Mohit Tater's Blog, page 702

How SMS Marketing Can be Used Effectively at Christmas

Credit: fazen

With Christmas fast emerging, and many of us already well into our festive shopping, you might think that you have every effective marketing form covered this Yuletide – but have you considered the massive impact that some carefully considered and well-timed SMS marketing could make?

Customers spend billions of pounds online and offline every Christmas, and with 44 per cent of shoppers admitting to making impulse buys at this time of year, and almost a third of them overspending due to being tempted by deals, you can still hook in even those who consider themselves to have done their Christmas shopping.

Why text message marketing makes so much sense

First of all, like email marketing, SMS marketing is an opt-in platform, so you can be sure that those who receive texts from you organisation really do want to hear from you. However, according to research, there’s also a more than four times greater likelihood of a given SMS being opened than a marketing email.

Not only are 98 per cent of marketing text messages opened by consumers, but most of them are read mere minutes after they are received. It certainly seems that if you want to cut through the mass of commercialised messages that customers are exposed to at this time of year, then text message marketing, such as that offered by Sendmode, could prove to be an ideal marketing strategy.

Remember, though, that improvements to the mobile web have made online purchases via mobile handsets far easier, so customers could be buying from you within seconds if you adopt a subtle and inviting approach

Proven techniques across the industries

There are certain SMS marketing methods that work well almost irrespective of your given industry. You could instil a sense of urgency in the reader by stating that a certain offer or promotion will only last for a short period of time or applies to a limited amount of stock.

Beyond that, there are ways of maximising the impact of every marketing text message that you send, by considering the way your given sector works. If your business is a restaurant, for example, offering discounts on certain food or drink can be a great way to upsell your products, particularly if the customer books a Christmas party with you.

If you run a gym, meanwhile, you could take pre-emptive advantage of the traditional post-Christmas guilt felt by customers who have somewhat overindulged themselves over the festive period, perhaps offering discounted gym membership if they sign up with a friend.

Text message marketing isn’t always about sales

Effective SMS marketing isn’t always about encouraging a purchase. Local councils, for instance, could issue SMS messages warning residents of certain dangerous weather situations, while health centres may inform users of the restricted Christmas opening times that may apply.

Nonetheless, there’s no denying the sheer power of SMS marketing for many of those firms wishing to reach into the burning pockets of their most receptive festive customers.

The Potential of a Corporate Video to Bring In Profits for You

Credit: Joseph Morris

Some people say pictures are worth a thousand words. So if they are put together in motion, they could be worth more. At least that is what we should deduce now that moving is even better. It relieves boredom while shooting up anticipation for those who are watching for the first time. And when the video is great, it can be watched repeatedly, so long as it’s being aired at the right time.

Corporate Videos and How they Help Bring More Customers to your Doorstep

Creating corporate videos that convert takes more than pointing at the object and rolling the shutter, i.e recording. This is where most people fail, so they sacrifice all the potential that corporate videos have in bringing more customers.

A reliable video production team can handle projects of a varied nature as long as they are related to video production. Mostly, this team consists of producers, directors, camera operators, project managers and even designers. This is a strong team that can yield results as long as each individual plays their role well.

But there are some cases when outside services have to be outsourced from freelancers where issues related to make-up, actors and art are concerned. And in most cases, companies don’t have these individuals in their team, so they a creative agency that will take care of coding, building apps, and so forth.

There are no limits to the kind of videos that can be produced for whatever purpose. Corporate videos tend to be wide in nature, so it doesn’t matter whether you are making one for your website’s landing page, TV commercial, or an exhibition. The end product should only be true to capturing the attention of your viewers.

It Remains Competitive as Ever

To stand out from the crowd, something needs to be done when producing corporate videos going towards marketing efforts. This calls for cutting-edge video production techniques that guarantee effectiveness, so as to market your business more efficiently where targeting the right audience is concerned.

It is best that the team working on your videos do the project alongside you – every step of the way, so as to achieve your needs within a specific budget allocation. It is always good to have a solid IT team so that you can focus more on the creative side of the business.

