The ROI Of Investing In Your Employees

by Kevin Faber, founder of Silver Summit Capital

Investing in employees can be a very beneficial and all-around positive experience for everyone involved. Ideally, employers get far more productivity and less expenses such as interpersonal conflicts, miscommunication and turnover. Employees feel valued and motivated to contribute, work to improve their employer’s business as well as have an incentive and sense of security that compels employees to stay instead of hopping jobs.

Here we will go over how to determine the likely ROI of investing in employees:

Investing in Employees: Details.

Instead of blindly throwing “teamwork” and “communication” seminars or coursework, analyze what you and your employees need and want. Understandably, employers want to spend on what will, in theory, make employees most productive or cost-effective to retain. The reality is that employees are not machines that can be upgraded. Their own feedback and desires factor into the equation.

If an employer points out clear and hard-to-argue benefits to the employees themselves, then he has a winning strategy for engaging employees. Employees should want the employer’s investment such that the benefits of that investment circle back to the employer, creating a win-win for all. Incentive packages, scaled bonuses or other additional compensation that reflects successful outcomes of investing in a given employee are some of the ways employees can make wise investments in their staff’s professional development.

Risks and Pitfalls. 

As mentioned before, aligning employee and employer goals is important. Much of the pitfalls and duds that come with investing in employee training or development rest on a faulty goal alignment.

For instance, a programmer who spends most of his time and effort coding and debugging system errors would certainly know he would benefit from learning how to speak in public, negotiate, and master other social nuances that are critical to management and business leadership. However, if the employer doesn’t demonstrate a clear and viable path to success with this example’s “soft skills” training, the employee is far more likely to quit in favor of a rival employer who opens such avenues to management. In this case, the employer who invested in an employee’s professional development doesn’t benefit, while another employer gets a multi-faceted employee without spending on the investment it took to develop such skills in the employee.

Complexities of Calculating ROI.

ROI can be determined naively as the inverse of labor costs divided by total operating costs or sales. For instance, if labor is 1/2rd of total operating expenses for a given business, then the employee costs return twice as much as they take in, gaining an ROI of 100 percent. However, employee ROI can get murky depending on the industry, compensation, and type of work a given employee performs. Also, things like sales fluctuate and can give a misleading of costs and therefore ROI if interpreted or “averaged” in an illogical manner.

Summary.

Though touted as a necessity, investing in employees is, in essence, no different than investing in assets, equipment, or financial derivatives. Of course impressive ROI can be had, but a straightforward comparison or generalized risk-reward profile of investment in employees will inevitably be misleading. Here, “fundamental analysis” is critical to answering two questions:

1. How to maximize the odds that this investment will circle back to benefit my business?

2. How does this investment benefit the employees; why would they have a desire or incentive to implement this training or investment for the benefit of your business?

An employer who can answer these questions coherently and honestly is well on his way to maximizing his ROI from investing in his employees.

 

Kevin Faber has been in the commercial finance and banking industry for most of his professional life. He graduated at UC Davis with a B.A. in Business/Managerial Economics. His experience in credit analysis, finance, and management led him to be the founder of Silver Summit Capital. He enjoys working in the financing industry and building connections with industry leaders.

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Top 7 Non Fiction Books To Consider Reading This Season

There is no denying the fact that books work like magic when other things fail to help. On the top of that, the broad category of non-fiction fits the needs of every reader. Whether it is about accruing knowledge or gaining motivation, books in this category are always ready to help.

So, if you are a bibliophile and find out opportunities to read a book anytime and every time, here are top 5 recommended books that you can select from the non-fiction book clearance sale. Have a read.

1. The Hummingbird Bakery – Life is Sweet (Tarek Malouf and the Hummingbird Bakers)

The book encompasses a rich collection of recipes from one of the famous bakeries of Britain, the Hummingbird Bakery. Right from classics to the unexplored ones, the book contains different types of recipes which are easy to make as well. You will surely get one out of hundred recipes that will suit different occasions.

2. Full Steam Ahead (Peter Ginn).

If you are someone who likes to dig deeper into the history, this book would be perfect for you. Stating the evolution of railways, Full Steam Ahead tells the story of the modifications the world encountered with the introduction of the proper rail network. Talking about the very first steam railways to the modern infrastructure used in railways, the author also explores the lives of workers who helped to shape everything.

3. Jamie Vardy From Nowhere – My Story (Jamie Vardy).

If you are in the hunt of some motivation, this is the book to pick from this non-fiction books clearance sale. As the name suggests, the book tells the story of a famous footballer who rose against all the odds that came his way. From his youth to his current scenario, this book is all about gaining some motivation to run behind your dreams.

4. Huey Morgans Rebel Heroes (Huey Morgan).

Music was meant to soothe one’s soul and provide relief during the stressful time, isn’t it? However, with time, music is losing its charm. In this book, the author explores the reason because of the lost soul of music in the present scenario and how yesteryear lessons can be useful today. The book also contains some amazing stories and anecdotes from great musicians of past.

5. A Star Is Born (George Tiffin).

Finding a person untouched from the appeal of cinema is difficult. You would have often wondered what makes actresses successful, isn’t it? The author has very beautifully put forth pen-portraits of different movies and moments that helped 75 actresses to establish themselves in the film industry. Be it quotes, anecdotes, notes, or excerpts from scripts, the book has a lot for a movie buff.

6. The Science of Game of Thrones (Helen Keen).

Who isn’t aware of the distinct world of game of thrones? Through this book, the author tries to reveal the incredible science of one of the most favourite TV shows. The author takes you on the journey of fantasy and navigates through the things shown in the series, be it the existence of dragons or how to kill someone with molten gold.

7. The World of Mr Selfridge (Alison Maloney).

Are you a fan of Mr Selfridge? If yes, then get ready to purchase this book. The book revolves around the journey of Harry Selfridge who moved to London with his family to build a department store. The book is written by the producer of the series as a foreword. So, if you loved the series, you will love this book, too.

These are some of the books from different genres that you can pick for your pass-time. Don’t wait anymore; purchase them quickly and dive into the world of reading.

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What You Can Do To Make Customer Care Your Most Effective Marketing Strategy

by Andrew Tillery, Marketing Director for MAP Communications

What if improving your customer service was all it took to generate more sales and grow your business? No gimmicks, no flashy promotions, no big advertising campaigns; just a dedication to improve the way you treat your customers. Would you do it?

Of course you would. In fact, you’ve already talked to your team about the importance of providing high quality customer service. However, you probably still haven’t made this the core focus for your marketing strategy. The question is, why? The answer is usually focus.

Staying focused on a marketing strategy built around customer service is a long-game move that can be easy to get distracted from when you are pressured to make more sales now. This is true for almost every business, which is why companies who are able to invest and stay focused on putting customer care at the heart of their marketing efforts can grow a loyal following and stand out from their competition.

Check out these methods for how you can make customer care your best marketing strategy:

Create marketing material from reviews and testimonials.

According to a survey by the American Marketing Association, “90 percent of consumers trust peer reviews and 70 percent trust online reviews.” This means collecting and publishing positive consumer reviews can be an incredibly impactful and cost effective way to establish trust and ultimately generate sales.

There are plenty of tools and resources out there that help collect reviews from your customers. However, you might want to also consider training your customer support team to ask for reviews from customers live while they are already interacting with them.

Once you’ve collected reviews, you will want to make sure they get published in a few key places for maximum brand impact like your website, blog, social media, etc. However, you should also consider targeting some important 3rd party locations that your company would benefit from having some positive clout (Google, Yelp, Amazon, etc.).

Always be available.

The easiest way to lose a customer is by not being available to them when they need something. Solving this problem can be tricky considering your customers exist 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that when they reach out to contact you that it will fall within the standard 9-5 business hours, and only about 20% of callers ever end up leaving a voicemail. This means that if your customers decide to try to contact you outside of office hours, you might not be able to collect the information about why they were calling you. What’s worse: they may end up deciding to get in touch with one of your competitors who DID make customer support availability a priority.

