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Staying Relevant as an Older, Small Business Today

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Today’s world is an entrepreneurial one, and it seems more so than ever before. Indeed, how many times do you find yourself reading the business pages and discovering, yet again, that a small start-up has positively exploded onto the scene; you try at the same time of this discovery, not to spill your coffee and thereby ruin your suit before that crucial meeting with your investors in an hour? How is it that these newcomers seem to hold the secrets to success in this somewhat strange modern world?

Communication Technology

In a highly competitive digital world, the key is to keep up with the latest technology. It really does pay dividends. If you’re still operating on a fax machine when your competitors are speeding their way ahead with emails (an extreme example, but it serves the point), how can you hope to keep up, let alone win? At the very least, your company needs to be on high-speed internet, working on computers that weren’t just dug up from the early 90’s, and connecting with customers via a communication system enabled by VoiceOnyx telephone companies or other such providers. Further, bear in mind that if you’re well connected in this manner, you’re unfortunately a target these days and so the latest in cybersecurity is crucial, too. Everything is pretty much online in the modern day and age – including as this does eCommerce and Cloud usage – and so it is that theft has sadly become digital as well.

The Economic Climate – A Question of Strategy

What you might overlook, when you feel yourself turn green in discovery of yet another successful newcomer to the entrepreneurial pool of competition, is the state of the economy when those companies began and thrived. It is often those who made it in the toughest of economic climates whose praises are sung the loudest, as trust in their ability has been established. Look at your own firm’s history – can you compare? Further, what of your business strategy (including lead generation), when studied side by side? Are you still paying out for those big poster ads? Stop now and get online, and get marketing by using social media platforms and other internet-enabled means. For one thing, it’s quicker and the most expensive commodity of the present day is time.Again, prominence comes digitalized this day and age and so if your company lacks a website, even the most archaically developed, and doesn’t have an up-to-date blog, then your chances of keeping up with your younger, savvier competitors is sliding quickly away.

Greyer; Not Necessarily Greater

Loyalty from customers to businesses is a dying quality and so, though you may argue that you’ve been at this game for far longer than your competitors have been around, adapting to the mindset of someone just starting out is the largest and most beneficial step you can take to stay relevant in the modern marketplace. As the saying goes, if you can’t beat them, join them.

How to Ensure Your Employees Have an Easy Website Management Experience

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If you’re a growing business and your employees help manage the website from time to time, it’s crucial their experience is as easy as possible to keep productivity at its highest. You may well have the experience and knowledge to manage the website, but your employees may struggle if they don’t have any prior website management experience. If you’re looking to ensure your employees have an easy ride, try to implement the following tips.

Consider Changing the Platform

All CMS’s (Content Management Systems) are there to do the job of making website management easy, but some of them are better at doing it than others. You only have to look as far as WordPress to see why it’s so popular, and that’s because it provides a simple experience for experienced and newbie website managers. If your platform is a bit too complex, consider making a change to improve efficiency. Granted, it’s a drastic measure to take to make website management easier, but it’s a measure your employees will appreciate. The WordPress CMS won’t only make management easy but it also comes with many plugins that could improve the experience for your customers.

Create a Training Program

If completely changing the platform isn’t a viable option, creating a training program for your employees to learn from is an effective way to help them learn the platform you already have in place. It’ll take a lot of time and patience to implement, but it will pay dividends in the future when you have a solid training program in place that your employees will thrive from. You could, for example, have five stages of training and for each one that an employee passes, reward them with a small salary increase.

Change Web Hosts

Web hosting providers offer different features and packages for those who’re less experienced at managing websites. This might not benefit you as such, but it could benefit your employees. For example, if employees need to create new email accounts or MySQL databases for whatever reason, many web hosts will have many resources on their own websites that they can use to help them. The processes might be simple for us, but someone who doesn’t have any web development experience might struggle. If you’re looking for a top web host, consider researching them by using hostingkingdom.com.

Point them in the Right Direction

One of the most effective ways of helping your employees learn the system is to simply sit down with them and show them what’s what. You don’t need a training program for this; you just need to be able to spare some time until they’re confident enough to do things on their own.

Whichever method you choose to implement to help your employees, you can ensure it’s going to be a long learning curve. However, if you’re willing to implement one of the above methods, your employees will thrive from the learning experience and you’ll have one more person who can handle website affairs without taking up any of your time.

The vital steps to becoming an IT contractor

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In a world filled to the brim with technology, IT contracting is becoming more and more important to businesses and for those with the right skills, life as a contractor can be very rewarding! It’s financially beneficial, and if you’ve ever wanted to be your own boss, now is your chance! But where do you start? From IT contractor insurance through to finding a job, there is so much to consider, and so we’ve pulled together some of the most vital steps you need to take to become a successful IT contractor to give you a bit of a head start!

Work out if it’s really the job for you

Becoming an IT contractor requires quite the level of dedication when it comes to taking the plunge, so you really need to ask yourself if this is really the job for you. You’ll need to be self-motivated and be willing to take risks, but most importantly you need to be ready to lose the safety net of a normal salaried job. You won’t have the perks of a regular pay check, but you will have more freedom as to when you work. You’ll have more control over your life and the work that you take on, and you can find yourself working in plenty of different environments and industries! So if that sounds like the job for you, then keep reading!

Do your research!

