Local Market Launch

Local Market Launch

Successful

Tips To Be A Successful Franchise Owner

Buying a franchise comes with tons of risks. You are spending a considerable amount of money without a guarantee that your endeavour will be successful. Just like any other business, there is always a risk involved. The key is how you minimise the risks and maximise the profits. These are some of the most useful tips to help you succeed with new franchises.

Improve your management skills

You are not only a franchise holder, but you are also a team leader. You need to practise how to manage your team since each member will have a role to play in making the franchise successful. You will train how to be a manager, but you will also learn how to do everyone’s part. It helps you manage them better if you prepare yourself before the opening of the business. You need to practise other business skills as well like accounting, business taxation, budgeting, advertising, and many others. These skills will all play an essential role in the success of your business.

Follow the business model

You bought this franchise because you believe in it. You see its potential of succeeding in your area because it has a proven track record. It means that you need to follow the business model if you want to succeed. There is nothing wrong in asking other franchisees for help, but you should try to stick to the tested and proven model given by the franchisor.

Create a business plan

Of course, you need to modify the plan based on what you think would be suitable for your local market. Remember though that the extent to which you can make modifications depends on your franchisor. You need to ask in advance or read the terms and conditions before coming up with the final business plan.

Study the competition

Just like any other business, you need to know how you can compete with existing companies. You should take the time to study the market, and why consumers choose your competitors. It will help you come up with a plan on how to take over the market, or at least get a share of it.

Don’t stop marketing

The good thing about franchising is that marketing is mainly the job of the headquarters. They will come up with national ads, and your business also benefits from them. Your local market might need different ads to capture their attention. Therefore, you should come up with your local marketing plans. You can put up posters or distribute brochures to help boost the popularity of your business locally.

Don’t keep borrowing money

You will spend a massive amount of money to buy the franchise. You will also have other operational costs to consider. Make sure that you prepare for all these expenses. Stop getting more loans until you can start paying your previous loans, or until your business starts to gain income.

Hopefully, these tips will help you succeed as a business owner. Being a franchisee comes with a huge responsibility, but you can do it if you work hard.

How To Take Risks Investing

Moneyfarm’s infographic on the wealthiest people in history inspired us to think about what it takes to build wealth.

According to Moneyfarm, there are many ways to build wealth. Investing is one of them. For example, Warren Buffet made his billions by investing.

So, if you’re not afraid of taking calculated risks like, Warren Buffet when it comes to building your investment portfolio, continue reading to discover how to manage the risks which you take in order to maximize your chances of making a fortune.

How to take risks investing:

  1. Consider investing in a company which is new to the stock exchange

If you’re interested in doubling or tripling your initial investment, you may want to consider investing in a company which is newly listed on the stock exchange and which could skyrocket in price, in the coming months. Just make sure to research the performance of the company over the last year to see whether its share price is likely to soar before you make an investment.

  1. Always look at a stock’s statistics before making a sizeable investment

Examples of statistics which are well worth taking into consideration include the recent history of a stock’s share price. In general, it’s worth paying particular attention to a stock’s performance over the last 2 years. As an example, you may find that a stock always increases in price after a small dip and that you’ll be able to make a profit within a short period of time by purchasing a stock for a cheap price, before selling it when it returns to its normal share price.

  1. Consider talking to an experienced stockbroker to gain valuable insight into the stock market

If you don’t have much experience when it comes to selecting profitable stocks, you may want to consider talking to an experienced stockbroker. As they may be able to help you select the right mix of stocks to build an impressive, profitable investment portfolio.

As a bonus stockbrokers are experts at interpreting stock market trends and can normally predict when the best time is to purchase and sell certain stocks. Which is incredibly important as to succeed as an investor, you have to know when to buy and sell stocks. As simply purchasing the right stocks, won’t necessarily earn you a sizeable profit if you purchase your stocks at the wrong time or choose to sell your stocks at the wrong time.

  1. Don’t invest too much money in a single investment

If you want to take risks as an investor but you don’t want to risk losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, it’s well worth investing in several different companies, rather than investing hundreds of thousands of dollars into a single investment. Remember, that if you change your mind and would like to invest more money in a particular company, that you’ll be able to make another transaction, once your current investment has proven lucrative.

  1. Consider investing in an industry that you’re passionate about

As an example, if you’re passionate about property, you may want to consider purchasing an investment property whilst if you’re interested in technology you may be more suited to investing in cryptocurrencies or a tech-related company such as Apple, Amazon, Alibaba or Tesla.

