Mohit Tater's Blog, page 688

Modern Marketing: Using Media Planning to Boost Your ROI

The use of media planning in order to get the maximum value out of your advertising budget should never be underestimated.

Selecting which types of media you are going to use in your marketing strategy is often the deciding factor in determining how success your advertising campaign is how good your ROI turns out to be.

Limited budgets

Every business has an advertising budget and if you run a small business, it goes without saying that you have to make every penny count.

You can quickly erode your marketing cash on the wrong type of media, such as advertising in a national paper when local newspaper advertising may well produce the same level of response or better.

Then there is the question of how to target customers online through social media channels, where you have to decide if something like Google AdWords is right for you or whether a Facebook campaign might be more productive.

Defining your customers

Social media is used extensively by large companies who use Facebook to get people to like their products or services and open up a dialogue with them, and it could be that this type of brand-building approach might work for you.

Getting feedback on your products or service will help you to understand what your customers like and give you the chance to carry out more targeted advertising campaigns as a result of the valuable marketing intelligence you have gleaned.

Understanding how different media works

The use of social media is a good example of why you need to understand how different media works, so that you can work out your budget and also manage expectations.

If you are using direct mail to reach potential new customers and provide existing customers with new offers and incentives, that can be a cost-effective way of generating turnover and can give you a reasonable return on your investment, if the message or offering is persuasive.

The cost of direct mailing and printing your own marketing material can be greatly reduced if you consider someone like Stinkyink for example, who look to keep the cost of printing supplies as low as possible. For more information, go to their website, and with regard to direct mail as a marketing strategy, see whether that could be a cost-effective method of attracting orders.

Newspaper advertising

You will often find that when you run a series of adverts in a local newspaper, it will take about three runs of the advert before you start seeing a tangible return or a noticeable response.

Remember this when formulating your budget and don’t give up on the idea if one advert fails to elicit a response.

Radio advertising

Radio advertising is another form of media where there are often predictable patterns that you can take note of and work out your strategy around this information.

Radio adverts that are aired at certain times of the day and have some relevance to the show that is on air when your advert is broadcast will often give you a better ROI.

Take the time to plan your media campaign and you will ultimately avoid wasting financial resources and improve your chances of achieving a good return on your marketing spend.

John Sollars is a business owner of many years. When he gets the time, he likes to sit down and share what has worked for him. Look for his informative posts on a number of websites and blogs today.

It’s All Relative: Running a Thriving Family Business Without Ruining Your Priceless Relationships

Family businesses can be successful and fun, but they can also put a strain on relationships. Here are some tips to keep the stress at bay and the worries at work without bringing problems home with you.

Choose A Leader For The Business

Family businesses that are run by a committee of family members almost always end with someone being angry at someone else. Rather than have no one in charge, appoint a leader for the business.

Everyone has their strengths, and this is no exception in a family-run business. Maybe your brother has better accounting skills than you do. Fine. Let him run the department. But, maybe your dad is a better leader than you (even if you really want the position).

You have to be honest with yourself about your own natural abilities. Everyone does. By picking a leader for the business, you will be drawing a line in the sand. It provides clear direction for the company, and allows one person to make decisions, reducing bickering or arguments which can slow down the operation or bring it to a grinding halt.

Another related area to choosing a CEO and permanent or defined leader is to establish the person’s authority. Everyone has to agree that this person is the best family member to run the company, and has to be willing to take orders, regardless of their relationship to one another.

So, if it just so happens that a younger sibling runs the company, the father, and older siblings need to respect his or her authority on the job.

Do Everything By Contract

Don’t do business by handshake. This is the number one mistake family businesses make. Companies, like Midlake Custom Hinges exist and have endured because they’re friendly but also run like a normal business.

By using contracts to establish employment, you are minimizing the risk of hurt feelings when someone gets promoted over someone else or if the unthinkable happens: someone from the family gets fired.

Set Clear Standards and Keep Business And Family Separate

Standards need to be maintained at all times. The business should be kept separate from the family. In other words, when you’re at work, you should maintain a business and professional attitude. When you’re home, you’re “family.” Things can be more relaxed.

Many family businesses that are run this way are successful and there’s little or no argument outside of the business.

Make Constructive Criticism

Constructive criticism is generally more useful in business, but it’s especially important in a family operation.