To better serve all customers and protect against this risk, many companies are turning to professional call center support partners who specialize in customer care. Customer support experts like MAP Communications are known for call center solutions that provide 24/7 service with professional phone agents that can turn the tide in the battle to keep customers from going astray and establish your organization as a leader in customer service.

Nurture relationships with influential customers and encourage Brand Advocacy.

All customers are special and deserve your attention. However, some deserve special attention. These are the customers who are rabid about your brand or product and maybe even have a bit of a social following of their own. Make sure to follow these customers on the social channels your brand is on. Follow up with them now and again to make sure their experience was a positive one. Maybe even find ways to treat them special by giving them some perks or discounts so they have a strong reason to spread the word about how great your business is. Creating an army of loyal brand advocates can be among the most effective ways to quickly build a positive reputation that your future customers will notice.

Making these tactics part of your strategy is a great start to putting customer care at the core of your marketing efforts. Once in place, the results will begin to speak for themselves: literally. Your customers will start to spread the word about your brand and you’ll be there to give them a microphone so the rest of the world can hear about it.

 

Andrew Tillery is the Marketing Director for MAP Communications, an employee-owned company that provides answering services and call center solutions. Born and raised in Oregon and having lived for several years in Seattle, Andrew has a damp, green place in his heart for the Pacific Northwest. After graduating from Portland State University with a double major in Marketing and Advertising, he spent some time learning Spanish and experiencing all that South America has to offer.

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5 Ways To Stay Cool Under Pressure And Perform At Your Best

by Dr. Christian Marcolli, author of “More Life, Please!: The Performance Pathway to a Better You“

Everyone has a Melting Point, that critical psychological threshold we face when under massive stress and pressure. Despite knowing the risks, we can’t stop ourselves from melting down. We start to lose our grip and internally derail, performing badly. If we were hoping to project an image of competence or trustworthiness, it goes out the window. And our career may stall as well.

But we’ve all seen top executives and sports stars who perform at their best under intense pressure. They’re calm, focused and even playful while others are buckling from stress. No matter the heat, they stay cool. That high Melting Point is a defining quality of high achievers.

We can all learn to raise our Melting Points and sustain a far higher level of performance. It starts with examining our work and home lives, and strengthening the weak spots. Here are 5 key ways to raise our Melting Point to keep our cool and be our best:

Define who you are.

Your core values and fundamental purpose in life and work are your North Star. They’re what you believe in and what you want to bring to the world. But when you hit that point when you’re doing something that makes you forget your purpose, it can creates friction — and friction generates heat.

To raise your Melting Point: Take some time to write down your purpose and values. Then, every morning before work, give yourself 5 minutes to read it over. Reminding yourself of why you’re here and what you care about will keep you centered within yourself — even as the day’s issues try to knock you off balance.

Prepare for the tough moments.

All of us have key moments when we’re called upon to be our best. It might giving a speech and knowing we’ll have to face tough questions, or taking the lead on a complex project that requires more time than your team has. To shine through that superheated combination of pressure and adversity takes mental and emotional preparation.

To raise your Melting Point: At the start of each month, spend 20 minutes making an inventory of the tasks at hand, and identify which will be those key performance moments. Then commit to preparing well ahead of time. It’s also a good idea to revisit that list of your core values and purpose, so you’ve got a firm footing as the pressure mounts.

Make room for your life.

Not having time for loved ones can spark tension at home that simmers into your workday. Balancing work and life requires effort on both fronts. At work, clearly manage expectations with colleagues and bosses, and assert yourself in the face of unreasonable or unrealistic requests. At home, share your work calendar and give advance warnings about upcoming trips, meetings, or crunch times. Being clear makes you a trustworthy, transparent and honest team member — and that includes the home team.

To raise your Melting Point: Set up regular meetings with your work teams to ensure constant communication and alignment — the clarity will minimize those 11^th hour emergencies. At home, set up regular quality time with your loved ones, such as 90 minutes with no devices, or a weekly movie night. Schedule it into everyone’s calendar — and make it just as much a priority as a work meeting.

Budget your energy.

Bad daily habits rob us of energy so we lose momentum and focus, leaving the office spent. We experience that kind of exhaustion that leaves our nerves raw — and puts us at greater risk for melting down. By allocating time and energy to exercise, walking breaks, healthier meals and more sleep, we’re actually more efficient and productive, and feel better about ourselves.

To raise your Melting Point: Monitor your daily energy level by keeping a log for here days. Note when you’re worn out — and mention what you ate, drank, or did. Soon a pattern will emerge, and you can start swapping out bad habits for better ones — smaller portions at lunch, a mid-day walk, less coffee, more water, more exercise. Whatever makes you feel the most vibrant, stick to it. When good habits become routine, you don’t have to expend energy making yourself do them.

Disconnect for better sleep.

Sleep is critical for managing stress and recuperating. But between the pressures of the job and our “always on” endless connection to our computers and phones, heading to bed with a clear head is a challenge. End-of-the-day rituals can help put you in the right frame of mind to experience deep and rejuvenating sleep.

To raise your Melting Point: After work, in the evening, disconnect. Put all devices in a dedicated room, and leave them alone. Only make an exception in a business emergency. Keeping your mobile phone and laptop out of the bedroom can transform the quality of your sleep. And the room becomes associated with rest and recovery: a screen-free, calming space to cool your head.

Intensity is going to happen, no matter what our fields — and there are plenty of factors beyond our control. But truly high performers learn to raise their Melting Points — and knowing they’re not at risk for derailing gives them even more confidence to take charge and prevail. So tap into your own mental and emotional strength, and tend to your whole life, not just your work. Raising your own Melting Point will give you the coolness and resilience to reach a new level of personal best.

 

Dr. Christian Marcolli is a top performance coach whose global roster includes executives and business leaders, market-leading brands and Olympic champions. He is the founder of Marcolli Executive Excellence, a boutique-style consulting firm focused on fostering personal leadership excellence, driving team effectiveness and creating organizational health. He’s the author of “More Life, Please!: The Performance Pathway to a Better You“, “Teach Me Patience – Now! Equip Yourself to be a Business Champion“, and “Melting Point: How to Stay Cool and Sustain World-Class Business Performance“.

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Streamlined Waste Management For Green Businesses

Did you know that the average American creates 4.5 pounds of trash in a day? That’s a staggering statistic when you take into account that there are around 321 million Americans. This number becomes even more astronomical when you take into account the amount of waste businesses produce.

If you’re looking to make your business as eco-friendly as possible, the major corporations in the waste management industry are not the solution. Your business needs to work with a forward thinking company that offers sustainable waste stream management.

The Problem With Current Waste Management.

​Our trash has to go somewhere and current waste management companies are more than happy to take it off your hands and transport it to their landfills. While this may sound like an ideal solution, the problem is that they are only transporting the waste, not actually managing it.

Studies have shown that landfills are made up of 46% recyclable material. When nearly half of these oversized dumps could be utilized for a more sustainable future, it’s time for a change.

The second issue lies in the industries’ major conglomerates double-billing platform. Have you ever wondered what you are actually paying them for? Well, your business is being charged once for pick up and then a second time for the trash being dumped into their landfill.

With prices constantly rising, zero effort towards recycling, and non-transparent billing, the old days of waste management need to come to an end. That’s what Rubicon is aiming to accomplish, revolutionizing the industry.

Technology Meets Sustainability.

​With a simple app, your business can make managing its waste easier on all fronts. While traditional companies pick up on their terms, the app allows any business to choose their own pickup dates. That could be as frequent or irregular as it needs to be.

Instead of relying on large corporations, the app connects your business to a network of independent haulers who share sustainable and Eco-friendly ideology. Every hauler is vetted, insured, and regularly monitored for their performance to ensure a safe and productive service. These haulers bid for your business, and it’s no secret that competition helps to keep costs down.

​Making Recycling A Priority​.

There’s more recycling possibilities out there than most realize. Rubicon works with independent organizations that can reuse:

• Cardboard
• Electronics
• Grease and Oil
• Pallets
• Plastic, Metal, and Glass
• Construction and Demolition waste
• Food Waste
• Paper
• Universal Waste
• and even Hazardous Materials

Whether it’s reusing old materials or converting waste into energy, you can rest assured that your recycling efforts are not in vain. Using the app, business can see exactly where their waste went and stay certified with the nation’s leading programs.

