User Generated Content Tips For Small Business Branding

Ecommerce is a rapidly changing field. It’s part of a digital world that’s never ceased evolving since its beginnings. Not only that, but we access the internet through technologies that are becoming more complex and valuable every day. To stay relevant, an online store must keep up with all these changes and provide user-generated content. However, certain things remain constant.

Ecommerce companies will always be required to:

Make an excellent first impression.
Take good care of their clients.
Reach out to them wherever they are.

Any business should follow these best branding strategies.

Your Brand’s Purpose

This may appear to be the simplest of all the processes in the brand development process, but it’s a great idea to spend some time thinking about your brand’s purpose. Consider the following questions:

What issues are addressed by my products or services?
What distinguishes my company?
Why should my customers be interested in my company?
How does my brand’s purpose reflect my mission statement?
Is the objective of my brand consistent with the brand promises I’m making?

Exploring the reason that underpins your brand can provide you with the insights you need to identify better how your brand can interact with your customers and vital assistance as you create your brand.

Define Your Identity

More than just pasting a logo on your website qualifies as branding. Your company’s branding is who you are; it’s your mission and values, how you treat your customers, and how your visual assets appear and feel. So, before you move on to the more tactical aspects of your branding strategy, you must first grasp who you are as a business.

Ask yourself questions like:

What do I want to be known for while developing my brand identity?
What are the primary missions and values of my company?
What type of encounter do I want to have in my field?

Mobile Friendly

One of the best internet business tips we keep going back to is the importance of mobile. Simply said, if you don’t design your eCommerce store with mobile in mind, you’ll be obsolete in today’s market. Fortunately, determining whether your website looks as excellent on mobile devices as it does on desktop computers is straightforward. Google provides a free mobile-friendly test tool that allows you to see how your site looks on a mobile device. It also makes suggestions for how you might improve your website.

Consider the following when it comes to optimizing your site for the be

st user experience:

How will your navigation appear on different devices?
Is it feasible to tap on components that are clickable?
Is your image quality constant across all screen sizes?
Have you optimized your checkout, payment, and add-to-cart processes for different screen sizes?

Social Media

The heart of your eCommerce small business brand should be social media.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can help you expand your brand’s awareness and consumer base if you put them to good use. Here are some pointers to help you create your brand on social media:

Post consistent material, daily articles, and live content on a weekly basis.
Competitors’ highly engaged followers can be commented on and liked.
Because you know your competitors are interested in your business, follow accounts that follow your competitors.
Use influencer marketing to your advantage.

Know Your Target Market

It may seem simple, but many small businesses are focused on figuring out who they are and what sorts of services or products they want to provide. They entirely overlook figuring out who they’re trying to sell those products or services to—and as a result, their branding suffers.

Spend some time defining your ideal client.
What are their names?
What are their ages?
What is their level of income and education?
Is there a predominance of one gender?
What qualities do they want in the companies with which they do business?
What is important to them?
When do they intend to use your product or service, and why do they require it?

When you know your target market, you can use that information to influence your branding approach, resulting in a brand that resonates with the people you want to engage with.

Be Visual

It’s time to start developing your brand after identifying who you are, who your customers are, what makes you unique, and what’s working in your industry. This phase is just as crucial for small firms as it is for larger corporations.

Here are a few items you’ll need to build your brand’s look and feel:

A style guide for your brand. Before you start developing, it’s crucial to work out the finer points of your design strategy, such as your brand’s color palette, fonts, and design do’s and don’ts. A brand style guide is an excellent method to keep track of design elements and ensure that you, your designer, and anybody else working on your brand are all on the same page.
It’s a logo. Your logo is the front of your business; it’s the first thing most customers see when they come across your brand, and it’s the visual asset that will be most strongly associated with your firm. The first thing you should design is a logo, as it will serve as the starting point for all your other visuals (like your website and your business cards).
Business cards are a type of business card. If you’re in business, you’ll need a business card, and the design should match your logo and other design elements.
A web page. Your website is like a piece of digital real estate for your firm, and the feel and appearance of your website should match the rest of company branding when people visit it.

Look For Partnerships

People like to work with well-known companies. If you’re a new company, however, building trust can take time. What if there was a method to expedite the process? Look for opportunities to collaborate with other businesses that your clients already deal with. What is the most important factor in the success of this strategy? Finding clients who have similar—but not competitive—audiences is a great place to start.

How Time Tracking Can Benefit Small Businesses

Unlike large corporations, small businesses run delicate operating models that can’t marginalize the effects of low turnovers. What they have is a flexible system of operation that entrepreneurs can easily supervise and fine-tune at will to keep the books in order. Time tracking is a major part of this.

However, all this elastic administrative power must be leveraged with precision and skill to produce results. One of the many strategies small business owners use to keep things organized is employee time management.

Since timekeeping shapes payrolls, startups can’t afford to get it wrong. It’s all the more critical in remote workplaces where employees are paid by the hour.

That’s not all. Time tracking also helps business and project managers handle various elements of their organizations. An effective system keeps everything orderly and stress-free. In effect, you need to know how to track work time if you expect to make reasonable headway in your business.

So, what are the benefits of time tracking?

Increased Awareness/Grasp of Company/Project Components

As a business manager, the importance of having a firm grasp of your employees, client base, projects, and even company goals cannot be overstated. A report by Harvard Business Review (HBR) outlines the various difficulties that business managers face today. These challenges include leveraging important data to shape company policies. Even small businesses managers are not exempt from these struggles.

Time tracking data can help business owners understand how their companies work. The system can be used to measure staff efficiency, estimated project completion times, and payroll accuracy. With a solid work time tracking app, it’s easier to get a grasp on these company components to make better decisions.