Video Production: Ways in Which You Can Get Your Message Out There

Videos come in a variety of flavors such as short films, brand films, cartoon animation, motion graphics and much more. It depends with the type of industry you operate in. So for instance, if you were in the IT sector,  you’d do well with a cartoon animation video, showing all the services you offer.

This is How it Works

In every video production team, everyone has their own role, so many people are bound to be involved in the entire production process. Consequently, a client manager has to be appointed to oversee the project since they has a general overview of what’s required. At this point, the client manager discusses your message to your audience, the people who are being targeted, as well as the style in which the videos should be designed.

The approach will be clear at the end of this process, so the work will start immediately. Editing is done to finalize the video and make sure it’s in perfect shape. Graphics and animations can be added appropriately to reinforce the final message.

Now that this is a generation of mobile users, it’s essential that you have your corporate videos compatible with mobile devices too. It gives the much-needed boost in your marketing effort in terms of search engine optimization and other aspects. This way, you’ll be able to serve a wider audience.

Can Start-ups Compete in the Engineering Sector?

Credit: Enerva

Engineering is typically seen as a very attractive sector to get into. While it has suffered some negative impacts as a result of the recent economic troubles, these have been no more significant than any other industry. In some ways it has fared more favorably as economies have invested in infrastructure projects as a means of trying to promote economic recovery.

Even putting global economic issues to one side, the engineering sector has a lot of appealing aspects. It enjoys a reputation for being a highly skilled industry with exciting opportunities for the right individual. Thanks to the focus on innovation and specialization, the potential scope for professional and personal development is huge. At the same time, engineering skills are exceptionally transferable, and people can find themselves traveling the world to work on landmark projects.

Opportunities for entrepreneurs 

The engineering industry can be a particularly exciting place for entrepreneurs looking to create a new product or service and make it into a success. It is fair to say that large, established companies traditionally dominate the sector but this does not mean that it is impossible for individuals or small businesses to succeed.

Here is some advice for entrepreneurs looking to achieve such success:

While the largest engineering companies offer a general service, smaller organizations are better placed to offer a more in-depth level of expertise. Prospective clients and customers looking for a particular service are likely to seek the assistance of a company that operates primarily within this niche area. Transducer Techniques is a great example of a company that offers this kind of specialization.


Large organizations that have operated for many years tend to rely on traditional approaches. In some cases, deviating from such tried and tested techniques is actively discouraged as this is seen as inherently risky. Smaller organizations are, therefore generally better placed to foster a culture of innovation and offer exciting and unique new products and services likely to be of interest to customers and clients looking for something different.


Start-ups and small businesses are also well placed to offer a personalized service as opposed to bigger companies that can be accused of being somehow faceless. Fully understanding a client and their ambitions is the first step to success in delivering a product that precisely meets, or even exceeds, their requirements and expectations.

Competing on one’s own terms

It can seem daunting to compete with huge organizations that have well-established reputations and remarkably long histories, particularly in a sector such as engineering that relies so heavily on the success of past projects as a means of recommendation.

The key to success for start-ups and smaller organizations is to not try and compete with such organizations on a like-for-like basis. Instead, they should focus on what they can offer that larger companies cannot. This usually comes down to the ability to provide something unique, like a specific product or service that is delivered in a more personal and expert way than a large non-specialist company could ever achieve.

Selling Online? 4 Tax Mistakes to Avoid

“You should sell these.” How many times have you heard that when you give someone a handmade item? You certainly enjoy making them, so why not start a business? So you take some photos, launch an online shop, and watch the orders roll in. It’s all great — that is, until tax time and you realize that you have to give Uncle Sam his portion of your business’ earnings.

Many online entrepreneurs fail to realize that there are some significant tax implications associated with selling goods over the Internet. The most popular selling sites, like Etsy, take some of the guesswork out of the equation by automating the collection of sales tax and providing detailed reports. But the responsibility for appropriately managing tax issues falls squarely on you, the vendor. Failing to do so could result in significant penalties — or at the very least, a larger than necessary tax bill.

If you’re just wading into the world of online sales, or even if you have been selling your items for a while, take care to avoid these four common tax mistakes.

