Michael Levitt's Blog, page 78

How Your Business Can Improve Its Social Responsibility

People expect more from companies than just products. With the advent of social media and widespread advertising, people are more aware of company reputations than ever before, both in terms of their services and their greater impact on the culture, the lives of their employees, and their environmental footprint. This has forced many companies to reconsider their social responsibility. If you want your company to a be a stronger competitor and a greater contributor to the betterment of the world, here are ideas on how your business can improve its social responsibility.

Volunteer as a Company

As a company with the resources to organize large group action, it is your responsibility to give back wherever you can. For both team building and corporate responsibility reasons, bringing the company along for a volunteer program will pay its way in dividends very quickly. People tend to feel better about themselves and the people they work with when everyone involved is making a difference in the community.

Form a Company Committee

Many businesses have established committees to help determine how your business can improve its social responsibility. It is more than likely that some people working for you are already concerned about social issues, like racism, homophobia, and sexism. Bringing those people together in a committee will help narrow your focus and complete tasks. The social element of it will also be appreciated.

Go Green

There is a wide variety of ways to make a company more ecofriendly. Recycling and composting, product destruction services and hazardous waste cleanup—there has never been a better time for companies to take their ecological footprint seriously. Going green will also improve a company’s image, especially if they tie their environmentalism into their public relations strategy.

Ethical Labor Practices

Companies that want to be socially responsible should not only look for missions that benefit the community at large, but they should also take that same perspective to the way they deal with employees. Companies that truly live up to their social responsibility treat their employees with respect. Their work is valued and employees feel enabled to grow in a safe, healthy, and fair workplace.

Blade, Rack, or Tower Server: Which One Is Best?

There’s no time in the world of modern business to deal with a server that isn’t equipped to handle the needs of your company. There are three different types of servers, and each serves a purpose according to its size, convenience, and optimization. Let’s look at all three to help in the decision of when to choose a blade, rack, or tower server.

Blade Server

A blade server holds multiple server blades that are called modular circuit boards. They save space yet offer high processing power. Blade servers are often scaled-down, meaning they contain the CPU, memory, and network controllers. Other components are shared. They’re a great multi-purpose server and handle enterprise applications and processes well. The initial install is expensive, and blade servers require significant climate control.

Rack Server

Rack servers mount inside of a rack and are a general-purpose server, meaning they handle the challenge of a wide range of applications. Thanks to their vertical stance, they take up little space, which means you’ll have more room in the data center for other components.

The rack server has everything it needs to stand alone, as it contains its own CPU, power source, and memory, making it efficient and cost-effective.

Tower Server

A tower server is scaled down, but this makes it an excellent choice for a business that needs a more customized server. Things like graphics cards and additional memory are added as needed, making the tower server easier to configure as a communication, general-purpose, or web server.

Tower servers are a lower initial cost than a blade or rack server, but they cost more to run due to their heavy cooling needs. They also take up their fair share of space in the data center, needing lots of additional components to run efficiently.

Understanding when to choose a blade, rack, or tower server helps as your business grows and the needs of the server change. Servers are designed to improve a business and its efficiency. Choose wisely for years of use from the right server.

How To Create A Positive Work Environment For Your Staff

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Putting your employees' abilities to good use can help you offer your company an edge, provide the best possible service to your consumers, and expand your brand. Knowing how to best implement each person's skill set inside your firm and assisting them in working as efficiently as possible is a hallmark of a strong leader.

It is also the simplest approach to ensure your staff is satisfied in their jobs because they know their contributions are valued and recognized.

But what is the secret to creating a positive workplace where you can bring out the best in your employees and, in turn, the best that your company has to offer in order to help you stand out among your competitors?

Make sure their pay reflects their responsibilities

It has been said for a long time that paying poor wages results in low-quality work from your staff. Making sure your employees are paid fairly for the work they perform is one way to show them how much you value what they do for you and your company. Of course, you want to make sure they are doing the job you hired them for, but an increased workload combined with low pay is a recipe for employee dissatisfaction and puts the profitability and efficiency of your business, not to mention the reputation, at risk.

Foster a sense of appreciation and cohesiveness

Making your team feel like a team is a sure-fire way to create an environment that is happy and positive. Think about organizing some corporate event team building and fun social activities for your employees. Of course, you can’t force them to all be friends inside and outside of the workplace, but it can make them work better as a cohesive team.

Provide training

Giving employees ongoing support and sufficient training is another effective method to set your company apart from the competition. If you are in a competitive market, providing your employees with the tools and information they need to offer your services is critical.