For example, the data shows you which team member performs better at specific assignments. This way, you can allocate work to the right talent, boosting efficiency.

Better Workflow with Time Tracking

In order to organize their workplaces and better engage their employees, some business managers have had to rely on third-party professionals. In truth, you can easily manage workload once you understand the time factor within the organization.

Often, the problem with managing workflow comes from having too much time with too little to do, or vice versa. However, the solution lies in efficiently monitoring the amount of time you and your employees work. Once you do that, it’s easy to identify performance ‘hot spots,’ bloated activities, and unused time.

With this data, you can remove bottlenecks, improve work speed, and optimize workflow. You can remove unnecessary processes and assign important tasks to employees during peak hours.

Easier Monitoring of Productivity Ratings

Time tracking is a tool for reliable comparison of company components and dynamics. Why would a business manager be upset upon knowing that last year’s turnover was better than this year’s? It is because businesses are expected to get better with time.

With small businesses, more time often indicates experience. More experience often indicates greater efficiency. Greater efficiency ought to result in higher performance. Now, higher performance is often the gateway to increased productivity.

Time tracking allows you to gauge your employees’ efficiency, productivity, and even experience. More than this, it helps you to measure and compare the partial and overall productivity of a single employee, teams, departments, or the entire organization.

Understanding your workers’ strengths and weaknesses means you can assign jobs better and help them improve.

Enhanced Payroll Efficiency with Time Tracking

As a small business, your payroll is likely your biggest overhead. This expense affects everything from your profit margin and cash flow to your ability to secure credit. That’s why you have to make sure you get it right if your small firm is to thrive.

Small businesses with inefficient time tracking systems often face payroll issues. The situation is worse when the company is made up of work-from-home staff.

Time tracking applications are excellent at generating timesheets and tracking billable hours. Using the right solution will see to it that your staff is adequately paid without complications.

Reduced Risk of Employee Multitasking and Stress

Working long hours is not equal to working productive hours. A well-cited Stanford study even concluded that “Long weekly hours and long daily hours do not necessarily yield high output.” It further stated:

“Employees at work for a long time may experience fatigue or stress that not only reduces his or her productivity but also increases the probability of errors, accidents, and sickness that impose costs on the employer.”

So, time tracking is as important to the health of your employee as it is to the smooth running of your organization. Establishing a ‘time-ceiling’ for when and how long employees should work daily can help. It will prevent your organization from burying itself in futile drudgery.

Easier Team Management as You Utilize Time Tracking

Time tracking is one of the best ways to manage teams. As earlier explained, good time tracking practices will help you get a solid understanding of the components of your organization. With respect to your employees, it will be easier for you to get them to ‘tick.’ This is the same as knowing the recipe for effective employee engagement and inclusive performance.

Once you can track and manage time in your organization, you will find it easier to assign tasks and expect timely executions and implementations. Also, it won’t be all that complicated to have useful interpersonal relationships growing at the workplace. That’s because your employees will know when to socialize and when to focus on work.

Also, although many contemporary studies insist on high productivity ratings from specific hours of work, your organization might be the exception. After all, a small business has proportionally fewer components to work with by way of employees and overall targets. So, time tracking will help you recognize where your organization stands: where more hours result in low performance and vice versa.

Increased Employee Awareness of Company Goals

Time tracking can be used for more than just directly boosting employee performance or generating timesheets. You can also use it to make your employees more sensitive to the goals of the company. As this Forbes report explained, you are more likely to get more loyalty and work out of employees that know what your organization is all about than those without the faintest idea.

The same fact holds for the incorporation of company culture. Using a reliable time tracking app, for example, can show you what your employees spend most of their time doing. This information will help you identify things to make available to your workers and what to discard. As any successful business manager will tell you, a united workplace spirit is vital to the growth of any small business.

Keep Optimizing the System with Time Tracking

Overall, time tracking is good for your small business. It helps you prioritize, organize, and make the components of your organization integrate smoothly. Always ensure you use valuable data to develop better policies. Collecting feedback from your workers will also help you leverage time tracking better.

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10 Free Marketing Strategies to Build Up Your Business

Building a business doesn’t have to be expensive. You don’t always need to spend a fortune on pay-per-click ads or SEO services to get noticed – at least to begin with. Instead, you can use free marketing strategies to get the ball rolling.

In this post, we take a look at some of the tactics that you can use, without the need to hand over any of your precious capital. Check them out below.

1. Set Up Your Google My Business Account

You can think of setting up a Google My Business (GMB) account as having a similar effect to regular SEO activities, without the time and money investment. GMB is essentially free and gives you a leg up on the world’s largest search engine virtually overnight.

You can set up a GMB account using a simple tool provided by Google. Once you prove your address, the search giant will display your business information on Maps when users type in relevant keywords. You can display your telephone number, address, type of services you offer, opening and review rating – all of which encourage people to click through.

2. Attend An Industry Networking Event With Marketing In Mind

Going to conferences can be a great way to drum up interest in your business. Entry fees are often low or non-existent, but the value of contacts you make can be tremendous. For instance, you can learn inexpensive branding strategies to get your business’s message out, or you can partner with other firms to get your goods and services in front of more people. Often, having B2B contacts lets you access better wholesale prices and source the talent you need to thrive.

3. Host A Class To Assist Marketing

In today’s information economy, people want insights. They need professionals – industry authorities – who can guide them towards their goals. Depending on your experience and role, this knowledge-giving professional could be you. You could be the one putting on an event and creating an authoritative brand.

To build interest, you could post information on community bulletin boards in grocery stores, coffee shops, colleges and professional education establishments. You could also partner with local events and become a speaker.

4. Launch A Webinar Series

Webinars are a wonderful tool for promoting your business because they allow you to show your human side. You’re not just a faceless person, hidden behind a wall of website branding and advertisements. Instead, you’re someone who other people can relate to.

