Categories
Startup

How to Make Your Startup Into a Large Business

3 Secrets that you must know to Boost your Business

While on your journey from becoming a startup to a large company, strategic decisions need to be taken to scale successfully. You have to invest your time and effort to reap the benefits. It is a necessity for the survival of your business & your economic well-being. Here are some key investments that need to be made while growing your business.

1. Invest in People

  • Employees are the backbone of your business, hence prioritize your team!
  • While it might be difficult for entrepreneurs to hand over control of some aspects of their business, doing so is necessary when growth is the goal
  • By Investing in people you are opening doors to great business opportunities. It helps you build a solid reputation in the market as you will attract the best talent from the industry
  • Provide learning and growth opportunities to your employees so that they feel empowered to take on new roles and responsibilities
  • Always remember happy employees will lead to happy customers. A motivated employee will work hard to build relations with the customer
  • Listen to your employees. Giving orders or lectures on what the company wants to achieve or where it is heading will not work anymore. The employees have a lot of insight about the company and its business function hence their ideas need to be heard.
  • For e.g. Virgin in the U.S had asked their employees to give suggestions on how to improve their cruise ship Virgin Voyager. One of the customer associates came back with a feedback of onboarding a celebrity chef to design a special menu for them. The employee knew that the chef was already a frequent traveller by the Voyager and would be happy to do this. This helped in making the Voyager menu a hit with its customers
  • Reward and give recognition to your employees regularly. Any achievment should be applauded not only by the reporting manager but the CEO as well. This makes the employee feel wanted and motivates him to work better

Investing in People is absolutely integral when it comes to growth of your business 

2. Invest in Processes

  • In order to scale from a startup to a large company, operate more efficiently and achieve insightful data about consumer behavior, a business must invest in process management
  • Move towards Business Process Automation for better employee and customer experience and most importantly streamlining business functions. In fact, if you don’t automate, the cost of that would be incredibly high!
  • Companies without good business process management and automation are likely to underperform and run into issues that could have been avoided
  • Process management leads to accuracy and better communication within the organization
  • While larger enterprises are aware of the importance of business data, small to medium sized businesses tend to oversee this significant aspect that impacts business performance. Investing in Business Process Management will help in centrally storing all business critical data
  • Companies can make that plunge from a startup to a large business if Business Process Management and Automation are treated as two of its important pillars

3. Invest in Technology

  • Technology today plays a direct role in affecting your topline, what you need to know is what tech is best for your business, how the implementation cycle will take place and finally the execution
  • When we say ’Invest’ in technology, don’t treat it like a pure cost to the company. It will yield returns and hence treat it as an investment for growth
  • Embrace and learn social media to increase your sales. Social media can help you interact with audiences around your product offerings and therefore help in increasing traffic to your website or YouTube channel 
  • Choose the right platform and community you want to interact with and then create a strategy around it to engage with them through useful and interesting content. This will force them to visit your page, again and again, leading to growth.
  • Use technology to streamline your business. Investment into software for Financial computation, Inventory management, CRM Management will help in making business processes easier and the customer interface seamless
  • Take a decision if you want to invest in technologies like the mobile app or take your business on cloud depending completely on your product and business model

Every business owner wants his company and idea to grow and become a powerhouse of income generation and following this three-pronged approach you can grow your startup into a large business. 

Invest in People

Invest in Processes

Invest in Technology

And let your business skyrocket!

Categories
HR & People Management

How to Evaluate your Business Performance

Evaluate your Business Report Card!
 

No business can survive without evaluating its business performance. Just like in school, how we review our subject preparation and how have we scored, businesses are no different. Once you have identified your market position and your hold, evaluating business performance will help you decide how to cross the next level. 

Reviewing your progress is useful in many ways: 

  • Helps you remove the uncertainty about how the business is performing
  • How to make the most of the market opportunities
  • Any revision needed in business plans
  • How to get the next set of customers 

Here are some criteria’s that can help you evaluate your business performance:

1. Look at your Financial Statements

  • There is no better way to evaluate business performance than to have a close glance at your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow.
  • You need to check the money flow of the business, this will give you an idea where you are losing money and which are the areas of improvement

2. Review your key business drivers- Sales & Profits

  • Evaluate is your sales target as per plan, which areas are giving you better sales and which are weak in numbers
  • This will help in finding loopholes where sales are dropping
  • Similarly, profitability is what keeps your business thriving. Steady profits with very low dips is a sign of steady growth.

