Mohit Tater's Blog, page 574

3 Things About Real Leaders You Don’t See in Movies and On TV

There is no shortage of movies and TV shows
about leaders, whether they’re of the corporate variety, the athletic variety,
the political variety, and of course the superhero and superheroine variety.

However, one thing that emerging leaders
discover to their surprise — and sometimes, to their shock — is that the real
world of day-to-day leadership isn’t one epic and momentous event after
another. There’s no captivating soundtrack. No team of editors to make sure
that the scene is riveting. No directors to yell “CUT” when even the slightest
detail is missed. Heck, there isn’t even free pizza. 

Instead, real leaders — which are the kind
that don’t just reach lofty leadership positions, but stay in them for decades
like Steve Jobs — are characterized and
defined by three unexpected traits:

They work extremely hard.

Many people dream of becoming a leader
because they want to enjoy the privileges — like box seats at the Super Bowl
and flitting around on a private jet. Granted, these are enjoyable perks. But
real leaders aren’t motivated by the fruits of leadership: they are motivated
by an unyielding, if not obsessive work ethic. That means when other people —
including subordinates — take time off and go on vacation, they’re grinding it
out late at night on the phone or in front of their computer. They’re typically
the first people to start work in the morning (they always commence their
workday from home before commuting to work), and they pull all-nighters more
often than college students anxiously cramming for exams.

They never — ever — stop learning.

If you’re hoping to become a leader one day so that you can finally take your foot off the ongoing learning pedal, then think again. Real leaders don’t care about what they know: they care about what they still need to learn in order to drive their organization forward. It’s similar to becoming a musician. When you’re young (or sometimes when you aren’t), you start by taking piano lessons or violin lessons. But regardless of how proficient you become and how many awards you win, there’s always more to learn. The moment you stop learning, you start regressing. There is no standing still.

They see leadership as a calling, not an ambition.

This is the most subtle of all leadership
traits, but it’s also the most important. If you take truly great leaders from
any walk of life aside, and if they’re willing to be truly open and
transparent, they’ll tell you that they don’t actually want to be a leader.
That’s not to say that they don’t like or even love their jobs — because they
usually do. Rather, it means that they don’t crave leadership roles to inflate
their ego. Instead, take the reigns of leadership because it’s their calling.
They feel a sense of responsibility to provide leadership; not for their
personal benefit, but because, well, just like superheroes and superheroines:
if they don’t lean forward and keep the wheel turning, who will? Indeed, inside
every authentic leader is someone who would actually love to stop being a
leader. It’s a paradox that is impossible to articulate but is absolutely real.

The
Bottom Line

The world will always need
more great leaders. If leadership is part of your present or future, and
provided that you always work hard, always keep learning, and always remain
humble, then you won’t just succeed. You’ll amaze and inspire.

The post 3 Things About Real Leaders You Don’t See in Movies and On TV appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Small Business Health Insurance: 4 Things You Need to Know

As a small business, it can feel impossible to
shop for health insurance. You know you need something you can afford and
something that fits your employees’ needs, but you’re not even sure where to
begin. Depending on the size of your organization, you might even be required
to offer coverage under the employer mandate.

Either way, you need to get your biggest questions answered. Before you start your search for small business health insurance, read through these 4 things you need to know. You’ll be on your way to buying health insurance with confidence in no time.

Do You Actually Need Health Insurance?

First, you need to figure out if you’re required
to have group health insurance. In general, this will depend on the size of
your company. While the individual health insurance mandate that requires every
individual to have health insurance is no longer in effect, some employers are
still required to offer health insurance.

If you have the equivalent of 50 or more full-time employees for at least 6 months during the year, you’re required to offer what’s known as basic minimum coverage. However, even if you’re under that 50-person requirement, you still might choose to offer health insurance. In general, having a comprehensive benefits package that includes quality health insurance will help you attract and retain the top employees.

2. Can You Purchase Group
Insurance as a Small Business?

There’s a lot of confusion around what’s considered a “group” when it comes to health insurance. Usually, we only think of group insurance in the form of big enterprises that have a lot of purchasing power. While it’s true it’s simpler for these types of companies to get coverage, you can sometimes buy group health insurance plans with as little as one employee or even if you’re just self-employed. It will depend on what your state considers as a “group.”

