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Tips for Giving Your Business a Successful Global Presence

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When you are trying to run a global brand it is so important to understand what this entails. You need to try to make the most of any opportunities you get to improve the business. There are a lot of things you can and should do in order to help take your company international and develop a strong global presence.

Modern businesses develop in a lot of ways, and one of the best things you can do is to think about the changes you need to make in order to help make the most of this. Now, there are a lot of things you are going to have to get right when it comes to giving your company a global presence, and these are some of the best ideas that can help with that.

Diverse Employees

One of the best ways of turning your business into a global brand and trying to make positive changes in the future is to ensure that you are hiring a diverse body of staff. Trying to bring in people from all walks of life, and with different backgrounds and cultures is really important. You are going to have to figure out the best way of being able to achieve this. Do as much as you can to figure out some of the best employees you should be hiring as a business right now.

Professional Translators

Something else you could do to really set your business apart from the rest, and make a great impression moving forward is to hire professional translators. This is a hugely important move when it comes to impressing foreign clients, and showing them that the business cares about them. Head over to this website and check out the services they offer, so you can see what it takes to make the most of this and find the ideal translators for your business.

Rebranding

You have to do as much as you can to ensure you have a business that is perfectly suited for a foreign marketplace, and the way to achieve this is to work on rebranding. You have a lot you need to keep in mind when it comes to improving and assessing the best ways of being able to do this. Sometimes, you might find that things get lost in translation, and this means you need to consider a rebrand so that your company is in the best condition it can be to thrive in a foreign market. One of the things that is going to help you the most is to think about the cultural differences between the country you want to build a presence in and the one you are from. Getting this right could make all the difference when protecting your company.

As you can see, when you are trying to run a successful business it is important to look at how you can turn it into an international brand. Now, there are plenty of ideas that will help you with this, and trying to launch a business abroad isn’t exactly an easy proposition. Follow these ideas and you will be well placed to make the most of this right now.

How Social Media Changed Tourism Marketing

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, How Social Media Changed Tourism Marketing

Social media has changed the way people communicate and exchange information. Because of this, industries in almost every sector have had to adapt to stay ahead of the curve. For some companies, making the switch was difficult. For others, the rise in social media has improved not only exposure but also the way companies market and do business. The travel and hospitality sector is one of those areas. Social media has become the most effective form of marketing since it allows exposure to your business organically. The travel industry has particularly benefited from this change.

There has been a rise in social sharing because of social media platforms. Over 97 percent of millennials share photos and videos of their travels online, according to Entrepreneur, and the travel industry is catching on. Some companies have encouraged their customers to engage with their business through social media.

Consumers turn to social media platforms to research places to visit and the best ways to travel. To find out places to travel, 89 percent of millennials plan travel activities based on content posted by their peers online. This is thanks to social media sites like Instagram, TripAdvisor, and Yelp. Though Facebook is not specific to travel like TripAdvisor, Facebook Recommendations allow its users to ask advice to their peers about the best cities to travel, which hotels to stay in, restaurants, and activities to do. All of these things essentially use word of mouth, which is the most effective form of marketing.

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Social media has also impacted the travel agency sector. Once consumers have found a destination, they are likely to book on their own using their mobile devices. Break The Ice Media reports 35 percent of travelers have used mobile to book a tour or activity while already on location. Travel agencies have had to catch up to the rising trend focusing on selling experiences instead of materials. Self-booking has not completely knocked out the travel agency business model as they are responsible for 55 percent of airline bookings, 77 percent of cruise bookings, and 73 percent of package bookings, reports Entrepreneur.

Making it easier to communicate directly with consumers, social media has also allowed travel and hospitality companies to improve their customer service. Consumers utilize things like Trip Advisor, and Yelp to share customer satisfaction. Most companies also have a social media presence making it even easier for disgruntled or confused customers to reach out and share their dissatisfaction. Uhuru says when customers reach out to a brand on social media, over 50 percent expect a reply. This may sound like a customer service representative’s worst nightmare, but it is actually very good for the business. By quickly responding to comments on social media, they can easily improve their reputation. This helps consumers see your brand is professional and they feel valued as a patron. Listening to a customer’s complaints or concerns is another way to learn more about your customers, allowing your company to provide an excellent experience.

Guide to Getting Started with a Blog for Your Business

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Guide to Getting Started with a Blog for Your Business

Having a blog as part of your business website is a brilliant way to help to connect with the customers that you have, and it also adds some strength to your business, and gives you some clout as a brand. However, even with these benefits, there are many businesses that haven’t yet latched on to the idea that having a blog is something that is going to be beneficial. Many businesses think that a blog can be something that is time-consuming. It can take some planning to come up with ideas for posts, and actually getting them written, but that shouldn’t be what stops you from launching one for your business. The time and planning really is worth the effort.

