Owning a small business can be extremely stressful and difficult, even when it is entirely a labor of love. Especially in this day and age, keeping your days open and continuing to make a profit is more difficult than ever before.

There is so much competition out there, both in the form of other small businesses and also large corporations. This can get overwhelming, especially when you feel that it’s unfair to compare a business of your size to one so much larger. Luckily there are tons of small business owners out there who know exactly what you’re dealing with and all of the struggles you face on a regular basis.

Here are 3 things you’ll have to think about as a small business owner that corporations never have to worry about.

Income

Making money may not be the number one reason you decided to start your business, but it has to be one of them. According to many studies, more than half of all small business owners are constantly worried about money and wondering where their next bit of income will even come from. Not to mention credit score ranges amongst small business owners are often on the lower end since they’ve invested so much into getting their business off the ground.

Paying yourself can often be put on the back burner when you have so many things to pay for and employees to pay. This can put stress on you and your family and start to affect your business in negative ways, so try to make the best possible budget to avoid having to worry about money all the time. You should also try to save as much as possible, whenever you can. At some point you will reach retirement age and will need to have some money saved up for your golden years, even if you still plan to try to run your business then.

Customer Satisfaction

Many big corporations have a monopoly on certain industries and therefore can pretty much treat customers and clients however they want to without ever having to worry about them returning. As a small business with a ton of competition to deal with, customer satisfaction is likely a concern that is at the top of your list.

If you’ve ever stayed awake a sleepless night worrying about an unhappy customer who had a bad experience, that is one thing that sets you apart from all the corporate CEOs out there. But it also means you have a heart!

Wearing Many Hats

As a small business owner you will have to wear many different hats and juggle all kinds of different responsibilities. When a problem arises and needs to be fixed, you’re more than likely the person who’s going to have to fix it.

This is something that no one working in a corporation can relate to, but it also means you have learned a hard work ethic and have probably learned a lot of random new skills along the way too!

Being the owner of a small business is no small feat, so you should already be proud of yourself. Just remember to think about the things on this list and you’ll be way ahead of the game.

 

• Koen Vanpraet, a professional business consultant who has helped create and implement business and management structures for the industry’s big players, granted us an interview.
• Koen Vanpraet has explored different management styles, tried different strategies, managed many teams, and pushed them to their full potential.
  

Business and management consulting are some of the most fulfilling and profitable career paths anyone can take. There are a lot of skills necessary to learn before consulting businesses as a career, and it is not a business just anyone can hop into and succeed in.

Koen Vanpraet has been a professional business consultant for many years and has been hired by some of the most successful businesses in the world. Koen Vanpraet has helped create and implement business and management structures that have become some of the most popular strategies in the industry.

I wanted some advice on how to start a career in management consulting for businesses, so I asked Koen Vanpraet for an interview which he agreed to, and now I’ll share it with you.

How many years does it take working in management before someone should consider being a management consultant?

Koen Vanpraet: This is a case of quality over quantity. Someone can be a manager for ten years, but if they’ve kept the same management style and put in the bare minimum effort the entire time, they should just stay where they’re comfortable.

However, suppose someone has been a manager for ten years, explored many styles, tried out different strategies, managed many teams, and pushed them to their full potential. In that case, that person should consider a career in consultation.

It sounds like a management consultant should be pretty self-motivated, is that correct?

Absolutely, they need to be the type of person to go above and beyond. They also need quite a bit of confidence. A business isn’t going to hire someone who thinks they might have the answer to their questions and the keys to success.

A business is looking for someone that knows what will work, and if they don’t know what will work, they know how to figure out what works.

Does the industry matter when becoming a management consultant?

Yeah, of course. You’re not going to use the same strategies in IT that you’ll use in construction, for example. You’re managing different types of people, the projects are different and have different demands, and there will just be a lot of small things that will be different.

So do you think that someone should specialize even more in a particular field when starting a management consultant business?

Yeah, definitely. If you come from an IT or coding background, you should think about becoming a consultant for IT companies. What you can do is market yourself towards those companies, show projects that you’ve managed and have completed, and explain how your management style is what drove the success of those projects.

You really need to be able to bring that expertise to the table. With that being said, there are some industries where management skills will cross over, and you’ll likely understand which industries those are if you’ve worked in them.