1. Not Handling Sales Tax Correctly

Sales tax is the area that tends to trip up entrepreneurs the most, since the laws vary from state to state. While the federal government is working on legislation to better streamline the sales tax issue, more specifically who is required to charge sales tax and how it’s paid, sales tax collection is currently based primarily on the idea of “nexuses.” In short, a nexus is a physical connection to the state that requires you to collect sales tax from customers located in that state. Therefore, if your entire business is located in the state of California, then your nexus is California, and all customers in California must pay sales tax on the taxable items that they purchase from you. However, if say you have a business partner located in Florida who is involved in any portion of your business, then you also have a nexus there and must collect sales tax from Florida residents. You are then responsible for remitting the taxes you collect to the revenue bureau.

2. Not Properly Classifying Employees

Chances are that if you are like most small-business owners, you are a one-person operation. Sure, a friend or family member might volunteer to help occasionally, but you don’t really have any employees. If you do pay people to work for your business, though, there could be tax implications, especially if you attempt to deduct your payments to them on your taxes. Many entrepreneurs hire workers as independent contractors to avoid paying worker’s compensation, unemployment taxes, and benefits, but unless they are truly independent — that is, they can work when, where, and as much as they want without restrictions — then you may need to classify them as employees. If you work with a qualified tax preparation service, a professional can help you determine the proper classification for the people you hire.

3. Taking Too Many Losses

This is another common issue among those who turn a hobby into a business. You have to buy supplies and market your business, which you happily do, assuming you can write off the expenses on your taxes. What you may not realize, though, is that the IRS only allows business to operate at a loss for so long. If your business consistently loses money, the IRS may determine that it’s actually a hobby, and disallow your deductions. So while you might be able to deduct hundreds of dollars’ worth of beads or yarn in your first year, you will need to show a profit at some point if you want to keep those deductions.

4. Deducting Everything

Speaking of deductions, don’t go crazy buying equipment and supplies to start your business thinking that you can deduct everything come tax time. New businesses have limitations on what can actually be fully deducted in the first year, with most purchases requiring amortized deductions over several years. Again, a qualified tax preparation professional can help you determine what’s a write-off and what needs to be amortized, as well as help you plan future purchases to minimize your future tax burden.

Operating a small online business can be a great supplement to your existing income, or even a full-time job. However, without the right tax guidance and smart planning, a fun and fulfilling job could quickly turn costly. Learn the laws before you open up shop, and get advice from experienced advisors to ensure that your hard-earned profits end up where they belong — in your pocket.

How to Choose the Best Printer for your Office Needs

The sometimes overwhelming choice of printers available can make it difficult to choose the unit which will benefit the users in the offices and keep the accounts department happy. Here we explore the key points you have to consider when choosing the perfect printer for your office.

Necessary Functions

The first step is to determine the functions you’ll require from the printer. Most modern multifunction printers are capable of performing print, copy, scan and fax jobs although these will often come at a higher price than a unit with a single responsibility. Determine how likely and regularly you will be using the copy, scan and fax functions, because it may be more cost-effective to eschew a multifunction printer in favour of investing in a specialist single-use unit.

Connectivity Options

You’ll need to consider the connectivity options of your perfect printer and the number/types of devices which will be used in tandem with the unit. If you are looking for a networked printer which can support 10 wireless PC connections, it is important to check for a robust network printer.

If your office uses a number of Apple products, it may be preferable to selection a printer which supports Apple’s AirPrint service which allows for intuitive use across iPads, iPods and Macbooks.

However, if the printer is planned for use with just one unit, it may be more cost-effective to invest in a printer with simple USB connectivity.

Output Volume Demands

Optimising your printer choice to the necessary volume of output can help you select a unit best suited to the needs of your office. Estimate the current monthly output of the office and measure this against the monthly duty cycles of the printers you are looking at. If your office prints 10,000 sheets a month, it is unsuitable to select a printer with a monthly duty cycle less than this amount.

Investigating the page per minute speed of printers can also help you identify which printers would be best suited to environments which require a large immediate printed output.

Additionally, it is important to check the paper tray capacity. It is unlikely that your team will be enamoured with a printer they have to refill more than once a day so select a printer with a tray capacity which accommodates your typical daily output.

