Business

While trying to make their business a success, it’s almost inevitable that an entrepreneur will start to feel stressed. Keeping on top of cash flow, employees, management, dealing with legal services and customer expectations can be truly overwhelming for many. With this in mind, see below some stress-busting strategies for every entrepreneur who’s starting to feel the pressure:

• Have A Disciplined Routine

Getting yourself into a realistic working routine each day can help you keep things under control. Scheduling time for working out, eating, reading and taking some me-time can be extremely beneficial to an entrepreneur’s mental health. Things like making time to spend with your loved ones is equally as important as making time for meetings and conference calls. Stress can even be one of the biggest causes of hair loss, to avoid having to make a trip to a hair transplant Manchester clinic, try to switch off from work-mode every now and again.

• Mobile Phone Apps

There are some amazing apps available that can also help with reducing stress. Pacifica is one of the most popular. It provides users with daily tips and tricks to de-stress, as well as daily activities to take your mind off of work. You can also join the conversation forums to talk about anything you’re struggling with.

• Digital Detox

When you’re not using your phone for de-stressing apps, take some time away from technology with a digital detox. Being a business owner means that your phone is usually ringing or receiving notifications non-stop – and you can’t help but check it! By turning your phone off, you’re not tempted to quickly take a peak even if you’re with family and friends. Staying away from technology for even the smallest amount of time can reduce stress levels tenfold.

• Treat Yourself

Take some time away from everything and treat yourself to a spa day at medical spa. Spoil yourself with a massage or a long, relaxing swim. Little treats every now and then can be a good opportunity to unwind. Take things a step further by going on a spa mini-break if you feel like you need more of a break away from work. Go with a friend or just enjoy spending time in your own company.

• Regular Breaks

Entrepreneurs can sometimes miss out on the most important experiences of their lives because they’re too busy focusing on their business. Taking regular breaks during your work day will eventually allow you to work more efficiently and productively. Whether this is just heading out instead of staying in at lunchtime or going for an afternoon stroll, there are plenty of ways an entrepreneur can unwind throughout the day.

If you have been in a position of leadership you would know that retaining talent that might have just helped you grow your business from the ground up is very difficult to retain. You have to give equal attention to the individuals as you do to your business.

It does hurt when the people you relied on or saw working with in the future decide that it is not the place for them, the consoling bit is that you are not alone, the bad thing is that like you not a lot of people know exactly why sales representatives leave and how to make them feel satisfied working for you.

Here are the top three ways you can retain your sales talent.

1.    Always Have an Opportunity of Growth

Give the people something to aspire to, but make it realistic. The top performers perform to grow, do not disappoint them and strip them of this motivation. The moment they realize that there is no longer any room to grow or that it would not be possible for them to climb up the corporate ladder in your corporation they will feel they are wasting their time working in your business and will start looking for a place that gives them something to work towards.

The way you offer this growth can be in various forms. For example provide a compensation, or a title to responsibilities which will allow you to focus on other things after you have delegated. The trick is to keep raising the stakes at just the right frequency to keep your people engaged.

2.    Create a Culture They Don’t Want to Leave

Most people think of a ping pong table or a free beverage bar. This is not necessary something people will miss when they decide to leave your employment. Sales culture takes a while to build and it definitely requires the right mind sets to make it happen. You want to be a workplace that is dedicated towards helping your customers and are always advocating a compelling mission.

To do this you should start by empowering all of your employees. Every encounter must encompass this, every meeting must make them feel like an essential cog in the project as they rightly are. They will believe in your vision and they will believe in their roles more than they did before. A good sales person is one who is excited to come to work every day. This is important for employees but also for freelancers who you have found through outsourcing platforms.

3.    Always Set Clear Expectations

It is very important that your sales rep understands what you expect of them and what their targets are translated by the milestones you see for your company. A neat way to do this is to make a frame work which lists these expectations. After this you must list measurable milestones and then also provide a tool that will measure progress of all the reps in a fair manner. When everyone understands what their role is it is easier to cut through the noise and perform your best.

There is a very different feeling and motivation behind working with a clear target in your head. It makes it easier to achieve them, and gives the employee autonomy over managing their efforts to achieve it, something which many business do not do. Many times an employee leaves because objectives are too cluttered or not communicated well for them to understand exactly what they are supposed to do to excel. The most disappointing of them all is when management forgets to communicate these expectations at all and only decide to reveal them during a year-end review or an appraisal at which point the sales rep feels they could have done better if they knew.

If you’re starting a business or are in the process of rebranding your existing one, it’s important to know the influence that colours can have on your consumers when going through the creation stages.

