5 Invoicing and Accounting Tools for New Entrepreneurs

25 May,2015 Business Advice No Comment Author: Marie

Business is all about numbers. More importantly, how the numbers are presented. Dealing with numbers is a job that requires skill and nuance. Stock analysts and accountants are more valued due to their skills in dealing with the figures. The company’s profit and loss reports linked up with investor stock value. A misrepresentation of the value leads into several problems including, devaluation, brand loss and other legal issues. It is essential that the books of a company are kept clean and clear. There are consultants like PwC, Morgan etc. does the bookkeeping. But for start-ups that are gearing to make money, these consultants are quite bulky on their books. It is to their benefit, there are free invoicing and accounting tools to help those new and budding entrepreneurs to see the price in the pudding.

Freshbooks (Freshbooks.com)

This accounting software runs on a cloud. It is stamped as “User friendly” tools by Forbes. It helps you save billing time, get paid faster and grow your business. Users using this software spend less time on paperwork as this is completely automated. Estimates reveal that customers double their revenue in the first 2 years by using this software. As this is hosted over a cloud, you can invoice your clients either from your office or on the go. It provides a trial version for 30 days, but is priced as low as $19.95/month.

YouTube Marketing for Businesses

4 April,2015 Business Advice No Comment Author: Marie

YouTube is one of the popular online video sites. It has a wider market reach with 1 billion users. It is a great platform for social media advertising. Many businesses resort to YouTube for its reach. Video is a great way to make an impact. Promotions become much simpler with YouTube. In this article, there are a few tips on how to do Youtube Marketing for your business.

credit: viralblog.com

Create a YouTube channel

YouTube offers a feature wherein channels can be created easily. Channels are stream of video contents that convey a certain message. Promos for product lines become much easier with channels. Every business that requires a social reach can create YouTube channels to market their services. Channels can be created based on products or services. They bring an impact and strengthen the business.

Upload promo videos

You can create videos about your business and upload them to YouTube. Create advertisements about your business and tag them. YouTube has a wider base and feature to list them in hotlists. Promo videos can be highlighted. Make video contents with clarity and sanity. They have to be visually appealing. Make them enchant your audience. The greater the reach the bigger its impact to your business

credit: upperhandtech.com

Use search keywords

Tag your videos with SEO optimized key words. YouTube offers search based on keywords. It is a powerful video platform to list the videos based on the search keywords. Tag the channel to the keywords to send collective promo videos to the audiences. The search keywords help in listing your videos easily. Tag them as per the genre of videos. The YouTube search ranking factor works on a number of parameters consisting of relevance, popularity and clarity. So tag them as per the ranking factors. Organize the relevant videos in the channel.

Optimize the video quality

A better video is a great tool for business. Video has to be rich in content and quality. Use the appropriate codec in creating your promos. Audio and video quality has to be good to make an influence. Optimize the video and prepare them in multiple formats to support wider base of viewing. Create HD videos where needed. Content in the video has to be concise and comprehensible. Create short length videos. This will help in capturing the attention of audience in shorter time.

How to Use Pinterest for Marketing

4 April,2015 Business Advice No Comment Author: Marie

credit: hu.socialdaily.com

Pinterest is a popular social media tool. It lets us share your interests by uploading images and pinning them. Its wider reach is a great advantage for marketers. It can be leveraged smartly to market your SME or blogs. It is a great visual marketing tool. The images speak a thousand words. And Pinterest with its image sharing platform reaches a million hearts. It boosts creativity and adds excitement. Here are some strategic tips on how to boost your brand with using Pinterest for Marketing.

Reap the Pinterest traffic

Pinterest with its visual sharing platform has a rich internet traffic flowing through it. This means more visitors visiting your web site or your product when you advertise on Pinterest. Your content is engaged more than before. Your content receives a visual representation to the visitors on the internet. Highlight your brand logo to increase its value. Create blog boards to draw traffic to your brand.

Use SEO keywords

The brand presence in the internet is all about getting listed in the search. Pinterest uses sophisticated search capabilities. Use them to your advantage in enabling your brand reach. You can use SEO based terms and keywords to help your product listed quicker and bolder way. Pinterest helps you land on the brand market you created with its boards and referral pins.