Webinars do several things that help you build your business:

Prove to your audience that you understand their needs
Give you time to explain the benefits of your products
Show your human side, building trust
Demonstrate your expertise

What’s more, attracting people to attend a webinar is incredibly cost-effective. Just post details on your social media account or include times and links in your email marketing.

Custom ecommerce web design by agencies integrates webinar features into your website. This way, even if you’re running an online store, you can still offer customers value directly.

5. Write Your Own Press Releases As Part Of Your Marketing

You can go to marketing agencies and ghostwriting services to write press releases for you. But, as you probably already know, you have to pay.

Here’s an idea: write your own. Once you get the hang of press release format, they’re actually quite easy to do. Adopt a neutral tone, talk about your business in the third-person, and include quotes. Choose a newsworthy angle and you’re pretty much ready to go.

Once you complete the copy, submit it to a free press release distribution service. The quality of syndication (the sites the service will publish your press release on), usually aren’t as high as paid services. However, it still gets your message out there, which is always a good thing.

6. Help Others For Free

You’re in business to make money, so the idea of helping others for free seems crazy. However, it can work if you get it right.

You’re not a charity. But if you give away a sample product or a small amount of your time, you can prove your value. Prospects are then much more likely to use you in the future. Just make it clear that it’s a one-off. You won’t be giving up your time out of the kindness of your heart in the future.

7. Create A Free Resource For Your Marketing

Do you know something that other people in your sector don’t? Are you able to produce a resource for your audience that your competitors haven’t yet?

If so, then it’s time to get busy. Creating free resources is a powerful way to attract people to your business and brand. Providing free downloadable tips sheets or ebooks lets you capture email addresses while introducing your audience to what you do.

8. Build A Referral Program

Referral programs aren’t free to run, but they are cheap to set up. The basic idea is to get your customers to spread the good news about your brand for you, so you don’t have to. It’s like outsourcing your marketing department. It works because prospects are much more likely to trust existing customers than they are conventional advertisements.

To build a referral program, you’ll need to offer an incentive to customers who refer leads to you. You might offer a fixed fee – say $100 for every new client they win – or a share of the value of the client, perhaps 5 percent.

9. Initiate A Tweetstorm To Aid Marketing

As a brand, you’re not trying to become a drama queen. There are already enough of those on Twitter. But if you can cook up a tweetstorm, then you can create a lot of buzz.

The best strategy here is to follow news in your niche and then make careful, well-reasoned comments on events as they unfold. If other people in the twitterverse find your contributions interesting, they’ll start following you, increasing your reach.

10. Cozy Up To Influencers In Your Niche

Lastly, you might want to try ingratiating yourself with top influencers and reaching out to bloggers in your niche. Try to get them interested in what you’re doing by offering something unique that their audience will appreciate. It might be that you offer a product purity level unsurpassed in your industry. Or you could be doing something totally new. Just make it exciting and valuable to the influencer.

So, there you have it: our ten free marketing strategies to build your business. Which will you use?

key to business success marketing strategy small business owners

Search Engine Optimization or Pay-Per-Click: What is Better for You?

There are two primary methods in regards to reeling in more customers: Search Engine Optimization or Pay-Per-Click. Several years ago businesses were mainly preoccupied with choosing the right retail points to attract more customers. As the reality has been changing, the principal things to consider when reaching the target audience refer to the online environment. Thus, businesses are willing to make their websites and social media profiles visible to users online.

There are several effective methods to reach out to a great number of customers online. The most popular ones are search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Both these methods are highly efficient but each of them implements different tactics to achieve the desired result.

Businesses use both SEO and PPC in their strategies, either separately or together. However, the particular sphere of business operation and competitive environment predict which of these two techniques would be more efficient for the particular company. This article talks about SEO and PPC, provides a comparison between them, and helps to define which of these methods would be more suitable for your company.

Search Engine Optimization or Pay-Per-Click

Comparing these two technologies would not be appropriate as there are more differences rather than similarities between them. However, to demonstrate all the positive sides of each method, it is worth having a look at its essentials first.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

This abbreviation stands for search engine optimization – website promotion in the online environment. Most people use search engines such as Google or Bing to find the things they are looking for. To make your website visible to online users, SEO techniques are used.

SEO is a complex term that consists of multiple components that are aimed to improve the overall website ranking. These components could be classified into two main groups depending on the promotional method applied.

The first bunch of techniques is called on-page SEO and refers to on-site optimization. Performing keyword research, creating texts, taking care of technical characteristics of the website belong to this group of methods. You can use a Keyword Research Tool like LongTailPro to find keywords for your business.

Other SEO methods are classified as off-site or off-page optimization. It means that the website promotion is done with the involvement of external sources. For example, link building and guest posting are the most common approaches used in off-page SEO. Owing to guest posting services such as Adsy.com, you may create articles with the description of your company and the link to your website on other blogs to let more people know about your brand.

What is Pay-Per-Click?

Another popular method businesses utilize in their marketing strategies is PPC that stands for pay-per-click advertising. This method is also implemented within search engines but in a totally different way compared to SEO.

PPC also known as paid advertising is the service offered by Google Ads for displaying your announcements over the organic search results. Marketers bid for certain keywords to get a chance for displaying an ad with the link to the website in the SERP top.

Even when the advertisement is displayed once a user enters a corresponding search query, businesses have to pay for it only in case the ad is clicked. The price for the click is determined while marketers place bids on keywords.

The benefits of Search Engine Optimization

Durable effect

When done properly, search engine optimization is supposed to improve the website ranking gradually. Otherwise, a fast leap in the website positions on search results pages might be considered suspicious by Google. Even though the results of SEO is not visible in the first few weeks, it brings long-term effect, which is the greatest benefit for any business.