Some research suggests that over 85% of consumers are a firm believer in colour choice impacting their product selection which is a huge factor when it comes to standing out from your competitors. In order to make sure that the brand colour you choose is fit for purpose, consider these tips so that your colour palette can be memorable and inspiring to other users.

Understand Your Focus

An essential factor that should be considered when choosing the colour palette for your business is understanding your focus and ethos. If you work in a corporate environment, it wouldn’t appear ideal to be using big and bright bold colours for your palette. The colour red that can be easily identified with brands such as Coca-Cola and Virgin have the identity for wanting their consumers to be bold and energetic. By considering your brand’s goals and the target audience, it helps to understand which colours would be ideal for you.

Consider The Psychology Around It

Colour psychology is a thing. The colour of objects and signs have associated thoughts and feelings that can influence a users’ perception. For example, technology brands tend to sway towards using blue for their brand as it projects a sign of trust and intelligence to users. By understanding how you want your users to feel when they consider your brand will influence the colours that you choose for your branding.

Be Bold And Experiment

There are many examples in which brands have chosen to be bold with their colour choices for their products and have seen great results that have come from it. It can be a risk to experiment but engaging your consumers should be your primary focus. Therefore, consider at least 3 colours to put together with your brand that can ultimately result in something powerful but still relevant to your brand.

Do Competitor Research

Knowing your industry and what makes your other competitors successful can provide you with ideas on whether you wish to stand out or fit in with the crowd. It’s all about finding a balance in your colour palette that can effectively do both so consider several brands and companies in your industry before having a play around.

Create A Mood Board

An alternative way to mix together colours you’ve considered is through creating a mood board. Colours are extracted and put together through images that have similar colour schemes. By placing the colours together, it can help you judge the emotions and moods that your brand would project to your audience. Many agencies that specialise in brand design Manchester based will advise using the 60:30:10 colour ratio. This is where three colours are chosen and distributed by 60%, 30% and 10%.

It can be an exciting time creating a new brand image for your business, but it’s also important to now get carried away with your ideas. Following a structure and doing relevant research will be beneficial in creating a brand that will be engaging and memorable to your consumers.

A lot can depend on successful shop fitout in any business. It requires that you take into account a lot of factors like color, branding, and lighting to the very least. Therefore, it is not an easy task and will require some finesse to pull it off perfectly.

However, sometimes the budget may be a problem since fitouts tend to turn out expensive. But with some strategic ideas, you can still get the best concepts without spending too much. To help you with that, here are the best tips that will turn your shop into a perfectly designed space.

1. Use decluttering

No one likes messy or crowded store designs. Customers get tired pretty quickly with trying to find what they need and you may lose them forever. On the other side, you will have a hard time keeping track of your items for retagging the prices or restocking.

When a store is small, it’s hard to keep it decluttered, but with some finesse, you will be able to do so efficiently. Use tables with storage space on the bottom to store excess items and leave the above surface to serve for displaying. Install shelves, create power walls, and leave enough space between the racks so your customers can move.

2. Store zones and messages they carry

The easiest way for successful shop fitout is if you designate zones in your store. That way, you can assign a different message to each zone and promote more of your items. Furthermore, this strategy gives you a clear overview of your inventory and encourages your customers to buy more.

For example, consider retail counter as a point of sale you can use to display smaller items, like socks, wallets or greeting cards. Use front of the store for first impressions, but also outside of the store to highlight certain offer or items. Even changing rooms and restrooms are ideal for displaying certain messages, if there is enough space to do it effectively.

3. Keep your shop clean

Cleaning may be an annoying task, but if not done regularly you will notice the customers avoiding your shop. If the business looks dirty from the outside, the customers will most likely give it a wide berth. However, this doesn’t mean that simple washing of windows and dusting will do.

In order to keep your store impeccable, you will need to designate daily and weekly chores to clean and maintain the space. This even includes cleaning the area where your employees spend their break time and have lunch. Hire a professional service to do the cleaning, but make sure that to include this expense in your budget.

4. Work on lighting

One of the cheapest tricks that will help you improve the overall look of your store is lighting. Many stores tend to overlook the influence a good lighting can have on the customers. But those who know how to use it, have a steady number of customers at all times.

For example, shopping malls use bright light so their customers can have the better look at the quality of materials and colors. Some stores get more creative and use Edison lights and spotlighting to highlight certain areas. You can even have fun with different colors of lights and neon signs if your budget permits it.

