If you want your business to grow, it is important to take care of your employees. This means making sure they have everything they need to do their jobs effectively and that they feel appreciated. Employees who are happy and content with their work environment are more likely to be productive and efficient.

Therefore, business owners these days should focus on creating a positive work culture and providing their employees with the necessary tools to succeed. By doing so, they will be able to see growth in their business in the long run.

Keeping Employees Happy

Employee satisfaction is essential for business growth, but it can be difficult to achieve. It’s no secret that happy employees lead to productive teams and a successful business. But many businesses struggle with creating a work environment that satisfies their employees.

Taking care of your employees should be a top priority for any business. After all, without your employees, it would be impossible to run your business. It’s important to create a positive work culture and provide your employees with the necessary tools to succeed. By doing so, you will be able to see growth in your business in the long run.

Below are tips on how you can take care of your employees and see business growth in the process:

• Create a positive work culture

This is one of the most important things you can do for your employees. Positive work culture will make them feel appreciated and valued. When employees feel like they’re a part of something, they’re more likely to be productive and put their best foot forward.

Positive work culture can be implemented by creating a fun and relaxed work environment, praising employees when they do good work, and having an open-door policy. This way, employees will feel comfortable coming to you with any problems or concerns they have.

• Give employees the tools they need to do their jobs

Another way to take care of your employees is by giving them the tools they need to do their jobs. This includes things like proper training, equipment, and software. Employees who don’t have the tools that they need to do their jobs will be less productive and may even leave the company.

• Ensure employees are paid a fair wage

Employees also need to be paid a fair wage. This means that the salary you offer your employees should be in line with the industry standard. If you don’t pay your employees fairly, they will likely look for jobs elsewhere.

Make sure that you also pay your employees on time. Otherwise, they may leave your company because they are not happy with how they are being treated.

• Provide employees with benefits

Employees also need benefits such as health insurance, dental insurance, and vision insurance. This will help keep your employees healthy and happy. If your employees are healthy and happy, they will be more productive at work. Therefore, it’s important to provide employees with benefits that will help them stay healthy.

• Give employees enough time to rest

Employees also need time off to relax and rejuvenate. They cannot be productive at work if they are always stressed out. Make sure that you give your employees enough time off so that they can recharge their batteries. This will help them come back to work feeling refreshed and ready to go!

Just make sure that you don’t overwork your employees. If they are always stressed out, they will eventually burn out and leave your company.

• Create a safe and healthy work environment

Employees need to feel safe at work to be productive. If they don’t feel safe, they will be constantly worried about their safety and will not be able to focus on their work.

Create a safe and healthy work environment for your employees by implementing safety measures such as fire alarms, first-aid kits, and emergency exits. Make sure that the workplace is clean and free of hazardous materials. Employees will feel much better if they know that they are working in a safe environment.

• Create a comfortable work environment

A comfortable work environment is key for employee productivity. If your employees are uncomfortable, they’re going to be less productive. Make sure the office temperature is comfortable, there’s enough space for them to move around, and that they have the right tools and equipment to do their job properly. This way, they’ll be able to focus on their work instead of being uncomfortable.

It’s important to take care of your employees to promote business growth. There are plenty of ways for business owners to guarantee that their employees are happy. The tips above will help business owners keep their employees happy, which will lead to increased productivity and business growth.

Analytics is the future of business. Everybody should be using statistics and numbers to make their business decisions. Artificial intelligence and computer software are becoming more advanced by the year, so it’s important to evolve with the technology.

We know it’s much more comfortable to stick to technology and methods that you know and understand. That being said, if you’re not using modern analytics, your competition is and that’ll give them a major advantage over you.

Fortunately, there are entrepreneurs like Christopher de Diego out there who are more than willing to help get you back up to speed on modern marketing techniques. Christopher de Diego is a professional speaker, marketing analytics consultant, and SaaS expert.

He is one of the leading professionals in the marketing industry and has substantial knowledge of marketing analytics, and he was willing to answer a few of our questions about this growing technology.

Should every business get in on marketing analytics, or is it reserved for big multi-billion-dollar companies?

Analytics are more accessible than ever thanks to modern technology and companies like Google. They are very affordable and well worth the investment.

In my opinion, every business should be using analytics, whether the business is a chain or if it is a drop shop ran by one individual. Analytics are truly invaluable since they make sure that every marketing strategy you invest in will be hitting your target audience and reaching people that will want to buy your product.