3. Customer Satisfaction

One important principle to measure the success of small businesses is customer satisfaction. If the customer is not happy with your product or service chances are he is not going to come back again

There are a few ways of evaluating business performance on the basis of customer satisfaction:

  • Ask for feedback; analyze the ratio of positive to negative feedback
  • Take constant reviews, this helps in knowing what the consumer thinks of the product and can help you make changes for the better
  • Assess your customer acquisition cost, if you are getting more customers this should be on the decline
  • Keep a track of repeat orders, this shows that the customer is happy and is returning for your product or service multiple times

4. Be Updated about the Market & Competitors

  • Keep a close look on the market and keep evaluating your business performance with how the market is doing
  • If your growth has slowed down and so has of your competitors, chances are the market might be going through a slowdown
  • Everyone feels motivated when the tide is high, but if you find profits decreasing, don’t lose heart. It may be an indication to make some changes to your product, bring in some innovation and cut down unnecessary costs
  • It is useful to do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis to find out more about what your competitors are doing currently and what the market is saying about them

5. Conduct Performance Reviews

  • Employees are your essentials- without them, the business can turn upside down. It is therefore essential to conduct quarterly performance reviews to evaluate business performance
  • A performance review helps you gauge whether the employee can handle additional responsibilities or is he unhappy about too much work being delegated
  • These reviews also help in maintaining a healthy competitive spirit in the company with everyone trying to give their best

6. Employee Training

  • Keep your employees updated about what is happening in the market
  • Organize skilling workshops and training sessions for them, so that the employees are satisfied with their skill development
  • Employee satisfaction and training can go a long way in enhancing business performance

Use this review to redefine your business goals and find answers to important questions like-

Where the business is going?

What is lined up in the next phase of growth?

A strategic analysis to evaluate business performance needs to be done on a constant basis if you want to be relevant, successful, and take your company to greater heights.

Categories
Marketing

How to Calculate Goodwill For a Business

Know your Goodwill to Increase your Company’s Value

Goodwill is an important part of building your business and is one of the hardest things to calculate. Goodwill of a business is an intangible asset, hence calculating its value can be tricky depending on the business and its success. 

To understand Goodwill calculation, let us first know what is Goodwill?

Goodwill of a business is a premium or an additional payment that a business gets over and above the market value of its net assets. Some of the factors that decide the goodwill of your business are- 

  • Reputation
  • Brand Image/Identity
  • Loyal Customer Base
  • Talent in the company
  • Positive cash flow with limited debt
  • Growth Prospects

So how do we calculate Goodwill? Goodwill Calculation can be done by 2 simple methods mostly based on the income:

1. Goodwill Calculation using Average profits

This is one of the simplest methods to calculate goodwill of a business. The formula for this is:

  • Goodwill= Avg. Profits x No. of Years

For e.g.- In this method calculate your average profits for the last 5 years and multiply it by 5. Taking 4-5 years as a ’goodwill window’ for a company is safe enough as it takes that much time for a company to build its image

Make sure you are not calculating goodwill of a business based on years that have seen abnormal profits or losses.

2. The other method for Goodwill calculation is to compute the Market Valuation and subtract net assets from this figure

  • Goodwill = Market Value- Net Assets

Get the business valued by an external accounting professional, financial expert or a business broker

Net assets include everything of value owned by the company, including property, inventory, vehicles, etc., minus any debts like bank loans or bonds

However if the payment includes things like stocks or a percentage of ownership in the company, the formula for goodwill calculation then becomes a little complicated:

  • Goodwill = Consideration transferred + Amount of non-controlling interests + Fair value of previous equity interests – Net assets

Here Non-controlling assets refer to a certain percentage in the company which is not big enough to exercise any control

The methods mentioned above are the most common formulas of calculating goodwill of a business. Calculating goodwill becomes extremely important when one is looking to buy, sell, or bracing for a merger or acquisition of a business. However, it is always advisable to consult professionals before taking this decision. 

Categories
Marketing

Improve your Business Through Content Marketing

How Digital Content Marketing can Increase your Revenue

Content Marketing for business is a thought out strategy that helps you to build relationships, engage, and communicate with the customer. No longer are the audiences interested in direct paid advertising. In fact, data shows that approximately 11% of the global internet population is blocking ads online. Content Marketing helps in brand recall and achieves your business objective through powerful content generation. Here are some strategies that talk about the importance of content marketing to boost your business.

