Local Market Launch

Local Market Launch

The Team

Life Style

Don’t Lose Data: 5 Reasons to Buy a Standby Generator

Keeping your data safe is becoming increasingly important, as more and more homes and businesses are capturing their lives digitally. More than ever, videos, photos, and important documents are being stored on hard drives and in the cloud, but what many people don’t realize is that a sudden power outage can cause massive data loss. While losing your electricity is harmless when you have files safely stowed away in a file cabinet or fire safe, people are prioritizing digital storage for its ease of use and seemingly limitless storage capacity.

It’s for these reasons and many others that standby generators are becoming popular for tech companies and residential homes alike. Here are five key reasons to buy a standby generator.

Keep your data safe

Even if your data is stored on the cloud, if servers go down and lose their power, you run the risk of losing data. While many people think of thunderstorms as causing electrical damage if your computer or devices aren’t plugged into a power strip with a surge protector, the risk of data loss is possible whenever power is lost. If you have a standby generator that can automatically reroute power to itself in the event of an outage, you can keep your important data safe.

Standby generators are better than portable options

Some people have been buying portable generators to provide backup power, but in many cases, they aren’t as reliable as a dedicated standby generator. A company like Welland Power, known worldwide as a top-notch UK manufacturer of diesel generators, is going to provide you with something that you can count on far more often than having to go out and hook up a portable generator to run your important appliances. A portable generator is also much more restricted in terms of the amount of power it can supply and how long it can run. If you want to have a dedicated way to ensure you get power, a standby generator is going to be far more effective.

Keep plumbing running

When people think of losing power, they don’t always think about how that may affect their plumbing. However, if you have a sump pump which is powered by electricity, you’ll definitely want to make sure that it stays on to avoid any additional flooding around your home or business. If you’re located in a colder climate, having the temperature stay consistently above freezing point can also be critical in avoiding costly plumbing issues. A burst pipe due to cold temperatures can be a major headache on top of dealing with a power outage, and is best to avoid by purchasing a standby generator.

Mitigates inconvenience and unnecessary costs

If you’ve ever lost power for more than a few hours, you understand how it can be very inconvenient. When your appliances don’t work, it’s harder to cook meals at home or do your laundry. This can necessitate eating out or using a laundromat just to complete household tasks, and can be costly. Another costly complication of losing your power is having food stored in your refrigerator or freezer spoil or go bad. Replacing groceries can be expensive, and having a backup source of power allows you to avoid these kinds of situations.

Keeps you safe in emergencies

In inclement weather or natural disasters like hurricanes, standby generators are a necessity when it comes to keeping you and others safe. Emergency lighting, exit signs, powered doors, and elevators can all be powered by standby generators to ensure that people are able to find shelter and that the shelter is appropriately-equipped to keep them safe. Particularly if you live in an area known for its bad weather and storms, it can be a wise choice to invest in a standby generator.

There are many benefits to buying a standby generator. The peace of mind that comes from knowing that your home or business won’t be compromised during a sudden loss of power is often enough of a benefit to persuade people to insure themselves with a standby generator. Having a backup generator that is able to kick on automatically when you lose prime power can also save you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in unnecessary replacement costs or repairs, making them a worthwhile financial investment for protecting your assets.

Join the discussion on this topic with Local Market Launch by visiting our contact page.

Business

3 Terrific Tips On Sharing Your Crowdfunding Campaign By InventureX

While most entrepreneurs are aware of the potential benefits of crowdfunding, not many of them are able to capitalize on it to advance their businesses. This is because crowdfunding platforms have become more competitive over recent years, with lots of companies vying for attention from the same pool of investors. For this reason, you need a solid plan if you want to succeed. Here’s some top tips that will help you stand out from the crowd in this sphere, and get your business noticed:

1. How to Share Your Crowdfunding Campaign

The Kicktraq website monitors campaigns on Kickstarter, and can be an excellent place to share your crowdfunding campaign. Once your project goes live, you can add it to the website just by placing the Kickstarter URL into the browser search bar. If you add your campaign on the day it is launched, it will be put on a dedicated list that potential investors can browse. The website also has additional features that will promote your campaign to visitors.

