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A Five Step Strategy to Starting Your New Business

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Starting a business is an exciting adventure, but doing it wrong can easily turn it into a financial disaster. That is why you need to strategize effectively and know how to move your business forward for success. The more you plan before you launch, the better. Success comes with knowing which steps to take and what to do to move forward. That is why being prepared is your best friend. To help you be prepared, follow these steps:

1. Create a Comprehensive Business Plan

The first step anyone looking to start a new business needs to do is to create a business plan. The more comprehensive and detailed this business plan, the better. To create this comprehensive business plan you should first research your competition. Learn what your successful competitors are doing right, and more importantly how your unsuccessful competitors have done wrong. You should also know industry trends, technologies, and systems that are popular, and more importantly know what the predicted trends are going to be.

Tip: You don’t have to include every tip or trend you find, but instead pick and choose which trends will benefit your business.

2. Acquire Funding

Once you have a comprehensive business plan that details your road to success, you can then seek funding. Funding can, of course, come from your friends, family, from yourself, or even from crowdfunding, but if you need a substantial sum the best place to go is either the bank or investors. For these latter two options, having a great business plan will be incredibly important. Banks and investors want to know that you have a solid plan and that they can expect a return on their investment.

3. The More Work Before Launch, The Better

The more work you put into perfecting your systems and your business before you launch, the better. While you won’t be able to plan for every eventuality, you can be prepared. This means having all your systems up and ready, having all of the insurance, certificates, and legal requirements met and the papers ready, and more. This could mean having and working on a website, so that by the time you launch you have already attracted the attention of your community, or it could mean trialing your products in other stores before opening your own.

4. Ensure Your System Are Ready

One of the most important areas of prep are your management systems. Having a professional management system will save you time and effort down the road. The better your data is stored, the more easily you can access it, understand it, and use it to improve your company.

5. Keep Your Records Like a Pro

Every piece of data has value, especially as a business. For instance, you don’t want to be caught up in a tax audit by the government without the proper records. That is why you need to ensure that everything is catalogued and stored. It means using a check stub template so that all of your employees have accurate records, and it means ensuring that all your accounting is stored in an easy-to-understand manner. That way the audit can go smoothly, and you can continue with ease.

Once these five steps are ready, you can finally launch. The more press and more buzz you create before you launch, the better, but having a fully operational business is far more important. When customers buy from you or use your services, they need to be wowed. You cannot use the excuse that you are new, you need to get it right from the start.

Why Engaging with Previous Customers Is Key to The Success of Your Handmade Crafts Business

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Running your own business selling things you have made yourself can be a hugely satisfying way to make either your main or secondary income, and is becoming extremely popular as the trend for artisanal crafting continues, with some great sites like diyformula.com also helping more people learn more skills.

With people running businesses from their homes and workshops making everything from furniture to home-made cheese and jewelry to upcycled clothing, there are all kinds of entrepreneurs out there trying to sell their lovingly crafted items, and this can make some sectors of the market fairly competitive.

This means that to have success and get more of your products out there, you need to master marketing, and one of the most vital tools in your arsenal in that respect is the contact details of the people who have bought from you before.

The Classic Sales Mantra

Even in big business, all people involved in sales are taught one thing very early on in their careers:

‘It is easier to sell new products to existing customers, than to sell existing products to new customers.’

Assuming your customers are all happy with their purchases, they are the people it will be easiest to sell further items to. They already have familiarity with the existence of your business and have had a good experience shopping from you already.

Word of Mouth

The other thing your previous customers can do for you if you keep them engaged is recommend you to friends, or share your social media content. As people who already like you and your business, they may well be happy to pass on your promotions or new products to people they know, even if they don’t need anything new for themselves at the present time.

This is worth its weight in gold for you, because as much as you may try and use social media for outreach, it counts for little without people supporting your posts and sharing them with others.

Keeping in Touch

Of course, it can be easy to forget a company you bought something from, even if you were delighted with it. For this reason, it is important to keep up engagement with your past customers. Email newsletters can be a good way to do this. As long as you don’t spam your customers, most people don’t mind the odd email with a special offer or a peek at new products.