​​Saving Cost​.

Aside from cheaper hauling through the bidding process, businesses can also see revenue generated through recycling incentives. The app also allows any business to track its spending data with complete transparency on bills from the past and present.

​Change Starts With Care​.

When your business decides to partner with Rubicon one of their teams will perform a waste stream evaluation to see exactly what is being thrown away, which services would best suit your company, and what haulers are offering the lowest prices for those services.

They will even get your business out of an existing contract with any waste management service. That is how dedicated the company is to creating a sustainable future.

​Sustainable Waste Management​.

If your business is looking to be a little greener, then Rubicon is certainly worth looking into. Using technology to connect companies who care about our planet’s future they offer lower prices for waste management services done the way it should be, by actually managing the waste.

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7 Content Marketing Tips For Small Business Owners

by Keval Padia, co-founder and CEO at Nimblechapps

What makes aspiring small businesses different from their big brothers is that they have an insufficiently small budget to fulfill big dreams. But interestingly, such dreams are worthy enough in the level playing field of content marketing. Yes, when it comes to effectively reaching an audience with quality contents, even big budget marketing teams can fall short of the achievement of many smart content marketers in startups.

But a budget is still a big constraint that forces small businesses to cut short their content publishing plans or to make two or three persons take all the load of marketing on their shoulder. When you have less budget, you can be less frequent with posts and without a big team or dedicated tools less frequency of social posts. This is what remains to be the general experience for most content marketers.

Question is, in spite of these constraints how you can ensure an effective content strategy with the same team of marketers? Well, grossly the answer remains to be the old rubric of ‘quality over quantity’. When you can be less frequent and less voluminous with content posts, you need to focus more on quality. The quality of posts apart, you need to ensure quality partnerships, influencers, and audience. By seeking perfection you can win over the constraints of volume and budget.

With this piece of wisdom in mind, we are going to introduce here 7 content marketing tips for small business owners:

1. At a glance readable content.

Nobody likes reading dense paragraphs anymore, however, expertise driven it seems. Especially with mobile users forming the large part of an audience, expecting them to go through a large body of text is impractical. The attention span of the audience is fast decreasing and so you need to deliver contents that can be scanned quickly at a glance. Remember the following things.

• Break a large text content in small paragraphs and sections divided with heads and subheads.
• Here are there use some bold and italicized catch phrases and important lines to grab attention to the context.
• Use bullet points under subheads to allow quick reading of the points described or explained.
• Use a variation of typeface to create a sense of hierarchy or just to give your contents a visual appeal.

2. A mixed bag.

Variety is what rules the web now. There are too many ways to deliver the same contents to the users. But every time you make your content appear different, it creates more charms and becomes more capable of grabbing attention. This is why, instead of a single content type, a mixed bag of contents comprising text, images, infographics, video, charts, GIFs give your web presence more scopes of engagement.

3. User generated content.

For some time we are getting used to this trend. Instead of reading what the brands have to say about their products and services, customer reviews and user opinions can nail the thing in the right manner. Thus we have several review websites across travel, food, home interior and other niches that principally feature user generated contents, mainly reviews and user opinions. That is one great effective way to build the credibility of a business brand. A business brand which is in the midst of a whirlpool of opinions and reviews directed to it is definitely perceived as a happening and lively one. To use user generated contents to your advantage here are some tips.

• Always provide honest reviews comprising both negative and positive ones. You can only look credible in that way.
• Reply to each customer queries and reviews in a polite and thankful way.
• Post user photos with exact description. When posting user photos seek permission beforehand.
• Encourage your users to upload short videos about their experience with your business brand or service.
• Always take their suggestions with the positive spirit.

4. Create evergreen content.

Some contents on the web remain fresh forever. They are called evergreen contents. Such contents give a website traffic and business for years on end. Such contents also help to build credibility and reputation of a website. So, besides addressing the need of the hour with trending contents, always build a repository of evergreen contents.

Evergreen contents typically consist of expert articles and blogs with detailed information and knowledge that will remain authoritative for a long period of time. Videos with expert guides on a given topic can also remain as evergreen and relevant for years to come.

5. Reach out to influencers and experts.

You are already aware of the huge difference influencers make in allowing a website to reach out to its audience. Influencers of any business niche are taken seriously by businesses and customers alike. So, being mentioned or referred by the influencers can play a key role in driving traffic and conversion. Reaching influencers is especially important when you need to deal with a budget constraint. Start with small influencers in platforms where most of your audience frequently go. When addressing influencers, always figure out how they can add value to your traffic flow and business conversion.

6. Leverage social media presence.

Yes, for small businesses social media seems invincible since it’s the best tool to reach out to an audience at no extra cost. But, there are too many of them and all your competitors are equally engaged on social channels. So, how to connect your audience cutting this overwhelming maze of competition across channels. Here are some tips to make your social media presence big and effective.

• Choose a few channels as without a dedicated team you cannot handle your presence in all of them.
• Apart from Facebook choose other channels wisely. For B2B and professional audience LinkedIn, for women Pinterest, for micro byte sized contents Twitter, for predominantly male audience Google+, for visual contents both Instagram and Pinterest, this how you should decide on the choice of platforms.
• Create business pages for your website across the chosen platforms.
• To boost engagement to your social presence, consider using bulk sharing tools like HootSuite and Buffer. You can go for the economy package to start with.
• Schedule post as per your audience engagement on the respective platform.
• Post consistently throughout the week.
• Engage with your audience frequently with comments, reactions, and likes.

7. CTA for every content.

Every content on your website should carry a Call to Action element that tells the user to take specific actions. You get business when users get into action after going through the contents. A text content should invariably feature a Call to Action sentence in the end. Similarly, a video content should offer a Call to Action button in the end. Whether to tell users to sign up for newsletters or follow the social profile or to tell users to contact the business for more information, a Call to Action must be there at the end of any content.

In conclusion.

We must advise you to give your content strategy a boost with a crisp and clutter-free design optimized for reading and viewing. Contents and design must go hand in hand at a time when mobile is the principal access point for most contents. In addition to that, ensure fast loading speed for all your contents.

 

Keval Padia is co-founder, CEO and developer at Nimblechapps, a prominent iPhone application company based in India. He has been working on different mobile and web technologies for last 8 years. He is a developer with acute knowledge of user experience design.

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How To Write Great Content And Sales Copy

Many people have difficulty creating a successful online business, whether it is selling their own product or affiliate marketing, or because they have poor writing skills. This inability to communicate clearly through the written word is not a problem unique to the online world. It is, in fact, common to all businesses, including corporations. An Inc. article by Kaleigh Moore, Study: Poor Writing Skills Are Costing Businesses Billions reveals, “A study from CollegeBoard, a panel established by the National Commission on Writing, indicates that blue chip businesses are spending as much as $3.1 billion on remedial writing training — annually.”

How do poor writing skills affect your success as an entrepreneur selling products or services on the web? In a number of ways: If, for example, you’re an affiliate marketer with poor writing skills, you are losing many opportunities to strategically insert your affiliate link in your copy. Here are 4 income opportunities you’ll be missing out on:

1. Writing review posts on your blog.
2. Writing informative posts on your blog.
3. Writing guest posts to increase traffic to your website.
4. Writing articles on article marketing websites.

Besides learning how to get good at expository writing, you have to get really good at writing sales copy, too. You will need to get good at writing ads, writing sales pages, writing descriptions in your YouTube videos, and so on. If you can’t learn how to persuade people to take a desired action – click a link – then you aren’t going to make money online.

With all the talk of social media campaigns and SEO, it is easy to forget that advertising is still the most valuable tool in the digital marketing tool chest.

1. How to get good at expository writing.

The solution that works for corporations can also work for you — take a remedial writing class. You may be able to find one at your local community college or adult education center. While you can also take online classes in writing, many simply offer videos and tutorials, but don’t ask you to submit written work for commentary. The result is that you don’t get the feedback you need to correct mistakes that you might not even realize that you’re making.

