Starting a Hotel Business: A Guide

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |Hotel Business|Starting a Hotel Business: A GuideStarting and managing a hotel is a complex task which is not suited to every entrepreneur, but for some, it can be a lucrative and rewarding project with the opportunity for creativity alongside hospitality. A hotel business can be a stand-alone luxury villa, cottage or house, a large building with multiple rooms up to something more like a skyscraper with hundreds if not thousands of rooms. Regardless of the size of the venture, a hotel needs to be able to satisfy a variety of needs from catering to leisure as well as offering something unique so it can stand apart from its competitors.

Is the hotel business right for you?

On a day-to-day basis a hotel owner will be faced with a number of responsibilities ranging from hiring and managing staff, scheduling shifts, setting prices for rooms (including different rates for different days or seasons), paperwork, administration, financial management and continuing to research new ways to innovate and improve the hotel’s service. The hotel will also need to work with external service providers depending on the amenities on offer. For example, if the hotel has a pool, the owner may need to contract experienced water treatment specialists, or the hotel may need the services of a commercial laundry service for bedding and towels.

Many owners choose to hire a hotel manager to take on the everyday management of staff and looking after the guests.

The majority of people who start their own hotel business have some experience in the hospitality sector and are familiar with the potential problems they may run into. It’s also possible to study an MBA in hospitality management which equips people with essential business skills such as financial management and marketing.
Who is the target customer?

Broadly a hotel could target any traveler who needs a place to stay, but the most successful will target their offering to a specific demographic. This may be influenced by the location of the hotel. For example, if the hotel is in a rural setting, it could seek to attract couples or families looking for a relaxing and homely retreat. If the hotel is in the middle of a busy city center, it may be better suited to business professionals or groups. It could even offer conferencing facilities, which could be an additional revenue stream.

How much does it cost to start a hotel business?

Whether you are opening a large hotel with many hundreds of rooms or a smaller hotel with just a few rooms, you need to have a substantial amount of hotel financing capital behind you to get things off the ground. The cost of the land and buildings will be substantial as will the furniture and equipment needed, but these will vary widely depending on the size of the venture, so it is almost impossible to estimate.

Is a hotel business a good investment for the future?

With newer platforms like Airbnb hitting the market, there is a concern that traditional hotels will drop in popularity. While there is an appeal for some travelers looking for a more ‘authentic’ or intimate travel experience, hotels still hold a lot of appeal for people who prefer don’t want to stay in the homes of strangers or with hosts which aren’t regulated by corporate structure.

How Good Is Your Website?

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, How Good Is Your Website?Understanding whether or not a website is any good can be a real challenge. Not only are a lot of factors which dictate this completely hidden from normal people, but they are also complicated and hard to understand. To help you out with this, this post will be exploring some of the areas which you need to consider the most, along with some tools which can help you to get an idea of how well you’re going in each of them. Of course, though, you also have to do some work alongside this, ensuring that your site is in the best possible shape.

Security

Security has always been an important feature on a website, though privacy laws have increased over the last few years and this has made this field even more crucial. You need to have SSL on your site as a minimum, with options like firewalls, bot/spam detectors, and anti-malware tools all helping, too. You don’t have to spend much to make a site secure, and there are loads of sites around the web which can be used to scan your security.

Speed

Along with security, it’s also wise to consider speed when you’re thinking about the value of your site. Users won’t stick around if they have to wait too long for pages to load, often leaving if the pages hang for more than a second or two. Tools like GTMatrix can be used to check your website speed, and will give you loads of suggestions which can help you to improve your current position. A big part of this revolves around your content, with large images and videos slowing down a site more than anything else.

SEO

Having people find your website will only be possible if you have the right SEO. Not only do you need to make sure that you are working on this are regularly, but you also need to ensure that you have the right foundations in place. SEObility is a great site for this, providing you with a detailed analysis of the state of your site’s SEO with the push of a button. You have to pay for this, but it will be worth it to improve your SEO.

User Experience

Finally, as the last area to consider, it’s time to think about user experience. There’s no point in working hard on a website if your users are going to have a bad time on it. You can use a website worth and domain value calculator to start this journey, and this will give you an idea of what your site will appear to be worth to your customers. Along with this, though, it will also help to give tests to real people, and this can be done on social media.

