Reginald Chan

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  • Want To Take Your Business To The Next Level? Here’s How

    Want To Take Your Business To The Next Level? Here’s How

    Every entrepreneur opens up a business with the hope of expanding and creating an empire over time. In the world of business, the sky’s the limit and no level of success is too big or ultimate. This means that regardless of the size of your business, it’s not uncommon to feel that you need to move to the next level. Entrepreneurs tirelessly work towards achieving growth, which is often depicted by the expansion of territories, an increase in inventory, increased client base, higher profit margins, and more staff, among other metrics. Some may look at it as ambition, but this urge to expand and soar to greater heights is part of what keeps businesses in the business. Enough with the inspirational mumbo jumbo, here are some guide book secrets you can use to take your business to the next level.

    1. Ace Your Digital Presence

    Well, as you may already know, we live in a digital world where everyone turns to “Mother Google” for answers and solutions to their needs and problems. If they don’t know something, they Google it! When they need to buy something, they Google it first! Some go a notch further and look it up on Facebook, Instagram, and other social sites where they can see what others are saying about the specific business, product, or service and even have a one-on-one with the providers. As Ryan and Jacob from RyCob Media assert, this is why having a good digital presence is important, and hiring a good digital marketing agency can help soar your business to greater heights. From web design to SEO, PPC, and social media advertising, these web experts can help you cultivate a winning online marketing approach that will help successfully propel your venture to unchartered waters in the business world. After all, the internet is here to stay and most consumers turn to it for information, products, and services. Some things you can do to ace your digital presence include:

    • Having a stunning mobile-friendly website
    • Investing in SEO
    • Investing well in PPC
    • Leveraging social media for business
    • Providing engaging high-quality content on all forums

    2. Set Goals

    Just like the year begins and we all tend to have resolutions, starting a business also needs you to have clearly defined goals and objectives. When you have set goals, it gives you focus and motivation to work towards achieving them. Goal-setting will help track your achievements and measure your progress along the way. One thing about setting goals is that it takes you out of your comfort zone and pushes you to take risks. Posing a challenge on yourself can make you scale higher heights, which can help achieve new levels of success for your business.

    3. Focus on Customer Care

    Whether it’s a product you are selling or a service you are offering, the buck stops at customer satisfaction. In business, attracting new customers is a lesser problem, the major problem is retaining them. Satisfied customers are a powerful marketing tool in business. You should at all times aim at giving them a full package. Attend to them politely; ask for feedback, address issues, and work on complaints as soon as they have been reported. Customers keep you there, keep them there also.

    4. Be Willing To Learn

    In business, being a good listener will always make you a winner. Good listeners make good businessmen because they collect a lot of information that they can apply in their business to boost sales and overall profitability. Also, you do not need to physically go back to class to collect business skills and knowledge. You can use the available online platforms to build and enhance your business skills. The more you learn about business, the more your business thrives.

    5. Learn To Delegate

    As an entrepreneur, you may not manage to handle all tasks in the business by yourself. While there’s nothing wrong with going beyond your limits, doing so could easily overwhelm you and you’ll likely end up performing poorly. You need people to assist you in handling your business and share ideas to increase sales in the business. There’s a common saying that goes like, “unity is strength”, and this can help propel your business to higher levels.  

    6. Appreciate and Embrace Technology

    This might sound a bit obvious but – point in case – when was the last time you blindly walked or drove to town to buy a new phone? Well, you’ve probably done that one or a few times but you know all too well how easy it is to do it online these days. From internet marketing to computer software, cloud storage, and others, there are numerous technologies for business, some of which you may have already started using. However, in addition to the basic ones, some common types of technologies you can use to take your business to the next level include:

    • Networking
    • Project management software
    • Accounting systems
    • Inventory control system
    • CRM system

    7. Find and Retain the Right Talent

    As mentioned above, you can hardly move your business to greater heights when it’s all a one-man-show. As you continue to grow your client base and expand your business, you’ll need employees to handle various tasks such as administration, customer service, accounting, and so forth. However, it’s important to note that your success will largely depend on the employees you choose to hire. For instance, highly trained and experienced employees are more likely to be productive at the workplace in tasks such as accounting and management compared to individuals fresh out of college. When hiring, it’s important to carefully scrutinize your potential employees’ backgrounds to select only the best. Offering lucrative benefits and incentives can also keep your best staff motivated and willing to stay in the company, which is part of what you need to move to the next level.

