Business Strategy | Mike McRitchie | Resume and LinkedIn Profile Writer | Telecom Marketing Content Writer

Tips For Turning Around A Struggling Retail Business

May 15, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Retail Business Turnaround

The story is the same on every high street. More and more retail stores are closing down due to the rise of the online competition. It’s a sad sign of the times, for both consumers (though they have contributed to the loss) and for retail owners who have had to relinquish the battle. Should you own a retail store, you will understand the battle. How can you stay open when Amazon, eBay and the like (as well as the bigger retail giants) are taking a share of your customers away from you? It’s not easy, but don’t give up the fight just yet. Here are some tips you may find useful.

Engage with your customers. Don’t let your customers get away from you. Use the customer engagement tips here, build relations with your customers, and find ways to deepen their connection to your store. Talk to them on social media, hold special events within your store, and use customer surveys to find out more about them. The more you can do to keep your customers the better.
Give your store a facelift. You won’t draw in any customers if your storefront is drab and generic, so use a spot of paint, use signage in bold and bright colours, and attract your customers from the outside. When the customers are in, ensure everything is well signposted, with clear and uncluttered aisles, with products displayed in an attractive design. Visit https://hydeproductsusa.com for advice on your inner architecture, using their services to expand your store. Perhaps install a customer bathroom, changing room, showroom, product testing area… think big, and find new ways to improve the usability of your store.
Keep your finger on the pulse. What are the current trends in business? By doing some research, by visiting websites such as this one, https://www.shopify.com, talking to other industry leaders in your locale, and surveying customers, you will be able to stay current, despite the threat of the competition. Rather than fearing change, embrace it, and diversify and amend your business to stay in line with what the modern consumer wants in today’s shopping arena.
Sort out your inventory. If you are struggling to sell your stock, there may be a very good reason for this. Is it outdated? Is it overpriced? Think about it. Replaced outdated stock with something that is new and relevant to the customer. If your pricing is too steep, check out your competition (online and off) and price your products to be competitive. Speak to your suppliers as well, and try to purchase stock at a cheaper price, perhaps by bulk buying certain items. Then have a sale, and clear out your unwanted stock under the pretense that you are being generous to your customers.
Focus on your staff. Regardless of your presence on the shop floor, ensure your staff are well-trained in the areas of customer service and sales. The more work they can do to support your struggling business, the better. Motivate them with incentives (there are loads of examples at https://blog.bonus.ly/) and get them on board with improving your retail business.

These are just a few of the ways you can turn around your struggling business. We hope we have been able to help, but remember to speak to those other people who can aid you, such as business mentors, industry professionals, and your financial advisers. Thanks for reading, and good luck with your business.

Entrepreneurs Should Avoid These Mistakes At All Costs!

May 14, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

If you’re just starting out in the business world, there is a reasonable chance you are going to make some mistakes during the next couple of years. That is normal, and so you shouldn’t worry too much. However, success lies in your ability to identify the errors you make and avoid them the next time around. Still, there are some mistakes you are best to avoid at all costs, and some of the worst ones get a mention below. In the hope of helping you to prevent issues that could ruin your ambitions; do everything possible to avoid the mistakes published in this article.

Mistake 1: Not taking online security seriously

Like it or not, there are thousands of professional criminal hackers out there who spend their entire working day attempting to break into computer networks to steal information. You can’t let that happen to your business because you might lose customer payment details or something similar. If that happens, your firm is going to get a lot of bad press. Also, there is a reasonable chance your profits will take a hit. So, do yourself a favor and build a relationship with a company that provides IT support before it’s too late. Brands in that niche will often advise you on the best computer security solutions, and they can also swing into action whenever you face an issue.

Mistake 2: Not using technology to boost productivity

There is lots of technology out there that could assist you in streamlining your operation and boosting productivity. However, lots of new entrepreneurs fail to keep their fingers on the pulse and make the right investments when it comes to the latest releases. If you want to stay ahead of the game and ensure you always beat your competition, it is sensible to check relevant news websites and blogs every single day. Look for articles that highlight new advancements or software releases that could benefit your business. You can then adopt them before your competitors and gain a competitive edge over their brands.

