How to Help Ease Your Company’s Growing Pains

Every business owner wants to see their company grow and succeed, no matter what size it currently is. With that growth comes change and periods of adjustment, which is often difficult and uncomfortable. Fortunately, there are some things you can do to help ease your company’s growing pains.

Get Financing

With growth comes increased costs, perhaps greater than what a business can pay upfront. In order to pay those costs, you’ll need to obtain financing. There are some things you can do to improve your odds of getting the financing you need. According to environmental services in pennsylvania, the longer your business has been around, the more likely banks will offer you favorable loan terms. Make sure your own personal finances are in order and that your credit score is as good as you can get it. The same goes for your business’s finances and credit score (yes, businesses have credit scores too). You would also do well to make sure you have a good, solid business plan. This will make you more attractive to lenders.

Hire Competent

Your hiring practices are crucial to the successful growth of your company. If you are to manage increased demand for your goods and services, you need to man your business with enough employees to manage the increased workload. It’s not just enough to hire warm bodies, however. You need to make sure you hire the right people for the job. Your job isn’t done once they’re hired either. In order to be useful, new employees need to be properly trained, which requires an employee to leave their current responsibilities to some degree to complete the training. In order to do this with minimal disruption to the flow of business, the best move is to do as much of this as possible in advance of your growth.

Develop Clear Goals

A lack of direction is a huge growing pain for a business. It can take a serious toll on morale and leave everyone wondering what the point of what they’re doing is. To counteract this, according HR compliance ny, you should develop clear goals at multiple levels. You can have goals for individual employees, teams, departments, and the business as a whole. Consider creating both short-term and long-term goals as well. Measure progress and report on it regularly. This will help direct efforts and help everyone feel that their contributions and work actually matters.

Periods of growth are often marked by growing pains that can be difficult for both businesses and employees to get through. Help ease your company’s growing pains by hiring competent employees and getting them trained on time, acquire financing to help cover immediate costs, and make sure you have clear goals to guide you. This will help set you up for success as you continue to grow your business.

Every company needs a good marketing plan to help it grow. We can help you make one! Contact us to get started!

How to Build a Business with Real Staying Power

Starting a business isn’t hard. In fact, it is downright simple. In some states it only takes about $150 to pay the startup fees and then you’re good to go. Keeping a business going is the real trick. That takes a whole lot more work and organization. If you want to build a business that has the power to stay in the game, you must do the following.

Know Your Industry

Staying Power

In order to be successful, you need to know your industry inside and out. That should be a given, but you would be surprised how many people jump into a business before knowing what they are dealing with. You should understand who all the players are in your business.

Understand why it is that your industry exists, what are its strengths and weaknesses. Know who your competitors are. Some people like to say that they aren’t interested in competing against others. That they would rather focus on other things like improving themselves. If you aren’t careful, that attitude will have you eating the dust of your rivals. Instead, be aware of your rivals, but don’t be afraid to do your own thing.

Identify Your Most Loyal Customers

Nothing validates your business more than a paying customer. Until you have one of those, you can’t be sure of anything. When you have customers, you need to find out which ones are your most loyal. Customers who shop through multiple channels are often the most brand loyal. Once you’ve identified them, determine what keeps them coming back. This can help you to know how to increase your customer base and define your brand.

Plan Ahead

No one knows what the future will hold. But only a great fool will just wait for the future to arrive. You should never assume that what is working today will work tomorrow. Things can quickly change in your industry. Just consider how things have changed in business due to COVID-19. If you are looking ahead, you can use these changes to your advantage. If you don’t, you could be blindsided and left bankrupt. Don’t be afraid of the future, be excited for it. You can get an inkling of what is coming by paying attention to social movements, local and national politics, and upcoming innovations.

If you’re going to make it, the number one thing that you need is adaptability. However, this becomes more difficult as you grow. Make sure that you learn as much as possible, as soon as possible. This will allow you to make timely pivots that set your business up to make a powerful impact.

