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Steps to Save A Failing Business

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Save a Failing Business|Steps to Save A Failing BusinessNo one plans for their business to fail. But a harsh statistic is that in the first five years of trading, almost 50% of start-ups will fail for various reasons.

If your business is falling, you must take the steps to address what is going wrong and if there is anything you can do to rectify this.

Top Reasons Why Start-Ups Fail

  • 79 percent of businesses fail because they start with insufficient funds.
  • 78 percent fail due to a lack of a well-developed business strategy and inadequate market analysis.
  • 77 percent struggle because they don’t price items correctly or don’t account for all relevant factors when calculating prices.
  • 73 percent struggle because they are overconfident about the number of profits they will make, the amount of money they need, and what they need to do to succeed.
  • 70 percent of people struggle because they don’t understand or consider their flaws and don’t ask for support.

Steps you Can Take to Save Your Business.

      • Make sure the price you get for your product or service is higher than the cost of delivering an additional device (e.g., make one more widget or perform one more hour of service). If you have several items, repeat the process with each one. If you charge different prices to different consumers, you must research the consumer level. Increase the price, reduce the cost of delivering the incremental unit, or avoid selling the product or service when you find circumstances with a negative variable contribution. There may be unusual exceptions to this law, but in general, you must ensure that each sale generates enough revenue to cover your overhead.
      • You’ll almost certainly have to cut costs to remain in operation. To begin, cut out all discretionary spending. The business holiday party or the summer outing must be canceled. Then there’s the expense of things that don’t include people. Is it possible to lower your travel or utility costs? If the alternative is space because you are out of business, the landlord might be able to reduce rent, at least temporarily. Unfortunately, cutting costs may necessitate the difficult decision of laying off employees, reducing their hours, or lowering their pay. Austerity steps are never simple, but if the alternative is to close the firm, it is preferable to keep some employees working than to lose everybody when the company closes.
      • Address your debt levels. You cannot keep ignoring your debt levels both professionally and personally. Consult specialists such as Strategic Consulting Firm who can assist in moving forward to clear your debt levels.

    Being proactive when it comes to saving your business can help you identify ways you can drive to save the company instead of burying your head in the sand until it is too late. After all, you have poured your heart and soul into this venture; chances are you will thank yourself in the future for doing the hard work now to rescue anything you can and push for success in today’s harsh climate.

4 Simple Ways To Bring New Customers To Your Business

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |New Customers|4 Simple Ways To Bring New Customers To Your BusinessAre you thinking about ways that you can boost your business customer numbers and guaranteeing that you do attract more clients to your company? This might be a lot easier than you’d imagine. Here are some of the possibilities that could certainly be worth exploring.

There’s An App For That

If you want to attract new customers to your business, then you need to make sure that you are breaking down the barriers that could be stopping them from buying. This might include the fact that customers want to make purchases in a particular way. As such, you should think about giving them more ways than they can buy. For instance, you could think about including an app in your business model. Companies like Jackrabbit mobile will guarantee that you have the power to create a compelling and user-friendly app as part of your business model.

Influencer Magic

You could also think about using the power of influencers to ensure that customers are more inclined to buy from your business. The right influencers are always going to help you attract additional levels of attention. You might think that influencers are only going to work for certain business models. However, this is not the case and the reality is that there are influencers for every type of industry that you can imagine. That’s true regardless of whether you work in fashion or construction. You can think about reaching out to influencers on social media to ensure that you do gain their interest.

Going Guerilla

It’s also worth thinking about going guerilla with your marketing campaign. There are a wide range of guerilla marketing tactics that could be suitable for you such as sticker marketing, contextual marketing, and reverse graffiti, among others. Guerilla marketing is essentially all about ensuring that you make the promotion part of the show and that it completely immerses customers in a buying experience. Guerilla marketing can differ depending on the type of campaign that you are working on. For instance, you might want to focus on an online campaign where you encourage users to use hashtags. Don’t forget, a strong campaign like this will also attract media attention as well.

