Archive for August, 2018

Your brand describes you! The way you build your brand helps people in understanding what kind of value system do you have and what is the idea behind your company. Just designing an impressive logo, having a business portfolio, and having social media platforms are not enough for a brand. To exist in the real world, brands need to invest a lot of time and energy into research, professional consultation, and in understanding the competitor’s strategies. Before marketing your business, every entity should know what exactly branding is and how it should be done!

Ensure you do not make the following mistakes while branding and it goes for both- the existing ones and the new business houses.

• Taking Competitors Lightly:

Knowing your competitors is extremely essential for new businesses. When you research about existing big fish in the same market that you want to work in, then knowing what they have done in the past, where did they fail, and what works for them can help you to understand what edge you can give your business and make it different from the rest. Remember, the research you are doing should include the target audience, products, their website, and how they use their social media pages. Once you study these elements through and through, you shall be able to understand your competitors better. If you think that you can skip this step then you may end up implementing the same marketing strategy as them or you may not understand their business model.  

• Do Not Know The Target Audience:

Sales is a long process and pitching the wrong audience may ruin the entire process. Before you begin with your selling process, ensure you know who you need to pitch. Always study the pattern of your targeted audience – which brand they prefer, what are their needs and demands, what connects them, and how useful they see a product for themselves. Also, when you identify your target audience then putting across the business message correctly becomes easier via branding and packaging.

• The First Impression:

Never underestimate the power of the first impression. Trying to increase your sales without actually being seen in the market is totally useless. Branding helps in entering the market and one should study the elements of branding thoroughly before expecting to generate some revenue. The first impression can only be made the way you package your product. Do not think that buying container and package supply are more than enough for creating a powerful first impression.

• Non-Reliable Feedback:

Sometimes we end up giving up on our dream because the feedback is negative. However, in most cases, we forget to analyze the source of this feedback. Maybe the feedback we generated was from the wrong audience and we did not consider asking the feedback from the right ones. Also, sometimes we rely on our closed ones for feedback but, they usually provide us a positive feedback without acting neutral. Therefore, before relying on the feedback from friends and family, make certain you choose the audience who can give you an honest review of your product. If you are seeking one for your business then try social media platform and various review sites.

• Logo Re-Designing is Not Enough:

Let us be clear on one thing – branding is more than just getting the logo designed or adding a tagline to your business. Branding means putting the soul of the business in marketing. Once your business message is different from the others then you will be able to target your audience as well. Companies spend millions of dollars on redesigning their logo and rebranding their business. However, this is not enough. The biggest example of it is the Yahoo – it thought by changing the logo it will be able to brand itself better, however, nothing of this sort actually happened.   

• Uniformity:

Companies that are steady and consistent in branding never fail. Remember, you should never change anything that works for you in business. Here is a big example of it – Coca-Cola has not changed its logo from the past 130 years and has been consistent in doing its branding. The way it packages its products has also been almost the same since its birth. This eventually has led in creating a mark in the world. And today, it has billions of social media followers on its page. You will agree; when summers are around and you want to have something chilled, Coca-Cola is what hits your mind every time.   

Remember, always have a plan B for yourself in case plan A is not working for you!  

A dynamic inventory management product not only comes equipped with the best must-have features, it is also affordable and scalable, adapting effortlessly to the needs of a growing retail business. If you’ve been contemplating upgrading your retail inventory management process, look for the following essential features that make an inventory management solution stand out among a host of wannabes.

Comprehensive product management

A retail business will often have a large number of products and categories—which calls for a solution that can effectively manage and track hundreds of different products based on specific features. Essentially, you should be able to automate inventory transfer and adjustments, add custom tags and serial numbers, upload documents and photos, track batches and lots, track financial data and manage product bundles with a few clicks.

Location-wise stock tracking

For a business that’s spread across locations, tracking the changing inventory at different locations is essential for a seamless workflow. A good inventory management solution helps avoid the problems of under- and overstocking by tracking incoming and outgoing stocks at different outlets, warehouses and sub-locations. You can not only view the stocks in real time but also generate reports to get in-depth insight into inventory trends for each product line.

Low inventory alerts

An essential element of a stock management system is its ability to alert you when stocks of a particular item reach a predefined minimum level. It allows you to set low inventory thresholds for each product at each location, reaching which it will automatically set off an alert—additionally, advanced systems will also auto-generate a purchase order to replenish supplies.

Barcoding

Inventory management processes thrives on granular product tracking, which is only possible if the system has the capability to define RFID and barcoding for a large database of products. Does the software allow integration of your existing barcoding database into the new system? Does it allow adding and editing barcodes as you go along? Can you scan barcodes or will you have to key in identifiers? Purchase a system that will automate the day-to-day processes as much as possible so that your staff can work faster and more efficiently.