In addition, you don’t have to go at it alone. You can join a small business alliance to help lower the cost of group coverage. In an alliance, you’ll join with other small businesses to keep costs of group insurance low.

3. How Much Do Employers Cover?

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation Employer Health Benefits Survey, most employers cover an average of 83% of individual premium costs and 72% of family costs. This number tends to change based on the size of the business. For example, small businesses are likely to cover less when it comes to employer-sponsored coverage.

When deciding how much you can cover, take a
few different things into account:

How many employees you need
coveredYour benefits and compensation
packageState minimum employer
contribution



4. Should Employers Offer
Supplemental Insurance?

Last but not least, small employers also need to consider offering supplemental insurance. While this might seem like an additional expense and challenge, it’s a great benefit to your existing health insurance and compensation package. Despite common misconceptions, traditional health insurance exclude coverage for things like dental and vision care, as well as many other necessary health expenses or concerns.

Including an inexpensive supplemental health insurance option in addition to your traditional health insurance can be a great addition. A recent survey from Glassdoor reports that health insurance is the most requested employee benefit, so why not be even more competitive?

How Much Do You Know About Health
Insurance?

How much did you know about these four topics
above? The more you understand small business health insurance, the better
equipped you’ll be to meet your employees’ needs. Health insurance benefits
everyone, even the employer.

It’s time to stop putting off your small
business health insurance. It doesn’t have to be a complicated or expensive
process as long as you know what you’re doing. Start your search today to
create a better future for your employees.

The post Small Business Health Insurance: 4 Things You Need to Know appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Day One Review: Journaling Made Simple

“This superb journaling app remains
pleasant to behold, easy to use, and a tough act for any rival to follow.”

-Macworld

Day One is an award-winning journaling and note-taking app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. This app allows you to easily add date-wise entries along with attachments like images or any other file format. Just like a physical journal, you can write about what you plan to do later in the day, things that bother you, or jot down some notes related to your work.

The
user interface is simple and hassle-free. In fact, it is one of the tidiest
journaling apps I have ever used. One of the reasons to download this app today
is, they have a free version which provides almost 70 percent of the features
of the premium version. So, feel free to install it on your iPhone, iPad or
Mac. You have nothing to lose.

Introduce producer

Paul Mayne is the designer and founder of an organization called Bloom. The Day One app was developed by the hard-working and talented team of this company. In an interview with LifeHacker, Paul described how and why he decided to work on this idea.

Paul
himself had struggled to keep a personal journal and wished there was a
software that would make his life several times easier. So, he began working on
a basic version of this app for Mac computers. And since, he and his team of
software developers have made plenty of enhancements to make it one of the best
in the category.

“Day One makes keeping a journal
delightfully easy.” 

-Wired

Here I have listed 3 features of
Day One that make it extraordinary.



1) Reminders and Notifications

Reminders
help you be consistent with your journaling habit. Reminders are for you if you
constantly find yourself forgetting or making excuses to write. On setting up a
reminder, its date and time, the Day One app will send you a notification to
your iOS/ macOS device. 

Here is how you can set a
reminder in iOS. You can customize it however you want.

You
can add a message that will display when the reminder appears on your screen.
It also allows you to set the time and frequency at which you want the
notifications. When you receive the notification, all you have to do is tap on
it and add the entry for that particular time of the day.

To create Reminders, go to Day One > Settings > Notifications & Reminders > Add Reminder.

Here is how you can set a reminder in macOS. To set reminders
in macOS, the same procedure applies as that of iOS.

Click Day One > Preferences (in the file menu) > Reminders. Click to enable reminders and then click the + icon to create a new reminder.

2) Convert your journal to a book

Day
One Apps book printing is a perennial favorite among writers and publishers.
This feature allows you to convert your journal into a book in a matter of
seconds.

Here is an example of how the book
will look like.

You
can preview the entire book to see if the content, book cover and page layout
is to your liking. Once everything is perfect, you will have to add it to the
cart and checkout.