Type of Ink

Different forms of printed output benefit from different types of ink, so it is important to optimise your choice in line with your output. Printers which use monochrome inks are often the most affordable option for offices which only require black and white prints of reports and official documents.

Colour laser inks can help support an office which require colour prints without the need for photo-realistic, glossy output. Printers using inkjet technology are often the best suited for companies which require photo-realism, such as media and publishing firms.

Trusted Stockist

Growing businesses may need to invest in a high volume of printers over the years, so it is often preferable to develop a relationship with a trusted stockist. Researching independent reviews through tools such as TrustPilot and Feefo can help businesses identify trusted specialist stockists and develop an ongoing relationship. Printerland.co.uk is currently TrustPilot’s top rated printer retailer in the UK with a score of 9.8 out of 10 over more than 1,500 reviews.

A Final Word on Budgeting

When budgeting for a printer, it is important to factor in the long-term costs as well as the immediate spend. Consumables such as ink and toner will need to be purchased on a semi-regular basis, so it may work out more cost-effective in the long-term to buy a more expensive printer supported by more affordable inks.

Additionally, energy efficient printers can help reduce the amount of electricity used by the unit in the long term – reducing utility bills (and benefitting the environment).

 

Making Extra Income Online

Credit: 401(K) 2013

Whatever way you earn your living, there’s always the potential for a little extra earning online. It doesn’t have to be related to your day job – you can make your internet income around your hobby if you want to.

One of the easiest ways to make money from the internet is to set up and run your own website or blog. You don’t have to be tech-savvy to build your own website these days – there are plenty of website host and templates that you can use to be up and running within an hour or two. Aside from signing up with a host such as www.1and1.co.uk or weebly.com and the template, the other requirement is content.

It’s up to you what content you use – whether you use your own musings as blog entries, or get guest writers to contribute to your site too. You can also post images, videos and items for sale.

The website or blog that you create is the first of your building blocks to earn extra income online. There are plenty of avenues that you can then use on your site to make extra money – here are just a few examples.

Lottery affiliation programmes

More and more people play the lottery online these days, taking part in international lotteries such as Powerball and MegaMillions as well as annual lotteries such as the Spanish Christmas lottery. Even if you don’t have a winning ticket, you can still make money from the lottery by becoming an affiliate for a site like Lottoland. Basically, by adding a banner on your website, you can earn commission each time someone clicks through and deposits money into a Lottoland account. Check out the Lottoland partner programme terms if you want the potential to earn €100 per user.

Amazon Associates

Want to be a part of one of the world’s biggest online retailing success stories? You can sign up to join the Amazon Associates program for site owners and bloggers. There’s a range of different ad styles that you can use on the Amazon website to display on your own site. These include banner images and text-based ads. If an item is purchased through an Amazon link on your site, you’ll get commission and your earnings can either be applied to your Amazon account balance or be deposited into your bank account.

Company referrals

Carrying banner ads isn’t the only way you can earn extra money on your website. You can also email companies that sell products that you wish to review on your website and ask them for sample goods. For example, if your blog is about bringing up baby, you could get a vast amount of baby and toddler products as freebies over the years.

Once you begin to get a decent amount of traffic to your website, you’ll be surprised how much associate and affiliate banner advertising and company referrals can earn you.

Entrepreneurship Spotlight: Egypt

Entrepreneurship is booming in Egypt and is seen by many as the key for Egypt’s economic growth and social development. In 2013, unemployment was estimated at 13.4%, with 69% of them aged 15 to 29. To mitigate the youth unemployment problem, more and more young people in Egypt are becoming entrepreneurs.

Let’s take a look at why Egypt has become such a promising place to be an entrepreneur.

Bustling population

Home to more than 86 million people, Egypt is the most populous nation in the Arab world. Given that almost 50% of the population are under 30, there is huge potential for business in Egypt. The fast-growing population has driven consumer spending and lured many Arab Gulf investors.

Strategic geographic location

Egypt is strategically located at the junction of three continents – Europe, Asia and Africa. Entrepreneurs can benefit from the rising regional and international trade.