1. Better Return on Less Spending

  • There is a lot of cost difference between inbound and outbound marketing. Outbound or traditional modes of advertising cost much more than inbound or content marketing tactics
  • For smaller businesses it makes a lot of sense to explore this as they don’t have big marketing budgets
  • Marketing in the form of e-mails, blogs, social media, viral campaigns can help you get great return on your investment

2. Improves Brand Reputation

  • The customer is no longer interested in advertising & marketing which aims at direct selling, they want their brands to engage with them and give them content that they like and can share
  • With digital and social media gaining precedence, it is vital for businesses to build trust so that more leads are generated and can be converted into buyers
  • Devise content that immediately builds an emotional connect. There are times when social media influencers also share your content and it can become viral in no time leading to new customers

3. Localize Content for Better Conversions

  • When your content is interesting and shareable, automatically it leads to newer business prospects and engagement with a larger set of audience
  • For e.g. Pepe Jeans took the route of content marketing for their business. They increased the frequency of their social media posts and also localized the content according to specific geographies. The brand saw a boost of 48% in its engagement on social media taking the followers to 2 million. This sort of growth is not possible with a paid advertising approach

4. Boosting your Organic SEO 

  • Search Engine Optimization is a tool that helps you increase your visibility online. When you apply relevant content marketing strategies, it helps improve your SEO techniques as well
  • The more content you have on your website or blogs, the more pages the search engine will be able to show to the users increasing traffic on your web page
  • Search engines also smartly can differentiate between content that is valuable and content that has been posted only for the sake of putting in the keywords. Implementation of content marketing can also lead to consumers spending more time on your portal or pages

5. Content Marketing can help achieve Business Growth

  • If your content is good and is liked by the audience, you can consistently generate leads for your business
  • Make sure the content is posted regularly, is reliable and is fed into the system at every stage of the buying cycle

The importance of Content Marketing is now being realized by both small and large businesses. They are using different formats to create value through content for the customers. Content marketing for business is also cost-effective, generates traffic and builds an image that can help your business grow.

Categories
Marketing

How Blogging Can Help a Business Get More Customers

Content is King: Master the Art of Blogging to get more Customers

Getting customers to come to your blog and fall in love with your product requires time and effort but it is not an impossible task. Blogging for business is the new-age sensation that can help you get customers without much cost. This step-by-step guide will help you connect with consumers through blogging.

1. Don’t make the Blog a Sales Pitch

  • The objective of your blog is to generate business leads and project a profile that connects with the consumer
  • Advantages of blogging are that you can reach out to millions of people which is not possible using the conventional means of marketing
  • Do not use your blog to make sales, if you use the blog only for sales messages you will struggle to find readers
  • If you want people to come to your blog, make them understand what is in it for them. Become a mentor, give advice to your target consumers, build trust and help them achieve their goals

2. Develop Content that can become Viral
 

  • You need to create content that can be shared, is interesting and engaging so that traffic can be increased.
  • When blogging for business and creating viral content, make sure you start your blog with a catchy headline. 8/10 people click on the link that has an attractive headline
  • Get the length of your blog right- The blog should not be very small or too long- a 700-1000 word blog post can lead to a better conversion rate with more opportunities for SEO
  • Need an Out-of-the-box idea- Your idea needs to be new & innovative based on what the audience wants. This will help in making your content evergreen and likable
  • Short emotional videos or beautiful images can become hugely viral if it makes the viewer curious

3. Focus on the Opening and the Conclusion of the blog

  • After clicking on the headline when a viewer comes to your blog, the opening should hook him enough to go through the entire post
  • The opening paragraph should spell it out to the customer that the tips or steps in the remaining blog are going to change his life and will be beneficial for him
  • Close the blog on an inspirational note. Make sure your reader not only reads your advice but also encourage him/her to follow it so that the reader revisits the blog

4. Blog as often as possible
 

The advantages of blogging and that to frequent blogging are that more traffic will get generated. But make sure the quality and originality of the blog is not compromised. 

