4 Ways to Make Your SME More Professional

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Professional Appearance | 4 Ways to Make Your SME More ProfessionalWhether you have a full-sized office and plethora of staff, or you’re still working from your bedroom and nothing more than a laptop, you want your business to look and feel as big as possible. Even if your social media marketing team is your tech-savvy niece and your warehouse manager is your spouse boxing up a product, there are still ways that you can make your business look and feel bigger than it is. If you’re looking to exude a more professional business persona, then here are some of the easiest and most cost-effective ways of adding that much-needed touch of professionalism to your SME.

Focus on the Digital

If you’re working from a small room, then your digital presence is going to be where you need to make the best first impression. Website design can get very complicated very quickly, so if you lack the skills, then it’s imperative that you source them. Whether that’s through friends or a professional will depend on your budget, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that a free template from WordPress of Wix is going to be enough.

While you may get a slick looking theme, you’ll be lumbered with a web address that ends with wordpress.com or wix.com.

This is not a professional look. It’s also increasingly vital that you have a presence on social media, but don’t panic about registering with them all. Stick to the two that are most relevant for your brand and sector. Make sure that you know how to conduct yourself professionally online, and remember that your digital marketing will be reliant on your ability to create engaging content.

Payments and Paperwork

Efficiency is the key to appearing to be larger and more professional. No matter how small your business might be, make sure that you use free online estimate templates when potential customers need a pricing quote and use similarly themed invoice templates as well. Not only does this make you look more professional, but it also makes it much easier to keep your paperwork in order, and that can help to increase productivity and reduce workflow interruptions.

You should also make it a priority to ensure that all quotes and invoices are sent promptly and that your bills are paid quickly as well.

Word of mouth can damage a business of any size, and a poor history of not paying your suppliers on time will only hinder your ability to perform. Use software to manage your accounts more easily, and make sure that you have a constantly updated calendar to ensure that you know when bills are expected so that you’re not hit by the unexpected.

Improve your Address

If you’re using a home office, then you need to make sure that your business is not negatively affected. Residential business addresses might not be the deciding factor that makes or breaks your venture, but it can have an impact. Ideally, you want a more established address, and there are a variety of options available.

The rise of the managed office space has been very positive for SMEs, and even if you only use the space on occasion, many now allow you to use their premises as your business address.

This is not only better for you in terms of first impressions; it also means that you will have somewhere professional to meet with prospective customers or suppliers. The majority of managed offices are based in cities, meaning that you also get the benefit of a city center address without the expense of your own dedicated office rental.

Dress the Part

It’s not just about wearing a suit and tie (not every SME is going to need that), it’s about presenting your brand to the outside world so that you make the best first impression. While this is vital for your website, it also extends to peripheral elements as well. If you pull up to meet with a prospective client in a suit and tie but in a car that spills rubbish onto the road when you open the door, then you have forever lost the chance to make a good first impression.

Make sure that you focus on the details. Phone calls need to be answered politely and professionally, and you might even consider hiring a remote, virtual receptionist to make your business seem even larger.

The key to appearing more professional is to know what customers are looking for from you. However, get the basics right in terms of first impressions, and you will instantly seem a more dynamic and professional business.

Running an SME can be fraught with challenges and stress, but the people that your business interacts with should never feel that you are struggling. It’s all about having the foundations in place. Get your professionalism looking bigger, brighter, and more on brand than your competitors, and you stand a much better chance of attracting the profits that you need to thrive.

Signs You’re In The Wrong Job

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It happens to all of us from time to time: you wake up one day to find that you are suddenly in the wrong job, and maybe have been for a long time. It is always disconcerting when that happens, and can actually be extremely worrying if you feel stuck and you don’t know what to do. But it does happen to everyone probably at least once or twice in their life, and by itself it is not necessarily a problem that you need to be concerned about. The thing to be concerned about is knowing whether or not it is just a pang, or whether you really do need to start thinking about getting another job. In this post, we are going to take a look at some of the clear-as-day signs that you might be in the wrong job. If you spot any of these, then you know it might be time to move on to something better.

StrategyDriven Professional Development Article | Wrong Job | Signs You're In The Wrong Job
 
It’s Making You Sick

This is one of those signs that you absolutely can’t ignore. It is one of the most serious too, and it’s something that you will definitely want to think about paying attention to should it becomes obvious that it is happening. If it gets to a point where your work is actually making you sick, then you will find that there is no clearer indication in the world that it is time to move on to a better job. But the question of course is how to know that it is the job making you sick, and not just that you are getting sick generally. You should be able to tell if, for instance, you tend to feel unwell when you have been working a lot, and then better on your days off. It might be as simple as the stress getting the better of you. That is a sign that you should really think about moving on.

