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Top Trends for Entrepreneurs in 2019

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneur Article | 2019 Top Trends | Top Trends for Entrepreneurs in 2019Entrepreneurs need to understand the changing markets that they are involved in. No matter their sector, failure to understand what modern consumers are looking for and the best ways to meet those needs, is one of the main reason for business failure. That’s why understanding emerging trends has always been a fundamental priority for those either running their own business or preparing to launch. There are some strong trends that look set to dictate the business landscape in 2019, and smart entrepreneurs should be looking at the coming year and finding the best ways to integrate these trends into their business models. For those that prefer to stick with outdated methods, the future will be much more difficult to thrive in.

Consumer Relationships

Consumer interaction is more important in the business landscape than ever before. Through social media, email newsletters, and in-house blogs, consumer engagement is the key to improved customer loyalty and higher conversion rates. It’s vital that business-to-customer interactions are natural and honest. As the most effective way to build on the strength of a brand, consumer engagement is the number one focus for businesses of every size and sector. Look at how big names have prioritized interaction, and become much stronger and more trustworthy brand names as a result.

Efficiency Trends

Every entrepreneur should have a strong focus on efficiency. Failure to remain efficient results in the unproductive use of resources and time. The good news is that it has never been easier to become more efficient, and this can be achieved through a variety of methods. However, one of the most consistently successful is through the use of a Kaizen Burst. Statistical analysis of your business processes is not new, but it has become increasingly popular since big name brands started adopting its use. There are potential benefits for businesses of all sizes, and entrepreneurs would be wise to start looking at their own Kaizen Burst Event before their competitors do.

Technology Trends

There’s no disputing that although the human touch is important, technology has become the primary driver of all business management. There are a variety of tech solutions available for all business, and whether you’re looking at the transition to cloud technology, better software, or even artificial intelligence, tech remains one of the most important elements for budding entrepreneurs to be aware of. As the rise of the Internet of Things continues, businesses are benefitting from greater collaboration through more connectivity. 2019 looks set to be the year that the IoT really takes off, making it one of the most essential elements to explore for those entrepreneurs hoping to capitalize on the benefits.

The consumer landscape is one that needs to be watched on a regular basis. If your business is not keeping up to date with what consumers are looking for, then you will lose out to those companies that have a consumer-centric focus. Running a business is rarely simple, but with modern technology and trending business methods, it’s never been easier to create a business model that not only works but has a long-term future.

How To Create A Website That Will Impress Your Target Audience

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | How To Create A Website That Will Impress Your Target AudienceA one-of-a-kind website is essential for impressing your target audience. Keep in mind that it is thanks to an audience that the goods and services your business offers are used.

Without an online presence, no one will know about your company’s mission, and nor will you stand to make any profit as a result of it. Thus, you need to have a website that allows you to market your brand properly, and leaves a strong impression on anyone that finds it.

The very first step is to hire individuals who are experts in web design and development. Moreover, you want to guarantee that it is user-friendly so that people can easily navigate it, and lastly remain consistent with the branding you set up for it. All of these tips will be further explained below.

With professional assistance

There are expert web designers for a reason, and they know exactly how to help you put together the ultimate website for your brand. There is no need to spend countless hours learning how to do it yourself from scratch.

You should also keep in mind there are certain agencies and individuals who specialize in your niche company needs. After all, if you are looking to grow your charity’s website, you want the assistance of a reputable company such as Charity Box, that knows exactly how to grow your specific brand.

Everything from the development and up-keep assistance can be tied back to hiring the best professionals for the task. More so, given that they are already knowledgeable on the subject, they have a good understanding over what has and has not worked for other companies in the past, and can reduce the amount of trial and error that you have to go through.

Ensure it is user-friendly

Is your website user-friendly? This can include the following factors:

  • Easy to navigate
  • Clear layout
  • Readable text
  • Simple payment methods

Imagine that an individual starts to browse your website, but they have a hard time understanding what you do. It could be that the layout is jumbled and disorganized, the text itself isn’t clear, among many other factors. Company reputation is important, and if people can’t spend more than 5 seconds on your site, you need to re-evaluate everything you put together thus far.

Remain consistent with your branding

Remaining consistent is also crucial to build stronger relations with your audience. Once enough time and marketing effort have been put into growing your company, people will start to recognize you even by simply seeing your business logo.

It is incredibly important that you don’t change courses out of the blue with your branding, as this will only confuse people and further ruin the relationship you built with them. All in all, your brand will suffer if you are not careful.