No one wants to buy something or use someone who isn't sure what they are doing.  Invest in staff training, workshops, team building days, or whatever works best for your company to ensure that you are going above and beyond for not only your clients but also your employees.

Listen to your staff

It sounds simple. But do not be the manager that ignores what their employees are telling them. They are the ones on the ground, doing the day-to-day stuff, so are also pretty good for giving you feedback on what is working and what is not working. If they know their opinions and thoughts are valued, they are much more likely to be loyal and productive. Make sure that they can come and talk to you about any issues that may be affecting their work, whether it is at home or the job itself.

Employees respond positively to positive reinforcement and the knowledge that they are respected in their workplace. Make it your mission, no matter how big or small your company is, to create this. 

                                                             

Don't Burnout: Delegate

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Whether you are the owner of a new business or CEO of a long-established, successful company, burnout is real. It may come from the right place, from employing hours of your time into your labor of love, from wanting to see success and the fruits of your endeavors, but ultimately overdoing it can cause you to face burnout. Burning out will not only harm you but the business you have worked so hard to grow. Learn to delegate and share the load to avoid burning out. Here are some options you might want to utilize to avoid shouldering too much of the workload yourself. 

Accounting/Booking 

Your company’s financial affairs may seem like the last thing you want to outsource, but they are one of the most critical parts of your business. Company financials not only hold your company to account but indicate what is working, what it isn’t; it keeps your staff paid, money coming in, and money going out. While it may seem like something you need to be controlling, relinquishing to the professionals will elevate a world of stress and worry. You can still keep an eye on the overall financials, but outsourcing tasks, even simple ones such as sending invoices, managing payroll, and maintaining records, can make all the difference. Research companies such as Navitance to see the services they offer and how instructing the experts can give you peace of mind, better business success, and, more importantly, keep you in the game longer. 

Administrative

Generally speaking, the day-to-day administrative tasks seem a small amount of your day. Scheduling meetings, making travel arrangements, sorting emails, returning phone calls, and so on. Yet, all these small tasks add up and become time-consuming, which can be better spent elsewhere. Consider using a virtual or in-house assistance to take care of these critical but consuming details for you.

Marketing

Having input your brand or business’s marketing is needed; you want to ensure the marketing reaches the right people and done in the right way to reflect your brand. You want it to stand out for the right reasons. However, the world of marketing is vast and more complex than ever, with the need for great technical understanding.  Marketing agencies exist for a reason; they take on a huge chunk of any business’s workload. Do you know what SEO means and how to achieve it? Have you got the time to learn? Offloading the marketing can do wonders for your business; grow it in ways you had not imagined possible all the while you get to keep hold of the reigns when deciding the marketing strategy, plan, and budget - just let someone else do the leg work. 

Packaging and shipping

Are you sending out products, direct mail, or filling orders? It is essential but it is time-consuming and not to mention tedious. Consider delegating the packing, the labeling, and order fulfillment to an outside provider or in a house team member, 

Website design

Almost all brands have a website. It is vital. It is your shop window and most likely your actual shop. You want it to not only be aesthetically pleasing but functional. It needs to work, have the correct site speed, be optimized for SEO, and so on. You also need to be aware of the rules when your website collects data, for example. Getting it right has never been more essential, and handing it over to the specialists will ensure this all-important job is done right.

Discover The Best Ways To keep A Remote Business Connected

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Connectivity is crucial when you are running a business. It plays a part in ensuring that you are able to achieve a high level of productivity and that’s just the beginning. Keeping your business connected will also ensure that you don’t have to worry about your customers being disappointed with your level of service. So, how do you ensure that your company has the right level of connection? Well, there are a few options that you can try here.

Think About Your Internet

First, you need to make sure that you do have the right internet setup. A solid online connection will ensure that you don’t need to worry about your connection failing you at the worst time or dealing with irritating slow speeds. 

If you want to ensure that your internet is fast, then it’s essential that you shop around the company. You need to make sure that you find the business provider that is going to deliver the best service that will match your needs. 

There’s Apps For That

Next, you should consider which apps could benefit you when you are running your business and working to keep everything connected. Some apps even provide security features such as encrypted communications. This means that you don’t have to worry about information in your business falling into the wrong hands, which is great news. Don’t forget, if you are not arranging the right standard of security, then your business will ultimately be quite vulnerable on the market. This is the last thing that you want. Sites such as APKdojo have an extensive list of apps for you to choose from that could be suitable for your company. 