Just because you separate family and business life doesn’t mean you can erase or forget what’s said on the job. Constructive criticism helps reframe problems and challenges so that family members are encouraged to improve their performance at work, rather than being told negative statements about their job or performance.

Constructive criticism is also highly practical, since it focuses on solutions, rather than problems. And, it makes the family business much more efficient and friendly.

Julie Shrum has worked at Midlake since her father decided to retire way back in 1996. She has accumulated a vast knowledge of hinges and metalworking during her time as sales manager. Julie works closely with the sales team to create the best customer experience possible. She continues to learn daily about new applications for sheet metal fabrication.

6 Ways To Act Like a Successful Entrepreneur Even If You Aren’t One Already

Do you want to become a successful entrepreneur?

Do you want to leave your old soul stealing job, build your own business and leave your mark in this world?

Then be prepared to change. Be prepared to improve yourself a lot. Every successful entrepreneur has walked the road of continuous personal growth before he succeeded.

But if you want to walk that road you can’t act like an average Joe anymore. You have to act like a successful entrepreneur from the very beginning. Fake it till you make it, they say. Sometimes this works.

Only by emulating the behaviors of successful people you will start to understand the way they think and why they do things. And you will be more likely to become wealthy and successful as well.

So, let’s see how you can start behaving like a success, even if you are not one yet:

1.Don’t Be Afraid To Say “No”

People who are afraid to say “no” when someone asks them to do something for them end up doing things they don’t want to do – or things that waste their time.

If you constantly say “yes” to others you show them that you are always available for them and some might take advantage of this.

Saying “no” reminds others that they can’t control you.

Of course you should help others if they really need you. Nevertheless, when you don’t want to do something because you think it’s a waste of time – don’t be afraid to say no.

Successful entrepreneurs value their time and don’t seek approval. As a result, they are also not afraid to say “no” when they want it.

2. If You Don’t Believe In Your Abilities, Who Will?

 People with high emotional intelligence never stop believing in their abilities. They aren’t afraid to be proud of themselves and stand up by their values and beliefs. They are not afraid to support their dreams and keep chasing them.

Some losers might doubt their decisions, criticize them and try to bring them down. But they don’t bow down to those doubters because they have a deep faith in themselves.

A deep faith and a burning   desire   to succeed and achieve their goals.

That’s something that the weak, the ones with low emotional intelligence will never have or understand and that’s the biggest reason that separates winners from losers. Unbreakable faith.

Unbreakable faith is one of the key components that separates successful entrepreneurs from wanna-be entrepreneurs of the couch.

3.  Change Is Your Best Friend – Don’t Be Afraid Of Change.

Most individuals are really introverted and avoid taking advantage of opportunities because of fear. They are afraid to step out their comfort zone and change the direction their life is heading to.

Emotionally wealthy people and successful entrepreneurs might feel the same fear. But they don’t let the fear stop them.

If they believe that a change in their lives is needed to attain better living standards, they will do everything to change their lives.

They will do it even if their choice involves a risk of failure.

How could you expect different results when you continue to do the same things?

You have to change something; you have to take different choices if you want to change your life.

No matter how frightening a change might seem, take the courage and step out of your comfort zone.

That’s what successful entrepreneurs do. They go against their fears and beat them to the ground.

Don’t let your fears paralyze you. Even if you fail, you are still better than the 10.000 no-getters who have never tried to pursue their goals.

4. Finished College & Stopped Learning? Never!

The majority of non-entrepreneurs – and most likely unsuccessful people – aren’t successful because of one single fatal mistake that kills their personal growth.

Which is this mistake?

To stop learning after you have finished school or college.

All successful entrepreneurs realize that the continuous pursuit of knowledge is what will make or break their success.

Therefore, if you want to become a successful entrepreneur you have to keep learning and absorbing knowledge like your life depends on that.

Let me ask you a question:

What did you learn yesterday?

If you don’t have at least 3 possible answers to write down now, then you probably didn’t learn anything.

When you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to learn something new every day. Always expand your knowledge. Staying static is the biggest mistake you can do.

If you do that you will have increased your success rate dramatically.

Imagine how much more resourceful you will become compared to ordinary people. Ordinary people stay ordinary because they have never learned anything after they finished school.

