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The Digital Entrepreneur’s New Business Checklist

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In today’s fierce business climate, new entrepreneurs are far more likely to target online audiences instead of offline ones. Running a company in the digital arena can reduce overheads while the potential for profit is far greater also.

Those possibilities should not fool you into thinking that the journey will be easy. Competition in the online arena is stronger than ever. If you aren’t prepared for the battles ahead, your business will inevitably follow the same path as the vast majority of failures.

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Perfect your strategy with these factors, and you should be just fine.

  • Invest in the quality of your team. From successful recruitment drives to promoting improved motivation, those steps to a productive staff are key. After all, you are essentially putting the fate of your entire operation in their hands. If they perform well, the business will too. Combine the perfect internal team with the help of remote-based freelancers, and you should be set to thrive. As they say, teamwork makes the dream work. Do not forget it.
  • Appreciate the importance of your website. As an online business, your domain is the most important asset of all. It shouldn’t simply promote products. It should additionally generate trust from the consumer. Hiring an ecommerce agency to get your platform in perfect health is advised. Unfortunately, if the selling systems are lacking, transactions won’t be completed. Without sales, the entire company is destined to crash and burn.
  • Be prepared for the worst at all times. All business operations will encounter low points. But prevention is the best form of protection and can reduce the damage greatly. This could range from keeping the working environments safe to factoring in potential returns. Gaining this sense of control won’t only limit the risks involved in business. It’ll also help you make education decisions when growing the company.
  • Understand the needs of your customers. First and foremost, finding your place in the market will allow you to target your primary audience with far greater effect. Consumers don’t only deserve smooth transactions, though. Many online businesses fail to focus on customer care, but yours mustn’t fall into this trap. Even if it means using a virtual assistant service, attending to the ongoing issues of the clients is critical. Otherwise, one bad episode could see them take their custom elsewhere. Conversely, positive experiences should bring long-term loyalty.
  • Keep an eye on spending. Spending money is a necessary part of running a business, but excessive overheads will pile on the pressure. Finding the best deals on operational costs like energy rates will inevitably increase your profits. As well as maximizing short-term profits, this can also buy more time for the venture. The vast majority of failures occur because they run out of money before reaching sustained profitability. So this could be a killer component.

Following the right blueprint won’t guarantee success. After all, you still need to produce great products while marketing your goods in a suitable fashion. Nonetheless, those strong foundations will increase your chances.

If nothing else, adopting great habits now will serve you well in the future too.

 

 

Competition: What Competition?

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Photo courtesy of the U.S. Navy via Wikimedia and flickr

A business has to deal with a lot, but the competition is the main opponent. With one stroke, your competitors can make or break your success, which is scary. To end up the victor, you have to ensure that the firm is always one step ahead of the game. That way, they will chase you and not the other way around. Honestly, the last thing you need is to be left in the dust as they speed away. To help, this post is going to detail how to stay ahead of the game so that the competition isn’t as scary.

Any business that wants to become the market leader has to keep an eye on its competitors. Your first job is to do the same as you need to understand their processes. If they are using new technology, you need to consider incorporating it too. The reason is that one small change can affect expenses and productivity. A business that cuts costs and becomes more efficient is always going to be a hard opponent to beat. Plus, your company could also do to benefit from these advantages.

Another reason why watching the competitor’s moves is important is that it uncovers their weaknesses. Every business on the planet has strengths and weaknesses, and the weak spots are what you’re looking to exploit. Even if they have a better product, this tactic can still help you compete. In fact, it will help you to succeed and prosper. Once you understand their weaknesses, the trick is to balance them against your strengths. For example, a rival might only offer a short extended guarantee whereas you have a longer one. Use this to your advantage by showing customers with the help of your marketing strategy.

Bosses like to think that they have to do everything alone. There isn’t a methodology that is as false in business. As the boss, you have to consider a lot to ensure the company expands. To bear the brunt of the responsibility is a mistake. Instead, you need to look to business advisory experts that can help. Experts are the key to winning the war because they cover your blind spots. There is bound to be areas where you lack the knowledge and experience to thrive. Advisors can step in and create processes which will make sure the company hits its goals. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness – it’s one of strength.

A business that doesn’t track the numbers is one that is going to fail. Hopefully, this statement won’t come as a shock. But, if it does, there are particular areas where you need to monitor the numbers as the info is essential. Things such as ROI or ACV and CPA are the sections which need monitoring. When you understand how much return you make on your investment, you know why the business is winning or losing. The same goes for average customer value and cost per acquisition.

Google Analytics is a program every firm needs to utilise to track their numbers.

Things To Ask Your IT Support Provider Before Signing

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Outsourcing large tasks and functions is fast becoming the thing to do in business because of the success it can offer, and the top of that list is IT support. Of course, this is an utterly logical thing to do because it will take the technical pressures off you and allow you to stay focused on the core operations of your company while saving a buck or two. But that doesn’t mean you should just hand over your responsibilities to the first IT support provider you come across.

When it comes to looking for a reliable technical support provider, you need to do your Due Diligence, and an easy way to do this is to ask your prospective providers a series of questions to help you understand what sort of fit they will be. So, here’s a few ideas to get you underway:

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What Is Your Experience With Small Companies?

You’ll learn that a lot of IT support companies, like Sphere IT in London, concentrate on large installations and services because it allows for a better economy of scale, which means you’ll need will get lost or confused. As such, ask to see a list of their client portfolio or ask them about the smaller-sized clients they serve. This will give you a better understanding of their operations and whether they will best suit your needs.

How Do We Know You Can Protect Our Sensitive Data?