Optimise the visual space

Pinterest is all about visualization. You need to create images that maximises its potential. Create brand images that say the most out of a given space. Layouts need to be defined and customized with test and logo images. They have to be designed to take up the maximum space. Use images that are common and are pinned by various others. This enables your brand to be pinned easily and quickly. This increases the brand reach to the Pinterest visitors.

Use Pinterest Widgets

Pinterest provides widgets such as Pin It to add to your web sites and blogs. This is more useful to pin your articles by visitors. Provide your site visitors to pin your product quickly using these widgets. It is easier to embed these pins in your site. The widgets enable your brand to be merchandised. You can also share your pins or tweet them on twitter with fly links. Add your company’s blog or social websites with Pin It buttons. Prepare newsletters with Pins in it for the readers. Make the news letters clickable so readers can pin your article. This increases your brand presence.

Take advantage of Pinterest messaging

Pinterest offers an interesting feature called messaging. This helps you to connect with like- minded audiences. This helps you to establish direct communication. This enabled referrals and reach for your product. You can connect with engaged pinners. They help spread your brand by establishing more connections. The messaging helps you to engage your customers directly. This provides a great platform for collaboration for your product ideas. You can create group conversations and involve your audiences. The key to brand value is engagement. Use Pinterest messaging feature to spread your brand to a wider reach.

Best Practices in E-mail Marketing

24 March,2015 Business Advice No Comment Author: Marie

E-mail marketing is an art. It has to be practiced with nuance. It helps build relationships. It helps develop business and increase sales. It sets a non-transactional tone to the business. Emails are essentials of communication. Marketing using emails makes a direct impact on customers. Email marketing helps bond with them. It helps you to express your perceptions. It delivers your thought process and business strategies. It binds customers to your business. It buys in the mind sets of business growth. Practicing marketing using emails has its own flair. It has to be dealt with passion. This article provides few key strategies and best practices for email marketing.

Engage them with special offers

Email marketing is all about engaging customers. A powerful email entertains your customers. It makes your customer look forward to your business. Make your customers feel special by your emails. Generate excitement to drive sales. Involve them with pre-orders and offers.

Be a part of your customer’s life

Write emails with expressions. Show your care for customers. Your customers in turn will start caring for your business. Build an involvement through a trust. There are hundreds of emails in your customer’s inbox. Make your email special by deals for their occasions. Mark their birthdays, anniversaries with free trials, discount coupons and special offers. Your emails help you reach out to them. Express them you are part of their life.

Earn customer from customers

Use social media to reach out to them. Mark your mails with social network logos. Hashtag your timelines to show others trust in you. Earn a customer through a customer. Social media and reviews help your brand earn trust. Be transparent and involve them in the social reach. Ask for referrals from your customers. Use testimonials to reach out. Show them the value you create.

Have a dialogue with customers

Value your customers. Ask feedback about your products. Ensure them with actions. Use voting buttons to receive responses. More you seek improvement, more the trust you build with your customers. Make them feel valued in your emails. Enable them to see your improvements. Listen to their suggestions. Have forms in your emails. Construct emails with conversations. Initiate two way email conversations. Keep your customers in habit of dialogue. This helps you to push your brand into their minds.

Partner to potential

Business is not about individuality. It is about peer handling and partnership. Use your partner’s brand to create value. Tie ups and joint ventures are powerful. Reap the benefit of brand from the tie ups. Expand your customer base using your partner’s brand value. Include your partner’s brand in your emails. Be proud in using your partnership to enable business. Accelerate your business by potential partnerships. Have your customers’ say in deciding partnerships.

Create the visual experience

All text is boring. Use HTML styles to provide experience. Have downloads of important announcements. Create a way for your customers to have you in their memory. Provide your emails with style. Include images and emoticons to capture the moments. A picture speaks a thousand words. Use pictures of promotions and events to your customers. Let your email speak for you with links to images. Providing links to corporate events keep your customers engaged. Emails are meant to create memories. Leave the memory behind with the visual experience. Excite them with downloadable images. Engage them with links to create brand curiosity.