5. Include Call-to-Actions

Make it a point to include some kind of Call-to-Action in your post otherwise it is going to be a waste if you are looking to generate customers through this activity

6. SEO Optimization

  • Google is the undisputed king of generating organic traffic. One big advantage of blogging is that if you conform to the guidelines of Google you will get guaranteed traffic
  • Do your keyword research and create content that is SEO-friendly

7. Use Google Analytics

Sometimes you wonder why a particular post gets less traffic or why a specific offer’s conversions are low. When you are blogging for business, use Google analytics especially the behavior flow section to see how people react from one page to another.

8 Create an E-mail Follow up

  • E-mail allows you to build a connect with the reader and forces him to come back to your blog or keep in touch
  • When you send an e-mail once a week to the reader, you’re compelling them to visit you again and engage with you
  • Once readers understand the benefit of signing up, this will create an opportunity for you to sell

Blogging for business is not easy. You need to develop good content skills and understand the minds of the reader and potential clients. Once you know what the customer is struggling with, your blog post will hit a bull’s eye!

Categories
Finance

How to Setup a Petty Cash Book For Your Small Business

The Step by Step Guide to Prepare Your Petty Cash Book

Do you require cash for unexpected expenses almost on a daily basis?

Whether it’s money for some office supplies, lunch for clients or employees, cab fares or money to pay the postman when he brings a letter or a COD package, businesses need to keep some cash in hand for such unexpected expenses. In business terminology, we call it petty cash.

What is Petty cash?

Petty cash is a small amount of money kept aside for the day-to-day expenses in your business.

Small businesses mainly setup a petty cash book for convenience, as sometimes you need a quick alternative to use in place of your company’s regular payment process.

So what are some examples of petty cash expenses in a business?

  • Petty cash expenses include office supplies, catered lunches, postage, cab fares or even a simple cup of tea/coffee.

Why is it important for you to maintain a petty cash book?

If these petty expenses aren’t documented in your books, a lot of money can go unclaimed. These little expenses can be of a significant amount in the long-run once they keep accumulating.

For example
: If a cup of tea/coffee costs Rs.10 per cup, it will be Rs.10,000 if your business has 10 employees for just 100 days in a year.

Other examples include:

  • To pay for small purchases which require cash, such as food for your employees or coffee supplies or a parking ticket
  • To reimburse employees for goods/items they have bought for your business.

By accounting these expenses in the petty cash book, it becomes easier for you to track tax-deductible expenses, making journal entries and also helps in separating personal expenses from business expenses.

4 Easy Steps: Setting up a Petty Cash Book

Step 1
: Add a petty cash book account to your books of accounts, if you do not already have one. Also, start a petty cash fund by drawing a cheque on your company to ’Petty Cash’ and cash the cheque.

Note
: If you are a small business with fewer people you may only need Rs.5000 in your petty cash fund. But if you’re a larger SME, you may need a larger fund. So based on the size of your business and your judgment as a business owner keep the contingency.

Step 2
: Place the petty cash from the cheque you cashed at a safe & designated location within your workplace (Example: a lockable drawer or a safe).

Give access to the petty cash fund to only a few people and assign the responsibility for refilling & recording the transactions of the petty cash fund to a specific person out of them.

Step 3
: Make a list of the expenses made out of the petty cash fund and keep the receipts of all the expenditures made attached to that list.

Step 4
: Refill the petty cash fund back to the decided and approved amount, as needed.

Format of Petty Cash Book for your business:

Petty Cash Book Format

Amount Received Date

Particulars Voucher No. Ledger Folio Expense (Amt. Paid)


Example:

The following transactions occurred in the books of GUPTA JI LTD in the month of May 2019.

May 2 – Cheque received for Rs.700 to open the petty cash book

May 3 – Postage paid    Rs.50

May 6 – Paid taxi hire of traveling employee (xxx to location Y)    Rs.100

May 8 – Paid cleaning lady   Rs.125

May 13 – Telegram sent to Delhi    Rs.40

May 17 – Cart hire paid on goods bought for business    Rs.60

May 19 –
Stationary purchased    Rs.120

May 25 –
Customer’s tiffin charges    Rs.60

May 31 – Settled the pending balance due to Smith    Rs.85

Amount Received Date Particulars Voucher No. Ledger Folio Expense (Amt. Paid)
Rs. 2019 Rs.
700 May 2 To Bank
May 3 By Postage 50
May 6 By Taxi Hire 100
May 8  By Wages 125
May 13 By Telegram  40
May 17 By Car Hire 60
May 19 By Stationary 120
May 25 By Tiffin Charges 

60

May 31 By Smith 85
May 31 By Balacane C/D
700 700
Rs.60 Mar 1 By Balacane C/D

Taking these easy but systematic steps when setting up your petty cash book will help you protect your daily expense cash flow, ensuring it is used appropriately and recorded systematically.