5. Charm your customers

Start charming your customers right at the entrance of the store with the presentation of the certain products. That way you will be able to interest them to browse around and help them decide what to buy. Carefully designed shop fitout and a theme will make this fixture a perfect way to attract more customers and promote your offer.

Use small tables and sales racks to create these fixtures throughout the entire store as well. Just make sure you don’t place them too close to each other to avoid cluttering the space. Also, rotate the products regularly so your customers would observe the range of your offer and not get bored quickly.

6. Appeal to senses

When you decide on a certain design, think about other senses you can appeal to with your customers. The best way to complete the whole presentation of your products is by using music and scents to inspire store visitors. Of course, they need to be matched perfectly in order to create stimuli that will help the customers’ decision-making process.

Studies even prove this combination an ideal strategy to encourage customers to purchase certain products or frequently visit the same store. Use Spotify to play sounds and position oil diffusers strategically so that the scents don’t overwhelm the visitors.

7. Add a power wall

Power wall is another efficient way to draw the attention of your customers the moment they enter the store. Use this spot to display items on sale or the ones that are currently in trend or hot selling. With this installation, you will help your customers find the newest products or those they can buy on discount.

Also, the power wall can serve to promote certain brands or group of products, like laundry detergents, sweaters or smartphones. Customers like to know they have more than one choice and preferably to be able to compare them. With the power wall, you can easily do so while at the same time you will also boost the sale of certain items.

All in all

Before you start with designing your shop interior, take a good look at the space you have. The secret of successful shop fitout is to use the available areas to attract more customers and promote your inventory. After all, that way the customers will find what they are looking for and your business will be a success.

Typically, a summer holiday is an occasion for all the family to get together for a wonderful getaway somewhere hot and sunny. However, there’s a new wave of holiday’s that are taking the travel industry by storm – solo travellers. A survey conducted in August 2018 shows that in the past seven years, there’s been a staggering 150% rise in solo travel by British holidaymakers. It’s safe to say that solo travel is becoming big business for the travel industry. So, why has it become so popular and what impact is this having?

Why Solo Travel?

For travellers aged 35 to 44, the idea of travelling solo has become more appealing – particularly for those who don’t have a partner. In just a year, the number of them embarking on solo travel holidays trebled from 5% to 16%. It’s believed that people are choosing to travel alone because of the freedom that it brings, along with the fact that smartphones with navigation are making the experience seem less daunting.

Going on holidays by yourself has also become safe in some ways, as you can keep in regular contact with your family and friends back home. All you need is yourself, a backpack with your favourite travel accessories and a taste for adventure.

Solo Travellers In Group Holidays

There are also those people who enjoy meeting up with other solo travellers or joining groups who travel around the more undiscovered parts of the world. There are many groups that cater for various age groups, from 18-25 to 65+ groups. Meeting up with likeminded people is one of the most appealing things for solo travellers. Though there are itineraries, they’re by no means restricting, and you can opt in and out of the activities planned. Group solo trips are often more popular with female solo travellers as they feel safer.

The Impact On The Travel Industry

Many existing travel agents are expanding into the solo travel market, offering special packages for those wishing to travel to just one country or several. There have also been a number of other new companies set up to rival the bigger airlines and agencies, specialising only in solo travel. This has made for competitively priced trips, benefiting the consumer.

More and more people are booking holidays online as opposed to in a physical agency, but solo travellers like to feel looked after and reassured; spiking an interest in those visiting agents again. This is because there is a personal approach that can’t be achieved online, with the travel agent being able to make custom recommendations based on the experience the traveller is looking for, this also has a similar effect of video production companies. 

The Most Popular Destinations

Typically, the most popular destinations include Asia, USA and Indonesia. In fact, single travellers make 50% more trips to Asia and more than twice as many to Antarctica. Many British holidaymakers prefer to go further afield than the typical European countries, giving them a stronger sense of exploration the further they’re away from home.

Want to be a working mom? There are many women who are ready to work at home. But they are not ready to run the risk and attract big capital. Also you should love what you do. It’s rare to meet an entrepreneur who is not invested in own business. Do you think you need much money to start? Of course, if you want to create something as much big and successful as ACE, United Technologies, or Target you need big money to invest. Also, it needs much time and attention.

But if you have some free time and want to add some money to your budget, you should think of partial jobs. It’s when you like cooking but don’t have enough money for opening your restaurant. So, you decide to cook at home for taking out. So, any ideas about where to start?

