Category: Leadership

Starting a business, launching a new venture or making an app will be one of the most exciting and thrilling things you can do. You nurture this awesome idea in your head, get validation from others as to whether it’s worth pursuing and start working on bringing it to life.

We all live in this wonderful, marvellous and adventurous technological world that allows anyone with the right motivation and guidance to start businesses and make a real difference in the world. The question is what you want from this life and if you have decided you want to make an app, it’s quite clear you have chosen the creative route. This path is not for everyone and if you are at the beginning of your journey into this world, brace yourself for a rough ride with ups and downs like you’ve never known before.

The route to success in the app world is riddled with mistakes, pain points and lessons. You’ve got to strap in and become a real student of the game if you want to make this happen and realise your own dreams.

So I’m Making An App, What Do I Need To Know Before Launching It?

Be Prepared For It To Take Time

Success in any sector does not happen overnight and it requires an enormous amount of organisation, dedication and personal commitment to launch an app. They say that patience is a virtue and it’s especially true in the sector given the complexity of the applications and the time it takes to actually build an app, test it and have it signed off ready for wider use by the public.

Real Traction Takes Persistence

Never give up and you will eventually get there. Persistence is a trait that all successful people own, and they never take no for an answer. Become a sponge, take in as much information and believe in the process. Keep reminding yourself that this will eventually happen for you, persevere and persist like you have never done before.

This Is An Ongoing Process That Requires Constant Development

Because you’ve already started down this path you will be more than aware of the ongoing work that is required when making an app. Don’t fall in love with each stage too much, find out what Performance Engineering is as chances are your first ever launch version will end up looking a lot different to the improvements you make down the lines. If there’s anything that the successful apps which have come before us have shown it’s that there will be multiple versions and stages of your app development.

Be Ready To Invest At The Beginning

This doesn’t necessarily just mean the financial side of things, but time, energy and effort. Building something from nothing and actually making a success of it is a product of extreme investment on the front end. Ensure you have your overall business plan ready, along with an idea of the team you want to build and experienced mentors in place to guide you through this whole process. Be ready to invest more time into this than you have any other project.

You Need Exposure In Order To Explode

So it’s all good and well to have a good idea for an app accompanied by the right levels of motivation and a solid plan, but how are you actually going to get your app to the masses? If you are serious about this and want to monetise the app then you need an action plan on how you are going to get real coverage and exposure.

If you are struggling with this aspect of your plan, you could try:

• Researching how the most successful apps build their user base
• Speaking to someone who has done this before, employing them as your mentor to show you the ropes and share both their successes and mistakes with you
• Joining a networking group or finding some sessions to join with other like-minded individuals who could offer you some good ideas or insights
• Reading some books about how to make it happen in these areas

This needs to be one of your overarching goals and be at the forefront of your mind on a daily basis. Yes your app might be amazing and could even be something that the market has never seen before, but if you don’t have engaged users then you essentially have nothing.

This Is A Technical Business

It’s understandable for you to get fully wrapped up in your own little world with your idea and the actual creation of the app. However, you need to be mindful of the fact there is a wider world out there once you have your app ready. 

Where Are You Going To Launch It?

There are certain platforms which you need to get your app registered and signed off by before you can start marketing it to potential users. The main and most obvious ones are for iPhone and Android, so starting to look into how this process works will pay dividends down the line. However, your app might not be targeted for mobiles or tablets so do a bit of research into the best platforms to advertise your app on once it’s ready to launch.

Who Is Your Target Audience?

You might have a fairly good idea in mind as to who the ideal person your app would be used by. Once you form and mould this, you can then start to envision the best ways to market the app based on location, demographic, age and copy or visual advertisements.

It’s incredibly exciting that you are looking into or have already started this journey towards making your own app. If done correctly this can be extremely rewarding in a lot of ways, so throw yourself into the process and bear in mind the points we have discussed above. Taking control of your own life, steering the reigns and leading the way in your own destiny is the most fulfilling thing we can do and gives us complete power in life.

Cliche templates with dull visuals and charts belong to the stone age. Stats reveal that 37% of customers turn to social media channels for making purchasing decisions. Today, with a whopping 2.7 billion active users, Facebook remains one of the most popular social media channels globally. With that comes Facebook reporting into the picture!

Analyzing and tracking social media business activities on Facebook becomes essential as it is the first choice of users for people worldwide. Constructing Facebook reports is imperative to showcase the ROI of your digital marketing campaigns to your investors. 

A well-structured Facebook report garners the opportunity for you to discover promotional insights. What’s a better medium than PowerPoint presentations to showcase your Facebook reports to your clients. 

