6 Reasons To Start Your Own Business

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StrategyDriven Business Startup Article |Starting Your Own Business|6 Reasons To Start Your Own BusinessIf you’ve ever considered starting your own business but weren’t sure whether it was a good idea or not, you might want to think again. There are many reasons why starting your own business is not just a good idea but a great one, and no matter where your particular skills lie, you should be able to find a niche that is just right for you. Read on to find out why starting a business could be the best thing you ever do.

You Are Your Own Boss

You may be the kind of person who is happier leading than following, but that might not be possible in your current place of work. There will be a boss already, someone you need to listen to and who will tell you what you can and can’t do. This is distinctly unappealing to a lot of people, and if you are one of them, then you could become your own boss and start your own business instead of working for someone else.

You will have the choice of what you do, and any decision that needs to be made will be yours to make. If you have staff, you will be in charge of them and be the leader, not the follower. For many, this is the main reason for starting their own business.

You Do What You Are Interested In

Sometimes a job is just a job – it’s what pays the bills and keeps you busy. Yet, wouldn’t it be wonderful to do more than that? To do something that you actually enjoy and are interested in? If you own and run a business, that’s exactly what you can do. You can choose what kind of business you want to run and what it will entail. It pays to research whether there is a market for whatever goods or services you want to sell, of course, but generally, you can choose anything at all.

Running your own business is the ideal way to put your knowledge, education, skills, and interests into one venture that will keep you motivated and keen to continue. If you feel you need more skills you can always look into earning a computer science degree online to give you more confidence to go ahead.

There Are Few Barriers To Entry

Unlike applying for a job in your chosen field where you will need to show experience, for example, or explain why you want to work in that sector, when you start your own business you won’t have to explain or prove anything to anyone. You will need to be sure of yourself and be confident that you can make a success of your chosen business, but that’s it.

There are very few barriers to entry when you want to start a small business. As mentioned above, you won’t need to have an interview or impress an employer, but it is also relatively easy to source suppliers, market your business, set up a website, and so on. You won’t even have to spend a lot of money if you don’t want to or can’t afford to – you set your budget. Whereas in the past only the very wealthy or those who had a lot of connections were able to start successful businesses, that has now changed; if you want to do it, you can.

You’ll Make More Money

When you run your own business, you can potentially make a lot more money than you can when you are working for someone else. If you can market your business well and you work hard, and to a high standard, you will find that it quickly grows, giving you the salary that you have been looking for.

It may not happen right away, but if you work hard and keep going, the potential for profit is huge, and could make your life very comfortable indeed. Plus, when you’re working for yourself, most of the profit can be paid to you if you want – especially if you are the only person working in the company – giving you even more chance of earning well.

You Can Start Slowly

When you imagine launching your business, you might worry that it will be a little while before it starts to generate any money, and therefore you might not be able to afford to have your own business because you need a salary coming in.

This is not a problem. If you start slowly, you can work in another job – either full or part-time depending on your preference and needs – at the same time. You can run your new business on the side, using evenings and weekends to reply to customers and do the work, for example. This means you can gradually grow the business to a point where you know you can give up your day job and still be earning the money you need.

Work From Home

It might be that you don’t enjoy your current job due to the commute it takes to get there, and the lack of work-life balance that you can enjoy. Having a good work-life balance is crucial for happiness, and this can be achieved when you run your own business, especially if you work from home.

By cutting out the long commute and being able to choose your hours, as well as being around for your family when they need you for important events such as birthdays, school plays, or sports games, you will be more calm, relaxed, and happy, and this will have a positive effect on your business and your home life too. Plus working in a familiar, comfortable environment will help you to be more productive.

If you need to meet with clients or suppliers, for example, and you don’t want them to come to your home, you can always hire a meeting room or office for a short time, or you can meet in a local café or coffee house. This is not unusual, and no one will think twice about it; it certainly won’t put potential clients off.

5 Things to Know About Running an Offline Marketing Campaign

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Combining online and offline marketing|5 Things to Know About Running an Offline Marketing CampaignMore and more businesses are integrating their online marketing efforts with offline marketing campaigns. The two marketing approaches are not meant to be used separately, but rather as an integrated, holistic way of reaching a target audience. There are more strategies to use – and campaigns to run – as well, which means there are more opportunities to take the target audience on a seamless journey both online and offline.