Of course, it goes without saying that you should advertise your crowdfunding campaign on your own website. For two or three months, publish a weekly blog post about it and you will begin to see people visiting your website from Google. You could use much of the content and videos you feature on the crowdfunding website for your blog posts.

2. Who to Share Your Crowdfunding Campaign With

Get in touch with social media influencers and ask if they will review or test your product. This will boost the credibility of your campaign and build the value of your brand. This is like a more social version of conventional PR. If your campaign is aimed at a local demographic, you could try offline advertising, like hosting an event locally where you educate the community about your project. After you have collected about 200 emails of local people from Facebook ads, you can set up a Facebook event. Then, announce your project, offer exclusive price reductions, do some giveaways, and provide advanced information.

3. When to Share Your Crowdfunding Campaign

One great platform to share your campaign videos is YouTube, because it is the second most popular search engine in the world behind Google. However, it does take time to attract subscribers on this website, so it is best to begin publishing videos half a year before your campaign launches. Publish brief, casual videos about the subject and you will attract followers ready to invest in your idea.

 

4. Wrapping it up

Image result for inventurex

InventureX has worked with many inventors and entrepreneurs, to help them obtain up to $1 million of crowdfunded capital for their ventures. Their staff have managed more than 350 crowdfunding campaigns over a six year period, so they are intimately familiar with this industry. The company understands how to give campaigns huge exposure and allocate marketing budgets, while turning dreams into successful businesses. Contact them today for a free review, by visiting their website.

 

Blog

What to Expect During HVAC Maintenance

Your heating and air conditioning system probably isn’t something you think about often — until something goes wrong. You expect it to perform, day after day, season after season, reliably and efficiently. But for that to happen, you do need to think about it at least twice a year when you schedule a seasonal tune-up. So, what can you expect during HVAC maintenance? Here’s what a comprehensive tuneup service should include.

Inspecting Your HVAC System

15114147602_9e1d58a50e_d.jpg

Your HVAC technician’s first step is to visually inspect your entire system, including both indoor and outdoor units. This is a good time to replace your system’s air filters if needed, as this is one of the most important maintenance tasks. These are some items the service technician will inspect:

  • Electrical connections — Check for frayed wires and the motor’s current and voltage.
  • Thermostats — The display should match the actual temperature within the home.
  • Condensate drain line — Check for clogs that could lead to water damage, biological growth and poor indoor air quality.
  • Airflow — Look for leaks in air ducts, excessive dirt or debris that could cause poor circulation or damage.
  • Refrigerant level — Low levels cause poor efficiency and could damage the system; leaks must be repaired.
  • Exhaust outlets and fuel lines, if your system uses gas for heating.

During a spring tune-up, your technician will focus on the cooling system to prepare it for the hot weather ahead. A winter tune-up is important as well. Even though Florida residents will only use their heating systems for a short time, your system will be ready to go when it’s chilly outside.

Cleaning Your HVAC System

Although your system’s air filter works to keep dirt and dust out of the air ducts and other components, A layer of dust will inevitably collect on these internal parts. During the inspection, your technician may find that certain parts do need cleaning. The technician may clean the evaporator coil, condenser, blower and condensate drain line. Your ductwork may need cleaning as well to prevent poor air quality and inefficiency. Outdoor units can also be affected by dirt, leaves or other debris. The HVAC service technician will clean these if needed.

Repairing HVAC Components

During the inspection, your technician may find minor repairs that are needed, such as routine replacement of parts, tightening connections or adjusting the thermostat. Your technician can typically repair these minor issues during the visit. However, if more extensive repairs are needed, your technician may need to return at a future date. Scheduling repairs immediately can not only ensure uninterrupted performance of your HVAC system, but it can also prevent more extensive damage from occurring.