Local search

Another advantage of SEO is that it could be the right tool for making the website highly visible for local searches. With the help of certain keywords related to the particular place and special SEO techniques, your website would appear high on the results page when a search is done on the corresponding location.

PPC reinforcement

The power of SEO is that it could also strengthen the effect of the paid advertisement efforts. When people see the same website both in the organic and paid search results, they would likely visit it.

Comprehensive analytics

Most SEO tools used for website optimization provide comprehensive data on its performance. That way some applications could depict how the keywords perform, while others show the amount of time that users spend on the web page. All this data helps to make websites better and modernize them constantly. For instance, if you notice that users leave the website quickly, you might consider creating graphic materials for websites or rewriting the text to make it easy to read for people.

The advantages of PPC

Sales boost

The main benefit of paid advertising is its high potential for improving the company’s online sales. When an advertisement is placed at the top of the results page, users see it first. Thus, they would probably click on it and explore the website further. To make sure that a user stays for long on the website, design it properly by considering every minor detail.

Brand awareness

This aspect is interrelated with the first advantage of PPC as it also refers to the high visibility of the website. Users would likely remember your brand and recognize it further when it appears within the paid ad results.

SEO reinforcement

Similar to the SEO impact on PPC, the paid advertisement has a reverse effect as well. Paid ads help to reinforce the SEO effect by attracting other businesses and individual customers who would be interested in linking back to your website. Backlinks are powerful in improving the website’s domain authority and ranking.

What to choose for your business: Search Engine Optimization or Pay-Per-Click?

After exploring the main characteristics of search engine optimization and paid advertising, it is possible to decide which method would be more suitable for your company. Even if one of the approaches would be more applicable, it does not exclude the possibility to use another one. Thus, you can use both SEO and PPC but define the proportion of time and budget resources allocated to each of those.

If you are new to the market or have recently created a business website, then the first thing to start with would be SEO. It will help you to strengthen domain authority and lift the website on the search results pages.

In case you have been already using SEO for a while and want to boost sales or promote certain products, then PPC is the right thing to use. By creating paid advertisement you will pay the customers’ attention to the particular thing that corresponds to the keyword search.

When you consider using both PPC and SEO in your marketing campaign, keep in mind that the former is rather costly. It should be preferably used for a limited amount of time to achieve the desired goal. Meanwhile, SEO is the ongoing strategy that ensures the long-term results and requires fewer costs.

Conclusion on Search Engine Optimization or Pay-Per-Click

If you decide whether PPC or SEO is better for your business website promotion, you should define your business goals first of all. In case you want to have short-term results, then PPC is the right option to choose. In other cases, SEO would be the preferred method for website promotion. Anyway, you can use both methods in your marketing strategy to obtain the best results.

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Executive Coaching: Certification, Career and Job Opportunities

Executive Coaching is a rapidly growing field that offers exciting opportunities for helping professionals to expand their influence beyond just individual clients. It can also be a great way to make a living.

Coaches help executives overcome personal and professional barriers so they can reach their full potential in both life and business. Coaches work with executives at all levels of organizations, from CEOs to managers who are trying to get promoted or increase their influence within their current position.

Coaches must be able to work with people across functions, helping them communicate more effectively across departments. This person must also have great time management skills because coaching sessions often come right before other meetings or flights that are scheduled back-to-back. They need strong interpersonal communications skills because they will deal with many different types of personalities throughout any given week, including senior leaders, subordinates, peer-level employees.

The Importance of Executive Coaching

Executive coaching is a process that helps leaders through difficult transitions, such as a merger or acquisition, downsizing, restructuring, career change and leadership transition. Coaches work with executives during times of high stress from these types of events to help them make better decisions and deal more efficiently with people affected by the change. Executive coaches typically work with a person for six to 12 months.

How to Become an Executive Coach

There are many paths to becoming an executive coach. Coaches may come from a variety of professional backgrounds, such as human resources, training and development, management, psychology, or counseling.

The average salary for executive coaches in the United States is $100,000 per year, according to Payscale. Executive coaches with more than 10 years of experience earn an average annual salary of $127,000. Jobs for executive coaches are expected to grow by 18 percent through 2023.

Certification for Executive Coaching

The best way to become an executive coach is to obtain certification. Coaching certification also allows professionals to increase their salary and marketability. Coaches can obtain certification through the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and by working with an ICF-certified coach.

Coaching certifications were barely heard of a few years ago; now they’re fast become a staple among those wishing to enter the growing coaching industry and expand their knowledge and reach beyond just individual clients.

Job Description and Qualifications

An executive coach is a professional who helps individuals and organizations improve their performance. Coaches work with clients to identify and achieve goals, deliver feedback, provide support and accountability, and help clients develop new skills.

Future coaches should have an interest in personality, organizational systems, relationships, and human behavior. This job is ideal for those with a combination of interpersonal skills and business acumen. Those educated as psychologists are best suited for this job, but there are many training and certification options for people with different backgrounds.

Best Executive Coaching Programs and Certifications

Coaching certification training programs vary greatly in length and intensity, but most programs require about 100 hours of coursework. The Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) offers the only nationally recognized coaching certification in Canada..

Certified Coaches International is another well-respected credentialing organization for coaches.

Coaches who wish to enhance their career prospects can also complete a master’s degree program in an executive coaching or organizational psychology. Harvard University offers an online master’s degree program through its School of Education.

Conclusion on Executive Coaching

Executive coaching is a rewarding and growing profession. Coaches can make a great living by helping individuals and organizations achieve their goals. The best coaches are those with an interest in personality, organizational systems, relationships, and human behavior. They should also have strong interpersonal skills and business acumen. With the right training and credentials, executive coaches can enjoy a successful career in this exciting field.

