What Should You Do Before Starting A Business?

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If you like the idea of being your own boss and starting a business, then there are a number of things that you need to think about and do, before you leap right in. Just jumping in at the deep end can mean that you make avoidable mistakes, or even lose a lot of money. Taking the time to step back and think about what you need to do first is always the best option.

Do Your Research

Before you begin any major product, and particularly before you sink your life savings (or someone else’s) into a new business, you need to do your research. You should look into the industry you’re planning to become join, and see how unique your business idea is. You may need to change your plans slightly, or even put things on hold until you can come up with something different. Even if you do have an idea that’s different, it’s always good to be aware of your competitors and keep ahead of them whenever possible. This is also the time to consider your target market. Once you know who they are, you will be able to target your marketing and design ideas towards them.

Legalities

When you start up a business, there will be certain legal aspects that you need to deal with. Firstly, you’ll need to choose what its legal structure will be. That could be a limited company, an LLP, or you might want to work as a sole trader. Each option has different tax implications, and the liability of the owner will change too.

Speak To Consultants

It makes no difference if this is your first company, or whether you’ve run many different businesses before, it’s always worth speaking to consultants about various aspects of your business. Financial consultants and marketing experts such as the ones you can find at http://netwaveinteractive.com/marketing-services/marketing-consulting/ have many years of experience in their sectors, and this kind of investment can pay huge dividends when it comes to an understanding of how business works. Starting off on the right track with a consultant behind you can prove to be an extremely shrewd move.

Look At Your Finances

Starting a business is not a cheap prospect. There are many different start up costs, so understanding where the money for these will come from is the first thing to look at. You might consider asking your bank for money or going to investors. You might want to look at crowdfunding. There will be an option that works for you, so take your time in finding it. Whichever route for funding you choose to take, you will need to write up a detailed business plan. Your business plan will have to include all of your expected costs for running your business including electricity, rental or mortgage costs, staff costs, stock and machinery costs, and more. This is another reason why research is essential; if you can show that you understand how much you will be paying, and why it is worth paying that amount, then it will be far easier to find the capital. As well as that, it means you can budget more easily, and you’ll know how much profit you need to make.

Viral Marketing: What Is It and How Can You Use It?

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Digital marketing grew rapidly these past few years. There are more instruments to use and campaigns to run today, allowing businesses – from small businesses to giant enterprises – to achieve their marketing objectives in an efficient and measurable way.

While content marketing and social media are very popular, more businesses are turning to viral marketing as a way to generate buzz and attract a bigger audience. What is viral marketing and how can you use it? We are going to answer those questions in this article.

What is Viral Marketing?

Viral marketing is a type of marketing campaign that utilizes existing websites and networks of users to deliver key marketing messages to a wider audience. By targeting key users on different platforms, the same marketing messages can reach a vast number of viewers in a relatively short amount of time.

Viral marketing differs from conventional content or social media marketing in one particular way: this type of campaign relies on the content of the campaign to be interesting enough for it to go viral. When the campaign is configured properly, a simple marketing message can get thousands of shares and re-shares across multiple platforms.

In most cases, viral marketing uses video content. Audio-visual contents work better in attracting user engagement and persuading the audience to share the content with more people. At the same time, video content adds that extra dimension for a bigger chance of going viral.

How Can You Do Viral Marketing?

From the definition of viral marketing itself, it is easy to see the elements you need to prepare for a successful viral marketing campaign. For starters, you need to determine the platforms you want to target for the campaign. Aside from popular social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, we also have sites that specialize in viral and funny content such as apextribune.com.

Understanding the platforms you’ll be using and the audience you want to target is important. The insights will help you tailor your content perfectly; once again, the goal of fine-tuning the message is to increase its chances of going viral once viewers start seeing it.

Once the campaign is carefully formulated, you can start executing the plan and let the audience to the rest. Keep in mind that not all content will go viral upon impact. That brings us to the next part of this article: how to go viral.

How to Go Viral

There is no definitive secret or recipe to going viral. The biggest challenge of viral marketing is getting the campaign accepted by the audience the right way. Only then will you see the impact of the campaign amplified to new heights.