Writing classes will teach you how to discover writing themes, revise your work, and edit and proofread it. You will also learn how to describe, compare, associate, and analyze ideas. As a result of these skills, you will be able to write good blog posts, articles, and informative comments in forums.

2. How to get good at persuasive writing ads.

As a digital marketer, you will also need to learn how to write persuasively. Unfortunately, this is something that is harder to find training on. If you did find an adult education or MOOC course on persuasive writing, it would teach you how to argue for or against an idea. However, the kind of persuasive writing you need to learn as a marketer is far different: you need to learn copywriting, the type of writing used to write sales letters, landing pages, opt-in boxes, and ads. The best way to learn this specialized type of persuasive writing is through a mentor, taking an online copywriting course, learning from copywriting blogs, and reading copywriting books.

3. How to use copywriting skills to write good ads.

If you learned how to be a copywriter, here is how you would write a good ad:

• 1. You would create a catchy headline or a snappy tagline.
• 2. You would use the AIDA model to make it memorable. You would capture the reader’s attention, appeal to their interests, stimulate their desire, and incite them to take action.
• 3. You would write with an image of your ideal customer in mind so that your writing would be more intimate.
• 4. You would include all the relevant details of your offer to draw people into your ad.
• 5. You would use small words and short-sentences so that the ad would also read well on a mobile device.

If, on the other hand, you only knew how to write well but not to write like a copywriter, you would skip one or more of these 5 steps. While you might have a good choice of words and impeccable grammar, your ad would not be persuasive.

By making the time and effort to be a good expository and persuasive writer, you will be able to turn words into dollars!

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#GIRLBOSS – Do You Have What It Needs To Be The One?

by Vartika Kashyap, Marketing Manager at ProofHub

“The energy you’ll expend focusing on someone else’s life is better spent working on your own. Just be your own idol.” – Sophia Amoruso, #GIRLBOSS

For all girls out there, do you feel motivated by reading the above quote? It puts an insight over how you should consider your life as important as you consider someone else’s life.

For more than a century, International Women’s Day triggers the importance of how great it is to be a woman. This article will put an insight on the importance of a woman in the creative industries and what they need to be the “BOSS”.

Women have made great progress in the workplace, but inequality still continues. One of the hot-button topics has always been the issue of equal pay. The US Census Bureau reports that women earn 80 percent of what men are paid. And when it is asked, “Who is the boss”? Overwhelmingly, people would suppose a BOSS referred to a MAN because men hold a dominant role in our society. And, it is a big issue for me.

A boss is a boss, it is just what is it and it has nothing to do with masculine or feminine. But indeed the society uses it. If I am a boss, I am a boss, not a girl boss or boss babe but usually “girl” as a defining adjective is used before a boss.

Do we really need to talk about workplace sexism, like ignorance and straight-up assault when it comes to LADIES? For a long time, women have fought to overcome gender roles and expectations. Gender issue still prevails to be a hot topic and it is labeled as a boy and girl thing. Identifying ourselves as GIRLBOSS and to mention it with a hashtag (#GIRLBOSS) is like encouraging other women to stay confident and bold and to stand up for themselves. It is like letting them all know about girl-ness and bossy nature and our success.

So, somewhere around I found a perfect definition of #GIRLBOSS – “A woman in control, taking charge of her own circumstances in work & life. Someone who knows her worth and won’t accept anything less. She is not a “mean girl” in fact, she hates “mean girls.” She is empowering and inspiring to those around her. She kicks ass!”

This is something that makes every girl out there feel empowered. Sophia Amoruso, American businesswoman and author of best-selling book #GIRLBOSS, is determined to absolutely kill it in all aspects of life. It is no secret that every girl has an inner girl boss in them, what they need is just a little motivation to come out.

Here are a few tips that will help you chase your dreams and build the career you want to:

Have ambition and always set goals.

How many of you dream of being the CEO of your dream company or setting up your own restaurant or lounge? Some have these big dreams while other girls wish to raise a family and tribute their whole energy to it. There is a different definition of success for each individual and the choice varies according to the situation. What is of importance is that you have the vision to know what your end goal is. Every girl should consider every part of their life and make sure to plan their future to meet their goals and see where they want to be in five years.

Respect yourself and your body.

Every girl should learn to treat her body with love and respect and be proud of themselves. Usually, girls are confident enough of themselves and their body and they depend entirely on their outer appearance to decide what they want. If you are not confident enough to show yourself to the world, you will keep yourself intact to smaller goals and being the boss will always remain a dream.

Time management.

So, this is something that is important for everyone to be the boss. The key to success lies in having an organized schedule to follow and to manage your time. Proper management of time means having a schedule for work and other activities and leave spaces in the day to eat. A smart time management app is a good and healthy way to start balancing your life and you can get things done on time easily.

Dress to impress and show them who’s GIRLBOSS.

The way you dress has a big impact on the way you are perceived. How do you feel when you are dressed up shabbily and wearing an outdated outfit? Clothing has a huge effect on self-esteem and confidence and a girl usually feels more confident when wearing an outfit they love. Take an effort to pick the right pair of shoes with your well-ironed dress and a bag that compliments your dress. Looking good will bring positivity in your work and will make your image as someone who means business.

Remember that no woman is an Island.

Being a boss lady doesn’t mean you will isolate yourself from your friends and family. You do not have to solve all your problems by yourself. Make it a part of your life to talk to your friends and peers so that your problem becomes easier to solve. For instance, even Khaleesi had an army.

Know when to say NO – there’s always a limit.

Saying No to someone can be really hard in business, but the best thing that you can do to yourself is to know when to draw the line. Do not try to accommodate things that are not on your plate. Women are less likely than men to say ‘no’ to tasks and this usually hurts woman’s business. Stay out of the trap and be willing to accept new challenges but not taking up everyone’s work.

Be a girl, who “gets what she wants because she works for it” and in your life, there won’t be anything sweeter than being called a BOSS. You deserve to be happy and fulfilled.

 

Vartika Kashyap currently runs the marketing team at ProofHub — a project management software for teams of all sizes. She is a seasoned marketing professional who is an expert in digital marketing and entrepreneurship. She’s been featured among LinkedIn’s Top Voices for the year 2016. Connect with Vartika on LinkedIn, Medium and Twitter.

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Back To Biz: The Rulebook For Starting Your Own Business

At some point in most people’s lives, the temptation to start their own business dangles before them like the proverbial golden apple. After all, working your own hours, being your own boss and (best of all) the unlimited earning potential, can be a tempting combination.

Before you open the doors to a new life as an entrepreneur and long before you start picking out your first BMW, experts agree that a solid business plan is a vital platform for any aspiring business.

Join me as we consider the elements which must be in place to give your business a solid basis for success.

Financially speaking.

There is an old saying, ‘you have to have money to make money’–so unless you are a self-funded tycoon, you will need to approach a lender. Many small business start ups head straight for a business loan but it is often difficult to get a business loan until your business is established–a bit of a catch 22 situation.

Alternatively personal loans in Australia are available on your personal assets which makes them easier to obtain. A personal loan also saves you the discomfort of having to put together a business case to present to a lender.

Once your business is up and running and you are thinking of expanding, then a business loan may suit your needs better.

Products and production. 

It seems a no brainer that stocking the right product, quality made and well priced, is a winning combination. Unfortunately may small business owners don’t do their homework regarding price points and market trends. With consumers having access to online product and price comparison as never before, getting these wrong can have devastating consequences to your business.

Offer a range of other services around your product to make it attractive including:

• Free delivery
• Competitive pricing
• Back up service
• Fast response times

Analyze, research, assess. 

Know your market. You may make the best coffee on the eastern seaboard but if you open your business where there is a glut of our cafes, chances are you have set yourself an uphill battle.

Position yourself where you have the best chance of success–whether literally–in your physical location or figuratively–by offering the market something novel and which fills a need.