Why are marketing analytics so important?

Like I said before they’re important because they help you understand and reach your target audience. They are extremely sophisticated in the modern world.

Utilizing marketing analytics will make sure that your ads reach the right people, on the right site, at the right time. The algorithms are so advanced, and with the help of the right manager, they can exponentially increase a business’s customer base and profit.

Should someone create a product first and then check out analytics to see who to market to? Or should they check out analytics and then create the product?

Well if you’re able to make the choice, I’ll always say to check the stats first then make the product based on what they say. However, that’s not always an option, and if you already have a product that’s fine.

Analytics are still going to help you sell that product. If you’re trying to sell that product to 100 random people, maybe only 10 will buy it. With analytics, you can try to sell that product to 50 people, 40 of them will buy it, and then the other 10 people might come back and purchase it later.

Are there any less obvious places where analytics can help out? Other than just figuring out who to market towards?

Sure, one place companies are experimenting with them right now is in their customer support departments. While it’s not exactly marketing, having good customer support is crucial to retaining customers and keeping a good reputation.

How can companies get started with marketing analytics? Is it difficult?

Well, first off there are a lot of analytics services available for websites. Google Analytics, AWS has analytics available for sites hosted on their platform, there are WordPress plugins, the list goes on and on.

Any of these tools will be a great way for businesses to get started. After that, I’d definitely recommend a marketing or analytics consultant, and then you can look into marketing analytics software that might work for your business.

You Might Also Like: Christopher de Diego Shares Key Blockchain Moves To Watch In 2022

 

The emergence of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) created new opportunities for artists. With the NFT space you get the chance to promote your work and earn reasonably from auctions. As an artist, this revolutionizes your experience in creating and selling your artwork.

To ensure that you properly understand the journey into NFTs, Click Clone Cash, seasoned experts on the NFT ecosystem, share some important tips that can help you succeed in this interview.

• How easy is it for digital artists to get into the NFT space?
  

As an active digital artist, you are halfway through the process of becoming one that creates NFTs. If you have been selling your art digitally in some other ways previously, all you need to do is to mint your desired crypto art collection on any of the available platforms.

Once you have minted an NFT, you can put it up for sale immediately on the marketplace. You are entitled to the copyright. In addition, you can sell the NFT and even earn royalties whenever ownership is transferred.

• Are there restrictions on the type artworks that can be made as NFTs?

There are generally no restrictions on what can be made into NFTs. NFTs is not restricted to paintings or illustrations alone.

NFTs can be all kinds of digital file such as photographs, art, music, videos, memes, etc. You will need to choose what file format you want to create your NFT in because there are different supporting file formats for each type of art.

• Do you think artists should stick to a niche or be more open and experimental?
  

As an artist that wants to get into NFTs, you need to figure out what kinds of artworks you are going to create. You should have a niche you intend to focus on.

Having a niche when creating your digital art can help you develop your skills and create a dedicated audience that understands your art. You may also decide to have multiple niches that you can delve into at any time.

• What will you say is the biggest obstacle that may affect new NFT artists and how can they overcome it?
  

The basic challenge new NFT artists can face is lack of information. In the NFT space, many artists fail to start off on a good note because of the lack of up-to-date information on the happenings in the NFT space.

That is why at Click Clone Cash, we provide the latest NFT news and strategies to help educate those with interest in NFTs.

Another problem is inadequate financial and material resources which may also be a challenge for brand new NFT artists. Also, the need to pay gas fees to mint NFTs comes at a huge cost.

• What important steps does Click Clone Cash advise artists to take as they get into the NFT space?
  

When you are ready to go into the NFT space as digital artists, you have to prepare to make an investment in the entire process. You need to start from the very basic of learning about NFTs. Also, you should know how to promote yourself on social media because it is a powerful tool needed to grow your audience.

Indeed, to make yourself a successful and established NFT artist, you should make creative and unique NFT art.

 

The UK skilled worker visa is the type of visa that is given to the person that has been offered a valid job by an organization in the UK that is ready to sponsor them. Along with the valid job offer, the visa authorities require a person to meet a specific salary threshold. All the details regarding the salary threshold are discussed in the blog below.

Is salary important to get a skilled workers visa?

The salary that is taken into consideration for a skilled worker visa is the gross basic salary of the person. It is the salary out of which you still have to deduct employee pension, income tax, and National insurance contributions. Following are the examples of the salaries that are not considered valid for a skilled worker’s visa.

