Michael Levitt's Blog, page 77

How to Bring Your Retail Business Back Stronger Than Ever

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It is no big secret that 2020 was a challenging year for the retail industry. Unfortunately, 12,200 stores closed their doors for the final time last year, including some big-name companies in the retail sector. However, during a difficult time for retailers, eCommerce seemed to thrive. During quarantine, online retail sales boomed as a result of people being unable to visit shops physically. As a result, the eCommerce sector saw the retail market share for online sales rise to 13.6 percent during the first quarter of 2021. Now, after an extended period of closure, many retailers have started welcoming customers back inside their shops.

If you have recently reopened your retail business, you are likely feeling a wide range of emotions. You may be feeling excited about seeing customers face-to-face and chatting to them as they make their purchases. However, many business owners feel a little anxious about what life post-pandemic will be like for retailers. Adapting to the 'new normal' and ensuring that your store is COVID-safe is a lot of work and can add to your running costs. You may also be concerned that your sales will be low due to people preferring to shop online. Putting all these worries to one side and having faith in your business is vital. You may find it helpful to go back to basics and remember why you started your business in the first place. You likely had a passion for the products you sell and love seeing people shop in your store and the buzz it brings. Bringing that same energy and enthusiasm back to your store is the best way to approach reopening positively and make it a success. Approaching your reopening as a fresh start enables you to bring your business back bigger and better than ever before. Here are just some of the ways you can inject your enthusiasm into your business and ensure customers will want to keep coming back to your store over and over again:

Host a Relaunch

After a challenging year, why not bring some fun and enjoyment to your customers, old and new? Hosting a relaunch event is the perfect way to attract existing customers back to your store and to create interest from new customers at the same time. In addition, there is nothing like a fun event to improve your foot traffic and to encourage people into your store to make a purchase or two.

Relaunching your business is the ideal way to freshen things up and re-introduce the world to your fantastic products. Hosting a relaunch event offers many benefits and is especially effective at strengthening your brand and attracting new customers. 

Before you start planning your relaunch event, you need to think about what you want to achieve from the event to make it a success. For example, are you hoping to make sales at the event itself, do you want to sign customers up for a loyalty scheme, or do you want customers to sample your products? There are many fantastic options to consider when planning your relaunch event, so knowing what you want to gain from it is vital.

Keeping everyone entertained and having fun at the event is essential to make it a success. You may want to hire a Corporate Event Planning company to supply entertainment for the occasion to ensure everyone has a great time. An event that does not go to plan can have a negative impact on your business' reputation, so it is worth making an effort to ensure it is an event to remember for all the right reasons. Your event planning service should be able to supply some fun games and equipment to get everyone having the best time.

Enhance Your Shopping Experience

Giving your store a fresh new look will help to create the ultimate shopping experience for your customers when they return to your store. Before the pandemic, you were likely too busy to think about moving your store around and experimenting with different layouts. But, now you may have the time needed to perfect your store design and get it looking at its best. Making it as simple as possible for your customers to shop your store by setting out displays in a logical order is an excellent starting point. Pairing similar products together is a great way to encourage add-on purchases and increase your sales. Creating lifestyle displays of merchandise is also a great way to boost your sales and enables customers to buy the entire range.

As well as improving your shop's layout, it is also a good idea to show your window displays some care and attention. A great-looking window display is essential to capture passers-by's attention and encourage foot traffic into your store. In addition, merchandising your window displays to incorporate themes and to showcase your best new products is sure to bring your business to the attention of everyone that walks past.

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Expand Your Product Range

After not browsing goods in-person for a while, your customers will be desperate to see your goods and enjoy an immersive shopping experience. To ensure your store lives up to expectations, it is an excellent idea to retain plenty of your current bestsellers so that customers can pop in for their ever-popular favorites. In addition to these, it also helps to keep your products fresh by buying in some new stock that your customers will love. 