That said, you can take steps to increase the chances of your campaign going viral. Adding gamification, understanding the audience’s taste and preferences, and using content that relates well to the target viewers are some of the tips you can use to get started. Do it right and viral marketing can catapult your brand and your products or services like no other digital marketing instrument.

If You Want to Work From Home, These Things Will Help You

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If you’re about to embark on a home working adventure, you need to be sure to think about the challenges you’ll face and how you’ll deal with them. It might seem like a great way to get away from your dour office and skip that morning commute, and that’s all great. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that working from home is all fun and games because that’s definitely not the case.

There are many of ways in which working from home can become unworkable for you if you fail to approach it correctly. We’re now going to delve into some of the things that will help you to get your home working experience right the first time.

Ergonomically Designed Office Furniture

The furniture that you use every day of the week in your home office is clearly going to have an impact on how you experience your. If you don’t feel at all comfortable when you’re working at home, you’ll feel annoyed and your work will ultimately suffer. That’s why you need good office furniture that has been ergonomically designed to fit the needs of your body each day.

A Dedicated Work Area

A home office is going to be essential because without a dedicated working area, you’ll really struggle to get your head down and focus on your work when you’re at home. That’s clearly a pretty big issue and it’s not something you can ignore. Your workspace should be apart from the rest of your home if possible. It’s not a good idea to just work on your laptop on the sofa or at the kitchen dining table. You’ll quickly realise why those arrangements are bad.

Strict Rules for Yourself

When you don’t have a boss looming over your shoulder and getting you do to all the things that need to be done, the task falls to you. Without proper structure, you’ll just get distracted and you’ll end up failing. That’s why you should set strict rules for yourself that you can follow each day. It’s entirely up to you to decide on those rules but it’s definitely worth giving some thought to.

Locks on Your Office Door

If you’re trying to work from home and you have a family to think about too, you’ll have to find a way of shutting them out and making sure that you don’t get distracted by them. Something as simple as putting a lock on your office door in order to shut people out while you work might not be such a bad idea. There tend to be more distractions for home workers than office workers, so bear that in mind.

Some Form of Financial Security

There are many ways to become financially secure, and that security will be really important if your home working is tied to a new freelance or sole trader career. This is the case for many people who work from home, but it can be risky and precarious if you’re not careful. You might want to save before starting on this path, or you could turn to investing. AlgoTerminal’s backtesting software can help you plan your investments and see good returns. It’s definitely an option to consider.

Time Away From the Home When Work is Done

When you spend your work time at home and you spend your spare time at home, your home can start to feel like a bit of a prison for you. Having time away from your home is definitely important so make sure you do try to get out of your house when your work is done and you have some spare time on your hands. Otherwise, you’ll get sick of the site of those four walls.

A Plan B

Working from home is one of those things that always seems like a great idea, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it works out that way. It’s certainly not an arrangement that works for everyone who tries it, and there’s nothing wrong with admitting that it’s not right for you. If that’s the conclusion you arrive at, you need to have a plan B. So make sure you think about that now rather than leaving it until later.

Working from home can be really positive for you if you approach it in the right kind of way. Approach it incorrectly and it can quickly become a real nightmare for you, so make sure you think carefully about all the topics covered here. They might really help you make a success of your home working future.

The 5 Pillars of Internet Marketing for New Businesses

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Launching a startup is a challenging and often humbling venture. Although financing your business idea is the first milestone to overcome, once you’re up and running, it’s time to channel your energy into targeting your niche audience and marketing your product.

Most entrepreneurs understand the value of good marketing, but many of them don’t have the budget to give their business the promotion it deserves. Luckily, digital marketing is the single most effective way to reach a global audience, and it won’t blow your budget. To help you get your marketing strategy off the ground, here are the five pillars of Internet marketing for new businesses.

