Michael Levitt's Blog, page 108

Is Inflluencer Marketing Still Going To Be Popular In 2021?

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The opinions of others matter a lot. We rely more and more on the recommendations of others and brands know it. Hence, influencers have become fundamental pieces within Social Media strategies. But why are they so important? And above all, how can they help you?

First of all, we must make clear what we know as an influencer. For a few years now, the traditional media have been talking about the popularity of new internet professions, such as YouTuber or Instagramer. However, despite having become one of the most dream jobs, not everyone who tries, it becomes influential figures in the networks. However, those that do can assist brands within their marketing goals. What will the trends be for 2021?

The ever-changing world we live in proves that we are all destined to start shopping more online. Our lives are switching to digital. So, therefore, when we see things online or on an application, we are more likely to look at what it is and how much it is. Influencers merely enhance your product or business and display it freshly and share it with their thousands of followers. The use of influencers in marketing strategies can be to:

Launching a product or service: If we want to launch a new product on the market, what better way than to use an influential person to recommend it to all of their followers. The momentum it generates can be very high, as long as we have chosen the right influencer.

The launch of a new brand: As in the launch of a new product, if what we want is to present a new brand and have it well received, a good influencer can help us achieve it.

Promote a certain action: On some occasions, when we modify some aspect of our brand, we need that little boost in its dissemination, so the use of influencers will be a success.

Events: Having an influencer at one of your events is one of the best strategies to get people talking about him on all social networks.

Contacting Influencers is not easy. There are many companies and individuals that want to access them to make offers and proposals, and through Social Networks, it is not possible to send direct messages that we are sure will be read. Profession influencers usually put contact information in the description of their profile or website to receive offers. Some online platforms and brands can make life a little easier, such as unrulyagency.com, who offer this service.

Currently, agencies and companies talk about "Influencer Marketing", which is based on the great impact that 3% of Internet users have on the decisions of others. In short, an Influencers and Social Media strategy is a process that consists of detecting and contacting people who have a lot of influence in the same market or sector. However, in 2021, researchers predict that this will rise even more; meaning that if your brand hasn't yet reached out to some influencers, perhaps now is the time to start looking into it. Yes, they may not come cheap; but any form of advertising is often linked to your hard-earned capital. Taking risks and making informed decisions is the best thing you can do for your brand. It's time to step into the new decade if you haven't already.

Keeping Your Commercial Premises Safe for Your Employees

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Safety has always been one of the top priorities of any good employer. Staff health and safety is important in so many ways that they’re almost uncountable. First and foremost, you should want your staff to be safe due to morals and ethics. These individuals are working for you and generating you a profit. The least you can do in return is provide them with a safe space to work and to ensure that they aren’t asked to do anything that could prove detrimental to them. You also want to keep your staff safe and well to maintain productivity in the workplace. If your staff hurt themselves or become sick, you’re going to find yourself short staffed and you may not be able to get everything done that you’d hoped you’d be able to get done. But what measures can you take to maximize staff safety in the workplace? One area to focus on is the premises itself. Here are some steps you can take to achieve your goals!

Make Sure Outdoor Areas Are Well Lit

All too many accidents happen when employees are trying to make their way from their place of work to their car in the car park, or to their nearest public transport stop. During the winter months, when days are shorter, staff may get to work before the sun fully rises and may leave work when the sun has gone down. If you run night shifts, workers are likely to always arrive and leave in the dark. This can create scenarios in which staff are prone to tripping over things as they get to work and leave your premises. Fit lighting to illuminate any outdoor areas of your commercial property that staff regularly access or walk through. This can include alleyways, car parks and more. For some quality lighting, click this link here.

Provide Covid Essentials

We’re in the midst of a pandemic, so it’s important that you supply all staff with the relevant PPE required to keep them safe. PPE stands for “personal protective equipment” and - in relation to the pandemic - this can include face masks, face visors, barriers between workspaces where people from different households can’t stand more than two metres apart and more. You should also provide other essentials like antibacterial handwash in the bathrooms and hand sanitiser at various points around the business.