Expanding your product range is an excellent way to help your business to reach a wider audience and attract more people inside your store. Offering your customers more choice without diverting from your bestsellers can be a great way to keep customers coming back to find out what is new in-store.

Encourage Loyalty

Introducing a customer loyalty scheme can be a helpful addition to your promotional efforts. When you start a customer loyalty scheme, you will have many different ways you can use the scheme to benefit both you and your customers. For example, you could offer loyal customers a money-off code to redeem on their next purchase, or maybe a free gift when they have spent a certain amount in store. In addition, starting a loyalty scheme provides you with the opportunity to create an email list and notify your customers of exclusive offers and new product information to encourage them to visit your store. Finally, a loyalty scheme is a helpful way for you to build a relationship between your business and your customers to enable them to shop with you ahead of competing stores.

Shout About It

No matter how many fantastic changes you make to your business when you reopen, your efforts will all be in vain if no one knows anything about them. Letting everyone know that you are open for business and that you are back better than ever is an excellent way to welcome existing customers back and to attract new ones. 

Posting regular updates on social media and keeping your followers up to date with news such as exciting new products that will be landing in store soon, money-saving vouchers, and details of clearance sales will nurture your relationship. Keeping in touch with both your customers and potential customers on social media is an effective way to keep them engaged and encourage loyalty to your brand. Social media is the place many people go to when looking for shopping inspiration and ideas, so it offers many valuable opportunities for marketing your products and bringing your retail business back stronger.

The Best Businesses Always Leave People Coming Back For More

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If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you’ll have noticed something rather interesting: the best businesses create customers who are like boomerangs. No matter how many times they attempt to escape the company’s orbit, they continually come back for more and more.

Typically, we just put this down to the company having a great brand or incredible marketing. But that’s usually a consequence of the product, not the cause. 

Take McDonalds, for instance. The brand regularly engages in marketing, but nobody would say that it was world-beating. It’s not the advertising that’s making people go back time and time again, it’s the experience. 

The same goes for other boomerang brands. Facebook, for instance, is essentially a blog and photo sharing site with some chat features. At root, it’s all quite basic, and yet people keep going back for more and more. 

It all comes down to the feeling that people get when they use these products and services. It’s so enjoyable because of how it affects the brain that they want it more and more. Going for fast-food just once is never an option because of all the positive associations people have with their experience of the food. The same goes for just checking on Facebook once. It’s not possible. 

That’s why all entrepreneurs should consider this type of business first before moving onto something else. You want to give customers something that provides them with a quick hit that encourages them to come back for more. That’s essentially how you create a world-beating brand. 

Warren Buffett and other top investors understand this principle well. They buy companies that give their customers a little extra. They’re looking for brands that customers want to buy, not just those that provide necessary services that people have to purchase. By getting people hooked on their products, they’re able to guarantee long-term cash flow that other companies can’t. 

Setting up an ice cream business, therefore, is an excellent idea. That’s because over time, people begin to associate consuming your products and feeling good. Eventually, they come back for more and more, especially if you can give them an ice cream experience that isn’t like anything else on the market. 

Just look at the success of brands like Ben And Jerry’s. Originally, the company began as a small ice cream shop just serving local customers. But their approach to ice cream was so successful (because they gave people the taste sensations that they wanted) that they were able to grow a billion-dollar company. 

So how do you keep your customers always coming back for more. Here’s a quick summary of what you need to do: 

Make It Moreish

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Whatever you sell, you need to make sure that you make it moreish. That means that you should be doing everything that you can to keep your customers coming back for more. 

If you’re struggling for ideas, just look at what the leading brands in your industry are already doing. You’ll often find that they have some sort of secret sauce or approach that they use to make the magic happen. For instance, some takeouts spend months perfecting specific recipes to the point where their customers will love them. 

Create Incentives

Another strategy you can use is to drip-feed your customers with rewards whenever they use your services. Facebook does this via likes and notifications, updating users periodically about the state of their status. 

You can do something similar with either your products or your marketing. Give customers little things that will encourage them to purchase the higher-margin products that you offer.