    Taking your business to the next level can be an uphill task, but it’s much easier when you know the tricks around it. At the end of the day, growth mostly comes by improving your business’s outreach, sales, and customer satisfaction while making informed decisions. The above few tips can help spearhead your business a notch higher than it was the last couple of years. Keep your head up high and stand up when you fall.

  • 4 Ways How Digital Marketing Can Improve Your Blog

    4 Ways How Digital Marketing Can Improve Your Blog

    Having your own blog or website is a great first step in self-branding and being visible online. Blogs have different purposes, whether for personal or commercial use, but in most cases, being visible on the online sphere is the goal of any blog. Having that visibility and making it in a crowd of other blogs that could be addressing similar topics can be a challenging process. Digital marketing is exactly what a blog needs to shine online and improve in achieving its goals. 

    Here are some examples of how utilizing digital marketing strategies can help improve your blog. 

    1. Increasing Traffic

    A successful blog is one that is read by a large audience and relates to them. Digital marketing can help any blog achieve that goal. Attracting the right audience can be a challenging ordeal for any blogger and as seen ​with internet marketing agency, digital marketing can help bloggers get to the maximum number of viewers and increase the blog’s traffic. An effective digital media strategy works on getting to the desired audience where they might be only, and this could be anything from reaching out to them on social media platforms to sending them email newsletters. The idea of working out a digital marketing strategy for your blog can be incredibly beneficial for commercial blogs who rely heavily on traffic to keep the business running. 

    2. Allowing for Better Communication with Audiences

    Blogging is all about communicating with the audience and providing online content that they want to see or can relate to. Having an engaging blog is key to its success. Digital marketing can be handy to bloggers when it comes to improving their blogs’ engagement and getting people to interact with the bloggers themselves as well as each other on the blog site. Sparking a conversation is all it takes for a blog to go viral, but it is all about choosing the right conversation and how to present it correctly and that is a digital marketing strategy’s job. Marketing for the blog to ensure it is engaging for the audience can be done through writing short paragraphs and adding visual aids that keep the readers interested and in turn, improves the blog. 

    3. Providing Helpful Analytics

    The online sphere is all about having the right analytics to be able to get to your desired audience and understanding their virtual behaviors. In the case of blogs, this is no exception. Digital marketing tactics can come in handy for bloggers by providing them with the needed analytics to run their blog successfully and understand their audience. Analytics are measured through tracking the online audience’s behaviors towards the blog, including the number of shares and comments on certain posts, the duration they stay on one page, and where they are accessing the site from in the world. All this data acquired through digital marketing can then help bloggers improve the blog and understand what the people want to see and how to work accordingly. 

    4. Building Positive Brand Reputation

    Having a blog means having an online personal brand; whether that brand is to be used for commercial or personal use purposes is up to the blogger. However, what is certain is that all bloggers want to have a positive brand reputation and that is what they can achieve through certain digital marketing tactics. Through building a serious follower base using online marketing tactics, your blog can improve and even expand its work to cater to what the people want, which is the ultimate goal for some bloggers. 

    Digital Marketing Resources That Can Help Your Blog

    Successful digital marketing for your blog can be achieved using a variety of resources. Artificial Intelligence, in particular, has developed over the recent years and proved to be incredibly effective in gathering analytics and helping bloggers understand their audience. User-Generated Content is also quite a helpful resource to use in a digital marketing strategy as it promotes audience engagement and drives more traffic to a blog as it makes it more relatable and approachable. 

    Blogging can give a great sense of accomplishment. Having your own blog can prove to be pretty rewarding whether you write in your blog for personal or commercial purposes. If you are looking to improve your blog a little, then trying out digital marketing strategies might just be the positive push your blog needs. Since your blog is your brand, marketing for that brand online becomes essential for the success of that blog and its visibility in the busy virtual reality. Before trying out any digital marketing strategies, make sure you are familiar with all its aspects to ensure you are executing it effectively and correctly for the best results for your blog. 