Traffic Generation

Your business could have the smartest, most visually stunning site on the web, but if no one knows how to find it, then it’s not going to generate sales. To grow your enterprise, you need to maximize your website visitors – otherwise known as traffic. To increase your website traffic, you will need to create compelling ads, utilize social media accounts, and optimize your site for search engines using SEO tactics. If you’re not acquainted with SEO practices, you can hire a professional Internet marketing company like DAGMAR Marketing, Jacksonville SEO Company to optimize your website and help you attract more visitors.

Conversion

It’s no good sending Internet users to your website unless they’re going to buy your product or sign up for your services. To turn site visitors into paying customers, you need to increase your conversion rating: the percentage of visitors that become leads. CRO (conversion rate optimization) companies can help you work on your website development and improve your landing page design for maximum sales.

Automation

Marketing automation is the software that exists to automate repetitive tasks from multiple channels. For example, for your business to perform seamlessly, you can automate your payments, email marketing actions, advertising, and even social media updates. Automation can also help you generate leads into sales by automatically “targeting” site visitors or previous customers and encouraging them to return to your page.

Content

It’s not enough to have a slick-looking website or a killer social media campaign; if your site lacks well-written, relevant content, then you’ll have trouble driving your visitors to take action. Outsourcing to a professional writer is the most cost-effective way to create a voice for your brand and deliver engaging content. Keeping a company blog also creates a stronger connection between you and your prospective customers, maximizing sales opportunities.

Reporting

Reporting is a crucial step in your Internet marketing campaign – without it, you have no way of knowing whether or not your strategy is working. Free software like Google Analytics allows you to monitor your website traffic, assess the most popular areas of your website, and analyze conversion rates.

No two businesses are the same, so it stands to reason that no two marketing strategies will be the same either. By using reporting software, you can optimize your marketing campaign to best suit your business and improve your chances of success.

How to Prepare Your Business For the Unexpected

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Every small business that succeeds does so at least in part as a result of the strategies employed by its owner in a bid to fulfil their personal vision of the future, but few such owners spend any time working on plans to help them deal with unexpected emergencies.

Small enterprises are far more vulnerable to such events and failing to make proper provision for any kind of disaster scenario, whether a data breach or hurricane, means you risk being caught off guard. Not having a suitable plan in place will also make it far more difficult for you to get your business back on track should the worst-case scenario come to pass.

Select your team

The first step is to set up a planning team composed of employees from across the company chosen for their in-depth knowledge of specific areas of the business. Such a team should include those from IT, telecommunications, logistics and customer service divisions and should be capable of running the business from a temporary location if necessary.

It’s a good idea to spend some time brainstorming with key members of your team to discuss how your enterprise can best respond to a wide range of events. As the response needed to deal with a fire is very different from that needed to deal with a data breach, you may need to have a number of plans in place.

Ready your responses

In the event of a natural disaster, the news agenda is unlikely to focus on your company alone, but in the case of a man-made disaster such as a data breach, you’ll be facing the music alone. In such scenarios, it is essential to make some sort of public statement as soon as possible. Waiting too long to respond to this sort of crisis means you lose control of the story as the media will simply seek out other sources of information. With stories spreading throughout the world almost instantly through social media, any kind of delay can ultimately prove fatal to your company’s financial future.

Cross-train for consistency

If you or one of your key employees is injured in an accident, the effect on your business could be devastating. Cross-training employees so they can take over each other’s roles, at least on a temporary basis, will prevent your business from grinding to a halt.

It is also worth ensuring you know in advance exactly which lawyers to call to deal with such incidents. At a firm such as Harrell & Harrell personal injury lawyers, for example, every case is reviewed by two or three lawyers to ensure it is being assessed not just from a physical point of view but also in terms of the potential financial losses and cost of rehabilitation. Preparing a list of specialists in advance to cover every likely scenario will allow you to respond far more effectively.

Contemplate succession

This kind of planning for disasters should include every aspect of your life. Though it may be unpleasant, it should include plans for what will happen to the company should you die. Ensure there is a provision for new ownership in your will.

Similarly, if you have started the company jointly with your wife, husband, or business partner ensure there are plans are in place for how the business could be divided up in the case of a split. In all such cases, the process of planning should start as early as possible.