Or it might even be more serious than that. Sometimes, you will get sick from a job because of the company’s poor approach to health and safety. This, again, is a real red flag, and one which you should wave to other people too, to help warn them of the company in question. At the extreme end of the scale, you might be working for a business that allows asbestos to be in use, and you could develop something as serious as cancer. If that does happen, you should be able to find a firm that handles claims of all sizes of this kind, and hopefully get what you are owed. But it is definitely a sign that nobody should be working for that company.

Sometimes it is a smaller infraction, but still something that shows that you should go elsewhere. For instance, if there is a constant attitude towards health which you find is making you a little sicker, then you should think about moving on to another job soon enough. As long as you are paying attention to these signs, you will hopefully move on before you get too ill, so that at least it doesn’t affect you all that much in the long run.

StrategyDriven Professional Development Article | Wrong Job | Signs You're In The Wrong Job
 
You Dread Going In

We’ve all been in that one job where we absolutely dreaded going into work. This is a horrible feeling to have, and if you do have it you should take it as a very clear sign that it is time to change jobs. Of course, you should wait it out a little first, to make sure that it is not just a temporary thing. These times can happen, and you are unlikely to be in love with your job every day of your life. But if you find that a feeling of dread persists, then it is no use remaining in that work – you should feel free to take yourself out of it as soon as you possibly can. Make sure that you identify what it is that you dread about it, however. If you are not entirely sure, you could end up accidentally recreating the same situation in another job, whereas if you are aware of what it is that is making you miserable, you can make a point of avoiding that as best as you can in the future too. That will lead to a much better quality of life.

StrategyDriven Professional Development Article | Wrong Job | Signs You're In The Wrong Job
 
You Complain About It

You might have noticed that you have started to talk more and more about what is wrong with your job, or that you are even just complaining about it in your head. These are signs too which should not be ignored. Probably the clearest indicator is if your friends say to you that you have been complaining about your work non-stop, especially if you didn’t even realize up to that point. When that happen, that can be an incredibly alarming situation, and it can really have a way of stopping you dead in your tracks. Once you notice just how often you complain, you can be sure that you are soon enough going to want to change jobs – and it is much better to put your energy into doing that, rather than the act of complaining itself, as much as you possibly can. Complaining is an indicator, but it’s not healthy to dwell in it too much, so make sure that you are able to get yourself out of it wherever that might be necessary.

You Dream Of Something Else

One of the more positive signs you can have is that you are constantly dreaming of doing something else for a living. This is one of the better indicators for the simple fact that it means you have a clear direction to move in. If you have a specific role in mind that you would just love to do, then you know that that is probably what you should aim for, and it makes sense to do so as soon as possible. The less time you waste on a job you don’t love, the better your life will be, so make sure that you are paying attention to yourself should you start to dream about another job in this way.

What To Consider When Moving To A Home Office

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Home Office|What To Consider When Moving To A Home Office There are many appealing reasons to work from home when you run a business, and just because you initially chose to run the business from an office elsewhere, that doesn’t mean that you can’t come home if you want to. In fact, since it can save you money and make you more productive, it is something that many business owners are thinking about.

What will you need to consider if you decide to move your business to a home office rather than an external one? At first, you might not think there is much to consider at all, but when you start to work out how to get it done, you’ll realize there are a number of things to take into account.

Is There Room?

Moving from a reasonably sized office space to a home office could be difficult due to the space needed. If you look at what space you have available now, and what space will be available when you move home, is there much difference? If not then this point won’t be something that needs to concern you, but if the room you intend to use at home is much smaller, you will have to work out where everything will go.

Something that can work well is searching for The Lock Up Self Storage near you and putting some of your files and documents or even equipment in there until you have organized your workspace correctly. That way you won’t be delayed and neither will you be cramped.

Is There Somewhere To Go?

As well as knowing that you have the physical space you need, do you have a room that can be used properly as an office? Moving from an external office building to a home office can be quite an adjustment. You need to ensure that you have enough space to work, simply sitting to the kitchen table or in the corner of your bedroom is not a good alternative option to an office. It will be difficult to concentrate, and you might not be as productive as you would be if you had a dedicated room.

Where Will Guests Go?