Slide decks prove ideal for delivering these reports owing to their visual appeal. SlideModel offers a plethora of specialized eye-catching templates perfect for Facebook reporting. This article will enlighten you on how to create the best Facebook reports and further understand how to reach a wide audience, align both- B2C and B2B goals while keeping the existing audience engaged.

Why is Facebook Reporting Important?

Facebook Reports form an essential part of your digital marketing strategy since it allows you to pick goals that bring you growth, further measure your marketing baseline to check how it is performing over time. They help you to present the analytical data in a visually appealing manner. Your ultimate goal with creating them is to make the data easily digestible for your audience. 

More often than not, long and tedious reports presented by professionals send the audience into a slumber. Hefty paragraphs with data crunched in plain bullets do not work their charm and leave your clients with more questions. Hence, it poses essential to leverage unique PowerPoint templates that display your analysis comprehensively.  

Here is why every organization must create beautiful Facebook reports for social media success:

• Assess the ROI of a Facebook campaign
• Highlights the growth or decline of search
• Identifies the strengths and shortcomings of posts
• Features the most valued product by customers
• Tracks brand awareness over time
• Identifies high engagement content 
• Tracks organic vs. inorganic campaign success

Utilizing tailor-made templates like Social Media Reports enables you to record, measure, and hone your socially-driven efforts & boost your presentation manifolds. Save your investors the hassle of sitting in hour-long reports. Instead, design compelling slide decks with all the figures and statistics to wow your stakeholders.

Facebook reports offer real insights into behaviors, page views, and interactions as it contains its set of practices, rules, and metrics. It will help you to track your KPIs and analyze metrics for boosting brand reach and perform better. When done right, forming Facebook reports act as a boon for refining your Facebook digital marketing strategy. 

5 Steps of Creating Interesting Facebook Reports

Leverage Top-Notch Templates

Facebook reports constructed with stellar PPT templates will not only make them attractive but understandable as well. Today’s digital marketing era demands reports to be crisp and compact with a stunning graphical appeal. 

Choose avant-garde templates like Social Media Analysis Reports to present your Facebook insights in an engaging manner. These customizable templates save your time from creating the Facebook report from scratch and instill a professional look to them. Present your report’s KPIs, post engagement, demographics, and return on investment (ROI) with ease. 

Integrate Charming Visuals 

All text and no visuals will render your Facebook report bland. Powerful and attractive visuals prove to be the best companion for it to reflect its content. Relatable visuals help to reinforce the message of your report rather than decorate. Ensure to use HD and vector graphics to create the maximum impact. 

For example, if your Facebook report concerns demographic campaign success, it can include visuals of that respective area. Also, always remember to use high-resolution and non-blurred images as nobody likes to squint their eyes for deconstructing an image. Images and graphics will make your Facebook report lively and aesthetically pleasing.

Color Scheme is the Key (Differences)

The color scheme in a report becomes a significant tool for letting your clients decipher key points and skim information. Color used appropriately can make them know about your best and worst performance. Employ a color-coding scheme to show the differences among various elements. For example, assign red for losses and blue for success. 

A golden tip here is to avoid a color overload. You don’t want your report to resemble a coloring book. Keep the color scheme subtle and use them consistently. Keep in mind the color contrast. Always place light text on a dark background and vice versa. The goal of your color scheme must be to highlight the chief points in your report rather than distract. 

Data Visualization

Add some vigor to your Facebook reports with impressive data visualizations. Employ charts, timelines, flowcharts, diagrams, shapes, and tables to display your data elegantly. You can employ parallel coordinates, heat maps, 3D charts, trend lines, and infographics for your pricing strategy models. 

Remember to keep your data visuals uncluttered and clean. A tip here is to make them large enough for everybody to read what’s written inside the visual. Label them properly and make them as captivating as possible. You can even color-code specific portions in your charts to highlight them. 

Incorporate Return on Investment (ROI)

Social media ROI reports are based on key performance indicators (KPIs) including Conversion Rate (CR), Click-Through Rate (CTR), Cost per Click (CPC) and several others. It determines the success of your money invested in the social media campaign. Any Facebook report is incomplete without ROI figures. Ensure to track your ROI with appropriate metrics to help your clients see whether your brand performed well or not. Present it with powerful data visuals. 

It’s no hidden secret that social media carries a huge potential for brands to build their standing in the 21st century. Facebook is one such platform that has emerged as one of the greatest mediums for digital marketing. Thus, it becomes critical for brands to reach their audience on it and track their performance. 

A neat report crafted by following the above steps can help you create beautiful performance-based reports to present to your audience. Embrace the power of Facebook reporting and reap endless benefits for your social media strategy.