Scheduling regular inspections and tune-ups for your HVAC system has many benefits beyond making sure it doesn’t quit working on the hottest day of the summer. It can also save you money on utility bills, improve indoor air quality, and help your system last longer before it needs replacement. It’s one of the best investments you can make to ensure your family’s ongoing comfort and peace of mind.

 

Blog

Benefits of Using Smart Thermostats to Reduce Business HVAC Costs

The thermostat has come a long way in helping to simplify how we manage our heating and ventilation systems. At first, we had the manual thermostat. It was restricted to switching the HVAC system on or off, with little temperature adjustments. Next came the programmable models, which had more temperature controls.

Smart thermostats are the latest entry into the fray, promising a wide range of benefits over the manual and programmable devices. Here are some of the reasons why you need to a smart thermostat installation if you haven’t got one already.

41afe6b744a4e4b45d6d66fe84d7d95f.jpeg

Minimize Human Error and the Need for Constant Intervention

You may have caused a spike in the electricity bill by leaving the HVAC on while you were out. We are all human, and sometimes we may forget to set the thermostat, creating a host of different problems. Besides, who wants to keep on monitoring the thermostat? After all, you have more important things to do. Once it picks up on your routine, a smart thermostat can adjust the temperatures without needing your input.

Control the Temperature in your Office Remotely

When winter sets in, you would want to walk into your office when it is slightly warmer. With a smart thermostat, you can switch things up a bit from your smartphone. You will have complete control over the HVAC system, even when all of you are going away on vacation. The system allows you to set limits and alerts you when the temperatures rise or fall beyond the limits.

Keep Track of External Weather Patterns

Smart thermostats are more intuitive than their old counterparts. Since it is connected to the internet, the smart thermostat can track the local weather forecasts and make suitable adjustments. They have cool interfaces and easy-to-use mobile applications to help you monitor the temperatures while on the move.

Monitor and Regulate your Energy Bill

You may want to know how much of your electricity bill goes into powering your HVAC system. After all, it is responsible for a huge chunk of the energy consumption in your office. A smart thermostat will keep track of energy usage over time. It can make predictions on how much you are going to spend in the future, or whether the system needs repair.

Optimize your Energy Efficiency

A smart thermostat can optimize the heating and cooling functions based on the size and location of your house. Energy is focused on when and where it is most needed, lengthening the life of your equipment. With built-in sensors to detect human movement, they kick the HVAC into service when people are active in the office.

Gain Control over Other Devices

A smart thermostat will come in handy when you have other compatible devices like air purifiers and humidifiers. For example, the smart thermostat can turn on the humidifier when the air is too dry around the office. With a growing number of devices shifting to smart connectivity, you will need your thermostat for many other functions. Voice command devices, for example, allow you to control the temperatures with your speech.

Sooner or later, we’re going to figure out more uses for the smart thermostat — and when it happens, there will be greater benefits for business.

 

Business

3 Reasons to Hire a Backlink Building Expert

If your business has a website (and it really should have a website), you’ll hear a lot about how it’s important to optimize your site for search engines.

Perhaps your company paid a consultant to audit how your website performs in various search engine rankings, and they left you a list of things to change or update, but you don’t know where to start. Oftentimes, taking action is the hardest part of a daunting project like a website redesign or large-scale SEO (search engine optimization) campaign.

That’s why it might be a good idea to speak with a backlink building expert to see what they can do for you. Combining experience, value, and efficiency, there are lots of reasons you may want to hire a professional to handle your link building strategies. Here are just three.

They increase your traffic

If the biggest challenge of increasing your ranking in search engine results (i.e. how high you show up in Google or Bing results) is keeping track of what factors affect your ranking, don’t worry. SEO experts stay on top of the latest trends so you don’t have to, and can make sure that traffic continues to flow to your website by increasing your company’s page authority with backlinks (i.e. links to your website from other websites).