Not everyone is going to be comfortable with visitors to the business coming to a home address. Although working from home is something that many people do, there is still something of a stigma when it comes to having meetings with colleagues, suppliers, or clients.

Where, then, will you have these meetings if not in your home office? Where is the nearest appropriate space you can use? You can choose to hire a dedicated office space with a meeting room, or you could go to a café or coffee shop, for example.

The Physical Move

Finally, even if everything else is organized and you are sure you are ready to move offices, how are you going to do it? Will you need a specialist mover to bring items to you, or could you hire a van and do it yourself? How long will it take and what kind of disruption will it bring to your business?

This is certainly something that will need to be considered as picking the right time to move is just as important as moving in the first place – using up vacation time or a weekend could work better than midweek, depending on your line of business.

11 Experts That Can Help Your Startup Soar

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |Successful Business|11 Experts That Can Help Your Startup SoarSo you’ve had an idea for a long time and you’ve finally decided to give it a real go. You’ve spent long enough thinking ‘what if’ and grinding away at a job you hate or those textbooks you’ve exhausted, and you’re ready to turn into a tangible project.

Starting up a business, whilst a freeing and exciting process, is a feeling of being dropped into the deep end. You may have learned a lot about it in your school days, but once you’re out there trying to make something out of nothing, it’s like starting all over again – you can learn all the theory in the world, but when it comes to actually putting it into practice, the real world can throw up some surprises.

In life you’re not going to know everything, you’re going to be limited in some aspects and you’re going to need some assistance. The same applies to when you’re attempting to start and maintain a successful business. In order to find even a bit of success, you’re going to need a bunch of facets to be operating smoothly, and a way to solidify that is to get the appropriate help that can get you off the ground or over the line. Let’s have a little chat about the different types of help you can solicit and how it can benefit you as you look to make real strides in the world of business.

An Accountant

When you’re up and running, you’re obviously going to be bringing in quite a bit of money. Handling the money side of things can be a little tricky – even if you’re quite competent already. Hiring an accountant would be beneficial to you as you can let them deal with the nitty-gritty bits that may be concerning you whilst you get on with the work you know how to do. They won’t just help you in terms of doing their initial job, you can also pick up pieces of information and wisdom off of them for future reference.

An Assistant

If you’re in need of an extra body to lighten the load, you can absolutely bring someone in to work with you. There are many people out there trained in admin; they can handle the basic, tedious and necessary formalities that you need to get out of the way. Nowadays, you can look online and find a virtual assistant to help you – even from the other side of the world.

A Copywriter

If you need someone to write content for your website or anything like that, then you could get in touch with a copywriter. They place your content on your page so that you can get on with everything else. They also do blog posts with appropriate links that can boost search engine optimization. The content on emails is another way in which they provide service.

A Graphic Designer

If you’re not too versed in creating logos, heading and other fancy design on different pieces of software, then you can always find an artistic graphic design whiz. The stuff they can conjure up these days is magical and if you need someone to make a near perfect and stunning design for you, then you can get one of these guys/gals.

A Marketer

There are people out there who live and breathe marketing. They know all there is to know about promoting products and services. They also know how best to build relationships with customers so that the brand stays in their minds. If you work with someone like this, they will create a strategy for you and execute it all.

A Social Media Expert

Social media is a huge part of life now – for better or for worse. You can take a product or service and get its name out there relatively simply thanks to some of the platforms. There are people out there that specialize in the way social media operates and the way in which people behave. It’s quite as hard-hitting or as broad as getting in someone whose expertise spans throughout the entire marketing and digital marketing spectrum, but this specialist could help you score big points in terms of exposure.

An SEO Specialist

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It’s basically a way of making sure your website is soon on search engines like Google. It’s done by a bunch of ways, including inputting relevant and quality content and link building. If you want your brand to be seen more and more, then hiring local SEO experts could put you on the right path.

A Consultant

You’ve probably thought about every little nook and cranny that goes into your start-up. But like we’ve said before, you won’t perfect it, and there’s always something that can be added to it or something that can be improved upon. That’s where a business consultant can come in. Even if a certain aspect isn’t exactly wrong or failing, they can approach it from another angle and provide a little more insight for you.

A Lawyer

There will be a lot of legal stuff that you need to sort out when you run a business. The law can be a confusing and messy world at times, so getting in touch with a corporate lawyer wouldn’t be a stupid thing to do. They can help you set up the business without any legal issues, and they can also help you sort out things like contracts.