1. eBay Trades

You can easily sell something on eBay. This is rather cheap and fast platform to sell your old even broken stuff online. If you have nothing to sell you should buy something for cheap so that you can sell it from eBay later. Let’s count. Giving your valuable time for eBay trades every week (about 20 hours), you can earn about $1000 per month. It’s real money! Of course, it might be not enough for you but the sum seems to be impressive when you sum up. And you even didn’t go to the office!

2. Negotiations

Negotiators are neutral people who try to make peace between different sides in the court or during negotiations. They keep their neutral position and don’t take one or another side. You don’t even need a certificate to take part in negotiations. You take about $ 80- $ 100 per hour, but prices much depend on your experience and knowledge. Where to start? Try to contact to American Arbitral Association.

3. Answering Service

If you have a sweet voice and good communication skills, you may try yourself in the answering service. You can do it by phone from your home. It depends on what sphere you are expert at. One way or another telephone answering service usually takes about $200 monthly from every new client. Count! Also, you need to spend some money to start business.

4. First Aid Boxes

Medical products are very popular for business because they are always in high demand. First aid boxes are good for schools and other organizations that MUST HAVE such a box in daily use. You need to buy all components from the wholesale dealers and mix them up. Ready-to-use box costs about $ 10 – $ 150 depending on your local market.

5. Bookkeeping

This work is good for you only if you have some professional experience in this sphere. That’s so great to work from home! If you are a well-trained accountant, you have good chances to make good money. Such a freelance work is very helpful for small businesses. They badly need a bookkeeper but they don’t want to spend much money for it. So, it will be enough for you to have about $30 000 per year.

6. Hairstylist

Of course, this profession is good only if you already have experience in cutting hair or manicures. So, you have a good chance to start your own business in this sphere. Just don’t forget to check your state’s requirements for providing salon care at home. What about money? You can make about $20 500 per year.

7. Copywriting

Copywriting is good if you are good in writing. You can write materials for businesses, websites, promotions, newsletters, mails. Be attentive! You have to be a good writer so that you can do your writing task in the best way. The salary you can get is about $50 000 per year.

8. Translation

Translation business is good only if you are good in languages. It’s so simple to translate documents from home. You don’t need even go to somewhere. Work online! You can get about $40 000 per year. Nevertheless, much depends on your professional skills here.

9. Blogging

Blogging can be rather profitable business if you are active and have something to share. Also, if you like talking, sharing your ideas, this job is right for you. By the way, the niche blogs are still growing. There are no limits if you have something to say. Try to be interesting and positive.

The most important investment from your side is your time. It is not a secret that starting a new business is always money-taking. Also, your business takes your time and energy. If you like what you do, you’ll be satisfied from every small detail. That’s why it is really important to think twice and implement your ideal into life even from home.

With the use of a digital receptionist software such as Greetly, visitor registration and issuance of visitor badges can now be automated. A human front desk assistant is no longer necessary. If you are not yet convinced that a digital receptionist will be good for the business, keep on reading as we list down some of its most significant benefits.

1. Save Money

Amongst the many cost-cutting measures that can be implemented in an office, one of the most promising would be using a digital receptionist as a replacement to a human receptionist. In the long-run, you will be able to save a lot of money since you no longer need to employ a full-time employee just so there will be someone to be on the front desk.

2. Improve Availability

With a digital receptionist, availability will not be an issue. This means that there will always be someone available at the front desk to handle the arrival of guests. To add, depending on the scope of the software, it is also possible to set up an automatic answering feature, making sure that no calls will be missed, even during outside of office hours.

3. Speed Up the Process

Using a visitor registration software like www.greetly.com is also beneficial in terms of making sure that visitors won’t have to wait for a long time. One of the reasons for this is because they can already pre-register beforehand. To add, because the process is automated, it will be significantly quicker compared to signing in a logbook.

4. Instant Notifications

After a visitor logs in through the software, the contact person will be immediately notified. This can be done in the form of voice, text, or email. Therefore, if you are the person to be visited, you will already know that there is someone in the lobby waiting for you. This gives you the time to prepare and to manage your own schedule.

5. Customization

This is one thing that will depend on your personal choice of a digital receptionist to use in the front office. Generally, however, it offers a high degree of customization. You can have it personalized based on the interface that visitors will find easy to use. You can also customize the visitor badges to help identify the guests who are present in the office.

6. Ease of Use

Again, this will be dependent on the software that you will be using. However, it would be safe to say that digital receptionists are easy to set up. Often, they might take only about ten minutes to get ready. Even the users of the system – your office visitors – will not have a hard time figuring out how the system works as there is a user-friendly interface.