Create An Experience

Another approach you could try is to create an experience and focus your marketing efforts around that. Red Bull, for instance, has a product that keeps people coming back. But it’s also a global success story because of the way it uses marketing to promote its brand. The company is all about having fun and providing its customers with entertainment as a way to sell more drinks. It’s a bizarre combination, but it works because of the associations that it creates in people’s minds. Red Bull equals fun for most customers. 

Getting your customers to keep coming back for more and sharing their experiences with others is the secret to massive financial success. Once you can build a brand and move it forward, more people will know about you, and your success will start to accelerate. Just make sure that your products and services light up your customers’ brains in a way that your competitors don't.

Give a Boost to Your Email Marketing Campaigns

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Email marketing is a very effective marketing method, which usually has a pretty good ROI. You can use it to reach out to new customers, as well as to keep your existing customers engaged. Whether your email marketing campaigns perform well or you need some help in improving them, you can take a variety of steps to build better email campaigns. When you can improve the response you get from your campaigns, you could raise engagement and bring in more revenue from your email marketing. Take a look at these ideas for giving your email marketing campaigns a boost.

Expand Your Email Lists

Having more relevant people to email improves your chances of connecting with the right prospects. There are many ways you can expand your email lists and ensure you're able to get in touch with both existing and potential customers. A service like Emailzipcode.net can help you to grow your email lists and get in touch with more people who are interested in your brand. You can also collect emails through your newsletter signup, using lead forms, and by finding the information of people who visit your site. With more emails to use, you can grow your chances of success.

Segment Your Audience

Numbers aren't everything, and simply having a list of emails may not be enough. Instead of sending everyone the same emails, you should try to segment your email lists. The idea is to separate people into different groups based on demographics, interests, and other important factors. This means you can ensure you send more appropriate emails to different people, instead of sending the same email content to everyone on your email list. You could improve open rates, click-through rates, and other metrics by grouping people in this way and changing your strategy.

Personalize Your Emails

As well as segmenting your email list, you can target your email marketing further by sending personalized emails. This ensures that people receive emails that are highly relevant to them and even that address them personally. It's easy to make an email more personal by using the recipient's name, for example. Other ways to make emails more personal could be to send out birthday emails to your customers or send them product suggestions that are similar to the products that they have bought before. This helps to make sure your emails are useful to them.

Automate Your Emails

Email marketing automation is very useful for your campaigns. It saves you a lot of time and it ensures that some essential emails are sent out. Emails can be triggered by certain customer behaviors or things that your marketing or sales representatives do. You can use a CRM to set up certain emails to trigger at certain points in the customer journey or when certain actions are performed. This can free up more time to work on other things while ensuring important actions are still carried out.

Make your email marketing better than ever with these actions that could boost your rate of success.

9 Unique Birthday Themed Party Ideas

Themed birthdays are in vogue. Getting over simple parties, everyone seems to prefer eye-catching themes to capture unforgettable memories. Such parties attract more guests and remain the hottest gossip for the longest time. Do you want to plan something for your birthday or your loved ones? Try out themed celebrations if that's the case. But alas! You don't have enough party ideas, right? Don't worry! Here are the most trending and unique birthday-themed party ideas for you. Let's explore!

Selfie Booth Party

 Is the birthday person obsessed with selfies? If it’s a yes, then a selfie booth party theme falls ideal for them. Select a plain wall or a corner having enough lighting for high-quality photos. Next, create a large photo frame and add craftsy elements, anime-inspired decorations, or anything they like the most. Finally, don’t forget to write “Happy Birthday (Name)” in a captivating manner. Believe it or not, everyone will love your way of capturing cherishing memories and sharing them on social handles.

  

Video Party

 Do you want something even better than a photo party? Give a shot to the video party theme if that’s what you’re looking for. But how do you collect multiple videos and create a collage? Luckily, Celebrate.Buzz solves your problem the simplest way. It offers a platform where you can invite your friends and family members and ask them to submit creative video gifts shot at different times on their birthday.

