can provide substantial time and money savings for small businesses, so properly managing those materials is essential. Taking the necessary steps to become informed on how to recycle efficiently can really make a difference in how successful a business operates while also being good for the environment!

Small businesses can take advantage of recycling programs by donating old products or selling them at a discounted price

Small businesses can really get the most out of their resources if they take advantage of recycling programs. Recycling helps to give old products a second life, be it by donating them or selling them at slightly reduced prices. This can help to reduce waste and save money at the same time. It’s worth considering how ‘upcycling’ products that are no longer used in your business and selling them could give you a bit of extra cash in your pocket! Finding a good program that supports local small business owners is key so consider looking around for one and start making the most out of your recycled resources.

By doing this, small businesses are not only helping the environment, but they’re also saving money on waste disposal fees

Recycling in small businesses is a win-win that can help the environment and save money. Companies can easily reduce their waste disposal fees, and make an impact on the sustainability of our planet, by implementing best practices for recycling products and purchases. Not only will this keep more materials out of landfills and reduce pollution, but it also can be good for business in the long run. Make sure to join in with other companies to create a more efficient recycling system and reap the benefits of both environmental protection and cost savings!

There are many ways to recycle products, so it’s important to do some research and find the best option for your business

When running a small business, it’s important to be aware of how you’re managing the products you purchase. By choosing the right options for recycling, not only are you helping the environment, but potentially saving money in the long run. Researching and finding out the best ways to efficiently recycle can benefit your company in more ways than one– from reducing waste to cutting down on costs. One of the biggest ways to do this is when you can reuse some of the product containers that you sell to customers, potentially with a recycling reward program. If your product can be poured into containers, then having a system for refilling them can save a lot on the cost of making new containers. Machinery from Apex Filling Systems can be used to refill product containers returned by customers and can enable you to reuse instead of disposing of empty containers. This is just one way among many that you can take advantage of recycling, so make sure to look for ones that fit your production processes!

Implementing a recycling program can be easy and efficient with a little planning

Every business strives to reduce waste, both for environmental and financial reasons, and implementing a recycling program is a great way to do so. It may seem like a daunting task, but with the right plan in place, it can be surprisingly easy and efficient! Not only does it help protect our planet for future generations, but it also can help give businesses an edge by reducing costs associated with waste production and disposal. It’s something that any business should at least think about – who doesn’t want to make a positive impact while saving money? Investing a bit of time in getting an effective recycling program going can really pay off in the long run.

All in all, recycling products is a win-win situation for both the environment and small businesses. Not only will it help small businesses save money on waste disposal fees, but also allows them to give back to the community. Furthermore, an effective recycling program in place can decrease the amount of plastic and other materials used in products. Implementing a recycling program for your business doesn’t have to be intimidating – with a little research and planning, it can be both easy and efficient. Recycling is essential for paving the way to a healthier future, and it’s important that we do our part as much as possible.

Technology Tips for Small Businesses

As a small business owner, you are aware that technological concerns for a fresh start-up or developing company differ significantly from those of a huge firm.

According to the Small Business Entrepreneurship Council (SBE) and US Census Bureau data from 2014, enterprises with less than 20 workers accounted for 89.4 percent of all American businesses. When non-employer or sole-proprietor enterprises were included, the proportion reached 97.4%.

If you identify as a small business owner, you are aware that technological concerns for a fresh start-up or developing company differ significantly from those of a huge firm. The technology required to keep your small business running effectively, the requirement to use cost-effective solutions, and the process of picking the correct technology for your firm are all specific to small enterprises.

Embrace Technology How Are Small Businesses Changing?

Computers, the Internet, phones, fax machines, and the Internet of Things; whether you’re a financier or a farmer, you can’t live without technology. The trick is to understand what technology to use and, more significantly, whether you are capable of managing and maintaining that technology.

You communicated with me by phone and email. If you needed to fax something, you probably printed it, signed it, and then fed it into the fax machine. You have a lot of paper and a lot of independently working devices.