A blog for your business website is not a waste going to be a waste of time. In fact, it has been found that it can be one of the most cost-effective ways that you can market and promote your business, and can help to get more leads, and as a result, sales and customers. You can establish yourself as an authority in your industry, when you share relevant and correct information, and it can help you to get found more easily on the world wide web. Not only that, it is pretty straightforward to blog. You can always outsource it too, but with so many businesses doing it, and seeing the benefit, it needs to be something that you at least consider. With that in mind, here are some of the top tips on how to start a professional blog for your business.

Write for your customers

Writing for your business blog is something that is going to be different to writing for your own personal blog. Although some examples can come into play, they should be business related to demonstrate a point, rather than drawing on personal experience. The business blog is not all about you as an individual. You should always bear in mind that the people who are going to read the blog, are your customers or potential customers. So the content that is out there, needs to be written for them and their needs. Think about who your ideal customer is, and then write content according to that.

Great web hosting

If you already have a website, then the chances are that you are already happy with what you have. However, for a blog, you should have some great hosting, to really maximize the benefits of blogging, and making sure that the look and design of your site works well, and fits in with your brand. There are a variety of options, such as cloud hosting, or using a platform that is specific to blogging, like WordPress, for example. You could even consider something like Hostgator WordPress hosting which is hosting that is designed specifically to cater to any WordPress websites. When you combine cloud and WordPress hosting together, as in this case, it could help you to get a fast, secure, and reliable website and blog. You want the site to be quick to load and reliable, otherwise people will just get bored.

Content is king

In order for readers to stick to your blog, and keep coming back for more, the content that you create needs to be great! Not to mention that Google loves fresh content, so posting regularly helps to have new content for it to index, and helps your website to rank well in searches. Having great content is how you establish your business website as an authority in your industry. When you write about what you know, then it will make the writing easy. As a result, it will be more comfortable and engaging, and keep readers coming back for more.

If you have a business that sells garden furniture, for example, it can be something that can be a little dry, but there are lots of ways that you can go with it. If you are an expert on all things garden and furniture related, and what will work best in different settings or conditions, then that is the kind of content that you should run with. It is all having content that is relevant and interesting, even if on the surface you might not think that it is.

You should also look to answer questions that you think your readers might have. Going on to the garden furniture topic again, for example, you could talk about storage and weather conditions, such as looking after your furniture in winter. This is potentially a question that your customers could have. When they know that they can come to you for all things garden related and have their questions answered, it is more likely that they will come back again.

Little and often

Blog posts don’t need to be long essays. So it is a good idea to keep them short, sweet, and to the point, answering questions along the way. Unless someone is looking to thoroughly look into and research a particular topic, people will only be looking for quick information that they can skim read. As a guide, it is a good idea to aim your blog posts to be around 250 to 500 words. If it is going to involve more words to get your point across more clearly, then that is obviously something that is completely fine to do. There is also no set time to post, or how often you should post. Just think about being consistent. If once a week is all you can manage, then just make sure that it is once a week. Customers will want to come back to see new content each time.

One of the key points is to mix things up a little. Of course, a blog is there to help convert site visitors into sales. But don’t make it all about your products and recommending them. Mix up your posts with plenty of images, link to relevant articles, and even share videos. Engage with those that leave comments, and get the whole team involved; it will make a difference.

In the Time of COVID-19, Take Resilience-Building Tips from an Open Ocean Sailor

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | In the Time of COVID-19, Take Resilience-Building Tips from an Open Ocean SailorAdventurers immerse themselves in the most testing environments on the planet and acquire unique insights into how to be their best. They implicitly understand what it means to perform under pressure, because their very lives often depend on it. An adventurer’s mindset can help instruct us during this pandemic.

The COVID-19 crisis has turned us all into adventurers, as we push our limits and test our resolve during this journey into the unknown. It’s a strange situation, but the current pandemic is forcing us to don the adventurer’s mantle. Adventurers thrive on uncertainty and become motivated and empowered when they face the unknown. They intuitively understand that resilience is a skill that requires challenge to build and grow. The COVID-19 pandemic has developed into a once-in-a-lifetime challenge for us all and will take resilience to get through.