Get On The Cloud

It could also be worth investing in a cloud solution for your business. The right cloud service will guarantee that you are able to transfer data easily to both employees and clients without any delays. Indeed, if you take this step, then you will be able to guarantee that people can connect with your business instantly. You just need to make sure that you are choosing the ideal solution. There are lots of cloud servers available, but they don’t all deliver the same quality. As such, you should think about checking the reviews before committing to a service. 

Use A Shared Platform

Finally, you might want to consider adding a shared platform into your business model. The benefit of a shared platform is that you will be able to update projects in real time and provide access for multiple people. This means that you don’t have to worry about individuals in your business not being on the same page as you. You might also want to think about investing in a service that will completely customize the creation of a shared platform to ensure that it matches your business goals. 

We hope this helps you understand everything that you need to know about keeping your remote business connected and why this is important. If you take the right steps, you can make sure that your company doesn’t fall behind the competition.

How Do You Stop Your Promotion From Seeming So Hollow?

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The general public may or may not know much about how to run a business, but there are certain matters they are intimately familiar with. They know how to purchase and use the services of a business thanks to how integrated they are in our daily lives, and they also know the many different tricks of marketing. They have thousands of hours of exposure to this, and so it’s not hard to see they may have become adept at ignoring it, too.

Yet it does sometimes seem as though businesses rely on the same old slogans and techniques to drum up business, even if they seem somewhat artificial, hollow, and out of date in the middle to late 2021. Of course, we’re far past the days of Doctors advertising cigarettes, but it’s true to say that sometimes, promotional material can feel very hollow and uninteresting. But how can we prevent our marketing from seeming so hollow in that way? Odds are, with a little care and attention, we can cut through the standard doctrine and offer a little personality. Let’ see how that might work:

Word Things Appropriately

It might seem that good copywriting is focused on optimizing each word to totally extract all money, interest, and goodwill out of your audience, and so it can seem like an artificial practice to hire a marketer or copywriter capable of this. Actually, the competence of a copywriter is being able to take marketing concepts and make them relatable, understandable, and, dare we say it, even enjoyable. Sometimes, being a more human business means knowing how to present yourself, and that takes a little planning.

The Full Suite of Customer Rewards

Offering the full suite of customer rewards if you can. This means using the best promotions company to help gear your strategy going forward. That might mean using customer loyalty programs or point progress integrations, or simply offering sweepstakes to enhance your lead engagement as necessary. It might be that you run giveaways, or that you simply reward those who choose to support you after Covid, or you just do your best to enhance value for your users. The more you can focus on making the relationship balanced in favor of the consumer, the more they will attempt to balance it back to you. In this era of social consciousness and the need for transparent businesses, this can be a fantastic move forward.

Just Be Human

Just be a human firm. What does this mean? Well, do your best not to have the voice of a firm that has invested millions into marketing and measuring the ‘zeitgeist of a given year. You see this with companies that have thrown themselves behind talking in memes in order to relate to the new generation, and it often just comes across as crass, boring, and ill-fitting. For that reason, don’t feel you have to fit any mold. Just be you, and the vision that accompanies your business is good enough for dictating the tone you use.

With this advice, we hope you can stop your promotions from seeming so hollow, even in a world bathed in marketing.

Making Your Small Business Stand Out Online

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One of the great things that have happened in the last 100 years is the Internet. It is a free resource, knowledge, and communication system available to anybody, wherever on the planet. Your internet presence is the new storefront for small enterprises.

Websites and smart content have usurped storefronts and sales pamphlets as sources of information for clients. It's how they look into child care choices and scour the area for the most dependable tutors, housekeepers, and dog walkers. But, with so much competition out there, failing to maintain an online presence puts you in danger of losing potential consumers.

The internet is an excellent tool for small business owners to use to expand their operations. For one thing, technology has transformed marketing, allowing small enterprises to compete on an equal footing with giant corporations. But how can one stand out in a sea of noise online?

Build on the Basics

Don't run before you can walk. To really stand out from the crowd, you need to make sure you have the fundamentals in place. This means a good reliable website that is easy to use and aimed at sharing your business. Websites can be built on platforms such as WordPress, Wix, Weebly, Squarespace to name a few, and finding the right one for you can help set you up for excess.

Next to choosing a web hosting provider. Many different web hosting companies can host your new website, and many come with one-click WordPress installs, which is one of the most popular website platforms around.

Choosing your name and buying a domain name will give your website an address people can search for to find you. All websites need an address, and making sure it is relevant to your company if your company name is taken is vital. One of the steps for developing your brand is to have a logo representing your company both on and offline.