Have Temporary Signs Ready to Go

Chances are you’ve already highlighted permanent hazards in your commercial premises with signage, such as low ceiling signs or “mind the step” warnings. But you also need to have temporary signs ready for use. A prime example is a wet floor sign, which can alert people to spills until they’ve been cleaned up and dried.

Workplace health and safety is multifaceted, and this year, there are more potential hazards than ever before. But it is possible to keep your staff safe if you are rigorous and dedicated. Hopefully, a few of the above pieces of advice can help!

Returning to Education? What You Should Study

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Many business owners reach a point in their careers when they want to develop a new skill or area of knowledge. This can be for many reasons, but ultimately it is so you can take your business and your career to the next level whilst retaining a level of self-sufficiency that you have come to enjoy. However, when you have managed to carve out the funds and time to turn this desire into a reality, how can you know what course you should study? Different degrees will give you different advantages, allowing you to develop your skillset in the unique ways required by your specific circumstances.

Business Management

The first and most obvious choice for business owners is a degree in business management. Many business owners may already have this degree, precisely because it has been proven so useful as a way to holistically understand what it takes to run a business. However, if you do not already have this degree, it can be a brilliant way to get back to basics and understand the fundamental structures of your business from an academic perspective, offering you new insight and helping you solve problems with the techniques and information that you will gain. 

Economics

First things first, what careers can you pursue with a degree in economics? The first possibilities that spring to mind are purely financial - being an economist, a financial analyst, or an accountant. However, an economics degree is also startlingly useful for any business owner, though many people doing their first degree shy away from it. Any consultant you hire to advise on the financial health and prospects of your business will have a background in economics. Becoming aware of wider economic factors will help you make decisions about where to take your business, and help you avoid risks that you might not otherwise have seen.

Marketing

People who do a marketing degree then move into business have an immediate advantage over their competitors, simply because they have detailed knowledge of how to sell a product to the right audience. For this reason, if your business is stagnating, studying marketing in your return to education could be the magical pill that changes everything. Learn how to frame your business in the best light and attract the right clients, how to stand out in a crowded market, and the success of your business will follow.

Computer Sciences

On the face of it, returning to education for a computer sciences course or degree might feel less applicable to running a business than the previous three options. However, as we have seen over the past few months, businesses are operating online more than ever before, and this is a trend set to continue into the future. IT management firms are making huge profits in helping businesses with their technology. With a degree in computer sciences, you’ll be putting yourself in a brilliant position as you can move forward into the digital age with your own foundation of knowledge behind you, helping you troubleshoot and optimize your business’s performance.

The Ultimate Guide to Using Answering Services

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Answering services are essential in daily life for many global businesses and companies. Finding the right match can be where challenges start to begin, but it can be the best choice you make.

Seeing a way forward in the current COVID19 Pandemic may give rise to many businesses and companies heavily relying on these types of service. There are also new technologies that may advance the use of answering services too. The road ahead is wide open, and change is inevitable.

How Can an Answering Service Help?

Answering services are beneficial, saving money and time. They exist to manage inbound and outbound telephone calls. Businesses of all sizes, who do not have the resources or finances, may benefit from this service type. 

There are four types of answering services:

An automated service.

Call centres.

Digital and Internet answering services.

Live Inbound and Outbound services.

Making Answering Services Work for Business

Doctors, medical centres, and dental practices all offer answering services to provide patients with a 24-hour service 7 days a week.

Internet answering services allow you to receive messages on your mobile phone. 

Automated answering services and interactive digital service systems interact with telephone callers by responding with a series of responses the caller has to answer. The telephone call's entirety is conducted via a series of digital interactions with the companies preset machine.

Answering services can save time and money and help reduce overheads and reduce personnel, allowing you more flexibility and opportunities to introduce new aspects to your business.

Having an answering service will also help you to free up more time and allow you to indulge in a little quality time for yourself.

Choosing the Right Answering Service.