Many businesses find their feet online first, prior to committing to a physical address. This has a number of advantages including:

• Low overheads
• No contract commitments
• Websites offer online shops

Marketing.

The value of a multi pronged marketing campaign cannot be overstressed. If your competitors have a high profile brand campaign and you don’t, it can be very hard to compete.

Alternatively, if your competitors don’t have a strong online presence, marketing could be a valuable asset to leverage you into the market.

Create a strong brand through easy to identify colours, logos and advertising. A social media marketing strategy is becoming one of the strongest tools in any business’s tool box. There are over 3 billion internet users and of them, over 2 billion use social media sites, actively. Can you really afford NOT to be tapping into such a wealth of comparatively low cost marketing?

Legally yours. 

From the outset, it is imperative to have a commercial lawyer at your disposal. They can be of tremendous value when you are looking to buy a business, lease or buy premises and drawing up and assessing contracts.

If you are planning on purchasing an existing business, a lawyer will assist you with such important issues as:

• Performing due diligence – checking that a business is viable
• Organising licences and permits
• Navigating and advising on tax laws
• Advising on encumbrances or debts a vendor’s business may have outstanding
• Reviewing and drawing up contracts including property leases or purchases
• Conveyancing
• Restrictive covenants to prevent the seller opening up in immediate competition

While we have only had time here to scratch the surface of the array of considerations involved in starting up your own business, it is obvious that to succeed, all businesses must begin with a strong foundation.

Get the ingredients right and you could soon be well on your way to an independent and prosperous future.

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Stay On The Right Side Of Your Clients

Keeping a positive relationship between you and your clients is absolutely vital. If there are any issues here, you’re going to run into problems like bad reviews. You might not be too worried about bad reviews, but that’s probably because you’ve never had one that could kill your business. A one-star review stands out to potential new clients. In fact, research shows they’re more likely to pay attention to this than the five-star review.

So, how can we keep the relationship between you and your clients happy and healthy?

Stay Honest.

One of the worst things you can do that will immediately kill a relationship with a client is lie to them. There are plenty of different ways businesses lie to clients. Some engage in false advertising selling an item as one thing and offering them another. Others lie through small print. So, for instance, you might advertise one price, but the small print adds costs on that balloon the cost. So, when the customer finally gets the bills, they feel rather disgruntled and often betrayed.

You need to always be upfront with your clients and make sure they know exactly what you’re offering and at what price you’re selling.

Make Things Easy.

If you make things too difficult for your clients, they are going to quickly lose interest in your company and a key example of this would definitely be payments. Payments should be simple, they should be fast and most importantly clear. Customers should know exactly what they’re paying for and where each part of the bill comes from. That can be complicated if you have offered them multiple services or split the bill in various ways.

That’s why a very easy to use invoicing system is a real asset for a business owner and a client. The business owner will be able to type up simple invoices in minutes, and the client will be able to pay them instantly. If you keep everything neat and tidy here, you’re going to have a very happy customer.

Just Checking In.

You need to let clients know that you care about their opinion and how they feel about the service you have provided. That’s why you should check in on them on occasion and make sure they are happy with your company. You can do this online through email, or even through social media. It’s entirely up to you.

The key thing here is to make sure that your concern doesn’t come across as spam. If it does, then this could again leave a sour taste in their mouth. So, it’s advisable that you focus on their feedback rather than marketing another product at this interval.

They’re Always Right.

Finally, how you handle complaints from customers is always going to shape their perception. The old saying rings true here because a customer is always right, even when they’re wrong. So, if you can fix a problem that they have, you should do this, even if the issue wasn’t the fault of your business. The positive feedback from going the extra mile for the customer will always make up for any extra cost incurred.

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Cheapen The Deal On Digital Marketing

When you’re setting up a new business, it’s always important to keep costs under control. The problem is that costs can commonly balloon and that’s particularly true when it comes to marketing. You might think that you have enough money in your budget for marketing. But before you know it you’ll be trying to pay for SEO, content creation, content management and possibly even an ad service for your site. That’s just online.

If you start looking at offline marketing tactics, the prices increase further. This is why it’s worth looking at ways you can cheapen the deal on marketing and make sure that it stays at a price you can afford.

UGC.

UGC is a great form of marketing, and the best part is that it’s completely free. So, you don’t have to worry about any costs, and you still get the benefits of fresh content. That’s right, UGC stands for user-generated content, and it could really help your site ranking as well as increasing your strength online dramatically. The only question is, how do you encourage users to share UGC online. Well, that just takes a little charm and charisma. It also wouldn’t hurt to let them know that you’re open to this idea. After all, if you don’t present them with the option, they probably won’t start providing you with content randomly. When you do use UGC do make sure you’re giving the creator credit. Otherwise, you can really alienate customers.

Marketing Managed.

You are probably aware that for your marketing to be successful, you’re going to need to release and produce new content all the time, like clockwork. This is a key part of any sustainable social media marketing campaign. To do this, you might hire a marketing manager, but that’s a costly addition to your team. It’s far better to complete the marketing production and publication yourself and you can by using the available software. With key software like Hootsuite, it’s easy to manage your marketing without the help of an expert. In fact, you might wonder why you need a marketing team at all.

Freelancers.

Tired of paying a high price for quality content for your business marketing campaign? Rather than using the services of a company, you might want to get the content you need from a freelancer. The benefit of using a freelancer is that they work in a highly competitive market. So, you’ll always find someone offering the price you can afford and the quality guaranteed. By doing this, you can make sure you get brilliant content from a source that you trust and who you can form a lasting business relationship with.

Going Organic.

Lastly, you may want to avoid the paid forms of SEO because you have to remember, you’re paying for clicks not guaranteed purchases. So, it’s quite possible that you get a vast amount of clicks from your AdWord campaign and very few buys. This is a recipe for disaster, and the alternative of organic SEO avoids the continuous expensive, payments.

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Use Instagram To Engage Audiences With Your Brand, Intelligently

by Meenakshi Venugopal, co-founder of Hashtag17

You could be a new entrant to the world of entrepreneurship or a seasoned veteran; you need your business to communicate with your audience and reach them in a way that is effective and makes them your loyal followers. Instagram is highly popular amongst today’s social networking audience to share images and pictures of people, their hobbies and their passions.

Instagram is a site which provides massive reach.

Instagram is a highly popular social networking site with a considerable number of people spending their time IGing. A study published on Iconosquare has estimated that there are more than 300 million active users on Instagram. What will interest you as a business owner is that 70% of these users have looked up brands on IG. Marketers and advertisers need to take this into account as their marketing efforts have to be focussed on ensuring that their message reaches the largest possible reach.

For this, Instagram is indispensable and a wonderful opportunity to utilise the reach. Instagram allows brands to reach new audience using a simple strategy- through visuals and short text messages. Companies can use Instagram profiles to give an inside eye into what their company does and stands for.

But it’s tricky.

As with every fad, Instagram has quickly developed into a tool for marketers and businesses to promote their brands by engaging with audiences. Instagram advertising offers a great way for brands to engage audience. But brands need to be cautious while using Instagram. They have to ensure that their marketing and advertising strategies are smart and do not sound promotional which can put off users.

With that in mind, here are some ways by which brands can intelligently use Instagram to showcase and promote their brands and products.

Promote your product in a natural way.

Avoid sales-pitches. Instagram follows a different culture and typical sales messages are a huge no. Write a catchy non-promotional description. Choose a name and profile image that consumers can relate your business to. Do not forget to include a link. Share pictures that audiences can relate to and get excited about.

A good example is a picture of a collection of shoes uploaded by @hm. Another example is by @jcrew where they used a swipe functionality to get users to their blog, instead of a conventional CTA. The users can view their blog on the third swipe.

Depict real time emotions.

Instagram photos are a huge craze amongst audiences because they present realistic action in progress and are photos of the “instant”. They depict real time fun and reflect real sides of people, places and events. Hence, brands have to ensure that they use Instagram in a meaningful way to promote their products or services which connects with the interests and attitudes of the people who they are targeting. So if the brand is about childrens’ books, the images used for advertising should promote that. You can use nice images of children reading the books you are publishing, which would effectively connect with the audience (in this case, parents) who are looking for such books. A few good examples are @tinyreaders and @smallysbookshelf whose pictures appeal to not only parents, but also children.