Get Verified By Google

Ensure your Google company profile is complete, including your current address, hours of operation, services, images, and links to your most recent blog entries. Getting your business certified through Google My Firm can help your business appear higher in Google's search results.

Content Is King

When you search for something online, think about what you type into search engines and the type of results it gives you back. Look at the results for the type of content and keywords you are looking to rank for. To get your website to the top of the rankings and compete with established websites and authorities in this area.

This will give you a basis for creating content on your website. And a website without content is not going to serve you well. Newsletters and blogs are two ways to communicate with your readers. You can embed your blog into your website to show off your personality by sharing your views, experiences, and ideas. You should also encourage customers to leave comments to maintain a positive relationship with them.

All of your content, including images, text, how-to guides - which are a great way to rank in the SERPs, product descriptions, etc. needs to be SEO optimised to ensure it meets the requests of users looking for content such as what you are producing.

Make Connections

Once you've established your presence, you must remain consistent and noticeable. Building your brand and establishing yourself as a thought leader requires networking. Someone who is a source of valuable ideas in their field is referred to as a thought leader. By sharing this knowledge, you can assist others in learning, succeeding, and growing.

Millennials, for example, like thought leaders since they are often the first to test a novel idea or offer insightful advice on current events. If your target customers are millennials, reaching out to them as friends and experts is a good idea.

Be Social

Partnering your website and online presence with your social media accounts can give you even more visibility and really help your company to stand out. Over 86 per cent of Americans use the internet regularly and are thus considered "online." Nearly 79 percent of those people use Facebook, compared to 32 percent who use Instagram, 31 percent who use Pinterest, 29 percent who use LinkedIn, and 24 percent who use Twitter. Social media has surpassed email, news, and other types of entertainment as a percentage of online time spent, so if you want to reach your customers, you must meet them where they are.

Make sure your branding is on point to maximize your efforts and allow customers to know they have the right social media accounts for your company. 

Takei into consideration the age of your target audience and tailor your content to them specifically. Of course, there will always be a crossover of generations, but if you are a new company that primarily is looking to attract Gen Z, then combining creative video that captures their imagination on platforms such as Snapchat and TikTok will serve you better than status updates on Facebook. Again, boomers, respond well to memes and the invitation to share their knowledge on Facebook.

To really stand out, you need to make sure your online efforts are consistent and keep your company's style. With more people than ever before looking online for their next new favorite brand, answers to questions, or simply for entertainment purposes, it pays to make sure that you aren't lost in the noise of the billions of websites taking up space online.

Especially if your market is saturated or you have some bigger brands you need to compete against.

On the plus side, there has been a switch to supporting smaller local businesses over larger companies who have a monopoly in the market in recent years. By focussing on providing the ultimate customer experience, you can reward this loyalty by gaining a solid customer and utilizing your good reputation to keep growing and expanding what you do.

How To Build Anticipation for New Products

Regardless of whether your business is new, or you've built a loyal customer base, strategizing the delivery of your products to consumers is essential. Companies must find direct and effective ways to maintain customers’ attention with so many competitor products to choose from in the market.

One of the best methods to proactively gain customers' attention is by building awareness for new products. To learn more about how to build anticipation for new products, continue reading our guide.

Social Media Campaigns

If your business does not utilize social media platforms or dedicate time to its website development, now is the time to strengthen these tools. Not only is social media and online interaction imperative for building a consumer base, but these tools are also significantly helpful in building anticipation for new products.

Companies can use social media to release sneak peeks of their new products and involve customers in their product releases. Interactive games, such as giveaways, can attract customers to guess about your new products and their designs. Customers who interact with your media online are also more likely to share your content with friends and further build your consumer base.

Although social media may seem unimportant to your business's mission, these platforms will successfully build anticipation for products while establishing your brand.

Seasonal Products

Another successful method for building customer anticipation is to create seasonal labels for your products. There are plenty of benefits of using seasonal labels for companies to consider. For example, when businesses redesign and add seasonal colors, flavors, or decorations to their products, customers look forward to these redesigns.

Companies can use the seasons to their advantage and release limited editions or temporary products for customers to enjoy. Since customers will expect these products to be sold for a limited amount of time, they're more likely to buy them during their selling window.

When the next year rolls around, consumers will look forward to the reappearance of these products and be more likely to search for your merchandise.

In-Store Campaigns

If your business is already building a social media campaign, establishing an in-store campaign to advertise your new product release will only better market your merchandise. When customers shop and see product advertisements on the walls and shelves of stores, they're more likely to be aware of new product releases.