So if you’re keen to take calculated investment risks, it’s well worth considering all of the 5 tips listed above.

Best Practices For Setting Annual Sales Plans

While most business professionals are familiar with the concept of a marketing plan or a business plan, they may have less knowledge about creating an annual sales plan. This document acts as a company’s roadmap to provide direction to the sales team via specific objectives and goals. While some companies write shorter or longer sales plans, the annual plan is the most common. Sales managers typically prepare it towards the end of a calendar year to guide sales operations for the following year.

How to Define Success

One of the most important elements in creating this document is determining which metrics to use to evaluate whether salespeople are meeting the goals and objectives of the plan. According to experts on annual sales planning, it’s important to include all of the following:

  • Business results: This covers such things as customer satisfaction, market share, and revenue. It helps to determine an organization’s overall health.
  • Sales objectives: These metrics include such benchmarks as customer retention rates, deal win rates, and new product sales. They help to determine how well each member of the sales team is achieving specific goals.
  • Sales activities: This looks at metrics such as how much training the sales team should receive, percentage of salespeople who use CRM tools, how many customers each salesperson manages, and sales call volume. This part of the sales plan outlines the specific tasks that sales managers and team members complete to attain specific business goals.

Revisit the Past to Plan for the Future

Creating a high-quality sales plan requires the ability to evaluate how things currently stand. Since each member of the sales team will have different ideas on this, it’s important to allow them to express their views. However, it’s important to limit everyone’s time to speak to ensure meeting the goals of the planning session.

Before starting planning for the next year, review what worked and didn’t work in the current year. The goal is to take lessons learned from the current year and incorporate them into the sales plan for next year. It’s a good idea to divide goals into new things to start, things to keep, and things to eliminate or modify.

Develop a Theme

With so many things to include and focus on for the business plan, it’s important to pull everything together and decide on an overarching message or sentiment. Creating a tagline for the sales plan gets more people behind it by generating enthusiasm. Businesses with a strong seasonal focus should consider creating a theme that brings all seasons together with a single statement.

Budgeting and Promotion

There’s no way around the fact that meeting goals takes money. Companies must include how they intend to pay for such things as marketing and advertising, training, and product development to ensure that creating the plan doesn’t require going over budget. Viewing the expenses in terms of an investment rather than an expense is also helpful.

After preparing the final copy of the sales plan, the next step is to share news of marketing programs and other activity with customers. Delivering the news in a fun and innovative way gets them behind the plan just as much as the employees and is something to strive towards doing.

 

What An Answering Service Does For Your Business

It’s possible you’ve either used or experienced an answering service at some point in your life. As technology continues to move forward, answering services can benefit your company in many different ways.

Global Resources Consultants present the following five ways that an answering service can benefit your small business.

Collecting Leads

Lead collection is critical to linking potential customers with your product/service. We know how difficult it can be to keep up with the influx of phone calls that small businesses receive on a daily basis. With missed phone calls comes missed leads.

It’s known that nearly nine out of ten people will not call you back if you fail to answer the phone. Think of it this way: if you don’t value their time, why would they care to give you business?

With an answering service, you don’t have to do this all alone. The answering services of today capture information exactly as you need it and hand deliver it right to your inbox. This will for sure increase your success. The other great benefit: answering services are working 24/7, around the clock for you.

Processing Orders

As a small business owner, I’m sure you’ve been obligated to take orders in the evenings or even on the weekends. Rather than using all of your precious time, an answering service can handle those orders for you. Since over-the-phone is generally viewed as the quickest and most efficient way to place an order, sales will constantly be processed.

Answering services have ways of inputting orders using either their own custom software or your sales portal.

Brand Integration

Sure, we know you’ve avoided answering services because you think agents pull customers away from YOUR brand. Well, you’d be surprised at how seamless and effective agents of today sound over the phone. Most people will just assume that he/she is working in-house.

Scheduling Appointments 

With your busy schedule, you likely don’t have enough time to take calls and manage your own calendar. Answering services can handle the back-end logistical work for you, while you focus on scaling your business.

Reporting Calls

An answering service provides call reports that lay out all of the nitty gritty details of incoming calls. This report includes, but is not limited to, number of calls, duration, geographic location and any end result(s).

Recap

Answering services of today will not only save you time and money, they will also help you collect leads, process orders, schedule appointments and provide great caller insights. This time-saving tool will help you scale your business and earn more profits.

Promotional Gifts: The Key To Profitability For A Business

Promotional items are key to achieving the profitability of a business. They are perfect for attracting new clients, rewarding loyalty of current customers, increasing brand awareness, and offering a stable and unified image of a company.

