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Not Sure How To Advance In Business? These Options Could Help You!

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Advance in Business|Not Sure How To Advance In Business? These Options Could Help You!When it comes to your business, you’re always going to want for it to go in the right direction. That often means setting goals and guiding your business down a set path. And that’s great when you know exactly what you want and need to do. But what happens when you’re not overly sure? Or you feel like you don’t know what to do to get your business to progress? This can happen. It’s natural to feel like you’re hitting a plateau and you don’t know what to do next. Sometimes, we can have goals for our business that get it to a certain stage and we feel like we don’t really know what to do when we get there. That’s normal. However, you are going to want to make sure that you come up with a kind of plan to get your business to the next stage.

Because that’s all this is. You will want to work out what you need to do next to get to where you want to be. And that involves feeling out ideas, seeing what you think might work well for your company, and then testing them. But when you’re not sure what’s going to work, it’s hard to know where to start. So let’s run through some options for you.

Create An Action Plan

To start with, you’re going to want to come up with some kind of action plan. You will find that when you have already achieved the goals you set, you can feel a little lost. So where do you go from here? Think about all of the things you want to achieve and see if you can break them down to work out what you will do with them.

Hire A Strategist

Next up, you might want to think about hiring a strategist or business development person too. Sometimes, it can be hard for you to focus on growing the business if this is something that you don’t excel in – especially if you’re great at other areas of the business. So hiring someone could be perfect for you.

Promote Your Business More

Another option is for you to make sure that you’re marketing your business as much as possible – but in the right ways. So think about the different marketing ideas that are open to you, but choose the ones that are going to be the most suitable to you and your business style.

Improve Your Knowledge

It could be that you want to be able to know more so that you can move forward and grow your business. Do you feel as if your education just isn’t where it needs to be and you’d like to have a better knowledge base to make decisions? Looking into a management course or online analytics degree could help you here. Picking up the skills you need to grow the business could be all it takes to propel things forward.

Hire Some Staff

From here, it could also be as simple as hiring some help. When you want to grow, you may find that you need to take a look at how you’re operating and admit that you need some help. Getting in staff is scary but it could be the right step that will help you to grow your business.

Create A New Product

It could be as simple as adding another product or service – especially if you currently only have one. You may find that you want to be able to grow and this is exactly how it will happen. So think about breaking down your goals and working out what product or service will fit in next.

Set Future Goals

Finally, you may find that it’s going to help you to get to where you want to be if you can focus on setting more goals for you to reach. It could be something big and crazy that you feel like is so out of reach – but then also you know that you need to break down to meet. Having something else to work on can help to keep you focused – which you know you might need. So think about where you’re going next and work backwards to figure out what you need to do.

It can seem overwhelming when you don’t know what you want to achieve or how you’re going to get there, but you can make it happen. Just slow down, break it all down, don’t overthink it and just take action. It’ll make a difference.

How To Offset Cost Increases Without Driving Customers Away

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Costs|How To Offset Cost Increases Without Driving Customers AwayThe cost of doing business is increasing. It’s mainly due to the pandemic, stretching supply chains and bringing manufacturing and sourcing closer to home. But, it’s also because governments are clamping down harder on cheap foreign labor and polluting but cheap materials. The green agenda that governments are touting is going to impact the cost of making products and that in turn will affect your price. Rather than driving customers away from your brand, you could do any of the following to offset the rise in the cost of doing business.

Work with local brands

One of the reasons why so many companies have chosen to take their manufacturing abroad is because in the West, it is seen as expensive to work with such brands. However, you may not have a choice anymore as customers are more aware of the business world. They do not want to buy products that have been made by sweatshops, made using techniques that harm the local environment etc. So, now is the time to begin sourcing your raw materials, manufacturing needs and storage demands at home. Work with local businesses and negotiate favorable terms that will benefit both parties. Long-term contracts will be more mutual and less in favor of one party or the other and thus lower costs for a more predictable length of time.