This
feature is available in iOS and macOS devices. But, as of now, it is not
available for Day One Android. They are working hard on bringing it to Android
devices as well.

3) Powerful rich text formatting
with Markdown

Day One App supports Rich Text Format. For content writer not well versed with HTML and other languages, writing code can be a very difficult and time-consuming process. To solve this problem, John Gruber of Daring Fireball has created a free tool called Markdown.   

Markdown
is a markup language that converts a plain text to HTML. All you have to do is
learn a few tags used in this and you are ready to create web pages without any
knowledge of programming languages.

Day
One App has Markdown already integrated into it. This app allows you to write
plain text which will get processed into the desired format.

This is how the document looks
like when written in Rich Text Format.







After processing, it gets converted to a standard web page.
The following is a virtual compiler window to help you design your page better.







What I like

There
are plenty of things I love about this app. I have installed it on my iPad,
iPhone, and my Mac computer. The app has a lock screen, so in my absence, I
don’t have to worry about secrecy or someone peeking into my journals.
Moreover, the user interface is amazingly designed. All the entries I have made
until now are available to me in a single click.

What I don’t like

This
app has some sublime features but there are a couple of key elements missing.
It would have been remarkable to have these features in this app.

One
drawback of the free version is that you can only add one image per entry.
However, the paid version allows you to do so.

An
option to maximize and minimize the screen is another thing the designers of
this app have not considered. I can’t hide the sidebar when I want to focus
solely on writing. I hope the makers of the Day One App fix these trivial issues. 

My recommendation

“If you’re looking for a fantastic
journaling app or a great app for logging and recording various events and
milestones of your life, then by far and away the best pick is Day One.”

-The Sweet Setup

I
definitely recommend using Day One for your journaling and note-taking needs.
They also have a free version. So, you can try it out for a few days and see if
it suits your requirements.

For me, features like book printing and markdown seem surplus right now. But, who knows, I might decide to print out the whole thing in a book format to pass the information on to my future generations. It’s a small investment that will deliver tremendous benefits.

Pricing

The
Day One App has both, a free and premium version. If you are really serious
about journaling, then there is a free 7 day trial for the premium version. The
price is $2.92 per month. You’re paying for quality. If you choose to go with
the premium version then you will be billed annually. 

The post Day One Review: Journaling Made Simple appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

7 Disastrous Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Your Own Business

No matter how you look at it, finding the right buyer for your business is not an easy process. However, if you are guided by an ethical business broker you can expect a fairly smooth selling experience.

Selling a business is all about
projecting your company in a good light without being deceptive. There are a
lot of pitfalls that can scare away potential prospects or devalue your
business before a deal is signed. In this post, we reveal the common pitfalls
that can be avoided when selling your business.

Not Getting the Business Evaluated

Coming up with an arbitrary number based
on your current assets and revenue is not really the way to go. Business
valuation is a complex process and something that should be trusted upon an
impartial business broker.

Selling When the Revenues are Down

Selling during a temporary slump period may force you to settle on a much lower amount than expected. Prospective buyers would always stress on how the business is doing in the current economic climate. Therefore, a drop in revenue will grant buyers a foothold to push the negotiation in their favor. The best way to avoid this is by seeing through a temporary revenue drop and start meeting prospects when the revenues are up.

Not Selecting a Professional Business Broker

This one’s a biggie. You need to find a
business brokerage firm that is reputed in the industry for being impartial.
While you do save the brokerage fee if you try and sell on your own, you can
never get the flow of prospective buyers you would otherwise get by partnering
up with a business broker. Go to the business broker’s website and checkout the
deals they have closed in the past. That’s the only metric that really matters.

Failing to Keep it a Secret

You need to be tightlipped about your intention of selling your business. If the word gets out, employees may try to jump ship, which can severely impact the operations. This can cause you to lose your clients and sales before any deal is signed.

Not Being Selective When Evaluating Prospective Buyers

What you need to understand is that not
everyone is out there to buy your business. There are people who are just out
to collect essential information about your clients and business operations.
Therefore, it’s important to set a filter by speaking to your business broker.
Don’t worry about losing prospects. The practice of pre-qualification is well
known, and it shouldn’t bother genuine buyers. 