• Payments that are received by working overtime, whether they are mentioned in the contract or not.
• Expenses of the business that also include the hotel expenses
• Allowances
• Insurance that covers health benefits
• Pension of employer and National insurance contributions of an employer
• Tuition fees
• The on-off salary also includes the cost of relocation that is not part of the gross salary package.
• Immigration costs related payments
• Any other payment that is guaranteed to be received that also includes incentive pay and bonuses

The Salary Requirement: UK Skilled Worker

The minimum salary required to get the UK skilled worker visa is £25,600 or 100% of the market rate defined by the authorities for the services that you will be provided unless there is an exception in your case.

Salary Requirements For UK Skilled Workers Visa In Case Of New Entrants

In the case of new entrants, the minimum salary requirement is £20,4800 per annum or at least 70% of the market rate for the services that you will be providing. Any immigrant who falls under any of the categories mentioned below will be considered as a new entrant.

The conditions are:

1. The applicant is studying to get the qualification required for a regulated profession in the UK.
2. The person applying is completing the process to get complete registration or chartered status provided by the concerned authorities for the occupation he is being sponsored.
3. The recent permission to the applicant to stay in the UK was not on a visitor visa basis. It must be based on the Graduate route and the permission is either still valid or its expiry date is less than 2 years before the date on which the application was submitted.
4. The previously granted student visa for the applicant to study for a UK bachelor’s degree valid in the UK, a master’s degree valid in the UK, a UK PhD or any doctorate level education a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, or a Professional Graduate Diploma of Education;

Tier 2 Intra-Company Transfer (ICT)

The valid salary for an Intra-company transfer application can be the sum of the gross basic pay and any guaranteed allowances that you applicant might earn during the employment period in the UK. You may get immigration attorney services if you have any queries regarding which salary you need to mention on your application for a skilled workers visa.

The Salary Requirement: Intra-Company Transfer

The minimum required for acceptance of a visa under the Intra-Company-Transfer category is £41,500 so the applicant is required to prove that he will earn either £41,500 or 100% of the market rate fixed by the given authorities for the occupation you have joined unless there are any exceptions in your case.

ILR application as a Skilled Worker

Remember, according to UK visa laws, the minimum salary required to get the UK skilled person visa is £25,600 or 100% of the market rate defined by the authorities for the services that you will be provided unless there is an exception in your case so you may have to submit proof that you will be getting the required salary. If you have the right marketable skill set, finding a good job that meets the minimum criteria should definitely not be a problem. You can search on platforms such as LinkedIn and Glassdoor to find the right fit.

You must seek help from any skilled work visa immigration lawyers to get the guidance that might be required to you to get positive results on your application. In case you are staying in the UK on the Intra-Company Transfer Visa, you may to allowed to permanently settle after some time but if you meet the criteria of Long Residence in the UK.

 

If your startup requires you to meet with clients often, buying a company car sounds like a good idea. It would spare you from a grueling commute, which could dishevel your appearance and affect your client’s perception of you. With a car, you can travel in comfort and style, bolstering your company image and your own.

But owning a car isn’t cheap. Fuel prices continue to rise, and maintenance can run you dry. If not all of your employees are familiar with a car’s upkeep, you might risk early wear or frequent repairs. That would increase your operational costs even more as a result.

Still, there are compelling reasons to let your team use a company car. If you think your startup is ready for it, consider these factors first:

1. Budget

Having a budget for a company car doesn’t necessarily mean you should go and buy one right away. Ask yourself what kind of vehicle can your budget buy first. If it can only afford a used car, will that be good for your company’s image?

Remember, creating a particular image is essential for businesses. If you want to project your startup as a luxurious brand, your resources should also look luxurious. It would boost your credibility. For instance, you can’t meet with a VIP client in a used Corolla and convince them that your company image is equivalent to a Mercedes-Benz. Though a Corolla will always be a classic, it’s not just in the level of luxury cars.

If the company’s cash alone can’t cover the amount of the car you need, consider getting a car loan from banks. They give better interest rates than other lenders. If you’d use the car purely for business, get a commercial car loan. It’s similar to a consumer auto loan, except more documentation is required. And though you can also use a commercial car for personal errands, you can only factor the business-related costs when you deduct business expenses from your taxes.