What do you think? Leave a comment below!

Looking for more articles about careers? Check out our blog page!

Author’s Bio:

Thomas Glare started his career as a game tester and became a team manager. After that, he moved on to project management and held various positions. For the past three years, Thomas has led teams working on art assets for the mobile games, with hundreds of employees in five different countries at the peak of production.

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A Business Owners Guide to Relocating – The Basics

A Business Owners Guide to Relocating

Chances are you’ve dedicated much of your time, energy and resources to starting your own business. You’ve been there every step of the way and worked through all the stages of the business. Now it’s time for relocating, to continue success.

Moving your business to a new location can be an overwhelming experience, even for a seasoned business operator. Take a look at these helpful tips for relocating your business. With a little advanced planning, good logistics, and commitment to detail, you’ll be up and running in the new location in no time at all.

Regardless of what type of business you’re running, or the size of your operation, organization and strategy is key. Every detail from start to finish must be planned.

Inform Your Staff that You’re Relocating

When it’s practical to talk about the move you should inform your staff about your relocation plans. A lack of transparency on your part could lower employee morale or become a major disruption to your business. Communication is key.

Sketch a Rough Draft

Get a blank notebook and create a rough draft of the moving plan. Jotting down notes allows you to think better and wrap your mind around big concepts and tasks. Include important dates like when you must vacate the old premise and the date you take possession of the new place. Having the timeline in front of you gives you a better idea of the scope of the project. Once you have a rough draft you can fine-tune it and turn it into a plan of action.

Master Checklist for Relocating

From the rough sketch and the notes you made, you should have a good idea of what needs to be done. Creating a master checklist or a moving out checklist is the next logical step in relocating. This checklist helps you keep track of every detail and gives you an overview of where you are in the process and what needs to be done. It also helps you delegate certain tasks to employees and managers.

Hire Professionals

Sometimes the DIY approach to moving is not the best option. Especially when it comes to relocating a business. Hiring experts such as movers, consultants, IT or telecommunication specialists is a wise choice. Not only are they insured but it allows you to look at the big picture instead of lifting boxes or getting involved with smaller and distracting details. But before settling on the first moving company you find, be sure to calculate the average cost to move out of state. This can affect which movers you hire for the job.

Connectivity

Most if not all small businesses rely on the internet. So, setting up internet services is key. You’ll need to schedule the end of service in the old location and start of service in the new location. It’s an important tool that should be set up as soon as possible.

Spread the Word that You’re Relocating

Find the nearest hilltop and broadcast to the world that the business is relocating. You want to make sure that your customers, vendors, and the general public knows all about the new location and the timeline. Without your customers and vendors, you won’t have much of a business. Post the announcement on the company website and outgoing communications. If your business is customer-based you may want to consider sending out “we moved” postcards to your customer base.

Moving, in general, can be stressful no matter how prepared or organized you are. Following the above tips will guide you, your employees, and your business through the stress and uncertainty of relocating.

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A Small Business-owner’s Guide To ERP Software

Guide To ERP Software

Most business owners use all sorts of software and systems to help with their day-to-day activities. Most of these programs facilitate specific operations, such as invoicing, accounting, communications, and billing. However, you may also find a handful of software that can handle a variety of activities. Enterprise resource planning software, also known as ERP software, is a perfect example of this.

An Overview Of ERP Software

As stated earlier, ERP software is a type of program that facilitates day-to-day business activities. Unlike most business software that usually focuses on a specific activity, an ERP has numerous functions that touch many or all business operations. You can think of it as a program that fits numerous software into one system, thereby allowing business owners to cut down on costs.

Unfortunately, while ERP software is indeed a powerful business tool for corporate giants and small businesses alike, it can be quite difficult to navigate, much less utilize for business purposes.

For that reason, most users, specifically small business owners, consider ERP consulting services before taking on the challenge of ERP implementation for their organization. In the meantime, however, users can learn more about the software, and that’s what this article is all about. To start with, you must understand that ERP software consists of several components, also called modules.

Introduction To ERP Software Modules

Normally, when you purchase software from a provider, you can enjoy all the features that come with the package. For example, the key features of a digital asset management platform include:

Batch download
Search
Version history and control
Organization
Filter and sorting
Access control

However, that isn’t the case for ERP software. Unlike most systems and platforms, you can select which modules or components you want to include in the software. This is one of the main reasons that ERP software has become extremely prevalent among small business owners. By selecting only the features necessary for your business operations, you can cut down on the cost of your purchase.

On that note, here’s a list of the different modules that comprise most ERP systems:

Finance and accounting
Manufacturing
Procurement
Inventory management
Warehouse management
Workforce management
Marketing
Automation

While it might be tempting to select just about any module for your ERP software, you must take into consideration your business model, size, industry, and your employees’ technical expertise. If you can construct an ERP software that contains all the modules or components your small business needs, you should be able to maximize the potential of the software and enjoy its benefits to the fullest.

Potential Benefits Of ERP Software

Apart from the previous point concerning the customizability of ERP software, there are a lot of other benefits you can gain by implementing this type of software. Here’s a closer look at these benefits:

Reduce Overall IT Costs

A business’s IT sector includes all the software utilized for business purposes. This may include platforms like invoicing software, billing programs, and staffing software. As you may imagine, maintaining this much software can be financially draining, especially for a small business. That’s why being able to fit all these into one system in the form of ERP software can be extremely helpful, as it reduces the overall costs to maintain your business’s IT department.

Prevent Too Little Or Too Much Inventory

If you’re operating a retail business, you’ve probably experienced having too little or too much inventory a couple of times. Too little inventory means longer customer fulfillment times, while the opposite may increase your overhead costs. Either way, it doesn’t lead to any positive effects for your business. However, with the inventory management module present in your ERP, it should be possible to prevent having way too little or too many items in your inventory.