Finding the right answering service that meets your needs and moves your business forward. Considering this as an option may also improve your business trajectory, ultimately making a huge difference. An answering service that fits your brand could also help support and assist your business's reach beyond your local area.

You should research well and evaluate all of your options before making any final decisions on taking steps to ensure the system you choose takes you in the right direction. Once you have made your choice of answering service watch your business grow.

Taking Back Some Time

The extra time you gain and the money you save could be used to explore any of the following activities and benefit your body, mind, spirit, and soul. Plus, it affords you more time to develop your business and take a more holistic approach.

Meditation.

Visiting a business retreat.

Travelling to a favourite place.

Spending time with family and friends.

The list is endless; you can move mountains, but getting your voice heard can sometimes be challenging. But do not give up, trying to get your message out into the world by whatever means you can, even if that involves using the help of digital services and reaching out to use answering services to save your business in these uncertain times. 

3 Things To Keep In Mind When Building Your Own Home

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When it comes to building your own home, it is a fascinating time of your life. It can be an overwhelming experience yet rewarding when all your hard work comes together. You need to keep in mind that will help you keep things organized to allow your house to become the best home.

Make a strong plan

A big part of building a home is putting together a healthy plan that reassures you that everything will run smoothly. This includes the budget and how you will spend it and researching into the waiting times for contractors and hiring services so you do not encounter any unexpected delays.

It can be easy to get swept up in the moment and get the ball rolling but spending the time to ensure that you have planned everything can keep you on your budgets and staying closer to your time scale of your project.

Do your research on builders.

Sadly there are many times when builders take advantage of you and your project that can be a massive setback. Before diving into choosing a builder, make sure that you read reviews, ask people around you about their experiences, and look at their previous work to ensure that it is up to a high standard. Reading reviews will give you a heads up to know if they have cutting corners or taking advantage of their customers. You may find that some builders are better at some parts of the build than others, so you may need to hire several different builders to get a higher quality of service.

Hiring a crane

If you need large or heavy items, it can be a good idea to use heavy lift crane services to give you the peace of mind that you are avoiding unnecessary injury such as pulling your back. A crane can deliver your resources from lorry to land and move items from the front garden over your house to the backyard. Hiring larger equipment like this avoids the worry of storing them. With the cranes lifting from 250t to 750t capacity, it can be a massive weight off your shoulders that your materials are moved safely and with ease. 

Hopefully, with this guide, you will be able to finish your project with ease. Making a healthy plan with everything you need can allow you to get on with your project's directing rather than having setbacks from unaccounted issues that occur. Although it can be time-consuming, it can be a good idea to do some research into your builders that you hire, as this could potentially save you a lot of time and money in the future. Throughout your project, you will most likely need to lift heavy and large items from their transit lorry or piece of land to another, so this can give you the piece of mind that everything is accounted for throughout your project. Having all this in mind could save you a lot of money trying to fix mess ups or waiting around for services.

How To Ensure That You Excel At Work

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When it comes to your career, naturally you want to do well and work hard to ensure that you are able to keep on top of your workload and move your career forward at the same time. However, it is far too easy to fall into bad habits when it comes to your time at work, and you can easily end up not working to the very best of your ability as a result of those habits. It’s not that you’re bad at what you do, it’s simply that you may have fallen into somewhat of a rut with how you approach your work. 

The good news is that even if you have found yourself in somewhat of a rut when it comes to your work and your career, there are plenty of ways that you can get out of the rut and move your career forward. It’s normal to want to excel at work, but a lot of us struggle to know what steps to take to do that and end up falling into a place where we struggle to achieve the goals that we wish we could achieve because of this. 

If you have found yourself in this place - a place where you’re not sure how to move your career forward from - don’t panic. Remember, you can easily make changes to propel your career and ensure that you excel at work, it’s just a case of knowing what steps you need to take in order to do that.

To help make the process a little easier, below are a few simple tips and suggestions that should help you to ensure that you’re able to properly excel at work. For everything that you should know, read on! 