Exaggerating Sales Figures and Projections

Prospective buyers are going to study the
balance sheet and sales figures. Therefore, exaggerating the sales figure in
the first few meetings is not a recommended strategy. Lying about revenues can
also attract lawsuits after the deal has been signed.

Allowing Yourself to Slack off Before the Deal is Finalized

This is a common mistake and one that often proves to be disastrous. Not being involved in business operations can cause your revenues to drop. It may also alert grassroot employees and managers about your intention of selling the business. Ethically, you should leave behind a healthy and functional firm. You should also remain available for some time after the deal to handhold the new business owner.

The post 7 Disastrous Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Your Own Business appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Why Entrepreneurs Need to Sharpen Their SEO Knowledge to Succeed

One key factor that enables businesses to succeed, especially in today’s digital world, is getting the word out about your business. Whether you are a Fortune 500 company or a startup venture, allowing your target audience to find information about you is key to making an impact on your potential customers. One of the most efficient ways to accomplish this is by appearing on people’s web search results.

Unless your business is an established name within your niche and among your target market, potential buyers are not going to make an effort to visit your website or let alone put your brand’s name on their search queries. Most people who search for certain information use keywords related to their needs when they do their research. With Search Engine Optimization, you can inch your way up to the top of search results, which may increase website visits in the long run.

Unfortunately, SEO isn’t new. Your fiercest
competitors are most likely already in on SEO with the hopes to appear in their
target market’s search results and get more sales. If you’re serious about
getting your piece of the pie, find out why you need to sharpen your SEO skills
to help your business succeed.

Search Engines Continuously
Update Their Algorithm

Because online search has become very crucial in a customer’s buying journey, knowing how search engines work is considered compulsory. Most business owners, if not all, have long realized the power of search platforms in marketing, which compelled some SEO experts to adopt certain practices that allows them to cheat their way to the top of search results. As time went by, these practices – called blackhat SEO – have become so bad that it had affected the browsing experience for the users of search platforms such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. To improve the browsing experience for their users, it prompted them to establish stricter rules that online marketers must adhere to.

Search engine platforms are now constantly updating the algorithms that determine which websites to rank the highest. In turn, SEO experts are now obliged to constantly evolve and keep up with the changes to stay on top of their game.

Competition is Tight

Search Engine Optimization basically works by
targeting the right keywords that your potential customers are using and making
your website appear in search results from these keywords. If your business is
operating in a small market, your competitors are more likely to be targeting
the same keywords that are relevant for your business. Once your competitor
establishes their business as the authority in these keywords, you’re more
likely to see a decline in website traffic, and subsequently, in your revenue
as well.

In SEO, being the first to establish high
authority in a niche is very crucial. However, if you’re just realizing the
importance of SEO and are still about to start making your SEO efforts for your
website, finding a competitive SEO expert is probably your best bet to succeed.

User Behavior is Constantly
Changing

As with the rest of the world, user behavior
and their preferences are constantly changing. This means that the search
keywords they are using to reach your business may be changing over time as
well. A particular keyword may have worked in your favor and brought a great
increase in traffic and revenue a few years ago, but this keyword may lose its
relevance over time as your user’s search preferences shift.

If your SEO isn’t constantly changing, then
you may also lose out to competitors who are keeping their SEO campaigns
current. Make sure you’re constantly checking and modifying your SEO campaigns
to target the most relevant keywords that your potential customers are using to
reach your website. Staying timely and relevant for your target audience needs
constant review and modification to ensure the efficacy of your SEO marketing
efforts.

Your Page Rank can Affect Your
Bottomline

Keeping your SEO up-to-date may also affect your website’s overall Page Rank. Because Page Rank is important for Google and other search engines in weighing a website’s authority, a decline in Page Rank may synonymously result in a decline in website visits as well as revenue, especially if sales transactions are primarily done online.

Using SEO to maintain your website’s Page Rank
can help your business remain stable and could also ensure constant growth in
the long run. Businesses that keep their SEO efforts running have seen an
increase of up to 18% in their website ranking. On the other hand, those who
discontinued SEO efforts have seen a ranking drop of about 30%. Make sure you
constantly have SEO campaigns running to maintain and improve your website’s
ranking and visibility.

