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How to Incorporate Cloud Technology: 5 Steps to Success

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Cloud Technology|How to Incorporate Cloud Technology: 5 Steps to SuccessIn this day and age, is a business complete without using some form of cloud technology? No longer a trend or buzzword, “the cloud” has become an integral component in how many companies function.

There are various reasons organizations add cloud technology to their repertoire, including how it saves time and resources and makes them more productive overall.

Are you itching to also experience these benefits? Below are five steps to successfully incorporate cloud technology.

1. Understand your requirements

The first step is to fully understand your business requirements and how cloud computing can help. In general, cloud technology has the potential to dramatically improve the efficiency, security, and cost-effectiveness of your business. Yet you need to select the right service for your business. There are three primary options available:

  • Infrastructure as a service
  • Platform as a service
  • Software as a service

Is the plan to incorporate cloud technology for every element of your business? How will the future growth of your business affect your cloud-related plans? These are the types of questions you have to answer before moving forward.

2. Put in the research

Once you know your requirements, the next step is to put in the necessary research. You have to understand cloud technology, what it provides, and how it can help your business. With this knowledge, you’ll have a much better idea about which areas of your company would benefit most from the cloud – and also the areas that don’t necessarily require adopting this technology.


3. Understand the risks

Your focus will be on the advantages gained from cloud computing. That’s understandable. However, there are certain risks involved with integrating and using this technology. Ensure you are fully aware of these risks before adding cloud technology to your company’s operations.

For instance, once you put your data on the cloud, it’s important you have the necessary backup options and threat prevention policies in place.

4. Use the right technology solutions

Cloud technology incorporates a wide assortment of software and solutions. Different companies will use different technology, and it’s important your business selects the right options that fit your requirements.
As an example, say your company creates and manages its own APIs. If you’ve got numerous APIs under your belt, it can be hard to keep track of these effectively without the right approach. That right approach can be found with an API management platform. With the help of a management platform, it allows you to monitor, manage, and utilize your APIs with ease.

5. Educate your employees

It’s not just you who has to research and understand cloud technology. It’s imperative your employees are also on the same page. After all, if work is now being performed on the cloud, you don’t want staff members to struggle with completing their tasks due to a lack of understanding about how the technology works.
Even before migrating, you should explain to employees why it is beneficial for your company – and them – to make the move to the cloud.

Social Media Marketing: The Effectiveness and How to Generate More Leads

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Social Media Marketing|Social Media Marketing: The Effectiveness and How to Generate More LeadsBusinesses have been using social media marketing for a while now with mixed results. Some businesses find it to be very effective in generating leads, while others find that it doesn’t really do much for them. So, what’s the deal? Is social media marketing worth your time and effort? This blog post will explore the effectiveness of social media marketing and how you can generate more leads from it.

There’s no doubt that social media marketing can be effective if done correctly. In fact, a recent study by HubSpot found that social media is one of the top three most effective lead generation tactics. That being said, simply having a presence on social media isn’t enough. You need to actively engage with your audience and create content that they will find valuable. If you can do this, then you will start to see more leads come in from your social media marketing efforts.

So, how can you generate more leads from social media marketing?

1) Use targeted ads:

Running ads on social media is a great way to reach more people with your message. However, simply running ads is not enough. It would help if you ensured that your ads targeted the right audience. For example, if you sell products for businesses, you would want to target your ads to people working in businesses. You can use the targeting options on each social media platform to ensure that your ads are shown to the right people.

2) Engage with your audience:

As mentioned above, having a social media presence is not enough. You need to actively engage with your audience if you want to generate more leads. This means responding to comments and questions, sharing interesting content, and overall just being active on social media. The more engaged you are, the more likely people will notice your business and eventually become leads.


3) Use social media to drive traffic to your website:

Your website should be the central hub of your online presence. From your website, you can collect leads and sell products or services. Make sure that you’re driving traffic to your website from your social media accounts. You can include links to your website in your posts and bio, run ads that link to your website, and use call-to-actions on your social media posts.