Handing out flyers during check-out can also provide customers with additional information to read at home to prepare for these releases. When customers are more aware of new merchandise releases, they're more likely to seek these products out the next time they shop. 

If you're not sure how to build anticipation for new products, start by review some of these tips. Customers should look forward to the products a company releases. Building customer anticipation will strengthen your consumer base and the recognition of your brand. 

Top 5 Tips for Setting Up an Online Craft Business

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If you’ve got a creative flair combined with an entrepreneurial spirit, you could consider setting up your own online craft business. You could create beautiful handmade products for your customers and make some extra cash doing the thing you love. Whether your talents lie in woodworking, jewelry design, or pottery, you could definitely turn these into a lucrative business. It’s important to establish your brand online, however, and this requires marketing savvy as well as crafting skills. Here are the top five tips for setting up an online craft business.

Find a profitable niche

When you’re first starting out, the important thing is to find your niche. This will be largely based on your talents or passions. You can then identify your target audience. If you would like to design jewelry, for example, you could then try to create buyer personas according to demographic. It’s also a good idea to study the market and your competitors as this will help you learn who are the most profitable customers and how to appeal to them. Here are a few important steps to finding a profitable niche.

Invest in the right tools

You don’t want to use up all your resources but invest in the essential equipment you need to start your business. This depends on the type of craft you do. It’s also advisable to budget for quality materials. This is often an important selling point for artisans. Whether you’re working with high-quality sustainable leather or precious metals, you should highlight this in your marketing material.

Consider outsourcing certain services

Rather than buying expensive equipment, you could outsource certain services. If you would like to offer personalized products to your customers you could outsource engraving to Universalengraving.com, for instance. As your business begins to grow you could also consider outsourcing your fulfillment to a third-party logistics provider. This includes storing, packing, and shipping your products.

Boost your online presence

In order to ensure a future for your business, you’ve got to build a strong presence online. This means focusing on digital marketing efforts and optimizing your website. Social media is a great tool for independent designers and it’s very cost-effective. Showcase your talents on social media with videos and professional photographs. You could also use targeting advertising on platforms such as Facebook. Set up a Google My Business account as well and optimize this with plenty of pictures and information about your products.

Get involved in local events

Even though your business is based online you can promote it at local events. Get involved in a local craft market or contact brick-and-mortar stores to help sell your products. This way you can network with more people and boost brand awareness. Customers will want to see your products up close, so it’s a great way to make an impression. This should result in good word of mouth for your business. Make the most of as many marketing channels as possible and you’ll create a name for yourself in the field.

How to Create a Better Team Environment in Your Office

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If your office environment isn’t aiding your team or helping them to work together for the good of the business, it might be time to do something about that. Your business’s success will be decided by the way in which your team performs and how they all work together as a unit. It might be a good idea to think about ways in which you can enhance your office and gear it more towards team working. Find out more about this below.

Prioritize Onboarding

If you want to create a team environment and your business wants to create a team of people who can hit the ground running, you need to prioritize onboarding. This is important when bringing in new people and adding them to the mix of your business and what it wants to achieve. As your business grows, you’ll need to bring in more people and onboarding will only become more important.

Create Channels for Honest and Open Communication

You also want to make sure that your team members are all communicating effectively with one another. It’s up to you, however, to create the channels for honest and open communication. When you do that, you’ll find that everyone stays in the loop and miscommunications become a thing of the past. Create a policy that works for you and that your team agrees to.

Create an Office Layout That Works for You All Collectively

The layout of your office is something that you’ll definitely need to get some thought to. In some workplaces, office cubicles might be the way to go or you might want to create a more open layout. It all depends on the kind of work you do and the way in which you want your team members to collaborate and work as a unit. But it’s definitely worth thinking about though.

Share Information Openly

Sharing information openly and making sure everyone has access to the resources they need will be very important when it comes to creating a better team environment. If people can’t share documents, files and other resources easily and remotely via the cloud, collaboration and teamwork will become that much harder than it needs to be. That’s not what you want, so put the right measures in place to facilitate this sharing.

Encourage Everyone to Buy Into the Culture

Encouraging your team to really buy into the culture of the business will help in so many different ways. It’ll keep everyone invested in the success of the business and encourage them to work together, especially if your company culture and ethos revolves around working collaboratively and operating as a team unit. The more people buy into this stuff, the more real it becomes for them.

As you can see, there are lots of strategies you can employ in order to create a better team environment in your office. Be sure to make the most of the tips and ideas we’ve discussed here if you’re looking to get your team members working together better and more consistently.