I am very happy and honoured to have joined the great #moneycorp team. Looking forward the grow the EMEA region by expanding into new industries and markets as well as new geographies. Stay tuned as we will also announce exciting new treasury services t…https://t.co/VnLzG9em7d

— koen vanpraet (@vanpraetk) March 2, 2022

So once you’ve got the skills, how do you find work in management consultation?

Well, the same way you get a job anywhere, really, if you’re an entrepreneur, you have to market! Create a website, post your portfolio and resume, and send out cold emails and cold calls.

Look into SEO, and copyright put out blogs and content that will get you noticed by companies that are searching for consultation. You’re pretty much going to want to do a deep dive into digital marketing, but things will get easier after you’ve successfully worked with a few clients.

Also Read:

Koen Vanpraet: Why Ever Business Leader Should Understand The Basics Of Crypto

We asked Koen Vanpraet exactly why business leaders should understand Crypto and the advantages of the technology. Continue Reading…

 

It’s been about 130 years since the time the first slot machine was created. Today, they are in the heart of the US gambling sector and can be found almost in every state. US gambling is done both online and in land-based casinos.

Report from the Weekly Slots news shows the US is home to over 900 thousand slot machines. Gamblers play cards, slots, sportsbooks, and more.

A brief history of gambling in the US

Before internet gambling became common in the US, people were used to brick and mortar casinos. Until 1931, gambling in the US was largely illegal. Nevada was the first state to legalize gambling in 1931.

It remained the sole US state where gambling was allowed until 1978, when the first legal gambling outside Nevada was recorded. The earliest states to legalize gambling were Illinois and Colorado in 1990, Indiana -1993, Louisiana 1991, Michigan 1996, Mississippi 1990, Missouri 1993, and South Dakota 1989.

Online casinos increased the growth of gambling in the USA

The first online casino in the US was launched in late 1995. However, online casino wagering remained illegal until 2010, when New Jersey became the first state to legalize it. This was the beginning of online casinos legalization by other states across the USA. It offered new investment opportunities to new business owners across the states. To date, 6 states have legalized online casinos and another seven are likely to legalize soon.

The growth of the internet

The influence of the internet in every business sector in the USA began in the 1990s. To the casino industry, this was the best opportunity. Other technologies such as the widespread availability of laptops and smartphones were instrumental in the casinos’ craze in the US.

Developers created mobile-friendly applications for online gambling and other technologies such as VR in the gaming market became a reality. It is now possible to access a casino and wager from any place and any time. By now, the casino industry is recording massive profits.

The effect of the pandemic

The pandemic affected the entire world in 2020. Lockdowns were declared across the US and other parts of the world. Business in the land-based casinos came to a standstill. Fortunately, online casinos remained open.

The US citizens turned to online casinos for wagering and many of them made a living through betting. To encourage more wagering, the online betting companies gave attractive online casino bonuses to customers.

The highest profits

The highest growth ever recorded in the USA casino industry was in 2020 and 2021. The number of gamblers grew the highest in the same period too. Experts in the field say the major contributor to this growth is the recovering US economy. The lockdown during the pandemic was also significant to the growth.

Other important factors are the widespread use of the internet and the development of the smartphone. The main casino craze in the US began when the first casino legalization was done. The craze continued to grow until a decade later, when suddenly it went into a boom in 2020. Today, wagering in the US is the daily norm across all states.

 

A business without employees is impossible to run, even if it’s small. And, when you’re trying to build your own business with limited time and resources, recruiting and managing employees can feel like a huge burden. Recruiting candidates to fill vacancies can be one of the most time-consuming aspects of running a business, and you may think that there are no hacks that can help speed things up while maintaining quality standards. However, several useful strategies can help make this process easier, faster, and more efficient so you can get back to running your business.

Hiring can help fuel your small business and allow you to grow exponentially. The key is knowing what works and what doesn’t-and being willing to try different techniques. In this article, we outline eight ways to speed up your recruitment process so you can find and hire the right candidate sooner rather than later.

Write Better Job Advertisements

On many job boards and websites, you’ll find that employers place ads for positions like Senior Accountant or Sales Executive. Instead of listing out a laundry list of requirements in your ad, consider broadening your scope by adding a few keywords within each post. This way, when candidates search for an Accounting Job or Accounting Opportunity you can easily come up in their search results.