We can help you make the best decisions for your business when it comes to making a marketing plan. Book a consultation with us to get started on your journey toward success!

How Your Retail Business Can Still Come Out Strong During the Coronavirus Pandemic

The coronavirus has hit the economy hard. Stay at home orders have caused many businesses to close their doors. People have lost their jobs, and this is causing them to spend less money. All in all, it can be a tough time to be a retail business. You shouldn’t give up hope though. You can still come out on top if you’re willing to adapt to the times.

Keep Your Customers Engaged

Acquiring new customers is expensive. So, you need to make sure that you aren’t losing your customers while your store front is closed. There are several creative ways to reach and serve your customers during this unknown time. You can connect with them through email and text message, but if you want to make an impact, try social media. With more and more people stuck inside at home, they are spending even more time on social media than normal. You could run some social media competitions. Ask customers to post a picture of their quarantine picture featuring one of your products as an entry into a giveaway.

Rethink Marketing and Advertising Strategies

Your normal marketing campaign isn’t going to cut it during coronavirus. If your store front is closed, rather than encouraging people to come into your business, you need to encourage them to go to your retail website. If your business is in an area where restrictions are relaxing and you can open your store front, you need to address the situation. In your advertisements, talk about what you are doing to promote customer safety. For example, talk about frequently wiping down surfaces and employees wearing masks. This will help make visitors feel safe when they come into your store.

Use Government Programs

The government is aware of the strain that has been placed on businesses. The government doesn’t want to see the economy destroyed. Several programs have been put in place that are designed to alleviate some of the financial difficulties that businesses are experiencing. It will be worth your time to check these out to see if you qualify. You could get assistance in paying your employees. This will help you avoid letting go of employees due to business constraints.

How you react during this pandemic is going to determine a lot about the future of your business. During tough times, successful owners and entrepreneurs are innovative and turn the situation to their advantage. That might seem tough, but it can be done. Your attitude is going to be your biggest limitation.

For more tips on getting through this trying time, check out How Your Business Can Do Its Part to Protect the Public Health

How Your Business Can Dominate in Its Industry

With so many emerging businesses, it can be difficult to know how you can make your business stand out. You have invested time, energy, and resources into making your business unique from the rest, and now is the time for you to show it off! Here is a list of things you can do to help your business start to dominate in its niche market:

Study Your Competition

Your business should be well-versed in the workings of your industry. This includes knowing how your competitors operate. You can learn a lot from other industry leaders about what things you could implement in your own business, and what things you should avoid. Learn from the mistakes of others before making them yourself. Beyond this, studying your competition will help you know exactly how your business is distinct from others, and this information can be used to your advantage when marketing to potential clients. It is important to note, however, that intelligence gathering should be limited to certain sources to be most effective. Competitive intelligence gathering focuses on public sources, such as news and relevant sources on Google.

Look for Under-Served Market Segments

If you are advertising to everyone, you are advertising to no one. Look for underserved segments of your market that you can become a pioneer in. Finding and sticking to a niche that is in demand will help you find your own brand and will attract future clients to you that have not found a supplier that fits their specific needs. When you become a pioneer in your underserved segment of the market, you will open yourself up to more clients than when you are trying to serve everyone in the broader market.

Get Exposure

Effective marketing is essential to helping your business dominate in its industry. Now that you’ve studied your competition and filled the holes you’ve seen in your market by becoming a pioneer in a specific niche, all that’s left is to get exposure for your business. Utilize free marketing sources such as social media outlets. Use a marketing expert to build a website with effective search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. Do all that you can to show your business wherever you can.

You’ve already designed a great product to serve clients and built up a great business to show it—the most difficult part is over! Now it’s a matter of buckling down and doing your researching, finding your niche, and gaining exposure for your business. So don’t wait, start now!

How Your Business Can Do Its Part to Protect the Public Health

Public health has never been more important than during COVID-19. It’s extremely important that everyone is doing their part to fight the spread of this disease. As a business there is a lot that you can do. The choices that businesses make will greatly determine the level of risk that their employees and clients face. To protect the public health, consider the following.