Guide you customers with constant reminders

Memory is short. Let your customers know about the expiry of product warranty, service etc. Remind them the next step. Provide them a way to reach you. Let them know that a trial license is expired. Use emails to mark their calendars. Use emails to define their to-do lists. Do not overwhelm your customers. Make them believe they are the king. Use emails to serve them at their command. Make them stay tuned with your next moves. Create interest in their minds about your brand. Guide them with the action plan.

Enable customers to reach you

Use emails to provide them a way to reach you. Include signatures, contact numbers in your email. Don’t shy away from including URLs, social logos in emails. Use as much effort to enable your customer to connect with you. Let them know your community drive if they are close to you. Invite them to participate. Have the signs to directions and maps. Show them you are real and dependable.

Keep the context during communication

Keep the context in your email communications. Written communication can be misinterpreted. Set a context in your email. Let your subject line communicate. Use similar subject lines while discussing similar topics. Do not let your customer wonder for the meaning. Use periodic communication methods. Do not change the frequency in your emails for newsletters. Make your customers expect you. If you miss out, ensure apologies are made. Ensure constant communication and clear contexts are always maintained.

Appreciate and be thankful

Above all, be thankful to your customers. Let them know you succeed because of them. Be simple in expressing thanks. Appreciate them for being with you. Laud them for your journey. Be generous in your email. Create happiness in their life. Use your emails to communicate happiness. Send them e-cards as part of emails to express your content.

Follow all these easy to follow tips and rest assured, you will have customers flowing!

Effective Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

7 March,2015 Business Advice No Comment Author: Marie

If you are managing a blog it is only natural that your main objective is to drive traffic into it. When there is high traffic into a blog, there is surely going to be high possibility of increase conversion. So, what should you do in order to ensure that there is sufficient traffic into your blog? Here are some effective ways to do it.

Post High Quality Content

Blogging is basically all about posting contents that are relevant to you, your business or your website. If you articles are not informative and pertinent to your goals, you cannot expect people to get really interested in reading your blog. This means less traffic, which equates to few or no conversion at all.

High quality and readable articles are very important because they can also be very instrumental in generating incoming links into your site, which should result in strengthening your brand and in increasing loyalty from your readers, existing buyers, and potential customers.

High quality contents are ones that provide readers with the right information that they seek. The intention of the content should be to educate the readers, rather than just to entertain them.

Be Passionate about Blogging

When you blog, you are representing a part of yourself to the world. If you do not enjoy blogging, there is a big chance that you will neglect posting on a regular basis. This is the kind of practice that usually causes blogging failures.

Know the Importance of Professional Blog Design

If your blog points back to your business website, it is very important that it is incorporated with a highly professional design. Your blog is the representation of your professional image that you want your readers to see and identify with. With a professional looking blog, you can be assured of reinforced brand, increased credibility, and increased leads and conversions.

One common mistake that many bloggers commit is placing too many ads and unnecessary images on the blog design. These are the most common reasons why some visitor the disinterest in some blogs. The ads and the images can be found intrusive, which usually prompt the viewers in clicking the back button and ignoring the articles. Your blog is existing for the purpose of increasing traffic and conversions, thus it is essential that you can ensure that your blog design is enticing and practical at the same time.

Another important thing to keep in mind about blog design is that it needs to be responsive so it would look good on laptop, desktop and mobile devices. Using easy to read fonts is also highly recommended.

Ensure a SEO Friendly Site

One important reminder is that you must also make sure that your site is acceptable not just for the human eyes, but also for search engines. A well-structured blog site is instrumental in ensuring that your contents get good search engine rankings. Make sure that the site theme uses correct header tags in templates, validates without CSS or HTML errors, and can fully take advantage of extra navigational features like breadcrumbs navigation links. It is also essential to use reliable SEO plugins to make sure that your pages are highly optimized.

Be Wise in Choosing your Topics

Being wise is always a part of being in business, and blogging is a kind of business. Thus, you need to select your topics wisely. You must understand that the topics covering your blog influence the kind of readers you are going to get. Publishing tutorials are going to get you beginners, and posting advanced tutorials will entice more experienced leaders.

Thorough research is the answer to having the ability to choose the right topic to write and publish. It is also significant to devise a more permanent content strategy, so that you wouldn’t have to keep on coming up with a technique every time you need to post on your blog. Covering popular topics is one good way to attract more audience.

