Category: Blog

  • Why You Should Consider Creating a Website for Your Business

    Why You Should Consider Creating a Website for Your Business

    Somewhere between the brilliancy of the internet invention and the creation of social media, there was a time when having a website was mandatory for business. But with lots of social media platforms, offering different features and user friendly navigations, it became much easier for business owners to substitute their ‘online presence’ with ‘social media presence’. 

    If you are a business owner, regardless of its capacity, who do believe that having a Facebook page, Pinterest account, or a Youtube channel alone would help sustain and grow your business, then the coming lines are meant to be read by ​you!

    ​But firstly, we need to move one false conception out of the way, which we believe is the number one reason why most business owners dread creating a website. 

    The problem of building a website from scratch!

    The truth is that you don’t have to create one yourself! You don’t have to be a tech wizard to operate your website, and you definitely don’t need to resolve any issues preventing the smooth operation of your site. There are many easier ways to create a website. For example, a lot of webmasters use website builders. By following in-depth articles on guides like this it’s really easy to build a site!

    On the other hand, there are many companies established just to do that for you. It all starts with your vision, of course, what do you want your potential clients to know and do on your website, and website creators will do the rest for you! You will also need a web hosting service provider to host your site and ensure that it is accessible to people online post uploading.

    All you have to do here is to choose the most suitable hosting plan, and this comparison on the best web hosting services for Canada will save you hours of researching which web host is the best way to go. This is why it’s absolutely crucial to analyze the market and have a lot of research done so that you are better informed on which hosting service would be best for you in order to get your website off the ground.

    Now that creating and hosting a website is made easy, now is the time to talk business; the real means you would benefit from creating that website.

    Your business will be more trusted

    This is of great importance, especially if you are a small business. Your website will serve as a portfolio of what you have achieved through having, for example, ‘previous projects’ link or previous clients’ testimonies and will give customers the chance to know what you have to offer.

    In an indirect way, you are reassuring your customers that you can and should be trusted with their time and money. Having a professional website, that is easy to use, and packed with previous clients’ testimonials will cash in faster than most traditional means. 

    Cutting costs

    After paying for your website creation, hosting, and balancing out the monthly costs, you will be surprised how a website has actually trimmed all the unnecessary costs you would have spent on communication and marketing.

    Think about it this way, every time you need to market a new product or service, you need to pay content writers, designers, and printing costs. But, with a proper website you will swiftly skip any printing costs that come into large sums to cover different client segments and areas. 

    ​In addition, if you wish to update an offer, add an item, or promote further reductions; you would have to reprint the entire marketing material. But with a website, you can update whenever and however you please, with very minimal cost as you would pay for content and design only.

    Moreover, having a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page on your website would help reduce the time spent by your employees answering repeated questions by clients or suppliers and would spare the time needed to better your customer related services.    

    ​Visibly online!

    Don’t skip the fact that most growing businesses today have websites, so if you decide to vote against creating one, you will lose online customers. They won’t see your brand/business as they do their online research for businesses offering similar services or products just like yours, simply because you are not there!

    It is not enough to have a Facebook or Instagram page as long as your business won’t appear on your customers search results. Having a website increases people’s awareness about your brand and what exactly that you do through providing you with proper online presence that you can easily enhance using search engine optimization methods.

    Accessibility to place orders 

    It’s like having a sales team working around the clock, but without the extra hours you would have to pay for. Your website will be there, ready and inviting to any potential client roaming the internet after business hours. That is, in addition, if you put your products for sale on your website, you will be making money even while fast asleep.

    That is because the more you simplify the navigation on your website, the more convenient it will be for clients to buy your product or book your services. You can always automate your website in a simple way where you would receive an automatic email with every purchase a customer closes.

    And it can go more complicated than this where your website would ‘automatically’ lead your customers from the first browsing click to final sale closure.

    Beat  your competitors

    You can always increase turning leads to customers by upgrading your search engine optimization game. While you can also hire a digital marketing/SEO specialist to do that for you, you can also outsource this task to a digital marketing company to handle the entire process on your behalf.

    One question though, how would you find a trusted digital marketing company or a reputable SEO specialist? Our guess would be that you would go online and do some research. And that is exactly what your customers do, in fact, recent studies have shown that 81% of customers revert to online researching before making a final purchase as opposed to 19% who rely on previous experience and word of mouth. 