Encouraging people to follow your social media accounts is also a good way to keep up engagement, though as this is an extra step for the customer to take, you may find you get through to more of them if you offer an incentive, like a small discount or free shipping if they like your Facebook page or follow you on Instagram or Twitter.

When you gain new customers in real life settings, such as at craft fairs, always be sure to hand out business cards with every purchase and if possible, ask people to like your page there and then from their phones (again, in exchange for a small discount or gift).

Never underestimate just how important it is to keep hold of the people you have already won over to your business!

The Biggest Factors to Plan When Opening Doors Overseas

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Starting a new business can be an exciting and stressful time. Starting a business overseas can be even more exciting and stressful. When considering all of the work that goes into opening a new office, branch or business overseas and what opening in a new country signifies about your business’ success, it’s easy to get distracted.

Nevertheless, factoring in what may become a struggle or challenge before it happens is crucial in operating a successful overseas endeavor. From different cultural barriers to varying business regulations, there is plenty of room for things to go wrong.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the biggest factors any business should consider when opening a new branch, store or office overseas.

Evaluate Infrastructure

Regardless of the business or model you’re pursuing, infrastructure in any country is vital to long-term business success. In the case of internet-based businesses seeking refuge in low-cost countries, some obvious business infrastructure concerns include high-speed and reliable internet service, ample access to tech and accessories, and a variety of skilled workers.

In the case of a physical store front or office, they include roads and highways that can deliver products and services, transportation hubs that allow employees to come to and fro, and parking considerations for customers and clients.

Learn About the Culture

Whether the business intends to deal with the public directly or is merely hiring locally, an understanding of local cultural norms and traditions is crucial. For businesses that want to succeed overseas, keeping both customers and employees happy by understanding their ways of life is a great place to start.

Determine Employment Regulations

Even when opening a new business overseas, you may wish to place some domestic employees at the new location to oversee and/or assist in the new endeavor. Likewise, you may wish to hire fresh faces from other countries to work at the new overseas operation.

Whatever the case, it is crucial to ensure that all of the appropriate employment and hiring policies are understood and followed. For instance, nations like Australia require that potential foreign employees first be sponsored for jobs before arriving in the country (learn about what Australia sponsored jobs entail).

Procure Professional Financial Assistance

Opening a business abroad takes a lot of capital, and a lot of knowledge. The latter may be harder to come by than the former, which is why procuring legal and/or financial assistance is key. You’ll need to find one or more consultants who can help you navigate the realities of taxation, employment and accounting in order to ensure your business operates smoothly and properly.

Without such knowledge formally guiding your first moments overseas, you could fall into a situation where your business is shut down or goes bankrupt – something nobody wants to see happen.

Connect Locally

Last but not least, any business seeking to operate in a new country or climate must do the necessary legwork to learn more about the local business climate in an informal sense. There are many firms throughout the world who provide professional guides that can function as de-factor partners in arranging meetings, networking with other relevant leaders and helping to close deals as needed.

Having that local, personal touch can make a huge difference in how well new international businesses operate and whether or not they make the right impressions locally.

With so much to plan for a move across the ocean, it can be all too easy to forget about key factors. Before you break soil or open doors, it is vital to cover these five points thoroughly and have a game plan for each. By connecting locally, using professional financial assistants, learning about the culture, familiarizing yourself with hiring practices and determining infrastructure needs, your business will have maximized its chances at success on a new continent.

Should You Accept Cryptocurrency on Your Website?

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Bitcoin – and cryptocurrency in general – is creating many headlines in recent weeks. The staggeringly volatile market and the way Bitcoin jumped from $1,000 to over $17,000 within months garnered a lot of attention to the cryptocurrency. The popularity of Bitcoin also brought attention to other cryptocurrencies on the market, including Ethereum and Litecoin.

The big question remains the same: will cryptocurrency be the next mainstream payment method? Some businesses are in a wait-and-see pattern while others are jumping right in and accepting cryptocurrency payments. Should you accept cryptocurrency on your website?

