Rock Stars — 3 Cool Companies Making Money From Stone

The Stone Age ended around 5000 years ago when our ancestors began fashioning tools from metal.

But stone is still an invaluable material used every day by millions of people around the world. You’ll find it in everything from solid buildings to beautiful sculptures and the notoriously heavy Atlas Stones used in The World’s Strongest Man competition.

If you like the tactile and technical qualities of this material, working with it for a living could be your next career.

To help you decide, here’s an overview of three rock star companies making money from stone.

1. Sparta Statues.

One place stone usually finds a welcome home is in our gardens.

And garden ornament supplier Sparta Statues has an amazing range of elegant rock effigies in diverse styles to suit any green space.

You can add a romantic touch to your garden with a grand Gothic mirror carved like a church window or build a meditation area around one of their amazingly lifelike Buddha statues.

But there are also anthropomorphic animals, renaissance angels and much more — so if your garden has a specific theme, then you’re in luck.

If you wanted to compete with this type of company, you’d have to prioritise quality — the items above set a high bar and aren’t found in every garden centre.

2. Stone Inspired.

Across swathes of countryside in Scotland and the north of England, it’s common to see sturdy stone barriers which, on close inspection, are held together using nothing but their builder’s ingenuity.

These are dry stone walls, and they aren’t secured with mortar — stones are carefully chosen by a craftsperson and slotted together skilfully in a strong structure.

The technique’s been used for thousands of years, but modern dry stone wall specialists Stone Inspired use the same age-old techniques to enhance contemporary property exteriors with curvaceous walls, terraced gardens and planters.

These artisans will adapt their materials and designs to suit modern and traditional homes or commercial premises — and the ends results look stunning.

To rival their offering, you’ll need to hire a time-served niche tradesman or earn your own apprenticeship in this discipline.

3. Marchington Stone.

If you work in the stone sector or are undertaking your own home landscaping project, finding a stone wholesaler will be a godsend.

And with a mind-blowing choice of products for construction, civil engineering and domestic applications, stone and aggregate experts Marchington Stone are hard to beat.

Providing everything from natural stone products to equestrian sand, they deliver across the UK — but their secret weapon is an in-house quarry producing high quality buff Derbyshire millstone grit.

Operating since 1970, this firm has a rock-solid reputation for quality products and customer care — valuable lessons for any would-be rival.

Follow these rock stars to gain a foothold in the stone industry and you could have a smash hit business on your hands.

Do you work in the stone sector? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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5 Illuminating Ideas That Will Revive Your Failing Startup To Profitability

by Sabine Ghali, Director at Buttonwood Property Management

It can be hard to come to terms with the fact that your startup business – the one you put so much time and energy into building – isn’t working. It can be even harder to come up figuring out what exactly is preventing your success.

There are times in business when you simply have to let a project die and move on to the next one, but you shouldn’t take that dramatic of a step until you try out these 5 ideas for bringing life back into your startup.

#1: Realign Your Audience.

It can be tempting to create and market a product to everyone, but the hardest thing to do as a business is to market to such a general audience.

Even if you have dreams of your product someday becoming a name known in every household, your business needs to find a more specific niche audience in order to succeed. Rethink your target audience, and revamp your marketing plans towards their specific wants and needs.

#2: Take On Less To Make More.

Is your startup in a service-oriented field?

In this type of industry, it’s easy to become consumed with the idea that you need to bring in more clients to make more money. But if you start juggling too many clients and don’t have the systems in place to efficiently provide your service to them all, you’ll be doing more harm than good.

Focus on giving great experiences to fewer clients until you regain your footing and re-establish your processes. Then, scale your growth in a more sustainable way.

#3: Get Stingy.

While much advice out there recommends that startups fundraise and spend capital to boost their business’s marketability, you cannot always spend in the startup world. If you’re fighting off the risk of closing up your dream startup, it’s time to get stingy.

Think more about exactly what the money must be spent on versus where it is more of a luxury than a necessity. Cut back in those superfluous regions as much as possible, and you can extend the time that you have to turn your business around.

For now, only put money into what absolutely must be done and your immediate goals.