4) Get in touch with a professional:

If you’re serious about generating leads from social media marketing, then you may want to get in touch with a marketing consultant like Chris Boggs. Professionals like Boggs can help you create a social media marketing strategy that is tailored to your business and audience. Then, with a professional’s help, you can maximize the effectiveness of your social media marketing and start seeing more leads come in.

5) Try a lead generation tool:

Several lead generation tools are available that can help you generate leads from social media. These tools allow you to capture leads from your social media followers and turn them into customers. Some popular lead generation tools include LeadPages, OptinMonster, and HubSpot’s Lead Flow tool.

Social media marketing can be an effective way to generate leads for your business. If you can do this, then you will start to see more leads come in from your social media marketing efforts. Try using some of the tips above to get more out of your social media marketing and generate more leads for your business.

Small Business Guide: Funding Your Marketing Strategy

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Funding your marketing strategy| Small Business Guide: Funding Your Marketing StrategySmall businesses are in something of a bind at the start, they need to get noticed through advertising, but it’s hard to achieve when you look at the numbers. Luckily, there are a few systems in place to help with this exact problem. One of the best is a merchant cash advance.

Create a Marketing Budget

One of the best ways to create a buzz around your product is by advertising it through digital channels. Done correctly, a digital advertising campaign puts your products in front of the right people at the right times and gets people talking about what you sell both online and offline.

Organizing an effective digital marketing campaign is one thing; paying for it is something else. Unless you have a sustainable and controlled way to pay for your marketing campaign, it can get out of control fast and leave you with a black hole in your finances. Create a tight ad budget.

Merchant Cash Advance

If you’re a startup, you have a problem; how do you compete with the big guns? In this case, the big guns are the competition in your niche that has grown and developed into leading brands with substantial marketing budgets. The answer might be simple – use Merchant Cash Advance.

A merchant cash advance is designed to support startup businesses and close the marketing gap between them and the more established players in the niche. A merchant cash advance is issued by a cash advance company as a loan and receives a percentage of the future profits.


Paid Online Advertising

When you are trying to get your startup noticed by your target customers, you need to advertise. These days, the standard way to make your brand visible and attract more prospects to your website is through paid online ads. These can be on search engines or social media channels.

Paid online advertising is highly effective; it allows you to target your ideal audience and gets your brand and website noticed. Of course, there is more to do to sell your products, but without making your business visible online, you are relying on the quality of SEO and organic traffic.

Social Media Management

Social media channels are extremely important for your marketing campaign nowadays. In some ways, these channels are just as important as your search engine traffic – perhaps more so. The reason is that social media interactions are genuine, frequent, and highly valuable.

That said, social media channels are also numerous, and they have to be managed by a dedicated team member. The social media channels – perhaps three of them – need to be updated regularly with content; analytics must also be acquired to ensure optimal performance.

Website Optimization

There’s no reason why you can’t optimize your website yourself to ensure your organic reach is at its best and you have the best conversion strategy for your business. However, not everyone is a wiz when it comes to website optimization, so seriously consider investing in a professional website optimization service to ensure that your website performs to the highest standards.

Why Warehouse Operations Often Struggle

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |Warehouse Operations|Why Warehouse Operations Often StruggleYou will find that many organizations struggle when it comes to warehouse management. The warehouse is an area of the business that has a massive impact on the success of the company and customer satisfaction levels, but it can also be challenging to thrive because it can be a complex operation with a lot of constant movement. This means that there are often inefficiencies here, but this also means that there are often improvements that can be made. This article will outline a few of the main reasons why warehouses struggle and will provide a few ideas for improvements that should help.

Unmotivated Workforce

One of the primary reasons why warehouses struggle is that the workforce is not motivated. You could have an efficient system in place, but if your team does not work to a high standard each day, then it will be impossible to succeed. Therefore, you need to keep your team motivated with decent pay, a relaxed yet productive work environment, goals and incentives, and career development opportunities.

Inefficient Layout

Many warehouses have the same layout that they did when they first started, which can cause inefficiencies and make work harder than it needs to be. You should not shy away from trying a new layout, as you might find that you can speed up operations and get more done each day.