Put simply, “page authority” refers to the overall repute your website has; the more another source or website links to yours, the higher your page authority will be. A backlink expert can help you manage robust backlink campaigns and can analyze your site to identify areas to strengthen your ranking through keywords that fit your niche.

The result is a holistic traffic funnel that takes advantage of page authority rankings to get your company on the first page of search results and boost your traffic in the process.

They increase your profits

Enlisting an expert with your backlink building campaign helps your business’ bottom line in a variety of ways. For starters, your business will earn more money as a result of more traffic, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

For example, have you ever thought about how much time and money it’s costing you to try to learn and manage your own SEO campaigns? When you hire an expert, you save money just by outsourcing the job to another professional. This means that you and your employees can focus on tasks and projects far more central to your company’s day-to-day operations than running a link building campaign.

Best of all, hiring an expert mitigates the risk of trying to learn and execute your own campaign by avoiding rookie mistakes that could wind up being costly setbacks in the overall health of your business.

They help you broaden your audience

Another major benefit of trusting an expert with your link building is the way it diversifies your audience. If you’ve ever tried to run your own link building campaign, you’ve probably realized that you have a limited number of websites you can trade backlinks with.

Link building experts can get you placements on a variety of sources and mediums, drawing from a vast catalogue of reputable websites with strong page rankings themselves. This broadens your potential audience and helps increase the number of visitors on your site. Best of all, you’ll have multiple traffic and revenue streams all aimed at your website, since you aren’t solely relying on search engine results anymore to get users in front of your brand.

Search engine optimization is a constantly evolving beast, thanks to tech giants like Google releasing updates to its search algorithms in order to better serve its users. Rather than attempt to launch your own backlinking campaign, consider reaching out to a third party to learn how they can manage your campaign for you and get you on high-ranking websites.

 

Successful

What Degree Do You Need to Be a Court Reporter?

Getting into the field of court reporting can be an incredibly fulfilling career. Beyond getting to be involved in helping facilitate court cases, court reporters can make a great income, with some reporters making close to $80k a year depending on where they live and work. Here’s what you need to know about getting started as a court reporter.

Degree requirements for court reporting

While some job descriptions explicitly ask for applicants with a four-year degree, the field of court reporting will often accept individuals with only their associate’s degree. This is because employers know that finding a university that offers a four-year program in court reporting is difficult, but associate’s programs are far more common. The typical degrees you will want to pursue are either programs in stenography or in court reporting itself. As you look for specific schools, make sure to find a college that has been accredited. Being accredited by an institution like the National Court Reporters Association can be a major boon to your career after college. The NCRA sets many national standards for court reporting and is a trusted voice in the field, so enrolling in a program that measures up to their standards is crucial if you want to succeed after graduation.

Useful electives to take

While an associate’s program will have different credit requirements from school to school, there will undoubtedly be some electives that you can choose from as you craft your schedule for each semester. The courses you choose are all up to you and your advisor, although there are a few strategic moves you can make to as you think ahead to your career post-graduation. For example, if you know that you want to use your court reporting skills in the courtroom, it’s probably a good idea to take that extra criminal justice course. By the same token, if you’re mostly interested in stenography as a way to provide open or closed captioning services and help individuals with special needs, taking courses in special education, hospitality, or even American Sign Language may be a better fit for your schedule and goals, since those are the venues you’ll most likely use your skills beyond the courtroom.

The importance of certification

Getting certified as a court reporter is one of the fastest ways to get ahead in a competitive job market. There are several different certification tests you can get, ranging from certifications that qualify you as a Registered Professional Reporter to roles as a Certified Legal Video Specialist, Registered Diplomate Reporter, or Certified Realtime Reporter. All of these certifications have different national standards, meaning that Miami court reporters and reporters in other cities across the country all fit a certain criteria to qualify for these certifications. As Laura Ohman, a registered professional reporter, claims on the National Court Reporters Associaton’s website, having a certification from the NCRA “definitely puts you at the top of the list” when you’re looking for a job as a transcriber or captioner. Getting a specialized certification helps to differentiate you from other job seekers and also shows your seriousness in your role. By investing time into studying for and passing any reporting test, you illustrate that you are skilled and invested in the career field you’ve chosen. You can even take all of the certification tests you’d like, allowing you to really level up your resume and make yourself a competitive job candidate in a wide range of roles.