#4: Delegate Efficiently.

When things start to go downhill, you need to stop trying to fix it yourself.

For someone who is focused on building their dream business, that can be very difficult, but the fact of the matter is that you are not the best person to do every single job.

Instead, focus on handling two things:

• Whatever it is that you ARE great at
• Delegating everything else to another employee

You have various employees or consultants working with you that are great at what they do. Why should you be trying to do something okay when they excel at it?

Delegating tasks to the appropriate parties (and this includes sometimes paying an outside consultant to do the work) will make more efficient use of your time and money. When the end seems near in a startup, hyper-focused delegation becomes even more important than ever before.

#5: Stop Being Too Tolerant.

Startup culture can be incredibly intense. Whether you’re working with your actual family or your startup team has simply become like family, it can be easy to begin letting bad behavior and individuals lacking in productivity remain part of the business.

It’s common for fresh CEOs to have a hard time with this issue. Nobody wants to be seen as a bad boss, but trust us when we say that you’ll be seen as an even worse boss if you let the slackers hang around while others do all of the heavy-lifting.

Even if it can be tough to do so, you need to crack down on issues like these that are hurting the company’s overall productivity. The sooner you address the issues, the better. When you have limited time and resources in your failing startup, productive practices should be the #1 priority.

Your Business Might Succeed.

Or, it might not. Whether you keep working on your failing startup or you move onto your next venture, using these essential business practices will ensure that you regroup and set-up a scalable business model that has a better chance for success.

Building a business is always a risk, but these five tips can help you to focus on lowering your personal risk throughout the process.  

 

Sabine Ghali is Director at Buttonwood Property Management, a property management company in Toronto offering both residential and commercial property management services. She is an entrepreneur at heart who endeavors to help investors create real estate wealth over time in the Greater Toronto Area. Sabine has been in the Real Estate industry since 2012 and won numerous awards.

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How To Utilise Offline Marketing To Attract More Business

A vibrant business has many marketing channels, on and offline. Colour Graphics show how to utilise offline marketing to attract more business and custom, without a heavy price tag.

Accustomed to social media marketing and exposure, many businesses wrongly assume that offline marketing is cumbersome and lumbering, producing few if any results. But offline marketing can and do still yield results.

What is important is what these tools are and how they are used.

#1 The business card – scatter far and wide.

You can’t leave an e-business card scattered about in various locations can you? But with a printed business card you can. Having written extensively on business cards and distribution strategy, Colour Graphics understand that even in today’s digital world, the small rectangular piece of printed card still pulls a punch.

Always have your business cards on you and no matter where you are, you have a card or two to leave lying around. Postcards can yield similar results too.

#2 Be active in trade shows, events and other networking activities.

We live in an ever-changing world but that doesn’t make past marketing activities defunct. Some ‘old-fashioned’ marketing ploys and tactics are not broken, such as the networking with potential trade partners.

And then there are trade shows, perfect for launching new products or reminding people of the great set of services you offer.

But like most marketing opportunities, if they are planned, the more your business will get from them.

#3 Work on your reputation as an influencer and thought leader.

This takes a little more effort but placing yourself or your business as the experts in your field is one thing but being able to set a trail for others to follow is another. Not strictly offline in the sense of printed material, placing your company as the business to follow and to look to for the latest innovations and thoughts of your industry is worthwhile.

Just as there are online influencers, you can be an offline influencer too. So how about offering free consultation days or sharing workshops at your business premises.

#4 Branded freebies.

These can be a double-edged sword with both sides of the argument of whether this is a good idea or not making sense.

On one hand, this can be an expensive route to take. Some printed products can be expensive and if you are a small business or start-up, it can prove a costly means of extending your marketing reach.

However, there is a school of thought that suggests the return on investment of giving away freebies is not something that happens immediately but the warmth of receiving a gift or something for free is a positive one and one that stays with a person for some time.

And if they need a service or product you offer, they are more likely to remember who you are and what you do.

There are pros and cons to giving away branded products. Driven by a distribution strategy to ensure success, there are many products that cost pence to produce and print with your logo and contact details.