And as long as they don’t learn anything, you will have a huge advantage if you learn everything you can.

But beware: the type of information you learn is also important.

Learning that “months that begin on Sunday always have a Friday the 13th in them” sounds cool but is not useful. Can you use this fact to improve your life, the lives of other people or make more money?

I don’t think so. Therefore, you must filter information and try to learn only what is related to your area of interest– or closely related fields.

ABL: Always Be Learning – But always be learning things that are useful.

5. Successful Entrepreneurs Focus On Producing Value

The majority of  people focus on making money, generating more sales and becoming successful.

While all these things are great, you can’t achieve them if you ignore one of the most important parts of the equation.

And that is to produce value. Successful entrepreneurs don’t focus only on their own success and wealth. They “serve” their customers and provide immense value.

This can be done by the way their services improve the lives of other people, make their lives easier or help them make more money.

And that’s why they are successful. They are producing more value than the monetary equivalent that ends up in their pocket. But that’s the reason that money goes into their pocket.

If you want to act and become a successful entrepreneur, you need to re-adjust your focus and start thinking about ways to help people instead of ways to benefit from them financially.

When you help others, you will see that they will be glad to pay you with their hard earned money.

The pushy salesperson is no longer alive. Those who try to “sell, sell, sell” without giving won’t survive since people can spot the fakers who just trie to get their money.

To act like a successful entrepreneur: focus on how your product/services help other people and solve their problems – not on how you will make more money.

And if you do that, the final result will surprise you. Because you will make more money than you would do if you strictly focused on your personal wealth.

6. They Are Always Out There Hunting

Let’s say you have managed to make a million dollars from your business. What would you do next?

Partying in Ibiza all day long? Or would you start looking for new business opportunities?

Maybe a mix of these would be the best possible option.

Celebrating your wins is great since it gives you a sense reward for your efforts. But relaxing too much and not seeking for new opportunities is a recipe for failure.

Successful entrepreneurs never rest on their current success. They understand that we live in a world that changes faster than anything. Even if you have a million dollar business today, you might be dead-broke tomorrow.

That’s why you should be in the constant pursuit of new goals and opportunities.

You must become an unstoppable, relentless success seeker. Look for new trends in your industry and try to keep progressing. Resting on your success can be fatal if you do it for so long.

On the other hand, don’t burn yourself out. Celebrate your wins, but find a balance between celebrating and achieving new goals.

Over-celebrating is never good.

Always be out there hunting.

-Damian Pros

This is a guest post by Damian Pros.

Cloud Computing for a Better Business: Why Cloud?

Cloud computing have successfully penetrated the small business landscape. However, some businesses are still using traditional infrastructure and strategies to run their operations. Are you one of these companies? Isn’t it about time you consider going cloud? Business Cloud can be used for a wide range of different applications. Some common examples are email servers, web servers, database servers, off-site backups, game servers and even mobile applications.

One solid benefit of using cloud computing is enhanced efficiency; services and processes are quickly deployed and ready for operation in a matter of minutes, in comparison to weeks or even months it takes for traditional systems. There are more to cloud computing than simply getting your storage capacity, compute resources or application within minutes. Many business owners will tell you these benefits as well:

Secured Business Operation. Using standardized services significantly reduce problems and errors. This increases business continuity and reduces precious time spent on operational problems, letting you concentrate on the things that matter – your business. There are agencies today that still uses manual information encoding from one service to another. This doesn’t just take a lot of time and work, but also exposes your files to security risks. Look for service providers that offers value for their service. Services like iiNet offers cloud computing security that won’t break your bank.

Better use of resources. Less operational issues and projects that are more efficient allow your staff to spend their time on other more productive activities that offers greater potential value to your company. This benefit is different for each organization and somewhat harder to quantify, but an organization’s biggest asset will always be their work force. How they are being utilized is also a big part factor in business strategy. Cloud service providers, in general, more effectively utilizes physical resources and lessen energy consumption in comparison to a traditional IT approach.

New Business Models. Thanks to cloud computing, setting up a new business has become easier. New businesses enable new business owners to take advantage of the innovation initiatives and ready availability of cloud services. Combining these services can result in better business development, creating new value propositions and resulting in better revenue streams.  Some companies are even creating value propositions and business models solely using cloud services. It’s a good time for small and medium enterprises, that’s for sure.