A customer who receives a gift from a company feels valued by it: it is a way to build loyalty. In addition, word of mouth remains the most useful strategy. The most likely thing is that the client speaks well of the company that gave the gift. That is, brand awareness is increased, and it is possible to attract new customers through this form of marketing.

On the other hand, a company that has personalised uniforms, personalised writing materials and stationery, offers a strong and stable external image. It offers a coherent “corporate image”.

Here are just three promotional gifts that you should consider using for your business:

Personalised agendas

Personalised agendas are not just an accessory in which you can note important contact numbers or information. They are much more.

This promotional gift is especially useful but, in addition, it is very accessible for a company. It is an economic and practical gift that is always welcome.

On the other hand, one of the greatest advantages of personalised agendas is that they are not a static object. They usually travel where the owner goes. It is a perfect way for a company’s logo to impact third parties and, in this way, increase brand awareness.

Personalised pens

Personalised pens are a classic, but they are useful and functional. Customising this promotional item is a way to send a message.

One of the biggest advantages of personalised pens is their ability to adapt to a large number of situations, regardless of the client’s profile. That is, it is a gift that will be well received by any type of company or individual because it is always necessary.

On the other hand, it is a way of awakening interest on the part of the client. When making a gift, the receiver feels flattered, so (in many cases) they will want to “return the favour”.

Personalised bags and backpacks

Personalised bags and backpacks can be considered a mobile advertising item. Your company logo will travel wherever your personalised promotional items travel. Of course, it is not the same as an item which travels stored in a suitcase or bag, as a personalized bag or backpack travels in full view of everyone.

Like the bags of clothing stores, electronics stores, etc., the personalised backpack will extend brand awareness wherever it travels, as it is visible at all times.

Promotional merchandise is perfect for increasing the brand awareness of a company, to retain existing customers and attract new ones, but not all promotional items are adapted to any company. In many cases, the choice of the ideal item can be the catapult to achieve certain business objectives.

6 Essential Things To Organise A Corporate Event

If you are planning to have a meeting with people interested in your company, you should follow the following tips.

Organising a corporate event can be a great challenge, especially if it is a project for a first-time entrepreneur who does not know all the details that should be taken into account. However, experts say that the key to making an event a success (whether it is with your employees, investors, potential clients or associates) is that it should be a great experience.

Beyond the corporate gift bags that you are going to give away, if you are going to use a corporate event to communicate something, you must make sure it is a memorable experience. To achieve this, as in almost everything in the business world, you must pay close attention to the details.

Here are the key elements that you must keep in mind so that those attending your event remember you forever.

  1. Number of participants, age, and gender

It may seem obvious, but beyond knowing only the number of participants to determine the location and quantity of necessary inputs, the fact of taking into account age and gender is essential to adapt the activities to the public. If you take into account the target audience, you will achieve the full attention of your audience.

  1. Objective of the event

This helps you to start planning it. It can be to reward the staff of your company, motivate the team, launch a product, celebrate an anniversary, or end of the year party. All events have an objective and the activities that take place must be aimed at achieving it.

  1. Budget

No matter if you decide to organise the event yourself or hire a specialist company, you must take into account from the beginning the budget for the event to develop a proposal for activities and general development of the event. Always try to do more with less. It is important to have or develop agreements with suppliers to maximise resources.

  1. Define the venue

Once you have defined the above details, you should look for a place to celebrate your event. You must take into account the schedules and ease of arrival to the location, or, if the place is not easily accessible, look for transportation options to offer attendees.

  1. Agenda of the event

Having a schedule of specific activities helps the organisers to keep track of essential elements of the development of the event such as venue rental, catering hire, AV rental and other required services. Having a schedule also allows quick decisions in case, for some reason, one of the presentations or planned elements does not go as planned.

  1. Planning schedule

Finally, it is important to remember that the realisation of a successful event, whatever it may be and with the objective that it is intended to achieve, should begin, if possible, at least three months in advance of the event to allow sufficient time to plan all the necessary elements, and to ensure you will be successful with your business event.

7 Tips to Design the Packaging You Need for Your Product

When we walk through the aisles of the supermarket, our eyes are invaded by an infinity of visual stimuli, with various brands fighting each other to get our attention. Thousands of products with different shapes, colours, smells and textures invade us with the sole purpose of being chosen to be part of our purchases.