Personalise your IG branding efforts.

Social media networks provide the best opportunity to brands for reaching a vast audience. You can enhance this by personalising your uploads. One way to do this is by bringing to the audience, the qualities or experience that your product brings. Another way is by uploading posts with people in them, either models or staff from your company. People relate to human faces more a more than inanimate objects.

A brilliant example of this is a “behind-the-scenes” picture posted by @michaelkors. It shows a click of three models taking a selfie. The success of this picture can be attributed to giving the audience an insider look at something that is both, relatable and intimate.

Use Instagram to drive promotional activities.

Instagramming is a great way to engage, motivate and entice people to respond to call-to-action drives. Going live and using Instagram stories is a great way to give the users great content. Competitions using hashtags and Instagram photos are a great way to engage the audience in taking part in activities where they have to respond to some branding or advertising objective. You can run contests such as like contests, comment contests and photo contests. Fans enjoy these activities immensely and they contribute to building up the brand presence. In addition, there is also an establishment of a connection between the audience and the brand.

A good way to run campaigns is to give an incentive back to the user to follow you, as done by @pnwonderland. Another creative example of IG campaigns are by @heineken and @benandjerrys where they conducted contests on “scavenger hunt” and “upload your euphoria moments”, respectively. These campaigns were not related to their products directly and so were not a typical sales campaign, but provided interactive experiences for IG users.

The below infographic by Hashtag17 shows a quick snapshot on how you can use Instagram effectively to engage with your audiences

Remember, if you are promoting your brand through Instagram, you should demonstrate the brand’s usefulness and value it confers to people. Show how the brand can add to their personality. When audiences see you showing them how the use of your products can enhance their life, they would be more enthused about buying it.

 

Meenakshi Venugopal is the co-founder of Hashtag17, a bespoke website designing service, and she works with small and mid-sized business helping them set up their online presence. When she is not working with her clients, she guest blogs on topics related to technology, education and management.

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Great Tech Support – The Answer To Running A Successful Startup

by James Ontra, CEO of Shufflrr

Startups typically lack the resources of larger organizations – cash, staff, and huge marketing budgets. Yet the good ones can compensate with a great product combined with great service. Customer support is one venue where start-ups can differentiate themselves from their larger competitors. To run a successful startup in the tech industry, you need to understand how critical tech support really is to the livelihood of your business, especially in the competitive landscape of this business.

So what does great tech support mean and how can you use it to acquire customers and generate new opportunities? Great tech support is about going above a customers’ needs, meaning you need to be agile and adapt to changes in your area of expertise.

You can do this by honing in the following areas:

1. Be available.

This may seem simple, but providing real human support builds confidence, trust and accountability with your clients. Whether that’s a person on the phone answering questions when someone calls or quickly responding to email and tweets, make it easy for your customers to get support.

When you’re available whether it’s because something broke or because they have a question, you will gain your clients’ trust and credibility. That one unscheduled moment will allow you to become a trusted resource for that client moving forward.

Keep in mind that in technology 99.9% success is 100% failure. Software doesn’t just break a little, one bug can shut down a company’s entire business. Take Amazon for example. If their “submit order” button doesn’t work at the end of a shopping session, then their whole process falls apart; the result is 100% failure to get the sale, but if the shopper can get the right support at that moment, then the sale is saved, and the customer is happy. You have to be available to build trust.

2. Listen.

Let the user vent, and hear them. Once they feel you understand them and their issues, they will be more open to suggestions, which in technology usually means adapting to a new process, feature or upgrade. In addition, you will get invaluable feedback which direct future innovations.

Furthermore, you will get valuable feedback and knowledge into “why” your customers are using your technology and “how’ is important to their own processes and workflows. This feedback can serve as a direct line to future improvements in your products and services. It will make your technology better, which in turn will help your business grow.

Lastly, acknowledge the customers contribution. Thank them for their feedback and let them know that you will not only fix their issue in the short term, you will also incorporate their feedback into a future release. Give them a stake. People want to be heard and respected.

3. Publish.

Lastly, it’s important to ask yourself, how can you make a person become an evangelist of your product? It starts with taking the time to publish, post, or blog every question or comment you get from your support channels. Nowadays, people will search for an answer to their question on the web long before they actively reach out to you. The more questions you can answer before the user calls, texts, tweets, emails, etc. the more pre-disposed they will be to your solution. Good information elevates your expertise and credibility. Ultimately, the client will view you as the expert in your field.

So, in this highly competitive tech world, customer service is critical to any successful startup. These three core customer service disciplines will help your company rise above your competition.

 

James Ontra is CEO of presentation management company Shufflrr. He is responsible for vision, strategy and technical development for Shufflrr and brings over 30 years of entrepreneurial expertise and 20 years of experience on both the sales and developmental sides of presentation management software.

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A Quick Guide To Getting Started With SaaS

While you may not have heard of SaaS before, there is a very good chance you are using it now, especially if you are working in a modern business. If it is indeed something new to you, it pays off to learn what exactly you are utilizing. Here’s a quick primer on what exactly SaaS is, what it lets you do, and how to start incorporating it into your operations today.

To start, SaaS stands for Software as a Service, one of three main types of cloud computing, along with infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS). Some of the most common types of SaaS that you may be using without knowing include email, calendars, and office tools like Microsoft Office 365. The core difference between SaaS and traditional software is that one is updated and used online, with files saved in the cloud rather than physically installed and saved on a computer. In addition, as opposed to formally purchasing a package, most SaaS programs use a subscription model. You pay on a monthly basis, and generally have the freedom to stop service whenever you like.

Many modern cloud suites will provide a complete set of software that your business can pick and choose to use as needed. Some categories where this is possible include:

• Human relations
• Supply chain
• Customer service
• Project management
• Sales management
• Marketing
• Transportation management

Clearly, SaaS is versatile, both in its application and business model. However, there are many other benefits to choosing SaaS over a traditional set of software that you install on a computer that sometimes gets overlooked.

What SaaS Allows You To Do.

Perhaps the most prominent benefit of SaaS is that it enables you to use software regardless of location. Any time, any location, and often from various devices, from smartphones to desktops to tablets. Compare this to software that is often limited to a small lineup of devices by design. In addition, if you only need a piece of software for one project or a short period, you can subscribe then unsubscribe for a fraction of buying the software outright. In addition, there are other added conveniences like automatic updates and ready access to scalability (more on that later).

Of course, one cannot neglect the bottom line when it comes to something as important as business software. SaaS provides many potential savings in this area as well. For example, there are no hardware costs, as the cloud provider provides processing power. This could be invaluable if you are running programs that are intensive, but lack the funds to buy top-end computers.

Picking Your SaaS Services.

With all these things in mind, it’s easy to see the potential for SaaS to improve your daily operations. The next thing to consider exactly what set of services meets your needs. The nice thing about SaaS compared to traditional software is that it lends itself better to trying out than others. Rather than download a trial version with limited access that doesn’t give you the full picture, budget a month to try things out, select only the parts of the suite that are relevant to you, and give it a try. If you don’t find things to your liking, simply move on.

In fact, depending on your needs, you may need these benefits on a higher scale. This makes services like ServiceAide’s Hyper SaaS extremely useful. Not only do you have means to scale up your software usage far quicker than with any physical software, the burden of running these are on the cloud, not on your systems. If you fully plan on investing in SaaS for your business, it may be worth it to think ahead. Try and buy to match the potential load you will be taking on in the future rather than immediate concerns. This is far more cost effective when you use SaaS. The same applies to support. Take advantage of the fact that support professionals can work through one platform to help you in multiple areas. Some companies even go to the extent that they work to get their own software turned into SaaS, just for the benefits we mentioned before.

SaaS is something already changing the way we use computers, but many aren’t taking full advantage of this useful technology. By weighing your options and choosing wisely, you can take advantage of added flexibility with lower cost and resource expenditures.