Improve Customer Service

Customer relationship management, also known as CRM, is one of the essential components of a business. Not only does it improve your customer acquisition, but it may also positively affect your retention rate. In short, it improves your customer service quality. And, as you may have guessed, CRM is yet another module that you can find in typical ERM software.

Enhance Data Security

Much like most business platforms, ERP software generally offers enhanced data security that would allow you to protect valuable business data. Considering the ever-increasing number of cyber threats, this benefit could certainly go a long way in helping you manage your business.

Automate Repetitive Tasks

Oftentimes, when a small business suddenly becomes popular among the masses, things tend to get hectic very quickly. At times like this, routine or repetitive tasks can get in the way of a productive operation. Hence, many business owners look for a way to automate these tasks, and ERP software is undoubtedly one of the best ways to approach this issue.

Encourage Collaboration

As you may already know, ERP software may consist of numerous functions that would otherwise be separate from one another. For example, the accounting software is usually separate from the marketing platform, but ERM systems make it so the two are together. As a result, your employees can establish a connection with other sectors of your business, which in turn encourages collaboration and better communication.

As you can see, enterprise resource planning software is in no way inconsequential to an organization, much less to a small business. It brings a lot of benefits to the table, which explains why it’s incredibly popular with small business owners. But you must remember that ERP software isn’t free, by any means.

Cost Of ERP Software

ERP software varies in price according to the number of modules included in the package. But for your reference, the average price for an ERP system suitable to small businesses is around USD$5,000.

Take note that this figure is much higher for medium and big enterprises. Moreover, the price may come in the form of a subscription plan or licensing. For subscriptions, you usually need to enter a contract with the vendor to decide on the contract length.

Conclusion

Despite the benefits you can gain from having ERP software, you must also remember that it has a few disadvantages of its own. For example, you need to train your employees before you can get any use out of the software. Not to mention that it can be quite costly to purchase your license or subscription for the software. Simply put, investing in ERP software may not be for every business, but if you decide to do it anyway, this guide should be of great help.

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How Managed IT Services Can Grow Your Small Business

How IT Services Can Grow Your Small Business

Over the years, businesses have been operating more seamlessly with the help of Information Technology (IT). Proper management of the IT infrastructure is essential in ensuring efficient and smooth business operations. If you want to improve your business operations’ overall efficiency and productivity, it might be best to consider managed IT services. When you work with a managed IT service provider, a team of skilled professionals will proactively perform the following:

Regularly monitor the IT infrastructure.
Minimize the risks from cybersecurity threats.
Maintain data integrity and networking requirements with the help of key performance indicators.

If you decide to hire one, your business can prioritize and effectively tackle the core operations to boost efficiency. If you’re eager to know more about managed IT services, checking out Dallas based IT services companies would be a good starting point. This might help ensure the safety of your business operations.

What Is A Managed IT Service?

When a business employs managed IT services, it generally involves delegating IT tasks to a third-party provider. A reliable service provider performs various IT-related functions such as overseeing the IT infrastructure, providing equipment, repairing issues, monitoring reports, and many more.

Some of the advantages of having a managed IT service include:

Monitoring and providing support for your network, including the infrastructure and software elements.
Optimizing the overall performance of the system.
Fine-tuning of the IT structure to gain better savings.
Enhancing various functional aspects of your business.
Complying with IT requirements and improving compliance, security, and maintenance.

Different Ways Managed IT Services Promote Business Growth

A reliable managed IT service provider deals with the IT-related aspects of your business. Thus, it will give you more time to oversee the core operations. Since you can focus on the main processes of your business, it’ll ensure seamless flow for better efficiency and productivity.

If you’re still having doubts about whether or not to work with a managed IT service provider, here are various ways their services could contribute to the growth of your business

Improve Reliability And Efficiency Of IT Functions

Most businesses maintain a team of IT staff who might lack the skills when dealing with the constantly changing demands of technology. By working with a dependable provider, you’ll have access to a team of IT professionals based on the specific needs of your business.

Depending on the type of business you’re operating, you’ll access the latest technology and solutions. These solutions may include remote monitoring and management, cloud computing, backup, and disaster recovery. Additionally, managed IT services could also maintain uptime and profitability. These are essential factors for the growth of your business in the long run.

Better Maintenance

Planning for IT-related functions such as network performance or operations and IT environment could take time. With managed IT services, your company will significantly benefit from regular monitoring. The services allow remote management while also pinpointing potential threats and utilizing the right solutions to mitigate risks.

You’ll have assurance knowing that IT professionals will readily troubleshoot and deal with bugs. It might be time to make the most out of proactive technical solutions in maintaining the IT infrastructure of your business.

Cut Down Operating Costs

Saving on the overall operational costs is one of the advantages of working with a managed IT service provider. In most companies, an issue of concern is the high workforce cost in the IT department. During certain times, employees who don’t have the right skills might handle tasks they’re not highly proficient to do so. This leads to poor productivity and hampers the growth of your business.

However, a managed IT service provider will guide you along the way in predicting and planning the monthly allocation for IT functions. A reliable provider will also deploy the correct number of professionals with the appropriate skills. They do so to ensure consistency and efficiency. As a result, it frees other resources of your business to focus on core tasks.

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Help Stay Up To Date With The Current Technology

If you want your business to grow, you need to stay updated and adapt latest technology trends. Also, it’s a cost-effective way if you decided to outsource technical functions to a reliable managed IT service provider.

Managed IT services will ensure your system infrastructure is equipped with the latest security patches and software updates to ensure seamless business operations and safety.