  • 8 Cheap Ways to Personalize Your Workspace

    8 Cheap Ways to Personalize Your Workspace

    Designing your workplace is one of the best things you can do to improve your comfort at work. Feeling like your workplace isn‘t just a dull area where you get work done can improve your productivity as you‘ll feel like you‘re in your own little world. 

    Designing your workspace is also very inexpensive, as there are a lot of different ways to personalize it just the way you want while hardly spending at all. Here are the top 8 ways to personalize your workspace:

    Add Some Plants

    Any type of little plant can brighten up your workplace significantly. There‘s something about plants that brings in simple elegance and a spark of life to your desk. You should keep in mind the amount of sunlight, certain plants need and if your desk is located near a window or not. If you get a large amount of sunlight in your workplace, get a plant like a small cactus that requires little-to-no maintenance, other than a little water every few days. These tiny plants generally cost less than $5 and last a very long time. They also provide you with something to do when a little bored at work; you can take a short break to water your plant and then get back to work feeling a little relaxed.

    Have a Color Scheme

    The best way to make your workspace look really good with very little effort is to simply decide on a color scheme and incorporate it all over your workspace. This allows you to make everything on your desk look nice and organized.. Once you‘ve decided on what colors you want, you can start looking for office supplies that share the same color palette and eventually, your desk will start looking magnificent. Just make sure you take into account your entire office‘s color scheme as you don‘t want your workspace to stand out in a bad way.

    Decorate a Shelf

    If you can afford to place the giant folders on your shelf somewhere else, you can repurpose one of your shelves specifically for decoration. Placing some objects like crocheted balls can bring some curvature to a desk filled with angles. This can help put some of the boring, old folders somewhere less obvious all while making your desk look more dazzling. This can also help you feel a lot less clumped at your desk as having shelves full of nothing but folders can start to feel a little stuffy.

    Place Some Framed Photographs

    Framed photographs carry a very strong, comforting feeling as having some of your fondest memories with you at your desk offers a sense of relief. A small frame barely costs anything but the impact it has on your workspace is huge. You can also use the frames to place some of your favorite artwork around your workspace to brighten it up and make it more elegant.

    Get a Chair For Your Desk

    The chairs in your office can be a little annoying as they‘re most likely a regular, uncomfortable one-size-fits-all type of chair which, ironically, doesn‘t fit most people. Being a little too tall or too big for a chair can be very annoying, especially if you sit on that chair for long periods of time. Searching online on chair review websites can help you decide which chair you want for your office as some websites give detailed reviews for every type of chair they sell. You can also find chairs with really good deals so that you never face any comfort issues at work while barely paying a thing.

    Place Some Wallpaper Around

    Wallpaper is one of the easiest, cheapest things you can purchase to bring a very noticeable change to your surroundings. Installing some wallpaper can help you create a theme for your workspace and requires minimal spending.. This method can also go hand-in-hand with your color scheme as you can easily design your desk in a way that complements your wallpaper and vice versa.

    Bring in a Nice Calendar

    Having a decorated calendar on your desk can bring in a lot of your personality to your workspace. You‘ll be constantly checking it and adding new things to it, so you might as well have some fun. You can either look for a really cool calendar online or design one yourself. DIYing a calendar will help you personalize your workspace to a whole new level as you‘ll create a calendar with all of your favorite movie references and TV characters and be looking forward to every new month, with all the surprises you‘ve placed for yourself along the way.

    Bring Your Favorite Books to Your Shelf

    Shelves at work shouldn‘t strictly be for folders and work documents which can be very dull. Bringing your favorite books along to decorate a shelf in your workspace can be a really nice way to personalize your surroundings while giving you something to look forward to during your lunch break. If you‘re lucky, someone in your office may also share your taste in literature and you get to finally talk to someone about the books you love.