#5 Make you the go-to commentator for the local media…

… or even national media outlets. When there is a crisis, a problem or something good happening, journalists always love to have a go-to person they can tap for a quote on the subject or situation.

Just like you can influence online and other businesses, establish yourself as an authority with the media too. This gives you invaluable coverage and with so many media outlets these days, from printed newspapers to online news portals, this isn’t hard to do.

Start with an email to a local press office the next time there is a new story that relates to your business or industry.

#6 Build a company archive.

Images are a powerful marketing tool as is the history behind your company. Time flies by and so you may think your business is young compared to others but photos from company or corporate events from the 1980s will be ‘historic’ to some.

Just like we snap selfies and photos of family and our children’s milestones, do the same for your business too. From holding an event today to sharing photos and advertising campaigns of the past, you can retain an interest in your company.

Offline marketing needn’t be complicated. Neither does it need to be expensive. The simplest of offline marketing tools can yield results.

Colour Graphics is an established online design and print agency with over two decades of experience. Follow them on twitter @ColourGraphics.

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4 Smart Tips For The Beginning Investor

As a beginner-level investor, you may have many questions going into the world of investing. How do I research where to invest? How do stocks make money? Where do I begin?

Here are a few tips to help you get started in investing.

#1 Investing for the Long Run, Not the Short Term.

First thing’s first: What are you trying to achieve? Before you begin investing, you want to set some goals. One of the most popular suggestions you may hear as you start out is to plan for the long run and not to focus on short-term successes. If you go into investing expecting a get-rich-quick result, you may be disappointed. But, with enough time and planning, you can achieve some substantial long-term goals.

By creating these long-term goals, your short-term ones will define themselves. If you need the money you plan on investing back in a year or two, you might consider avoiding the stock market.

#2 Research.

Research will be your new best friend. Research fills in the holes your lack of experience creates. Spend some time researching how to achieve your long-term goals, stocks you may want to invest in (and the companies behind them), and the logistics of how to take the actions you’re planning to take.

The investing world is bigger than stocks. Look into other options such as IRAs, mutual funds, and CDs to see which fit with your investment style.

#3 Creating a Strategy Before You Invest.

Now you need to apply the knowledge you gained through your research. This is how you will create your investment strategy. After careful research, you should now have a better idea of what you need to do to reach your goals.

In creating your strategy, ask yourself what kind of investor you’ll be. How high of a risk are you willing to take on, and for what amount of investment? How long do you plan on holding onto the stocks you purchase? Should you hold onto one stock longer than another?

Your strategy is your game plan. You want to stick to this strategy as much as you can unless you find it’s not helping you move toward your goals. If you gain experience that tells you the direction you’re going isn’t the right one, change direction. But, don’t act on a gut feeling or make decisions based on your emotions.

#4 How to Find the Right Stocks.

This is an extension of your research, but it’s important enough to mention again. Research stocks before you buy them. Research companies before you invest in them. Some beginning investors make the mistake of buying based on the stock’s performance alone. This can be a great way to waste money.

Be sure you go into investing in stocks with a clear head and a good idea of what to look for. There are as many risks as there are rewards in investing in stocks. But, if you do your homework and play the game intelligently, you will increase your chances of achieving your goals.

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5 Ways To Build Your Brand Organically

by Kevin Stimpson, international speaker and CEO of Strive & Grind

To grow your brand organically, you have to literally plant your seeds, nurture them, and watch the seeds grow. Your goal should be to create something that people are loyal to. However, many entrepreneurs struggle to have customers buy over and over again. Why? It’s because they aren’t building a brand. Instead, they focus most of their time generating leads and driving traffic to average products and services.

But of course, people don’t want average products and services. They want the best products and services. And, they want to be treated like your business actually cares.

Here are 5 steps to help you get there:

1. Create great products and services.

You will instantly stand out from a cluttered marketplace when you have a great product. It’s not enough to be better, or comparable. You need to strive day in and day out to be the best or only company your customer decides to do business with. That means continuous improvement. Don’t be the entrepreneur that just wants to make sales off an average product. Be the entrepreneur who wants to crush sales because you have the best product that your customers can’t live without. Always push the envelope and think ahead. Do your research in the marketplace and create something of true value and quality.