Because today’s workplace technology connects everything, that identical fax message is never printed. Without ever leaving your computer, you make it, electronically sign it, email it, and save a record copy in a virtual folder. Perhaps you utilize a server that links to all of the computers in your office, operating as a central repository and occasionally storing software programs shared by numerous workstations. For data storage and backup, you may even employ an offshore server and colocation as a digital file cabinet.

How Do Small Businesses Survive?

The irony of all this equipment integration is that it may be a tremendous pain to administer and maintain. The efficiencies gained can undoubtedly benefit your bottom line by saving time and money — until they fail.

Keeping up on new technologies may be a full-time job. Hardware, computers, servers, and phones are always improving. Many software programs appear to need weekly upgrades. As software grows more sophisticated, the hardware that contains and operates it must keep up, or the program will not function correctly.

IT Support for Small Businesses

Many of these worries are alleviated if you are lucky enough to employ an IT worker – at least for 40 hours per week. Who will monitor things during the other 16 hours of the day and on weekends unless you have a whole IT department (and what small firm does?)?

That is why many small firms, as well as some bigger corporations, prefer to outsource their IT departments. Outsourcing your IT department is beneficial since you may still obtain the help you and your workers require without having to pay for full-time IT personnel. Another advantage of outsourcing is that you may utilize it to help another small business, as IT consulting is one of the fastest-growing small enterprises.

Make Use of the Cloud

What exactly is a cloud? In today’s technology-driven society, “the Cloud” is often mentioned. The cloud, often known as cloud computing, is the technique of storing, managing, and processing data on a network of remote computers housed on the Internet rather than a local server or a personal computer.

Working with the cloud is beneficial for small companies since it allows you to conserve network space, access your work from anywhere, and maintain the security of your data.

Computing in the Cloud

There are four forms of cloud computing, each with something special to offer you and your small business:

Backup as a Service (BaaS)

BaaS is a method of securely storing your company’s digital data by backing it up to external servers. These servers are housed in climate-controlled data centers with backup power sources and 24-hour/365 system monitoring. Every business owner should be backing up their company’s data at this stage.

Natural calamities, cybercrime, and human mistake nearly guarantee that your company’s digital infrastructure will be hacked at some time. When this happens, every second you are unable to access your data costs you money. You will have an easy and safe approach to recover your data using BaaS. You will save money, time, and have piece of mind.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

IaaS allows users to access computational resources in a cloud-based environment. IaaS enables you to operate with a virtual infrastructure that is hosted in the cloud and accessible over the web. You may use the virtual desktop to store data, download apps, and operate exactly like you would with local infrastructure.

Because it provides a secure platform that can be accessed from any Internet-connected device, IaaS is an excellent tool for businesses with telecommuters or “bring your own device” rules. It is also an excellent tool for businesses that handle a large amount of sensitive data. Medical offices and healthcare analytics firms, for example, may frequently employ specific Virtual Desktop software to better follow tight HIPPA rules.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

PaaS is a service delivery paradigm that allows customers to rent virtualized servers and related services for running existing applications or designing, developing, testing, deploying, and hosting applications. The majority of PaaS technologies are designed for software development and are therefore generally useless for other small firms.

PaaS solutions include computation and storage infrastructure, as well as text editing, version control, compilation, and testing services. These solutions are fantastic because they allow developers to focus on their product rather than worrying about infrastructure maintenance.

Third, don’t underestimate the power of email.

I adore business emails. I despise it. However, we cannot live without it.
We all appear to have a love-hate relationship with email — especially corporate email. Whether we’re communicating across the nation or just down the hall, email has become the preferred method:

It is immediate.
It works well.
It provides a paperless communication trace.The dislike aspect is that it tends to pile up and get ahead of you.

Aside from apparent day-to-day company communication, using email marketing services may be a highly effective internal and external marketing tool for your small business.

Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

Email is a wonderful technique to promote to your clients, according to 80% of experts. According to experts, it is even more essential than Facebook. We’re not talking about those spamming ‘buy my stuff’ letters; a delightful and entertaining quarterly newsletter can be even more effective than other direct marketing approaches.

Sure, you may talk about your products and services, but why not offer intriguing anecdotes about your other clientele and how they use them? Short case studies are engaging and beneficial to your sales staff.