For the documents required, it would most likely include your business license, articles of incorporation, and tax identification number. If your business is a sole proprietorship, the bank would ask for its Department of Trade and Industries registration and tax identification number.

2. Costs

The upfront costs of a car are the tip of the iceberg. The real budgeting challenge will begin when you maintain the vehicle. Owning a vehicle in certain countries, like the Philippines, can put on a strain on your finances. Even stable companies aren’t invincible to its staggering costs. First of all, fuel prices are higher in the Philippines than in other Southeast Asian countries. As of November 5, 2021, a diesel pump cost PHP46.43 ($0.92) per liter on average.

With regard to repairs, new cars are under the manufacturer’s warranty. Most automakers also set schedules for preventive maintenance, helping car owners stay updated on their servicing requirements. But preventative maintenance isn’t given for free. It costs PHP9,000 on average, including oil changes, tune-ups, and cleaning.

Parking will also affect the costs. If you’d use the car around the capital and other major cities, expect to pay for parking every time. Parking the car on a roadside could cause it to be towed, which will require you to pay a hefty fine.

3. Your Company Policies

Before letting your employees drive a company car, review your policies. It will help determine who would be held accountable if the vehicle is misused. For example, if a sales associate would use the car 50% for business and 50% for personal use, how would this affect the loan payments? Will the sales associate bear some of its costs because they also use the car for personal purposes?

In this scenario, the company still covers the full monthly payment. But the amount you can deduct as a business expense is only up to the extent the car is used for business purposes. That would be the car’s depreciation caused by business-related trips.

The company will also reimburse the sales associate for their business driving expenses. To determine what business driving expenses are, refer to the accountable plan recommended by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It requires employees to provide an adequate record of business use and amounts spent. It also requires employees to return excess reimbursements within a given deadline.

If your employees can abide by an accountable plan, then perhaps it’s a safe bet to buy a company car for the team. They should also listen to your cost-saving recommendations. If an employee takes advantage of your company’s reimbursements, they might promote that attitude to the whole team. So account for these risks as well before making the final decision. But if your startup’s team is reliable, trustworthy, and considerate of the company, they may deserve that company car.

 

The goal of rebranding is to craft a brand new identity that stands out in the sea of competitors and relates well with employees, customers, investors, and the general audience.

There are myriad reasons why businesses choose to rebrand. For example, you might have outgrown your original mission, your brand may not be relevant with changing times, or you want to pivot from a crisis or bring forth a new brand voice.

You can get in touch with companies such as The Now Protocol Branding Agency to help you achieve your rebranding goals.

Here are the five ways to revamp your brand.

Gain an Understanding of Your Mission and Values

Rebranding can be a time, money, and effort-intensive task. It would help to understand the right motivation behind revamping your brand. Analyze what your brand stands for, how it adds value to people’s lives, why your company exists.

Your brand is the extension of your company’s missions and values. You can connect with your target audiences when you can successfully portray your company’s story through brand identity.

Research Your Audience and Competitors

You need to understand the audience, the faces behind the numbers your brand is catering to. Collect and analyze data to see the customer demography that engages with your brand. If potential customers are not buying from you, who else are they buying from?

The answers to such questions help you establish an audience segment. You can then customize your branding and marketing strategies to cater to a specific market.

Create a Unique Brand Identity

The logo, tagline, colour scheme, and typography are elements audiences use to identify and relate to a brand. Therefore, your logo should be simple, impactful, and convey your vision.

If you have built a reputable brand over the years, instead of going for a complete revamp, you could opt for a partial revamp. You could keep elements that work for you that customers know you for and add fresh aspects that help you capture the attention of new customer markets and position your brand for future growth.

You can contact a reputable branding agency to know more about rebranding services.

Stay Consistent Across All Channels

Once you have created a brand identity considering your values, customer expectations, and changing trends, you need to stay consistent across all channels. For example, you have opted for a new colour scheme; this change should reflect in all communication modes like website, social media, email, and business cards.

You can generate brand awareness, but consistency will help boost brand recall among potential customers.

Make it Personal

For 71% of customers, shopping can be frustrating when the entire experience is impersonal. Customers need to know their choices and opinions matter; they should feel like a part of the brand.

With online shopping on the rise, customers today expect personalized experiences. Thus as a brand, you need to convey the right message with the right emotions to attract and retain customers.