 Finally, you can access the video messages through your account, slice and edit them to create high-quality videos for your party. All you need is to get a subscription from Celebrate to begin creating beautiful videos for your birthday. Check it out!

 

Firework Party

Splashing colors and distinct patterns - fireworks will add these elements to your memorable birthday party. They will make your day forever alive and suitable for an artistic photoshoot. All you need is to gather colorful fireworks and schedule an appropriate time to burn them. Consider different types of fireworks showing different patterns when they explode. You can schedule the party at the midnight birthday hour or right when the celebration begins. Also, you will get automatic controllers that synchronize burning fireworks with music beats. That'll be an additional attraction for everyone present at the birthday party organized by or for you.

 

Mocktail Party

Unlimited mocktails can unexpectedly make your celebrations. So, why not arrange for them on your birthday? Yes, mocktail parties are a trending birthday theme where the prime attraction is unrestricted mocktail serving. Get different mocktail flavors or carry out a delicious blend for your birthday celebration. Arrange for different glasses, tumblers, and confetti to decorate your servings even more. In either way, your guests will love the idea and enjoy it like never before.

 

Cooking Party

Are you a group of cooking lovers? Yes? Then, the cooking theme is apt for your birthday party. Create a menu initially, continental, Italian, or anything of your choice. Gather necessary ingredients to prepare your recipes along with crockeries to serve them. Now, you are all set to celebrate their birthdays while cooking, laughing, and creating everlasting memories for your party. And don't forget to carry out photoshoots of everyone cooking and the servings when food gets prepared at the end.

  

Adventure Party

Who doesn't love adventures! If you and your friends love breathtaking thrills, an adventurous party will make your day like no other. You can arrange for an adventurous itinerary by including different activities like trekking, kayaking, or skiing. Ensure that you follow all necessary measures and care for everyone's physical fitness before heading to the party. Once you check on all essential parameters, your group gets ready to have loads of fun at your well-curated adventure party.

  

Movie Party

Are you guys movie buffs? Give your heads up to a movie party if that’s your thing. Select some genres that your group prefers and pick worth-watching movies that can keep you up for a night. Now, it’s time to set the mood! Get suspenseful lights and loads of snacks and beverages to complement your theme. Moreover, arrange for comfortable seating arrangements and enough cushions to make you get cozy during a marathon movie party. Everyone in your group would fall in love with your innovative idea.

  

Costume Party

Costumes can create a refreshing theme for your birthday, do you know that? Select crafty themes for your birthday and tailor intriguing costumes for all your guests. Halloween, fairy, and cartoon - all categories make vivid ideas for your costume birthday party. Ask everyone to give their best in dressing up according to your theme. Furthermore, you can host a competition where the most artistic costume gets exciting gifts. Such a birthday party will add more fun to your party and make everyone attend it to engage in beautiful photoshoots. Also, whenever you would get your eyes on the photo albums, the efforts behind selecting and weaving your costumes will come across your mind. That's all to create everlasting birthdays for your guests.

 

Scavenger Hunt Theme

 How about creating suspense about the party venue? You can do so with a unique scavenger hunt theme. Provide easy yet suspenseful clues about the venue in your invitation card and let people find the location by themselves. Also, you can arrange for some gifts for those guests who crack the clues by themselves and find your venue in time. To make it even more interesting, keep successive clues where solving one leads to the location of another clue until the final destination.

 

So, they are the nine unique and most sought-after birthday themes for your party. Irrespective of whether you are an organizer of the guest of honor, you will fall in love with such elusive themes for your birthday. Attract more eyes and gather the attention of more people and organize a one-of-a-kind birthday party no one would have imagined. From surprise video parties to firework themes, you can select anything to add a spark to your birthday. Try them now!

