Archives for May 2017

May 30, 2017 By wpadmin

Is it Time for You to Update Your Business Plan?

When you start your business, you may have the ultimate plan in mind. You may have projections for the future, have your finances in place, and have the latest in trends on your mind. You may have the perfect target audience and believe that everything is working to standard. However, as the months go by, the plan may not be perfectly tailored to your needs anymore. You may still agree with the plan you once made, but small details may have changed. This is why it is important to sometimes revisit your business plan and make necessary changes.

Reasons Why a Change is Necessary

If the competitors are reacting to your low prices or extending their business hours to set new standards, then it may be time for a chance in tactics. You want what works best for your finances, so help yourself and your audience by tailoring to all of your needs.
If the economy has drastically changed due to inflation or unemployment rates in your area, this will negatively affect a customer’s ability to buy. You may need to make adjustments to suit their needs.
Regulatory changes may impact your business in some way. In many cases, this comes down to sales tax on products. You may have to compete with online sellers in some ways, which is where you need to change your tactics.
If your firm has developed a new state-of-the-art product, it may be time for a change. When businesses make huge changes, their old business plan will not reflect.
Your company may have made huge leaps and bounds since you last revisited your plan. For instance, maybe you moved into a larger officer instead of working out of your home. Perhaps you reached enormous sales, more so than you would have planned for the year. With this comes a change in your everyday business plan.

The Necessity of a Working Business Plan

What happens if you don’t have a business plan to update because you never sat down to properly prepare a plan that works for your business? It’s never too late to implement a plan with the help of a mentor or somebody who can guide you with their experience. You should speak to your staff about how to move forward because working with your growing staff will produce the best results. Keep your business plan in mind throughout all the changes in the life of your business and help it grow.

May 30, 2017 By wpadmin

Not Engaging With Customers on Your Social Media Networks?

When you are building your business, one of the best ways to do so is to utilize your social media networks, where customers will engage with your posts to understand the product you are selling. Many people believe that a business is not worth anything when customers are not engaged. If you are failing to gain social shares, comments, and feedback from customers, you may wonder what you may be doing wrong.

Things You May be Doing Wrong

Content That Doesn’t Gain Attention: Your content must be engaging, which means that it must catch people’s eyes. This means that you should always utilize quotes, contests, questions, and more. Having uninteresting, black and white posts will encourage your customers to scroll right over what they’re seeing. Images and multimedia stand out to everyone, giving the audience a way to connect as they pause to look at the content.

Wrong Social Media Platforms: You must always use the correct social media platforms based on the needs of your customers. If many of your customers have businesses themselves, LinkedIn may be the best place to share, as opposed to Facebook, where everyday consumers are browsing.

Wrong Audience: You may have to inspect the demographics of your customers, as you may be targeting the wrong type of audience. Understanding searching habits and social media interests can help you.

Ignoring Fans and Comments: If you have particularly “loud” fans, these could be the advocates that help you build your business. You should always engage with customers of any kind, such as answering their questions as quickly as possible and showing gratitude when they brag about your product. If you ignore them, they may go away – and nobody wants that!

Quick Tips for Engaging Audiences

If you want to engage your audience more than ever before, follow these quick tips that you may have not considered before.

Find the best, relevant content that will resonate with your fans – because when audiences feel they can identify with you, the result is better!
Post behind the scenes at your business as well as pictures of customers using your products, as it will show your audience what is involved in the process of your business.
Offer contests to your audience, but be careful not to overuse it.
Post infographics that are fun and enlightening, based on your audience’s preferences.
Be sure to include a little humor, as being boring never reaches an audience.

By staying engaged with your business, you also engage others. Know your business from the inside-out and keep these practices in mind. You may not have even known that some of the tactics you previously used were helping you lose customers… build your better business today!

May 7, 2017 By wpadmin

The Many Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Marketing Plan

When you first dive into the idea of owning your own business, you may not be fully aware of the many elements of businesses and how they can benefit your business. Unfortunately, many business owners do not understand how crucial it is to have a marketing plan and forget our goals for such. It is always a good idea to have a marketing plan and keep it up-to-date by finding the newest, freshest, avenues. Your marketing plan is much like your business plan and will guide you into success.