Access to entrepreneurship financing

Entrepreneurs have access to both bank and non-bank financing. They can obtain credit in the forms of loan and microcredit from banks. A number of banks in Egypt, including HSBC, have focused on the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) market. HSBC is one of the largest multinational banks operating in Egypt providing both business and personal banking. To help new and existing SMEs expand their distribution networks into new international markets, HSBC launched an EGP300m International Growth Fund in 2013. One key service offered by HSBC is working capital finance that includes a full range of commercial banking services for your current account and credit and debit cards.

Business-friendly regulatory environment

Starting a business in Egypt is made easier through the General Authority for Investment (GAFI). GAFI is a one-stop shop that facilitates a fast start-up of operation in Egypt. In 2008/09 Doing Business ranked Egypt as one of the top 10 reformers in improvement.

The Egyptian government has developed a policy framework to support SMEs. The Social Fund for Development (SFD) is responsible for mobilizing resources and synchronizing efforts aimed at fostering the development of SMEs. The Egyptian Government has also developed a policy targeted at enhancing SME innovation through dedicated centers and networks through the Egypt Technology Transfer and Innovation Centers (ETTIC). The Industrial Modernisation Center (IMC) also provides start-up and growth services for SMEs.

Education and entrepreneurship

Egypt was selected by US President Obama as the pilot country for a new Global Entrepreneurship Program (GEP). The US and Egyptian partners work together to identify opportunities, train aspiring entrepreneurs and assist with access to funding.

The large and fast-growing population, access to entrepreneurship funding and the supportive regulatory environment have fuelled the emergence of a fast-growing entrepreneurship hub in Egypt. There are plenty of opportunities for those who are willing to take the risk.

Images by ictQATAR and epSos.de, used under the Creative Commons license.

10 Unexpected Places to Find Business Inspiration

Many people dream of owning their own business, but don’t know where to start. They are held back by what they perceive as a lack of good ideas. In a crowded marketplace, how do you differentiate yourself and attract customers — and profits?

The good news is that inspiration is everywhere, if you know where to look. Even if you don’t consider yourself a “creative type,” with some of these techniques, you might find the perfect idea for a new business, or for growing a business you already have — an idea that could put you on the path toward wealth and financial freedom.

1. Social Media

“Social listening,” the practice of monitoring what people are talking about on social media — and their sentiments toward those topics — is growing among entrepreneurs and marketers who want to make better decisions and give people what they want. Follow the thought leaders in your industry, or conduct a keyword search to see what people are talking about. Trends, complaints, and issues could inspire your next great business idea.

2. Friends and Family

Social listening allows you to see what strangers are saying, but your friends and family could be a well of inspiration as well. What are they talking about? What problems do they need solved? What could make their lives easier? Bounce your ideas off your friends and family. They can offer a fresh perspective and identify ways to tweak or improve your ideas, or even provide inspiration for a completely new direction.

3. Daily Life

Is there an aspect of your daily life that you would like to change? What problems do you face? Spend some time brainstorming solutions to universal challenges — you might just find a killer business idea.

4. Travel

Sometimes, all it takes is a change of scenery to spark an idea. Take some time out of the office to think and be inspired. You don’t need to head to an exotic destination, either. Exploring your own city and checking out places you’ve never seen before can ignite your creativity by stimulating your brain.

5. The Future

Too many businesses fail because they focus on the past, or even the present. Instead, imagine your business five or ten years in the future. What trends are coming down the pike? What are people going to want going forward? While you may not be able to predict the future with 100 percent certainty, looking forward can spark creativity and better business ideas than simply focusing on what your customers need right now.

6. Pinterest

Pinterest might seem like a repository for recipes, crafts, and home décor projects, but it’s also a creativity-boosting goldmine. Perusing the images to see what’s resonating with audiences. What’s trending, what are people making, doing, and loving? You may find an idea that you can turn into a successful business.

7. Change Your Routine

Even small changes can provide stimuli that lead to great ideas. Try driving a different route to the office, listening to different music, even ordering a different sandwich at lunch. Regularly changing things up keeps you from falling into creative ruts and could lead to your next great idea.

