Posts

Increasing Your Sales In Your Business: The Best Ways To Do It

/in /by

Sales into your business is always going to be an important aspect and one of the big priorities for your company. After all, the sales you make, be that in products sold or services ordered can be what your business is measured on year on year. So any entrepreneur will always be looking at ways that you can boost those sales opportunities. But have you thought of everything? Here are some suggestions to try that could see you making a boost in your sales figures this year.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Increasing Sales | Increasing Your Sales In Your Business: The Best Ways To Do It

Pop-up shops at events

Many businesses have their website that has a functioning ecommerce system, and also they have perhaps a physical store. But is that your only option? The answer is no. There are many events that you could take your business to. This is getting your business in front of a captured audience, and having a pop-up shop gives you the chance to make some sales as well. You could even buy custom tents to help make your business stand out at pop-up shop events. Thankfully there are payment options that you can utilise to make this even easier for your customers and your business.

Increase in marketing and stronger messages

There is always going to be a need for an increase in marketing if you are wanting to further extend your reach and have your business seen by new people. But it isn’t about when you share and how often you do it, it is also about the content that you share. You need to be more sharp with your content. Include direct links in pictures, take advantage of advertising through social media platforms, and enable your customers to see and be interested in exactly what you are supplying. There are some great articles online on how you can increase your social media strategy to boost sales.

Outsourcing jobs to free up your time

One of the biggest issues business owners face is the fact that they have no time. Often this is because as a business owner, you take on too many tasks to ensure your business runs smoothly. As you start to get bigger, you should consider outsourcing certain areas of your business. Things like accounts or IT management, for example. This will then free up your time so that you can focus on the areas that will make the most difference to your business.

Prospecting new and existing customers

There will always be customers that make enquiries through your website. There will always be people that fail to check out on that last page, and then there will be the customers who have already bought from you. These are prime people, and so you may want to consider contacting them and offering great deals. Repeat business from existing customers by offering a referral or discount code. Asking customers who failed to check out if there was a reason why and solving a problem. This could be a great way to increase revenue.

Let’s hope these options have you boosting your sales this year.

3 Growth Strategies To Help You Expand Your Business

/in /by

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | 3 Growth Strategies To Help You Expand Your Business

One way to measure business success is by looking at how far you’ve grown. If your company stays in the same state for years on end, then are you achieving your potential? Realistically, you should look for ways to expand and grow your business whenever possible. To give you a head start, here are some strategies to try out:

Broaden your products/services

Many companies expand by venturing out into different areas of business. You probably have a set of products or services that you sell. So, why don’t you branch out and add some new ones to this list? Think about things that relate to your business and can make a lot of money. By adding them to your repertoire, you can tap into new markets and find new customers. An example of this is the fashion retailer ASOS. Initially, they only sold clothing items on their site. But, they started adding new things like makeup, books, skincare products, etc. All of these things still related to their overall business, but it brought in new customers who perhaps weren’t interested in the other products but like the new ones.

Open chains in different areas

The next idea is a classic one. To expand your business, you need to dip your foot into other territories. Your company may be successful locally, but what about nationally/internationally? Start opening new chains in different locations to bring your company to new markets. All you need is a good commercial builder to help you create your new premises, then you’re good to go. It’s a genius way of earning more money and finding new customers without changing anything about your business model. Try this on a national level, then move internationally when you get big enough.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | 3 Growth Strategies To Help You Expand Your Business

Invest internally

The final idea is to take some of your earnings and invest them back into your business. With this internal investment, you can make significant changes to the way your company operates. As an example, you may invest in your employees and create new roles to bring more people on-board. Consequently, this provides you with more manpower to get through more work every day. In theory, you’re in a position to speed up your service and take on more clients. As a result, you provide a better service for existing clients and have the capacity to make more money by bringing new ones in. Another idea is to invest in the processes you use. Upgrade to modern processes for more automation and efficiency. Again, this can help your business improve its service and take on more work. In essence, investing internally can help you grow by allowing you to do things that you previously couldn’t.

As mentioned at the beginning of this piece, the growth of a company is a key indicator of success. The best businesses are always getting bigger and looking to expand in different ways. It shows you’re not comfortable with what you have and that you want to improve. So, get started today by trying any of these three growth strategies.

Making the Changes Your Business Needs to Succeed

/in /by

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Entrepreneurship | Making the Changes Your Business Needs to Succeed | Business SuccessBusinesses need to evolve over time, whether you want them to or not. The need for change could be due to a number of reasons, from the demands of keeping up with the latest trends to trying to save money to wanting to reach new goals in terms of growth. Whatever the reason, these changes will not happen overnight. For change to be successful, a lot of hard work will be required. However, what changes do you need to make, and how can you implement them? This guide explores more.