Business Flexibility. Allowing cloud computing in your business allows you to streamline everything from IT projects, worker collaboration and rapid uptime during a system failure. Being able to give results quicker, more affordable and with more quality can give your business that competitive edge and make you more nimble on your feet. On-demand cloud system provide the approach to try out new concepts minus the risky investments in supporting systems. A shift in business focus can also be made quickly, so no issue there.

There you go. As you see, there is much more to cloud computing than tech revolution alone. The true beauty of cloud computing is how the new technology will positively influence your business.

Diversify to Succeed – Reuben Singh

When you look for inspiration for your career, it is only natural to turn to people who are already successful in the sector that you are trying to break into. Almost regardless of the field you want to enter there will be someone in whose footsteps you can follow. Picking someone and finding out how they achieved success is always helpful and very interesting.

It can also be surprising. Often the way someone achieved success is not what you would expect. Many of the most successful people have taken a circuitous route to get where they are today.

A case in point is achieved success who is the CEO for a very successful phone answering and back office service provider based in Salford, Birmingham, UK. His firm, alldayPA, has answered 11 million calls on behalf of 23,000 clients for the past 16 years.

It is an extremely successful business, but it was not his first company. Reuben Singh started his entrepreneurial career at a very young age. In 1995, he founded his first firm called Miss Attitude. He was just 19 years old. Three years later, he sold that firm and made his first millions. Reuben became the youngest self-made millionaire in the UK, an achievement that was recognized by The Guinness Book of Records.

Others also recognized his achievements. Reuben ended up serving on several government task forces, was a founding member of the government’s Small Business Council and met Tony Blair several times while he was the prime minister.

By any measure, his first company was a success, but the interesting thing is that Reuben cut his business teeth in a different field working in his family’s firm. His parents had built up a fashion empire and the young Reuben worked in that business from the age of 13. By 16, he was leading the firm’s sales department, while studying for his A-levels. He used the money he earned doing that to open his first shop.

The thing is that Reuben took the skills that he had learnt in one sector, then applied them to a completely different industry, and succeeded in a big way. His current firms are also diverse. AlldayPA is about as far away from a retail chain selling accessories for girls and teenagers as you can get.

He is branching out again with another company.  His latest company, Isher Capital, is a Boutique Private Equity firm that specialises in providing quick access to finance for start-ups and owner managed companies. Again, Reuben is taking skills and knowledge gleaned while working in one sector and applying them to another area of business.

For many years, Mr Singh helped policy makers to understand the realities of setting up and running a business in the UK. Over that time, he interacted with all kinds of firms including start-ups and his work with alldayPA brings him into contact with all kinds of firms. These interactions have given him a unique perspective on what UK businesses need to grow and prosper in the UK, and helped him to see a gap in the finance market and successfully fill it.

There is no doubt that many of the UK’s most successful executives have resisted the urge to focus on just one sector. They don’t opt for the comfort of the world they know. Instead, they diversify and when they see a business opportunity, they act. Alan Sugar and Richard Branson are two well-known examples of this being the path to success. However, as you can see there are many others using diversification to become successful entrepreneurs.

Starting a Taxi Business: 4 Steps to Success

Spotted a gap in the market, or think you have something new to bring to the industry? Not many entrepreneurs will consider setting up a taxi firm as a viable new business, but there are certainly opportunities out there, and if you’re willing to consider this as a proposition, then read on to find out what the main steps are.

Viability

First off, you need to figure out whether the plan is going to work, and this means finding out if you think there is going to be enough customers in the area to sustain you. There may be many other firms in your locale, which might not be wise to compete against, but you may be able to figure out an area of coverage that is under-serviced. You might also be able to push out competitors if you think you can do better than them, which leads us on to the next point.

Proposition

Once you’ve worked out whether or not the business is possible, you need to work out how you’re going to conduct it, and more specifically, why people are going to choose to be your customers rather than someone else’s. There are the obvious things, such as ensuring that you give really good service, but that should go without saying. If you want to make an impact, then you should consider more innovate propositions, such as online services. This is the only way you’ll be able to compete with large firms and the likes of Uber.