Stick to a schedule 

One of the most common reasons why we end up struggling with our workload and end up in a rut is simply because we aren’t managing our time properly. Poor time management is a common problem, and it’s far too easy to end up in a mess where you’re struggling to effectively manage your time. However, that’s where creating a schedule comes in - if you want to make meeting deadlines easier, and making sure that you’re able to achieve your goals a little easier, then it’s important that you take the time to create a schedule to stick to each day, complete with a daily tick list of tasks. 

You will find that by creating a schedule, it’s far easier for you to ensure that your deadlines are met and that you don’t fall into a rut. When it comes to creating a schedule, you could either use a traditional paper planner or you could opt to use a planning app on your smartphone or a calendar system on your computer. How you manage your time is up to you, it’s just a case of finding smarter ways to approach the situation. 

Be an overachiever

If you want to make sure that you excel at work, it’s important to ensure that you don’t just do the bare minimum. If you want to see results from your work and actually move your career forward and reach your goals, then it’s important that you always endeavour to go above and beyond. Doing the bare minimum might get you paid each month but it’s not enough for you to excel at your career, is it? If you want to make sure that you are able to excel at work and actually build a prosperous and profitable career, then you need to always do your best to go above and beyond and do more than is expected of you. You might not want to put in extra work, but if you are serious about achieving your career goals, it’s important that you are willing to go that extra mile. 

Be hot about training 

It’s easy to fall into the false sense of security that after completing your initial training and gaining your qualifications, that you no longer need to worry about training. However, this could not be further from the truth. Throughout your career, it’s important that you take the time to undertake refresher training, to help enhance and improve your knowledge and experience. It’s important to remember that training changes all of the time, which is why undertaking refresher training is so vital throughout your career. 

It’s also a good idea to look into other training options that may help you to further enhance and improve your knowledge and understanding. If you want to move your career forward and ensure that you excel, there’s no harm in undertaking additional training. 

Take every opportunity 

One mistake that you don’t want to make is failing to take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. If you are going to excel at work and build a career to be proud of, it’s vital that you are willing to take advantage of every opportunity available to you. This means that if you are offered the chance to work in another department for a week or two, you take it. It means that if you are offered the chance to attend an evening of additional training, you take advantage of it. It means if you’re asked to attend a trade show, you go. 

If you want to excel at work and build a career to be proud of, it’s important to take advantage of every single opportunity. Otherwise, you may end up regretting not taking them. If you are serious about building a career where you excel, you need to be willing to go above and beyond and do everything that you can to see success. 

There you have it, a few simple tips and suggestions for ways in which you can ensure that when it comes to your career, you are able to excel. Take note of the tips above and implement them in your career strategy, and you can make achieving success at work a little easier and more achievable for yourself.

Protecting Your Business This Winter

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The winter period is set to be notoriously challenging for businesses across all industries in the 2020/21 season. It isn't easy to keep a company surviving let alone thriving in the current situation. So, every owner must take the necessary steps to protect what they still have. Otherwise, getting through this testing time will become even tougher.

So, what steps should be taken to ensure that the business stays on healthy ground? Here's all you need to know.

Protecting Business Premises

Work buildings might not be as busy as usual due to the pandemic and social distancing requirements. However, this actually increases the risk factor, which is why you must take extra care. While CCTV and good security locks are vital, your commitment mustn't end there. All workspaces must be kept safe as to avoid accidents, especially if fewer managers are around. From snow removal services to testing the fire safety systems, you cannot afford to overlook these assignments. Safe workplaces are the foundation of success.

Online Security

It is very likely that your company will rely on its online platforms like never before. After all, both B2B and B2C clients are restricted in their habits right now. They will conduct a lot of their research at home while a greater percentage of transactions will be conducted over the internet too. Keeping your business safe online will allow you to provide a trustworthy and reliable service. Likewise, the benefits can be enjoyed by workers that need to use online connections to complete their tasks.