Of course, you should not forget about social media at all. It is an avenue which can be highly beneficial in marketing. It can be a bit of a minefield for a small business to start on, especially when trying to engage audiences and grow a following. Luckily, Your complete guide to buying Instagram followers on Twicsy is just a click away as this can help you out if you want to look at organic ways of growing, so that you can reach your target audience. Email is powerful, but social media is not one to put on the backseat.

Use Email to Communicate with Your Staff

This is quite straightforward in a small workplace, but as your small business expands, it may become more difficult. Why not prepare for growth while also facilitating growth? Engaging your staff is the most recent thinking on the finest strategy to expand your small business. That is, you should encourage your employees’ emotional connection to your firm and its aims. According to studies, engaged staff work harder and deliver better customer service, which increases customer loyalty. This results in a higher profit margin.

One of the most effective strategies to engage your employees is to send them a monthly email newsletter. You may offer new product information and other corporate initiatives, introduce new recruits, promote staff or company engagement in community activities, and provide praise for staff successes in the same way you would with customers and prospects. A regular newsletter can also be used to get vital input from employees via simple questionnaires.

The main line is that utilizing internal email to engage your employees is just as crucial as using a business email newsletter to stay in touch with your customers.

How to Get Ahead on Marketing for Your Brand New Business

Whether you dream of being an independent business owner or dream of hiring and running a large company, you need marketing to make waves and get your name out there. Here are a few tips on how to stand out and get your new business noticed.

Starting a business is much easier today than it was even 10 years prior, but that also means there’s a lot more competition among entrepreneurs. Startups are no longer reserved to tech-fueled companies backed by major investors. They’re small businesses, often run out of people’s homes with an operating staff of one.

Get on Social Media

Gone are the days when running some ads on Google could fuel an entire business. If you want to grow fast, you’ll have to be active on social media. You don’t need to be on every platform. That would be overwhelming and, in many cases, counterproductive since you only repost the same content. Do some audience research and target the platforms that your ideal customers use the most.

Make Sure Your Website Is Pristine

From its design to its content, your business’s website has to be flawless. If you’re in e-commerce, this can’t be emphasized enough. Your site will take the place of a physical shopping experience for most or all of your customers, so it must be optimized to carry buyers through the entire buyer’s journey.

Improve Your SEO

The sales funnel will begin with attracting customers, and that’s done through SEO, or search engine optimization. SEO is integral to not only driving traffic but also making your website more effective for your audience.

An SEO company can help set up your entire site by optimizing its layout, code and writing to attract the right clients or customers. You can learn a lot on your own, but it can be a tremendous undertaking for someone who’s just starting out.

This is why professional companies are so valuable and can give you a competitive edge. You may want to work with an SEO company specifically, or you may choose to work with a marketing company that has an SEO partner. Because SEO processes are constantly evolving, some marketing companies partner with an SEO company to provide you with a wider range of marketing options.

Use a Content Planner

Making content a week or month in advance helps you free up time to focus on important operations without compromising your marketing efforts. Schedule social media content and blog posts to get a bird’s-eye view on your strategy. Do you have a consistent theme or cohesive voice? Are you using targeted hashtags that expand your reach and help the right people see your posts? Plan to be consistent above all else. Your brand has to establish itself as reliable and trustworthy to build positive relationships with your target audience.

With some early planning, you can craft a marketing strategy that helps promote your business before it has even launched. New companies have a lot of work to do, but advertising can enhance rather than distract from all your efforts. By making a strategy and working with a few choice professionals, you can help you build a strong foundation for the future.

How to protect your small business from digital threats

If you want to protect your company from these digital threats, you are going to need to take precautions.

Today, small businesses are having to endure more threats to their well being than ever before. With the pandemic and a turbulent economy causing many businesses to fail, business owners are looking for a way to obtain better peace of mind. Sadly, digital threats that may seem completely undetectable until it’s too late also threaten nearly all small businesses. If you want to protect your company from these digital threats, you are going to need to take precautions.