With an average salary of around $50k and the ability to qualify for the job with only an associate’s degree, becoming a court reporter can be a great career choice for someone who types well and loves the legal system. Make sure to take the right classes in college and get a certification or two, and you’ll be well on your way to having a successful and fulfilling career.

 

Business

The Growing Popularity of Spa Management Software

Professional spa management software is specifically designed to help salons, pools, and spas manage their businesses. The software provides an end-to-end solution for handling all aspects of spa management operations, such as scheduling, stock taking, accounting and more. The ultimate goal of such software is to improve the efficiency of business operations and interactions with customers.

For example, online treatment booking can prove to be an invaluable feature of such software for any spa or beauty salon. Not only do online booking facilities free front of house staff from having to answer phone calls all day, but they also enable clients to quickly check available appointment slots and book sessions outside of business opening hours. When a business gets rid of the physical appointment book, filled with often illegible handwriting, the management of appointments becomes much easier, especially during staff changeovers. Everyone working for the business can see an overview of the day’s appointments by logging into the platform, allowing them to better plan for the workday.

When beauty treatment businesses implement the best spa management software, day-to-day tasks are digitalized and logged, making it possible for back-office employees to easily see trends and put in place administrative procedures that will improve the services their clients receive.

Reasons to Invest In Spa Management Software

The globe is going digital and paperless at record pace, and the wellness industry is not getting left behind. The ability to book treatment sessions online has revolutionized the spa and beauty salon sector. Customers everywhere always say that they appreciate online booking services. What’s more, digitizing business administrative operations can have huge time-saving and money-saving benefits. If you want to seamlessly manage spa business, having a business management software is a must!

The all-in-one approach to spa management software from developers means that the best platforms allow for processing point of sale transactions, online booking facilities, real-time data analytics, accounting and payroll, stock control, and so much more. There is no need to purchase multiple software packages any more thanks to the comprehensive salon management software that is now in the marketplace.

Spa Management Software Real World Applications

Any company that provides beauty treatments, spa services or other types of wellness, beauty and health services can benefit from the latest spa management software solutions. From back-end features like appointed scheduling, stock reordering, and payroll management, to front of house features like point-of-sale transaction processing, such software is a great investment for anyone in the beauty, fitness, health and wellness industry. With the right software package, instead of spending large amounts of time managing business transactions, employee schedules, and wage processing, businesses become free to invest more time providing high-quality services to their clients.

Hairstylists and nail bars who operate with rent-a-chair models and even single studio owners can benefits from salon management software from top-rated developers. With online booking, customer appointments are streamlined and booking and confirming appointments becomes much less time-consuming.

Features of Spa Management Software

The core features of top-rated software include appointment scheduling, inventory management, point of sale processing, loyalty management, back-office management, marketing, and mobile optimization. The loyalty management features of the best software can be particularly useful to businesses in the wellness industry who often rely on repeat customers for the majority of their takings. Well-managed loyalty programs can also be a great way to entire new clients who are tired of not being rewarded for their loyalty by a business’s competitors. Loyalty programs can be custom-designed using points systems. Points can then be exchanged for discounts, gift cards, free sample treatments, etc.

The inventory management features of great spa management software can help to save businesses in the beauty industry thousands of dollars. Automated systems can be set up so that products are reordered when stocks are running low. Furthermore, expiry dates of products can be tracked so that beauticians don’t accidentally use solutions that are past their expiry date and therefore less likely to be effective.

