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7 Business Advice For New Entrepreneurs

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7 Business Advice For New Entrepreneurs

Everyone says, “your biggest learnings are from your silliest mistakes,” which is not wrong. Failures do teach all of us how to succeed in the end. Starting a new business, making it grow, and finally turning it into a profitable enterprise is similar to building Rome. A budding entrepreneur has to give everything from his time, money, and effort to get things done. Only and only dedication of an entrepreneur towards his new business can lead him to success.

But the real question is, how can new entrepreneurs know what to do and what not to at the early stage of business? New entrepreneurs always struggle for the right advice, break your echo chamber and appropriate direction. Well, in this article, we have rounded up seven pieces of business advice for new entrepreneurs that will surely help them thrive.

1.  Slow & Steady Wins The Race

Often, new entrepreneurs with a passion in their blood and lust for early success hustle to build a business. Romans built the Colosseum in 1949. However, its glory is uninjured even today. It is because they invested money in outsourcing the best materials, dedicated their time to build the best architecture, and made efforts to construct something that will last forever.

Similarly, budding entrepreneurs should slowly and gradually play for success. You will be surprised to know that these 20 companies in the world have been operating since their foundation for hundreds and thousands of years. This proves how their generation-wise entrepreneurs have put efforts to gift a successful company to their next generations.

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2.  Choose A Right Niche And Stick To It

The second piece of advice to new entrepreneurs is to find a niche that is business-ready. A trusted virtual office in London W1 is the best example of understanding this point. They found the emerging need for virtual meeting rooms in these times of coronavirus pandemic. So little did they know about it providing virtual room service became their niche? There are lots of real-life examples of companies that have inspiring concepts behind determining their niche.

You can take help from Google Trends, which shows you the year-round popular business trends. Once you discover a niche of your interest, stick to it and stretch every bit to make it turn into reality from an idea.

3  Pursue A Business That You Love & Are Confident About

You can’t love everything you do. However, you can surely do everything you love. Pursuing a business that you love will increase the chances of you putting in the most outstanding effort. Imagine you are a literature lover, and your company is involved in providing app development services. That’s quite a mismatch. Instead, imagine, you always get tired of drinking coffee while you go to work, and you start your coffee house. Therefore, you should select a business that you love and are confident to run on your own.

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4.  Develop Mind to Attain Customer Delight

Ask yourself, what are you working for, customer satisfaction or customer delight? If the answer is customer satisfaction, it is time to pause and rethink. Since the beginning, set your mind to work for customer delight and not mere customer satisfaction. It is super essential for a new entrepreneur to offer customer delight because it will create their first customer base. Having an influential customer base in the first go can make a stellar business impression, and your initial customers can help you bag your future customers.

5  Never Under-estimate Your Competitors

No business can foster without having competitors. Competitors are the driving force for any new or established business. Being a new entrepreneur, you might not know that business is cut-throat. Competitors knock down each other to reign the business game. You, while entering the business world, should know the tidbits about competitors and their business undertakings. It will help you make space in the market for your products/services and later make them preferable over your competitors’.

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6.  Keep Your Start-up Team Motivated

People who never left you, in the beginning, are the ones that won’t leave you till the end. You simply need to keep them tuned. In place of focusing on customer satisfaction, employee morale is one thing new entrepreneurs miss out on. It’s essential to celebrate an employee’s meager efforts and give a pat on their back. It is a must to tell your employees to trust the process, and success will follow. Tell them to keep up with their efforts and excellent work, and they will have your back forever.

7.  Be Confident, Be Consistent, & Never Give Up

Everyone faces failures. The bottom line is to be confident, be consistent, and never give up. As Nike says, ‘Just do it,’ you should not give second thoughts to anything before doing it. Don’t question your decisions once made, don’t cross-verify things, don’t compare outcomes, and don’t think whether you made the right call or not this time. Simply get down to business, have faith in yourself, and consistently put effort into everything. Within a few years, you will realize what you have achieved by being persistent and not giving up early.

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Conclusion

Don’t think much. You are an excellent entrepreneur with the potential to make the lives of people better with your ideas. Just recall these seven tips every day while doing business, and nothing will stop you from growing and eventually succeeding.

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BUSINESS

Which One Is Easier: Forex Or Stocks?