Rebranding may seem like a daunting experience, but with customers having choices galore, it is up to businesses to adapt to changing trends. With the proper support from branding agencies, your brand can emerge as a winner at the other end of the rebranding campaign.

 

Print procurement is a term that describes a management process related to printing and print related costs. A lot of successful businesses or companies invest a significant amount of funds and time on making arrangements for the provision of print jobs or services within the company.

It has gradually become one of the most popular strategies to employ for success in sales and marketing. The major purpose print procurement fulfills is to manage costs by implementing various strategic concepts of procurement.

In strategic procurement, the primary concept is that a lot of cost can be saved though a consolidated purchasing activity and advanced planning. There is also a chance at greatly reducing expenses leading to an even more efficient and effective business operation therefore making more profits.

For a lot of successful ventures, various departments are required to make an annual budget of its expenses every year. With regards to print procurement, all the expenses required are taken care of by the procurement department. It is the responsibility of the procurement officer to review all the available information in other to determine if there is any opportunity for strategic procurement.

The implementation of this system leads to a more cost efficient outcome and this is making it a very popular option amongst a lot of top businesses and companies providing such services globally. To learn more, keep reading.

Before Adopting Print Procurement

A lot of platforms offering these services are available to help organizations obtain more control over their print expenses and also provide them with a revised, standard and automated process of procuring print. You can also watch this video to see how technology is transforming this industry.

But before implementing it into your business operations, there are factor that need to be put into consideration in other to seamlessly make the most suitable choice. Therefore, here are some tips you might find useful to help in your analysis and selection process of a platform that best fits your organization.

Define Your Goals

It is of great importance to understand and set an end goal before adopting this system into your organization. You need to answer questions like, what problem needs to be solved by the system and what do you need it to achieve?

There are various goals a company can hope to achieve through adopting this system such as better enhancing the organization’s visibility, reduction in print expenses, improvements in cycle times as well as management reporting and many others. Defining your goals will help you in the process of choosing a system that aligns most with those goals.

Define your Business needs

All businesses have their own unique and specific needs, it is therefore important to be fully aware of those needs in order to be able to fully adopt a system most suitable to meet those needs. Some factors to consider should include how easily the system can integrate with the other office systems or whether it is required to stand alone.

Another factor to consider is whether the system offers an option for customization of different print projects and also whether the system will be on premise or on demand. Knowing the answers to all these questions gives you the chance to choose the most suitable option for your organization.

Define the Overall Value

Value in this case means way more than saving cost. It is necessary to note that during the cause of evaluating the return on investment (ROI) for the deployment of the procurement system, cost will be saved both directly and indirectly.

Because of how much more efficient the process has become, there is an Improvement in the allocation of resources, reduction in the cycle times, efficient report capabilities and many more benefits helps to not only save cost but also time which is an added value.

Check Reporting Tools for your Business Needs

Adopting a procurement system will go a long way in streamlining and improving print purchasing processes. By providing enough visibility and ensuring compliance to the pre-negotiated prices, spot buying from approved supplier is encouraged.

Before choosing a system for your business, you must ensure that it can track cost and manage the process of invoicing or recharging. It is also important that the system selected be able to provide the relevant data needed for your organization to make the best decisions.

Having an extensive reporting capability is also a big plus as it allows important data to be displayed in a way that benefits the decision making process of the company. Check here https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/printconsiderations-when-choosing-procurement-platform-claritum for more considerations when choosing a procurement system.

Conclusion

For companies that are into the business of frequently buying printed materials and marketing services, having a suitable print procurement system will be of significant importance. But like any other system needed for business operations, it is necessary to evaluate the benefits/solutions they provide in order to choose the most suitable for your company.

 

At first glance, investing in digital technology may seem a costly expense for modern businesses. Despite this fact, many companies are willing to invest a lot of money in implementing cutting-edge processes or tools in their daily operations. One example is the robot vision that introduces new levels of accuracy and precision in automated processes.

Embracing automation in your business can lead to successful results only if you have a solid strategy to support it. Learn how you can craft an effective automation strategy for your business.

Begin with a business strategy

When planning an automation strategy for their business, most business owners have a bit of cutting to the chase. They start by evaluating which automation tools are popular and widespread without thinking about how they will solve a problem or benefit the business as a whole.

Choosing an automation tool before planning on your automation strategy hinders further discovery of other digital technologies that are related and more useful in achieving your business’s bottom line. In fact, some technologies might already be existing within your organization’s digital environment.