Remember, when you impress your target audience, you are also strengthening the relationship with those individuals. They will be so impressed with your content, that they will continue visiting your website to check for updates. You also want them to spread the word about your company, and the only way you can do this is if you create an online presence that is buzz-worthy.

The Strategy Driven Guide to Boosting Your Website’s Performance

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, The Strategy Driven Guide to Boosting Your Website’s PerformanceBoosting your website’s performance needs to be your number one priority. Without a great site, all of your digital marketing efforts will be for naught. Imagine, as a user, you see an ad on Instagram. You are interested, click it, and are directed to a website that fails to meet your trust factors. Perhaps it doesn’t work on mobile, or perhaps its design is old and outdated, making it difficult to navigate. There are many different trust factors that online users rely on nowadays before they buy from a new company online.

Boosting your website’s performance isn’t rocket science, but it does need to implemented well and to the best of your ability. You need to ensure your website is secure, that its information is correct, and that downtime is limited. Users do not want to be made a fool of, so ensure your website is up to code. To show them your site can be trusted you need to improve your site and its digital presence.

Understand How Users Are Interacting with It

Google analytics or other tracking tools can be incredibly useful in determining where the problem areas of your website are. A high bounce rate indicates that your homepage or perhaps your PPC marketing strategy are in some way failing. A less than impressive home page can have people click off before they even see your product lists, whereas a misguided PPC strategy can have people who don’t want your site click on your ads.

Conduct an SEO Audit

Understanding how users are engaging with your site will help you address the key problem areas first, but that doesn’t mean you should ever stop there. Go through and conduct a full website or SEO audit to clean up your website, ensure there are no broken links, unnecessary redirects, or now black-listed SEO tactics on your site.

Commit to a Strong Content Strategy

Content is king because it is how customers can engage your website in more ways than just scrolling through your product or services pages. It is how you can become a true resource to your customers, and how you can attract new, organic traffic streams.

Create content that is effective and useful to your audience. Post it on your company blog but also across social media. Keep to a consistent plan, such as uploading a weekly blog post every Tuesday, for instance, and make your content interactive.

Hire an SEO Agency

Auditing your website is step one. It is essential if you want any future digital marketing tactics to work well, because if your site isn’t looking great then getting people to your site will result in nothing more than a high bounce rate. If your site needs a huge overhaul, however, it is wise to hire an Austin SEO agency like Creatif Digital that can help improve your site’s design, SEO, and then work with you to bring more organic traffic to your site through search rankings and PPC marketing.

Your website needs to be perfect, because if there is any hitch in its performance, you can turn away a potential customer in a second. Go through and remove any problem areas, improve it with SEO and content in mind, and know your limits. If you don’t have the resources or skill needed to do this, hire a company who can make these improvements for you.

Setting Up a Brick and Mortar Business from Scratch

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Entrepreneurship | Setting Up a Brick and Mortar Business from Scratch

The majority of us become employees when we head into the world of work. This makes sense. From a young age, we are asked what we want to be when we grow up and are given ideas of different employed positions, no matter how outrageous or unlikely they might be – footballer, ballet dancer, fire fighter. When we head to school we are encouraged to get qualifications to show off on our CVs rather than the focus being placed primarily on the actual skills that we pick up along the way. This makes sense. Being employed makes for a relatively comfortable lifestyle. You have contracted hours, guaranteed pay, annual leave, and other privileges. However, it’s not necessarily the best option for all of us. There are alternative career paths out there and one of the best tends to be setting up your own business. Setting up your own business means becoming your own boss and determining exactly what direction your company will take. You can specialise in the area that you like and keep the majority of your profits for yourself – nobody else will be getting rich from your hard work. But where can you start on this journey? Well, one of the most lucrative areas to get involved in is retail. So, let’s start there!

Creating an Appealing Product

When you get involved in retail, you are going to have to provide the market with an appealing product. You need to come up with something that people are willing to part with their hard earned cash for! This is going to be a long and arduous process, but once you have a final product, all of the effort will be worth it. Identify a gap in the market, think up something that can fill it, and conduct a little market research to determine whether consumers would be interested in what you’ve come up with. If you get the go ahead, you can manufacture the product and bring it to reality!