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Using Outsourced Staff

As already stated, workplaces may be less hectic due to reduced capacities. You cannot allow reduced on-site numbers to harm overall productivity levels. So, it is imperative that you find alternative ways to plug the gaps. Allowing employees to work remotely from home is a good option. Meanwhile, outsourced customer care services, for example, can reduce the strain. In many cases, using temporary remote contractors will allow you to manage productivity and budgets with control. Without it, the company is at threat of burn out.

Intellectual Protection

Allowing the company reputation to take a ht is simply not an option at this time. Unfortunately, intellectual theft is rife. Threats can come from employees and contractors, as well as standard fraudsters. With this in mind, the use of non-disclosure agreements and other protective measures is crucial. You should also take proactive steps to check that people aren't stealing your content or copyrighted materials. If nothing else, it ensures that you gain the full benefits of your hard work.

Reducing Financial Waste

Whatever you do over the coming months, there is a good chance that your sales revenue will take a hit. In truth, this has probably been the case ever since the pandemic started. With many bills, such as energy usage, set to climb over the winter period, you must respond in style. From a better delivery partner to a new insurance firm, every saving will give you a better chance of survival. Habitual changes, including ideas like shorter team meetings, can save time and money. When you spend less, a slight reduction in revenue won't be a death sentence.

Bookkeeping And Accounting Habits For Entrepreneurs

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Badly managed and poorly tracked finances can cause a lot of big issues for any business, from poor cash flow to legal action after incorrect tax filings. These obstacles can put a new business at major risk. Good bookkeeping and accounting habits can help an entrepreneur to succeed. Learn these important habits to take your business to success.

Get Professional Help To Prepare Tax Returns

Business owners have a lot of different hats to wear and a lot to do. This is why it’s a good idea to outsource work that you don’t have the skills or time to do yourself. If you’re like many entrepreneurs, you’re probably not a trained accountant and don’t have the skills to do it yourself. 

Outsourcing the job or using virtual bookkeeping gives the task to someone who can do it quicker and with more accuracy, which is a smarter idea than struggling with it yourself. 

A professional accountant can do a lot more for you than just handle your tax return. Someone with a skilled financial eye can see ways to improve your accounting processes too.

Don’t Go Entirely Hands Off

Outsourcing your bookkeeping doesn’t mean you should hand it over completely to someone else. You still need to review your reports, understand what’s going on with your finances, and ask the right questions when you don’t understand something. 

No matter your own level of bookkeeping knowledge, it’s a good idea to have some understanding of basic numbers yourself, such as your profit, trend in expenses, accounts receivable, profit per customer, and how your client funnel works. 

Get The Right Software

You shouldn’t choose an accounting program just because it’s cheap. There’s a lot of choice for software out there, so businesses don’t have to use accounting software that is only designed for accountants. 

There are plenty of different options available, so look for a system that will meet the needs of your business. If you’re not a trained accountant, then don’t choose a system that will need a huge manual to get you started. 

Document Your Processes

It can help to write documents that explain how your bookkeeping processes should be run. By documenting all your processes you can prevent some confusion and answer any questions that anyone has. 

Consistency is essential for good bookkeeping and can help you to spot errors as you will have a better notion of what might have gone wrong. 

Keep Expense Receipts

You can’t know how much your business is spending if you don’t keep any receipts. This is easy to do for credit card purchases, as you will have your receipts and your monthly statements to check the receipts against. 

Cash expenses can be harder to track. The receipts from cash purchases are very important as there are no backup statements to check. Try keeping a small notebook to log cash expenses as they’re. You could do this in an accounting app in your phone, and take pictures of the receipts as you go. 

Effective Ways to Eliminate Unplanned Business Downtime

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Running a business comes with so many obstacles - some expected, some unforeseen. One of the main barriers that most modern companies face is business downtime, which can have significant and costly impacts on the business. For example, downtime can cause employees to work below the required capacity. This in turn can lead to a loss of business, clients and customers. According to experts, downtime can cost a company an average of $10,000 for every hour of production loss, which is huge considering how often many businesses experience downtimes. Does your business regularly experience periods of unproductivity? Here are a few things you can do about it.