Backup Your Data

One of the biggest digital threats you should be aware of as a business owner is a hardware failure. Computers eventually fail. This is much more so the case when they are used as much as business computers are. Also, unexpected events, even something as simple as a lightning strike, could remove all the data stored on a hard drive forever. Overall, you need to have backup procedures in place for all your important business data. Consider investing in a real-time cloud backup service for this purpose.

Encrypt Your Data

Hackers are also a serious threat to all businesses, both large and small. Your choices for fending off the threat presented by cybercriminals is rather limited. One of the best strategies is to ensure that all-important data remains encrypted when not in use. If the hacker does not have access to the encryption key, they will not be able to decrypt that data.

Get Help From Professionals

Keeping your data, systems and network safe from the threats presented by hackers, cyber criminals, malware, viruses and more can be quite a tall order. This is especially the case if your knowledge regarding technology, software and internet infrastructure is rather limited as is the case for most small business owners. With that in mind, it is probably a good idea to contract with a cyber security company to provide you with services that can help patch security gaps in your network and put systems in place to stop future threats as they emerge.

Keep Your Systems Updated

A lot of small businesses owners are set in their ways and are fine using ancient software to run their businesses. However, this comes with inherent risk. Old software has not been updated with the latest security patches. Not having these updates could make you a clear target for malicious actors. Overall, make sure all your software and systems are updated as quickly as possible to deal with the latest security threats.

If you don’t protect your business from substantial threats, it may end up being too late someday. This should certainly include planning for digital threats. Digital threats are some of the most difficult to protect against. However, with the proper investment, you can greatly increase the chances of your business surviving attacks from hackers, viruses and more.

Why you must get a coworking space in the city of Melbourne

What sets these coworking spaces apart from the regular office building is the several advantages they offer for independent contractors, small businesses, and other workers.

There are roughly around 2.2 million small businesses in Melbourne as of 2019, and all of them are trying to climb up the ladder of success. Usually, these small businesses have it hard because of the inefficient workspace they have. People efficiently work when they have a proper workspace, so the best option would be to look for a coworking space to gain traction and succeed.

When searching for a coworking space in Melbourne that is area-based, the city has good ones you can find. Coworking spaces are a must to ensure that everyone has a comfortable space to work together and grow the business.

Why should you choose a coworking space instead of a usual office building? What sets these coworking spaces apart from the regular office building is the several advantages they offer for independent contractors, small businesses, and other workers.

Providing Better Networking Opportunities

Small businesses don’t usually start in an office building right away. Sometimes, they work in remote places such as homes, coffee shops, or even across different countries. But when they live in close proximity to the city of Melbourne, the best option would be to work together in a single coworking space to ensure cohesion.

Once you find a coworking space in Melbourne, you can let your team work together and create a better working environment. Communication is an essential aspect when turning a small business into a big one. Calling each other through Skype is tedious and can disturb employee momentum, so a viable solution is to put them in a coworking space since they live in the same city.

Ensuring Flexibility in Working

You don’t need to have many team members to get a coworking space. A single person can get a coworking space and still get their job done. What’s good about these spaces is there are no strict workplace rules to follow. Anyone can do their work at their own time without worrying about attendance policies and being accountable to any superior.

Lessening Office Expenditure

When renting out a bare office building in Melbourne, many elements have to be considered to turn it into a proper office. There are things such as desks, chairs, flooring, wallpaper, and other office-related equipment.

You won’t have trouble looking for them when choosing to stay at a coworking space. You only have to pay for the workspace, which is cheaper than renting an empty office building without any furniture or equipment. Small businesses have the option to rent a coworking space that can fit more than a few employees.

Choosing Private or Shared Spaces

Every coworking space in Melbourne has a budget that one can afford. The layout of the spaces gives you a different feel than your usual office. Usually, coworking spaces have glass-walled private offices, expansive lounges, convenient hot desks, and conference rooms with a write-on-the-wall. There are plenty of methods for people to collaborate with.

Enhancing Productivity

A coworking space is intended for workers who need to boost their productivity. You can find certain features that enhance the productivity of workers when using coworking spaces. They blend a range of environments to serve several working styles.