     

    Your workspace should be a very obvious portrayal of who you are, so use that opportunity and bring out all your creativity so that you create a place where you can feel energized, motivated, and, most importantly, comfortable. All of the methods listed above barely cost anything, but the difference they make to your workspace is immeasurable. Take a little time to map out what you would like to see in your own workspace and you‘ll find that there‘s still room for improving a lot of things around you. The best thing about personalizing your workspace is that the methods used can also be implemented at home, so learning new skills like how to install some wallpaper can be something you use more than just once in the future. But, be warned, catching the decorating bug is highly infectious and before you know it you’ll be giving ever part of your life a makeover.

  • WordPress Page Builders: The ONE Comparison No One Ever Talks About

    WordPress Page Builders: The ONE Comparison No One Ever Talks About

    WordPress Page Builders are created for one reason and that is to help website developers, bloggers and WordPress owners to quickly build pages on WordPress quickly and efficiently. However, there’s one thing that many page builders software that don’t talk about—how to decide which WordPress page builder to use?

    “Hear me out for a second. I love WordPress Page Builders and I had purchased nearly all of them and I had learned something major in it. Carry on reading this article (takes you less than 5 minutes) to learn more.

    Reginald Chan

    Do you know that no two page builders are created equally? For starters, WordPress Page Builders are usually known as WordPress website builders—they allow you to create WordPress website layouts without a single line of code (no coding skills required).

    Here’s where everything get a little fuzzy especially for beginners. We tend to use WordPress Page Builders to build blog posts as well!

    If this is the case, this is what you need to know (really, summary style).

    List of WordPress Page Buildes (summary)

    Fastest WordPress Page Builder

    Thrive Themes is the best and highly voted page builder for WordPress. Easy to use and highly affordable, this page builder is excellent for those who wants to build high-converting pages in just a few clicks.

    Cheapest WordPress Page Builder

    Divi Theme is the clear winner here with pricing structure. It offers yearly and lifetime licenses. In a long run, you save more money with Divi than any other WordPress page builders in the market.

    Best WordPress Page Builder for Beginners

    Elementor is one of the most popular WordPress website builder that allows you to build anything and everything under the sun. This is one of those website builder plugin that offers a limited and free builder plugin.

    Best WordPress Page Builder for Advanced Users

    Oxygen Builder is one of the best WordPress Page Builders that I had personally used. If you are looking for a completely bloat-free WordPress frontend editor, this is the best that you can ever get when it comes to bloat-free WordPress Page Builder. While Oxygen is a powerful builder tool, knowing HTML and CSS are essential to build beautiful website designs with Oxygen.

    Best WordPress Page Builder for Agencies

    As a freelance WordPress developer in Malaysia, Beaver Builder is one of my favorite WordPress page builder tool when it comes to building a WordPress site. It loads super fast and doesn’t come with huge bloatware like many of its competitors.

    WordPress Page Builders to build Pages

    If you are looking to build pages and WordPress homepages, the best option would be Divi. Divi comes with thousands of pre-made templates and that you can easily import to your WordPress site. Plus, there are many different layouts that you can use with Divi.

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    At this point of writing, Divi offers the most pre-made templates available for download compared to any other WordPress page builders.

    WordPress Page Builders to build Posts

    If you are looking to build posts and landing pages, the best option would be Thrive Themes. Thrive Architect comes apart of Thrive Themes plugins and this is by far my favorite WordPress post builder. More importantly, Thrive Architect comes with over 250 pre-made templates and you can easily use it to build beautifully crafted blog posts that convert!

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    Apart from that, don’t forget that Thrive Architect is the ONLY WordPress builder that doesn’t lock your content (making it gilberish) upon uninstalling it.

    List of WordPress Page Builders (with features that matters)

    Thrive Themes

    Thrive Themes is one of the most popular WordPress website builders in the world. This is a suite that contains 9 different plugins and the popular Thrive Themes Builder. This WordPress website builder allows you to create EVERYTHING from pages to crafting custom blog post layout. When it comes to WYSIWYG frontend editor, Thrive Themes excels far better than any other of its competitors.

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    Thrive Themes comes with over 276 ready-made templates and the full suite comes with website theme and essential plugins to make your blog stand out from the crowd.