For example, if you own a web design agency, be sure to create the best damn websites on the block so that people recognize you for being the best. And in order to do this you have to make sure you have the best damn team working for you. Lead with great products and services. If you lack innovation, you’ll become reactive instead of proactive. Once you become reactive, you become a follower and not a leader.

2. Focus on your customer experiences.

Branding is about what your customers and clients say about you when you’re not in the room. It’s about how you make them feel. Want to build brand loyalty and have your customer coming back for more? Want to have customers raving about you to their friends and family? Create mind blowing customer experiences. Regardless of the type of business you’re in, you must identify how you’d like your customer experiences to be before, during, and after your customer buys from you.

For example, if you’re a photographer, before you take the first photo, you provide your client with all the details and a shot list so that they feel comfortable and ready for their shoot. During the shoot, you may play their favorite music and provide water and snacks. And after the shoot, you deliver their photos not only digitally, but in a dope aluminum album with a gift card to their favorite restaurant attached. Remember, all it takes is for one bad customer experience to derail the perception of your company. That bad experience can influence one person to tell 10 people about it, which could prevent those 10 people from buying from you. Those 10 people could go ahead and tell another 10 people about their experience, and why they won’t buy from you and the cycle goes on and on. (Cough: YELP REVIEWS: Cough)

You owe it to your customers to take care of them, because without them, you would probably be working for someone else. With that said, this care of your customers is one more extension of your brand – so don’t ignore it!

3. Ask for referrals.

You’re leaving a lot of money on the table by not asking for a referral. If your customers know that you have great products and services and that you have amazing customer experiences, why wouldn’t they want to refer a friend, colleague, or family member to you? Strive & Grind wouldn’t be where it is today if it weren’t for referrals. About 95% of our business is word of mouth.

One way to do this is to simply ask your client or customer if they know anyone who needs your services or would love your product. You can even provide an incentive and offer a referral fee or discount off their next purchase. You’d be surprised what may come out of just asking.

4. Have a strong and consistent message.

People like getting behind strong causes and messages – something they can believe in and become a part of. The clearer your message, the easier it is to communicate. If your prospects and customers don’t understand what you do and how you can solve their problems, you’re going to lose them. Period. Get clear on who you are, what you’re about, and how you help your customers. Capture what you stand for and what you stand against. Tap into what pisses you off about your industry, and how you’re going to disrupt it.

Once you get clear on those few things, invest all of your efforts on improving the effectiveness of how you communicate your message. Then use that clarity to always guide you as you grow into a badass brand.

5. Collaborate and partner with game changers, thought leaders and influencers.

Branding by association will elevate your business to new heights. The biggest brands in the world partner with the top influencers in the world. For example, Nike is one of the most reputable companies in the world because they are endorsed by the best athletes in the world. They literally blew up, the moment they worked with Michael Jordan, and created their first pair of “Jordan’s” sneakers. Leverage this same strategy for your business. It’s an easier way for you to tap into different and larger markets that you wouldn’t have tapped into if you didn’t collaborate. Plus I can personally vouch for the consistent motivation and accountability that results from playing with the big dogs (and becoming one yourself)!

So you may be thinking, “How can I connect with an influencer?” It’s simple. Reach out to them or their assistant via email or Facebook message and communicate the value you can bring to them (without sounding like all you want to do is take something from them). Have your game plan ready and share your idea on how a partnership with you will be beneficial to them and the growth of their business .

If you don’t put intention on building your brand organically, you’re missing out on one of the biggest secrets to building loyalty. When your customers are loyal to you, and only you, your competitors become irrelevant.

 

Kevin Stimpson, international speaker & CEO of Strive & Grind, an international branding agency that specializes in creating premium brands for today’s top experts, thought leaders, and influencers that reach millions of people around the world.

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Real Estate Agents: Considerations When Choosing Mobile Apps like SetSchedule

Real estate agents are competitive and smart in looking for new ways to land the next sale. They are active in their community, and they often use the best marketing techniques in making sure that they remain relevant in the industry.