Improve Scalability, And IT Support

When your business faces downtime, it could be a minor or a severe loss and might come with dissatisfied customers. A reliable managed IT service can significantly reduce potential downtime, allowing your business to save on extra costs.

Additionally, professionals will carry out IT and network monitoring to make sure the IT infrastructure is readily available. They also improve scalability depending on the current demand

Maintain Focus On Important Projects

Managed IT services can help maximize your business operations to boost the productivity of your employees. A team of professionals will maximize the IT aspect which increases overall operational efficiency. Additionally, the services will help empower your in-house IT team to focus their efforts on creating strategic IT projects and initiatives.

Enhance IT Security, And Compliance

The increasing cybersecurity threats such as hacking and data loss are responsible for significant losses among businesses in different industries.

Security is a crucial element if you want to ensure seamless operations for your business. There are various devices present in the workplace. These devices include desktops, laptops, tablets, servers, applications, smartphones, browsers, operating systems. All of these devices transmit data and should comply with stringent security measures.

When you hire managed IT services for your business, your provider will handle the security and compliance protocols. Doing so is a good move since they fully understand the importance of safety and adhere to the current regulations.

Boost Productivity And Value

Managed IT services could improve productivity by establishing a streamlined, reliable, scalable, and well-supported IT environment. When you hire their service, you’ll enjoy access to network management resources. It also comes with a team of professionals without requiring you to make a significant upfront investment.

Final Thoughts on Managed IT Services

A managed IT service provider will tackle all IT-related tasks so your business could focus on its core operations. Doing so will help your business grow in various aspects. If you want to ensure the steady growth of your business, consider getting reliable managed IT service soon.

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5 Tips for Coaching Your Employees to Improve Performance

Coaching encourages and enables a new way of thinking and supports the application of newly acquired knowledge through concrete actions. With its specific approach, this enables much faster achievement of desired goals and results, as well as faster and easier realization of lasting positive changes in behavior. In today’s demanding environment, whether professional or private, expectations are high, and coaching supports us to fulfill them faster and easier. In business teams, coaching employees to improve performance is an opportunity for all to enhance their potential and achieve goals in a desirable manner. With that in mind and a series of research activities behind us, we bring five best pieces of advice all employers will find useful when considering how to improve employee performance.

Five Tips for Coaching Your Employees to Increase Their Performance

Make an Efficient Performance Improvement Plan

The challenge is to create an efficient strategy to increase productivity. In this regard, your coaching plan for employees to improve their performance should cover these key aspects:

Goal – Companies need to precisely establish the employee’s level of production. As a consequence, they will identify what to expect and are more inclined to face the performance objectives challenge.
Action Plan – Successful businesses have a clear-cut set of measures with a precise roadmap. The performance problem will be solved after specifying the actions, means, and include individual ideas of each operator. Annual performance reviews will also do a great job.
Checkpoints – Companies should set dates for reviewing an employee’s advancement and recognize where something can increase. A smart move would be to include writing research paper as an extra measure for performance coaching.
How to scale – It is impossible to check how successful your approach is without adequate analysis. Therefore, companies must make their remarks when coaching requires so and to receive personal feedback from subordinates. Feedback is particularly important when administering a company remotely and goes beyond the traditional performance management approach. Also, year-end performance appraisals should be proposed by a coach whenever possible.

Motivate Them with an Opportunity to Advance

When their job is always reduced to the same job or when the job is at one point, it starts to suffocate the employee engagement and work performance. The same job, the same position, without any indication or chance for advancement can demotivate even the most ambitious team members.

But you can turn it around and coach! If you offer them a possibility to advance, your coworkers will be motivated to try harder and be more productive. Here’s a simple tip – instead of hiring someone new, just promote an employee who is already in the company. This will raise the motivation and productivity of all workers in your company.

However, promotion does not always mean a raise and a new position. Promotion can also be in the form of a training, a course, or by boosting resources with a good coach. Motivate an employee by offering him/her a chance to develop skills and enrich knowledge. And as a result, they will be much more enthusiastic about working for you.

Express More Confidence when Coaching

Some workers naturally have higher self-confidence than others, and leaders need to be conscious of this. Regardless of when leaders include employees in the company’s prospect, decision-making methods, and coaching strategy, they nearly invariably boost their trust.

Of course, if the employee does not deliver optimal outcomes, you will have to notify them. Nor does it indicate that a manager should underestimate the role of employee feedback and benefactions. Studies show that nearly 98% of workers achieve more meticulously when they feel assured. This is another area where adequate coaching can step up.

Help Them to Step Out of Their Comfort Zone by Coaching

The goal here is not to exhaust and demotivate anyone. The goal of this technique is to get out of their comfort zone in order to show additional qualities that they did not show due to nervousness, fear.

Here we also have types of workers who “sneak in” after a while and do not have any passion for progress as when they were just hired. People need to be motivated to further learn and grow. Coaches should inspire them to combine work and education, among other methods. Also, you need to always be ready to help and provide an answer to employee’s questions. Organize a meeting or coaching conversations and share any experience they can see valuable.

Additional Methods for Effective Employee Performance

Before concluding the performance coaching advices, we think that improved performance can be also based on the following aspects:

Create a culture of feedback: A manager needs to create a perception based on the team’s feedback. Moreover, open-ended discussion inspires all employees to emit their voices and rise in the workplace.
Build emotional intelligence: Successful managers have a high degree of self-awareness, which leads to greater emotional aptitude. When you have developed emotional intelligence, you can better understand employees far more.
Get to know individual strengths and weaknesses: Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and the same goes for company managers. Acknowledging depths and frailties empowers leaders to apply the best coaching strategies to their employees.