Still, combining online and offline marketing is not something you want to take lightly. More importantly, running an offline marketing campaign requires extra care if you want to produce the desired results. When done correctly, offline marketing campaigns can fully amplify online marketing and vice versa. Before you get started with your own campaigns, here are the five things you need to know about running an offline marketing campaign.

It’s Just as Seamless

Integration is still an important keyword when you are planning an offline marketing campaign. It is easy to fall into the trap of running promotions and other activities separately instead of as parts of a bigger strategy. Falling into this trap will result in effective individual marketing efforts, but no real long-term achievements or substantial KPIs.

With the right approach, you can integrate different marketing activities and amplify their impacts. An in-store promotion can be combined with social media marketing, direct marketing, and even email marketing to create a bigger impact. For example, customers can earn a discount by posting a photo of the store or your product to their social media profiles.

Mind the Tools

I know a lot of business owners avoid using certain marketing tools, mainly due to misconceptions about them. After all, TV ads are expensive and radio ads just don’t work. Are they really that bad? The answer is a big NO. Each marketing instrument and tool is effective when used to reach the right target market. Older consumers in a local market, for example, still listen to their favorite radio shows; commuters do the same too.

You just have to be more careful when choosing the right marketing tools to use. Take steps to fully understand your offline audience and how to best reach different audience groups. Use the insights you gather to determine the right kind of marketing campaign to run, and the best instruments to use for getting the message across effectively. It’s the same approach used in online marketing, but you use it to choose offline marketing instruments instead.

Tangible Marketing

To further separate your offline marketing campaigns from their online counterparts, it is also a good idea to use tangible marketing assets. This is a great step to take if you want to boost user engagement, increase awareness, and push your brand to more people. There are plenty of ways to do it too.

You can use merchandise like T-shirts, hats, and pins to get really close to the audience. These are items that your potential customers actually wear, making them very effective for increasing exposure and building loyalty. Similar to the way schools use jackets and pins as a way to develop pride among students, you can browse these selections and make your own pins for the same purpose.

Don’t Forget the Basics

Despite the growing number of businesses taking marketing seriously, abandoning the basics remain the most common mistake businesses make on a day-to-day basis. Yes, having great posters and producing cool merchandise for your brand are great investments to make, but have you applied the same approach to your letterheads? Or your retail space?

With web development, you always develop a killer website that pleases visitors before attracting traffic from various sources; why not do the same with your offline marketing efforts? Create a retail space that really represents your brand, incorporate brand elements across your assets (i.e. shipping labels, packaging, or business cards) and make sure you are ready for the exposure you get through offline marketing activities.

Freebies!

Freebies always work, especially when they are used as part of a bigger marketing campaign. Don’t use freebies to boost sales but use them to increase awareness and build brand loyalty. You can offer free T-shirts or a bonus cup of coffee to loyal customers. In turn, those customers will be even more loyal, knowing that you really appreciate their business and pay attention to the relationship you have with them.

The approach creates a more lasting effect. Sure, offering bonus items to boost sales is great, but offering freebies to loyal customers will result in a higher customer lifetime value and more return in the long run. There is also an added bonus to benefit from: loyal customers are more likely to recommend your brand (and your products) to other potential customers.
One more thing….

There is a big misconception about the unmeasurable nature of offline marketing. With online marketing, you can always measure the impact of every effort or activity. That’s not the case with offline marketing activities, but that doesn’t mean the impact of offline marketing cannot be measured entirely.

While you cannot get detailed insights as easily as you could with online marketing, there are still ways to constantly monitor, evaluate, and improve your offline marketing activities. It’s called paying attention. Surveys and marketing research aside, paying attention to the way customers react to your promotional offers or offline marketing activities says a lot about the campaign itself.

Paying attention to the customers will also lead to better use of offline marketing tools. If you see more customers using the custom lapel pins we talked about earlier, you know that they are very popular; you might want to produce more pins than T-shirts the next time you order goods for your brand. You can even observe the designs that work and stick to them.

Offline marketing and online marketing work great together. When you can combine the two marketing approaches seamlessly, you have all the tools you need to create a big impact. With these things about offline marketing covered, getting started with your own offline marketing campaigns is certainly easy to do.