Ecommerce vs. Brick and Mortar

The next decision that you need to make is how you are going to sell your products – you need a base where customers can find you and process sales. The main decision is ecommerce vs. brick and mortar. Now, Ecommerce is appealing for various reasons:

Cheaper to Setup – to set up an ecommerce store you only really need the help of a web designer and a product photographer. You could also call in a writer to come up with your captions, blog posts, and other written material. This is consequently extremely low cost.

Cheaper Operation – once you’ve setup, operating online is cheaper to run in general. You don’t have to fork out for commercial property, you don’t have to fork out for commercial overheads, and you don’t require as many staff.

Round the Clock Operation – the web doesn’t have opening and closing areas, meaning that consumers can browse your products and make purchases at all hours of the day and night!

Brick and mortar stores, however, have their own individual set of benefits and you can run an online store at the same time as running them!

Better Customer Service – you can interact with your customers and potential buyers on a face to face basis, answering questions more easily.

Fewer Returns and Exchanges – when customers can see and try out what they’re buying before handing over cash, you are less likely to receive return requests and exchange requests. This saves you money!

Setting Up

Furnishing Your Store

You will need furnishings to display your stock effectively. These can include shelves, rails, and other display units. Employ a merchandiser who will be able to give you advice on what types of display equipment will make your store look the most aesthetically pleasing and navigable.

Limiting Movement to Restricted Areas

If there are areas of your commercial property where you don’t want members of the public roaming, you are going to have to take steps to ensure that nobody trespasses. There are different methods that you can use to achieve this. If there are doors that lead to areas with confidential information, staff belongings, or stock, you can place signs on the doors that read “staff only”. If you are worried that people will ignore these warnings, you can add coded locks – permitted individuals can key in the code or scan a registered card to pass through. If there are outdoor areas that need to have limited access, you could make use of used sucker rods to create barriers and fences.

Using Signage Appropriately

Health and safety needs to reign supreme in your commercial property. If there are aspects of the space that pose a risk to people, but cannot be changed, you need to use signage appropriately. If there’s an unexpected step, you will need to make sure that it is highlighted and that there’s a sign warning people of its presence. If there are low ceilings, you need to do the same. You should also use signage to indicate fire exits and fire safety protocol. Then you should invest in temporary signs, such as signs for wet floors.

While Ecommerce may be appealing, remember that you can engage with this alongside your brick and mortar company. Hopefully, the above information will help you to set up a brick and mortar business effectively.

How To Prepare Your New Business For Success

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Entrepreneur | How To Prepare Your New Business For SuccessNo matter who the entrepreneur is or what industry a particular company is in, the overarching goal for a business venture is for it to be successful. If you are currently in the process of starting your company from scratch, there are a few factors that you must keep in mind as you are setting up the groundwork for it.

For starters, the employees are the individuals that make up the business. Thus, if you want high-quality work to be completed at the end of each day, you need to hire individuals that are good at what they do. Next, it is important to craft the perfect brand message, in order to be acknowledged and recognizable by the general public. You will need to maintain your finances, understand your audience, and all in all stick to your business goals no matter what.

Hiring the best employees

Great employees make the business great, and you must make a point of hiring the best as a result of this. Look for people who are experts in their particular field, but also have other attributes that make them a great fit within the larger team.

Craft the brand message

To develop your brand message, you will need to determine what it is you want to achieve with it. What tone best fits your brand? Remember to keep your target audience in mind as you are developing it, as well.

Maintaining finances

Without financial stability, there is no company to begin with. You must always think of new ways to fund your business. Some options for getting the money are through:

  • Investors
  • Crowdfunding
  • Banks
  • Friends or family

Understanding the key audience

Every single company has products or services that are aimed at a particular group in society. This is your target audience, and you need to properly understand and target them if you want to make profit.

Having a strong online presence, both with your website and social media usage, is one way that you can communicate with them. Of course, you will also need to do the proper market research on what it is they will use, based on their everyday habits, and that is where the help of a software development company will come in handy. They can help you conduct the necessary research and collect the data on your audience, in addition to helping you build up the perfect online presence with your website design. Getting expert advice in order to properly grow your business and using the technological tools at your disposal will always benefit you.

Stick to your business goals

No matter what business goals you set up for yourself, never lose sight of them. Consistently work towards making more profit, for instance, and every single new strategy or campaign that you devise should keep this in mind.

Consider the steps that you are taking in order to prepare your business for success, and never forget the big-picture goals. You will not achieve the results you want in the span of a few weeks, or even a few months, but the more you continue to understand the market in which you operate and spread the word about what it is you are doing, the closer you are to becoming widely recognized and used by people.