    ​What an SEO specialist or a digital marketing company would do for you is identifying the keywords your potential clients use when looking for the products or services you are providing. Then they would create content that employs such keywords in taglines, meta descriptions, and post titles.

    Afterwards, such content would be uploaded on your website over certain durations, so that when your customers research this keyword they would see you on their search page, organically, without having to pay for ads. 

    There are many ways your business would benefit from creating a website, starting with building credibility, to being present online, to save time, cutting costs, and increasing sales. All this can be attained if your website is efficiently hosted and professionally designed to have attractive design and simple navigation techniques to guide your customers easily. 

  • 6 Ways To Make Your Business Greener This Summer

    6 Ways To Make Your Business Greener This Summer

    Being green is the new black. In the last few years we have all come to care for the planet more and more, and caring for our planet is something which drives a lot of us in our daily lives. 

    If you are a business owner this means it is time for you to think about ways to make the office greener this year and the whole business more eco-friendly. 

    Today we are going to take a look at some of the ways that you can make your office much more green this year. 

    Consider fuel

    If there are any processes within the cycle of your business which use fuel, it might be a good idea to think about an alternative source. This is where researchers depend on CDN Isotopes for deuterated compounds, and you can use these along with other clever ideas to make your company friendlier for the environment and which will save you money. 

    Conserve water

    How many times a day do people go into the kitchen, till the kettle right to the top, run the tap for an age and use none of it? A lot. We all get into bad habits when we’re aren’t at home and our usage of water can be a big cause of issues for the environment around us. More water means more energy, and this not only costs more but impacts the world we live in. Try to warn everyone not to waste water and put signs up in the kitchen to remind them. 

    Use green cleaning products

    Another thing you may not think about in the office is the cleaning products you are using. Cleaning products such as bleach are bad for the environment and as they get into the water supply, they can have a real environmental impact on life in our seas. To make things easier and better for you, make sure to use natural cleaning products or even use cleaning home remedies which will be cheaper and just as effective. 

    Ditch the car

    One of the best things you can do for yourself as a worker in your office is to ditch the car and find another way to work. You can either carpool with someone else, ride a bike, or walk. There are lots of ways to reduce your carbon footprint. 

    Green procurement

    The supplies and materials you gather to create your products will have a huge effect on the environment. If you are using lots of plastic for packaging and design, this can end up in our oceans and kill many animals. It is important to think of green ways to package and create our products. For example, you can think about using recycled paper and plastic for packaging and also make sure that really supplies you get are natural and haven’t spent too much energy being created.

    Recycle 

    It is easier than ever to put 4 different types of bins in the office instead of 1 for all. Make sure to recycle your things and this will make a huge difference to the world.

  • Four Ways To Streamline Your Manufacturing Business

    Four Ways To Streamline Your Manufacturing Business

    There are a lot of steps involved with manufacturing, and if you are in the industry, you will be well aware of the importance of productivity. Managers who are dealing with a manufacturing business will always be juggling supply, workflows, inventory, safety, and distribution alongside a whole host of other issues.

    Given how busy this industry is, it’s absolutely vital that you should work to cut down on any of the inefficiencies that you may come across. This will then enable you to save time and money in your business while encouraging staff to keep up with policies that you have laid out.

    With that in mind, we’ve put together four ways that you could streamline your manufacturing operations.

    Close-up Photography of a Power Tool

    Image source

    Quality Control

    There are a great deal of manufacturers out there that are dealing with feedback telling them that they are delivering products of a low quality. Trust us when we say that you do not want to be that manufacturer.

    Cutting corners on costs where you can maybe smart, but you must do it without cutting down on the quality of experience that you can offer your customers with your products.

    Use Data

    In the digital world that we live in today, there’s no excuse for poor management when it comes to the level of data available to us. For example, you can enjoy better inventory management with MDM because you’re using data to track your devices.

    With the use of data, you can track performance on the devices that you have connected to your network. This can help you to see how your staff are doing and give the right advice for productivity.