Being a business owner of an online store can be challenging. There’s a lot of noise and competition out there to cut through and you must find ways to stand apart from the rest.

You must be able to attract customers and keep them coming back in the future if you want to be successful over the long term. There are a few ways you can go about doing this that will benefit you and ensure that you continue to increase your leads and sales. Define your target market and then use the following tips to help you get the right people coming to your website and online store.

Apply Best Practices to Your Website & Store

You can attract customers to your online business by setting yourself up for success from the start. Apply best practices to your website and store by ensuring the design is functional and user-friendly and that you use SEO techniques to gain attention. Remind yourself that first impressions count so you want to make sure your website is serving its purpose and isn’t overly complicated or frustrating to use. Confirm the checkout process is easy and that it’s effortless to navigate around from one page to the next.

Connect Via Text Messaging

Another way to attract customers to your online business is to connect via text messaging. Send successful Bulk SMS campaigns here to make announcements or share about an upcoming sale or event. It’s an excellent way to grab the attention of your customers and keep them in the loop of what your company is up to and how it impacts those doing business with you. Many consumers are on their phones these days performing research on a company or texting with friends and family. Jump into their online world by sending out messages that pertain to them and let them know why they should check out your store and website.

Blog Consistently

Attract customers to your online business by launching a blog. Get it set up and then make sure you blog consistently to keep customers interested in what you’re doing. Share interesting and exciting content that positions your business as the experts in your industry. Make sure the content you’re producing is not only high-quality but also sharable. Blogging is a useful tool for connecting with customers and lets your customers know that your site and store is an authority in the marketplace. Update it and post frequently, use visuals, and respond to comments to keep your business blog going strong.

Engage on Social Media

You must be on social media and have business pages you can update and where you can share information with your followers. You not only need to have a presence on platforms such as Instagram but then also take the time to actively engage on social media so that you can build relationships and improve your brand reputation. Social media is an ideal way to freely promote your website and what you’re selling. Use visual elements and interact with your followers often to keep them interested in what you’re doing.

Offer Special Sales & Promotions

Your customers ultimately want to save money and be in the loop about specials you’re running. Attract customers to your online business by offering special sales and promotions to draw them in and keep them coming back. You may even want to consider a referral program so that your current customers can help you bring in more business. It’ll get people talking and sharing about your company and website and is an excellent way to show your customers some appreciation for doing business with you in the past.

Collect & Post Reviews

Reviews can go a long way in helping you attract customers to your online business. Collect testimonials and reviews from satisfied customers and then post them to your website so others see them. Other consumers want to know what it’s like doing business with you before jumping in and spending money with you. Let your reviews do the work of getting more consumers to your online store for you and enjoy all the benefits that come from you collecting positive feedback.

Conclusion

These ideas will help you attract more customers to your online business and hopefully increase sales in the process. Be prepared for an uptick in traffic after applying these suggestions and ensure that each customer who visits your store has a positive experience shopping around. It won’t be long before you have to restock merchandise and come up with solutions for keeping up with all the attention you’re receiving.

If you are an entrepreneur, it would be safe for us to assume that you have a website to market your business online. After all, a website is an essential tool today for business growth as it defines your corporate identity in the digital world and lets users learn about your brand and how to reach you. That improves your prospects of capturing more leads and driving sales and revenue. 

With that said, putting up a website and keeping it operational are two separate things. Just because your website exists and shows up in search results does not mean that your job is over. That is just the beginning. You must focus on maintaining your site regularly to ensure that it remains secured and visitors do not experience any annoying glitches or sluggish performance. An unresponsive or outdated website can be disastrous to your business as it is a surefire way of losing customers. 

Here is a list of some vital routine maintenance checks that you need to perform to ensure that your business website works flawlessly without any troubles.

Keep It Updated

An essential website maintenance habit you must develop is to keep it up to date by installing new updates now and then. Whether you use WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or any other Content Management System (CMS), you must update it constantly to keep your online storefront functioning perfectly and protect it against any security threats. Avoiding regular software updates leaves your site vulnerable to cyber attacks, which can be disastrous for your business. 

Besides, keep your plugins updated too. Outdated plugins can make your website buggy, affecting the usability of the site and leading to a frustrating user experience. Long story short, always keep your website, plugins, and themes updated to the latest versions to mitigate security risks and provide an optimal user experience. 

Create Backups

An easily overlooked aspect of a smoothly functioning business website is creating backs up every month. It is an essential element of website maintenance and should be high on your list of priorities. Regularly backing up your site would ensure that you do not lose out on anything if your site breaks down due to any updates or system failures. 