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Forex Or Stocks

It’s a common question about which market is easier: Forex or stocks? Forex is the world’s number one trading platform. The daily trading volume in Forex is approximately $6 trillion in trillions of dollars. Traders can work on the conversion of one currency to another. In Forex, traders buy a currency and sell it when its value increases or decreases. In this way, traders get a profit.

The stock market is also popular. Its daily trading value is $200 billion. Many traders get a profit from stock trading. The traders work to buy or sell a stock and profit if its value increases. Stock, also known as a share, is the trading unit. Forex trading brokers in South Africa is very easy. The trader can start trading on the South African stock exchange.

The Distinction Between Forex And Stocks

Forex and stocks work on the same principle. The traders can profit from the market if they have learned and have the skills to trade in a particular market. The Forex market works on currency pairs such as USD/JPY or AUD/AUS whereas stock works on shares. Here are some differences between Forex and stocks.

Market Trading Hours

The forex market is global, and traders can access it from any part of the world. Major currencies are available all day long. It works five days a week. The time zone is different for each country. When the one-time zone closes, another time zone will open. Such as, when the time zone in Sydney closes, the time zone in London will be at its peak. One time zone can also be matched with another country’s time zone.

Whereas stock of time zone is limited. Companies list their time zones for their traders, and traders can perform trading in that particular time zone. The stock exchange market is available for 8 hours a day.

Volume

Trading volume is also different for both markets. The Forex daily trade is $6 trillion, whereas the stock exchange market works on $200 billion trading in a day. There are a lot of advantages to working with a high-volume market. The Forex market can perform trading operations more easily than the stock market. Traders can get a high profit in the forex market compared to the stock market.

Liquidity

High liquidity is also associated with high volume. Forex provides high liquidity to its traders, which means traders can trade at lower transaction prices. But tight spreads are associated with high liquidity. Forex provides a lower spread with liquidity. Because it cannot be purchased and sold as readily as a stock that trades in huge volumes, a specific stock that does not trade inadequate volume would have low liquidity.

Conclusion

Beginners should study the differences between the Forex and the stock market. Both markets have their benefits. Traders should consider all these factors before entering any market. The trader should also make a decision on the available investment, what your goals are, and which trading style would suit you.

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BUSINESS

Remote Human Resources Strategies

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Resources Strategies

As the pandemic hit, working from home became the go-to solution to prevent virus outbreaks and increase employee safety.

Remote working does come with organizational challenges, however, and it is up to the HR department to create an environment that facilitates remote communication, collaboration, recruitment and training, and employee wellbeing – among others

Let’s look at what HR professionals can do to help their organizations set up a productive remote work environment:

10 Key Steps HR Departments Should Take for a Smooth Transition to a Remote Setup

From adopting new policies to choosing the right platforms, these are the 10 tactics to employ when transitioning to a remote setup.

1) Evolve the Existing & Adopt New HR Policies

As you might expect, the way you communicate, track performance, clock in and clock out, as well as a great many other practices will change when you go remote, and so should the policies that are guiding them.

The first policy to consider is which roles are eligible to work outside the corporate offices.

Next, HR professionals recommend focusing on the policies that guide remote communication as the foundation of effective collaboration and productivity. Communication guidelines should govern how and how often team members exchange updates and information. This can also include setting clear guidelines around the use of various communication platforms, from emails to instant messengers.

Then there are the question of flexibility including work hours and employee accessibility, tech and tech stipends, recruitment policies and so on. Bottom line, assess all the existing guidelines to see which ones can remain relevant and which ones need to evolve.

2) Invest in an HRMS

Evolving company policies is the first step to building an infrastructure to support your remote or hybrid teams. The next, and equally as important, are the platforms where these policies will take effect.

Cloud-based human resources management systems (HRMS) will help you manage employee records, generate data on workforce trends, and provide a centralized system for accounting and finance teams. It can also be used to manage payroll and even analyze employee performance data.

The HRMS will provide your HR department with a virtual environment that automates and optimizes previously manual tasks and workflows, increasing your team’s efficiency as well as the corporate one.

3) Recruitment & Onboarding

Recruitment has changed tremendously in the past decade.

Only a few years ago, job hunting would take weeks and even months. Today, for in-demand talent, job hunting can take only a few days thanks to platforms such as LinkedIn and Indeed.

With so many opportunities, competing for the top talent is difficult, but retaining them is even harder.