    Embrace Automation

    Automating processes has changed the way business has been done for some time now, but it’s also a fantastic way to streamline a manufacturing business. If your manufacturing processes can be improved, wouldn’t you want to do that?

    You may not have the resources to employ a line of robots, but you can definitely make your processes run smoothly with the right tools for automation.

    Waste Reduction

    It’s so important that as a business, you are cutting out all of the time and money-wasting tasks that are taking your time from your day. Go through each and every process that is in place in your business, and smooth them out. There are plenty of ways that you can make your business a more efficient place to be.

    If your company is struggling to be more efficient, then you need to start taking some actionable steps toward this as your goal. This could be anything from making your businesses a tidier place to be, to onboarding new software to help you to maintain efficiency in the long run.

    Streamlining your business is going to help you to move toward success in the future, and you can ensure that you achieve something that your customers will be proud of using again and again.

  • 6 Business Ideas You Can Start on a Budget

    6 Business Ideas You Can Start on a Budget

    Starting a business can be a great way to supplement your income or launch your career as an entrepreneur, but how can you get your ideas off the ground? Choosing a business idea which requires a lot of investment can be risky, and you may not want to leverage your home, your car and your savings straight away.

    However, there are plenty of great businesses ideas which don’t require a huge amount of resources. If you’re eager to start a business on a budget, check out some of these ideas now…

    1. Event planning

    Being an event planner doesn’t require significant financial investment to get your business started. Paying for a professional website to be created can be advantageous, and online marketing could help too. However, you won’t need to spend much more in order to get your business up and running.

    In general, event planners liaise with owners, venues, suppliers, and clients; bridging the link between what the client wants and the people who can provide it. As you build up contacts within the industry, you’ll find it easier to meet your client’s requirements, but you won’t need to stump up any of your own cash. For highly organized people who want to start a business on a budget, event planning is ideal. 

    2. Professional reviewer

    Companies always need people to test, trial and review their products, particularly now that most people shop online. With online reviews having an impact on future sales, companies are willing to pay a reasonable amount for trustworthy individuals to trial their products and write a review. You’ll either be paid by the hour or per review, and it’s a great way to generate an income stream. With nothing to layout, you can get started right away, providing you have access to a computer, tablet or laptop, and the internet. As well as being able to start your business on a budget, being a professional reviewer means you’ll have the opportunity to try new products and services, as well as getting to go on days out, eating at restaurants and visiting new exhibitions and venues. 

    3. Carpet cleaning

    Offering a professional service, such as carpet cleaning, is a great way to build your business empire. Relevant to both individuals and commercial clients, you can offer professional carpet cleaning services to businesses and homeowners in any location. Although you will need to make a small investment in professional carpet cleaning materials, such as Steamaster equipment, this can be done relatively cheaply. In fact, your initial investment in equipment could be paid off with your first few cleaning jobs!

    Image source

    4. Online tutoring

    If you have professional or academic experience in a particular area, offering online tutoring is a good way to put your knowledge to use as an entrepreneur. Even individuals who have no formal training but a passion for a certain subject can make a significant amount by offering tutoring and online courses. Put the effort into making e-books, instructional videos, and useful content, and establish the client’s needs before you get started. ​It’s easy to conduct virtual lessons with online tutors over Skype or alternative software, and these services can be accessed very cheaply or for no cost at all. Instead of having to make any financial investment in your business start-up, you’ll only need to invest your time in preparing the materials.

    5. Virtual assistant

    Flexible working has increased in recent years, and remote workers are more in demand than ever before. If you already have a laptop and access to the internet, you can establish yourself as a virtual assistant for almost no cost at all. There are a number of agencies which connect potential clients to reputable virtual assistants. Indeed, many of these don’t have costly subscriptions fees or sign up charges, so you won’t have to pay anything to get started. Whilst you may be required to pay a percentage of your earnings to the agency, this will come out of your earnings, as opposed to being a start-up cost. 

    6. Concierge services

    People who have a lot of demands on their time are often willing to pay for a little extra help. Offering errand or concierge services enables you to tap into an underserved market, without having to deal with expensive start-up costs. Find individuals or small businesses who require ad hoc assistance with shopping, filing, mailing packages or returning items, and take the pressure off them by offering your services as a concierge or assistant.

    What will you do?