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    Thrive Themes is also fairly affordable with either 1-time payment for plugins or monthly subscription for the full suite. For the best value-for-money option, subscribing to Thrive Members ($19 per month) is one of the best options for website owners.

    Divi Theme Builder

    Divi Theme Builder is a full suite just like Thrive Themes. It allows you to build everything without the need of a single line of code. Divi is easy to use but this software will add significant bloat to your WordPress site, affecting the loading speed in some way.

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    Apart from that, there is no website builder tools that provide new and free website layouts on a weekly basis … except for Divi. All of these website templates can easily be imported directly to WordPress and you use them almost instantly.

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    Divi comes in two pricing—yearly plan ($89) or lifetime ($249). All plans come with unlimited usages and therefore, it is one of the best value-for-money option for WordPress owner.

    Elementor

    Elementor is the only page builder plugin that offers free account. It is one of the most popular WordPress website builder that allows you to build anything and everything under the sun. Elementor is a fun WordPress page builder tool that allowed me to build many sites from scratch, quickly and effectively.

    While the free version offers some level of customization, the paid version (Elementor Pro) unlocks the full potential of Elementor as a page or post builder.

    Beaver Builder

    On the surface, the Beaver Builder tool looks very promising with a higher price tag. The true power of Beaver Builder comes in the page builder features. Beaver Builder offers powerful WordPress design solution, along with multiple keyboard shortcuts that make website development way faster.

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    Also, Beaver Builder comes with a nice truckload of ready-made templates (which is awesome) and I love their pricing structure. Beaver Builder pricing starts at $99 (with 50% on renewals) and all plans come with unlimited website usage. Website development agencies and freelancers will be able to make the most out of this due to the unlimited usages (so no extra cost per website).

    Oxygen Builder

    Honestly, Oxygen Builder may not be one of the best option for you if you have limited knowledge in HTML and CSS. However, Oxygen Builder is one of the most powerful ones in the market if you know exactly what you are doing. It makes website development really easy with the different and clean elements. 

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    Apart from that, Oxygen Builder is extremely bloat-free which makes it an excellent choice especially for those who are serious about website loading speed.

  • Remote Working Made Easy

    Remote Working Made Easy

    Working remotely is becoming more popular, and in some cases, a requirement. This means that many companies are learning how to enable their staff to work from home – and produce almost identical results to office based working. 

    The global work culture has shifted in recent years, and there are more online businesses and freelancers than ever before. What does this mean? 

    There are now a plethora of services and tools to help us maximise our working hours and our output. 

    Here are some ways that you can make your remote working life easier to manage. 

    Systems & Software

    If you manage a team, then this responsibility falls to you. While you might have access to a working laptop, high-speed internet and the files you need. It would be wrong to assume that everyone has the same access. When it comes to files and data, then a cheap VPS is the ideal solution. A collaborative and secure way to work in a team. Zoom or Google Meet are both great options for group meetings. Make sure you equip your team with the tools they need. 

    Communication

    Following on from the last point. Keeping in touch both in a group and on a one-to-one basis is essential. Much of how we communicate is by reading body language and tone of voice. We need to work harder on remote chats to get those across. You should have meetings scheduled once a week to keep everyone on track.

    Goal Setting

    Have clear weekly and monthly goals set so that everyone knows what they are doing. Collective goals mean that your team will all want to do their best to meet the targets and expectations. 

    Expectations

    A remote team will usually consist of a range of people. Some will be morning people, others will be night owls. And while you won’t have too much control over their working hours, you can set expectations. You expect them to be around for group calls, checking in with emails and delivering their work on time. Be clear. 

    Structure

    If you are new to working from home or have had an online home business for a while, you still need structure. Routine is still essential. A considerable perk of working from home is the ability to work around other parts of your life, but some routine is necessary. Without that structure, you will find tasks take longer (Parkinson’s Law). You will not be able to give defined hand-in dates and may need to rush. Create a good routine as soon as possible. 

    Rest

    There is a temptation to burn the midnight oil, wake up very early and get started again. The enthusiasm is impressive, but you will burn out. It is essential to set yourself some rest breaks during your working hours too. Pomodoro timers will give you focused periods of working and designated breaks also. Use the breaks to hydrate and walk around. 