Automatic generation of purchase orders

How about an inventory management solution that auto-creates a purchase order when it detects low inventory for a particular item at a certain retail location? This feature takes away yet another manual step in stock management. Furthermore, the inventory levels are then automatically adjusted when the items are received at the location.

Don’t worry about automatic purchase orders wreaking havoc on your distribution network—each order needs to be approved before it is processed. Even with a great technology-driven solution, a human will always be in charge.

Automatic tracking of bills and payments

Whenever a purchase or sales order is fulfilled, the system should not only make adjustments in stock levels, it should also be able to generate invoices and track bills, applicable freight and taxes, payments and credits.

Integrated customer relationship management (CRM) and vendor management

This is a particularly useful feature for retail businesses that offer different price points for different customer and vendors. Advanced inventory management software will have integrated CRM and vendor management so that you can keep track of sales orders from each customer and purchase orders from each vendor according to product type, location and pricing.

Comprehensive reporting options

Regardless of the volume of your sales, you will need reports that can help you understand and control your purchase and sales trends, predict demand and supply with greater accuracy and manage stocks more efficiently. Does the system you intend to buy offer a wide range of reports? Does it allow customization of reports based on your needs? Invest in an Inventory Management Software System that comes equipped with a variety of reporting options.

Complete control over user access with multi-level tracking

This feature enables multi-level auditing of the system, allowing you add and manage users at different locations, control access for each user and track daily activity for each module.

To conclude, invest in a good inventory management system to gain greater control over stocks, purchase and sales, demand and supply, customer relations, vendor management and more. At the same time, purchase your software from a company that has the expertise and experience to offer you a great product as well as exception after-sale service and support. They should be available to resolve your queries, particularly during the implementation period, and be forthcoming to help integrate the system and train your employees.

An emergency fund consists of savings that will get an individual through a few months of tough times when their regular income has declined or stopped because of losing a job or falling sick or other such contingency.

Creating and maintaining an emergency fund is not difficult if you go about it in a planned way and make it a priority by committing to regular compulsory savings. Here are four tips that will help you kickstart and maintain an emergency savings fund with minimum effort.

Enlist your monthly expenses and redo your budget

Most people think they don’t have enough spare money each month to put into a savings account, but that’s not true in most cases. Savings need to be an integral part of your monthly financial planning—only then will you be able take away some amount to save.

It’s never too late to start saving, but the first step in the process is to sit down and make a realistic list of all your fixed and variable living expenses. Then, add them up and multiply the sum by 3 and you’ll have the minimum amount you need to have in your emergency fund. The idea is to set aside three months’ living expenses if not more.

The next step is to go back to the list and carefully examine each head to see where you can cut costs and put that amount into your contingency fund. Break down each expense and you’ll certainly find scope to save small amounts in several categories. Remember that even $20 weekly is good enough to start saving. You’ll have $80 at the end of the month when you thought there was no money to save!

Start putting aside money for your emergency fund now

If you’ve been thinking about creating an emergency fund but haven’t been able to pull it off yet, you’re possibly making the same mistake that so many other working professionals make—waiting for the right time when you’ll have sufficient money to kickstart your emergency savings.

Ask any financial expert and they’ll tell you that the key to saving for the long term lies in starting early and saving small amounts that will add up to a significant sum down the line. When you start small, the greatest benefit is that the savings don’t cause a cash crunch and you can go about your life as usual.

The best way to build an emergency fund is to open a new savings account with your bank or credit union. You can set up weekly, fortnightly or monthly automatic transfer from your checking account to this account—this way you’ll be saving money without even realizing it.

You can also use technology to get into the habit of making compulsory savings. Explore money management applications and you’ll find that there are apps out there that will take a small sum every day or every week from your main account into a savings account or that will round up your purchases and place those tiny amounts into a savings account.

Create small goals that you can achieve without stretching yourself too thin. These small yet significant accomplishments will motivate you to manage your money better and spend and save in a balanced manner.

Send all extra income to your emergency fund

Whether it’s a tax refund, income from a side hustle or your yearly bonus, all of these can be used to beef up your emergency fund. The key is to be willing to compromise and avoiding unnecessary large expenses until you have saved enough for tough times. Once you have the peace of mind that there is enough in your savings account for the proverbial rainy day, you will feel more in control of your finances.

Instant cash loan to meet unexpected expenses

If a situation arises where you need to arrange funds instantly but would rather not use your credit card, you can consider taking out a short-term cash loan, such as a payday loan, which comes with the condition that you’ll repay it when your next pay is credited into your account. The repayment period of such cash in advance loans can be extended; however, be sure to check the interest rate that will be charged in case you’re unable to repay as agreed.

If you’re inclined to take out a cash loan to get through a temporary cash crunch, be sure to first explore several different lending companies and compare their offers, interest rates and repayment terms before taking out a loan.