It goes without saying that effective recruitment strategies, onboarding included, will rely on the effective use of recruitment and HR platforms.

There is a whole discipline dedicated to this called recruitment marketing. To gain real competitive advantage in your pursuit of the top talent, consider hiring an online digital agency who can optimize your employer profiles and recruitment marketing strategies.

4) Monitor Employee Performance

Making sure that every remote employee completes their tasks on time is a challenge for your HR team. To set up performance monitoring and ensure that your employees stay efficient and complete tasks on time, you need a monitoring system that allows you to check the progress of every employee regularly.

The system has to be able to track typical performance KPIs and metrics. The common monitoring practices include time tracking, target tracking, and creating regular reports on remote employee performance. Going back to the HRMS software we mentioned earlier, this is one of its primary roles. You can also consider introducing project management tools with time tracking capabilities such as Asana and Monday. Systems like these also help reduce human error and help save you money in the long-run.

5) Set Clear Work Hours

While remote working does offer a certain level of flexibility, ensuring that all tasks and projects are completed on time is a must if you want to keep your business going.

Setting clearly defined work hours will provide structure and help managers coordinate work more effectively across departments.

If some of your employees are in different time zones, your HR team needs to find a way to reorganize tasks so that all departments can complete their tasks on time.

6) Encourage Reduced Screen Time

Working from home could increase your employees’ screen time. More time spent at the computer has been linked with deteriorating attention spans, emotional wellbeing, socialization and focus – among other mental health concerns.

If your HR team notices that your workers complete tasks outside of work hours, or that some employees fail to take breaks, they should take the time to encourage breaks and leave time.

A 10-minute break or a lunch break can actually help improve efficiency.

Show your employees that breaks are good for them and try to promote physical activities and spending time outdoors after work. This will make a difference for your teams’ wellbeing and productivity.

7) Upgrade the Existing And Introduce New Technology

Much like HRMSs and project management systems, there are plenty of tools designed to help you manage and collaborate with your remote teams. For example, Google’s GSuite is a complete solution that offers dozens of tools that help streamline communication and improve team collaboration.

Zoom is a great choice when you want to hold regular online meetings and provide feedback.

If you want a tool that will help you maintain employee engagement and morale, 15Five is an excellent choice. It’s a versatile tool designed to simplify communication between managers and employees.

There are plenty of software solutions you can use to improve productivity, and some of them are completely free. It might take you some time to find the solutions that work best for your projects, but once you do, managing everything will become much easier.

8) Training and Development

Once you migrate to online ecosystems, your onboarding process and employee development techniques have to change as well. The key here is to communicate employee expectations clearly and ensure that everyone involved is on the same page.

Traditional onboarding, training, and development techniques are becoming obsolete.

In-person presentations, workshops, training sessions have to be replaced with video conferences and a suite of other solutions. Additionally, enforcing new policies and practices might require more attention once supervisors and their teams are physically removed from one another.

Invest time in creating shareable documents and interactive online learning experiences to promote the adoption of new policies and practices. Consider introducing a learning management system if your organizatio runs these sessions frequently and with a defined structure.

9) Maintain Company Culture in The Remote Workplace

A DesignRush report has shown that maintaining the company culture is one of  the top concerns for managers across industries when migrating their teams online.

What can HR do about it? You can start by communicating company values as early as possible and ensuring that employees are on the same page. A reward system that recognizes employees for their hard work is a great starting point.

Employees working from home don’t get the chance to experience company culture first hand. They don’t have access to the common areas where they can meet colleagues and create stronger bonds. Your HR team will have to create “virtual” opportunities that give remote employees the chances to exchange thoughts and build stronger relationships. Something as simple as a chat or a virtual game night can do wonders.

Lastly, your HR has to prioritize regular face-to-face meetings. Introduce weekly one-on-one meetings between employees and managers, so they can provide feedback and share experiences to improve company culture. Apart from these meetings, organize group video meetings to celebrate wins and encourage employees to exchange ideas.

10) Security

Ensuring that your systems are secure is a challenge when everyone is working from the office. It is way harder to keep your systems safe with a remote workforce due to an increased risk of human error and disregard of company rules. If your employees use personal devices during work, provide extra education to help your workers understand the security risks that put the entire company in jeopardy.

Online security should always be your primary concern, which is why you need a strict security policy. One wrong move can result in a system breach, data theft, and other cybersecurity risks.

