Archive for category: blog

Are you now starting your business? Is your on-going business your first business at all? When pioneering a business, most beginners will encounter some obstacles that hamper their business. One of them is the limited stock inventory, the inability to determine the ideal selling prices, and the most difficult often encountered, thinking about how to get the first customers. Yes! Getting the first customers is the most crucial stage that will determine the viability of a business! The above problems of course are some classic problems for anyone who starts a business. To help the beginners, on this occasion we will inform you on how to get your first customers. Getting the first customers is the same as getting your first chance of success. Check out the following points!

1:- Target potential customers around you

To build a market, at first you can start by targeting the people around you as your potential customers. For example, you can introduce a winning product that belongs to your family, close friends, colleagues, campus friends, or bring your product samples to some activities or communities you follow on a regular basis. If you are active in prayer meetings in your church, giving your product samples to your peers is a simple but effective way.

2:- Differentiate your customers based on their characters

After targeting the people around you as potential customers, the next step you need to consider is to divide the category of the customers in accordance with the characters they have. Here you can divide the consumers according to their age (children, teenagers, or parents), gender (male or female), profession in cultivation, and so forth. This step will make it easier for you to plan the most effective marketing strategies to get consumers’ attention.

3:- Establish good relationship to expand market opportunities

As a business actor, building a network of harmonious marketing becomes one of the obligations that you should not rule out. If necessary, hold regular meetings to strengthen your relationship with customers, as well as to introduce the latest products you have to loyal customers. This is an important thing as your proximity to the consumer is the starting point for you to succeed.

4:- Capture new customers from your loyal customers

Having a lot of customer turns out can bring good opportunities to you as a seller. Very likely, your loyal customers can bring in new customers for the company you run. For example, they can recommend your products to their relatives or close friends they have through “word of mouth way.” Therefore, do not hesitate to offer exciting bonuses to your loyal customers as they play an important role for the growth of your business. If necessary, invite them to join as reseller or agent of your product by offering special bonus which is quite interesting.

5:- Looking for more information by surfing on the Internet

You need to broaden your horizons about the market you are dealing with. The Internet is the best information warehouse and you can get useful tips and tricks that are not disclosed here. You are strongly encouraged to read the reviews provided by Feras Antoon to get your first 100 customers.

The core of these five points above is to please your customers. By making them happy then by itself your sales will increase. Easy enough right? After discussing some of the marketing tips you can run to bring in your first customers as it’s your turn to practice them directly on your niche. May the luck be yours!

We all need a few creative ways to supplement our income.  Maybe you’ve already made this list, and you are not thrilled with the idea of picking up a few shifts at your local cafe.  Wouldn’t it be great to actually love what you’re doing while you’re earning a few extra bucks?  Consider this: become a dog walker.

If you’re great with dogs and their pet owners, it’s a fun and easy way to expand your wallet too.  There are two ways to make this happen: 1. Figure it out yourself, but who has time for that?  2. Join Rover.com and get connected to the nation’s largest network of pet sitters and dog walkers.

Rover has made the job of walking dogs and getting paid incredibly simple for you.  If you’ve never thought about it, chew on this:

• It’s flexible and based on your availability.  Whether you have the summer off or a specific schedule to work around, dog walkers set their own schedules.
• You are your own boss.  How often do you have the opportunity to determine your own paycheck?  With Rover, dog walkers set their own rates and services.  When you fall in love with this job, you have the space to grow this into your sole business.  Get your business cards ready.
• It’s worry-free work.  If there are any complications or emergencies while you are on duty, you have 24/7 support from Rover including vet services.  Plus, Rover provides insurance coverage.
• Enjoy some time outside.  This could be your best excuse to get out and about this summer.  Your office has no walls, and your colleagues are dogs.  Does it get any better?
• It doesn’t require a degree or certification.  If you love dogs and know how to make pet owners happy, you’re ready to apply.  Rover also provides resources to help you develop your business.
• It’s tech savvy.  With Rover’s online platform, you have the ability to showcase your dog-loving qualities, set your availability, book clients, and have pet owners share their rave reviews.  The Rover app allows you to communicate directly with pet owners about the details of your walk and send photos.
• Getting started is easy.  After you create your profile, Rover requires a background check and takes the time to review your profile.  The moment you’re approved, you’re open for business.