Utilize Social Media

Most businesses use social media to drive recruitment efforts, but few know how to get it right. Utilize social media channels like Facebook and Twitter to encourage applicants who are likely to be a good fit for your organization. You can start making a Facebook business page, introducing your company, and letting them know that you’re open for applications.

Streamline the Application Process

It can be hard to keep up with applications, especially if there are multiple locations or many candidates. Automate parts of your recruitment process to streamline the number of applications you receive and make it easier for applicants to apply online. You’ll need to consider what information is essential for your applicant pool – but use whatever tools you can to speed up application time. If an applicant has to call someone or wait days before they hear back from anyone, they’re less likely to move forward with their application.

Assess Them With Exams

Exams help you assess your new employee’s technical skills, problem-solving abilities, and how he or she fits in with your team. Assess them with exams that can also become a part of their onboarding process. You can easily get reliable employment skills tests as well as practice assessments to see if they can handle stressful situations on the job. These kinds of tools online are ideal candidates for inclusion in an exam because they are quick and easy. In addition, other types of assessments may be more complicated or expensive, which means additional time and resources will be required to administer them at scale.

Hire For Attitude and Train For Skill

There are many ways to speed up your recruitment process, but they all revolve around one central idea: hiring for attitude and training for skill. How you will go about doing that depends on your budget and schedule, but hiring candidates with a good work ethic is always a step in the right direction. It can be achieved through things like employment testing or even by reviewing their resumes to see if they have included previous job duties that indicate an interest in hard work.

Conduct Interviews Via Video Calls

There’s a good chance you already use video chat to speak with your team or external clients, but setting up an interview on a platform like Skype could be of benefit. You can avoid in-person meetings and conduct interviews via your webcam. It is also beneficial because candidates can screen themselves-and their work environment-to see if they are comfortable before committing to a face-to-face meeting.

Give Candidates Timely Feedback

One way to improve your applicant-to-hire ratio is to communicate with candidates promptly. A candidate that doesn’t hear back from you after applying will likely assume their application was rejected and won’t bother reapplying. As a result, they might also spread negative reviews about your company to others looking for jobs-that hurts more than just your recruitment efforts, it also affects your employer brand.

Deliver an Exceptional Candidate Experience

While each step of a candidate’s journey through your recruitment process is critical, it’s those first few moments that are most important. Research from Heidrick & Struggles shows that candidates are twice as likely to engage with your company during their initial interactions with you-which means it’s vital for small businesses to create positive candidate experiences from day one.

The recruitment process can be very time-consuming and difficult for any business. From deciding what your next steps are to filling vacancies, each stage is different. By planning and implementing new strategies you can make your process more efficient and thus free up more time for yourself or your team.

 

You already know that marketing is a vital part of running a business. Putting your brand out there is the only way to generate revenue. Marketing helps in amplifying your brand identity if you properly execute it. There’s no denying that marketing is more important than ever. That’s true, especially in the age of the internet where a lot of competitions are present.

Speaking of marketing, some brands and products are easy to market. That’s because their presence is out there. Examples of these products are those that can be seen easily. These are big water bottles, appliances, or even big toys. On the other hand, some products are too small to be noticed immediately. Examples are nail polish, pimple patches, tracking devices, and more. Some business owners find it hard to make them noticeable. That’s when problems with marketing occur.

So how do you effectively shine the spotlight on tiny products like these? Here are practical ways to market these little products to boost visibility.

Ingenious Photography

If you have a website for your little products, you’re displaying them there. It’s essential since that’s how you want your products to be represented. One way to present your products beautifully is through photography. Taking photos of products may be easy. That’s if you don’t consider the marketing aspect of your brand campaign. You should hire someone who’s an expert on advertisement photography. This is important because these professionals know how to make your product stand out. You need that, especially if you’re marketing small products. These photographers know how to shoot tiny products and highlight their existence. The magic of photography lies in the skills and expertise of the photographer. If you don’t know anything about taking photos for ads, you need to hire a professional.

Bolder Yet Simple Labels

One way for people to notice your tiny products is by using bold labels. Bigger fonts and strong design choices can make a difference. See how Stabilo Boss keeps it simple? They just put the brand name on their highlighters, logo, and the word “original.”