You need to establish a highly secure environment that minimizes security risks. Technologies such as VPNs or proxies will go a long way in protecting sensitive data. Your HR team should find the best option and ensure that all remote workers understand how it works and why it is important.

Summary

As you can see, your HR department plays a key role in organizing and managing remote employees. They have to revise existing strategies and create new policies to ensure that the transition to remote working goes as smoothly as possible.

Your HR should be able to help guide the management and employees through the process and ensure that everyone involved understands how the remote strategy works. That might require extra training, new software solutions, technologies, and a different approach to maintaining company culture.

However, as long as everyone works together in building a solid infrastructure conducive to remote work, working from home can prove to be just as effective, if not more so, than traditional working environments.

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BUSINESS

4 Ways BTL Marketing Connects With Your Audience

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4 Ways BTL Marketing Connects With Your Audience

The world is advancing at a rapid pace, so your marketing strategies should too. Promotional brand marketing activities like radio, print and television commercials are no longer the only way to show customers your product and generate leads for you. About a decade, above-the-line or ATL activities were the leading ways to market a new product. But when marketers started experimenting with experiential events and promotions to push products, below-the-line as a medium of marketing has almost entirely overshadowed traditional non-experiential marketing methods.

Marketing has multiple dimensions that are interchangeable depending on the present trend. BTL activations are among the most impactful marketing methods and are popular for grabbing attention and attracting untapped leads from within your target audience. They help customers experience the product or understand its real-world benefit through experience, or both. They enhance customer engagement and help build strong ties between brand and customer.

BTL Advertising Overview:

BTL advertising is a strategy marketers use to promote products in a more engaging and personalised manner as compared to ATL brands. This includes trade shows, direct mailing, telemarketing, free product sampling, search engine marketing, exhibitions and catalogues. BTL activations are highly interactive and allow customers to interact with brands in a personalised manner. It creates a direct bond between the brand and customers and helps increase visibility and brand engagement. 

Benefits of BTL Activations:

If you want to grab the attention of audiences and give them a very real experience of your brand, experiential BTL marketing is the way to go. There are many benefits your business can reap by investing in a powerful BTL activation. It directly scales up businesses’ marketing efforts and builds recall value for your brand that gives you an edge over your competition.

  • BTL activations establish direct contact between brands and customers, which helps them in understanding the other more personally.
  • They build brand awareness and target new customers that are currently untapped. This means higher lead generation.
  • BTL activations allow you to reach target audiences easily and more directly as compared to traditional ATL marketing methods.
  • They mark your brand’s presence and give you an advantage over your competition. This helps you to stand out and not become just a part of the crowd.
  • BTL activations allow businesses to build a positive public image that gives instant and measurable results.
  • They make you memorable and exciting. Dynamic BTL strategies can create a strong impact on customers and drive higher sales.
  • They help provide your audience with product insights and allow them to experience your offering as they would if they were existing customers.
  • BTL activations also give you customer feedback directly from the customer. This can help you improve your service or product.

BTL Marketing Activation Examples:

 Let’s take a look at how leading brands connect with their target audiences through BTL marketing.

1. Photo Booths:

Digitising photo booths and making them more Instagrammable is almost guaranteed to grab customer attention. It gives your customers social media clout and attention while giving your brand higher visibility through their follower base. A photo booth lets customers get snapped by following simple instructions mentioned on the screen. It lets them select layouts and pictures in the section given. They can upload an event image along with a branded hashtag to give your event more visibility on social media.

2. Social or Tweet Cafe:

A tweet or social cafe has the power to make you a trailblazer on social platforms and keep your brand in the spotlight. What makes a social cafe perfect is that customers can get rewarded for simply using a single hashtag. This not only gives your brand more visibility but also makes you a social media sensation. You reach more active users, every participant’s follower base and gives your brand more reach without much physical infrastructure.

3. Photo Wall:

If you are conducting an event, attendees are going to take pictures throughout the entirety of the event. You can display every picture taken at your event on a single mosaic wall as a collage to summarise your event. This gives you a vast digital album without putting in too much effort.

4. 3D Hologram:

This is a unique tech-first solution that is used to build brands. 3D holograms allow you to show your product to customers without needing to be physically present.

Take your marketing strategy to the next level with an experienced BTL marketing agency and put your brand in the spotlight today.

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