Focusing too early on automation or any kind of cutting-edge technology might disregard other technological changes in terms of organizational or process changes. Also, focusing on technological advancements without understanding their implication to your business increases the likelihood of focusing too much on a specific brand or technology.

If you want to invest in the right tools, you need to consult an IT professional to understand how a specific technology will solve issues within your business. Assuming your business needs an automated process can only lead to unnecessary expenses and process failures. Just because automation is an emerging business trend doesn’t mean you should join the hype. A good decision-maker skips the automation hype but instead investigates whether the business really needs an automation strategy and how it will benefit them.

Having a business strategy early on will help you understand whether automation will help you accomplish your business goals. For example, if you want to eliminate manual tasks in your daily operations while lowering overhead costs, you can search for automation tools to help you in that pursuit.

Identify underlying factors in embracing IT technology

Your automation strategy should not only advance the objectives of your business, but also the long-term plans of your IT strategy. These include reduced manual processes, lower operating costs, faster generation of production output, elimination of human error, and lower environmental footprint.

Any new business strategy, including automation, should reflect the main principles of how IT is working towards its goals. So if your IT team focuses on data access, application use, and network resources, your new automation strategy should be aligned with these principles.

When evaluating a possible automation strategy, you can establish a set of criteria to determine whether a specific process or tool supports any of the given principles. The same also applies when mapping your business objectives to your IT principles. In this case, IT principles should always support the business goals.

Tap key stakeholders

The success of an automation solution is dependent on the people managing them. So if you want your automation strategy to work, you need to get everyone involved, particularly the key stakeholders.

Start with getting approval from the top management. Without their buy-in, your automation project remains a stillbirth. The last thing you want is to have the management reject your idea after coming up with an effective automation solution to solve a tedious manual process. In this case, you have to convince them why your automation project proposal will benefit the company’s bottom line.

Next is to pull in the IT team, including developers and staff. Tell them about your plans in mind and ask for suggestions. You can also invite the people who will handle the automation software. Find out whether the new platform will solve some daily challenges in IT operations and the possible features they want the new automation tool to fix.

Of course, it’s also important to hear what software vendors are saying. Gather as much information as you can to know the best tool that suits your business needs. Learn about how it is commonly used and ask for training material and a demo.

In today’s tech-driven world, business automation has become more than just a buzzword. It has turned into an integral part of a successful business. While embracing automation requires significant shifts in staffing, team structures, and processes, this initiative can go a long way in defining your business process.

 

Running an e-commerce business is very lucrative due to low startup costs, high returns on investment, and the ability to reach millions of potential customers. People all over the world are turning to e-commerce to make an extra income or even replace their 9-5 jobs. The most profitable online business is undoubtedly Amazon FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon). This means that you buy products from a wholesaler, send them to Amazon’s warehouse, and they will sell the items on your behalf. Since you don’t need any stock of your own (and no risk involved), you only pay for the products once they’re sold.

What is highly beneficial about this business model is that Amazon takes care of everything: payment processing, customer support, shipping, and returns. Starting an Amazon FBA business is fairly simple, but it does require some initial investments to acquire the products.

As an online retailer, you have the choice of selling your own merchandise or purchasing products from wholesalers, repackaging them with your logo, and selling them on other platforms.

Things You Need for Your E-Commerce Business

The domain name and web hosting

While you don’t need a website to start selling online, having your own website will give you more credibility for customers. There are multiple options when it comes to hosting. Many web hosts offer free domains if you host with them, but they usually have strict rules about bandwidth usage and whatnot. You can also purchase your own domain name and use it with any hosting service.

Online selling platform

There are many platforms to sell your merchandise, but eBay is probably the most popular one for beginners since it’s well-established in terms of trustworthiness. You can also try to sell on Facebook or Craigslist. We have a guide on how to open an online store with Shopify.

Name, address, and phone number of a registered business

You can purchase a DBA (Doing Business As) online for as low as $50. To be found by search engines, your website or shop name should contain the keywords that best describe your business. If you’re unsure about your business name, you can use a temporary website with placeholder text.

Courier

When it comes to receiving packages, you have the option of working with a courier pick-up service provider or simply doing self-pick-ups at your local post office. Many online retailers work with DHL, UPS, and FedEx since these services are reliable, offer discounts, and can track packages for you.