Killing The Costs

Finally, you should think about killing the costs in your business. Reducing your business costs will guarantee that you don’t have to worry about your business prices being too high for your customers. This can also stop you from remaining competitive in the long term. Luckily, there is a wide range of different options that you can explore to reduce your costs. For instance, you might want to think about making your entire business model more efficient. You can do this, by going green in your business which will help the costs trickle down through your entire business model.

We hope this helps you understand some of the key steps that you can take to ensure that you are bringing new customers in your business. By using these strategies you will be able to make sure you don’t have to worry about not reaching the right levels of profitability in the long term.

Tips On Saving Money On Your Energy Bills

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Save Money on Energy Bills|Tips On Saving Money On Your Energy BillsAs the warmer weather approaches, many of the households around the UK will begin to experience lower energy bills and as a result, will be looking for ways to continue these savings for when the weather begins to turn cold. But where can you start? In this article, we will be providing you with insight into some of the tips and tricks that you can use to save money on your energy bills.

Turn Off Standby Appliances

When you are looking to save yourself some money you should first start off by turning off your appliances that have been left on standby. With these appliances costing on average £30 a year turning them off will save you a significant amount of money per year. By taking the time to turn off your appliances when you use them, you can bring down the cost of your monthly bills and increase the longevity of your items.

Buy Energy Efficient Appliances

In addition to turning off the appliances that you are not using, you can also save yourself some money over time by purchasing several energy-efficient appliances. Whether it be a towel warmer for the bathroom or a new radiator for the living room, there are several ways that you can begin to use these appliances to bring down your costs over time. By replacing these outdated appliances, you can modernise your home with ease allowing you to save money gradually. With a number of these retailers selling energy-efficient applications, this can benefit you in the long term.

Invest In Double Glazing

Another way that you can begin to save money on your energy bills is to invest in double glazing. This will help to prevent heat loss from the windows and keep your home much warmer. With the heat being kept in the home, you can then turn the heating off throughout the day and save yourself some money. Though this is a much larger upfront cost there are several ways that this can not only bring up the value of your home but also help to reduce the monthly cost of your energy bills over the course of the month.

Add Insulation To The Roof

The final way that you can bring down the cost of your energy bills is to add insulation to the roof. By adding the insulation during the summer, you can make sure that your home is fully insulated when the weather turns much colder.
Regardless of whether you decide to implement the insulation yourself or hire a company to do so, this can help to keep the heat inside of your home and limit the amount of hot air that escapes through the roof, this, in turn, will bring down the cost of your monthly energy bills.

With this in mind, there are several ways that you can begin to save money on your energy bills without having to change too much in your everyday routine. Which of these tips and tricks will you be using first?

6 Career Benefits of Learning a Skilled Trade

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Learn a skilled trade|6 Career Benefits of Learning a Skilled TradeIt’s a common belief that the only way to achieve a stable career is by earning a degree. And while that may be the case for certain professions, it’s not the only way to build a career that is fulfilling, enjoyable and that challenges you.

Learning a skilled trade offers many of the same benefits as other career paths without the cost or time investment of a degree. From plumbing to fitting and maintaining HVAC units, there are plenty of opportunities for you to find a job you love. Here are some of the key career advantages to learning a skilled trade.

It’s a quicker way to gain real experience

Not everyone performs well in an academic or classroom environment, which can make it challenging to learn new skills. But for those who learn best on the job, building up a CV with valuable, hands-on experience can make the world of difference. In a skilled trade career, you can earn experience as an apprentice where you’ll start working on projects and jobs immediately, while picking up knowledge from professionals in the field.

You’ll earn a decent salary

Tradespeople have the opportunity to earn a good salary for their work, and the more skilled and experienced you become, the more you can charge. Salaries vary depending on the trade you choose and the level of experience you have, but on average, you can earn good money with a career such as this. For example, the average salary for a qualified electrician in the UK is over £32,000 per year, making it one of the top-paying trades. And with society’s reliance on electricity, you won’t find yourself short of work. Which brings us on to our next point…

Tradespeople are consistently in demand

There’s a constant need for skilled tradespeople and the pace of growth isn’t slowing down any time soon. In fact, there is a huge number of vacancies for roles such as plumbers and electricians due to skills shortages for these jobs. Depending on the trade you choose to learn, you could find yourself in an enviable position when it comes to earning a great salary and finding work, whether you want to be employed or work for yourself. So, if job security is a concern for you, a skilled trade career can provide peace of mind.