As this crisis unfolds, the story of one adventurer in particular, an open ocean sailor named Lisa Blair, exemplifies the resilience from which we can all benefit. An extremely accomplished solo open ocean sailor, Lisa has been thrown into a cauldron of uncertainty many times in her career and has always managed to navigate through. Her attempt to break the world record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of Antarctica is one of the most perilous journeys a sailor could undertake, and if it wasn’t for her immense capacity for resilience, she would never have survived it.

Everything had been going exactly to plan for the first 72 days of Lisa’s endeavor, and she was one month away from reaching her goal. But in the midst of a treacherous storm, everything changed. “The mast snapped at deck level so there was nothing standing up outside my boat, it was totally gone,” she recalls. The mast had fallen to the leeward side of the boat and immediately became an immovable object in the water. Her boat, Climate Action Now, was left hanging off its new anchor, pounded by 25-foot waves.

In the grips of a massive storm about 1,000 nautical miles from land, with no ship traffic near, Lisa was completely alone in the face of grave danger. “If I lost the boat that far south, there was no second chance. Even if I jumped in a life raft with my survival suit, the chances of recovery were slim for any ship to even find me, let alone find me alive if I hadn’t succumbed to exposure. So I had to free the mast at all costs.”

Through the darkness of an angry night, Lisa set about trying to save her boat. She had to free the destroyed mast — a delicate procedure in calm conditions, but in the frenzy of a storm, as her boat pitched and rolled with waves washing across its deck, it became a life-threatening task.

To release the mast Lisa needed to uncouple the rigging. To do this she needed to disengage a split-pin at the connection point at several locations. “I tried to hammer them out with my screwdriver and hammer and it just wasn’t working,” she recalls. “I was shaking so badly, I couldn’t aim right and I kept smashing my left hand. My whole hand ballooned up as I’d likely broken a few bones.”

To separate the forestay, Lisa had to crawl out on the end of the bowsprit where she was pummeled with huge crashing waves. “My legs were clamped so hard and I was gripping the remaining bit of railing with a death grip as I held on.” She needed to time her work with the gaps in the waves, hammering for all she’s worth in the trough of a wave and hanging on when the next one approached. Lisa cycled through her hands-on hands-off rodeo ride until the split-pin finally popped loose. She scrambled back on deck and made quick work of the side stays, then watched her mast slip beneath the ocean surface. She had saved the boat and herself.

Lisa Blair had to abort her record attempt and use her motor (and a perilous rescue by a Chinese container ship) to retreat to Cape Town, South Africa. Two months later with her boat repaired, she was ready to head back to sea. But instead of applause and encouragement, she was met with a chorus of naysayers telling her she had no business heading back out. Winter had descended on the Southern Ocean, and with it came colder weather, bigger waves and hurricane-sized storms.

After the monumental challenges and disappointments of the previous months, most people would have called it quits, but not Lisa. In her mind she had started something, and she was going to finish it.

What special something kept her going? What made Lisa so resilient? Here are some of her secrets:

1. Plan for worst-case scenarios.By using all of her knowledge and experience, Lisa knew both practically and emotionally what she needed to do. Her background in undertaking difficult adventures helped her prepare for her journey. She anticipated worst-case scenarios and planned how she would deal with them. She was as prepared as she could be.

Scenario planning can be an incredibly effective tool to anticipate the unknown. Mapping “if-then” responses and visualizing a myriad of scenarios can help us respond to any challenge that presents itself. Worst-case scenario planning allows us to make any decisions we face with a clear head.

2. Maintain strong personal relationships.Lisa’s strong personal relationships helped her to maintain her resilience. During difficult times, she effectively processes her feelings by sharing them openly with her support network of family and friends.

For all of us, utilizing our trusted relationships can keep our spirits up. Reaching out to those closest to us to process strong feelings is a key way to boost resilience and move through these challenging times.

3. Remain realistically optimistic.Lisa’s resilience also stemmed from a powerful sense of realistic optimism. Her ability to accurately assess the gravity of her challenges while maintaining a deep belief in the possibility of a positive outcome was critical.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we can follow Lisa’s lead of accepting the current reality with a belief that we’ll eventually resume our disrupted quests. Success is still within our reach.

By adopting the adventurer’s approach to setbacks and challenges, we will build resilience in the face of these challenging times.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Amy PoseyAmy Posey is a Silicon Valley-based leadership consultant focused on neuroscience and high performance. She is the founder and CEO of SUPER*MEGA*BOSS, a manager training company.

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Kevin VallelyKevin Vallely juggles his life as a registered architect, leadership mentor, author, keynote speaker and father, while also becoming an internationally recognized explorer. Their new book is Wild Success: 7 Key Lessons Business Leaders Can Learn from Extreme Adventures (McGraw Hill, March 10, 2020). Learn more at www.morewildsuccess.com.