Keep Your SEO Campaigns Running
Sharp

Turn your business into an authority within
your niche with SEO. Just by allocating time and resources exclusive for SEO,
you ensure that your brand will remain top-of-mind in your customer’s buying
journey that will help your business succeed.

Author
Bio

John Vuong is the sole owner of localseosearch.ca. John’s mission is to help local business owners improve their online influence so they can dominate their industry. With his business acumen and innate understanding of the local business landscape, John writes blogs that delve on how to customize SEO campaigns based on client needs.

The post Why Entrepreneurs Need to Sharpen Their SEO Knowledge to Succeed appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Does a Modern Office need a Printer?

As technology sees the world advances rapidly, it has
become quite apparent that the modern office is very different top the one from
twenty or thirty years ago. For a start the modern office has computers everywhere.
Cell phones or VOIP solutions are ubiquitous. Fax machines are in museums and
there is constant talk about cloud computing and paperless offices. So, with
this in mind the question is frequently asked, do modern offices need printers
or are they headed the same way as fax machines and other, now obsolete,
technology. Well, if this is something that you have or are pondering, here are
a few things to consider.

Is the need to
print still there?

The short answer to this question is ‘yes’. Unlike fax machines, which have been rendered redundant by email and computers, there is still a need to print. And quite a regular need at that! For a start there are lots of documents that require physical signatures to be attached to them. Biometrics and digital signatures are slowly becoming more of a thing, but there is a long way for them to go. And, until tablets are everywhere it is almost essential for an office to have a production printer on site to satisfy the printing needs.

Have options

In the same way that some people like to read books on
Kindles while others prefer actual paper, the same applies with material that
is produced in an office on a daily basis. There are always going to be people
who want hard copies of material – be it legal, financial, contractual or
training documents. If you ended up having to go to a copy shop every time you
needed to print something, then you would probably discover that you were
popping out almost daily!

Move with the
times

Printers are no longer just about words on paper. In a way that fax machines were not able to, printers have moved with the times. So, while we may well reach a situation in a decade or so where old-school printers are no longer required, the world of 3D printers is only just opening up. This is technology that is being explored and developed rapidly and we may well find that it is not too long before most offices are equipped with 3D printers for the making of all sorts of essential daily items.

Smart solutions

As technology has advanced so too have printing
solutions. The days of the dot-matrix machine that could do a page
in thirty seconds have long gone. Modern printers are able to produce around 60
pages a minute (or one a second if you prefer). They are also combined with
copiers and scanners to create a one stop machine that caters to a range of
needs. In fact, if you needed to fax, these modern machines can probably help
you out with that need as well. So, while you might feel that you don’t need
any one of the above-mentioned items more than once or twice a week, you will
probably find, that when combined into one machine that the asset is worked
hard on a daily basis. 

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Why (and How) Sales & Marketing Should Work Together

To the disservice of both, marketing and sales teams are too often
siloed, treated as wholly separate entities with separate concerns and goals.

Sometimes, there’s even a little antagonism among departments, with each side insisting on its own supreme importance. According to Harvard Business Review, the rift between sales and marketing is such that a concerning 87% of respondents polled in both sales and marketing thought negatively of the other side. Amusingly, salespeople used terms like “paper pushers” to describe marketers, and marketers used terms like “cowboys” to describe salespeople.

However, are the goals of these two opposing factions really all
that different? In both cases, the overall wellbeing of the company, and the
acquisition of new business are the end goals – so why not work together?

Defining
Sales and Marketing

It might be helpful to begin by defining the two teams (beyond
“pencil pushers” and “cowboys” that is). Marketing looks at the company and its
products/services holistically, aiming to expand awareness of the brand through
various strategies (content marketing, social media marketing, inbound
marketing, among others). Whatever the strategy, marketing’s goal is to produce
leads for the sales team.

The sales team, in turn, takes these leads and moves them through
the sales pipeline, qualifying the leads, validating them into sales
opportunities and then attempting to close them. Sales focuses more on direct,
one-to-one communication than marketing does; sales requires more of a human
touch.