Tips For Becoming A Better Leader & Business Owner

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Being a business owner is a tough job and there are a lot of tasks to accomplish on any given day. You risk falling behind and not succeeding over the long term if you fail to get better and improve as time goes on.

There are some tips for becoming a better leader and business owner that will help ensure you are executing in the right areas and can get and stay ahead in your industry. Use these ideas as a starting point for focusing your time and energy on what will move you forward in a positive direction and help you keep your momentum going strong.

Make Wise Financial Decisions

One tip for becoming a better business owner is to make wise financial decisions. If you’re going to take risks then at least make sure you know what you’re doing and that you have a calculated and strategic approach. For instance, seek out trading advice before dabbling in the markets and make sure you know what you’re doing. Also, monitor your budgets and think through in detail the pros and cons of cutting certain costs before you follow through.

Study the Competition

Another tip for becoming a better business owner is to study your competitors. Know what they’re up to and how you can outsmart them. They can teach you a lot about and help you identify the areas you’re not delivering currently and help you get a better idea of what customers really want. Figure out what they’re doing well and where they’re falling short so you can make a strategic move and fill these gaps. You always want to be one step ahead and rolling out not only new and innovative products and services but the right ones.

Value Your Customers

You can become a better leader and business owner by making it a point to value your customers. Let them know that you are grateful for their business and support. Not only meet their needs and expectations but go one step further and exceed them when you can. Seek out and gather feedback from your customers and then make changes based on this feedback to show you care and are listening. Consider your customer’s point of view when making decisions and always deliver on your promise. 

Appreciate Your Staff

Your employees will help you reach your goals and create a better business to run and manage. Therefore, it’s in your best interest to show your appreciation for your staff whenever possible. Reward them fairly and find other unique ways to show them that you are pleased with their hard work and dedication to your company. It can be costly to have to keep replacing employees so it’s in your best interest to hire the right ones and then do what you can to ensure they stick around for the long haul. Motivate them by providing them with challenging work and creating a collaborative and team-oriented environment to work in. Give your staff a voice and listen to their concerns so you can better your business and yourself as the leader and owner.

Why You Should Use A Physical Server Instead Of A Cloud Server

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If you’re thinking about the server you use for your business, you might be wondering whether it’s best to use a physical server with server hosting or a cloud server. Both have their advantages, but, despite the fact that cloud computing is a growing trend, it would appear when you dig deeper that a physical server wins out. Read on to find out why. 

Better Performance 

When you use a dedicated service, you are using an exclusive platform for your own specific business. This means there is no risk of having to share that space with anyone else; your business is the only one to use it. The biggest benefit of this is that, when you don’t have to share the storage or server space, the overall performance of your business computer systems is better. In other words, a dedicated physical server is faster than cloud computing, and that is important; it’s something that could make you stand out for all the right reasons. 

 

The cloud storage system is undoubtedly a good one, but because it is shared by a multitude of different companies and individuals, it will never be as efficient or fast as a single physical server is. If you want the best-performing solution for your hosting, a dedicated server is the answer. 

 

Cost-Effective 

Using a dedicated physical server offers much more value for money than the cloud will, especially when you’re considering the long term. It might seem as though the cloud is the cheaper option, but since the cloud is slower, shared, and will cost more as your business grows, in the end, when you factor in the potential downtime and the upgrades, the dedicated server is the better choice. 

 

Remember that when you use a physical third-party server, it won’t just be handling your website. It will deal with everything your business has to do in terms of its computer network. Making the right choice at the start can save you a lot of trouble – and money – later on. 

 

Greater Security 

One of the reasons many business owners feel that the cloud is a good choice is that it is thought to be more secure. After all, with all the passwords and encryption in place and the many different layers of additional security, hacking into a cloud-based system is not going to be easy, whereas hacking into a physical server would be much more achievable. 

 

Or at least this is the received wisdom. It’s not entirely true. Although the cloud will give you excellent security, it’s not any better than the security you will get using a dedicated physical server, and in many respects, the physical server will do a better job. Again, this is down to the fact that your business will be the only one using the server; there is no risk of ‘cross-contamination’ and data loss. 