Another example is skincare essentials. Oleia oil for acne has its brand name in a bold design. The design makes the brand name more visible than anything else on the label. Labels are always important when it comes to product exposure. If you’re selling small products, you have to make the labels noticeable. That’s one way to be successful in marketing them.

Extravagant Packaging

When the product itself is too small to be paid attention to, why not divert the attention to the packaging? Some products are small, but their packaging is eye-catching. If you’ve seen what Apple did with their smartwatches lineup, you’d understand how important packaging is. Apple Watch is a tiny product. But the tech giant decided to develop a packaging design that’s significantly larger than the watch itself.

Understandably, the product includes the watch’s straps. But they could have just rolled them around the watch so that they could have a smaller packaging. However, Apple went against the grain and put all these tiny products in big packaging. You can already tell that the Apple Watch is expensive by the packaging and presentation. You can emulate this technique. Do it by putting your product inside extravagant packaging. You have to make sure that you’re not compromising production costs because of these packaging designs.

Social Media Exposure

With almost 300 million active users in the United States, social media is potent. This is why business owners and marketers flock to different social media platforms to show their products. If you’re selling small products, social media is the best way to amplify your products’ presence.

Run ad campaigns that highlight your product design. Give your brand name lots of exposure when you’re showing it on social media. This way, you can introduce your brand identity to the world faster.

Free Samples

When your product is tiny, don’t miss the opportunity to give out free samples. Tiny products are the easiest to give out as freebies. They’re too small, and people won’t think twice about getting the free samples. That’s because your product is tiny and can fit in their pockets. This is also an easy way to market your product to people.

Tiny products can still make a big impact. That’s possible if you know how to market them to consumers properly. Follow the tips above so you can amplify the presence of your little product. Get them the significant exposure that they deserve.

Your business deserves the best in everything, and your website is no different. You want to make sure every component of your operation is working at its greatest potential, and creating a website that is a success is all about what you put into the design.

Researching what works best for other successful businesses online will help guide you. Take a quick peek now at a brief breakdown of some of the most important design elements to include in your website build, and start working to better your digital presence today.

You need a good homepage

Your website’s homepage is the first thing users will see when they land on your site. You have to make a good impression. The average attention span of today’s web users is under ten seconds, so you have to work fast.

A good homepage has an aesthetic that catches the eyes of users. Don’t go crazy making everything super bright and busy, but get creative with what people are seeing when they land.

You need a well written blog

A good blog can do a lot to bring more traffic to your pages. Adding a blog to your design gives somewhat interested users a reason to get a little more interested in what’s happening with your business.

Entice users to stay a little longer on your website with a well-written, relevant collection of blog posts. This express freight handling service shows a quick visual example of what a good blog page looks like with relevant headlines and plenty of entries available to discover.

You need a good products/services page

You can’t really expose web users to what your business is all about without presenting them with the products or services offered by your organization. You need a good products/services page, so users have the chance to shop without committing too much effort to the process.

Product descriptions should be concise but not too long. Pictures should be of top quality, and the functionality of your products/services page should be a priority during the designing phase.

You need a thorough contacts page

A business website is intended to provide a way for users to connect with the company, and that’s why adding a contact page to your design is essential.

Your contact page needs to sport four or more different ways for users to get in touch, simple engaging calls to action, and even a few social media sharing buttons could really help spruce up the page.

You need to design for mobile users

Finally, always keep mobile users in mind as you work through your design. Web users today are heavily swayed towards using their smartphones to web surf, so your website will be more inclusive with mobile optimization in play.

 

Becoming a new business owner is very exciting, especially if it’s something you’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Figuring out your brand, saving up money or finding investors, finding the right space to lease, and hiring people are all things that can cause a significant amount of stress. But once your business is finally opened up, there may be some more stress to come! Owning a business can be a lot of work so to help you prepare for that, here are 5 tips for new business owners.

Apply For A Business Loan

As you most certainly already know, one of the toughest parts about owning a business is the financial aspect of it. You will need to have quite a bit of money on hand at all times in order to keep up with business costs. In order to help with this and stay ahead of it, you may consider applying for a business loan if you haven’t already.