With all of this in mind, you should be feeling ready to get started on the work you put into figuring out whether or not you have a good website. A lot of people struggle with this sort of work, finding it hard to know how to figure out the value of their site.

How To Overcome These 3 Common Business Obstacles

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Obstacles|How To Overcome These 3 Common Business ObstaclesNew businesses face several challenges, from financial difficulties to issues affecting brand reputation. As a business owner, it is vital that you have procedures in place to help you overcome these obstacles, to ensure that your business continues to grow and be a success. With this in mind, here are three common business obstacles and how you can overcome them.

1. Brand reputation

Brand reputation plays a vital role in the growth and success of any business. In this digital age, customer feedback travels fast, and many people rely heavily on the reviews of other consumers when making purchasing decisions. Often, new businesses lack the experience of more established companies, and this can lead to issues such as slow order fulfillment or delays in response times. If you find that your business has received some negative feedback or reviews, then it’s crucial that you take action straight away to resolve any issues. Here are some top tips to help you restore your brand reputation:

  • Respond to any written complaints on your social media sites straight away and publically. Doing so will allow potential customers to see that you are dealing with any customer issues quickly and providing a good level of service.
  • Focus on providing the best customer experience possible. Be honest with your customers and never promise more than you can deliver.
  • Consider installing customer support technology like life chat software. It can be used to provide your customers with instant 24/7 support with any queries.
  • Offer customer loyalty schemes to demonstrate that you value their business. This should also encourage valuable repeat business and referrals.

2. Debt

Most businesses require some form of funding in order to get up and running. Unfortunately, some businesses find themselves in debt and unable to make repayments. This can be due to a number of issues, such as unexpected financial emergencies or poor cash flow management. Try to avoid this by only ever borrowing as much money as you can afford to pay back and having a clear plan in place to make the repayments. If you find yourself having issues with debt collectors, then make sure that you seek legal advice to help you fight lawsuits over debt. It is important that you understand what options you have available to you in this situation and take the best course of action to help protect your business in the long-run.

3. Cash flow

The Telegraph mentions the importance of cash flow, with a large percentage of small businesses failing because of cash flow issues. It is vital that you manage your cash flow effectively and monitor your finances regularly, to ensure that you are sticking to your cash flow budget. Always keep in mind that if your business expenses are more than your income, then you have a cash flow problem. You, therefore, need to manage your spending carefully and look for ways to cut expenses to give your cash flow budget more flexibility. Make sure that you take advantage of accounting and management software that can help you manage your cash flow and finances more efficiently. Finally, you should always store important documents like cash flow spreadsheets in the cloud, so that you can access them remotely from anywhere.

Tech Talk: Server Types

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |Rack Servers|Tech Talk: Server TypesWhen it comes to the world of data centres there is one clear battle emerging and this is between rack servers and blade servers. Unfortunately there is no evident winner when it comes to selecting between the two. There are evident advantages and disadvantages associated with both options and it largely depends on you and your requirements.

So, let’s begin by defining what each type of server is…

Rack servers – A rack server is often also referred to as a rack mount server. In essence, it is a standard sized network that has been designed so that it can be mounted to rack frame infrastructure or a data centre server cabinet.
Blade servers – A blade server is often described as a stripped down version of the former. This type of server is absent of an array of components found within standard rack servers.

By merely assessing the definitions of both options you have probably already picked up on one main advantage a blade server has over a standard rack server. This is the fact that it makes much better utilisation of space. Data centres using blade servers have the possibility to reach optimal efficiency on this front. You can find more information on this website about the sort of tech businesses that have these key decisions to make.

Nevertheless, one of the main disadvantages associated with blade servers is that the start-up costs are a lot larger in comparison to other options. This can present a significant problem for businesses who are just starting up and therefore do not have the luxury of a large budget. The reason why blade servers tend to cost more in the beginning is because you will require some initial infrastructure which is not needed with any other type of server, such as the chassis.

Another issue a lot of people have noted is that blade servers are somewhat limited when it comes to I/O expansion options. This is because there is a lack of expansion slots. This expansion limitation is also represented in terms of disk drives (most are limited to two or four internal hard drives) and PCI/PCI Express slots. You don’t experience any of these issues when it comes to rack servers as they are very expandable.