Getting more traffic to your website

You might have built a website and found little to no success since its launch. It might be that, currently, your website is not designed as well as it could be. A poorly designed website can deter people from sticking around. Another problem you might be facing is that you are struggling to get the traffic to your website in the first place. If this is the case, then you need to implement an SEO strategy right away. However, it could be that the content you are trying to produce every month on your blog isn’t achieving the results that you want. This is likely because you are not making the most of the keywords that should be used within the content. If you are experiencing any of the above points, you should get in touch with an expert such as Cocoonfxmedia, who will be able to get you started on a tailored business plan for how you can start getting the traffic you need to your website.

Keeping regular customers

Do you have a high turnover of existing customers because you are focused so much on trying to find new ones? This can happen to many businesses when they are trying to implement a growth management strategy. However, having a steady flow of regular customers is crucial to growth management. Not to mention that trying to find new customers is much more costly than trying to retain them.

So, if you have found yourself struggling to keep your regular customers and find new ones at the same time, then you will need to address what is going wrong. Are you losing touch too quickly? Are you giving your existing customers a good enough reason to continue using your services? Common ways to keep existing customers include:

  • Offering a discount
  • Finding something that makes your business unique
  • Focusing on customer service – you need to listen to what your customers want

Bringing onboard new services/products

Are you facing a bit of a cash flow problem? Or are you struggling to make as many sales as you did the previous year? This is a common occurrence for many businesses that have been around for a long time and have almost become complacent with what they are offering. When this happens, it is time to look at making a considerable change within the business itself. You need to have a complete refresh in terms of the products and/or services you are offering your customers. Alert them to the new products that you are introducing via a newsletter or on social media; you could even offer new customers a discount.

7 Outsourcing Trends You Should Keep an Eye on in 2020

/in /by

StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective Article | 7 Outsourcing Trends You Should Keep an Eye on in 2020Is your small business expanding? Do you wish to cut down on your costs without compromising your services? Then outsourcing is likely the answer you are looking for.

Regardless if you’re a small firm or an established one, outsourcing can help you in many ways. A key survey revealed that 59% of companies invest in outsourcing to cut down their expenses.

Though this is encouraging to hear, it is not enough for you to simply outsource on the fly. You must also look at the latest outsourcing trends that will shape the industry this year.

So what are these trends to look out for? Continue reading below as we discuss seven trends that businesses must be aware of.

The Outsourcing Industry: A Brief Overview

Before we discuss the latest outsourcing trends, let us first get a glimpse of the outsourcing industry today. Apart from its cost-cutting benefits, outsourcing helps companies focus on their core business. This helped the industry nearly double its growth over the past two decades.

From $46 billion in 2000, spending on outsourcing grew to $85.6 billion in 2018. Furthermore, the United States outsources around 300,000 jobs annually.

Companies are also starting to embrace cloud services to improve their outsourcing. This is despite the concerns on data security surrounding cloud technology.

Furthermore, 70% of transportation and retail firms outsource portions of their services. The same thing goes for 71% of financial service executives in the country.

Outsourcing Trends

With 2020 already underway, there are outsourcing trends that will make an impact this year. Let’s take a look at seven of the most important ones:

1. More Flexible Contracts

If it is your first time to outsource, you will encounter a contract that comes with stipulations. But unlike before, companies can expect more custom outsourcing agreements this year.

You will see more contracts that come with room for flexibility. This is important considering the different limitations and cost pressures that businesses face in regard to their outsourcing needs.

This flexibility covers service, delivery, and pricing.

2. More VAs and Chatbots

You can also expect to see more virtual assistants (VA) and chatbots doing the job for companies. Businesses will incorporate these technologies to interact with their customers.

This new form of outsourcing is evident in the chat boxes that you see on various websites. These chat boxes address customer inquiries without sounding too robotic.

The good thing about chatbots and Vas is that they offer consistency. Though real people can show emotional knowledge, there is a tendency for them to lose their cool. Moreover, chatbots can handle different tasks that don’t require human emotions.

These tasks include arranging schedules, finalizing meetings, and qualifying clients, among others.

3. The Cloud Effect

As we mentioned earlier, more companies are opening up to cloud services. Cloud-based technology increases connectivity. In turn, this makes offshoring more efficient.

Furthermore, the media and information industries will continue to invest in telecommunications outsourcing. They will continue to incorporate cloud-based systems to expand their reach without physically going out in the field.

Also, the cloud computing industry will likely continue to grow. In 2020, the market grew to $180 billion. By the end of 2020, observers believe the industry will reach the $411 billion mark.

This is because tech leaders like Google, IBM, Intel, and Microsoft will pour in more money to create a quantum computer. Experts also believe that the quantum computing market will reach a value of $8 billion globally by 2027.