Categories
Marketing

Importance of Lead Management Software in Business

?

Power your Performance with a good Lead Management software
 

As the name suggests, Lead Management is a way of process set in the company to generate leads. It is a software-based system intended to build access to a new customer base.  

Good lead management software has the potential to impact revenue of a business directly by bringing sales and marketing together.

In today’s time and age, technology has given a whole new dimension to businesses. SMEs and MSMEs are always on a lookout to be more productive and grow their business efficiently.

Leads are potential customers who are interested in your business, services or products. Often it happens that despite showing interest, your potential customer doesn’t invest in buying your brand. Lead management software not only helps in tracking the leads but improves strategies of sales to get more and more customers into the system

Let us see the various benefits of a lead management software in business- 

1. Boosts Efficiency-
 

Every business wants to run its operations effectively and smoothly. Automation in marketing streamlines the sales experience. It automatically books an appointment, helps in online payments, sets reminders, and increases the engagement with the customers.

In this way, your interaction with the customer increases making them feel important and wanted

2. Improved customer relationship management-
 

Maintaining a lifelong relationship with the customer is very crucial for any business and customer service is undoubtedly one of the most important parameters for growth. 

The software helps in creating an online history of its customers, information of orders and communications or dealings with other companies.

The storage of bulk data at one place with the lead management software also becomes convenient.

3. Saves time-

Time management for any business is very significant. Especially for small businesses time is money. That is why it becomes important for business owners to monitor the daily work flow efficiently.

The software can help in the reduction of routine manual tasks since automation allows online tasks to take center stage. 

Investing in good lead management software helps business owners to unlock their time and allows them to focus on other important aspects of business to generate revenue.

4. Increases Scalability-

Another important benefit is that the software helps business scalability. 

Based on customer’s previous action and interests it helps in implementing the better sale strategies for the business.

It also supports in managing and enhancing the inflow and outflow of the leads.

5. Better SalesForce?-

It enhances the overall productivity and efficiency of an employee. For any given task which needs to be accomplished an employee just needs to make the following entries in the system- 

  • Basic information
  • Browsing history
  • Scheduled task
  • Contact history

It helps business owners to evaluate the workforce required to achieve a certain target.

This software also acts like a one-stop solution for cloud-based information which can be accessed from any part of the world.

6. Customization-

The lead management software offers the feature of customization as it is crucial to reach out to the right leads with the right product or service. 

This automated feature ensures that based on the need of a client a customized message is sent according to the profile of the customer.

It also engages with the customers by sending reminders, SMS or emails.

7. Increases Scope of Consumption-

The biggest advantage of the lead management software is that it increases the consumption scope of customers.

The automated software can help in increasing the purchase ticket size by suggesting a combo offer (if any) with every sale of goods. It can also recommend any perks attached to the minimum purchase order, any ongoing scheme etc.

All this, will eventually lead to the overall revenue generation in the business.

Lead management software is the backbone of the sales operation in any business. It assists in accountability, tracks potential leads and gives a personalized experience to your customer. The right kind of software used in the right direction can increase the overall ROI of the business.

Categories
Powerful Personalities

10 Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Get Motivated by Dr. Vivek Bindra?

Dr. Vivek Bindra has touched the lives of millions of people helping them improve the quality of their lives and for entrepreneurs he has helped them lay the foundation of growth & success in their business. Here is why Indian Entrepreneurs love & follow Dr. Vivek Bindra

1. By inspiring people to bring about a change in their lives and achieve their business goals, Dr. Vivek Bindra has become Asia’s no.1 Motivational Speaker and Business Coach.

2. Dr. Vivek Bindra works on ground level problems of entrepreneurs understanding their pain points and giving solutions through real-life examples and case studies to ensure their problems are put to ease.

3. He has organized various seminars and events like the Leadership funnel, Bounce Back and the very successful Everything about Entrepreneurship Summit, wherein he done’s the role of a motivational speaker and business coach to solve the burning problems of the entrepreneurs by giving powerful tips, strategies and frameworks that could benefit their business.