8. Competition

Running a successful business often means differentiating yourself from the competition and doing things differently, better, or more affordably. Carefully analyze your competition to identify places where you can do things better or fill in gaps in service. Keep in mind that competition doesn’t just refer to other companies within your industry or that offer similar products or services. Competition refers to anything that competes with you for your customer’s time, attention, and money. How can you make your business stand out among the noise?

9. Existing Business

If you already own a business, you may be looking at ways to expand or gain a bigger market share. One of the best ways to do that is to look closely at what you’re already doing and identify areas where you can add products or services and tweak those you have. List all of the ways that you can leverage your existing products or services — you might come up with something that seems weird, but appeals to customers and drives revenue.

10. Unusual Connections

A brainstorming exercise called triggering can get your creative juices flowing. Identify the problem, then gather several unrelated items and try to find of ways to relate them to your problem. The ideas may not make sense or even work, but you could trigger a thought that leads to a successful business idea.

Entrepreneurship can be challenging, but the long-term rewards of greater wealth and financial security make it worthwhile. If you think you’re stuck, try these techniques — you might surprise yourself at how creative, and successful, you can really be.

Kohana: Swift and Elegant PHP Framework

PHP offers web developers a great variety of frameworks aimed at making development of websites and web applications more efficient, fast and less complicated. One of these numerous frameworks is called Kohana. Kohana is an elegant PHP 5 framework which uses MVC (Model View Controller) architectural structure.

Kohana framework is known for a large set of instruments and components it offers for the development of web applications. This versatile framework is extremely lightweight, swift and highly secure. At the same time, it is very easy to use and extend.

Kohana is one of the fastest PHP frameworks, which means you can save much time if you choose it for building web applications. In addition to being swift and very efficient, this framework is carefully optimized to meet the requirements of modern web developers. It comes with a rich set of building components (like code profiling, translation tools, encryption validation, databases access, etc), which allow building applications quicker and with minimal effort consumption. With the help of special tools and libraries, it is possible to easily extend available components, as well as add new libraries. Identifying and fixing performances problems is also easy, as Kohana provides excellent profiling and debugging tools.

Kohana is a DRY framework that works with classes and objects. This means, all projects are built solely with PHP objects and classes. Moreover, the absence of long configuration files and code generators allows writing your own code quickly and easily. With Kohana, every stage of the project development will be under your strict control, as a straightforward routine structure and a thoroughly commented code will help better understand how is the framework doing as well as what is actually happening.

Since Kohana framework uses BSD license, it can be easily modified for commercial purposes. In other words, you can use this PHP framework to create various types of commercial applications.

Lezgro ecommerce website development company< are sure that Kohana framework is a perfect tool for building top-notch web applications. The company’s PHP developers have an excellent experience of working with Kohana framework and know how to use all its features and tools to create excellent custom-made applications. This young team of talented and skilled developers is ready to help with any PHP project you are currently working on, or just want to create.

 

How to Write an Essay about Yourself for College

Introduce your dreams

When writing an essay about you and going to college, the first step is introduce the readers to your dreams and about the future with reference to professional careers. Everyone wants to go to college, so the writer should make sure that readers understand what is special about going to college. At this point it may also be important to mention a few role models that inspire the decision to take a certain course and certainly joining the career of choice through a specific college.

Introduce the college

The author should try and make the first statements about their college of choice, factual. This underlines the baseline information to help the readers connect with the content and have a visual idea of the college. Then the writer should go ahead and explain as to why they choose this college to take their studies.

Merge the dreams and the college

After the reader is informed of the positive attributes and elements that make the college of choice stand out, the writer can now bring out their opinion and aspirations. This is a crucial part as it helps the readers form a wholesome idea about the college and the writer. As such using this new direction of the narrative, the writer can now merger the dreams that they have for college and show the reader how the college they have chosen will help them achieve these dreams. At this point, the writer should be trying to make the readers understand their aspirations and what they expect from the college. As such, the writer should use descriptive language that helps the readers connect with the dreams of the writer, while at the same time reflecting on their own.

If you would want to order an essay on a topic of your choice, buy custom essay online from us with guaranteed quality.