4. Telehealth Market to Make Waves

The healthcare and medical technology industries will continue to outsource reduce their costs while improving their processes. The telehealth market will offer more online video calls in lieu of physical hospital visits to the doctor. You can expect to see more hospitals attending to patients living in faraway places through online services.

Moreover, hospitals will outsource wearables to improve their diagnostics. Examples of these wearables include smart eyewear, wearable patches, trackers, and heart bands. Observers project the medical industry will spend over $27 billion over the next six years.

Additionally, more doctors will outsource virtual reality tools featuring artificial intelligence. They will use these gadgets to diagnose more complex diseases like Alzheimer’s.

5. Small Businesses to Outsource Heavily

More start-ups and small businesses will outsource this year. These companies will increase their spending on software development from 6% last year to 9% this year. Moreover, small companies will look to use new technologies and approaches to improve their services.

Instead of building in-house teams to cover non-key operations and other excess workloads, they will opt to outsource since it’s the more cost-effective way to go.

Outsourcing offers financial respite for smaller companies that are working on a tight budget. It also solves problems concerning a lack of manpower.

6. New Outsourcing Destinations

You can expect to see new players for software development outsourcing. Though China and India will continue to serve as havens for IT and business process outsourcing companies, Eastern Europe will rise as the emerging provider for small to medium-sized firms. For example, Ukraine is one of the top outsourcing providers in Central and Eastern Europe. IT services in Ukraine are growing rapidly, and the opening of R&D centers of tech giants is proof of that.

Also, medium-sized companies in the US and Western Europe will continue to experience a talent shortage. This will prompt them to outsource employees who are technologically-skilled.

7. The Emerging Experience Economy

Last but not least, there is the emerging experience economy that will play a bigger role this year. This pertains to the companies’ needs concerning experiences affecting the overall client experience.

This involves outsourcing services that focus on intangibles and immaterial attributes. These include aesthetics, values, culture, and design.

Examples are services that improve the health and wellness of employees. Companies will look to outsource wellness solutions to increase employee retention and satisfaction. More businesses will hire coaches, trainers, doctors, and therapists who can provide these services.

Outsourcing and Beyond

By following these outsourcing trends, you can make better decisions about your outsourcing needs. You can invest in the right services that will improve your company’s overall efficiency.

But outsourcing is only one of the many tools worth considering. Check out our other articles to learn more about other solutions. We discuss topics that will help grow your business.

3 Ways to Benefit Your Business with VoIP

/in /by

When you’re trying to get your home business off the ground, one thing that is of the utmost importance is making sure you have effective ways to communicate with clients/customers, and other employees if you have them.

One of the best ways to do that is with a VoIP phone system. You can learn more about VoIP solutions at www.vtechsupport.com/services-solution/voip-solutions/. Simply put, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a digital telephone service that allows you to make and receive calls through the Internet.

So, why not just use a traditional telephone to communicate with others connected to your business? Can VoIP make a difference? Let’s look at three ways this service can benefit your business, and why you might want to make the switch.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | 3 Ways to Benefit Your Business with VoIP

1. It’s Cheaper

You want your business to continuously grow, right? Well, think about how many phone lines you might need in order to make that happen. Even if you only have a few, if you’re working on international business, the costs can start to add up quickly when it comes to calling times.

With VoIP, you only have to pay your Internet Service Provider – and you’re doing that already! It’s a good idea to have a solutions team at the ready in case you run into any issues with your VoIP, but the cost can still be less expensive than traditional phone lines, especially if you’re making long-distance calls to other countries.

2. It Makes Conference Calls Easier

If you have to have a conference call with several people at once, VoIP is the clear winner. Not only is the cost of conferencing usually built into the VoIP service you have (unlike most phone lines), but because the communication is through the Internet, you can enjoy additional benefits.

This includes things like video conferencing where you can share images and texts in real-time. It’s a great way to keep things organized and make sure everyone on the call is getting the correct information.

3. It’s Portable for Telecommuting

Remote work has become hugely popular in the U.S. and across the globe. As of 2019, about 4.7 million employees in the U.S. work from home at least half of the time.

When you use VoIP for your business, your remote employees can connect to it from any location, and they’ll have a specific phone number that won’t change no matter where they go. Not only does it allow them to access the phone to make calls, but they can also send faxes and access the other data services of your office.

VoIP isn’t necessarily anything new, but many businesses still aren’t taking advantage of it the way they could be. So, whether you’re a business owner with several remote workers or you just want to streamline your communication options with clients and customers, it’s worth looking into VoIP solutions and how they can save you money, time, and the headaches that can sometimes come from working with a traditional phone system.