It’s an affordable way to learn

With rising tuition fees, going to university is a costly investment that can leave the average student in thousands of pounds worth of debt. One of the primary benefits of learning a trade is that it’s a cost-effective way of building a career that will earn you a good living. It means that once you’re qualified and working, you won’t be lumbered with a huge student loan debt hanging over you for years to come.

The opportunity to set up your own business

Working for someone else isn’t everyone’s dream – for the more entrepreneurial, starting a business and hiring other people might be the objective. Learning a skilled trade offers great potential for running your own business or working alone as a self-employed individual, where you can set your own hours and determine your own rates.

Job satisfaction

Job satisfaction is one of the top priorities for people seeking a new job now. With so much of our time spent at work, it’s important that we feel happy and fulfilled each day, rather than bored and dissatisfied. A big part of that is choosing the right career path and finding a job that is interesting, that challenges you and gives you the chance to build your knowledge. For many people, this also means finding a job that allows you to meet new people, to problem-solve on a daily basis and to do something hands-on. A skilled trade job offers all of this and more, and it can be a truly satisfying job opportunity that will leave you happier long-term.

Final thoughts

If you’re unsure what career to choose after you finish school, or you are looking for a change and want to switch to a different career path, learning a trade offers a lot of advantages. In fact, without qualified tradespeople, the world would struggle to function as we rely on plumbers, electricians and other skilled trades so much in our everyday lives. From earning a good salary each year to learning new skills and the potential to develop your own business, these are just a few of the benefits you can enjoy when you choose a skilled trade career.

Strategies for Taking Your Business to the Next Level

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Take your business to the next level|Strategies for Taking Your Business to the Next LevelIf you want to take your business to the next level but you don’t know how, you’re certainly not the only small business owner to feel that way. Finding that next leg up and finding a way to accelerate your progress is always going to be tough and there are never going to be any easy answers. But there are some strategies that you can make use of when it comes to leveling up and showing people your business should be taken seriously. Read on to find out about those strategies.

Push Boundaries with Your Goals

You should always be looking to push boundaries and achieve more if you feel like it’s time for your business to take that next big step up. Setting the right goals and pushing boundaries that way is a good idea because it gets your entire team on board. You can create team goals for you all to work towards collectively, ensuring everyone is pulling in the same direction and aiming higher.

Work on Increasing Your Productivity

If you want your business to be taken seriously and to take that big step up to the next level, you need to be performing efficiently and productively on a day to day basis. If you’re not performing well by those metrics, you’re always going to struggle to take that next step and show the world that your business is not just a flailing startup any longer.

Reach Customers in More Than One Way

Reaching your customers in a variety of ways is important. If you only have one strategy or one channel through which to bring in new people and to introduce them to what you have to offer, that’s always going to be something of a problem. Look for ways to diversify your approach and bring people on board in a more sustainable way.

Develop New Software Solutions

If there are particular areas in which you’re falling short and you want to create new solutions to them, finding the software that’ll make that progression possible will be key. Automating tasking and relying on solid software is certainly one of the things that’ll help your business make a step up. With the right software development methodologies and a good plan of action, you can make it happen.

Put Greater Focus on Customer Service

Customer service is always vital and something that should never be overlooked. If you want to grow, you’re going to need to keep your customers happy along the way. And that’s why good customer service is always a positive investment. You’ll keep customers on side and show everyone that you really do mean business here.

There’s no guaranteed way to find success with your business or to make that move up to the next level. It’s more about putting the things in place that’ll make such a move possible. That’s what’s most important here and it’s what you should be working towards with the help of the strategies discussed above.