Share Important Current Events

Some bloggers publish links to news stories; you should not make the same mistake. Instead of just redirecting your readers to the more interesting story, you should be the first to inform them of what’s happening out there. Your opinion matters and you should let your readers know about them.

Interact with the Audience

You want to have high traffic into your blog, and traffic is brought by your audience. This means that you should make an effort in making sure that your readers have a better understanding of who you are, what you have to say and what you are selling. This can be accomplished by allowing your readers to post questions and hen responding to each question as honestly and precisely as you can. Your answer will inform you readers of how well-acquainted you are with your blog and your product or services.

When you blog, you give a part of yourself to the world. This means you want everyone else to know what you have to say and what you want them to understand. Blogging should help you gain more revenues and the best way to accomplish that is to have increased traffic into your blog.

What Makes a Good Website

31 January,2015 Business Advice No Comment Author: Marie

Throughout the years, as technology advances and online marketing has become a sure-fire way to get customers and leads, websites have become a great asset for businesses. Almost all successful businesses have websites but having a credible online presence requires a good amount of work and a lot of patience.

There are a lot of factors that can either make or break the effectiveness of your website. In this post we round up the things that makes a good website.

Appearance or Design

The number 1 on our list is the “website design.” The appearance of your website says a lot about your business and of course yourself as the owner. A website should always be visually appealing and professional. It may be the first and last impression to a potential customer.

Always remember that a website reflects you and your company. A poorly designed website doesn’t attract and impress potential customers as much as those who are beautifully and carefully designed.

Under this factor are the navigation, texts, graphics and colors used for your website.

Navigation of websites should always be simple, user-friendly, and easily-found. Visitors of your website must be able find any information they need quick and easy. Visitors tend to leave a website if they find the navigation too complex for them.

Texts should always be easily read. Do not use many different fonts on your website. Always use professional, simple fonts that can be easily-read by anyone and are supported by any type of computer systems. Font sizes matter too!

Graphics also play a big role in a design. Good, high-quality graphics make a great impression. They make a website come alive! Imagine a website with no graphics and just pure text – Boring isn’t it? However, you should remember that using too much graphics is not good too.

Colors are important as well. You should choose those which create a proper mood or tone for your business. Using too much color can distract your visitors from your website’s written content.

Unique Content

Aside from the appearance of your website, it must have substance. This substance we are referring to is good, credible and unique content. Your visitors or audience will be looking for information which will help them make a decision, so any content you add to your website must be informative, relevant and credible. If your website has a blog, it is very important to update your content regularly; this will keep your visitors interested to what new content you share.

The content on your website, aside from informative, must also be unique. Content plays a great role in SEO (Sear Engine Optimization). A unique content will help you rank highly in SERPs or Search engine results pages.

Functionality

Functionality is the third factor on our list. Your website must be fully functional, meaning every page, navigation and link should be working properly. Broken components such as broken links and poorly constructed navigation will only leave your visitors frustrated.

Speed

Fourth on our list is the speed of your website. Everybody deserves a fast web experience. A fast-loading website provides your visitors a great user experience while a slow-loading one can only frustrate them. This can also lead them not to come back to your website anymore.

There are many factors that affect the loading speed of a website. Some of the factors include server or hosting of your website, the codes and the graphics.

Quoting from MOZ Blog, “A fast site improves overall site quality and increases user satisfaction.”

Responsive Web Design

Fifth on our list is to give your website a responsive design. We could have included this to our #1 list but we decided to make it separate factor because nowadays, this helps to improve user experience.

Did you ever wonder what your visitors use to read your website? A laptop? A smartphone? or a tablet perhaps? This is why responsive web design is very important.

What is a responsive web design?

Quoting from Smashing Magazine, “Responsive Web design is the approach that suggests that design and development should respond to the user’s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation.”

Optimized for SEO

Last but not the list on our “What Makes a Good Website” list is that a website must be SEO optimized or in other words SEO-friendly. All the other 5 factors are meaningless without this.

What is the use of a pretty, fully-functional website, with fast-loading pages and good content if it cannot be found on search engines?

SEO helps your site get visibility in search engines. Visibility in search engines means more traffic to your website and the most important thing is that you can be found by potential customers. SEO has proved itself to be one of the most important components of any organization’s branding efforts and online presence.