Assets

The penultimate stage is getting everything together ready to start operating. Your initial priority will be finding somewhere from which to operate. Many will use a very small office with an attached car park, and this will probably be ideal for you. Next, you need to work out how many employees you’ll need in order to be able to meet demand. Finally, you’ll need cars and the associated insurance and tax to go with them.

Rules and Regulations

Before you can start doing business, it’s very likely that there will be a few legal and legislative hurdles such as these to jump. This will include things like registering as a taxi business, and making sure that everyone has passed their relevant qualifications. This will vary from place to place, but it is a very important step, and you should ensure you’re doing everything by the books.

Tips to Bring Your Office Communications Into the Modern Age

Bringing your communications systems up to date is vital for a modern business. This is particularly the case because these systems have changed significantly as technology has developed – there are more and more services that are intended to make communication for businesses. Here are a few tips to help you navigate, and make the best use of, the available options:

Internal and external systems

At work, informal communication happens among colleagues, employees and managers, as well as between the business itself and those who are external to it, such as customers or suppliers. Communication can be verbal or non-verbal and much of it is now focused on electronic media. Any form of communication is designed to transmit a thought, idea or message from one party to another, usually in anticipation of appropriate feedback. Communication aids understanding, therefore breakdowns can cause substantial problems.

Types of communication systems

While telephones, both landlines and mobiles, have been associated with verbal communications systems for a long time, new systems are offering faster, cheaper alternatives. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), for example, offers telephony via the internet to customers who have Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) based trunking. If you’re currently wondering “what is SIP trunking?” then you need to know that when using cloud-based technology, it’s possible to make optimum use of the internet so that your business benefits from being able to engage in voice and video communication, as well as sharing media via streaming.

Additionally, SIP trunking allows you to share desktops and whiteboards as well as host web conferences. One of the chief benefits of VoIP is the low cost, high quality service it delivers. In fact, you can run a complete office phone system using cloud-hosted technology instead of paying the costs of a traditional landline-based system. Business communications are thus greatly improved and the high quality of interactions makes video conferencing in particular much more effective.

Email still has many benefits, including creating a record of exchanges with another individual or business, and it is particularly useful when you need to send attachments (although this can also be handled by cloud-based apps such as Dropbox). However, because you can’t gauge someone’s tone of voice from written communication, this tends to be less effective than VoIP and certainly less useful when it comes to customer care.

Of course, business people still use the telephone when they want to make a very personal connection, and it’s wise not to dismiss this as an effective method of communication. Social media also has a role to play in terms of interaction with customers, colleagues and other businesses. It is also acknowledged as a positive marketing tool, when used effectively.

Getting up to date

As technology continues to develop and more options become available, it is worth staying on top of what technologies such as VoIP have to offer. The fact that you can streamline office systems at the same time as reducing costs is, by itself, an extremely attractive alternative to outmoded communications options.

The Advantages of Unified Threat Management

Keeping a corporate IT infrastructure secure is such a complex and time consuming task that few small and mid-sized businesses can afford dedicated security specialists. This may be a large part of the explanation regarding the recent surge in popularity of unified threat management (UTM) appliances; single boxes which plug in to the company network to manage security.

We’ve taken a further look at unified threat management and why it’s such a positive thing for businesses, and the huge difference it can make to your company’s security. You can also learn more about Unified Threat Management here, too.

It has a relatively low upfront cost

The cost of hiring dedicated security specialists will be significantly higher than making a one-off payment for when purchasing one of the UTM boxes. Also, these boxes can do the jobs of multiple systems in one, which again will be much cheaper just buying the one box than having to buy lots of appliances.

The maintenance costs will also be relatively low

Since you’re buying just one support agreement for all security services, you can significantly reduce the amount you pay for service contracts and ongoing support. It’s also a lot easier therefore to manage and maintain as you’ll know you only have one person or company to contact should you have any problems along the way.

They’re cheap to run

One device means one thing to plug in, which can be a really great way of going green in the office as well as keeping the electrical bill down at the end of each month which is great if you’re on a very tight budget. It also means that less power is lost while reducing line voltage to the levels network devices use.

Installation is easy and fairly quick

As it’s just the one appliance, it’s relatively easy to set up as there will only be a few wires that you’ll have to arrange, and they’ll be only one interface to use setting the device. Therefore configuration is really easy too, and it won’t take much office time away from your employees.