Studies have shown that employees who work together in a fun, well-designed working environment tend to have increased productivity levels. Take advantage of coworking spaces to ensure your small business gains traction and success in the long run.

When searching for a coworking space in Melbourne that is area-based, it may be difficult because of the many coworking spaces within the city. There are famous places like Altitude, that provide top-quality coworking spaces for people to use and enjoy working in.

How can small businesses motivate and retain their employees

There has to be a lot of effort put into a small business by an entrepreneur and workforce for this business to achieve success.

There has to be a lot of effort put into a small business by an entrepreneur and workforce for this business to achieve success. In that respect, the workforce is the moving power of all small businesses. Therefore, it’s essential that employers give their best to retain and motivate their employees. It might seem difficult at first to handle people’s desires like this, but once you establish your policy and behavior, things can work out. Moreover, people know what to expect from a specific job and having their skills, knowledge and ideas respected is definitely going to boost their productivity. Of course, this also means a boosted work performance. So, check out the following tips when it comes to motivating your employees. Being a great boss is the first step to success, especially when it comes to small businesses.

A positive working environment

For people to feel good and motivated at their jobs you must do your best as an employer to provide a positive working environment. This means expressing proper concern for employees’ welfare. Also, employees should feel safe to speak their mind and avoid worrying about being fined, punished, ostracized and even fired because of that. The competitive spirit is healthy, but make sure that your employees don’t compete against each other, but other companies and businesses. Clearly stated working hours, team building activities and fun break room in the office are also all part of a positive working environment.

Healthy workspace and lifestyle

If you want your employees to feel motivated and productive, they also need to feel healthy and comfortable at the office. In that respect, make sure to organize an office layout and design so that it proves to be the most efficient. In general, group desks and joint offices are always more preferred compared to cubicles. The quality of air is also very important for the employees’ health. Therefore, don’t shy away from introducing plants into the work environment as well as installing air purifiers that fight allergies. Moreover, always encourage your employees to add their own personal touch to their workspace.

Improve lighting

Sleepy and tired workers will always be less productive and less satisfied at work, so it’s important to boost lighting and achieve optimal illumination conditions. Natural lighting is especially important, but make sure you also have blinds that can be used to regulate glare and reduce solar heat. Natural light should always be combined with good artificial LED light, so find a reliable company to design your lighting solutions. For instance, if you decide to enforce BUCK products in your space and design, expect proper overhead lighting for each workstation, which is especially important in warehouses and industrial rooms. Such lights are made up to code and in compliance with safety, installation, and cleanliness rules, so you’re also protecting your workers’ health and wellbeing, which is very important for employee retention.

Play with design

Playful and well-designed environment boosts creativity and productivity, so make sure to be open-minded when it comes to design. Look into the latest office design trends and stay up-to-date with improvements. A well-lit and fun space filled with ergonomic furniture and interesting features will improve mood, boost productivity and provide employees with a comfortable place to work. And don’t neglect eco-friendliness. Millennials especially care about the environment and are willing to stick with a company that invests in eco-friendly solutions and cares about social and environmental issues.

Think about worker health

Some health points were already mentioned above, but safety at work is not the only way you can show employees you care about their health. Mental health plays a huge role in productivity, motivation, satisfaction, and employee retention, so aim to create a human-centric environment that focuses on well-being and happiness. Designated break rooms, relaxation pods, and quiet zones will allow workers to recover, recharge, and nurture their mental health.

Allow your employees to express their ideas

Many skilled and highly knowledgeable people are always in demand and if you don’t offer them an opportunity to challenge themselves and achieve something great, they can leave your company for another job. Therefore, consider organizing monthly meetings where everyone can give their own idea and advice on how to improve their respective field in the company. Also, make sure to organize a positive atmosphere where anyone could approach you personally with a burning idea whenever they want. If the idea is not really plausible, don’t make fun of them but explain in detail why it should be overlooked or how it can be improved. In case you absolutely love a certain idea, make sure to give credit to the employee as well as to show complete trust by assigning them to implement the said idea.