 

Using a server of any kind is preferable to saving your sensitive and important information locally on a laptop or a USB drive. However, how much security you want will depend on exactly what you need to keep safe, so determining this in advance is crucial. 

Why Competition Is Good For Business

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The common assumption about the competition is that they are bad for business. And by competition, we mean the businesses that threaten to steal away your customers from you. They can be the little guys with startups that are falling into your niche, or they can be the giants of business that have more spending power than you do. As a business leader, there is reason to be worried when other businesses step on your toes, as the business you run could be placed at risk.

But there are two things you need to know about your competitors. 

Firstly, they are rarely the bad guys that you might sometimes paint them out to be when considering the threats they pose to you. Like you, they too are trying to survive in the cutthroat world of business. Like you, they are identifying customer retention and taking steps to profit their companies. For the most part, you and they have a lot in common.

And secondly, your competitors can actually be good for your business. How so? Well, this is what we discuss below, so keep reading, and learn of the positives that can be gained from the competing businesses that are in your particular industry.

#1: You have the motivation to be better

The competition isn't the only threat to your business! The biggest thing you have to worry about is complacency. If you didn't have business rivals to contend with, you could become complacent, making little effort to improve your product and service, and taking your customers for granted. 

But as you do have your business competitors to think about, there should be no room for a complacent attitude. You would quickly fail in business otherwise, as your customers would migrate to the companies that are innovating and treating them better. This is something you no doubt understand, and this is why (we are assuming) you strive to be better than your rivals on a daily basis. You will be working hard to improve each facet of your business, taking steps to stand out against your competitors.

 It is this motivation to be better that will transform your business, so you do have something to thank the competition for. So, throw off any feelings of complacency if they exist within your business, and work together with every member of your team to surpass whatever it is your rivals are doing. 

#2: There is the potential for brand loyalty

Competition is good for your customers because they have more choice when deciding where to spend their money. While some customers will migrate from one business to the next at a whim, there are those who will stick with one brand, usually because of the trust they have in the company. They will value the quality of the product or service they receive. They will be happy with the value for money they are getting. And they will be in agreement with the message that the company promotes. 

When customers remain loyal to your brand over your competitors, two things will happen.

Firstly, you will continue to profit from your returning customers. And secondly, you will benefit from increased profits when your returning customers spread the word of your business to others. 

This point is tied into the previous point we discussed, as the best way to earn brand loyalty is to be better than your rivals. When you stand out from the competition, your customers will have a reason to remain loyal to you. 

Another way to ensure brand loyalty is to make sure people notice your business in the first place. With the services of both a marketing and a branding agency, you will push your brand out into the consumer marketplace. If they like the ethos and image you convey, they will gradually gravitate towards your business. Should they then like what you are selling, there is a higher chance that they will become loyal to your business. 

#3: There are lessons to be learned from your competitors

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There are all kinds of things you can learn from your competitors. 

You can look at the mistakes they are making and learn from them so you don't fall into the same pitfalls. You can find out what they are doing well, and learn from their methods and strategies to shape your business. And you can learn from your competitors in a very literal sense, as there may be opportunities to speak to them at business meetings or to listen to them if they are giving keynote talks or leading training sessions. 

So, let this be another incentive to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing. Consider each facet of their business, from the ways they market themselves to the ways in which they respond to their customer needs. Learn from what they are doing well and what they are doing badly and then use what you have learned to make changes to your business. 

#4: There is the potential for partnerships

As we said at the beginning, your competitors are just like you. They are trying to earn a livelihood to support themselves and their families, and they are trying to satisfy the needs of the customers they cater to. In one sense then, they are not to be feared at all, as for all intents and purposes, they are trying to do the right thing. Yes, they might be a threat to your business by default but calling them the 'enemy' can sometimes be a misnomer. 