They are generally fully integrated

The UTM devices many features are designed to work together without leaving holes in your protection or creating interoperability challenges. Therefore they do the job of many different devices in one without leaving you at risk to potential cyber hackers.

They are small so don’t take up much space

If office space is limited, they are the ideal solution as they are literally just one box that is very small and can therefore fit in a small designated space. This is therefore a really appealing solution rather than having to find space for lots of networking equipment and devices.

Get Your Start-Up Running Efficiently

Running a company as efficiently as possible is the aim of every business owner, from an ice cream van driver to the CEO of McDonalds. It is vital to reach profit potential and expand any business that all systems in place are running smoothly with no time or money being wasted in the process.

For anyone thinking of setting up a new small business getting it to run efficiently from the start is even more important. With less initial resources and financial backing, wasting a lot of either of these can soon see your start-up falter.

Plan and Evaluate Everything

Of course every new business needs to have a solid plan in place to have any chance of succeeding. This needs to be designed meticulously to ensure the most efficient manner for getting all necessary tasks completed.

Employ and get to know employees well so the appropriate ones can be assigned work they’re best skilled at. Train staff in weak areas and recruit new team members to fill gaps. Set up at least a weekly evaluation session to identify any areas which are using up too much time and resource and not delivering results.

Utilise Others

As a start-up there are many opportunities out there which should be taken advantage of to increase your efficiency. Enlisting the help of experts in areas you possess limited knowledge in or which you don’t have sufficient time or resources to deal with can get your logistics up and running smoothly.

Using invoice factoring found through Touch Financial is a great method to ensure enough finances to help your business grow quickly and reducing the work your company needs to do. There is a fee for many such services but every company needs to spend money to make money.

Maintain a Good Work/Life Balance

In order to stay refreshed and not burn out quickly, as a small business owner it is important to spend time away from your company. This can be hard when there’s a lot of pressure and responsibility on you to make it work and during such a pivotal period for the business.

Avoid overworking yourself and doing too much as it will be more efficient to evenly spread out all the tasks, with the best skilled person assigned to each one. Spending enough time resting will ensure you’re reenergized and in the best frame of mind to tackle everything to make your start-up a success.

How to Find a Great Ad Agency For Your Company

Advertising is a multimillion dollar industry worldwide; yet many businesses still think that they can tackle their marketing needs internally. However, if you are trying to refine your company’s advertising to reach your target audience, you should consider hiring an advertising agency that can help position your company for growth. Sadly, with the many options available today, it can be a problem to find the right one that suits all your advertising needs and demands. The following are tips on how to find a great advertising agency in Jupiter. 

Results 

To find out whether an advertising agency is business focused or not, it is essential to ask them to show you their results. What have they done and how did they do it? Through this you will be able to learn a lot about what an agency thinks is important by what they measure and do. Therefore go for agencies that are results oriented not money oriented. 

Prior experience 

You will probably benefit more by working with an agency that has some prior experience of the industry you operate in and also has experience in the market. The number of years an agency has been in the market gives you an understanding of their capability and what they can deliver. You can tell whether the agency is experienced or not by asking them to give you referrals to their previous customers or clients. You should then personally contact these clients and get their opinion on the work done by the agency. The agency should also have an understanding of the industry you are operating in. this will give them a better idea on how to advertise and position your company in the market.

The creative brief 

Advertising entails a number of things and among them is creativity. For you to know how an agency approaches their work, it is important for you to ask them to show you their Creative Brief. This is a document that outlines the specifics and parameters of a project to be undertaken, it includes; the objectives, the budget, due dates, message, disclosures, metrics, tone and style. A closer look at this document will enable you to understand the strategic acumen of the agency. If the agency does not have this document, you should consider looking for another advertising company or agency.

Integrated marketing capabilities 

A good agency should have integrated marketing capabilities. The agency should be well equipped as far as advertising is concerned. It should be a full house service agency for everything including; creativity, online interactive, point of purchase advertising, media planning and also public relations. Offline advertising is not dead; in fact it is still a central part of most successful advertising campaigns. But with the latest technological trends, understanding the dynamics and the need for online advertising is very essential for any advertising agency.

In summary, if your company has the capability, hiring an advertising agency is the best way to build your brand and engage with your target audience. Finding a great agency that will meet all your advertising needs is essential in ensuring that all your advertising goals are achieved.