4. Indian Entrepreneurs watch Dr. Vivek Bindra’s videos and implement his strategies to grow their business through his Youtube Channel also termed as a “Free Digital University” on Entrepreneurship. Dr. Bindra’s Youtube channel is the World’s No. 1 subscribed channel on entrepreneurship with a follower base of close to 12 million.

5. Dr. Vivek Bindra ensures to give actionable and executable examples which motivates the Indian entrepreneurs and leads them to successful business strategies that are straight away implementable.

6. Indian entrepreneurs get motivated by Dr. Vivek Bindra because of his Hindi Content based on Bhagavad Gita which connects with the small & medium entrepreneurs. Hindi language is understood by every tier 2, 3 & 4 entrepreneurs making him easier to understand the business strategy. On the other hand the inclusion of the principals of the Gita helps in giving reasoning behind every point that has been spoken.

7. His vision is to empower entrepreneurs in a manner that can help them expand their businesses not only in India but around the world. This will help in making India economically stronger; by taking our country ahead on the path of becoming a developed nation.

8.  Dr. Vivek Bindra’s energy and style of delivery make him the best motivational speaker in india. Delivering relevant and lots of content in less time is what the business owners prefer as he values everyone’s time and money.

9. His followers love the fact that practical solutions to the most common and prominent business problems are provided keeping the bottom of the pyramid entrepreneur, the ‘Real Bharat’ business owner in mind.

10. Dr. Vivek Bindra’s personal story of becoming an entrepreneur and tasting success resonates with the business owners and motivates them to follow his journey and get inspired by his thought process.

Dr. Vivek Bindra is a motivational speaker, a thought leader and a successful entrepreneur. He has also been awarded an Honorary Ph.D. Degree, Doctor of Philosophy. He is a Trusted Advisor to 1500+ corporates and an inspirational pathfinder to various high-profile entrepreneurs and business entities providing leadership excellence for taking their organizations to the next level. He has been instrumental in providing CEO coaching to over Top 100 CEOs in the country. He has been conferred with the ‘Best Leadership Trainer in Asia’ Award by Marshall Goldsmith at the World HRD Congress. He is relentlessly working towards his mission of empowering Indian businesses by sharing management solutions & strategies for their burning problems. Not only are Dr. Vivek Bindra’s principles, strategies, solutions and content very different from other motivational speakers but also his energy and that’s what makes him better than the rest and a business icon for Indian Entrepreneurs!

Categories
Marketing

7 Strategies For Getting More Business From Social Media

How Social Media can turn the Fortune for your Business
 

Social media platforms have enabled business owners to connect with their target audience and engage with quality leads making it very important to focus on social media for business. Social media helps you find people who are interested in your product and can become your customers for life if you engage with them in the manner they like. Here are 7 strategies that can make you a hit on social media. 

1. Modify the content according to your social media platform

  • The biggest mistake a business with social media does is to post the same content on all platforms. People want to see different content. For instance a story format will be best suited for Instagram, but for Facebook that might not work. Hence, customize your content according to the platform to drive your customers.
  • Try to add more emotional content that strikes a chord with the viewer as it is proven to have more effect on people. 

2. Tell stories rather selling your product

  • As you know that the social media platform is a powerful tool to make your product noticeable. Make sure that you have a story around the product you are selling as people on social media connect with stories.
  • People get curious about your product and brand when they see storytelling woven around it. Building a story that consumers can relate to and has a central theme around it helps your business for social media grow.

3. Experiment with the advertisement

  • Try experimenting with your promotional advertisements. Customers pay more attention when they see something different. Initially, you can test an experimental advertisement to see the reaction of your followers and improve it through their feedback.

4. Do tag your brand and influencers

  • To score good exposure, make sure you tag your brand and related influencers to get more followers. Post your content with hashtags # as they receive more attention and involve more people associated with it.
  • Influencer marketing has become popular among many social media platforms. Tactical tagging is important if you want to tap other audiences. Partnership with social media influencers is beneficial for both as the influencer gets to be associated with brands and gets paid for the same and the brand can expand their reach by tapping into the follower base of the influencer.

5. Listen to your customers and competitors

  • Pay attention to each feedback as their valuable feedback can help your product and business grow. Customers feel valued when they are asked to share their opinions and comments that can have a positive effect on the growth of your business and in turn also lead to a higher customer retention rate.
  • Keep an eye on your competitor’s activities; it will help you analyze the market and come up with better social media platform strategies.
  • You can also opt for digital tools to monitor the customer’s feedback and reviews. It will also help you to understand more about your audience profile and their viewing habits. Start paying attention to what is being said by the customer on your social media platform. This is the only place where the customers are the most honest. 