When designing packaging, the strategy to follow is so important that it can mean the difference between the success and virtual invisibility of a product. For this reason, here are 7 key points that you must keep in mind so that the design of your product’s packaging is attractive and, above all, irresistible:

  1. Aim at your target audience

First, if you have not done so previously, you must define who your target audience is. That is, what kind of person will be interested in acquiring your product. For example: women aged 30 to 50, over 30 with purchasing power, children or adolescents, etc.

  1. Stay true to your brand

You must not deviate from your corporate colours, typography, style, approach, etc., unless a specific product or campaign is designed to breakout from this, for whatever reason. It is important that your product and brand is easily identifiable at a glance. For this it is essential to be faithful to your brand values.

  1. The budget is no longer an excuse

Nowadays, you can make original and fresh designs with few resources, because the trends mark minimalist designs that require few inks and accessible materials for all kinds of budgets.

You can save on printing with monochrome or two-colour designs. Less is more, saturating the container with forms and texts sometimes plays against you.

  1. Choose the right material

There are a variety of materials available to create your packaging: glass, metal, different types of plastic and a multitude of densities, etc. How do you know which materials are optimal? The tendencies of recent years in materials of packaging mark the use of natural or ecological materials such as kraft paper bags, containers made of recycled cardboard, corrugated paper, or cork, etc. In fact, more and more companies have chosen to return to glass containers, returning to the era before plastic and adding value to the product, denoting exclusivity and quality and also helping the environment. You can find out more about such packaging trends at pactivate.com.

  1. Amuse the public

There is nothing better than getting a smile from the public to remember your brand. The interactivity in the packaging, the sensorial experiences, making the packaging a game is a trend already present that continues to gain strength. Fun containers that are original will not go unnoticed in the supermarket aisles.

  1. Make the consumer’s life easier: intelligent packaging

It is about offering a solution to a problem that arises from the consumption or use of your product to make life easier for consumers and therefore show an advantage over the products of the competition:

  • Use of colour to warn of the expiration of a product or ideal consumption temperature, for example, a thermochromic label which tells you when, for example, beer is at the ideal temperature for consumption.
  1. Never forget ergonomics

It is essential when designing our packaging to take into account the ease of transport and the optimal convenience when using it.

  • A shampoo that does not slip in the shower or a bottle that adapts well to the shape of the hand.
  • Isotonic drink bottles for athletes, which in addition to having an organic, rounded shape that adapts to the hand, have a texture on the side that facilitates grip and prevents slipping while doing sports.

If you still do not know how to approach the design of your packaging or the steps you must carry out to develop it, consult a specialist in packaging design to advise you on packaging and help you to make your products look better, get the attention of your potential customers and increase your sales.

4 Reasons Why SEO Is So Important In Our Digital Age!

If you’re wondering why it’s important to invest in making sure that your website or blog is optimized for SEO, simply continue reading to discover the importance of SEO.

4 Reasons why SEO is so important in our digital age:

  1. Utilizing SEO techniques can drive considerable traffic to your blog or website

The aim of using posting content which is SEO optimized is to increase your blog or website’s search engine ranking so that when potential clients or readers search for a business or blog with certain keywords which are related to your niche, your blog or website will feature in the first few pages of Google results.

As it’s highly unlikely that a potential visitor to your website will click on the third page of search results as the vast majority of individuals will click on one of the first few search results, which they’re shown.

  1. SEO is a far most cost-effective form of marketing than most forms of marketing

Whether you’re the owner of a small business or a personal blog, if you’re looking for an inexpensive yet effective method of marketing your business or blog, it’s well worth optimizing your website or blog for SEO. As in many cases optimizing your website or blog for SEO is completely free, unless you choose to pay a third party to create SEO dense posts for you. If you are interested in having help and looking for more reach you can find professional help from sites like, click.co.uk.

SEO has also been proven to drive a greater amount of traffic to websites, than creating social media accounts for your website or blog.

  1. The vast majority of online shoppers, search for unbiased reviews before making a decision

Recent marketing studies, which study consumer behavior have reported that a minimum of 70% of online customers, search for reviews on online products and services, which they are interested in purchasing, before handing over their credit card details.

Which means that more shoppers end up purchasing products and services online as a result of positive reviews, than shoppers who search for online reviews and choose to make a purchase in a traditional brick and mortar store.

So if you want to capture a share of your market, which searches for online reviews, it’s well worth making sure that your business is SEO optimized so that if consumers choose to purchase a product or service which you offer, that they’ll end up finding your business’ details, instead of your competitors’ details.

