Four Ways to Overhaul Your Company Website

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | Four Ways to Overhaul Your Company WebsiteIf your company’s been around for a while, it’s likely that your website has been, too. If that’s the case, you may well find that design trends, features and styles have moved on from the point at which you dusted off your finished site. The web design world moves fast – and consumer attention moves faster. If customers arrive on your website to the impression that you’ve not updated it for a number of years, they’ll instantly judge you for it. You’ll lose business as a result. As such, here are four ways to overhaul your website in favor of something a little more snazzy, modern and sleek.

Rebrand

While this is not necessarily a web-based overhaul, it is something you should consider if you’re in any case about to entirely change your website’s appearance. A rebrand will echo through-out your website, and as such it’s best to cover both a rebrand and a web redesign at the same time, in the same cohesive process. Get your design team on it immediately, or outsource to de-sign professionals who’ll help you achieve your vision.

Hosting Platforms

The very base – the foundation – of your website is its hosting platform. If you’re about to go through an overhaul, it’s certainly worth considering whether you ought to change hosting providers at the same time. In recent years, cloud hosting has become particularly favored in the web design world – something that you’ll not be using in your current legacy website.

Restructuring

Many companies are so used to their existing website that they fail to recognize some glaring failures in terms of its structural layout. Even if there are no failures per se, the gold standard for webpage and site map layout is always changing, which means your website is almost certainly behind the curve, confusing web users and alienating potential custom. When you overhaul your website, be sure to restructure it in such a way as to smooth all click-throughs and open up pathways for your traffic to pass easily through.

Redesigning

Now it comes to the more visual side of your site’s revamp. Here, you’ll want to go with some of the most exciting design trends to be taking place in 2019. Mini-animations, activated by the scroll function, have become something of a dominant trend for websites in the past year, and continue to dominate the ecosystem for businesses aiming to look ultra-modern and super-slick. Engage with these trends visually in order to bask in the admiration of your site’s visitors.

A Word of Warning

While website overhauls are incredibly important in order to keep your business modern and functional online, you shouldn’t erase your old web pages until you’re sure that your new and revamped website is entirely bug-free. A second word of warning: be sure to bear in mind that repeat customers may be shocked by a very different website appearing when they go to visit yours. Take steps to reassure these customers, and to keep some consistency with the old de-sign.

These four tips – and brief words of warning – should help you conduct a thorough overhaul of your company’s website, updating your appearance and functionality for the trends that are dominating 2019.

How Business Coaching Can Boost Your Profits

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Business Coach | How Business Coaching Can Boost Your ProfitsIn addition to all the practical aspects of running a business, entrepreneurs are also human beings with problems just like everyone else. These issues may start to affect how well you run your business, or make it hard for you to see where you’re going wrong and what you need to do to correct it. This weakness can become a new business venture for yourself if you take up coaching on the side.
Business coaching is about combining the analysis of the business and how well it’s performing with an appraisal of a client’s thought processes, beliefs, and emotions, and then discovering how one is affecting the other. Sometimes business owners are their own worst enemies, and by pointing out the effect their actions are having a business coach can make a tremendous difference to their personal happiness as well as their profitability.

Accounts analysis

Most accountants will go through accounts at least to some degree with their clients, explaining what the figures mean and how well the business is performing overall. However, as a coach you could be doing far more. Accounting software can produce such detailed and precise reports and forecasts that it’s a waste not to make use of them. You can spot where prices should be changed to maximize profits, lines to drop, lines to expand, and a wealth of valuable information that would increase profitability quite significantly. Rather than just filing your completed accounts, a good business coach could dig deeper into the data and show them where they could be taking action to reduce costs and increase net profits.

Marketing advice

Business owners often struggle with the marketing side of their business. They might have a great product at a perfect price, and still be making little in the way of profit because no-one knows they exist. There are so many elements involved in running a successful marketing campaign, and the tactics that would be best for one business may not be as effective as for another. A good business coach can combine the analysis of a client’s accounts with a forecast illustrating the potential benefits of making changes to your marketing strategy.

Time management

Managing time is critical if you’re to maximize the influence you have on the fundamental workings of your business. It’s not always easy to see where you’re wasting time in your own daily routine, but as a business coach can spot all the ways in which your client could gain time and avoid spending it on tasks they don’t need to.