Mistake 3: Not working within laws and regulations

Failure to follow laws and industry-related regulations is the worst thing you can do as a business owner. Your employees could take you to court at any time if you ask them to break the law by performing their duties, and you might face lots of trouble from the authorities if you are not careful. With that in mind, if there is any uncertainty, it is sensible to build a relationship with a reputable legal team. Find some lawyers who understand your industry and can provide you with some advice if you ever get stuck.

If all entrepreneurs manage to avoid those mistakes when building their new brands; there is a decent chance those people will achieve their goals. Starting a business is the best way to improve your quality of life and gain a little more freedom. So, if you’re only just starting out; be sure to use tips from this article and others on this site to ensure you leave no stone unturned. It’s hard to get free advice related to the business world, but that’s precisely what this blog hands out every single day. Catch you back here next time!

5 Ways You Can Immerse Customers In Your Company

May 12, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

You shouldn’t just show customers or clients your business or company. Instead, you need to make them feel like they are part of your business and immerse them in your model. How do you do this? Well, there are a few possibilities that might be worth considering here that should allow you to guarantee clients feel connected and build loyalty to you.

Connecting with your clients

Open A Window

The first option you should consider is giving your customers a window into the runnings of your business. You would be wrong if you think that customers aren’t fascinated by how your company operates behind the scenes. They almost certainly are, and these days there are plenty of tools that will allow you to provide the type of window that they are looking for. We suggest you use social media and post videos or images of your office and your workers. This provides your audience with a clear picture of who is running your company and indeed the staff behind the products or services that they love. This can be all you need to ensure that they feel a connection and it ties into another possibility.

Show Some Skin

You do need to make sure that customers feel like you are more than a company. Ultimately, you need to show them that you care about more than just crunching numbers. Give them an idea that your business is bigger than profits and that you do have goals to change the world for the better. One of the ways that you can do this is by donating some of your revenue to charity or even actively ensuring that your employees participate in charity work. Options like this will allow you to show the other side of your business and guarantee customers want to feel connected.

Magic Marketing

You need to make marketing for your business feel new, fresh and exciting. In other words, it shouldn’t be the basic pictures, videos of text. Instead, you should look into interactive website design where the background is a live video or work with a company like Moving Bits Video Production to ensure that your materials grab the attention of customers. With the right video marketing, you get all the attention you need from your customers and clients, ensuring that they are excited by the possibility of buying from your business.

UGC And Interactions

Lastly, you should be taking every opportunity that you can to interact with clients and customers online through social media. There are always going to be chances to do this. You just need to take the right steps and it can also be beneficial to use content shared by your customers. Doing this, you are engaging them and making them feel like part of what your company is attempting to accomplish. This idea that your clients are connected to your business is a powerful concept and one that will serve you will when you’re looking to increase sales.

We hope you find this information useful when trying to make your own business far more immersive.

Essential Rules For Hiring Employees

May 12, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Hiring Employees

When you decide it is time to add a new member to your team, it can be a daunting affair and can take a fair deal of time to find the right person for the job. If you are new to hiring people into your business, conducting a job quiz will help you screen the suitable candidates for the job.

Move quickly

If you are hiring for a role, you will likely get an influx of candidates who come within the first few days of posting. These candidates will often be the best ones for your job and will be off the market if you don’t act quickly. When you receive applications you need to ensure that you are able to reply as swiftly as you can and arrange interviews rapidly to ensure that the candidate stays interested in your role.

Write a good job description

When you are writing your job description for potential employees it is incredibly important that you don’t follow the normal rules. Most companies will simply write down what the job requires, what skills you need and etc… however this isn’t something which will grab attention and get a lot of interest. Instead, add some information about the benefits you can offer for your employee. Talk about training, progression, travel, and holidays. Make your candidates see why they would want to work for you, and what you can offer them.

Embrace social media

Don’t live in the dark ages, make sure that your company stays up to date with technology and that you have a fun and exciting presence online. When you advertise for a job, the candidate will immediately look you up online to see what kind of people and brand you are. You need to make sure you are appealing to people from all backgrounds and that they will want to be a part of your team going forward.