How to Deal with Debt and Keep Your Business Afloat

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article Deal with Debt|Deal with Debt|How to Deal with Debt and Keep Your Business AfloatThere is no magical money tree that provides unlimited finances. If there was, business would be a whole lot easier. In reality, the lack of money is the downfall for many businesses. When cash flow is skewed and there’s not enough revenue being generated, this will lead to companies descending into debt.

The debt hole is one that many will fall down and fail to escape from. The result: their business disappears forever.

There are plenty of statistics which back this up. It is said that 50% of small businesses will fold within five years of opening. The main reasons for this include:

  • Insufficient startup capital
  • Inadequate financial planning
  • Poor management
  • Cash flow issues

While the position is difficult to come back from, it’s not impossible. As the following guide will demonstrate, you can deal with the debt and keep your business afloat in the process.

Look at the numbers

When it comes to a starting point for solving your debt quandary, you should always begin by having a general overview of the situation.

If you focus on the numbers, you can gain a deep insight into your current problems. By viewing the revenue and expenses of your business with a magnifying glass, you can truly understand why your debt has cropped up over time.

With this type of information, you can begin to plan for the future. You may craft a budget that will steer you out of trouble. You will understand how many sales are required to start producing a suitable profit. You can also figure out what type of costs your business can eliminate – more on that in the next section.

Reduce costs

As with any budget plan, one of the main focuses should be on your costs. If you can cut away unnecessary expenses, you will typically save a significant amount of money – the type that can go towards wiping out your debt.

Fortunately, there are various different options available when it comes to making budget cuts. Here are a few to consider:

  • Relocate the business: It might not be cost-effective in the beginning but relocating to a cheaper location can seriously pay off in the long run. Plus if you truly want to save money, consider abandoning the office space altogether and create a remote team.
  • Utilize technology: If you select the right technology, you can reduce the need for you and your employees to spend on certain tasks. For instance, you wouldn’t necessarily need someone managing the books if you use specialist accounting software that automates the process.
  • Freelancers instead of employees: In-house employees are expensive. Along with their regular wage, you have to consider aspects such as benefits and taxes. This isn’t the case when hiring a freelancer. You can simply pick to pay a set fee for each task/project, and there’s no need to retain a freelancer or agency.
  • Go paperless: Paper, mailing supplies, postage, ink – these are costs which will seem minimal on the surface. Yet they can quickly add up to being a significant expense for your business. If you go paperless, you can effectively eliminate these types of payments.

Just remember: don’t go overboard when reducing your outlays. You never want to remove so much that it negatively impacts the overall quality of your business. Your products and services need to maintain their standards – otherwise you’ll also lose something else: your customers.

Improve your marketing

Now when the previous point talks about reducing costs, you might be wondering how it’s feasible to improve your marketing. However, you don’t have to throw money at promoting your business. This can be done with a very limited budget – you just have to be savvy and strategic about it.

For instance, you can utilize social media to promote your business. It’s free to sign up on the likes of Facebook and Twitter, and you can build a healthy following and reach with a regular flow of shareable content. Even something as simple as offering a coupon code can be an effective marketing approach.

When you boost your advertising efforts, you will naturally increase your sales numbers – the ideal tonic to any debt issues.

Contact your customers

Your current customer base is what’s keeping your business alive at this point. Yet this same customer base can be used to grow your company to a new level.

First of all, you can increase sales numbers by specifically targeting your current customers. If you supply them with exclusive deals, they are likely to bite. After all, they’re a customer for a reason – they already enjoy what you’re offering, and they will do so even more if they receive a discounted price.

You can also contact customers as a form of market research. Ask them for feedback on what they like and dislike about your business, what they’d like to see from a new product range, and so on. This type of research can help guide your business towards a prosperous future.

Get in touch with creditors

If you contact your creditors and explain your current predicament, they might be willing to negotiate more favorable repay terms. This can help keep away the potential of facing a debt lawsuit.

Although no matter how much you try, creditors can decide to hit you with a lawsuit. They might feel this is the only way to get you to pay the debt. Before you do, however, analyze the options available. You can acquire professional legal help with pay off when dealing with a debt lawsuit. Their expertise

Sell up

If your debt has consumed the business and there’s seemingly no solution, there is one way of getting out of the problem: sell the company. If you sell the business, you can instantly pay off your creditors and get away from the situation.

At least, that’s if you can find a buyer. If your business is in the unfortunate position of having larger debts than assets, this won’t look enticing to buyers.