Go By Appointment Only

A crowded lobby is the perfect place for spreading illness. To keep customers from crowding your business, you can require them to make appointments and come in small numbers. You might think that this would hurt your business, but it will likely do a lot to help it. Currently, many customers are concerned about the dangers of visiting a packed establishment. By reducing the amount of people at your business, you will make it more comfortable for people to come. Customers will also have a more positive experience as their wait times are significantly reduced.

Use Virtual Visits

Some types of business must be conducted in person. In other cases, it’s preferable to be done in person, but not required. When possible, use virtual visits to protect your customers and clients. There are many video streaming services available that will allow you to use video chat to conduct your business. If you can’t accomplish a virtual visit, you should take measures to ensure visitors are protected from each other. This includes requiring employees to wear masks and regularly cleaning surfaces.

Work from Home

Having your employees work from home is a great way that your business can promote public health. Having fewer people in your buildings will allow you to follow social distancing guidelines more easily. Your employees will be able to work in the comfort of their own home and not have to worry about contracting COVID-19 from a coworker.

Having employees work at home may make it difficult to ensure that they stay on task. You can improve this by establishing quotas and requiring regular updates on progress. You could even have small groups come into the office on certain days so that you can occasionally monitor employee performance. With the reduction of personnel in your buildings, you may find that you have more space than you need. If your business can still function properly with employees working at home, you could save yourself some money on rent expenses by continuing this practice after social distancing ends.

As you do your part to stop the spread of COVID-19, you will be saving lives. You will also gain the respect of the community, your employees, and your clientele. This will strengthen your business and help it to grow.

Looking for some marketing help to keep getting customers during the pandemic? Take a look at what we have to offer.

How to Obtain the Capital to Start a Business Without a Bank Lender

Starting your own business can be both an exciting and daunting time in your life. One of the first obstacles you will most likely face is obtaining capital to get your enterprise off the ground. Although the route most normally taken is to simply apply for a bank loan, the reality is that not everyone qualifies. Fortunately, there are a few alternative methods you can use to fund your business without resorting to a bank

Attract Investors

One of the most common issues aspiring entrepreneurs have with bank loans is the amount offered to them. Since they are unproven, they might not be given the necessary capital to conduct their new business as they want to. However, it is possible to accumulate greater funding by gathering investors. Finding investors is often difficult, but the payoff is often better. According to Salesflare, the best way to attract them is to first carefully hone a sales pitch regarding your company. You should also be able to fully explain what you’re providing your investors in terms of security. This usually includes a percentage of the company, and it might involve royalties or some measure of control.

Tap Into Retirement Funds

Let’s say that investor funding is out of the question, and you need to find other ways to raise capital. This is completely understandable as many entrepreneurs simply don’t want to let go of company control. Many business owners starting out are now seeing the advantages of using the retirement funds from their 401(k) accounts to finance themselves. According to Franchise Gator, a major downside to this method is that failure of your business can mean delaying your retirement. Of course, if you want to have a clearer and less risky path to running a business, you can opt for using these funds to invest in a franchise. There are plenty of companies who are seeking people to become franchisees for their concepts.

Asset Finance

If the amount of capital needed is too low to warrant a traditional business loan or too high for investors to be interested in it, you do have a third option. Through asset financing, you are able to borrow against assets you currently hold. This might include equipment, intellectual property, stocks, or real estate, just to name a few. You may utilize the help of specialized providers who are specialists in this particular field and can steer you in the right direction.

There’s no doubt about it. Starting a business from the ground up can be expensive, and banks can be difficult to deal with. Fortunately, there are other ways to raise capital without a bank lender. By attracting investors, tapping into retirement funds, and asset financing you can be well on your way to obtaining the capital you need to start your business without a bank lender.

Need help managing your business’s online presence? Contact us today and we’ll be happy to help!