Conclusion on Coaching

Coaching is a relatively new area in whose importance is recognized by more and more companies. The effects achieved through a good coaching process prove that individuals and managers opt for coaching because the methods and techniques are quickly applicable. The world’s leading companies, such as Microsoft and Ikea, have a developed and organizational coaching culture that drives their success. With that in mind, new businesses are also advised to take part in this process, just like an already running organization that wants to build up.

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How to Protect Your Small Business from Cyber Attacks

Just because your business is small, it does not mean that you are not on cyber attackers’ radar. You are, in fact, their training ground. That’s because most small businesses do not invest in cyber security. As a result, according to cyber attacks statistics, 28% of all data breaches involve small businesses. Moreover, this number has increased during the covid-19 pandemic due to the digital transformation of many small businesses.

What are cyber attacks?

When cybercriminals, commonly known as hackers, attack a website, computer system, or network to cause some sort of damage, it is called a cyber attack. Cybercriminals do this to gain access to your valuable data, which they can sell off to other criminals on the black market. The stolen data will be later used for more criminal activities such as identity theft.

Top cyber attack trends and threats in 2021 include insider threats from the company staff and stakeholders, phishing attacks, ransomware attacks, cloud-based threats, and IoT devices that are in the developmental stage.

Impacts of cyber attacks on small businesses

If you are maintaining an online store, losing one day’s business can cost you a fortune. A ransomware attack or a denial of service attack can easily block your business for a day. So you need to have a way to resume your business as quickly as possible. Also, small businesses rely heavily on their customers. One minor security breach is enough for your customers to lose their trust in your business. In this day and age, where word gets around social media very quickly, restoring your reputation can be extremely difficult.

How to protect your business

from Cyber Attacks

So how can you protect your business from these threats? Following are some simple steps you can follow to protect your business.

Prioritize Cyber Security

Do not treat security as an afterthought. Instead, treat it as a priority. If sensitive data related to your customers get into the wrong hands, you will lose your customers’ trust, and your business’s reputation will suffer.

Raise awareness among employees

Educate your employees about cyber threats and security. Most issues occur due to the lack of knowledge employees have on the subject. You can educate them about the following:

Not to install software/software updates and patches from untrusted sources in the company machines or mobile phones as they could be trojan horses or ransomware.
To use strong passwords and protect those passwords from disclosure.
Encourage multi-factor authentication.
How to identify suspicious emails and website links from unknown sources that could lead to phishing scams and ransomware.
Encourage them to use an approved virus guard.
Encourage them to use Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) when working from home or off-site premises.
The steps to take in case they face an attack.

Understand your data

One of the main problems in small businesses is that most businesses do not adequately understand the sensitivity of the data involved with their businesses. For example, many online stores handle online transactions but do not employ proper methods to guard their customer’s information, such as credit card details. Therefore, everyone in the business needs to understand the true nature and the value of their data.

Backup your data

Ensure you take timely backups of your data and store it in a secure off-site location or a cloud using an automated backup service that will allow you to access your information during a cyber attack. This is the best solution for a ransomware attack. This will enable you to recover fast and resume work as soon as possible by restoring the data with backups.

Control network access

Make sure only your employees can access your network. You can do this by implementing Virtual private networks (VPN), which will allow you to encrypt your data and secure your connection by masking your IP address when using the untrusted infrastructure. As many hackers tend to piggyback on public Wi-Fi and eavesdrop, encourage your employees to use your company’s VPN when using public Wi-Fi to work remotely.

Limit access to your data

Create user privileges and make sure that only the necessary employees have access to your sensitive information. Remember to revoke access privileges from employees as soon as their employment ends. Most attacks are a result of a disgruntled employee taking revenge.

Connect with the right partners and platforms

If you are using another company to build your website/system, make sure they can sign off on the fact that there are no security vulnerabilities code-wise. Such vulnerabilities can lead to SQL injections or Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, disrupting the regular traffic to your website. In addition, if you are using a payment gateway or connecting to some other businesses via their APIs, make sure they follow the correct security protocols and standards. Their lack of responsibility can harm your business too.

Secure your hardware from cyber attacks

Your hardware also needs protection. If your servers, laptops, mobile phones, or any other electronic device gets stolen, it leads to a data breach. If you maintain an office, make sure it is secure and that those devices are locked up and hard to steal.

Establish a Cyber Security Team

It’s a good thing to have a dedicated team who is responsible for monitoring and keeping track of all the computers & servers used by your employees and ensuring they have installed all the necessary security updates and OS updates in their machines and mobile phones. If your website is hosted on a server provided by an external hosting service provider, your security team can regularly check in with them to verify that your server’s security is up to date.

Create an incident response plan to combat cyber attacks

The employees should know what to do in case of an attack. You can prepare a list of steps for them to follow with the help of your security team. For example:

Disconnect the machine from the company network and internet to make sure that other machines connected to the same network might not get infected.
Disabling remote access
Install any pending security updates or patches
Maintain your firewall settings
Change passwords
How to contact the security team and raise an incident.
Contact relevant legal authorities and report the breach.

Most of the time, the employees do not know what to do, and they waste time trying to resolve it themselves. This way, they will quickly contact the security team, saving time for both parties.

Invest in business security

For intangibles, invest in antivirus, antispyware, and anti-spam filters. Most companies that provide these services also offer multiple packages that even small businesses can invest in. For tangibles, invest in security cameras and alarms that can protect your office space and hardware. In addition, invest in insurance. Most insurance companies now provide cyber insurance along with their standard business insurance policy.

Conclusion on cyber attacks

Cyber attacks can do severe damage to small businesses. There are a lot of precautions small business owners can take to avoid cyber attacks. Of course, you might not be able to afford or follow all the steps mentioned above. But by adopting at least a few of them, you can minimize the damage significantly.

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