Backups are also crucial from a safety and security perspective. They will store your content and other sensitive data safely and securely in the event your website gets hacked. As mentioned by a WordPress website maintenance company, it will enable you to restore your website using the offsite backups and rebuild it from where you left instead of scrambling to fix it from scratch. That would help avoid any downtime that could cause the loss of valuable potential customers.

Test It In Different Browsers

It is essential to check your website’s performance across multiple browsers to ensure a smooth online customer journey regardless of which browser they are surfing. We recommend that you test your website on the most popular ones- Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, and Internet Explorer. 

Check the compatibility on each by observing if the layout and display fit perfectly, how long it takes to load pages, or any other features that may behave differently on a particular browser. You may utilize various online tools like Browsershots that allow you to test your website’s compatibility with different browsers.

Fix Broken Links

Broken links are links that lead the user to pages that do not exist. Finding and fixing broken links should be part of your business website’s regular maintenance. Broken links and 404 error web pages not only ruin the user’s experience and cause them to stop browsing any further but also damage your site’s credibility and professional outlook resulting in lower search engine rankings. 

That makes it imperative that you monitor your web pages regularly to check for any dead links. Google Webmaster Tools is a valuable resource to detect and remove invalid URLs and detect other technical errors on your website. They help keep your website running at optimal performance, so if you have not registered your website there yet, do so immediately.

It is easy to set up a website and forget about maintaining it until something unfortunate happens. Neglecting your site’s maintenance may impact its functionality and leave it vulnerable to cyber attacks, which can be detrimental to your business. 

The good news is that you do not have to be a technical wizard to keep your website up and running. Performing some simple routine maintenance checks will ensure that your website runs smoothly and renders a delightful user experience.

Contracts are a necessity for businesses everywhere. In fact, you likely have several contracts on file right now. Some might be up for renewal and you may be searching for ways to improve your contract negotiations. However, if you’re running a new business, you might find the concept of multiple contracts daunting and need some advice about how to approach contract negotiations — especially when all you want to do is focus on your core competencies. 

Despite any reluctance, you know that contracts and contract negotiations provide opportunities to expand your business. Moreover, your work with IT FinTech suppliers, attorneys, cloud service providers and various other parties dictates that you learn as much about contracts and negotiations as possible to ensure you make the best deal to benefit your banking industry business. 

If you’re in need of some ideas and inspiration before your next contract agreement or renewal, here are four top tips for contract negotiations today. 

1. Work with Your Team to Create a Draft 

Create a contract negotiation team — perhaps it’s comprised of IT staffers, managers, legal counsel and company executives — to create a draft detailing your wants and needs from a potential new vendor. Indeed, it’s much easier and more effective to sit down with potential new business partners after already asserting what you desire from them clearly and concisely and then offering this party the opportunity to counteroffer or withdraw. 

Before that moment, it’s important first to author a rough draft to let your own team members work through the details, determining what is most vital to your organization, such as a budget, services provided, and short-term and long-term value to your banking business. Ensure you have all come to a united and unifying decision before heading into official contract negotiations with any potential vendor. 

2. Set Metrics, Timelines, Constraints and Penalties within the Contract 

Of course, you don’t want to lock yourself into a contract that falls short of expectations. If your vendor fails to perform the agreed-upon services as stated in your contract, you don’t want to have to go through the motions for another year, two years, or longer, depending on the length of your contract. To that end, experts recommend defining constraints and benchmarks into your contract; after all, you want your vendor to remain reliable throughout the contract to ensure value for your organization. Thus, make sure to negotiate fair and equitable penalties into your contract if your vendors do not meet agreed-upon key performance indicators.

3. Determine Whether You Need Third-Party Accountants for Ongoing Financial Considerations

Whether you need to perform periodic financial or system-related audits to ensure the accountability and security of your systems and data, you might need to engage an accounting firm or require your service organization to do so to perform regular system and organization controls audits.

4. Choose Your Top Negotiator for Your Core IT Deal

You might hire someone specifically for the role of negotiator-in-chief for your next core IT deal, or you might identify that person on your team and appoint them to the position. In any case, you want someone who fights for your banking business’s interests with the right balance of cordial tone and fierce concern for your organization. Your negotiation professional won’t accept outdated technology and one-sided deals that too many organizations regularly find themselves doing. 

Prepare to Get the Best Contracts for Your Business Every Time 

With the right negotiation strategy, you can help your professionals get the best deals for your banking business every time. By laying out everything you want, creating ironclad expectations and penalties for unmet expectations, ensuring system and financial accountability, and choosing the best negotiator to bring home the best deal, you’ll enjoy stronger and more satisfying contract negotiations in the short and long term.