Rover is a community of dog lovers like you.  Sign up via Become a Sitter–grab a leash and join us.

Time management is a skill that you just don’t learn overnight. It is something that you have to work really hard on if you want to arrive at a result. There are people who easily get frustrated when they don’t achieve their goals, but they don’t do anything to change themselves.

If time management is the issue, you might want to consider using time tracking software. This helps a lot in making sure that you can get your tasks done on time. It is different from an alarm clock in the sense that your every action can be tracked. For instance, if you are working on a task, you will know how much time you have spent on it and what you have actually accomplished in a given time. This gives you a clear picture of what exactly it is that you need to do to improve in the future.

Furthermore, it is also easy for you to change if you have already identified your weakness. You might want to work faster the next time around. You could also drop some activities that delay your movements. Anything that distracts you from improvement is unhealthy and should be removed from your daily routine.

It takes time and conscious effort

It helps to have time tracking software. However, you should also make sure that you learn from your mistakes. Software is just a tool to help you improve. You will still be the one to make the necessary adjustments if you want to be better at what you are doing.

It does not matter how you are going to make use of the software. You can use it in order to improve your personal life or you can also use it to grow in your professional life. The point is that you become better at using time to be a better person in the long run.

Don’t be frustrated

You should also remember that changing yourself for the better does not happen in the blink of an eye. You need to give yourself a pat on the back if you feel like you have done something great. You should take note of the things that you have done well and what else you can do to further these improvements.

Over time, you will realise that you have already changed. You can see it in your time tracking log. For now, it might still be difficult to visualise how a simple app can change you. Later on, you will understand that it is something you can really work hard on.

Check out alpaka-punch.com for more information on time management software and how you can maximise it for your personal and professional growth.

Small businesses have an advantage over larger businesses when it comes to customer service. Since there are less levels of workers between the manufacturer of the product and the head of the company, nearly everyone is involved with every aspect of creation, marketing and sales of the company’s products.

The larger the corporation, the more separation there is between the workers who create the products and the people who sell them. That separation makes it more difficult for large businesses to maintain customer service without hiring experts to do the job. For businesses that are concerned with their customer service abilities but want to grow larger, it is an ironic Catch-22.

Growing with customer service in mind

To make your company truly successful, customer service will have to grow at the same rate as the company. At no point do you want your customers to feel that they are not important to your business.

Your goal is to make customer service an ongoing process that continuously makes small adjustments at every level of your company. For every action taken by your business, or by your customers, there should be a corresponding action to keep your customers happy and satisfied with your service.

Although it sounds difficult, the sheer amount of data available about your customers, both as a group and individually, makes it easy to keep track of what is important to them and how well your company manages it. Analyzing and correlating the data is the challenging task.

Strategies to improve your customer service

Although every company is unique, there are several strategies that can be taken to improve customer service and make your company truly customer centric:

• Customer Experience Management (CXM). CXM, simplistically, is a management philosophy that runs your business based on customer analytics. By maintaining and compiling data about the customers, CXM takes the philosophy that the customer is always right to a higher level. Not only is the customer always right, the wants of the customer base provide the direction for the company to go in.
• Social Media Marketing (SMM). Directed marketing aimed to get your products in front of the people most likely to buy them is the theme behind the social media marketing boom. Again, customer data plays a large part, but instead of relying on existing customers to decide your direction, SMM aims at specific groups to increase sales and establish your brand.
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM). The reverse of SMM, search engine marketing makes your company more attractive to search engine algorithms to make your website the most popular according to your search criteria. SEM and Search Engine Optimization expand your customer base while still retaining brand identity and customer expectations.
• Virtual Call Centers (VCC). Although the VCC is primarily designed to answer customer queries and complaints, the call center software is a handy tool to survey and analyze what your current customers think of your business and what you can do to make their experiences better. It also gives you a built-in platform for advertising for your current customer base.

None of these strategies are mutually exclusive, allowing companies to mix-and-match methods to find what works for them. These strategies are also flexible enough to grow with your company.

For the small business on a budget, any of these options are better and less expensive than trying to manage customer interaction within your company.  Outstripping your resources is the primary concern as you add levels to your organization.