For example, if they are managing their own website maintenance and backups, as a coach you could point out the advantages of using a managed hosting service like Onyx.io, which would free your client from the bind of performing routine tasks like backing up their site, as well as improving the security. Identifying how they can manage their day more efficiently could not only save them a great deal of time, but improve their working life, as they will be able to focus their attention on more interesting issues like marketing campaigns.

A good business coach is one that helps support a business’ process and its people, making it a very profitable career to get into.

How to Keep Your Business Sustainable

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No matter which industry you are running your business in, you will need to ensure that you are offering more value or lower costs than your competitors to protect your market share. At the same time, you have to protect your reputation and ensure that you are making long term plans, instead of simply focusing on surviving from one month to the next. There are certain areas you will have to pay attention to to guarantee sustainable growth in your business.

Keep Up with the Regulations

One of the main risks for your business is related to regulatory and legal changes. If you don’t stay on top of the latest law and have a legal expert to monitor the changes, you might face fines, or even have to close your business down. In case you run a business with a high environmental impact, you might consider installing a ground water monitoring system to ensure you are not putting communities at risk or breaking the law.

Increase Your Research and Development Budget

It might also be a good idea to do your research and invest in the latest technology, or you will be left behind by your competitors. Investing in improving your efficiency and productivity will help you create more value to your customers and maintain your reputation. From software to the latest tools, there are various areas you can spend your research and development budget on.

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Sustainable Business | How to Keep Your Business Sustainable Delegate

If you are trying to control or even micromanage every process in your organization, you are going to get overwhelmed very soon. That is why you might want to create a plan to delegate some of the tasks, so you can focus on strategy development and other aspects of your business that will make a long term difference.

Nurture Your Talent

One of your most valuable talents apart from your reputation is the talent pool and your employees. If you look after them, you will be able to offer better quality services and products to your market, and reduce your recruitment and human resource costs. If you would like to run your business in the most effective way, you will have to nurture your talent and focus on organizational learning and knowledge sharing.

Keep an Eye on the Trends

It is absolutely crucial that you look into the future and spot the customer and market trends as soon as possible. Industries, technologies, and market trends change faster than ever before, and this means that you have to be a leader instead of a follower to win the game. Invest in business intelligence and market research, ask your current clients for feedback, and run trials before launching a new product.

There is a lot of talk about business sustainability these days. You might automatically think about green investments, but it actually means much more. Focus on your long term goals and the market trends, invest in new technologies and talent development, and you can remain competitive for decades to come.

Do You Have A Network Infrastructure In Place?

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Network Infrastructure | Do You Have A Network Infrastructure In Place?Networks have become integral to businesses. Nearly every single company uses some form of a network. It doesn’t matter whether these businesses are large companies or small startups. As long as the use of technology is evident, then the need for a network is there.

Just think about how many computers are used around the world today. Technology has a place at the core of all business activities nowadays. As soon as a company has more than one computer in their premises the need for a network arises. After all, they need to have a channel of communication. This is so common files can be shared, whether they be different software applications, client files, or databases. It is unfeasible to manually implement everything on to one computer one by one. This would take forever and the process would need to be repeated constantly. And then you must think about networking on a different scale, such as through outsourcing. This requires some form of network capacity so that you can work together and join forces with an outside source.

Quite frankly, if you don’t have a network infrastructure in place then you are dramatically halting the progress of your business and putting huge stumbling blocks in the way for your growth. However, if you do have an effective and well thought out network infrastructure you can reap mass rewards. This will bring a lot of benefits to your business.

One of the main benefits your business will experience through using a network infrastructure and investing in network support is an increased level of communication. This will see your productivity levels soar as your staff will be able to communicate more efficiently with one and other and get tasks completed at a faster rate. This communication also relates to the dialogue between your business and your suppliers and customers. All in all, because information is being shared more efficiently your business runs a lot more smoothly. Problems will be resolved quickly and any queries will be answered at a rapid pace.

You can also benefit from cost efficiency as well. After all, it is much cheaper for all of your data to be stored in one centralised place. Just think about how much you will save on IT support alone. Employees can also share the use of key equipment, such as scanners, printers, external disks, and so on and so forth. Not only do these points mentioned represent cost efficiency, but also general efficiency levels regarding the work rate of your company. There will be a smaller scope for error too. As everyone will be using the same network people will be able to pick up on any issues and quickly fix them, rather than one person having to be responsible for all.