10 Reasons Why You Must Have a Mobile Friendly Website

12 January,2015 Business Advice, SEO Tips No Comment Author: Marie

If your website is still not mobile friendly, then this is the best time to switch to a mobile friendly website. Many people are now using mobile internet devices more than before. Research shows that this trend will continue for several into the future. Thus, a website that supports mobile devices is an absolute necessity.

Source: Simplio Web Studio

Maybe the increasing number of people relying on mobile devices is not convincing enough. Still there are benefits of a mobile friendly device that you should consider. Below are 10 reasons why you must have a mobile friendly website.

1. Mobile devices can be integrated with offline media
There is the growing need to integrate offline and online media. Mobile devices are able to do this using QR codes. You can use QR codes both in print and electronic forms. This is important because sites constantly need to transfer printed information into SMS, email, or site URL.

2. Mobile Internet Usage is Growing 60
Now think about it, research suggests that come 2017, over 90 percent of people who visit the internet will do so using their phones. Therefore, this growth will affect all business that target online people. Since mobile devices are overtaking personal computers, you may want to make your website mobile friendly. You will be ready when the inevitable change eventually takes root.

3. A mobile website is more affordable than an app
Developing mobile applications can be less flexible and more costly than a mobile website. In case you decide to develop an application, the number of devices or platforms people are likely to use may determine the number of apps you need. Different phone models may all work on different types of apps. In addition, it is necessary for you to fix an app before using it, making access to your content more difficult.

Source: MaximizeSocialBusiness

4. Mobile Devices are Portable
People are looking for your information while they are on the move. They use modern gadgets. With a website suited for mobile, you have the ability to be on people’s minds and hands at all times. Try to tell them more about your products and services. People will mostly be attracted by such gestures and click away without hesitation.

5. Improves the image of your company
A better image of your company must be one of your primary goals. Yet, you can achieve this very easily by creating a mobile-friendly site. Today, sites that work well with mobile stand out. Before the visitor can even go through your product and services, your company will have impressed him or her.

Source: PBJMarketing

6. Better SEO performance
As people look for your company and what you offer, which method do they use? In most cases, they will go to Google. Search engines use very intelligent algorithms these days. Google is constantly updating its algorithms, especially Google Panda and Google Penguin. The result is that the search engine starts to have preferences. Today, Google favors sites that are more mobile friendly.

7. Impressive Speeds of Downloads
Have you ever tried to open a site that is not optimized for mobile using your tablet or Smartphone? If you have, you will understand why it is necessary to have a mobile-friendly site. In most cases, a site that is not designed for mobile takes forever to load a page. In addition, it may have missing elements of the page.

8. Great experience for the user
The user, who is your prospective customer, will appreciate it if he or she reaches you in the simplest way possible. A mobile-friendly website enhances the experience of the user. This is because the site design suits handheld components in terms of screen size. The user is able to surf at his comfort in an easy manner. Since the customers are satisfied, they create a positive image of your company.

9. You will get the elusive competitive advantage
Today, not all companies have adopted mobile-optimized sites. This means that some of your competitors are still using the older types that do not give clients the best experience. With a mobile-friendly site, you will be several steps ahead of your competition that lacks such a site.

10. Engagement with people is more effective
One more awesome thing about a mobile-friendly site is that it helps you to interact with users through mobile-specific components. You are able to use mapping and click-to-call functions to your advantage.

If you are looking to acquire more leads for your business, you cannot run away from a mobile-friendly site. The world of online interaction is changing at a rocket speed and you do not have the luxury of lagging behind. However, you can still stay ahead of the curve and remain profitable. Developing a mobile-friendly website is the best way to keeping the online environment favorable to your business.
All you have to do is contact an expert to analyze your site and optimize to the next level. Request a quote and consultation today for a more profitable business.

Does Your Small Business Really Need a Website?

20 November,2014 Business Advice No Comment Author: Marie

Today, it is common for people to think about running their own business, and small businesses have been sprouting in many places. These businesses have a wide range of goods and services and often rely on word of mouth first to gain more clients. A lot of them also rely on their social media accounts to boost their sales. But are these enough to keep a small business going? In this digital age where almost anyone can be online, is it a good idea to set up an official website for a small business? The answer is simple yet may have some complexities: it will all depend on you – the business owner. A lot of considerations must be made when thinking of setting up a website for your business, but if you know your business well, you can readily know what to do.