The best software can also facilitate effective spa marketing. With access to real-time data, developing an engaging digital marketing campaign becomes a lot easier. What’s more, when new clients are able to book appointments outside of business hours, there is no risk of losing business. The software can also be used to collect e-mail addresses and send out email marketing material. In addition, a business can schedule marketing posts for social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

Trends Linked to Salon Management Software

Advances in mobile technology are set to play a big part in the development of future features for spa management online platforms. It likely that future POS systems will operate entirely from smartphones and tablets as opposed to stand-alone terminals. Furthermore, clients will be able to book services on the go and receive remote consultations prior to their in-salon appointments via video calls. There really are lots of cool features in development from the global leaders in spa management software solutions.

For more awesome business tips from Local Market Launch, click here!

Life Style

4 Tips to Get Started as an Influencer

Marketing through influencers has become more and more popular since the dawn of the internet. Consumers are trusting the celebrity endorsements so common in commercials less and less. They seek more credible, expert, and knowledgeable sources than those of paid actors. In this day and age, these qualities are found among social media influencers. Take a look below as we walk you through a few tips on how you can get started as an influencer.

Find Your Specialization

The first step in becoming a social media influencer is discovering where you fit in. Influencers who align their content with their passions and interests are far more successful than those who choose something that they aren’t passionate about, but think will be lucrative. Your target audience is far more likely to believe you when you review a product if you are enthusiastic when you do so.

Develop Your Format and Posting Strategy

Formatting and posting strategies make or break all forms of social media influencers. Think about the mediums that are most likely to be appealing to your target audience and appropriate for your personality and style. Proper combinations of pictorial, video, audio, and text formatting draw viewers and customers more effectively than single formats.

Balance personal and informative content carefully. The 5-3-2 principle creates a practical balance for most influencers. Of every 10 posts you publish, five need to be valuable content created by others, three ought to be informative and exciting content created by you, and two should be posts about you personally.

Select Your Social Media Platforms

43809951554_6411d3b935.jpg

Do some research on your chosen specialization to find out what platform people interested in it tend to use. If your specialization focuses heavily on images, Instagram is a reliable choice. If video is more your thing, consider YouTube as a platform for your influencing. If text is the best way to get your point across, Twitter will be helpful. Facebook combines aspects of all three, so it is wise to use it alongside other social media platforms to reach as many people as possible.

Distribute Your Content in a Timely Manner

The goal of every influencer is to extend their reach to as many people as possible. Your content can be the best on the internet, but if you aren’t putting it out there for people to view and interact with it, it’s useless. To this end, it is vitally important that you plan the timing of your content distribution carefully.

Research the best times to post on different social media platforms, according to their characteristic patterns of use. Posting when the largest number of people possible are online on each platform will maximize your effectiveness as a social media influencer.

Through the selection of a specialty that is meaningful to you, the development of format and posting strategy, the choosing of relevant social media platforms, and the timely distribution of content, you will be well on your way to becoming a successful social media influencer. Be patient and publish content frequently. Sticking to these steps will help you realize your influencer goals.

 

Business

Jacques Poujade Talks About the Five Best U.S. Housing Markets for Real Estate Investing


A picture containing indoor, floor Description automatically generated

Today’s article is written by Jacques Poujade, who has worked in the financial services sector for three decades, and who presently serves as the Managing Partner for LendPlus – a California based direct lender. In this role, Jacques calls on his considerable knowledge of the lending sector to assist customers, who want to get on the property ladder. We’ll hand over to Jacques now, so he can offer his thoughts about the American housing market:

Ten years ago, was the ideal time to purchase real estate in America, because prices had hit an all-time low and investment homes were available for derisory sums. However, if you were unable to capitalize on this opportunity, now is still a good time enter the market. If you are searching for a profitable nest egg to secure your future, you should take a closer look at the five markets I have listed below:

1. Dallas, TX — The cost of living in Dallas is fairly low. The average price of a property is $237,800, and Zillow ranks the city number seven on its’ Top Ten Property Markets. In addition, Dallas has been ranked as the twelfth best city for job seekers and rental prices are going up. The city economy is stable as well.