It is quite evident to see that there is a lot to be gained by using a network infrastructure. You will note your business productivity and efficiency levels will increase, there will be a higher quality of work, and you will be able to save some money at the same time too.

4 Proven Strategies to Boost Income from Amazon FBA

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Articles | Entrepreneur | 4 Proven Strategies to Boost Income from Amazon FBAAmazon FBA is an easy option for entrepreneurs who want to try their hand at e-commerce. You get to enjoy the benefits of running your own business while taking advantage of the conglomerate’s massive network and diverse customer base. Plus, Amazon also houses your stocks for you, so you don’t need to worry about renting a warehouse.

If you’re looking for ways to boost the income of your Amazon FBA business, here are some strategies you must consider:

1. Partner with a Reliable Forwarder

While Amazon may be responsible for storing your products on your behalf, you still need to send them to the retailer’s warehouses. This is where a trustworthy Amazon FBA forwarder and prep center comes in. If you bought goods overseas, a partner like FBABEE could streamline the sourcing and shipping process for you, including picking up the inventory, preparing and labeling the items, and shipping them directly to Amazon.

2. Focus on Fast-Moving Products

After you’ve created a smooth channel for your products to be sent to Amazon fulfillment centers, you should study your current sales and identify which products are popular with consumers. Concentrate on those particular items and eliminate the others from your catalogs. This way, you prevent the e-commerce giant from penalizing you with fees because of long-term storage.

These are the factors that determine highly sellable products:

  • Cost – Your initial capital per item should only be 25% to 35% of your target selling price. For a product that’s $50, find a supplier who can give it to you for $17.50 or less.
  • Price – Consumers are more likely to buy from you if your products are in the $10 to $50 price range.
  • Weight – The goods should weigh a total of around 2 to 3 lbs with the box and packaging so that you can save on shipping costs.
  • Strength – Your products should be sturdy enough to endure the delivery process without damage.
  • Consumable – Focus on selling products that your customers will use up or need to replace. These items should also be used throughout the year for better profitability.
  • Quality – Be sure to sell the items with the best quality so you have the upper hand in the marketplace.

Amazon provides its sellers with valuable tools and information such as the Best Sellers Rank (BSR) and Customer Reviews to identify which products consumers are buying. Do your research and compare prices with stores who sell the same products as you to check if you can improve on the cost of your merchandise to boost sales.

3. Regularly Review Amazon Fees

Examine your bill from Amazon regularly to check if there are any inaccurate charges by the site. There are different shipping fees for various package sizes, but there are times when an incorrect measurement can prompt Amazon to double your fees or provide you with variable shipping costs.

One way to solve this is to contact Amazon and have them remeasure the products. You can also ask for reimbursement for the error because you paid them extra for that particular mistake. Moreover, regularly check the size, weight, and description of your stock keeping units (SKUs) to prevent erroneous charges and increase the profit margin of your Internet-based business.

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Articles | Entrepreneur | 4 Proven Strategies to Boost Income from Amazon FBA4. Check Your Product Titles and Descriptions

Optimizing your product titles and descriptions for Amazon’s search engine will vastly improve your FBA business’ income. Aside from having a competitive price and improving your seller rating, you need to place relevant keywords on your product titles and descriptions so that your items come up first when a customer searches for it.

For example, if you’re selling sunglasses, it’s not enough to put your brand and the word “sunglasses” as a title. You need to think like your shoppers and determine the keywords that they will use when searching for sunglasses such as the color, shape, and lens type.

Some guidelines on how to get your title to rank well on Amazon:

  • Be as specific as possible within 100 to 200 characters for your product title.
  • Make the most of pipes (|) and dashes (-) to improve readability.
  • Place primary keywords at the beginning of the title.
  • Add compelling secondary keywords.
  • Highlight primary and secondary functions through keywords.

Conclusion

Amazon’s FBA business model provides sellers with cost-effective shipping rates as well as excellent support from their team of customer service representatives. This is the perfect setup for individuals who want to start and manage their business in the comfort of their homes. With the right strategies, you can ship your products to Amazon and send them to customers without leaving your personal space.