    If you find that you get stuck on something, then use the opportunity to take a more extended break. 

    There is a particular dedication and discipline that comes with working from your own home. Once you have the basics laid, running a home business, or managing your team from home is a rewarding experience. 

  • Common Business Mistakes You Can Easily Avoid

    Common Business Mistakes You Can Easily Avoid

    As much as we all learn from our own mistakes, sometimes it’s better to learn from the mistakes of others. By so doing, you avoid the agony of having to learn the hard way. This is especially true in the world of business, where a simple mistake could spell doom to a venture you worked so hard to see up and running. 

    In other words, a business can stumble and fall from a simple bad decision, a miscalculated risk, or a mismanaged crisis:

    Working with friends instead of business partners

    Don’t mix business with pleasure! This saying has been with us since time immemorial and it’s true to the core. Starting a business with a friend can be quite stressful, especially if one partner is committed to it and the other has another priority commitment on the side. It can come with a lot of misunderstandings, especially where one party is giving a 100% commitment to the business while the other is mostly absent and wants an equal share of profit and equity.

    Failing to utilize contracts

    Whether you’re in the service industry or your business deals with a certain line of products, it is crucial to understand the importance of contracts. When hiring employees, contracting suppliers, and even recruiting new clients, contracts will always help build better relationships, show commitment, enforce discipline, and streamline processes. In a recent comprehensive online guide on this particular website, a carefully created contract provides clear details about the responsibilities of each party signing the agreement. At the very least, your contract template should include work description, pricing, payment schedules, due dates, and the “out” clause. Contractual agreements are essential for any business serving a wide range of clients and failing to use them is a mistake businesses can easily avoid.

    Falling in love with an idea

    Successful entrepreneurs understand that business is not always roses and unicorns. It has highs and lows, yes and no, and stop and go seasons. Things don’t always go as planned, but challenges are taken up positively. If an approach fails to work, you can always go back to the drawing board, restrategize, and flex up to pursue your business goals. The lack of flexibility is something entrepreneurs can easily avoid.

    Ignoring intellectual business property

    Each business is unique in its own way, from the trademark to the logo, name, company trade secrets, and copyright, among other things. These are intangible aspects and assets of the business, but are equally important. As a proprietor, you are advised to be original in your property to avoid prosecution for infringing other people’s property that might be protected by the law. It’s also important to have your intellectual assets patented or copyright-protected where possible.

    Doing it all on your own

    Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it sure wasn’t built by a single person. In business, you will need different people to perform different tasks and come through for you when you get stuck. Some entrepreneurs go solo just to slice the expenses, but once you take this route, it’s only a matter of time before the responsibilities start overwhelming you. After all, the size and success of a business are measured by the number of its employees! To add to this, it’s also important to always ensure you’re recruiting the right talent into your business. Don’t make the mistake of hiring the wrong people!

    Inadequate funds

    Entrepreneurs start businesses with great zeal, energetic to expand their business over time. Somewhere in the middle, however, many of them end up losing their focus once the money starts trickling in. Money is the leading cause of failure and success. Improper management of funds is something you can easily avoid using various measures, including having a budget and sticking to it, ensuring proper bookkeeping, staying on toes with accounting, which brings us to the next important point.

    Ignoring accounting

    We invest in businesses for the money and it loses meaning when we get too comfortable to keep records of accounts. Accounting helps entrepreneurs understand business patterns, and gauge whether or not the business is making progress, stagnating, or losing. It makes no sense to run a business, you cannot account for. Proper accounting will help expand your business to greater heights, so don’t make the mistake of ignoring it.

    Ignoring market research

    Before setting up a business, it pays to conduct lengthy research about the products or services you want to offer, gathering opinions and thoughts from your target market and other players in the industry. It will help you to determine whether you are offering what is needed and not just what you think is needed.

    Finally, as long as you’re in business, it’s best to take advice, opinions, and ideas but make the decisions. It also pays to encourage constructive criticism from customers, investors, lenders, and mentors. With the above few pointers in mind, it can be easier to maximize the success chances of your business.