Posts

Tips on Investing as a Business Owner

/in /by

StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Investing as a Business Owner|Tips on Investing as a Business OwnerA wise business owner will always look for great ways to invest their surplus revenue. Investing allows you to make the money you have increase in value and give you more options in the future. Investing may be a bit of a risk, but in some ways, it acts as a protective thing too. That is because you are not putting all eggs in one basket. Diversifying your investments can mean that you have capital when things go bad in one area. When it comes to investing, the one thing that you really need to do is ensure that you read the small print. Do not ever get into an investment you don’t understand, either. This can affect your finances as well as your reputation if the company you invest in turns out to be bad. Here are a few things to think about as a business investor:

An Investment Plan

It makes sense for a business owner to create an investment plan. This helps you develop a better understanding of your finances and the risk associated with the investments you want to make and create a portfolio that enhances your reputation, among other things. You should never go full steam ahead into any financial decision. When you are considering investing in a certain company, you should read about them. Are the any conflicts of interest? Does their brand vision align with your own? You need to work out what your red lines are and do not cross them, no matter how lucrative a certain dal may appear. You need to do a forensic examination of your business finances too. Is this really the best time to invest? What debt do you have? What new assets should you be buying? You will need to work out your financial goals and your long-term plan, and how long you plan on investing in certain areas. There are three main criteria you need to examine before you invest: what is the safety of the investment, your growth, and your income? You will also need to work out of you can lock money into a long-term deal. Bonds, for instance, may be locked away for 30 years or more. Do not lock anything away that you may need next year. Property is another investment that may be difficult to liquidate quickly without losing a lot of money. All these considerations need to go into your investment plan.


The Stock Market

This is what most people consider when they think of Investing. All the brokers on Wall Street are making millions with the clicking of their fingers. Companies that float on the stock exchange divide their business into shares they sell for a profit. You are essentially buying a part of that company when you buy a share. That is why you need to be very careful about how you invest here. It is very easy to invest in something that does not align with your views. So there is a reputational dimension you need to consider. The stock market is fickle, too, things go up and down, and you need to be wary. Think is always about dividends. Dividends are payments you receive for owning part of the company, and these can be very lucrative if you have enough shares.

Property

You can invest in property as a business. You can even buy your own home through your business, which is a great avenue to go down. Property can be a very lucrative investment, and you can buy to let or buy to sell on. People all need somewhere to live, and the cost of houses has been increasing drastically over the past few decades. When it comes to homes, you can renovate and change the interior. You can expand the homes by adding an extension; you can even build new bespoke homes. If this is something that interests you, and your business is not a building company, then you need help. A site such as ArchiPro can make it easy to find the builders you need to create great homes.

Bonds

Bonds are another great form of investment. There are Government and Corporate bonds, and like the stock market, if you are going to buy corporate bonds, you need to check that there are no reputational issues or conflicts of interest. Corporate bonds are far more lucrative than Government bonds but are the riskier of the two options. You can choose a set amount of time that the organization holds the bond, and during the time the organization holds the bonds, you receive payouts knowns as coupons.

Five Ways A Business Can Benefit From Marketing

/in /by

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Business Marketing|Five Ways A Business Can Benefit From MarketingAs a business, marketing can be a highly effective tool and can have many uses. For businesses nowadays, having a marketing strategy, budget, and team to execute it successfully is key.

There are many ways that a business can benefit from marketing. Here are some of those benefits worth considering.

Engages with a variety of consumers

Marketing does more than just appeal to your targeted audience. Chances are, it’s going to be seen by a lot of the general public and who knows, maybe they’ll become a target consumer for your business?

With the right type of marketing in place, it can help greatly when it comes to enticing the right people to the company’s doorstep. Not only that but it might provide the business with a few surprising conversions that weren’t typically part of the buyer persona for the business in question.

Helps to grow sales

With any type of marketing, it can prove worthwhile to help grow sales. For example, the use of direct mail marketing can be highly efficient due to its personability. Receiving post in the mail can often be a more personal way to receive marketing and advertising materials, especially when first names are used.

That’s why it’s good to utilize marketing like this to help encourage consumers to convert and purchase, or make another purchase as an already existing customer.


Provides great customer services

Customer services are something that matter to many of those who spend money on a brand. As we seem to be heading towards a more customer-centric experience in business, it’s important that the quality of marketing is apparent.

There’s nothing better than improving a company’s customer services, especially as it helps the business to garner further success. In fact, 90% of Americans will use customer service as an indicator of whether or they should do business with the company.

That’s a considerable amount of people that judge customer service as one of the most important factors of a company’s success to achieve custom.

Improves company reputation

A company reputation is hard to make better once it’s tarnished. However, there are plenty of easy methods in helping improve the company’s reputation, especially if it’s yet to achieve one.