A business loan can ensure that you have enough in your budget to cover everything you need to in order to make sure your business is exactly how you dreamed it would be!

Have Support

Having a wide support system is imperative when it comes to running a new business. This applies to both the people who work with and for you as well as your family and friends. Opening a new business is no small feat so you’ll need all of the help, support, and encouragement you can get.

Ask the people in your support group for help when it comes to making choices for your new business. It can be easy to get overwhelmed, and sometimes you just need a second set of eyes!

Elevate Your Online Presence

Elevating your online presence so that you have social media accounts on all platforms as well as a fully functional and professional-looking website will help majorly when it comes to making a success out of your budding business.

You may decide to hire a website manager or social media manager, or at least a professional website builder to get you started. You could also choose to do all of this work yourself if it’s something you’re comfortable with, but just keep in mind that you have a very busy schedule now as a business owner and professionals will be able to get the work done much quicker, so it may be worth hiring them for.

Becoming a business owner for the very first time in your life is likely to cause a lot of different emotions. It will be scary, stressful, and exciting all at once. The important thing to remember is that you are finally making your own dreams come true! Hopefully, these tips can help make things easier in the beginning for you, but before you know it you’ll get the hang of it.

 

Everyone seems to be talking about NFTs these days, and you might be wondering why they’re so popular and, more importantly, why your company should get involved. We decided to interview Clancey Braxton Yohman to help assuage your fears to answer these questions.

Clancey Braxton Yohman possesses a wealth of knowledge on everything NFT and how its strategies can boost brand development. In this post, you’ll learn everything you need to know about the NFT space and why to apply them to your brand.

What are NFTs?

Clancey Braxton Yohman: First off, NFTs, also known as non-fungible tokens, are digital assets created using the blockchain. Also, each NFT has a unique identification and metadata that sets it apart from the others.

Blockchain technology aims to create a decentralized ledger of peer-to-peer transactions. Even though the notion of NFTs appears to be complex, the logic behind it is relatively straightforward.

Because NFTs may represent everything from digital sketches and images to podcasts, movies, and any other type of creative labor, they are becoming increasingly relevant to businesses. They’re so adaptable that they may be utilized to represent various types of creative work, including virtual real estate, virtual worlds, and much more.

What should a brand know about NFTS?

Clancey Braxton Yohman: It’s simple; here are four lessons and benefits I’ve learned that are crucial if you’re a business trying to enter the NFT industry.

• It understands the concept of ownership.
• Establishing a community.
• Long-term worth.
• Developing a sense of trust.

Also, consider two factors when deciding how and why to bring your brand into the NFT world: whom you’re attempting to engage and why you want to strengthen their relationship with your brand.

Why should you and your brand even care?

Clancey Braxton Yohman: Over the years, we have all seen how the internet and social media have significantly impacted the world. Yes, we all know that the attention of millions of people around the world has moved there.

However, what makes the NFT space so groundbreaking is the underlying technology. This is bigger than hype or wild stories. NFTs are beneficial for both brands and consumers.

This is because it allows the consumers to own a one-of-a-kind piece of a brand that isn’t one of its products and resell at a profit if desired.

Are NFTs the next advertising opportunity for brands?

Clancey Braxton Yohman: Yes, it is. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can help you improve your digital marketing strategy. This is because of its unique abilities to help improve brand loyalty and awareness in your brand’s industry.

How are brands using NFTs?

Clancey Braxton Yohman: NFTs are integrated into digital marketing strategies; it is mainly how brands utilize their popularity. Brands are using NFTs to create new and unique experiences for their consumers. Community is an integral part of business development; through NFTs, there is also a means to create communities for your consumers or audience in new ways.

NFTs can help create interest in your brand and its services or products. Brands utilize NFTs to create a digital proof of ownership.

 

A website can be one of the most significant aspects of a company, either helping to develop trust with customers or sending them away. Nowadays, every business, large or small, requires a good website.

However, getting started might be highly daunting for individuals who have never worked with a website before. We decided to interview one of the web development experts at The Site Helpers to share some insider Website Design Tips.

Here is what the team at The Site Helpers has to say about the subject.

Is website design very important?

Yes, it is. The design of your website is usually the first impression visitors have of your company. A quality company website will assist you in communicating your value, delighting consumers, and generating more leads.