Seems like both disciplines are part of the same general process,
right?

How
Marketing and Sales Departments Can Work Together

A common gripe from the marketing department is that the sales
team lets hard-earned leads slip through the cracks. Fair enough. Sales
development reps, left to their own devices and a traditional CRM, can only
qualify so many leads, and they have to rely on imperfect judgment.

An easy fix, though, is to have the sales team use sales engagement software that takes the guesswork out of the process by using queue-based lead routing to automatically present the salesperson with the next best lead to call. A sales engagement platform increases productivity and ensures that the marketing team’s hard work isn’t wasted. Vanillasoft.com offers one of the best sales engagement platforms available, and they provide resources you can read about best practices implementation

In turn, sales should offer any information they have to marketing about buyer personas, including pain points, objections, and other details. This information helps the marketing department deliver better qualified leads.

The Case
for Collaboration

The case for sales and marketing collaboration is as simple as it is self-evident: an exchange of information between the two departments, as well as a mutual respect for the work the other does, will result in more sales, more customers, more profits. A sales team that makes the effort to close as many leads as possible by using a sales engagement solution will reflect positively on the marketing team, and a marketing team that offers better quality leads will reflect positively on the sales team.

There might be a cultural rivalry between sales and marketing,
but, at the end of the day, it should be more like a sibling rivalry. You’re
part of the same family, and you want the same things – despite your bickering,
you might as well work together.

The post Why (and How) Sales & Marketing Should Work Together appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Is It Time for You to Hire a Marketing Agency? Here’s How You Can Tell.

When you’re just starting on your
entrepreneurship journey, it can be difficult to justify the expense of an
external marketing team. In fact, data shows that most small businesses prefer to keep
their online marketing in-house.

That’s definitely a respectable goal, but
there are some situations where that’s just not good enough if you want to achieve
more ambitious goals, faster. Sometimes you need the hired guns, the experts
who drive success for businesses like yours every day, all day.

Here are six signs it’s time to hire a
marketing agency.

1. Sales
Are Declining

If you know there’s a market for your product
or service, if you’re sure your customer success and sales teams are working
their hardest at providing quality service, and if your pricing is competitive,
but you’re still finding that sales are stagnant (or worse, declining), then
the problem could be ineffective marketing.

If you really want to know, consult with one
of the many marketing agencies that offer a free brief consultation. They’ll
learn more about what you’re doing now and be able to offer some suggestions
for improvement.

2. Your
Top Competitors Are Already Using Marketing Agencies

If the competition has a marketing agency
working for them, they’ve already got a pretty big advantage over you. New
people bring in new perspectives that are helpful in addressing immediate
challenges you face in marketing and sales. T

he right agency can get your messaging,
branding, and promotion on point, and it may be completely different from the
direction you started in. If you hire a marketing agency that understands your
needs and business environment, you’ll give yourself a strategic advantage.

3. The
Strategy Advice You Receive Is Generic

Different marketing agencies have different
realms of knowhow. You’ll find many of them are generalists, that is, willing
to provide services to any niche regardless of their experience marketing those
kinds of products or services. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but
there are some instances where niche expertise can make or break your company.

Take ecommerce, for instance. Because the market is so saturated with options, one of the best things you can do for your company is to hire an ecommerce marketing agency. These teams focus solely on online shopping, and as such, they know all there is to know about what it will take to get you successfully competing in the space.

4. You
Don’t Know What’s Working and What’s Not

To do well in your business, you must be able to analyze your strengths and weaknesses as a company. If you cannot determine which inbound marketing initiatives are working to bring leads into your business, what the best design is for you to get maximum response at trade shows, or why your social media marketing isn’t providing the ROI you expected, then you need an agency that can provide the answers for you.

This will save you a great deal of time and
money, because you are no longer investing those resources into activities that
aren’t cost effective. Instead of playing guessing games or constantly trying
something new just to see what happens, allow the agency to handle it for you.
Yes, you’ll have to pay the agency, but working with the right agency ensures
you’ll earn enough of a profit to keep them on, doing their thing. They know if
they don’t provide results, they’ll be out of a job.

