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How To Run A Business From Home

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | How To Run A Business From Home | Home Business | Home OfficeRunning a business from home can be incredibly beneficial for those that want to set up a business alongside other priorities such as children and family, or if they would like to start up a business with limited funding. To find out whether your home is appropriate to run your business from, this article will guide you as to what you need to do to make your home suitable for a business.

Create a Better Business Space

The first thing that you need to do to run a business from home is to turn your home into a better space for business. Although homes make better places for working than offices due to the limitation of distractions and noise levels, you should ensure that your home is suitable to run a business from. For instance, you need to create an office or workshop space in your home that is separate from the main body of your house to limit the disruption to both you and your family and give you space to work and store equipment. You should also ensure that there is sufficient space for a home office; a loft conversion could be a good idea. If this sounds like something you might consider, be sure to check out conversions with Visionary Lofts for the best ideas.

One of the ways that you can do this is to renovate an existing room, build an extension to your house, or look around for a bigger house that can match your needs. In order to make this financially viable, The Money Hub can help you to get the bad credit mortgage that you need through loans, whether you need to extend your mortgage for expansion or get a mortgage for a bigger house.

You should also make sure that your office is a welcoming and relaxing space. When renovating your home office, you should try to access as much natural light as possible to boost your mood, personalize the décor as much as possible to help you to stay engaged with your work and remain inspired, have enough storage to ensure that your workspace is not cluttered. You also need to make sure that you have an office chair and layout that can limit back pain and eye strain and allow you to keep working for longer periods without discomfort, Office Reality has a wide range you can choose from.

Invest in the Right Equipment

You also need to make sure that you equip your office with all the items that you need to succeed, such as the latest gadgets like laptops and printers that can help you to perform your work to the best of your ability. You should also invest in the software that you need. For instance, it is also important that you are able to establish reliable communication channels to allow your clients and any employees to contact you at all times. If you fail to get a secure WiFi connection or mobile signal, this can lead to your business losing trust with its customers. One of the best communication methods for small businesses at home includes Skype, which can allow you to video chat with contacts for business conferences and networking purposes, needing only an email address to do so.

Create a Timetable or Work Plan

It is difficult when running a business from home not to let your family and other commitments impact on your workload. Therefore, you should make sure that you are able to create a plan to help you to schedule your workday. Then you can prioritize your most important work and ensure that you are able to stay on track amid the chaos of a family home. There are many paper organizers, and even online software applications that you can download to keep you on track too.

How to Boost Your Business’ Appeal

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | How to Boost Your Business’ Appeal | Curb AppealRegardless of how hard you work or how good the service you provide might be, if your business doesn’t appeal to potential customers, you will find it increasingly difficult to garner customers. Boosting your company’s appeal should, then, be one of your top priorities.

To see how you can make your company far more appealing, to both your target audience and the passing one, make sure to read on.

Showcase your success without showing off

In order to appeal to potential customers in the future, you need to attempt to show them just how successful you’ve been in the past.

Unfortunately, this isn’t as easy as it may seem. There’s a fine line between showcasing your past successes and plain-old showing off. Doing the former will prove to potential customers that you’ve worked hard to get where you are today, which will in turn make them trust in your abilities going forward. Doing the latter will show you to be egotistical and self-indulged, and nobody likes doing business with people like that.

You want to showcase your successes without showing off about them. To do this, you should resolve to make subtle hints about your affluence without being too overt about it. An example of this would be refraining from investing in the flashiest sports car available, and instead buying something a lot less conspicuous — fear not because buying, say, a 4×4 wouldn’t necessarily have to mean that your next car choice need be a boring one. Thanks to E.C.D. Automotive Design, you can design your own unique custom Defender.

Improve your curb appeal

Even if your business operates solely via the web, it won’t hurt to improve your office’s curb ap-peal. Amongst a host of other benefits, taking this action will help you to stand out to the foot traffic that passes your workspace — you never know, once they get home, the people that saw your display might just jump online and research the services that you offer.

To improve your curb appeal, you should:

Put some greenery out front

You need not go all out in this instance. A couple of hanging baskets or raised planters will do the trick — they will both inject life into your entrance and prove that your workspace is cared for.

Lay out a welcome mat

Laying down welcome mats is a simple, affordable, and effective change that will make customers feel welcome whenever they visit your site

Do a bit of redecorating

Has your paint peeled? Have our colours faded? If so, you could be doing serious damage to your brand. Refresh your signage, add a splash of paint, and bring your storefront back to life before passers by think your business is dead and buried.