Productivity gains

Perhaps the biggest cost of doing business is your employees. Paying the salaries of employees is by far the largest expenditure any business faces. To offset some of your additional costs regarding increases in pay, promotions and bonuses, increasing productivity could make your employees more affordable. To improve long-term productivity, invest in the internet of things, so all platforms, products and services are connected to each other. Digital productivity is also improving, as just in the US alone productivity rose by 10.6%. All the while employees are working from home. Making your software remote-work-friendly is, therefore, a must.

Targeted increases

Rather than offset the price completely, you could choose to optimize your profit by targeted increases in products. For your most popular products, you should increase the price right now, before the additional increase in costs hits what you need to create that product. For example, if you have a popular dining table made out of glass and metal, increase the price and fix it in place for the foreseeable future. This gives your customers time to adjust to the price rather than suddenly piling it on as other brands inevitably increase their prices too. Supply chains are being stretched and changes to them are increasing costs across the board. A targeted increase of your products that are expensive and are popular, prevents it from looking as if you are taking advantage of the market squeeze.

The cost of doing business is increasing because of the pandemic’s impact on supply chains. The shift in a more ethically aware customer culture is also a powerful new force to be reckoned with. Do these things to offset your costs without driving customers away.

Building A Customer-Facing App That People Love

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Customer-Facing App|Building A Customer-Facing App That People LoveThere are so many business models that can benefit from creating an app for their customers, and so many ways in which those benefits might be seen. If you are keen to try and create the perfect customer-facing app, there are a lot of things that you might want to bear in mind along the way. In this post, we are going to take you through a few of the essential things that can help to create a customer-facing app that people are going to really love. As long as you follow these tips, that should be a lot easier.

Focus On An Idea

It is generally best to have as specific an idea as possible, a real niche, which you can then focus on as fully as possible. Doing that is going to mean that you are much more likely to deliver exactly what you need to deliver. If your app becomes too full of different ideas, it can start to have this flabby kind of look and feel to it – so that is something that you are going to want to be aware of from the start. Hone in as tightly as possible, and people will get more out of it.

Use Intelligent Design

An app is much more likely to work well if it is built up properly from the very start. That means that it is built with some kind of intelligent design, which is something that you can easily make sure of as long as you are using the appropriate app development software. Using something like FileMaker could be a good way to go, but to really make sure you are using it right you might want to look into getting some Claris FileMaker Consulting too. That way, you can make sure the app’s essential design is really strong.

Ask For Feedback

You should aim to ask for feedback from your app’s users on a regular basis. They will be essentially testing it a great deal, so speaking with them is something that is going to really help you to work out what you might need to change or improve. You can seek this feedback on the app itself, on the Play Store and App Store, and online through your website, or any other means you think might work well. However you do it, make sure that you really act on it.

Keep It Small & Simple

The size of the app is hugely important – too big and people are unlikely to want it to take up the space on their phone, too small and it might seem that it is not really doing anything. Find a good balance by including just the right number of elements, and by having it coded properly so there is no extraneous code. At the same time, you should focus on trying to keep the app as simple as you can, as in doing this you are going to find that people tend to get a lot more usage out of it.

5 Ways To Turn Your Social Channels Into Extremely Attractive Pages

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Social Media Channels|5 Ways To Turn Your Social Channels Into Extremely Attractive PagesWhether you’re looking to start a business or create a small project on the side, you’re probably going to need to make yourself present on social media. If you want to grab attention in 2021, you’ll have to do it using the internet. The world has changed and is now a lot different from how it was around fifteen years ago. People are glued to their screens and get a lot of information from the likes of online encyclopedias, websites, and social platforms.