5. You
Don’t Enjoy Marketing

If you’ve been doing it all on your own because
you can’t afford to hire an in-house team, and you don’t like doing it, then
this probably shows. Basic blog posts, boring emails and landing pages, and a
half-hearted attempt at social media won’t give you the results you’re looking
for.

Agencies are not only made for this stuff – they
love it. And when they do the work for you, their passion will shine through,
making it easier for you to get the results you want.

6. Your
In-House Team is Overworked

When you’ve got an in-house marketing team ready to work for you, it’s easy to think and dream big, then pass all the work over to them. But if you overwhelm the team, they have to stretch themselves thinner, which may manifest in underwhelming performance in terms of social prospecting, email outreach, co-marketing webinars and whatever other tactics are grinding them down. It may also mean they make half-hearted decisions.

Help your in-house team serve you better by
allowing them to focus on their core competencies and hand the rest of the
stuff off to an outside agency.

Marketing
is a Must for Any Business

Whether you enjoy marketing or not, it’s a
necessary part of operating a business. That’s especially the case for any new
businesses that haven’t yet earned brand awareness and customer trust. Even
major brands like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, which have been around for more than 100
years, still engage in marketing to keep customers coming back for more.

Hiring an agency to take care of it for you is
better than leaving it neglected under all the other business operations.

The post Is It Time for You to Hire a Marketing Agency? Here’s How You Can Tell. appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Why Social Media Integration Is Crucial For App Developers

What cannot be argued is the insane rate
at which the quality and quantity of mobile apps available on the app market
have improved. Today, the app market is well stocked with over 3 million apps
and that number is expected to increase even further in a few years.

The consequence of such progressive
figures is that an up and coming mobile app development company would find it a
bit challenging to get a look in. Such is the competition in mobile app
development today that even the better-established app companies are forced to
regularly come up with innovative ideas to stay relevant.

Luckily, the demand for quality,
innovative apps is as high as ever. People all over the world are trying to make
their lives a lot easier and any app that could help is always well
appreciated. Hence, you’ll always have a willing pool of users waiting for your
app to reach them, this is where social media integration comes in.

Social
Media Integration

When businesses realized they could
reach more people on social media platforms, social media marketing became a
no-brainer. Today, social media integration is everywhere. From blog sidebars
featuring live twitter feeds to digital articles with share buttons. It is,
therefore, no surprise that a mobile app development company could also benefit
from it. What social media integration can do for you is to help improve the
promotion of your app. This includes increased usage, better exploration by
users and an easier way to share with more people.

Benefits
of Social Media integration

Improved
Connectivity: What better place to showcase your
app to the rest of the world than on social media? The major advantage is that
you have access to an almost limitless number of current and potential users of
your app. Hence, you may interact, share ideas and give a better overview of
your app’s features and how users can enjoy it’s benefits to the fullest.

Improved
Customer Satisfaction: App users always have an
idea of how they want their ideal app to look like. This is one of the key
reason developers make regular updates on their apps. Sometimes, there are a
few bugs here and there, a few ideas that could make the app a lot easier to
use. A simplified interaction between a mobile app development company and it’s
app users can help the company to determine what areas they need to improve on,
what bugs they need to fix and what other changes users would prefer to produce
a better app.

Improved
app Promotion: As earlier stated, the mobile market
has become increasingly competitive. With so many apps on the market, it will
take a lot of effort to get your app across to more people. Luckily, social
media integration helps with that. With platforms such as Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram and a host of others, you can reach more people and improve your
app’s popularity. This is especially helpful for up and coming mobile app
development companies. Coming up with an innovative idea is one thing, getting
the rest of the world to know that your app exists is another. Hence, a very
potent strategy like social media integration is required to work hand in hand
with an excellent app idea to produce the desired success.

It
is Cost Effective: There are a few other strategies
to get your app across to the rest of the world. However, what you can be sure
of is that it would be difficult to find any other strategy that is as
cost-effective as social media integration. You basically don’t have to spend a
dime to showcase your app on social media. Owning a social media page is as
easy as signing up. A wise mobile app development company will accept that no
other strategy can produce a better ROI than social media integration.