First, think about the costs. Making a website often has 3 main costs: its development, hosting, and registration of the domain name. Website development is often the most costly as it means putting together its content: text, graphics, links, and codes. Hosting a website means having a server that is large enough to store the website’s files so they can be reached by the public when they go online. Registering the site’s domain name is the cheapest as it just means getting a unique web address through a public registry. Extra costs may include email services, Internet marketing, and maintenance of the website.

Next, review the products you sell or services you offer. Even if you do not sell anything online, are they stuff that people would search for? For example, you are a distributor of popular branded clothes. Often, there are customers who would search for sellers of the brands they prefer in their local area. When this happens, will your items appear in the customers’ search or will your competitors’ offerings be the ones they will see? Or let’s say you run a restaurant. Travel itineraries are often made by searching for places to eat way before a trip happens. If travelers cannot find information about your restaurant, how can it become a go-to dining place?

Third, not all people are tech-savvy and using a computer may be a challenge for some. Are you one of them or are you willing enough to learn even just the basics of modern technology? Even if you can hire someone to set up and maintain a website, you must know something about computers and the Internet to at least convey what you want to include in your site or how it would look.

Fourth, you must check who your customers are. You need to identify whether or not a lot of them know much when it comes to using the Internet. There are still people who do not use computers, but there are higher chances of having more clients who are up-to-date when it comes to technology. However, even if there are more people who have Internet access, you will only benefit from that fact if they can find your website.

Fifth, if you think that setting up a website is an advertising tool for your business, think again. A website is not an advertising tool; it exists to support your advertising efforts. You pay for advertisements to be posted, seen, heard, or read for a certain amount of time, after which, they are put down unless you pay for them again, and the cycle goes on. Make a website if you wish to run your own marketing tool that you can use continuously since it belongs to you. You can also use a website to show the testimonials you have received from customers who are pleased with your products or services. People often seek out reviews when considering potential purchases. Plus a website can also be a way for your customers to do window shopping but online, and if they see something they like, you can expect more sales to come in.

Sixth, aside from being a tool to market your goods or services, a website can also serve as a tool for your clients to share their needs, suggest something, or comment on other things that can help your business improve. Even if you have an actual store, it most likely operates within a certain time frame. A website, on the other hand can be reached 24/7. You can have your website customized with a chat support system at certain times or have a contact page that consumers can go to in case they have any questions, reservations, clarifications, etc.

Generally, big or small businesses can benefit from having a website as it can make them more competitive and allow the buying public to get to know them more and what they offer.

Why You Must Have a Business Plan

21 October,2014 Business Advice No Comment Author: Marie

These days, having your own business can be better than just being an employee. With the right capital and attitude, you may be on your way to reaching financial freedom. Moreover, it is also advisable to have a business plan for you to be guided on how you envision your business to be. A business plan is not just about planning; it may be the key that will open a lot of opportunities for you and your business.

First of all, having a business plan allows you to set specific objectives. This is especially true for managers so they can establish what will happen to the business. These objectives must be tracked and followed through and your business plan can help you do those. Having clearly defined objectives will make you organize, plan, and strategize well.

Aside from priorities and strategies, a business plan also allows you to share your action points with the people you love. Yes, you should not just share them with your business partners and colleagues; your partner, significant other, or spouse may help you in ways you would not expect. By sharing your business plan with them, you can improve your communication skills, which you can also apply when running your business.

As your business grows, you will need to consider if it is necessary for you to expand its location. Do you need to rent a bigger office space? Rent is usually a fixed cost and the bigger the space, the bigger the rent. Having a business plan can help you analyze your growth prospects and budget so you can decide whether or not it is okay to have this increased fixed cost.

Aside from possible increased rent, you will also need to think about hiring new people as your business expands. This can be a risk, yet it is also a duty if you want your business to expand further. Your business plan can make you clearly determine the logic behind hiring new employees and identifying the roles they will have to help your business grow. In addition, training new employees can be smoother and easier if your business plan addresses this aspect.