A Sales Specialist

If you’re not exactly the best salesman/saleswoman in the world, then there’s always someone out there who with a smooth and charming demeanour ready to help close out deals. Someone who has worked in sales for years will know everything there is to know about getting a deal or a sale over the line.

A Customer Service Firm

Finally, you can outsource this aspect of the job to a firm that’s dedicated to it entirely. You’ll want your customers to be taken care of when they have problems or when they need to inquire about something. Certain firms deal with stuff like emails and chatbots.

Easy Ways for you to Boost your Overall Website Traffic

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Website Traffic|Easy Ways for you to Boost your Overall Website TrafficIf you have a site then you will know how important it is for you to keep your incoming traffic as high as possible. After all, the more traffic you have, the more likely you are to get customers and this can be one of the defining parameters of a successful site.

Focus on Advertising

Paid search and even social media advertising are brilliant ways for you to attract more visitors. They give you the chance to build your brand and you can also get your site out there in front of more people. Every paid channel that you use will come with its own pros and cons, so understanding and defining your strategy is crucial here. If you are hopeful that getting more traffic will boost your sales, then one thing that you need to do is target popular commercial keywords. This can be expensive, but the results are well worth it.

Get on Social Media

In this day and age, producing great content is just not enough. You need to be proactive and you also need to get your site out there in front of the right audience. Social media is a fantastic way for you to do this. If you want to get some additional help, then Twitter is ideal for posts that are short and snappy. Google+ promotions however are more suited to B2B niches.

Mix things Up

Unfortunately, there is no magic formula when it comes to marketing. If you want to get the best result out of your efforts, then you need to make your content seem appealing to as many people as possible. Try and post longer articles, shorter ones and even video content too. When you do this, you will be fulfilling a plethora of search criteria and you will also be able to hit a lot of different target demographics too.

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Website Traffic|Easy Ways for you to Boost your Overall Website TrafficWrite Brilliant Headlines

Headlines are quite possibly the most important part of any search criteria. If you do not have compelling headlines then there is a high chance that your blogs will never get read. In order to help yourself, come up with several headlines and then ask people’s opinions on them. You can also play around by using different buzz words too. When you do this, you will soon find that getting traffic is easier than ever before.

On-Page SEO

SEO is so important. If your content is not optimised for search engines, then there is a high chance that your customers will never see it. Think about it, are you using your alt text to your advantage? Are you adding metadata properly? What about internal links? By taking all of this into account, you can be sure to really rocket the traffic that your site gets while boosting your overall company professionalism too. If you are stuck as to what types of meta tags to use then there are plenty of guides out there that can help.

Long-Tail Keywords

If you have your high-intent keywords covered, it’s then time for you to work on your long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords really do account for a huge number of internet searches. If you are not using them as part of your paid search, then you are missing out.

Consider Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is now more prevalent than ever. Securing a guest post on just one reputable site can work wonders for your traffic and it can also help you to build your brand too. Be warned though, because some of the regulations for guest blogging have changed over the last few years and if you use spammy tactics then this can result in a penalty.

Invite Others

Guest blogging is a somewhat two-way street. When you post content to other blogs, you then invite people to try and post on yours. If you are able to do this, then they may even bring new readers to your site and this can be the start of a fruitful relationship. When you are creating your posts, you have to make sure that you post high quality and original content. If you don’t then Google will find out and your site, and even the other person’s site will be penalised as a result.

Referral Traffic

If you want other people to link to you then this is great. You shouldn’t be spending most of your time trying to persuade them to do this however. The main reason for this is because it is a time-consuming process and the outcome might not be as successful as you’d like. So how do you get around this? One thing that you need to do is try and create content that begs to be linked to. You need to write posts that people can’t resist sharing and ones that people would be proud to post to their site. When you do this, you will soon find that it is easier than ever for you to get more traffic.

Post to LinkedIn

LinkedIn has become much more powerful over the last few years. If you want to make the most out of your traffic, then you need to post regular content on there. This will help you to boost your site traffic and it will also help you to increase your overall profile. If you have a B2B business then this will certainly help you out because LinkedIn is one of the main sites for this type of marketing.

Microdata

Implementing microdata won’t boost the traffic to your site on its own. It will however make it much easier for search engine bots to find and even index your pages. You should also consider having a site map on your page. When you do this, you will make it much easier for the search engines to crawl your site and you may even find that you can boost your website traffic as a result. This is free to do as well, so if you are on a budget then it is well worth checking out this method.