6. Organize Contests and Promotional Events

  • One of the most important tactics for networking on social media is to involve your target audiences in activities and contests. Create promotional events and prepare creative content to grab their attention.
  • Make sure to be creative while curating the contest. Everyone loves to participate in contests especially when they can win a prize at the end. You can start the contest with Limited offer tags or some discount coupons to get more audience on your site. Use interesting hashtags so that the contest reaches many more people.
  • Plan an interesting give away for the winner. There is no harm in spending some amount on a valuable giveaway which the participating members can talk about to their friends on social media. This will help in building a positive and brand image in the eyes of the customer.

7. Give out Freebies

  • If you want your customers to be loyal with you start giving out the freebies. Devote a good deal of freebies regularly. Check the gaps that exist between the customer’s expectation and experience. Giving out freebies and discount coupons can boost the energy of your customer which will lead to generating more revenue.

Implementation of these strategies on social media can generate better results for leaving your competitors in dust. The best way to grow your business is to experiment with new tactics to engage with the consumer and optimize your social media strategy.

Categories
Motivation & Mind Control

3 Simple Steps to Manage Stress and Save Your Business

Stress Management in Business: Key to drive Efficiency

Feeling stressed? Don’t worry, most of the business owners today complain about increasing stress levels. Modern life is filled with challenges, deadlines, long working hours, complicated relationships and uncertainty in business environment. 

Every business owner works about achieving peak performance but in reality, such results take long term investment of time, money and patience. 

Stressing about business process and functions can make you lose the vision and perspective to solve problems in your trade. It takes a lot of energy and focus to put these uncertain stress factors out of your life.

What does it need to get back to the fundamentals? What can you do? It is not about ignoring the daily fires, it is about improving the way you fight the battle.  We tell you three simple steps to bust that stress away and focus on your goal. 

1. Let’s Be Honest

  • Always remember that nothing is certain in this world. Anything negative happening to you or your business process can be improved and worked upon. Don’t neglect realities rather focus on the solution to the problem.
  • Before rushing into the flame, take notes of your greater purpose and put the fire in context. Always remember why you started before ending anything.
  • Be honest with your employees, partners, fellow leaders, customers and everybody who makes the engine of your work run as you are not alone.
  • Don’t be afraid to answer, being honest might help you reduce stress at work and who knows, by sharing the issues you might get a great way to fight with it.
  • It is important to be transparent with your employees so that they know what they need to focus on. Involve them in strategic planning so that they can feel a part of the business process.

2. Take tough decisions with a balanced approach

  • The worst thing we do in uncertain stress situations is to take the wrong decisions. Many business owners take hasty decision around the most vital aspects of the business.
  • Never cut the communication in any tough situation, it often misguides your decision making.
  • You may fail to take note of the larger context if you focus only on the bottom line while ignoring your fellows and team-mates.
  • You will always rise in the process to fight with stress when you understand and work towards dual benefits- of the company and of your employees.
  • Improve your problem-solving skills to help make the challenges thrown at you more manageable. It is a process of identifying stressors and creating strategies to reduce stress at work.
  • Add this powerful tool to your stress management toolbox.

3. Return to your core

  • Always remember what is the foundation and values of your company, I am sure you had a purpose.
  • Stress makes us lose sight of the core things we are working for during tough times.
  • Do not play the blame game rather focus on the issue that is creating the stress in your business process.
  • Recall the previous stress and problem that you have solved and use your previous learnings. 

Top emergency stress stoppers

An emergency stress stopper can help you to defuse the stress for the moment. Here are some points to remember:-

Counting 10 before you speak or react can reduce stress at work.

* Take a few deep breaths until your body starts to relax.

* Take a walk to break the stress and give you a chance to think freshly.

* Take out some time to meditate for mental relief.

* Instead of solving the whole problem, try to break it in parts and then solve it.

* Listen to some motivational speeches or songs. It will help you to deal with rage and reduce stress at work.

* Workout if you are feeling stress. Exercising is the best antidote for stress.

In the end, do remember to be honest with yourself and your employees about what’s working and what needs to be changed. Make tough decisions in the greater context and you will find the peak closer than you thought.