Tend to your curb appeal regularly

You have to tend to your curb appeal regularly if you truly want to boost your business’s appeal in this sense. This means sweeping the sidewalk, watering your plants, and changing your window display every week or month.

Boosting your business’s appeal is one of the most important tasks you face as a company owner. Be sure, then, to put the above advice into practice, even if you have to make time to do so.

Are You Prepared to Be the Boss and Run Your Business?

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article | Are You Prepared to Be the Boss and Run Your Business? | Entrepreneurship
 
Whether you currently have a stable job or you are still in the process of finding a job, the idea of running a business and being the boss looks very appealing. With the unemployment rate that the economy is experiencing, it means that many companies are still struggling to survive. The idea of starting a small business can be quite a scary idea because the success rate is low. If you feel that you are up for the challenge and you are ready to take risks, then you must make the necessary preparations. To increase your chances of being successful here are some tips on how to prepare you for business.

Define your goals

It is easy to say that you want to have a business, but you need to be very specific with your goals and wishes. Ask yourself what kind of business would you like to have? Are you planning to sell services or goods? How long are you giving your self before you start hitting your business goals? Your intentions of running a business should be genuine, or else there is a big possibility that it will fail in the long run because you lack passion and commitment.

What are the costs?

It does not matter whether you want to start small or big, but the bottom line is that you need money to make your investment sustainable. Do you need to figure out how much capital you need to start the business? Do you have enough savings to cover all the costs? If not, are you willing to apply for several loans to increase your revolving funds? You need to have a clear vision of whether you can continue supporting your business in a few months or you will end up closing down because things are not going according to your plan.

You need experience

Before deciding to open up a business, you need to have some first-hand experience of handling people with different personalities. It would help if you also learn the ropes in the industry that you are about to be part of. It is a good idea to get several months or years of experience in companies in the same industry, so you will have the confidence to manage your business.

Find ways to save money

Most start-ups struggle with finances. That is why you need to be thrifty and wise when it comes to your expenditure so that you can survive the competition. Think about your monthly overheads like rental, utilities and staffing. These will be your top three expenses. Try to look for a place with lower rent or do it from your home. You can work on your workforce by hiring a sufficient number of people only.

Lastly, you need to look for a trusted Utility Bidder before moving to a new office space or setting up a physical store. It would help if you found an electricity and gas provider that is affordable and offers excellent service.

5 Challenges of Starting a New Business From a First Time Business Owner

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article | Entrepreneurship | 5 Challenges of Starting a New Business From a First Time Business OwnerYou might have heard the stereotype that millennials don’t know how to work hard, how to pound the pavement, how to put in the blood, sweat and tears it takes to build a business from the ground up but, I am here to smash that stereotype into smithereens.

I’m 23 years old and started my business when I was just 21. Usit (www.usit.care) was an idea that I had that babysitting could be done better. It could be done wiser. It could be done with more benefit to the worker bee and the worker bee hirer. Still in college with a full load of classes, I certainly made my share of embarrassing mistakes, but I lived to tell about them and I think the mistakes made me stronger and even more determined. I am going to use the word “Challenge” instead of “Mistake” as a necessary euphemism because mistakes conjure up negative emotions while “challenges” are something to overcome and persevere through- which I did and I still do as I work to expand my business into a small empire!

Here are 5 challenges I faced and some essential ways to mitigate those challenges so you don’t become discouraged while on your path to building your own business.

1. Find the Right Team

You’ve heard it said you are the company you keep – and it’s true. Aim high here. Finding the right Co-Founder or partner(s) in your startup journey is a difficult one, especially in the beginning, but even if it delays your launch, don’t settle here. Don’t go straight to your friend, family member, or roommate. Go to someone who has a complementary skill set (it doesn’t help if you are both good at the exact same things,) someone who is as passionate as you about the business, and someone who loses as much sleep about the business as you do. Find someone reliable, someone with a similar work ethic, someone with the same ‘failure is not an option’ mantra. For example, if you need to develop a website or an application it’s better to hire software development team that will do it professionally.

2. Finding Advisors and Mentors

Again, you are the company you keep. Seek out smart, successful people with proven track record. I wouldn’t be where I am now without a supportive startup community, mentors and advisors, and other founders. Get advisors who understand the startup world because they’ve lived it already. You don’t have take everything they say as a blueprint for what you must do – each business is different, but let their ideas be springboard for your own.

No one knows your business better than you do. I go to my advisors when I’m conflicted with business decisions, fundraising questions, pitch help, or general advice. They are important nutrition to the over health health of your business so find the right ones who have different skill sets and experience. You’ve heard it said “Diversify” in your financial investments. The same is true when assembling your team. “Diversify.” Find people with different superpowers. Find a person who excels at sales, find a whiz marketer, find a tough-as-nails lawyer to advise you on all things legal. You get the idea.