Now that we have tackled the benefits of having a digital receptionist, there is no excuse to not have one! It is one of the technologies that can significantly improve the front office and provide guests with a better experience.

Becoming a doctor or cosmetic surgery is one of the hardest things to master, and while your educational history will train you to work under pressure, with skill and knowledge to help every choice, it doesn’t help your business acumen.

It can become a worry when you open the doors to a new surgery business, and there are a significant amount of empty beds and a lack of consultations. Sadly, being the best in your trade isn’t always enough to fill the books with enquiries and creating a business plan is a necessity. To give you a brief idea on what your plan needs to consist of, here’s a look at three years and what changes you need to make.

Year One: Build

The first few months will be the toughest, and it’s about creating trust with clients and potential partners. You’ll always need to ask patients if they are comfortable showcasing your work, which isn’t always the easiest task for a breast augmentation Manchester surgery as some people won’t be comfortable with being on the website or in a portfolio.

Advertising is the other option and if you find that you don’t have a rich portfolio yet, the digital market might be the breast approach. Building your website up on google searches and paying for social media ads prove to be the most effective as you can target people interested in cosmetic surgery. Having a billboard or a magazine section might work for big companies, but the ad can be wasted of people who aren’t interested at all.

Year Two: Develop

If you’ve gained traction and had people in the door for consultations and operations, you can begin to offer referral discounts and spread through word of mouth. You want your clients to go out and praise the work you’ve done, as when it comes to something as expensive or personal as surgery, a friends recommendation can’t be bought.

Consider adding extra services to your business, if you specialise in certain aspects of cosmetic surgery, through training or hiring new staff you can add new specialities to your practice, which in turn will attract additional clients and possible return business.

Year Three: Branch Out

While the first two years of the plan will be locally based, branching out around the country can work well for surgery practices. Plastic surgery is something a person would travel across the country for in order to receive the best service, so if you find your expansion needs a next level this is the way to go. Just be sure that you can control any influx of inquiries that can come from going nationwide.

A business plan is never set in stone, and you might find that the second part of your plan doesn’t take exactly a year, it’s best to use this as a guideline to give you a positive direction to strive for.

Amelia Morgan is a freelance writer with a current interest in surgery and it’s impacts before and after of a patient and is based locally to a cosmetic surgery Manchester practice. Amelia also enjoys blogging about the latest fashion trends and current news.

When deciding to start an online business, it’s important to have the right idea, and no matter how brilliant this idea is, keep in mind that it wouldn’t work without patience and a proper plan. Establishing an online business will require you to mount real dedication of time and effort, let alone the requirement of money.

If you are wondering how to choose the right online business opportunity, then you have come to the right place. Here are the four golden rules to finding one. Make sure to keep them all in mind!

#1. What Is Your Start-Up Investment?  

By now you already know that every business needs investments, not only money but also time. You must ask yourself how much you’re willing to move forward with for the overall start-up costs. This is where you need to determine how much money you can utilize and invest in your business.

However, you must find the balance – Just because you are starting a business it does not mean you have to skip meals and stop paying bills. Sure, a business cannot grow if it doesn’t have the money to start. However, it is never a good idea to put all eggs in one basket.

#2. What Kind Of Support or Training Is Available? 

This one here is important. Remember that as a new online business owner, you must have resources to learn all ups and downs. It also gives you the ability to enhance your general business skills. It also gives you the ability to enhance your general business skills. There is nothing wrong about enrolling in classes or constantly looking for support. Doing any of these does not mean you are incapable of running your online business.

For instance, you want to have knowledge about various online marketing platforms. In one way or another, you chanced upon the banner advertising platform Click2sell.co. You firmly believe that this could help your business in some ways. Obviously, you need to learn all about it first, and that’s exactly how you should take things further.         

#3. Do You Think Compensation Can Wait?

At the end of the day, your business – no matter how small or big it is – will have to make money. It’s crucial that you understand how money affects your online business’s primary stage. Ask yourself this: “Am I willing to see the fruits of my labor or am I just after for the quick financial reward?”

Regardless of your answer, the key is to always set realistic goals. If you think your budget is going to prevent you from achieving measurable returns, then perhaps it is not the best time to start your venture. Pull back for now and plan your next move.

#4. Do You Believe In Your Online Business?

Let’s say you are leaning towards a product-oriented business. Do you actually like the products you are selling? Do you believe your products are of high-quality? If you think otherwise, then there is no sense moving forward. If you do not believe in your business, no one else will. The same thing can be said for service-oriented business. You must believe in the services you’re offering and that it could benefit others.