Another thing to consider is buying or leasing assets. How many should be purchased or leased? How much are you willing to spend buying or leasing them? How long will you use them and how important are they in running your business? These questions you ask and more can be answered by your business plan as it can be your guide in deciding what will happen to your business assets in the future.

One of your business goals is to develop new alliances. Use your business plan to find and communicate with potential partners who can help in the expansion and further development of your business. Include the standards or criteria you’ll be looking for to find alliances that are compatible for your business or those who have the same vision as yours.

Aside from alliances, you would also want to have investors. Usually, investors want to see a company’s business plan first before they decide to invest in it. Having investors is great for any business because they can help increase revenues, so make sure that your business plan is clear and complete. Convince them that your business is worth investing in.

Just like with investors, a good business plan is also needed to convince lenders to grant you a business loan. They expect you to have a plan on how to earn back and pay the money you will be owing them, as well as back-up plans in case any problems turn up.

Whatever kind of business you have, one thing is for sure: you want it to sell. Whether you are selling goods or offering services, you want to eventually have patrons who will keep your business afloat and boost your sales. Therefore, having a business plan can aid in making your clients understand what you have to offer, how much it’s worth, and why they should have it. In short, your business plan can be a good marketing tool if made properly.

One way to know that your business is growing is if you start to think of having another business, related or otherwise. Use a business plan to know the steps you need to take to make your new venture successful. What do you need to do? What resources will you need? How many people do you plan to hire? Your business plan will highlight the factors you need to consider to start a new business.

You must have a business plan to help your business grow. Strategize well and prioritize the distribution & allocation of your resources with great care. After all, you would not want your business to be stagnant, would you?

How to create a logo that works

28 August,2014 Business Advice, Web Design Tips No Comment Author: Nir Appelton

Starting a new company is always a challenging task and somewhere in the chaos of things you will have to find some time to create a logo. Of course, you are not a designer, but you will have to tell the person who will be creating your logo exactly what you want. And even the best designer won’t be able to save you if you want something that’s just not nice.

What it Takes to Create a Good Logo?

One of the most important things for your logo is that it should work on all kinds of platforms. In order to create that, you should be able to work with your designer. Here are some tips that will help you to make the right requests for the best result:

Readability

Creating a custom font for your logo nowadays is easy. However, sometimes these custom fonts are extremely hard to read and that’s a big mistake when it comes to creating logos. Your custom font might be beautiful to look at, but your slogan or brand name should be readable. Otherwise, the text will just take space and you might as well not write anything at all.

Simplicity

Simplicity is at the core of modern day design and more specifically logo design. Creating a logo with intricate patterns might indeed look good, but your logo is not a painting. It has to do a certain type of job – tell people who you are at a glance. A simple logo that is clear, crisp and easy to understand is what you should aim for. If you can’t describe your logo in a sentence, it is probably too complicated and you should think of another design. Keep in mind that vector graphics usually work best for logo design.

Scalability

The size of a logo can be a tricky subject. Many logos look great when they are being viewed as big illustrations, but when you scale them down they become unreadable and unrecognizable. Your logo should be designed in such a way that it looks as great on billboards as it does as a favicon.

Colors

Choosing the colors for your logo is a very important process and most times it is best to let your designer do that for you. Most designers will make sure that the logo they are creating also looks great in grayscale, but another thing you will need to consider is if your logo looks good in a single color.

Don’t be trendy

Following the latest trends when creating a logo is a very bad idea. This means that you will end up with a logo that will be very popular for a short period of time and it might not work 5 years from now (or even 1). You can still adapt your logo so that it looks modern, but make sure the core design can stand the tests of time.

Negative space

Negative space is one of the best vector design elements that you can use for your logo. By using negative space you will be able to convey many different messages in a subtle way. Great examples of companies and organizations that make use of negative space in their logos include Girl Scouts of America, Guild of Food Writers and FedEx.

There are definitely many things that you will need to be careful with when creating a logo. It is a process which is actually more difficult than many people realize, but if you follow these basic guidelines, your logo will always make a good impression and won’t be easily forgotten. Don’t fall into the trap of bad logo design and most importantly – think outside the box. Your designer is only as good as your ideas.

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