  1. If potential customers can’t find your website, they’ll be unlikely to deal with your business

If your potential customers are unable to find your business’ website, in the first pages of search results, they’ll lose faith in your business and will be more likely to do business with one of your competitors. As in today’s day and age, it’s seen as highly unusual if a business doesn’t have a professional web presence, which turns up in the first page of search results.

If you’re determined to drive traffic to your business or blog and are looking for effective ways to market your web presence in order to be successful, it’s well worth investing your time in increasing your SEO ranking.

Why You Should Hire an Online Estate Agent

You don’t need to just stick with traditional estate agents. There are advantages in hiring someone who is just your neighbour since he probably knows the market well. However, there are more options available online. These online estate agents are highly qualified and they also know a lot about the market. They could help you sell the property in no time. Here are some other reasons why you should hire online agents.

Potentially huge savings

Usually, online agents are fixed-fee estate agents. They operate by selling the property at a flat rate, which ensures that you are getting the best value for money. The fees for their services are way lower than the average fee for high street estate agents. They will also be there for you up until the property is sold. There are no hidden charges either. The cost will be lower by thousands of pounds. The said amount can actually go towards a deposit if you are buying a new house, or remodelling the bathroom in your old house to increase its value even more.

Bigger marketplace access

You don’t want to just stick with a limited market. You want to reach out to more people if possible. This is the problem with traditional agents. Their market is very limited. Yes, it is possible to have someone who lives in the area to actually buy the property, but there could be other interested buyers out there. Advertising online and using the right social media marketing techniques help a lot. There are even a lot of property listing sites online that rack up millions of views on a daily basis. Having your property posted there could increase its chances of getting sold right away.

They can work like traditional agents – and more

Everything that a traditional agent does can also be done by online agents. They also have the same credentials or even better. They have the same amount of experience in working with different properties over the years. The best part is that you need not worry about paying them upfront. Some of them only collect fees once the property has been sold.

There are online agents working for firms. You can contact the firm just like those at www.beresfordsgroup.co.uk and they will help you achieve your goals. They have several agents working for them. If the agent partnered with you fails, you can always request for someone else to do the job for you. The same thing can happen if you are not comfortable with your agent or you have communication issues.

It takes time to sell a property given that there are other properties out there that are also for sale, but with a hard working agent, your goals can be achieved and it can be done.

 

5 Traits of Successful People

If you’re determined to succeed in business and in life, simply continue reading to discover 5 traits, which are common amongst successful people.

5 Traits of Successful People: 

Perseverance 
What is the key difference between a self-made millionaire and your average Joe Blogs? Contrary to popular belief you don’t have to be a genius, in order to achieve phenomenal success. Those who are successful, aren’t super humans  however, they do have the rare ability to persevere and to get back up, every time they fall down. 

In fact, those who are successful usually fail more often than your average Joe Blogs. As an example, Thomas Edison, recorded 1,000 failed attempts, before he successfully invented the world’s first working light bulb.

Bravery 
In order to be wildly successful, you have to be courageous enough to bet on yourself and to take calculated risks. After all, if becoming a successful businessman or woman was easy, everyone would try their hand at building their own business empire. If you’re determined to build a thriving profitable business, you must be brave enough to stake everything that you have, on your dreams. 

As an entrepreneur, you also have to be brave enough to try to convince others such as bank managers, stakeholders, and suppliers, to believe in your vision for your business. Remember, that in order to convince others to believe in your dream, you have to believe in your business.

Vision 
To be successful in business, you need to have a clear vision for your business. As the owner of your own business, you’ll be in charge of overseeing multiple facets of your business. Such as finances, production, transportation, and marketing.

While each of your employees will only have one job to focus on, you have to be able to see the big picture, in order to ensure that each part of your business is working efficiently. Ideally, each big decision you make will propel your business closer to your dream.

Adaptable 
A large percentage of business owners experience defeat as they are stubborn and arrogant and continue making the same mistakes over and over again. Instead of learning from the mistakes they made and implementing immediate changes, for the good of their company. It pays to remember that the “definition” of insanity, is to do the same things over and over, expecting a different result.

Trust
Many business owners make the mistake of trying to micromanage their managers. Worse, yet it’s not uncommon for businessmen and women to try to take responsibility for as many tasks as they can. In order to build successful businesses, you have to learn how to trust your top managers, to be capable of completing their tasks. 

As if you trust your employees, they’ll be more likely to work hard for you, than if you treat them as if they are children. Better yet, if you learn how to delegate early on, you’ll prevent yourself from burning out.

So if you’re passionate about becoming a successful businessman or woman, it’s well worth exhibiting the 5 personality traits, listed above.