Six Factors to Consider When Hiring Employees for the First Time

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Hiring Employees|Six Factors to Consider When Hiring Employees for the First TimeTaking on employees is a huge responsibility, particularly in smaller companies, where the employees that you hire can have a huge impact on business success. The effect that your hires have can be either positive or negative, so it’s important to choose wisely. And, taking on an extra pair of hands or more can boost company productivity and enable you to offer a wider range of services to your clients. Unfortunately, things going wrong means that you could run the risk of damaging crucial business relationships and massively losing out financially. The good news is that with the right preparation, you can prevent this from happening and get the most from hiring employees for your firm. Here’s an essential checklist of everything that you will need to do before taking on your first hire.

#1. Finding the Right Candidates:

Hiring the wrong person can lead to poor performance and damage to your small company with unnecessary training costs, wasted time and more. So, keep these tips in mind and improve your chance of getting it right the first time. Firstly, you should sit down and determine exactly what it is that you want your new employee to do. This will enable you to write a detailed job description and advert that will attract the best talent. Some key things to include are your company’s name, a job title, the salary, a description of the person required, a description of duties, and something about your company and what you do. And, your job advert should include a call to action – include clear details on how to apply, or a link to a page where your prospective candidate can start applying right away.

#2. Equal Opportunities:

Being an equal opportunities employer is more important than ever in today’s day and age. It is against the law for an employer to discriminate a person on the grounds of age, sex, race, marriage, disability, religion or sexual orientation. You should ensure that all stages of the application process are designed to treat everybody equally; make sure that job requirements do not include any marginal or unnecessary requirements that may exclude individuals due to these criteria.

#3. Employee Rights and Contracts:

Before a new employee begins working for you, it’s crucial that you make all the right preparations to ensure that they are able to work in an environment where their rights are understood and respected. You will need to collect necessary information, establish a contract, and ensure that you are aware of all the rights offered to employees. The contract that you draw up will cover the legal relationship between yourself and your employee, and should be drawn up once the offer of work is accepted. However, bear in mind that nothing needs to be written down for employee rights to exist; some come into effect from the moment that the offer is accepted, and others after the employee has been working for you for some time. Make sure that you have a solid understanding of basic employee rights and at which point during employment they will come into effect.

#4. Specific Rights:

Today, employees have a right not to be discriminated against in the workplace on the basis of sex, age, race, religion, disability or sexual orientation – these rights will come into effect from as soon as they accept your offer of employment. They also have a right to enjoy equal pay with the opposite sex, as long as it can be shown that they are doing work of equal value. Every employee is entitled to a notification of how their pay is made up, which is usually given in the form of a paycheck each month. And, employees have the right to not be unfairly dismissed during any period of their employment with you. Don’t forget that if employees become parents while working for you, they will be entitled to maternity or paternity leave. And, employees have the right to request flexible working conditions that should be taken into reasonable consideration.

#5. Insurance:

Once you start hiring employees, you’ll need to put more thought into the kind of insurance that you have to cover your company. Bear in mind that your regular liability insurance may not stretch as far as your employees, so it may be necessary for you to update your policy before bringing new hires on. Almost everybody who hires employees will require workers’ compensation insurance; this will keep both yourself and your employees covered in the event of an accident, injury, or illness that occurs as a result of work. The type of workers’ comp insurance that your company will require depends on the type of industry that you operate in. For example, the construction industry requires workers’ compensation at all times after hiring one or more employees, which includes the company owner. On the other hand, most businesses in the non-construction industry will require workers’ compensation after employing at least four members of staff. Check out this article to learn more about the workers’ comp requirements for employees in Florida.

#6. Freelancers and Contractors:

Last but not least, it’s becoming more and more commonplace for small businesses to save money by taking on freelancers and self-employed contractors, rather than full-time staff. However, there’s still plenty to think about – while workers’ comp might not be required in this situation, you will still likely be required to draw up a contract between yourself and the contractor to lay out exactly what is expected from both parties. Although this type of relationship is generally a lot more flexible compared to full-time employees, it’s still a wise idea to get everything down in writing so that disputes can be avoided further down the line. Make sure that you include their status as a contractor rather than an employee, and specific details about any project(s) that you have brought them in to work on.