Moving offices can seem like a massive headache. We won’t lie; sometimes it is. Being prepared for the move is crucial if you want things to go smoothly. The goal is to keep costs down while creating a smooth transition into a new workspace. The following will break down a few things that you need to consider as you plan and enact moving day.

Three To Six Months Before Moving Day

In the months before moving day, there are a few things you’ll need to get straight. Like any other area of business, having a good plan can keep things from getting chaotic (and costing more than they need to cost). Take a look at the lease on your current office and figure out if there are any leaving early costs associated with the move as well as any damages or breakages you’ll need to cover.

Get a team together who can divvy up tasks and take responsibility for aspects of the moving process. Once this is done, you can start reaching out to moving companies, getting quotes, and comparing prices and services. And Interstate removalists point out that you should also check whether or not the team you choose stays with your stuff for the entire move or if they outsource the tail end to an affiliate moving team. Depending on what you’ll be moving, you might also need to seek out moving insurance for some of your equipment, hardware, or machinery. Once you’ve done this, you should be able to form an educated budget.

After Confirming Your Moving Date

Once your budget and moving date have been confirmed, it’s time to share information about the move with everyone who needs to know. This includes:

• Your landlord and property manager (official notice is sometimes required)
• Team members need to know the date of the move and the new address
• Employees need to be informed (this is an excellent opportunity to update your employee list)
• Clients and service providers need to be told about the new address and date of move (again, why not ensure that this list is updated in the process)
• Anyone who has responsibilities during the move, either by cleaning up their space ahead of time or during the actual move
• Your IT department—they might have additional needs you’ve not thought about, and this is the perfect opportunity to discuss them
• Local partners, affiliates, and suppliers need to know where to find you after the move

Once you’ve informed the above parties, you should have a good idea if there are any hiccups in your plan or adjustments that need to be made. Tweak away and then make a reservation with your chosen moving company. You’re also going to want to send a notice of the change in your address to whoever has that. This can include:

• Banks and financial institutions
• Insurance companies
• Accountants
• Telephone company
• Service companies (for printers or photocopiers)
• Any food service companies you use
• Stationary services
• Internet provider
• Professional organizations you belong to
• Any other services your business uses

Get Your Stuff In Order

The biggest element of a move, is, of course, getting all the necessary stuff from the old location to the new one. You’ll want to have an understanding of the new space (either a floor plan or some photographs) and have the space measured so you know what can fit where. You’ll probably also want to compile an inventory of all the office furniture you have and fill in any gaps you find—order furniture as soon as you know you need it because sometimes it takes a while to arrive, especially if you’re ordering a bunch of it. Seek out external storage if that’s needed as well.

Start this process sooner rather than later. Give your employees plenty of warning that by [insert date you choose here], anything left in the coatroom or in the kitchen will be sorted through. Donate the endless boots, umbrellas, and gym bags you find and get rid of anything you don’t want to be taking to the next location. They also need to be aware of when they must take home their workstation personal belongings.

If employees are helping with the move, a great idea is to color-code a floor plan with each department being given color, so they know where they’re headed and each employee is given a number so they can see where their specific desk goes. This is something that can be emailed to everyone and accessed on their cell phones. Even if only a moving crew is will be working on the task of getting all your old

Get Both Offices Cleaned

That’s right. The space you’re leaving and the new one you’re going to both need a deep cleaning. Things will be found beneath desks in the old space, appliances will be pulled away, and the walls behind will be shockingly sticky and gross, don’t leave that mess for someone else. As employees to prep their space for cleaning and be sure to let them know when cleaners will be passing by their workspace. When it comes to the new space, you don’t know what was going on in there before (even if it’s brand new, dust and construction particles might be coating everything resulting in employee asthma and congestion).

The Codes And Paperwork

Paperwork, permits, and licenses can’t be escaped at any level of business, it seems. Moving is no exception. Stay on top of all the paperwork and sort out access codes and security details for the new location. Make sure the right people have copies of this information. If you need to book the elevator in your building or extra parking space for the move, do this too.

Safety First

If members of your staff are helping with the move, you need to have their emergency contact information (and maybe now is a good time to go over the dangers of lifting with your back). As safe as everyone tries to be, moving can result in pinched fingers, stubbed toes, or more serious accidents.

The above steps should help you feel more prepared for your move. It might be a good idea to plan a goodbye to the office day where there’s some refreshment and maybe cookies or cake to give your employees time to bid farewell to where they’ve worked for so long. It might be more emotional for some of them than you realize.