One of the most important reasons of having an IT support company come on board is to protect your data, so you need to know they are capable of doing this. The techniques hackers use these days are becoming more and more sophisticated and so it is imperative you find experienced digital data defence pros for business. This is where their record comes in. A prospective IT support company needs to be able to prove they have a fantastic track record in protecting their client’s sensitive data. If they fail to do this, then your business may fail to continue operating.

What Level of Support Will They Offer?

Most companies will ask you what sort of support you will need and then offer you a service based on that requirement, so make sure you come to a deal that suits you and that it is detailed in your service agreement. To give you a little bit of advice on this one, make sure you discuss specific areas like phone, email and chat support, as well as remote management if you have employees or contractors that work from home or on the road. You’ll also want to know how often they can visit your office to perform maintenance checkups.

How Are They With Long-Term Partnerships?

Quite simply, the longer the supplier can commit to a partnership the better fit they will be for your company. The reason for this is most network equipment lasts for years and years and years, while most support arrangements only stand for two to three. Of course, this can usually be extended to around five years if needed and if favourable. So find out what sort of agreement they prefer and then see how this will fit in with your organisation.

How Your Business Benefits From Proactive Thinking

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A quality that every business needs to be successful is proactive thinking. Proactive companies put a heavy emphasis on planning ahead. They’re forward-thinking businesses that always plan for disaster, always have a roadmap to follow, and they never lose sight of their dreams. The major advantage of having a proactive work culture is so that when a problem does occur, your business isn’t hindered by that fact and, as a result, you can get back on your feet as soon as possible.

For instance, imagine if your company suffers from a catastrophic loss of data due to a hard drive failing. Customer data, order history and other crucial information could be lost to hard drive corruption, and without a continuity plan, your business will most likely collapse because of this blunder. Proactive thinking would have several different countermeasures in place. For starters, having a cloud storage solution or an off-site backup could mitigate losses, and an IT professional that performs regular maintenance could have prevented this from happening.

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Making Future Plans

A successful business owner should have a great sense of foresight. For instance, they should be able to capitalise on new trends, they should have the ability to guess when copycats will attempt to steal their product, and they’ll have all of the necessary service and employees ready to fight in their corner. The most effective way to combat threats as they come is to simply make future plans at the correct time.

For instance, by hiring an IT consultant such as Dyrand, you’ll be able to secure the future of all your IT equipment and technology. Of course, you don’t need to hire a consultant straight away especially if you are already somewhat tech-savvy, but you won’t always be able to take care of IT maintenance if you are the business owner and eventually you’ll need to employ technology that could be outside of your area of expertise.

To be a proactive company you need to always plan ahead. You have to put a heavy emphasis on preparing for future growth and problems as they come up. It’s never a good idea to plan too far ahead in the future and you don’t want to leave things to the last minute either. Recognise problem areas before they become a problem, and you’ll be surprised at how smooth your business will operate.

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Taking Chances

A positive benefit of becoming a proactive company is your ability to take advantage of trends as they appear. For instance, maybe there’s a specific product you specialise in that has become a highly sought after product. Perhaps the market itself develops in a way that allows you to capitalise on it, or maybe you see a hole in the market that hasn’t been filled yet.

Becoming a successful business involves taking risks. After all, if you spend too long in your comfort zone you won’t be able to capitalise on the opportunities presented to you. Technology is always improving and, as a result, constantly provides us with a steady stream of new opportunities to take advantage of. If your company infrastructure doesn’t allow for a swift reaction to market trends, then you’re going to fall behind your competitors and you will never be a well-known industry leader.

Different Strokes: Every Business Is Unique And Has Unique Needs

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There are a lot of things written both on and offline about what every single business needs in order to be successful. A lot of these blog posts and articles can be incredibly valuable. They go through many of the fundamentals that all businesses share so that any business has a strong foundation to work from. The problem is that there are many budding business owners out there who assume that they can get by with these fundamentals alone. Sadly, that’s not the case. In fact, one of the most important things to learn is that every business is unique and no two businesses are going to have the exact same needs. In order to help you avoid falling into that same trap, here are some things that are going to differ, perhaps slightly, perhaps significantly, based on the type of business that you’re running.

Staffing

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The kind of staffing needs that your business have is going to depend very heavily on the kind of business that it is in the first place. If your business is focussed on something like manufacturing, then you’re going to need workers with specific skill sets within the science and engineering industries, whereas if you’re running a business that provides SEO to other companies, then it’s likely that you’re going to be recruiting from selections of creatives and humanities graduates instead. Knowing what your business needs and choosing your staff accordingly are the key to a business that is made up of people, all moving the same direction.

Safety

Safety is a concern for any business, no matter what it is. However, that doesn’t mean that the safety concerns of various businesses are all going to be identical. Standards set out by The American Society of Safety Engineers are going to relevant to people within construction or engineering companies, but they aren’t going to have the same level of importance to those working in office environments. For those employees, it’s more important to focus on the basics of workplace health and safety.

Infrastructure

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It’s true that certain aspects of your business’s infrastructure are going to be the same no matter what. For example, there isn’t a single modern business that isn’t going to need some form of internet and telephone connection. However, businesses that are exclusively online are going to have a much greater need for reliable, fast internet than companies that only use it for certain tasks. Knowing the needs of your business can prevent you from falling into the trap of huge infrastructure costs that your business simply doesn’t need.

Marketing

Every business needs marketing, that much should be obvious. However not every business is going to appeal to the same people. This means that each business is going to need to find the best possible marketing methods to help it reach its desired audience as effectively as possible. If you’re trying to reach companies who might want to use your services, then you’re going to marketing yourself very differently than if you were trying to connect directly with consumers. And even then, not every consumer is going to respond to the same kind of marketing in the exact same way.