What
to Prioritize in Social Media Integration

To get the best out of social media
integration, it is important for a mobile app development company to prioritize
some of the more beneficial strategies.

They include the following

Videos: If you really want to convince potential users that your app is worth the hype then there is no better way than to show them a video of how it works. Posting short clips of your app that shows it’s features and benefits will help engage your users and promote your app.

Engaging
Contents: While creating engaging contents may not
be as effective as videos, it is still a valuable way to reach out to users.
Your content must be well thought and impeccably delivered. Also, it is
important to note that people are not ready to read long sermons. If you’re
going to describe the features of your app, find a way to describe them in few
sentences. Well-Written content can help improve your app’s visibility and
convince people to try it out.

Connect
with Your Audience: Try to reply to their queries
and answer their questions. Sometimes, users find it difficult to get the best
out of an app because they simply can’t grasp the app’s functionalities.
Engaging your users will help improve your app usage.

Conclusion

Whether you are a mobile app development
company or a freelancer, what is important is to find a way to get your app the
exposure it needs to improve downloads. While there are many apps appearing on
the app store every month, the truth is that many of them are mostly identical
with only a few difference. Hence, the difference between the mobile app
development company getting millions of downloads on their apps and the one who
does not ultimately boil down to a better awareness strategy. This is the exact
problem that social media integration can solve for struggling app developers.

Author
Bio:

Harnil Oza is a CEO of Hyperlink InfoSystem, a mobile app development company based in USA & India having a team of best app developers who deliver best mobile solutions mainly on Android and iOS platform and also listed as one of the top app development companies by leading research platform. He regularly contributes his knowledge on the leading blogging sites.

The post Why Social Media Integration Is Crucial For App Developers appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.

Understanding Payment Gateways

A payment gateway is a system which enables online payments. It
allows people to charge customers’ cards with the purchase they make online. It’s
a secure system to protect both the vendor and the customer.

It works similar to a real point of sales terminal available on the
retail store of a brick and mortar. Online vendors may take card payments
straight from their websites. The payment gateway remains the mediator between
the transactions taking place on your website and the payment processor.

The payment gateway systems serve as a bridge between vendors and customers. It’s a safe channel to allow people to transmit information on the website. Online merchant accounts mostly have a payment gateway such as PayPal. Here are some benefits of a payment gateway for your business. You can also check more information on Powercash21 – Europe’s secure payment gateway merchant services.

1. Security

Payment gateway systems ensure that your customers’ information
stays confident. Hackers or other unwanted third parties can’t access client
data or other sensitive data on your website. It encrypts data on your site
through a secure sockets layer (SSL). To ensure legitimacy, the system consults
your bank. In case the payment is found not to be legit, the system
automatically rejects the transaction. It will also avoid the issuance of
chargeback fees. For instance, the Chrome platform displays it as a lock
located near the URL. When clicking it, it reassures you that the connection isn’t
only secure, but also, the information is private.

2. Integration

Payment gateways can be integrated easily with e-commerce platforms
like WooCommerce, Magento, and BigCommerce. Different payment gateways have
various features. Preferably, choose one that best fits your business. Always
check and research on the payments gateway before making any decision. You can
seek professional help if you’re not too sure about the solution.

3. Accepting foreign currencies

Some payment gateways support multiple currencies. You can consider a gateway that supports foreign currencies. However, it’s essential to note that you’ll end up spending more through these transactions. Before making a move, make a proper recording to avoid losing more money than you’re making.

4. Payment reporting

Payment gateways are created to enable businesses to get real-time
reporting on their websites. One can view and get an insight into how their
business is doing.

5. Availability

You can run 24/7 without having to monitor your online business.
People can easily buy items on your platform without you constantly worrying
about hacks or unwanted activities.

6. Payment options

Having a wide range of payment options comes in handy for the
different potential clients. Basically, a regular payment gateway is supposed
to accept both debit card and credit card transactions. But then, there are
those that have additional features that are more sophisticated to support
PayPal and gift voucher payments.

It’s also essential to check whether your payment gateway supports
the point of sale. You might receive a free card reader to accept payments on
the go at events or to use in your retail store.

The post Understanding Payment Gateways appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.