If you’ve not been used to this kind of thing as you’re quite the old school type, then it can make the stress of running a business even more difficult as you have an entirely new aspect to learn about. The good thing is that social media and the subsequent platforms are pretty simple to use. They take a few minutes to get used to, but then you’ll be set afterward. If you need help with your social media accounts regarding their attractiveness and popularity, here are a few points to heed:

Do Something Different From The Rest

If you behave exactly the same as everyone else, you’re going to look like just another pretender in a cookie-cutter market. It’s very easy to do this because you fall into the trap of wanting to look as professional as the rest. It takes guts as well as creativity to stand out, however. Think of new ideas regarding how you’re going to address users and what everything is going to look like.

Use Visual And Interactive Ideas

People will see you as a more attractive prospect if you allow them to engage in what they’re reading. If it’s just a case of reading something and then moving onto something else, then they’re not exactly going to remember you all that well. If they have to do particular things in order to get some satisfaction, they won’t forget their actions. Clicking links, playing games, entering competitions, and these kinds of ideas all work well.

Work With Professional Marketing Services

You might think you have everything handled regarding your ability to create a successful page, but there will still be more areas that you’re lacking in. This is where social media services for businesses will come in handy. They explore areas that you didn’t even think of before. Their experience will help you to expand your reach as well as turn your page into something even sexier than it might already be.

Ensure Your Grammar, Spelling, And Overall Presentation Are High-Quality

Users will NOT take you seriously if you cannot communicate properly. That’s just how this world works. If you cannot use proper spelling and grammar as a business or side hustle, then how are you going to be expected to help customers/clients out with more difficult and convoluted problems?

Be Consistent

If you’re not taking this kind of project seriously, then why should anyone else? You should always strive to be more consistent in the things you do, and these kinds of projects are the same. If people see regular updates, then they’ll know you’re a serious outfit.

Digital Marketing Tips for Wineries

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Marketing Tips for Wineries|Digital Marketing Tips for WineriesA few years ago, wineries relied on traditional adverts for success. However, digital marketing has taken over traditional marketing channels, and any business that wishes to remain competitive must adopt internet marketing. Internet marketing is a more effective way of reaching customers, and the growing number of digital and social media platforms have made it possible for wine suppliers to connect with consumers directly. The following digital marketing guidelines will lead you to the right customers, increase your sales, and expand your business.

1. Design a great website

A website acts as your digital storefront and all other online marketing strategies should lead people to your website. Prospective customers will judge your business according to its webs’ performance, and it is important that you invest in a well-designed, functional and user-friendly website. The website should be compatible with mobile phones and be optimized for speed. It should also provide detailed information on your products.

2. Content marketing

Effective content marketing can help to improve search engine rankings, attract new leads and increase sales. However, content marketing for wine suppliers will only work if you know how and what kind of content to create. Blog posts and articles are the starting point for your content marketing strategy. Creating relevant topics and SEO-optimized content will increase traffic to your site. Ensure your content provides answers that prospects may be looking for on the internet. Conduct thorough keyword research to help you come up with relevant topics to create. In addition, be sure to create an email list to retain your audience and get returning visitors.

3. Optimize the use of social media platforms

At a time when every other business is utilizing social media marketing, your wine supply should not be left behind. If you don’t have active social media pages for your wine supply, you are likely already lagging behind your competitors. All you need to do is find a suitable network for your wine brand. Know where you are likely to meet your consumers and win them by posting relevant content concerning your brand. Here are some tips that can help you succeed in social media marketing:

  • Have a strategy for each platform
  • Be consistent with your content
  • Stay updated on what’s trending
  • Invest in a team to create and share your content
  • Engage with influencers

4. Make an email list

Email marketing is another effective way of reaching your wine consumers directly. Have a list of people’s emails where you can be sharing your brand’s information. Apart from boosting your sales, email marketing enhances your brand awareness. You will also be able to reach your customers on time and stay connected with them. In addition, sending an email is cheap because you can reach several customers at once.

Endnote

The entire world of business is going digital, including the consumers of your wine products. With dozens of online platforms available, you stand big chances of expanding your winery business. All you need to do is develop a smart digital marketing plan and explore better online tricks to keep your revenue flowing.