Provide learning possibilities

Employees who love their work and want to contribute to the success of the business will definitely enjoy having various learning opportunities to do so. Some of the best companies in the world offer different kinds of classes and training in order to build employees’ skills and expertise in various fields. If you’re just starting out, you don’t have to include a ton of different classes but make sure to have some essential learning opportunities in store for anyone who’s willing to learn more. Also, you can employ someone from your workforce as a teacher if they’re particularly good at what they do. Of course, make sure to offer appropriate rewards to employees who want to teach as well as to other employees who take these courses seriously.

Employees who are treated with respect and have their own efforts and skills rewarded and recognized are a lot more likely to keep working for you and work towards the success of your business as if it was their own. Basically, people need to feel appreciated and valuable. As a boss, try to be fair, practical, and encouraging. That way, your small business, and workforce will undoubtedly see success soon enough.

Ways for small businesses to improve employee morale

If your team’s morale is poor, your business’s productivity will go down.

Are your employees satisfied with their jobs? Do they exhibit a good attitude and outlook when at work? Basically, these questions are what determines the workplace morale of your employees.

Is it important for your employees to have a high morale? You bet it is! Employees who have a poor outlook and attitude will not do a good job when at work. As a small business owner, you depend on your employees to succeed. If there is not a good morale at work, you simply won’t survive, expand, and meet any successful expectations. You can expect to have a high rate of employee turnover if your employees are not happy with their jobs.

Building your team’s positive outlook is absolutely essential to the success of your business. If your team’s morale is poor, your business’s productivity will go down. Its financial health may be jeopardized, and your sales may decrease. Without a doubt, it is important for your employees to have a good morale. Here are a few ways to improve an employee’s outlook at the workplace.

Build Trust Among Employees

Your employees live in a world outside of work. They have families, enjoy friendships, and participate in different activities. If you can encourage them to communicate with one another at work and work in teams as well, your employee morale will grow.

If you encourage company get-togethers, your employees can get to know one another. They will become familiar with their fellow workers. One way you can accomplish this is to have a yearly company outing, such as a golf tournament. At a golf tournament or other outing, you can give each employee that participates a golf trophy to remind them of the great time they had with their colleagues.

Recognize Employee’s Achievements

It is important for you to recognize your employees’ achievements. Everyone likes to be appreciated. If you recognize the achievements of your employees by thanking them for their dedication, they will have the confidence needed to continue succeeding.

It’s up to you. You should recognize a job well done by an employee. Spotlighting employee work anniversaries is another way you can let them know they’re appreciated.

Employees will work harder if they know they’re appreciated. You can show them your appreciation by bringing in bagels or pizza one day. Spontaneous parties to surprise employees can be fun for your employees and you.

Accommodate Needs of Employees

If you can accommodate the needs of an employee, he or she will try harder to be a success at work. A mother may need to drive her child to school or leave early due to her child becoming sick when at school. If you are understanding enough to accommodate needs such as these, she will really appreciate it. She will work hard for you because you understood her need.

Your employees have families and obligations. There may be times that it is necessary for you to make special accommodations for an employee. Perhaps an employee may need to work remotely from home. Allow an employee to have flexible work arrangements, and he or she will do an outstanding job for you. He or she will have a high morale and be a high producer as well.

Communication is Important

A positive employee environment can be built through communication. There are ways you can communicate with your employees.

• One way is by having employee reviews often. Twice a year will allow you to solve problems early enough to prevent their interfering with the success of your business. When you meet with an employee, you can also find out how satisfied he or she is working in your company.

• Regular meetings with your team will allow you to discover what has been working well and what has not. You should encourage your employees to talk to you anytime they wish.

In today’s modern world, employers understand the importance of a good “work-life balance.” They realize their business benefits by their employees having morale that is positive.

Measure your employees’ satisfaction, and you’ll know how successful your organization is. You can build a positive employee environment. It’s easy to do. You just have to start today.

The Web World: The rise of global giants

Let’s take a look at the reason why these companies might be looking to continue their portfolio of small businesses.

Usually, a larger business will buy a smaller one for one of the two reasons. They either want to take away any competition, or they do it for strategic or tactical reasons.