Hiring employees is often a vital step towards growth for your small business, but make sure that you are fully prepared before you start.

The Advantages of Private Label Products

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Private Label Products|The Advantages of Private Label Products Private labeling allow companies to sell branded products manufactured by someone else. The item may have been produced by a third-party, but it carries your label and is sold under your packaging. It is a useful way of expanding a product range for minimal investment.

For example, if you run an agricultural business and your customers are interested in purchasing wetting agent chemicals, private label products allow you to focus your efforts on marketing while ensuring your customers receive top-quality goods from a more specialized manufacturer.

Supermarkets sell private label products under their own branding. In fact, in the US, supermarkets generate around 15% of their sales from private label products, as these items are often cheaper than well-known big brands.

If your business is considering investing in private label products, here is some pros behind offering private labeling.

Work with an Experienced Manufacturer

Private label manufacturers specialize in a particular niche. They have dedicated expertise and have invested considerable time and effort in developing a range of products that meet customer needs. Experienced manufacturers spend a lot of money on research and development, an investment that is beyond the reach of smaller retailers and companies.

Private label manufacturers such as AmegA Sciences supply private label products for agrochemical and specialty fertilizer sellers, and turf agent manufacturers. Agrochemicals are their area of expertise, which is a win-win for businesses in that niche. Working with an experienced private label manufacturer like this one who were established back in 1984 means you can take advantage of their expertise (and manufacturing utilities) in your chosen field. Instead of investing time and money in research and development, you can select the products you need and start marketing them immediately.

Reduced Unit Costs

Unit cost is very important. The more a unit costs, the tighter your profit margins are. Spending money researching and developing a new product is a risky endeavor. The product might never make it out of the R&D phase, which means you will have to write off the project. In addition, a competitor might pip you to the post and release a similar product to market before yours is out of the testing phase.

Buying private label products from a private label manufacturer is less risky and unit costs are usually cheaper. You can buy the exact number of products you need, which enables you to maintain a minimal inventory.

Instead of investing a lot of money in a product that might not sell, you can test customer demand with a small number of products. Once you are sure the product is a good fit for your customer base, you can begin saving money by placing bulk orders.

Sell Branded Products

The beauty of private label products is that you can sell products bearing your branded labels and packaging, which are still manufactured by a third-party. Using the previous example of AmegA Sciences, they often offer in-house design and printing services. Products can be customized and printed with bespoke labels and branding. This speeds up the manufacturing process and ensures your products are ready for market much faster.

For smaller businesses, utilizing private label manufacturing product branding is a cost-effective solution. Instead of paying a third-party or creating an in-house design and printing department, you can opt for product branding as part of the service. The sooner your private label products are ready for market, the quicker your business can start seeing a return on its investment.

Offer Greater Variety to Customers

Smaller businesses often don’t have the funds available to invest in extending a product range. Buying private label products from an experienced private label manufacturer makes extending a product range more cost-effective.

Since good private label manufacturers only operate B2B (and don’t compete with their customers B2C), they can offer a wide range of products and unique product customization options. By working with a private label manufacturer to produce products that fit your existing lines, you can expand your inventory for less and attract a new set of customers at the same time.

If you have identified an underserved niche in your marketplace, private label manufacturing is a smart way to test the market. Work with an experienced private label manufacturer to produce a customized product your customers want. You’ll enjoy excellent quality and fast turnaround times, which means you can expand your product range before your competitors have spotted the gap in the market.

Bulk-Buy Products

Having the option to bulk buy products is one of the many advantages of purchasing from a private label manufacturer. Bulk buying options minimize unit costs and there are often significant discounts available if you want to place a bulk order.

Establish a Unique Brand

Selling only big-brand products makes it hard for a company to stand out in the crowd. By developing a range of private label products, you can differentiate yourself from your competitors, which helps to build a unique brand.

Always work with an experienced private label manufacturer when producing private label products. That way you can build a strong reputation and a loyal customer base.

4 Tips for an Effective Enterprise Mobility Strategy

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The nature of the workforce is rapidly changing and this new wave of employees is not only getting accustomed to a mobile and agile workforce but are starting to actually expect it. And with the advent of the gig economy, being able to organize your mobile and increasingly global workforce is a priority.