There are some things you must remember to do when you come up with your marketing plan. You want to keep in mind the very important message that you want to convey, because this will help you create a brand that others will come to know and love. You also want to keep your customers in mind as well as the demographic and how much your customers spend on your products. Marketing consists of many aspects and methods such as a website, online advertising, public relations, social media, and more.

Why You Should Have a Marketing Plan

When you own a business, a marketing plan is essential. You will find that having a plan will keep your goals in mind, help define your important messages, help you develop many business tactics, and define your target audience. There are many ways in which you can achieve this success within your business:

Helping you make decisions based on the facts of your business
Showing you ways to achieve less risk and room for error
Show you how to effectively research to achieve the best content for audiences
Make better decisions on how to budget within your business
Identify potential threats within your market
Help you differentiate your business from the rest

When you develop a marketing plan for your business, you should always keep your goals in mind – because goals help define your business and make it exactly what you were looking for! A helpful and well-developed marketing plan is not only a good idea for you, but also everybody else involved in your company. Consider a marketing plan as an option for your business, to help you achieve all of your goals in mind.

May 2, 2017 By wpadmin

Why Are Some States Raising Their Minimum Wage?

April 4, 2016, Californians got a surprise when their Governor Jerry Brown signed something known as Senate Bill 3 into law, which increased the minimum wage to $15 per hour by January 1, 2022. These are big steps that will have an amazing impact in the years to come for employers who have 26 or more employees. New York agreed and passed a law that would raise its wage in NYC to $15 per hour by the end of 2018. All over the country, states are seeing these changes come to light, bringing hope to all.

A Steady Incline

In many states including Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Washington, and more, wages will steadily increase every year until the $15 is met in different years. The reason? The price of virtually everything has increased, and certain jobs are not meeting these demands. People are finding that it is more expensive to live in many aspects of their lives – to eat, to rent homes, and to clothe themselves. It is perceived that this increase will make a difference in the lives of many. In 2009, the Federal Government raised the minimum wage for the first time in over seven years, and since then many great changes have been implemented.

There have been many mixed feelings about the changes. Business owners, for instance, have been reacting negatively in some ways, realizing that the increase of minimum wage could make it difficult for them to receive a profit. Restaurant owners, for instance, realize that changes must be made like reducing portion sizes to ensure that they can absorb the change in wages. Bernie Sanders, who ran for the Democratic Presidential nomination, believes that a wage increase is necessary for those who are underpaid and struggling to get by.

No matter the opinion, changes are gradually being made. In a few years, we will see this increase hit an all-time high and watch the results of such in many states across the country. Only then can we see the results that it wields in the everyday lives of many.

May 1, 2017 By wpadmin

The Importance of Why we Celebrate Small Business Week

National Small Business Week has been around since 1963, recognizing the contributions of small business owners in America. You may be surprised to find that more than half of Americans own or work for a small business, creating enormous amounts of jobs for Americans. The impact of these entrepreneurs is phenomenal, deserving recognition on a whole new level as they work on growing small businesses to create new jobs, drive innovation, and so much more. We have already started 2017 Small Business Week, which spans from April 30-May 6.

Throughout the week, many small businesses across the United States are holding events to honor businesses as a whole and their impact on our country. As it stands, there are 28 million small businesses in America. This accounts for an extraordinary 54% of all sales in the U.S. Small businesses also provide 55% of all jobs since the 1970s, highlighting their particular importance in society.

Why Small Businesses Are Important

Testing ideas on the market marks the start of a new business and the success it can bring to the community, or the country overall. They offer stability to families, owners, and more. But what else do small businesses do?

Help Further Expansion: Small businesses give consumers the option of wider expansion of where they will find the goods they are looking for. The U.S. retail market has few restrictions on growth, which means that their businesses are most likely to develop into an international operation.

Bring Productivity: Small businesses are found to be more productive than some large companies. In fact, many small businesses consist of large amounts of scientists and engineers in our country. This research leads to greater developments.

Job Growth: Small businesses added a total of 2.5 million new jobs from 2005 to 2006, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Small business growth will always be important in our society, in the present and future.

Because small businesses help fuel America, it is important to give them the recognition they deserve. This is why we celebrate Small Business Week in America, because without small businesses, where would we be?