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Seven Reasons Why Workplace Diversity Will Help Your Business Win

For businesses that intend to compete on a global playing field, a workplace – and workforce – that reflects a diversity of generations, cultures, values and thinking is a prerequisite to success. In fact, any business, whether it has a local, regional, national or global footprint, will be better off with a diverse base.

Studies back this up. Every 1 percent increase in ethnocultural diversity by Canadian companies correlates to a 2.4 percent gain in revenue and a 0.5 percent increase in productivity, according to a new study by the Centre for International Governance Innovation, in Waterloo. Another study by MIT found that shifting from an all male or all female office to one evenly split among genders can boost revenue by as much as 41 percent.

There’s a lot more to workplace diversity than male/female, ethnicities, and age. It encompasses all those but more – cognitive style, education, countries worked in organizational function and background.

Workplaces are growing markedly more diverse as forces like technology and other advances tend to shrink our world. Smart companies and organizations encourage the trend because of the benefits a diverse base creates.

Hiring executives understand this, says Zabeen Hirji at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). They are increasingly scrutinizing their practices to ensure they are not inadvertently missing out on the full scope of talent that’s best equipped to help them grow. A diverse workplace is something to be celebrated and learn from as it poses a competitive advantage over the long term.

The benefits are both tangible and intangible. Among them:

1. Improved productivity.

This occurs when people with different backgrounds and knowledge bases infuse new thinking into organizational processes and procedures. Employee engagement can improve, motivating people to work more effectively and efficiently.

2. More creativity.

There’s a cross fertilization of thought and ideas when heterogeneous groups interact. They have different ideas on the host of solutions that can be employed to achieve common goals. A diversity of cultures, education and backgrounds equips employees with different problem solving skills. That enriches brainstorming, and sparks greater innovation.

3. Employees who are more invested in the company.

Organizations that have a richer mix of people also become more dynamic. That’s something employees take pride in and it leads to greater commitment and loyalty.

4. A sharper competitive edge.

A wide array of talented individuals from varied cultures will create a substantial edge over less diverse businesses with their understanding of cross-cultural issues and ability to overcome language barriers.

5. Extended market reach.

A diverse staff provides the insights it takes to successfully identify with and reach different demographics. The diverse organization is better able to speak the right language – literally and figuratively – of prospective customers.

6. Improved tech savvy.

When the workforce is comprised of people with different backgrounds and job experiences and of different ages (like Millennials who cut their teeth on tech), the organization has the advantage of their familiarity and comfort level with tech and social platforms. It’s a great advantage in staying ahead of the times.

7. Easier talent recruitment, retention.

Organizations that have embraced the concept of diversity create the kind of positive associations that grow strong brands and reputations. Those are the kinds of companies that people want to work for and want to build their careers with over the long term.

Human capital is essential to building businesses that are dynamic and thrive in today’s fast changing environment. It’s the smart businesses that recognize that what gives human capital the largest share of its value is the diversity that characterizes it.

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How To Negotiate with Vendors, Partners And Employees

by Ross Kimbarovsky, founder of crowdSPRING

Not every entrepreneur or business owner is comfortable negotiating. Many dread the adversarial nature of negotiation.

Even so, it’s difficult (and perhaps impossible) to operate a small business or startup and not negotiate agreements with employees, vendors, customers, and others.

I’ve negotiated with thousands of people (for 13 years as an attorney and for the past 10 as an entrepreneur and business owner). Here are ten suggestions that I hope will help you negotiate, based on my experience and practice:

1. Know your objective.

Successful negotiators know before they begin negotiating what they want to achieve during the negotiation. They also know their bottom line – what they absolutely must have to make the deal work for them. A successful negotiation is one that falls between your goal and bottom line.

Although most people can adequately assess their goals, many skip an equally critical step – evaluating Plan B (your best alternative to a negotiated agreement).

What will you do if you are unable to reach agreement? Do you have a number of options and are those options both realistic and practical? If you create a best alternative, you’ll always understand your bottom line (because it will be just slightly better than your best alternative).

When we negotiated the first hosting agreement for crowdSPRING (several weeks of intense negotiation), we were prepared to walk away and work with another major vendor if a few key terms – including our bottom line on price, ability to terminate the contract early without penalty, and a few others – were rejected. After a difficult negotiation with a major vendor’s business team, we successfully obtained concessions on our key deal points, but their legal team rejected several of the terms and refused to budge. Within five minutes, I was on the phone with our second vendor and within several days, we signed an agreement (the second vendor made the concessions we needed). If we didn’t know – in advance of the negotiation – our next best alternative, we either would have been bogged down in many more weeks of fruitless negotiation, or we would have signed an unfavorable deal despite our bottom line.

2. Prepare.

Most negotiations require a great deal of preparation and strategizing before you begin negotiating.

Part of the preparation involves identifying your goals and bottom line, as well as your best alternative.

But research is equally important. The more you know about the other side – the more options you’ll have during the negotiation.

You’ll rarely be able to find much information about the person with whom you’re negotiating (although this is becoming easier with the amount of information accessible online). But you’ll nearly always be able to find tons of information about their company. Among other things, try to determine what’s important to the other side and how far they might go to close the deal. You should also understand when something is important to the other side.

Finally, consider what will happen during the life of the agreement. Negotiate concessions on terms that protect you throughout the life of the agreement (such as early termination provisions without penalty).

Pro Tip: Negotiation Timing is Key.

Negotiate with vendors, if you can wait, at the end of a fiscal quarter. Most are looking to exceed their sales targets and will offer greater discounts if the quarter is about to end.

3. Never be intimidated.

Small business owners and young entrepreneurs often get intimidated when negotiating with larger companies. Larger companies know this – they tell you they have “form” agreements and their legal team won’t let them negotiate. Most of the time, that’s untrue.

Once you allow yourself to be intimidated, you’ll have difficulty getting your needed concessions during the negotiation. Good preparation and a solid Plan B will help you start the negotiation on level ground – and your ability to negotiate as equals will help you obtain the necessary concessions to make a deal happen.

Here’s a good example from my experience with crowdSPRING. When clients post projects on crowdSPRING, we require that their funds be escrowed with us in advance – before their project posts.

From time to time, a Fortune 500 company will question this practice because they are used to terms that allow them to pay vendors 60 or more days after the services or goods are provided to them. They do their best to impress us with their complex payment processes and rarely forget to mention that they are a large company and we’re a tiny startup.

They don’t intimidate us. We politely explain our policies and practices to them and let them know that we do not make any exceptions on our escrow requirements – even for large companies. In every case – these large companies find ways to work around their “complex payment systems” and comply with our requirements.

4. Pay attention to perception and emotion.

People are imperfect – we get emotional, have varied goals and interests, and tend to look at negotiations from our own point of view. We rarely take the time to consider the other side’s point of view.

How the other side perceives your negotiating positions and tactics – and your emotional responses – will strongly influence their participation and responses during the negotiation.

Think about people with whom you regularly negotiate. You tend to know such people a little better – and you can more skillfully read their emotions (and control your own emotions when talking with them).

You’re probably most comfortable with your own employees and team – and you probably already know that how they perform is influenced by their perception.

Get to know (as best as you can) the person with whom you’re negotiating. Even a few small details about them could help during the negotiation.

If you can get past the mis-perceptions and emotional reactions that are common when two strangers negotiate something important to both, you can focus on the problems you need to solve during the negotiation rather than the personal “conflict” between you and the other person.

Most important – try not to show emotion. Don’t threaten, don’t shout and don’t slam the phone. Be calm, collected, thoughtful, and considerate. This is easier to do if you’ve followed the prior suggestions (including knowing your next best alternative).

When you encounter particularly challenging negotiation points, provide verbal cues that you want to work together with the other person to solve a common problem. “Let’s put our heads together on this problem and see how we can help you with your margins and help me with my budget restrictions.”

Evaluate the environmental factors over which you have control and change them to help with the negotiation. For example, if you’re negotiating in person, sit next to the other person, instead of across the table from them. Your body language will reinforce your non-confrontational message that you want to work together to solve some of the sticking points left in the negotiation.