2. Ogden, UT — Properties cost $246,251 on average in Ogden, and this is forecast to increase by ten percent over the next twelve months. During the coming years, real estate prices are predicted to rise by an amazing twenty-nine percent. Furthermore, jobs are expected to increase by 5.7 percent over the next few years, and the city population ought to grow by 5.1 percent over the same time period.

3. Nashville, TN — Nashville was chosen by Amazon as one of its’ areas for expansion, so new jobs are forecast for this city. The average price of property is competitive, at $252,200, and rental prices are reasonable at $1499 per month. Since last year, rental prices have risen by 15.3 percent, and more increases should be on the horizon — once the demand for housing increases because of career opportunities with Amazon.

4. Orlando, FL — Currently, $247,550 is the average price of an Orlando property, and this is predicted to increase by nine percent over the following year. Even better, Orlando house prices are forecast to rise by thirty-five percent over the next few years. The population in this city has grown by eight percent during the past three years, and jobs here ought to increase by roughly seven percent over the next couple of years.

5. San Diego, CA — In contrast to San Jose and San Francisco, average house prices in San Diego are still reasonable, as far as rental income goes. In San Jose, you would have to pay $1.2 million for a property that could be rented for $3521 per month. In San Diego though, the average house price is under fifty percent of this, and the average rental income is $3573. Moreover, the average rental income rose by 13.2 percent during 2018.

 

Business

How to Find and Hire the Right Marketing Agency for Your Business

Some business owners aren’t aware of just how important the right marketing campaign is to their bottom line. They might leave it to chance or think they can learn all they need to know by reading a couple of articles. The truth is, though, that a poorly planned strategy can cost you thousands of dollars and make little impact if you don’t know what you’re doing. Not only that, but you could be spending valuable time on this project that you could be spending on the tasks you excel at. However, as important as it is to hire a marketing agency, hiring one that does low-quality work can be a useless endeavor. This article is your go-to guide for finding a Fresno marketing agency to best fit your needs.

Do your research

You wouldn’t believe how many people without the qualifications call themselves digital marketers. Freelancers and entrepreneurs know it’s a lucrative and growing field, so they often jump into the business without much training. And while marketing is something that can be self-taught, not everyone has the knack or expertise to do it right. Make sure that when you hire an agency, the employees have the experience and numbers to back up their claims. Take the time to read the company’s online reviews. Contact some of the businesses they claimed to have helped. But don’t just settle for positive comments; ask to see their numbers. In other words, if you talk to their customers, ask them how much money the agency helped them make and how many new customers they got as a result of those campaigns.

Interview them

Treat the hiring process just like a job interview. In other words, the agency you hire should mesh well with you, understand your goals, and have the right experience. You also want to hire an agency aligned with similar values. Some people out there use shady practices, and you need to know exactly what they do to attract customers. For example, some marketers use black hat SEO (search engine optimization). This just refers to a number of digital marketing tactics that are less than honest. It might include misleading links or falsified analytics data, to name a couple.

If the agencies you’re talking to are local Fresno companies, it’s best to set up meetings right in their offices. That way, you can get a feel for how they operate and how big the agency is. But if you’re dealing with an online company, schedule a phone meeting, asking them to set aside 30 to 45 minutes to discuss your exact needs and expectations. If they refuse to meet with you over the phone or in person, it could be a red flag that they’re either not fully vested in this part of the business or they’re not who they say they are.

Consider their prices

The marketing firm you hire should be willing to negotiate on pricing. This is because every business has different needs in this area. However, be careful about agencies that offer the lowest prices. If that’s their only way to compete, they might not be as good at what they do as the others.

If you do happen to find the best marketing agency for your business and feel they’re out of your price range, don’t be afraid to speak up. Many times, they can take out a service or two in the beginning and reduce the price. Then, after you’ve made a little money from their marketing dollars, you can add those services back in. Do realize you will have to allocate part of your budget for marketing. It’s possibly the most important part of launching your new business.

To read more on topics like this, check out the business category.