3. Keeping Your Team Motivated During Tough Times

To hit the peaks, you’ll be in your fair share of valleys. What goes up, must come down. You can’t defy the laws of gravity so know there will be tough times. Staff can smell fear a mile away. Never give off that sense of concern even if you feel it on the inside. It’s up to the Founder to rally the troops and keep the team motivated and positive. If you’re freaked out, the team will be freaked out and success never flourishes in fear.

4. Working With Limited Resources

It pretty much goes without saying that when starting a new business, you are working with limited resources. “Money does not grow on trees.” But there are big decisions to make about when to fundraise, how to fundraise, the how and when of green lighting big expenditures that require an investment. Talking to mentors and advisors to decide when the right time is to tackle those big questions is essential in maintaining a healthy bottom line.

5. Rejection

Take a “No” or a closed door in your face as a personal challenge. No great companies were built without rejection. No actor gets every part he/she auditions for. No singer got a record deal without hearing some naysasyer along the way. You’ll face a lot of “No thanks, Not Nows, Not Evers,” but rest in the knowledge that it’s just part of the process. That said, don’t discount every bit of criticism you receive. Constructive criticism may well be your best asset. Follow your gut, and dust yourself off every time you’re thrown onto the ground from the bucking horse that is the startup world.

Good luck! I am rooting for you!

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Ifrah KhanIfrah Khan is the Founder and CEO of Usit, the last minute babysitting app that connects busy parents to vetted college student babysitters in their community. Ifrah was named one of Atlanta Inno’s 25 under 25 entrepreneurs in 2018 and has a passion for how technology can help create new communities and opportunities in dual sided marketplaces. She just completed Atlanta Tech Village’s Pre-Accelerator and is focusing on disrupting the babysitting industry by turning what used to be a huge pain in the butt for both parents and sitters into an easy and exciting process. Ifrah supports and brings together other young entrepreneurs with her position as a Kairos Society Executive with a mission of focusing the next generation on problems worth solving. She graduated from Emory University’s undergraduate business school in 2017 and previously worked in Finance at Accenture. Although she’s not a mom, she is passionate about helping mothers and children in need which is why she serves on the board of Helping Mamas, a fast growing local Atlanta non-profit aimed to help moms and children in need.   https://www.usit.care/

Scaling A Small Business Tips

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Entrepreneurship | Scaling A Small Business Tips | Scaling Business

It’s no easy feat scaling a business, it is pretty difficult and takes considerable effort. At the beginning of a business, the owners will practically do every job that needs to be done. Things that involve a wide spectrum of skills and knowledge from different business departments, such as dealing with sales and marketing. It also means understanding taxes and corporate compliance including employment regulations and laws. And finally, usually, for small businesses, It will involve having to interact with customers on a daily basis.

Spending all your time fulfilling these roles can make you think that your business is far from any growth or expansion and in doing so would damage its foundations. Sometimes this is not true. There is a light at the end of the tunnel for those who struggle to grow their business. Scaling a business is a strategic program framework and requires an element of planning with compiling the business assets into one fluent engine in motion.

Like anything else in life, including business, you will have to put in the time if you’re looking to reap the benefits of success. Don’t focus on the short-term outcome of your work but look to the long term and build sincere value to your customers.

Here are some ways a small business can prepare for growth and scaling up.

Build A Good Sales Funnel

One of the first ways to quickly grow a business is by building a sales funnel. If a business does not have one, they’re making a monumental mistake. Sales funnels can help to somewhat automate your business functionality making it more established.

Upgrade Your Technology

Scaling a business will require some essence of updating the current system in place that takes care of the business needs. Whether it is a fleet of smartphones or vans, sometimes the investment will need to be made to keep clients and customers satisfied with your products or services. If your business requires minimal IT but still requires digitalizing documents or even hosting a web site, check out Hudson Valley IT Services company, who will take care of your site needs.

Customer Management System

Now manually tracking transactions is hard and can take up a lot of space when storing them in cabinets. No one wants to do that. Paperwork can get burdensome as the business grows but if you want to scale quickly, use a customer management system. You can find plenty to choose from online and make sure you choose the right one that depends on your line of work.

Email Lists

Back in the day, it was a little book with all the client information but now one of the best and most effective ways to grow a business quickly is to build an email list. The more people you can send offers and deals to the more potential sales you will have.

Scaling up takes time and strategic measure need to be in place to be able to counter-act any problems that may occur. Have you scaled your business recently? Share your tips on what you found helped you in the comments below.