As a result, we now live in a world with some business giants out there that own multiple smaller companies. This is especially apparent when you look at the internet-based businesses. We have some global web giants such as Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Expedia, and various others that seem to own the majority of smaller web-based companies.

Let’s take a look at the reason why these companies might be looking to continue their portfolio of small businesses.

Reducing the competition

There is one certain way to make sure that you are one of the biggest businesses on the web, and it consists of making sure you are the only one left in your niche! That is why some of the more dominant brands in a certain industry, like travel for example, will start to buy other, similar businesses.

Currently, the popular travel site Expedia also owns Hotels.com, Trivago, Travelocity, HomeAway, and Egencia, to name just a few. Thanks to its massive reach, the travel giant is able to offer many Expedia discounts to both new and loyal customers, another addition to its success.

Strategical and Tactical

There are many strategic reasons why one business might want to own another. For example, if the larger business has a weakness in a certain area, they may be looking to fill that weakness.

Other examples could be that a smaller business has trained or qualified staff that would fit in perfectly in the larger business, or if the big business wants to expand its product line or combine resources. This is a very broad category that could include a wide range of different situations.

For example, the global social media giant Facebook has recently acquired Oculus. The reason behind this decision was Facebook’s intention to easily enter the VR business, something it previously would not have been able to do without the technical knowledge that Oculus offers.

Top 3 challenges faced by budding entrepreneurs

In this article, we highlighted the most common small business challenges that budding entrepreneurs experience. We will also give you helpful entrepreneur tips for success along the way.

Starting a business is not easy. There are countless opportunities for growth as well as there are obstacles. Thus, it is important to understand some challenges faced by small businesses, especially if you are a starter. Know the fact that success doesn’t come in an instant.

Entrepreneurs, either big or small, experience these common business challenges all the same. Competition is everywhere and there is no guarantee that you will get what you expect from your business. You will go through the different phases of running and developing your business venture. There are great risks and it takes a lot of courage, perseverance, and patience to reach the top of the ladder.

In this article, we highlighted the most common small business challenges that budding entrepreneurs experience. We will also give you helpful entrepreneur tips for success along the way.

1. Financing

Running a business could be costly. That’s why finances are considered one of the most common business challenges faced by many entrepreneurs. Funding your business, whether by means of personal savings, raising capital, or securing a loan, needs a lot of hard work and patience. Profit increase is expected to take time.

Tips:

Secure loans from banks or lending companies that offer lower interest rates.
Establish an efficient money management.
Understand your recurring cash flow.
Seek the right insurance.

2. Marketing

It’s not enough that you know how to manage business. You need strategies in establishing your brand presence to your target market. It doesn’t happen overnight, especially for small businesses that have smaller market. Making people aware of your products and/or services is one thing, while keeping their patronage is another.

Tips:

Identify your target market and set strategic marketing plan.
Take advantage of the social media in engaging with customers.
Link your business to frequently visited websites like Google, Yahoo!, and YouTube.
Try sending e-mail marketing newsletters. It should be mobile-friendly to make it more accessible.
Print out flyers, posters, and business cards. Traditional but they still work.
Create a blog and share stories about your business. Blogs are trendy.

3. Hiring Employees

A growing business means there are more responsibilities. Whether it is a sole proprietorship or a partnership, you need people who can efficiently manage specific workloads. So, if you feel you’ve been spending unusually extended hours working, then it’s time to expand your team.

For some entrepreneurs, hiring could be considered a critical small business challenge, especially if it is the first time for owners to employ staff.

Tips:

Seek referrals from people you personally know.
List down a job description. Know what you expect from your new hire.
Find time to interview applicants until you find the right person for the job.
Create an orientation and training program. It will help your new hire be more efficient with work.
Hold a regular performance evaluation of your staff.
Outsource staff if necessary. Freelancers are quite in demand nowadays.

There may be a lot of difficulties that will be experienced by business owners. Aside from the basic knowledge on how to manage business, tactical abilities would come in handy if you want to start a small business of your own. So, don’t be afraid to take the risks. Start your own venture now!

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