A More Mature Market

One of the reasons why many businesses are still reluctant when it comes to accepting cryptocurrency on their websites is the volatility of the current cryptocurrencies. The way Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies fluctuate massively in a matter of hours is not what businesses expect from a solid payment method.

Last week, Bitcoin jumped from $12,000 to around $17,000, before steadily correcting itself to the mid $14,000 level. Customers who paid for products or services when the cryptocurrency was trading at $12,000 will regret making the purchase as the value of Bitcoin jumped. On the other hand, businesses don’t want to accept payments at $17,000/Bitcoin, only to see the value of those payments dropping by a substantial margin.

For cryptocurrencies to become mainstream payment methods, market maturity is needed. With the high volatility we’re seeing today, accepting cryptocurrency payments may not seem like a good idea.

Forks and Alternatives

While the major cryptocurrencies are very volatile on the market, some of the forks are showing that level of maturity expected from a currency. Bitcoin Cash, for example, fluctuates at a much more manageable rate than Bitcoin. The same trend is seen in forks of other cryptocurrencies.

According to a recent report by WallStreetHedge.com, these forks and alternatives are seen as more viable payment options, especially in the eyes of businesses and the consumers who use them. In fact, many services are starting to accept Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin Gold.

Experts believe that the trend will continue, especially with news that several central banks are releasing their own cryptocurrencies. There is no doubt that cryptocurrency is the future, and businesses who get in the game early will be the ones benefitting the most from this new trend.

Easy Integration

From a technical standpoint, integrating cryptocurrency payment processing is a lot easier than anticipated. Since the currencies are already based on blockchain, processing payments on websites is straightforward and secure.

There is also the benefit of irreversible transactions, especially for businesses. There are no more chargebacks to worry about and every transaction is final. That level of security is further strengthened by the nature of blockchain itself.

To make cryptocurrency payments more attractive, there are stakeholders who invest in improving the blockchain concept altogether, promising faster transaction processing and better features for business users.

So, should you accept cryptocurrency on your website? If you stick with less volatile cryptocurrencies and you implement the payment system securely, there is no reason why you shouldn’t accept this type of payment today.

Loud and Proud: Spreading The Word About Your Business

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You want to let the world know about your company. You’re delighted with how you’ve managed to build your own business from scratch and now your aim is to spread the word as far as it can go. There are many ways in which you can go about this, but you need to get your advertising game on point. With marvellous marketing methods you can get your business from local to global in a short space of time. Take a little bit of time in refining your target audience and your brand. Then you’ll be ready to share the name of your business with as many households as you can.

Social Media Sensation

In the modern world, a business cannot get by without a strong social media presence. There are many different online platforms in which your business can make itself known. Depending on the type of company you’re running, you might wish to choose which one would be right for you. Instagram is a very visual too, which is handy if you want to share a lot of pictures. Twitter is a more instantaneous form of communication in which you can spread a short and sweet message using a certain number of characters. Try out a few and see which ones work for you. It’s okay to choose multiple platforms as well, as long as you keep them consistent and stick to your brand message.

The Wonderful World Wide Web

Make a website, which is the main pointer towards your business. Make it the point of contact for potential customers and clients. You can fill it with all sorts of information about your company and include all the relevant contact details for people to get in touch with you. Your website can be a much more in depth online platform than your social media as it is most likely the place that people will check our first for all the information they need. It’s not expensive to buy a domain name or hire a website designer so be sure to take your time and do it right before it goes live.

Wave Your Banner High

Sort out your professional signage and consider buy some brand new banners or new eyelets for signs. They are sure to be the most weather proof way to hang up your beautifully branded symbol. It will be an eye catching way to capture passing customers. Opt for bright and bold lettering and ensure that you can clearly see a contact phone number or email address on the sign too.

You’re bound to find the technique which works for you and your company. So take the leap today and progress your business gradually from little to large. Whichever method you choose to work with you’ll be on the road to success, by creating a successful marketing strategy. You may find that more than one of these ideas works for you, so why not give them all a go? Some of them are so low cost, they’re absolutely worth investing some time in.