It also improves SEO, sets the tone for customer service, builds trust, creates brand consistency, etc.

Can you share some web design tips for a great website?

Here’s how to ensure it’s a success. The first and most important tip is to ensure that you create a clutter-free or minimalistic homepage.

The homepage is often the first web page any customer is likely to stumble on first. The homepage of your website should immediately communicate your main message.

The website should have a simple but appealing design. A viewer can be overwhelmed by too much information or a complex design. As a result, having a clear hierarchy of information will help you filter out the less relevant information from the important ones, making it easy for your website visitors to get the content they want.

What will keep the audience/consumers coming back?

People will most likely leave unless your website is loaded with fresh content to keep readers interested, and there are things they can do to keep themselves engaged on your website.

There are a few things you can do to boost the amount of time people spend on your website. You’ll need to find the right analytics tool to help you navigate this. For example, adding a comment section to your website, incorporating social media buttons, and having a call to action are all tried and true techniques to reduce your bounce rate.

We at the Site Helpers understand that it could be challenging to create a website that converts, especially for beginners. This is why we have developed our wide array of online courses that provides intuitive guides for you to create your dream website.

How can one’s website stand apart from the plethora of existing websites?

With so many existing websites, you might be thinking, how exactly can you stand out? The truth is, yes, there are over 1.72 billion websites globally, and whatever your business and approach are, chances are it’s been done before.

Nonetheless, with little more than a distinct voice or writing style, we at The Site Helpers believe you can set your website and business apart. There will always be new strategies and styles; find a way to make them unique.

What makes a good business website?

A good business website is not only easy to navigate, but it should also have a responsive design and consistent branding across all pages. You can take a look at our website at https://thesitehelpers.com/ as a perfect example.

Having purposeful and quality images or videos reflects your brand/business well. It should also be Mobile-Friendly and be designed with the customer in mind.

 

A print on demand business is a fantastic choice if you’re a creative individual who wants to earn from home with minimal capital. The entire concept of this business model is very alluring. You don’t need to worry about inventory, shipping, and many things in between. However, there are some rookie mistakes you might run into, so here are some tips on how to start a print-on-demand business on the right foot.

Pick a Niche

Choosing a niche in which you’re most likely to thrive is the first step. The most crucial thing to note here is to only go with what you’re passionate about. If you don’t know what you want, make a list of everything you like.

After you’ve decided on a niche, it is crucial to test your ideas on social networking platforms and search engines. If there isn’t much discussion in a particular community, it’s unlikely that a business can be successful around it.

Make Unique Designs

This is where the actual work begins. You will need to generate your original designs or adapt copyright-free layout elements to make your custom products.

Never, ever copy and paste somebody else’s material. It is both unethical and unlawful. As a result, you should be wary of copyrights of the images you’ll use. Also, if you want to use some text, double-check if the words are trademarked.

Select a Provider

A print on demand supplier is required in order for you to produce your items and bring your ideas into reality. Because designing is your primary focus, you should find a service that will take care of the rest reliably.

It’s a good idea to choose a provider that not only delivers on time but also presents you with a variety of benefits. It will be advantageous if they have special products and branding features. Printseekers.com is one of the best services that have all of that and more.

Print on Different Items

Many creators are stuck on the idea that a print on demand business is only for t-shirt designs. However, one approach to increase your earnings is to print your graphics on a range of products. This is why it’s very practical to choose a provider that lets you do this.

There’s a good chance that a brilliant shirt design may also work nicely on a mug or a baseball cap. Keep in mind, however, that not all designs are appropriate for all goods. For items like shirts and mugs, use single-image illustrations. Bags and pillows are best paired with subtle patterns.

Promote Your Products

Unless it is advertised, no business will be discovered. To sell your custom products, you must spread the word about them. And there are multiple tried and true strategies to accomplish this.

To begin, you should create social media accounts on different networks. You can join groups, post relevant topics, and reach out to influencers. If you own a website, it will also be helpful if you write related blog posts and showcase customer reviews.

Conclusion

Don’t be afraid to experiment and have fun with the designs and objects that you can print. Also, listen to your customers and their needs – do they want a t-shirt, a hoodie, or something completely else? Also, pay attention to what designs customers choose more and then create more of those designs. Good luck with your business!