You might be thinking ‘Do my research? That’s what I’m doing now!’ and while you’d be correct, there’s more to it than that! As a very basic starting point, you’ll need to find out exactly what the market needs and where you fit into it. If you have a niche set of skills, find out whether there’s a market for them, and if there is, what the average charge is for such a service. This kind of information will be vital in setting up your prices and knowing where to aim your marketing. If you live in the countryside but the business is in the city, or vice versa, you may need to consider whether you can travel the distances for work.

Finding work and applying

When it comes to finding work, it’s important to realise that only around 20% of contractors will work directly for their end-clients, and the remainder will work through an agency. If you adamantly don’t want to go through an agency, you could use a contract job board, or apply directly to a recruitment agency, get recommendations or transfer from permanent to contract with your existing employer. Applying for work can be as simple as having an up to date CV. Informing potential employers of your relevant and current skill set will do your application wonders when it comes being chosen for an interview and for proving yourself at the interview too.

Deal with tax issues

Taxes. None of us are big fans of them, but unfortunately it’s something we all have to deal with. If you become a limited company, you’re likely to have an accountant who will take care of all of this for you, but it’s still important to have some kind of understanding on how things work. As a company director, you’ll need to register for self-assessment, as well as submit your tax return and pay any tax liabilities by the 31st of January each year. Your company will also have to pay Corporation Tax on any profits, and there’s even the chance you’ll pay taxes on salaries. Make sure you research what you could be liable to pay to save yourself getting into any unexpected and undeserved trouble!

4 ways the online world can help you optimize the performance of your business

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In this digital age, it is vital that you are using technology to your advantage. This is the best way for you to make sure that you have the edge over your competitors. Online advancements have made it much easier for businesses to run effectively and efficiently. If you are determined not to be left behind, you will need to read on. Below are four ways that the online world can help you to optimize the performance of your business.

It can drive people towards your business

If you are hoping to reach a wide range of clients, you will need to invest heavily in the online profile of your business. In order to see a return on this investment, you should also think about the benefits of online marketing and secure the services of experienced webmasters. They will be able to design you a successful website and can help to drive people towards your digital platform. Instead of waiting for clients to come to you, a proactive approach will help you to achieve success.

It can allow your business to operate remotely

If you are spending a huge amount of money on your company premises, you should consider moving your operation online. With the help of the cloud, you could run your business remotely. This could save you both time and money. It could also help the different areas of your business to communicate with one another. Say you are taking orders through your website. If this information is entered manually, it may take a few hours before it connects with your stock list. However, a fully-optimized digital system will ensure that the two areas are working as one. This kind of approach will prevent you from making costly mistakes.

It can provide you with the essential tools for communicating with your staff

In the world of business, communication is key. It is vital that all of your staff are on board with your vision. That is why you should use the online world to interact with your workers. One option is to create an online schedule that all of your staff have access to. This will allow them to stay up to date with important events. Another option is to create a digital learning environment for your workers and fill it with resources that will help them to succeed in their roles.

It can save you time on your business meetings

Instead of traveling long distances for your business meetings, the online world provides you with a sensible alternative. Why not conduct your meetings via video chat or Skype? This is a fantastic way for you to save precious time and to focus your attention elsewhere. It will also help you to speed up the process of completing a project. Instead of waiting days, or even weeks, for an important meeting, you will have more freedom when it comes to arranging a suitable time.

Starting A Business Trading in Second-Hand Goods

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These days, a lot of people are starting their own small business ventures using the internet. This can give you a lot of freedom in terms of when and how much you work, and if you make the right choices, can also be quite lucrative.

Trading in Second-Hand Goods

One type of online business that is quite popular is buying and reselling second-hand goods. People who do this look for bargains at things like local sales, auctions, thrift shops, and on sites like Craigslist, and sell the items on at a higher price. Sometimes they refurbish items like furniture so that they are worth more, but often they simply buy things they know they can get more for than they pay.

How to Get into Doing This

Generally, people get started in trading as a result of selling their own old items on sites like eBay. When they realize how easy it is to sell on auction sites, and what kind of items manage to sell well, they decide to look out for things they can buy cheaply locally and sell on in the same way.

It can be fairly time-consuming scouring local garage sales, thrift shops, and other places where you may find things you can sell for a profit, but a lot of the work of finding things to sell can be done online. All you really need to do is decide what kind of items you know enough about to be able to identify what will sell for a higher price than you have to pay to get it.

Not everyone has a niche, and some simply sell anything that seems like a bargain, however some specialize in things like designer clothing and accessories, toys, ornaments, furniture or antiques.

Using the Web to Find Bargains

While sites like eBay can be good for finding stuff, in general you are going to end up paying as much as you are likely to make back except when you are very lucky in an auction, or you are buying something to refurbish. In general, it is better to source things from local sales rather than online auctions, where you may well end up getting things far cheaper than they may be worth when sold to a bigger audience on eBay.

One good site for this is Craigslist, and you can use a tool called Zoom The List that can help you search all of Craigslist more easily to find the kind of things you are interested in in your area.

Another good thing to do is join any local Facebook groups where people sell or give away their unwanted items. These are usually much cheaper than on eBay as people just want to get rid of stuff and have someone collect it rather than having to list and send it.

Trading in second-hand goods can be interesting and fun and as you get to know the market better you will soon find it easy to see what you can turn a good profit on!