Tax ID number (or EIN)

If your business is a sole proprietorship, you will need a Federal Tax ID number to open a business account online. You can easily apply for an EIN by filling out an SS-4 form and submitting it to the IRS.

Time and patience

Running an e-commerce business will not be easy at first. You need to set up your website or eBay store, create listings for your products and constantly promote them if you want to succeed. It’s important that you don’t give up after the first few weeks and you keep looking for new products to sell.

Payment Gateway

You need a payment gateway to process payments and keep your funds safe. PayPal offers a great solution for new online businesses, but it comes with higher fees than other alternatives such as Stripe or Square.

Customer support

There will always be customers who want to cancel their order, return the product, or ask questions. It’s important that you provide your phone number and email on your website and list all policies for returns and refunds. Even though customer support is stressful at times, it makes you look more trustworthy in front of potential customers.

Customer feedback software

Many online shoppers consider customer reviews to be critical when making decisions about purchases. Feedback Genius is a great plugin that will help you gather reviews from happy or unhappy customers. You can also use it to solicit feedback from your Shopify store visitors.

Logo and pictures

Your logo is what customers remember the most about your brand, so it’s important that you have a professional design. You can buy a logo on a stock photo site or find a freelance designer. Professionally-edited photos are equally important.

SEO optimization

If you want to be found online, it’s important that your website is properly optimized. There are plenty of SEO services, but Moz Local will help you with the location part of the equation. You can also start by doing some basic search engine optimization on your own.

Even though opening up an online store will require some initial investments, you should always try to think long-term when starting a new business venture. If you decide to start selling online, you will need to create listings and take good product photos. You can choose to hire a freelancer for these tasks, but it might be more beneficial to learn how to do this yourself.

Crypto and NFT are still a mystery to most of the world. Cryptocurrency has peaked its head into the mainstream world recently with Dogecoin, but NFTs are still a bit elusive to most people. Joe Jedlowski is the Chairman and CEO of Distinctive Living and has quite the impressive business resume.

He has owned multiple very successful businesses including Milestone Retirement Communities, LLC and is very well respected in the corporate world. We sat down with Joe Jedlowski, an outspoken NFT advocate, in order to figure out why he believes NFTs have so much potential.

I’ve heard a lot of people say NFTs and Crypto are a bubble that is ready to pop. Can you tell us why you disagree?

Most people are not purchasing any crypto and have no idea what blockchain technology even means. So no, I don’t believe NFT tech is in a bubble, I think it’s at the beginning of its life.

Now people have heard of NFTs, thanks to the media, but they still haven’t really learned what NFTs are or the advantages that come with them. Once people do learn this, I think NFT technology is going to take off, and take off fast.

How do NFTs compare to Crypto in their use cases for a business?

Well, Cryptocurrency is useful due to its uniqueness. People can’t just copy and paste crypto, just like they can’t copy a dollar bill with their printer.

On top of this, crypto is extremely secure so businesses can confidently utilize it for transactions. NFTs have the exact same benefits.

They are unique and they are secure. The difference is they are not for currency, they are for things. This expands the use cases of NFT technology exponentially.

They can be used as products, as advertisements, tickets, anything you can imagine.

What are the benefits of NFTs compared to just using traditional digital tools?

The main benefit is that NFTs are unique and they’re permanent. I always say the customer comes first and which do you think a customer would rather have?

A digital item that someone could copy and paste with the click of a few buttons, or a unique token stored on a blockchain that legally, and digitally belongs to them and them alone.

Are NFTs good for small businesses and startups? Or should they be left to the big guys until they get more popular and see widespread use?

I think they actually benefit small businesses more. If your product is digital, delivering it as an NFT will stop others from being able to pirate or duplicate your product.

NFTs are also pretty low risk and have a huge potential to rise in value as the world moves towards the metaverse and a complete digital takeover. The growth is not likely to stop so it’s better to hop on as soon as possible, especially for small businesses.

Give us some specific use cases if you could. How could I use NFTs in my business right now?

Well, just some things off the top of my head that I’ve thought about or tried myself: counterfeit-proof coupons that can only be used once and are not able to be copied in any way, NFT loyalty cards, a charity drive selling NFTs in the form of artwork or other memorabilia, some sweepstakes for customers to enter, either as a prize or as a ticket, or even both.

The possibilities are truly limitless, which is why I’m so excited for this technology to take off.

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