Business leaders also have to change their leadership style in order to still be able to drive a sense of connection and community within their organization. There are also significant security issues that come from allowing your workforce to have uninterrupted data access from anywhere and from any device. Let’s take a look at the challenges workforce mobility presents and a few tips on how to implement an effective enterprise mobility strategy.

The Challenges

One of the biggest challenges of the mobile workforce is being able to maintain cohesive teamwork and a real connection between team members. More freedom and autonomy has a tendency to drive team members apart unless you take concrete steps to still maintain a sense of community. Co-location facilitates collaborative teamwork and innovation, so companies have to find a way to balance the needs of their employees with these core fundamentals.

A mobile workforce is inevitable and will become essential if you want to attract and keep employees. Not embracing enterprise mobility will also inhibit you from tapping into a global talent pool. Globalization equals dispersion and addressing these challenges should be central for any business leader today.

Let’s take innovation, for instance. We’ve always been told that teams need to work in close collaboration and take advantage of organic opportunistic interactions to drive creation. We’ve also been told that silos can stifle innovation and should be avoided at all costs. But is there are a way to still drive innovation with an increasingly decentralized lifeforce?

The answer is yes. By implementing a set of strategies and using the proper set of tools, it’s possible to create a virtual collaborative work environment that will work just as well as the traditional whiteboard. With the advent of new apps and agile frameworks, mobile collaboration is becoming easier by the minute. Let’s take a look at what it will take for you to organize your mobile workforce better while driving innovation, cohesiveness, and active collaboration.

Change your Communication Style

In order for a mobile work environment to work, you have to change your approach to communication. You have to let go of the “from the mountaintop” communication style and make sure that top to bottom communication becomes an integral part of any action and is always considered. You should start adopting a “snacking” communication style where you deliver steady, easy to digest bite-sized information with a steady cadence. This style works much better to keep your employees engaged and updated.

You’ll also have to start adopting new communication tools as well. Business leaders need to not only get accustomed to advanced communication tools like video, social media, and blogging, but they also have to enable their teams to use these same tools so that they can work and collaborate seamlessly wherever they are.

However, you have to still remember that personal interactions aren’t completely obsolete and are still very much needed. And even with globalization and dispersion, they can still be made possible.

For instance, MobileIron employs over 900 people from all over the world and operates from more than 100 locations. Their employees interact using Slack and other tools, which allows them to get a sense of proximity. But their Indian engineering staff still meet once a year in the Bay Area to interact and build connections.

They also make sure that their marketing teams on the field meet at least once per quarter for interactive strategy and planning sessions.

It is up to you as a leader to identify which teams would benefit from regular meetings in order to work better when they’re separate.

Listen to your Staff

One big mistake is assuming that the tools you like will also automatically resonate with your staff. While you might think that the tool you’re using is state of the art, it might be seen as completely outdated by your younger or more tech-savvy workforce, which could cause frustration among them. Thankfully, all of this can be avoided if you simply listen to them. Find out what tools they are using to fill in communication gaps and implement them. Do not try to shove old school solutions down their throat that might have been pushed on you by your current software vendor.

Streamline your Processes

With increasing dispersion, having clear and concise work processes becomes more important than ever. Don’t assume that old models will easily migrate to completely new work styles. They won’t. New working styles means new processes and you should start looking at a few Lean approaches that will provide you with a centralized management system with built-in collaboration and communication tools.

Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Help

Don’t be hesitant to ask your peers about the challenges they face and how they changed their mindset and approach. Ask about the tools they’ve been using and how they’ve been working for them.

You should also consider working with an enterprise workforce mobility management team that will help you analyze pain points in your organization, conduct risk assessments, functional requirements, and come up with an enterprise mobility management strategy that will empower your employees, while allowing you to keep control over information, content, security and device management; both at the personal and corporate level.

And don’t forget to always keep your employees in the loop as well. They are sometimes better positioned to give you advice on which new tools could be beneficial for your organization or discuss issues they might be facing. You’ll then be able to use their feedback to implement new solutions and continually improve processes.

Conclusion

As a business leader, you cannot afford to be left behind and retreat to outdated legacy approaches. Leaders who are successful in the future are those who will see this as an opportunity, not a problem. Embracing the mobile workforce is no longer a choice, but a necessity.