Of course, there are those competitors who will purposefully trounce all over your business, with no qualms about stealing your customers. They will care little if you are eventually put out of business. You can safely call these competitors the 'enemy' and you do have reason to be worried about them. But it is for this reason that you might team up with those other business leaders who are simply trying to get by. By forming an official partnership, you could merge your business with theirs, as this would create a business that was a stronger force to be reckoned with. You would benefit from their skills and experiences, their finances, and their customers too. 

These are all reasons why the competition can be good for business. So, while there is the chance that they could be perceived as a threat, remember that their very presence can give you the incentive to improve and grow your business. That's a good thing, right?

How to cut business trip costs

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If you and your employees have to travel a lot for business reasons, I don’t have to tell you how expensive it is. Bills for flights, hotels, staff expenses, dinners, and lunches for overseas clients all stack up, and it can be a serious drain on resources, particularly if a trip doesn’t yield the results you’d hoped. Here are some top tips on what to do if business trips are essential to your business, but are simply costing you too much.

Overhaul the expenses system

Employees love the expenses system, and who can blame them. A few days dining out on the company’s money is enjoyable, after all, who doesn’t love a free lunch? However, employee expenses can be a serious drain on finances if you don’t get them under control. A great way to do this is to set limits on what employees can expense back each day. If they choose to spend over that amount, that’s completely up to them, but make it clear to them that they won’t be compensated for any costs above a certain threshold.

Book early

In some exceptional circumstances, booking late and jumping on the next flight is unavoidable. In all other situations, you should book early. While you may be able to get a brilliant deal booking late, it’s far more likely that you’ll be charged well above the odds. Flight costs, in particular, can balloon in value the later you leave it to book. It’s also possible to find great deals if you book months in advance. If you’re going abroad, you may also have to get a visa that covers the duration of your trip. While these are usually issued quickly, they can take a few days to come through. If you leave it to the last minute and then can’t get through passport control because your visa hasn’t been issued on time, you’ll have wasted all the money you spent on the trip.

Insist on public transport

We’ve all been there. You land on the tarmac after a long-haul flight, and you’re completely exhausted. You scrunch up your pre-booked ticket for the coach into the city center and hail a cab. It can be tempting to do this, but it’s such a drain on finances that it’s worth avoiding. Cab drivers at airports know exactly how desperate all of their customers are to get to their destinations and hike up their prices accordingly. Hailing a cab from the airport is a surefire way to throw away some money. Insist that your employees take public transport into the city instead.

Get a Forex supplier

The exchange rates offered by currency exchanges - or those who trade Forex - can fluctuate wildly. If you and your employees routinely change money at the airport, which is a notoriously expensive way to do it, your business is essentially throwing away money. Instead, you should do some research and find a local trader who offers good rates. Once you’ve found them, take them on as a supplier and make it company policy that staff must change their money with this one supplier. This way,

How to Market a Vaping Business in 3 Simple Steps

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Regardless of whether your business has been around for several years, or if you are completely new to the vaping industry, you will be aware of how important marketing strategies can be to your success, even more so when the idea of vaping is still relatively new to some people around the world. 

Most businesses will have access to a vape cartridge, e-cigarettes, and different flavors that will be on sale to their customers, but what makes yours stand out amongst the crowd? Why should people choose to shop with you instead of with your competitor? Well, this will all come down to how effective your marketing strategy is. 

Luckily, this article goes into detail about some of the best ways to market your vaping business to the wider community. So, without further ado, let’s get started.

SEO

If you have an online vaping business, or if you just have an online presence through a website, then utilizing SEO could be important to how much traffic your site receives in the long run. Put simply, SEO stands for search engine optimization and it ultimately refers to techniques that can help your website rank higher in the search engines. The higher you are, the more likely people are at clicking on your website to see what you have on offer, instead of that of your competitors. If you want to achieve this goal, then you must incorporate some SEO practices into your marketing strategy. 