With marketing, many businesses have managed to rocket their reputation through the use of viral marketing techniques and trends. It’s something that can definitely be helpful to do in order to give the business that boosts of good rep.

Strengthens company brand

Businesses can benefit greatly from marketing as it’s a good part of building a company brand. Building a brand image is necessary to help stick in the minds of the customers and with customers not recognizing a brand instantly, marketing can helpful.

Remember to incorporate brand imagery and content into the marketing itself so that it starts to become more familiar to those coming across it.

With a new year just around the corner, it’s a good time to review the company’s marketing efforts and utilize a marketing strategy in 2023.

5 Tips to Improve Sales Team Performance

/in /by

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Sales Team Performance | 5 Tips to Improve Sales Team PerformanceDo you want to generate more sales? It’s a silly question to ask, admittedly – every business wants to send out more orders to customers. Yet actually making it a reality is a whole different story. If it were easy, you wouldn’t see so many companies fall by the wayside each year.

The good news is there are numerous ways in which you can boost the chances of selling more to consumers. This is particularly the case if your business operates with a sales team. Whether they are out in the field, within your office, or working from home remotely, there are ways to optimize their performance.

How? That’s where this guide will help. Below are five tips to improve how your sales team operates.

1. Accurate sales forecasting

Did you know that most organizations don’t feature a scalable, repeatable method for forecasting sales? If your business falls into the same situation, it’s time to change this process. The reason for this is simple: a lot of critical decisions – from investments to hiring employees – are down to sales forecasts.

As a result, sales forecasting accuracy – where you measure how close you come to hitting your forecast – is necessary. Generally, an accurate sales forecast can be essential in improving your sales team performance. For instance, it allows your business to spend adequate resources more effectively to facilitate a successful sales strategy. It also helps your sales department to attain specific business goals by determining issues with their sales and looking for ways to correct them. Lastly, having an accurate sales forecast can help you make sound business decisions in terms of budgeting, risk management, and planning.

With all these things being said, sales forecasting indeed plays an integral role in the success of your marketing and sales efforts. But if you’re a beginner, how can you create an accurate sales forecast? Well, one way of doing this is by working out the percent difference, also known as the percentage error. Simply put, this is the difference between forecast volume and the actual volume expressed in percentage form. You can learn more online about how to calculate forecast accuracy.

If you’re not good with math and the last thing you want to deal with is a percentage calculation, there is a quick solution available. GIGA Calculator offers a simple yet effective percent error solution for this issue.

2. Implement sales tools

In the sales world, there are plenty of repetitive, unproductive tasks that each employee has to handle. This is why it is recommended to automate as many of these tasks as possible with the implementation of sales tools. When tools like these are used, it helps to save a significant amount of time on redundant assignments like data entry. This means your sales team can then dedicate more time towards tasks that matter most.

To get an idea of what is available for automation, Intercom has put together a list of 45 sales tools worth your time.

Aside from innovative sales tools, there are also other things that can help make the sales team’s work much easier and faster. One of them is the so-called sales playbook. It refers to a document containing your business’s best sales tactics, strategies, and even templates which are based on your sales successes and failures. In other words, it’s a cohesive manual that can guide your company in obtaining an increase in sales over a certain period of time.

Like the other sales tools, a sales playbook can serve as an effective tool to ensure your sales team utilize the best sales strategies. It also helps get your team on the same page in terms of your marketing and sales efforts, thereby making them much easier and more efficient. With a sales playbook, you can ensure that the sales department will properly implement your proven sales tactics. So, if you want to include a sales playbook in your list of sales tools, then you should start creating one as early as now.


3. Establish a schedule

Yes, sales reps are not known for sticking to the most stringent schedules – particularly if they’re working in the field where travel also has to be factored into the equation. However, putting together some form of schedule for your sales team is highly recommended.

When you have structure, where sales reps also know how long each client session should last, it’s easier for them to organize their daily schedule. They will know how much time needs to be dedicated for each meeting, along with other points that may apply, such as travel and preparation.

4. Decide on daily goals

Accountability leads to results. It is a driving force that gives your sales team that extra push to, well, sell your products. To add accountability, one of the easiest methods is to set goals that serve as a form of motivation. They supply salespeople with a plan of action, a sense of direction so they can hit their set targets.

For instance, say an employee is set with the target of reaching $500 in sales for the day. To do this, they need to make five sales. On average, it takes 20 attempts for them to land a single sale. As a result, it is known they need to make approximately 100 attempts to reach their goal of $500.

With this type of information and motivation, they can plan out how to make their goals a reality.

5. Communication is key

Being in constant communication with your sales team is imperative. This point shouldn’t be overlooked. The more you stay in touch with your employees, the more you’ll be aware of their performance and any feedback they might have.