However, one problem which does come your way if you opt for rack servers is cable management. It can be somewhat tricky to keep everything organised because you will have a wealth of different cables to keep under control. There are lots of products available for cable management to help you with this. But when it comes to blade servers the confusion and clutter is minimised substantially.

Finally, another advantage associated with blade servers is the fact that easier integration can be possible because of the fact that a blade enclosure utilises a single power supply. This of course further represents efficiency in terms of power usage. You may find that you have an opportunity to lower your costs and even improve your data centre in terms of eco-friendliness.

It is quite easy to see that there are pros and cons associated with both rack servers and blade servers. The decision you make all depends on your data centre requirements and what is more important to you. For instance, if space is a massive issue then you will more than likely want to go for blade servers.

How to Create Strategy-Driven Branding for Your Business

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Branding|How to Create Strategy-Driven Branding for Your BusinessCreating strategy-driven branding is a matter of creating marketing materials that are simple, easy to remember, and effective. Creating a great logo, however, is only just the beginning. You need to be strategic about where your branding is found, and think about how you can use your branding as more than just an image. You can create a movement surrounding your brand by making your company into something of a cult object. Not every business will be appropriate for such a move, but every business can benefit from using these steps to improve their branding and marketing efforts.

Create a Brand Identity

First things first, you need to either create or remake your brand identity. A brand identity is comprised of a few key components:

Logo

Your logo needs to be easy to recognize, simple, and it needs to have the ability to stand out. Consider some of the top brands today, and the logos that they use. Their logos are, in most cases, so recognizable that brands can use just the logo on their advertising.

Personality

The brand personality you use will be how you speak. How you sound in advertisements, social media, on calls, and on your on-site copy.

Design

Take your logo and your personality and choose design elements like symbols, colors, fonts, and more that will work as a way to reinforce your brand.

Packaging

Put the design onto packaging and make it beautiful. You can sell a lot off the shelves with beautiful packaging, and you might even be able to benefit from social media marketing if customers feel compelled to photograph your product and its box.

Store Design

If you run a physical store, then it’s time to work out how well it is designed. Start first with the layout. Ensure it is easy for multiple people to get through the layout, ensure it encourages as much organic browsing as possible, and then figure out what design elements you can add to really make your store pleasant to be in.

Work On Providing a Clear Workplace Culture

A clear workplace culture can help in many ways. It can help boost the workflow and efficiency of your business. It can also give your employees the groundwork on how to behave so that your customers can enjoy a familiar, professional experience every time they visit.

Ethos

Your company ethos is the goal you have for your workplace culture. It is the expectation that everyone needs to follow. It could be hard work and great laughs, for example, to promote a workplace culture that is productive and enjoyable to be in. By deciding on an ethos, everyone knows better what to expect and can work together to make your workplace culture goals into a reality.

Teamwork Building

You don’t want friends working together. You want a team working together. Investing in teamwork building will give everyone a basis on how to behave so that work can get done, ideas can be challenged, and collaboration can thrive without fights.

Team Unity

Team unity is fundamental when it comes to building up a strong and healthy working culture. There are so many ways you can do this as well. If your business deals with animals, for example, a kennel or a groomer, then you can treat all of your employees to an animal lover’s license plate frames. These custom license plate frames suit all types of professions and can give your employees a sense of community that is personalized to them.

Adapt and Tweak Your Brand

It’s okay if you don’t get your brand identity right off the bat. The goal is to create branding and then tweak it as you go. This way you can use what works and discards what fell flat, both for your customers and your employees. It’s how you will create a uniform, quality company that everyone will enjoy.

The Take Away

You want your customers to recognize your brand instantaneously and to feel like your company is familiar no matter who they interact with or which store they visit. It’s what makes fast food restaurants so successful, especially to those who are traveling. A guest to a food chain can expect the same quality of food and service as they would get anywhere. This is how you build brand loyalty and repeat business.

Accomplishing such a feat means using the right design, and instilling the right company culture so that all of your employees work well together and can provide your customers with the same professional experience.