Making sure you have included keywords that are relevant to your business, laying out your site properly by using headings, subheadings, and images, as well as making use of backlinks that may be popular and well-regarded are great starting points when it comes to ensuring that your presence online is there for all to see. Taking the time to focus on your search engine optimization, (if you are online) will be greatly important.

Social Media Marketing

This leads us nicely on to social media marketing. Even if you don’t have any social media accounts of your own, you will still have a good idea about how popular they can be for both individuals and businesses. Individuals can use it to interact with people from all over the world who have similar interests to them, and businesses can use it as an effective marketing tool to help get their business across to the wider community. In turn, if you have a vaping business and you want to get across all your latest products and news to your followers, then using social media is a great tool to turn to. However, you need to make sure that you use your chosen platform daily as if you don’t take the time to post regular content about vaping, and the different e-juices that have now made their way onto the market, people may decide to unfollow you. If this happens, there is a chance that they won’t share your content with their followers and so forth, meaning that you could be missing out on hundreds of customers per month. Just a simple message here and there and interacting with your followers when you can is one of the best marketing tools you could ever get your hands on. So, if you haven’t done so already, take the time to set up a Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram account, and you will be able to see just how beneficial this can be to you going forward. 

Trade Shows

Something that may not be as popular as social media but can still be beneficial to spread the word about your business is attending trade shows. By hiring out a booth for the event, you will be able to showcase your products to potential clients, as well as providing them with any other information that may be useful for them to have, such as information and prices for example. If you were to do this though, taking the time to speak to your manufacturers will be very important, as they may be able to make special products for the event. Some places even customize products, so this could be a great way to market your business. 

Even if you don’t hire out a booth, simply walking around and interacting with industry professionals can still be of benefit to you, as the importance of trade shows is to tell people that you exist. So, get your business cards out and get ready to build relationships. 

There you have it. Whilst there are countless other marketing strategies that you can implement in your business, at least you have a starting point. You don’t have to try them all but focusing on two or three strategies will put you in a good position to help people know that you exist.

Benefits of Hiring Metal Fabrication Companies

All the equipment in your workplace has to come from somewhere. You can find certain items in your nearest office supply stores, but large-scale and industrial components require a more precise, custom touch. Window frames, handrails, aircraft fuselages, and car frames are just a few of the many materials fabricators build for businesses. Now that you know what these experts do, you should dive into the key benefits of hiring metal fabrication companies for workplace needs.

Custom Workplace Solutions

When buying most workplace equipment, you can either choose something from a regular retailer. Alternatively, you can have a professional build an item for you. A good metal fabricator works closely with clients, helping them design materials with custom specifications in mind. Fabricators help businesses design desks, metal frames, lighting fixtures, and a wide range of additional equipment with the client’s unique needs in mind. In fact, certain fabrication companies will help you put together a precise design for the equipment you need, no matter how rough your idea is—although the options for such services will vary.

An Array of Options

Another set of things that varies across the metal fabrication industry encompasses the skills and tools each service provider has under their belt. For instance, aluminum is a versatile and reliable metal for fabrication purposes. However, there are many factors to consider when choosing aluminum fabricators, one of which is the fabrication methods the company can use.

Cutting, welding, and extruding are just a few of the common practices available. If you find a company that can conduct a wide range of fabrication techniques, you should be in good hands. The more options are available to you, the more tools the company has for designing the best equipment possible, whether it’s a window frame or a medical device.

Reliable Workplace Equipment

One of the top benefits of hiring metal fabrication companies is their reliability. You can expect the final products they create to be of good quality. As you must do when outsourcing any project, conducting background checks on metal fabrication companies is crucial.

Once you find a reputable service provider whose staff members know what they’re doing, expect their knowledge and experience to be apparent in the final product. When buying equipment like desks for the workplace, you usually have to cross your fingers, hoping they’re as reliable as they look. However, when you’re working with a fabricator, you know exactly who’s building your equipment, how they’re building it, and why they’re building it that way. To put it simply, you get more peace of mind when collaborating with metal fabrication companies.