When communicating with your employees, you can start with a quick meeting each morning. Yet, it is also wise to schedule a daily one-on-one check-in with each salesperson. This doesn’t necessarily have to happen each day, of course, but it is a great way to gain insight from employees.

By going with an in-depth interaction like this, it is perfect for getting valuable feedback. You can learn about not just ways to improve your business, but also the morale of your employees and if any steps need to be taken to improve their mood.

Improving Health and Safety Within Your Business Environment

/in /by

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Health and safety|Improving Health and Safety Within Your Business EnvironmentWhen running a business, it is crucial to ensure everything and everyone is as safe as possible. If health and safety within your business are not a high priority, then it is time to change this. When you actively improve and maintain health and safety within your business environment, you create a much nicer place to work for all employees. You create a warm and welcoming environment that helps contribute to the productivity of your employees.

Being Proactive about Safety and Health

You can always make improvements to the health and safety protocols applied within your business. Seeing where you can make improvements and taking a fresh look at your business regularly will help ensure you are as proactive as possible. Keeping up to date with your industry’s health and safety guidelines and guidance is also a proactive move you should make. When you are proactive, you maintain a focused approach and ensure standards never slip. If standards get the opportunity to drop, you will start to encounter bigger issues and costly problems.

Talking to Employees – Finding Out Their Concerns

As well as being proactive, you also need to prioritize talking to (and communicating with) your employees. Those who work every day within the business environment will know where health and safety dangers exist. This may be in an area you had not considered before, or their knowledge may help you make improvements you wouldn’t have entertained before. Valuing your employees, taking time to listen to them, and then acting on their feedback will help you maintain a healthier and safer working environment for all.


Providing the Right Clothing and Equipment

When talking to employees, you may well have found out that not enough safety equipment is being provided. From wide fitting safety trainers to safety goggles and hi-vis jackets, it is your responsibility to provide the right equipment for staff and employees. When all staff and employees wear the correct clothing and equipment, their exposure to risk is instantly limited and halted.

Monitoring Business Operations and Premises

To make improvements, you will need to understand where you are going wrong in the first place. For this to happen, you must regularly monitor your business operations and processes. Through monitoring, you will find out where improvements are needed and why. Taking a bird’s eye view will allow you to get a good idea of what is working well and what needs improvement. Through monitoring, you may find that employees are not wearing safety equipment when they should be. Or, they may not be following the safety protocols you have put into place.

Focus on Training and Preparation

You will find that one of the best improvements you can make is to start investing in your staff or employees. Providing regular training and preparation for everyday protocols, as well as emergency situations is going to help you guarantee that health and safety risks are kept to the bare minimum.

By being proactive about health and safety measures in your business, you are carrying out your duty as an employer.

Top Rated Investments with Precious Metals

/in /by

StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective | Top Rated Investments with Precious MetalsWhether you’re looking for the best gold ETFs or looking to invest in gold and silver, there are many different choices available. Here are a few of the top rated investments with precious metals that you can consider.

Types of Precious Metal Investing

Investing in precious metals can be a lucrative way to protect your wealth and diversify your investment portfolio. However, this asset class comes with its own set of risks and opportunities. Before deciding on a strategy, you’ll want to identify your goals, risk profile, and potential returns.

For example, investors can use physical precious metals as a hedge against currency devaluation or inflation. These assets can also be used as a store of value and a potential hedge against geopolitical risks.

There are two main ways to invest in precious metals: physical bullion and exchange traded funds. Bullion is typically bought and sold differently than ETFs. ETFs provide investors with exposure to metals, but not to the actual metal itself.

Another option is investing in numismatic coins. These unique coins are often rare and have unique characteristics. They have a higher investment power and are often sold for a small price. They are also easy to purchase and add a fun element to investing.

Investors can also invest in precious metals by purchasing shares of mining companies. These companies trade on the stock market and are leveraged to the price of the underlying metals. When the price of a precious metal increases, a mining company can become profitable.

There are also precious metals royalty companies. These companies hold a large portfolio of future streams. These companies are riskier because they are younger and have a larger share of the potential streams. However, these companies also have a high potential for upside.

For many investors, investing in gold and silver is a way to protect against inflation and stock market volatility. However, gold and silver mutual funds tend to gain popularity in uncertain economic times.

Physical Gold and Silver

Investing in physical gold and silver is a good way to add security to your investment strategy. Both can be a hedge against inflation. They can also help protect your portfolio when stocks fall.

If you want to be a wise investor, make sure to understand the various aspects of investing in these precious metals. There are many factors to consider, including the size of your investment, the cost of storage, and the required return to break even.

The first thing to know about physical gold and silver is that they can be purchased in many different ways. You can buy them as bars, coins, or through a third-party depository. You can also find a dealer online. However, you need to take a look at all of the costs associated with each option.