Pro Tip: Know Your Negotiation Environment.

Evaluate the environmental factors over which you have control and change them to help with the negotiation. For example, if you’re negotiating in person, sit next to the other person, instead of across the table from them. Your body language will reinforce your non-confrontational message that you want to work together to solve some of the sticking points left in the negotiation.

5. Be prepared to walk.

Although your goal in the negotiation is usually to obtain agreement on your key terms, there are times when you should walk away instead of negotiating further – if the other party isn’t yielding.

I do this all the time. And more often than not, the other party will contact you again – and make enough concessions to bring you back to the negotiating table.

Sometimes, I walk because that’s part of my strategy going in. If I’ve carefully researched the other side and know they’re bluffing about certain key terms that they can’t accept, I’ll plan to walk – in advance. At other times, the decision to walk is prompted by what happens during the negotiation. But I always – ALWAYS – know my next best alternative.

When we negotiated our first real estate lease for crowdSPRING, we had a bottom line price that we were willing to pay. After we successfully negotiated that price, our future landlord surprised us with “other” costs and fees that added substantially to the per square foot price that we would be paying. They wouldn’t budge and we walked out. The landlord called us the next day and offered to stay within our budget. We declined. By then, we decided that we didn’t want to deal with a landlord who wasn’t sincere with us during our negotiations. We leased space from someone else who was open and reasonable throughout our negotiations.

6. Clearly articulate your interests.

Never presume that the other side understands your interests or that you understand their interests.

Some people successfully create “fake” important interests so that they could bargain them away during the negotiation and make the other side feel like they’ve obtained serious concessions. This tactic can work but I’ve used it very rarely because it can often be distracting and sometimes, devolves the negotiation into a collateral dispute that could compromise the actual deal.

The best way to collaboratively find ways to resolve problems and differences that occur in a negotiation is for both parties to understand the interests of the other party.

When I negotiated crowdSPRING’s initial contract for internet and IP phone service, we had a few important deal terms (price, reliability, redundancy) and I made those terms very clear in the beginning. I also explained that we weren’t concerned with what each itemized item cost – but we needed to make sure that in the aggregate, we didn’t exceed our budget. This allowed the other side to understand not only that we had important interests, but also that they had the flexibility to put together a deal in many different ways convenient to them as long as they met our goals.

7. Listen.

Successful negotiators are nearly always exceptional listeners who patiently allow the other side to articulate their arguments, deal points, and reactions. Do your best not to interrupt and when you can, encourage the other side to talk first.

8. Create multiple possible solutions.

One mistake commonly made during a negotiation is to limit the possible solutions available to resolve a sticking point.

When you limit possible solutions to one or two, you’re limiting opportunities for meaningful discussion. Instead of limiting possible solutions, look for ways to generate a list of all possible solutions so that you can better assess ones that can work and those that cannot. Often, by looking at many alternatives, the parties can find one – or a combination of many – that works for them.

Think of this practice as a form of brainstorming. Rather than argue on a deal point that it MUST be A or that it must be A or B, work with the other side to identify various possibilities (without judging any of the suggested ideas until you have a list of ideas that you can discuss).

Whenever you can, find ways to make the other party’s decisions easier. For example, if a number of different options are acceptable to you – let the other side know and invite them to pick one that works best for them. This builds trust and will help you on other deal points (and during other negotiations with the same person).

9. Make strategic concessions.

Negotiation is a competitive activity and people generally like to win when they compete. That’s why it’s rare for one party to come out of a negotiation with the perfect deal – they must make concessions along the way.

Listen carefully when you discuss deal terms and get a feel for what’s most important and less important to the other side.

Although some people argue that you should try not to make any concessions because doing so will only seem weak – I disagree. You should look for areas that are unimportant to you – but important to the other side – and make concessions on those points. Don’t just give up those points outright before you begin – but do take note of them and concede them as you negotiate.

10. Confirm points of agreement and disagreement.

After each negotiation meeting – even if you didn’t reach a deal and need to continue negotiating – verbally review the points covered and all areas of agreement and remaining areas of disagreement. Make sure that one party follows-up with a written summary so that you don’t leave loose ends that will require you to revisit issues you’ve already resolved.

Final Pro Tip: Give and Take.

I often push hard on one-sided provisions in a contract that seem unreasonable. At some point, I suggest that we make such provisions reciprocal (so that they would apply to both sides). I don’t always care about all of these provisions. Some are absolutely irrelevant to the deal and are there only because the other side’s attorney or advisor said that those provisions must be included. In such cases, I’ll find ways to concede on the provisions the other side thinks are important (but that are not important to me), and in exchange, will ask for concessions on provision that I truly care about.

 

Ross Kimbarovsky is founder and CEO at crowdSPRING and Startup Foundry. In 2007, Ross left a successful 13-year career as a trial lawyer to pursue his dream of founding a technology company (in part so that he could wear shorts and sandals to work every day) by founding crowdSPRING – one of the world’s leading marketplaces for crowdsourced logo design, web design, graphic design, product design, and company naming services. You can learn more in his e-book.

 

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First Impressions – The Importance Of Storefront Design In Attracting Customers

Like in any new relationship first impressions count, only one shot to make a great one. As a business, this step is critical in the acquisition of new customers. Customers today, in most cases, have multiple choices when looking to buy a product. So, your business must stand out, but it must also maintain that experience in every store.

The storefront is the first and last opportunity your business has to convert that passer by into a customer. If your storefronts are poorly designed, differ from one another or offer little in the way of a ‘preview’, then that customer is given no reason to come inside.

Follow these tips to ensure the design of your storefront is attracting customers:

Visibility is key.

Most storefronts aren’t next to the carpark where a potential customer is going to leave their vehicle. Often times, it’s quite a distance away, as well as adding the fact the car park isn’t very well lit. For your stores one of the most important aspects of design should be visibility. Lighting is critical to the success of attracting new customers. Use a tried and tested approach and design when it comes to lighting.

Neon signs are a great way to distinguish your storefront immediately.

Use custom designs for your signs, utilising words like ‘sale’, ‘new season’ or your company logo/brand. Ensuring that the first thing a customer sees in your store should be the first priority when designing your store. Competition is fierce which means beating the competition before a potential customer even gets close to the stores is a must.

Don’t scream at them.

As customers approach your stores you want them to be able to see very clearly what offers, specials or ‘looks’ you are offering. But too often these days storefront design is taken over the top. As you approach a storefront and consider entering as a customer, the last thing you want to be greeted with is 12 signs that say “sale on now” or “last chance”. Instead adopt a subtle approach in your storefront design, as well as ensuring the look is consistent. Attracting customers is all about ensuring your storefront is inviting, warm and understandable.

Signs utilising exclamation marks(!!!), or CAPTIAL LETTERS make the customer feel like they are being screamed at. What a customer is looking for is an idea or concept of what is inside. Use a minimalist approach, offer two or three key product lines to attract customers to find our more by coming inside.

Consistency is everything.

One of the more important aspects of any good storefront design is consistency.

When you travel from shop to shop you want to know that what you see is the same. Customers need to be able to identify your store quickly and easily to help speed up their buying decision. Ensure that your storefront design is consistent across all of your stores. This will allow a customer to identify your store first before potentially being influenced by another storefront design.

Most specials, sales or new season product lines are identical across stores, so ensuring your storefront designs match from a product perspective shouldn’t be too difficult. For visibility use a company signage provider across all your stores so you can manage the consistency.

Create a welcoming space.

When a potential customer views your storefront you don’t want them to be bombarded by racks or shelves of products. Create a welcoming space as they first enter the store, almost a reception of sorts. This will allow the customer to naturally transition from what they saw in the window to the culture of your store. Allowing for this type of atmosphere will ensure customers feel welcome and continue their purchasing journey into your store, not out of it.

First impressions last a lifetime, whether it is meeting a new friend or an interaction with a brand for the first time. The importance of storefront design can’t be underestimated when it comes to attracting new customers. Follow these tips to ensure that your storefront is designed and optimised to attract as many new customers as possible.

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