Lack of Speed

These days, many warehouses struggle when it comes to speed and find that they are unable to meet consumer expectations. Consumer expectations have risen with next-day delivery becoming the norm. It is challenging to increase speed, while still maintaining accuracy and safety, but you will find that it is possible and often this is through automation. A warehouse management system, that integrates with your shipping systems, conveyors, and ERP can help you to speed operations up and keep your customers happy.

Out of Date Equipment

Another common reason that warehouses struggle is the equipment that they use. Forklifts are one of the best examples of this as this is equipment that is used constantly throughout the day, so you need to have the very best forklifts to succeed. Forklift hire is smart because you are not tied down and you can upgrade to the latest and best forklifts when they become available, and this should make a big difference to the daily performance of the warehouse.

Lack of Data

These days, all business operations should be utilizing data, but it is sometimes lacking in warehouse operations. Data can provide a deep insight into the daily performance of your staff members, teams, and the entire warehouse operation, which will allow you to identify the best ways to improve and become more efficient.

These are the main reasons that warehouses struggle. It is a difficult area of the business to manage with a lot of moving parts, but it is also an area of the business that has a massive impact on your success and customer satisfaction levels, so it is important to address these areas.

Small Business Guide: Is Cash Flow Different From Profit?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Cash flow|Small Business Guide: Is Cash Flow Different From Profit?Both cash flow and profit are essential to all businesses, regardless of size. Even though most people use them synonymously, they are entirely different entities. Business owners need to understand the difference between both metrics to optimize their business’s financial health and performance.

Before investors invest money into a startup, they study the company’s cash flow and profit to determine if it is a sound long-term investment or a place they can make passive income in the short term. These metrics also guide business owners when they make critical business decisions.

What Is Cash Flow?

Cash flow is the movement of cash in and out of a business at any time. For a business to operate optimally, it needs to spend money. These expenses usually include running costs, taxes, inventory purchases, employee wages, rent, office lease payments, loan repayments, and so on. Businesses are built to make money, so cash is expected to come in if the company runs as expected.

When a business receives more money than it spends, that is positive cash flow. If it spends more than it receives, that is negative cash flow. Cash flow management is needed for small businesses to survive. If not, they will spend their way into bankruptcy. There are three types of cash flow;

1. Operating Cash Flow

This is the net cash inflow from everyday business activities. This metric should stay positive to keep a small business growing.

2. Investing Cash Flow

This is the net cash flow generated from a business’s investment activities. This usually includes property investments, vehicle purchases, asset sales, and stock market investments. Cash outflow should be positive for a small business that actively invests revenue back into the business.

3. Financing Cash Flow

This is the cash flow between a business, its creditors, investors, and owners. It is used to offset debts, pay royalties, and dividends.


What Is Profit?

Profit is the cash that remains after a business has deducted its expenses from its total revenue. The profits of a small business are usually given to the business owner and shareholders or put back into the company. A business’s tax is calculated based on its profits, not revenue.

Similar to cash flow, profits can either be positive or negative. If negative, the company is losing money by spending more overall than they make. If positive, then it is making more than it spends. There are three types of profits:

1. Gross Profit

This is the profit a business realizes after deducting the cost of producing the goods sold to generate its revenue.

2. Operating Profit

This is the profit a business gets from its regular operations. Money spent on tax, loan repayments, rent, and income from areas outside the core business is not accounted for here.

3. Net Profit

This is all the profit realized after all the expenses have been subtracted from all the income.

Endnote

Cash flow is different from profit because cash flow does not give a clear picture of the overall financial health of a business. However, it is necessary to provide cash that would be spent on day-to-day operations, wages, and so on. On the other hand, profit is the primary goal of a business. It is not always represented by cash.

An increase in asset and property value also counts as profit. It is hard to say which of the two is more important because every business has different circumstances. Regardless, small businesses must maintain healthy cash flow to keep them running and ensure they make a profit to stay operational long-term.