Troubleshoot your system for both internal and external weaknesses

The first time your business experiences downtime, you need to conduct a thorough examination to look for both internal and external weaknesses to determine the source of the problem. For example, if your company website shuts down or is not accessible, you need to know if it is due to a loophole within your Cyber Security system or an unstable service. You might need the services of professionals to help with the troubleshooting and solution.

Make use of cloud backup services

Several events can cause data loss which can be detrimental to your business, as there is usually a very low likelihood of recovering lost data. The loss of data also leads to hours of downtime, which will affect your business’ operations. One way of ensuring that a situation like this does not bring your business to a standstill is by making sure that you invest in a cloud server as a backup source. Cloud servers ensure that you always have a comparatively safer storage system outside your business’ physical premises. These services are effective, easy to access, and protect the company’s sensitive data. 

Identify optimal settings

If you have different people performing the same job at different times, there is always the possibility of each employee having their way of doing things. That usually leads to so many changes in settings and configurations to suit each worker’s preferences. When this happens often, the constant changes will create a downtime period, as each worker takes to time to make their preferred changes before working. To prevent this, take the time to learn and create an optimal setting that will be ideal for each employee, and ensure that each worker sticks to that setting to save time. 

Hire the services of a reliable IT company

If your business depends a lot on IT services, from websites to productivity software, then the possibility of experiencing frequent downtime is high. In this case, it is best to have a reliable IT management company on standby. Having someone you can call on for all your IT related issues does not necessarily mean that you may not experience technical challenges that may lead to downtime. It only means that your business may not risk extended periods of inactivity while trying to sort things out on your own. 

Stay Healthy as You Work From Home

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Record numbers of people have started working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but many businesses have confirmed that they’re going to implement remote working on a permanent basis. As companies can save money by using a remote workforce and employees can avoid a lengthy commute every day, working from home can be a great solution for everyone.

However, it’s important to consider your health and well-being if you’re going to be working from home. By creating a dedicated workspace, you can ensure that you’re able to work comfortably and efficiently. To ensure you can stay healthy as you embrace your new working arrangements, take a look at these top tips now:

Use the Right Equipment

Ideally, you’ll have a spare room to use as a home office but, if not, you’ll still need to create enough space to work. Using a desk that’s the right height can minimize the risk of back problems, for example. Similarly, Goldtouch ergonomic keyboards can reduce the risk of repetitive strain injuries and boost your productivity levels. By having access to the right range of equipment, you can deliver your best work without putting your health at risk.

Check the Lighting

Most offices are equipped with bright lighting, which can help to take the strain off your eyes when you’re working from home. Of course, we don’t typically have this type of lighting at home. Due to this, you’ll want to check that the lighting in your homeworking area is sufficient. If not, simple measures, like switching to a brighter bulb or using a desk lamp, could be all it takes to improve your working conditions.

Take Regular Breaks

If working from home sounds like you’ll get to take it easy, think again. As many people are finding out, working at home can mean that you work harder than ever before. However, it’s important to maintain a work/life balance, so be sure to restrict your work to your usual hours only. By taking regular breaks, you can prevent stress from overwhelming you and ensure that you’re not at risk of burnout.

Dress for the Office

If you don’t have any virtual meetings scheduled, then you might, technically, be able to get away with working in your pajamas. It might sound like you’ll be living the dream but, in reality, it won’t do much for your mental health. If you want to stay healthy while you’re working from home, be sure to follow a routine. Getting up at a set time, showering, and dressing for the office will help to boost your mood and your productivity, even if you’re working from home.

Becoming a Homeworker

If you’ve never worked from home before, it can take a little while to adjust to your new working arrangements. Fortunately, technology makes it easier to stay in touch with colleagues and can prevent you from feeling isolating. By creating a dedicated workspace and keeping your well-being in mind, you’ll find it easy to adapt to the changes and embrace a new era in your career.