Fit personality

Skills are important for a job because the person needs to be capable of carrying out the work: but this isn’t the only thing you need to think about. When you interview a candidate you need to get along on a personal level. If you are going to bring this person into your workplace they need to be a person who will fit in. Make sure that you like the person and that they like you.

Background checks

If you want to ensure that you are hiring a good person in your business you need to make sure you perform background checks for employment for every candidate. This will tell you about their criminal past and whether or not they can be trusted in your workplace. Your reputation is important so you need to only employ people you believe you can trust. Alongside the background check, you may want to order a drug test to ensure that the person your hire is clean, of sound mind and stable for the role. The last thing you want is someone who comes to work with drugs in their system.

Secrets To Creating A Business Or Product That Appeals To Kids

May 11, 2018 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

If you have a passion for kids or you simply know that that’s where a lot of the money is, you could stand to create a business or product that is kid focused and appeals to a younger audience. However, creating a business such as this is a little different to creating a business focused on adults. Here are a few secrets that will help you to create something that appeals to kids:

Knowing The Market

Knowing the market that you want to appeal to is crucial when you’re talking about starting a kid based business. 4-to-12-year-olds spend more than $40 billion, while teenagers (ages 12 to 19) spend $155 billion of their own money. Kids now have more money of their own than ever and businesses have become more aware of this. Child psychologists estimate that the average child sees 40,000 advertisements each year, and that the average 3-year-old can identify 100 brand logos. That’s a lot of logos, and in turn a lot of opportunities to make children crazy about your brand and your products.

However, you don’t simply have to create a product that appeals to kids – you could create a business or place that kids are going to beg their parents to take them, such as the a play park or picnic area. Places like Park Warehouse offer supplies for these kinds of business, and you’ll need plenty of similar contacts in this area if you’re going to dominate the industry.

What To Do Before Coming Up With Ideas

Know the age range you want to market your product or business to and do your research.
Ask kids questions. Kids you know, friend’s kids, any kids that you can speak to. Get a feel for what they want and what their problems may be – what can you solve for them, or create a need for?
Do lots of research on what’s already out there and get a feel for what the gaps in the market are, or how you can improve something that’s already out there.
Have a look at some of the top keyword searches on google to see if you can create something that people are already looking for.
Make sure you use appealing colors and fonts when it comes to your brand. Your idea might be great, but your brand needs to be amazing too.
Allocate a large marketing budget – TV adverts and radio adverts can be good ways to reach kids, but don’t forget Facebook ads and similar ads either. Depending on your business, it may be the parents you’re trying to reach.

Kids Business Ideas

To give you a good idea of some of the most lucrative business ideas right now, have a look below.

Kids’ Party Planning

Kid’s party planning is a great option for you, as coming of age parties, graduation events, and even just birthday parties are something that more and more parents do for their children.

Experts predict that the industry will continue to grow over time as parents provide not only a greater number of parties but also more expensive ones for their children.

Kids’ Gift and Bath Products

Kid’s gift and bath products can cover such a wide range of products, from books and music to fragrances, it is a very promising market to start a business in. Parents spend more than $80 million annually on things like baby soaps alone. American births are holding steady at approximately 4 million per year, so think of the sheer number of baby gifts that are bought.

Kids’ Educational Toys and Games

The Toy Industry Association estimates that the traditional toy industry (which doesn’t include electronics such as video games and handheld electronic games) is worth an estimated $22 billion in annual sales. If you can come up with an educational toy or game for children, you might just have a successful business on your hands. Parents are always coming up with new and exciting ways to offer enrichment activities to their kids.

Kids’ Cooking Classes

Kid’s cooking classes can help to transform kids into well-rounded and high-functioning adults.

However, many parents simply don’t have the time to teach their kids these traditional skills.

Cooking classes have become very popular over the last few years, with classes and demonstrations for kids cropping up all over the world.

Creating a product that appeals to kids can be tough, but with enough research and determination on your part you could come up with something that changes everything. Leave your thoughts below!