The rise of new technology has helped real estate agents rely on better and more innovative solutions like SetSchedule to solve their productivity problems.

Must-have Functions for Mobile Apps like SetSchedule.

One of the many new productivity solutions for real estate agents is SetSchedule, which is a practice management software developed by Roy Dekel. It can be installed on a lot of devices, most especially the mobile ones. There are a lot of options available for the busy real estate professional, and here are the most important ones:

1. User-friendly.

They say a sword is useless if you can’t wield it properly. The same principle applies to applications and other productivity software, especially those on mobile devices. The software has to be easy to use so that you can easily navigate through your daily tasks, without being stuck on certain functionalities that are hard to understand.

2. Consistent App Updates.

In choosing an app, make sure that it is consistently upgraded and updated in order for you to maintain competitive edge. What good is having an application when it becomes outdated after a few weeks or months? It’s important to know that an app is planning to grow and improve in the long run.

3. Uses Cloud.

Most real estate agents need to have a lot of pictures on their phone which would take up a lot of space. The best mobile apps like SetSchedule utilize the Cloud in order to make sure that your phone doesn’t run out of space. Aside from that, it ensures that data is well-protected and secure so you don’t get your leads stolen from you.

4. Dedicated Customer Support.

Roy Dekel believed that the clients are the key to success, and he resonated this in their company business model. Most applications don’t have dedicated support staff, but they opt to have chat bots or forums instead. They are good and affordable alternatives but having a live human to converse with is better since he or she can understand your concerns more than premade responses.

Why Mobile Apps are Important.

Productivity is paramount in excelling the real estate trade, and the best applications help you do more with your time. Most real estate agents prefer the mobility and convenience of having everything in their smartphone. Having software in your phone allows you to organize your tasks, make quick calls and fast decisions wherever you are.

Choosing an application is almost like choosing a business partner, since it will be your companion for a long time. Make sure you invest in quality apps that give great value to your money so that you gain more credibility, sales and trust with your clients. Some of those satisfied clients could even turn into more leads in the future.

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Top Tips For Starting an eCommerce Business

More and more businesses are entering the business world every single year than there ever has been before. One of the fastest growing industries, as a result, is eCommerce, which has capitalized on the internet and social media to grow start-ups at an incredibly fast rate. Still, this is no guarantee of success. While there are many successful eCommerce businesses out there, there are many more who never make it past the first few months.

With this in mind, you will need some important advice to follow on your journey, including the below four tops tips to help you reach success if you persevere.

Start small.

It is easy to get carried away with business ideas when you feel passionate about your product. However, it is always best to start small and work your way up. This could be by starting with the launch of only a few products, or by limiting shipping to the country where your business is based. If you do see a boom in business, you should know when to expand; going into global eCommerce is the best way to do this. For the most reliable advice on shipping your goods, it’s wise to read the TFG incoterms guide.

Perfect your site.

Lots of business owners feel the need to rush their website when they are aiming for an earlier launch date. But this can mean you end up with badly written website copy and sloppy design work that doesn’t appeal to your customers. Ideally, you should use your time wisely by hiring a website designer and a trusted copywriter to help. Doing so will give you the expertise you need, but it will also ensure the process is sped up. Once you have perfected it, you can begin to optimize it for SEO and share it on social media.

Use market research.

When it comes to selling a product, market research is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Before you launch, you must make sure your product is best suited to your target market, as well as your business branding. One of the most effective ways to see if your product is appealing to your target market is by running market research sessions in person or over the internet. Exchanging a free product for honest reviews allows you to tweak your product and expel any flaws from its makeup.

Make the most of social media.

It is no secret that social media has seen a boom in recent years. Many people have attributed the growth of eCommerce businesses to this boom, as it allows businesses to reach people across the whole world. You can start by sharing regular, multi-media content on your social media channels. When people begin to interact with this content, you can use it to reply to customer service inquiries and gather product feedback. One of the biggest trends, according to an Influencer Marketing Study, is enlisting the help of social media influencers to help sell your products, which can help you reach new markets.

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