In the US, there is a strong demand for physical gold. Many of the major brokerage firms also buy and sell precious metals.

There are also a number of exchange-traded funds available that allow investors to get exposure to silver and gold. These ETFs charge an expense ratio, but provide investors with an easy way to access the metals without the hassle of physical storage. However, some ETFs don’t offer the same returns as physical metals.

The price of gold and silver fluctuates as a result of market conditions, economic factors, and inflation. This can be a good thing for short-term traders. However, it can also be a bad thing for long-term investors.

The best way to get exposure to the metals is to buy them through a reputable dealer. The right dealer will offer you a number of different options, such as a buy-and-store program. However, it’s important to choose a dealer that has a proven track record and that offers you great customer service.


Gold and Silver IRAs

Investing in precious metals is a smart way to diversify your retirement savings. However, a gold IRA is not for everyone. The key is to find a company that fits your needs and budget by reviewing a list of the top companies like the one here.

A gold IRA company can help you find the best gold for your needs. Many companies offer a wide variety of IRS-approved coins and bullion. If you have questions, call a representative. They will be able to explain your options to you.

Gold IRA companies should have competitive pricing. You should also check out their customer reviews and testimonials. It is important to choose a company that has a solid reputation and a good track record. It is also important to find out about the fees associated with IRA investments.

A gold IRA can provide protection against inflation and market volatility. However, it is important to keep in mind that the investment does not pay dividends. Also, withdrawals may be subject to tax penalties.

Gold IRAs are becoming popular among retirees and younger investors. Most investors roll over a portion of their retirement account to a gold IRA. Ideally, your investment should be less than 5% of your total retirement account. You should also consider a broader wealth-management strategy.

The best gold IRA companies are ones that offer responsive customer service and educational resources. In addition, you should make sure the company you choose has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. They should also have glowing client testimonials.

Gold IRA Advisors offers a variety of web conferences that will teach you about investing in gold. They also have a free investment guide that will help you get started. You can also speak with an advisor to find out what is best for you.

Precious Metal ETFs

Investing in precious metals is a great way to diversify your investment portfolio. This can help reduce your losses in the event of a market crash. These investments are also a good hedge against inflation. However, before investing in precious metals, there are a few things to keep in mind.

These investments are not guaranteed to increase in value. This is because precious metals are not backed by any entity. They also tend to be volatile. They are susceptible to investor sentiment and can swing a lot. They are also not income-producing assets.

Precious metals can be used as a currency or a store of value. They also have practical uses in technology. Many wealthy investors allocate a percentage of their investment portfolio to precious metals. These metals can be sold for profit when prices rise.

The best way to invest in precious metals is to buy a basket of precious metals ETFs. This can give you exposure to all four of the main precious metals: gold, silver, platinum, and palladium.

These ETFs provide diversification in one investment fund. The expense ratio of GraniteShares Gold Trust fund is 0.17%, making it the lowest in the industry. The fund also tracks the spot price of gold. The iShares Silver Trust provides daily exposure to silver bullion, making it convenient to invest. The fund has $12.7 billion in assets.

While the price of silver may be more volatile than gold, it retains value over time. It is also an industrial metal. As more solar panels are installed, the demand for this metal could increase.

The price of silver can be a good hedge against inflation. However, while gold can help protect you from inflation, it can also be a good hedge against currency devaluation.

Gold Mutual Funds

Investing in precious metals is a very popular investment opportunity. However, these investments have their own unique risks.

Precious metals and minerals industries can be impacted by global economic and financial developments, political events, trade imbalances, and central bank movements. These developments and events can result in price changes. Therefore, gold and silver mutual funds are not always a reliable investment option. However, these funds can diversify a portfolio and lower the risk of catastrophic losses.

The Gold Miners Fund invests at least 80% of its assets in gold mining companies. It also invests in international gold holdings. However, a portion of the assets may be allocated to a single issuer.

The Franklin Gold and Precious Metals Fund focuses on income generation and capital appreciation. It also invests in stocks of companies that produce gold and other precious metals.

The Fidelity Select Gold fund invests at least 25% of its assets in gold equities. It also invests in gold bullion ETFs.

Other precious metals mutual funds have stocks in platinum and silver. Platinum is a popular investment option. However, platinum and silver mutual funds are not as popular as gold funds.

These funds are a great option for investors seeking a safe investment option. Buying gold or silver can be a great addition to a portfolio, especially in a down market. However, it is important to keep in mind that past performance is not a guarantee of future results.

Before making an investment, it is important to understand the risks involved. Some of these risks include currency exchange rate risk, interest rate risk, and capital loss from currency fluctuations. International investing also involves risks from differences in accounting principles and political uncertainty.