small business

3 Low-Budget Marketing Ideas For Small Businesses

March 4, 2020 By Susan Paige Leave a Comment

This article is a bit of a departure from our usual fare of advice on saving money. Its geared for small business owners who are looking to efficiently scale their marketing without breaking their budgets.

What is a definite way to speed up your business and lead it towards the success? Right you are! The key to prospering business is an efficiently planned marketing. So, the case is solved. However, when it comes to small business and to quite limited budget, you find yourself stressing out. Don’t! There are lots of ideas for low-budget marketing that will totally satisfy your needs for quality, efficiency and cost. If you start digging in, you will be overwhelmed by the choices available.

Well, since pretty much everything is digital now, you might neglect the still-existing importance of a print media. Believe it or not there are still people whose memorizing and attention skills will benefit more from something that is tangible rather than just seen from the screen. Whether you choose digital world or the real one to promote the work of your life you have got to make it look attractive and enticing. Here you might want to check an online design tool Crello. This app claims that you do not need to posses any design skills to create. New skill plus money saved equals win. Easy and comprehensible app to use, proved by people from all over the world.

Let’s have a closer look at those which are really able to promote your business.

Flyers

Flyers enable you to get significant results for quite insignificant budget. Getting them printed and distributed do not require much money to spend. Design costs might be cut as well, since you can create it yourself. If you design your flyer well and generate right, the flyer will show itself to be an efficient tool for lead generation. Colors, fonts, word choice, graphics etc., all this should be immaculately aligned with your big message to the world. Having QR code added to your flyer will let people get connected to more information about your goods and services. Who knows, maybe they will purchase something right away.

Blog

Blogging. This has become one of the most essential ways to promote and actually do business in the digital world. It’s not pricey, especially if you are quite a writer and capable of creating texts that will sell, attract and advertise. There are also some great free tools to utilize. It may be time consuming, requiring constant fresh and creative thinking. What is not, for that matter? However, when thought through well it will make your creation sky-rocket.

Social Media

It goes without saying. However, something actually should be said. Social Media Marketing is relatively cheap, easily connects to huge audience and fully-fledged way of running your business. Meaningful posts, animated graphics, stories. It’s all there at your disposal.

Therefore…

Sometimes it is not only big money that promises fruitful results. It’s rather your approach and willingness to make some effort, knowing what tools and apps to address. Limitless ideas for excellent marketing that save your money instead of spending it are all there, just check how to access them and do it right.

For more great savingadvice articles, consider reading these:

Twenty-Three Advantages of Self Employment

Twenty-Three Disadvantages of Self-Employment

Sorry, But You Can’t Actually Start A Business For Free

Business Finances: Tackle Debts & Avoid Insolvency in 2020

February 25, 2020 By Susan Paige Leave a Comment

Business Finances Tackle Debt and Avoid Insolvency

Businesses that suffer from too much debt can see their company come crashing down. How this debt is handled can be the difference between a business that sinks or swims. You can either settle the debts, or allow the company to fail, and with the right strategy, you can avoid becoming insolvent.

When a business becomes insolvent, it means they can no longer meet their financial obligations to its creditors as debts become outstanding. While there are some strategies to rescue a business once it becomes insolvent and get it back to operating normally, it’s best to try and avoid this situation altogether. With that in mind, here’s how your business can tackle debts and avoid insolvency:

Review Your Budget

If your debt is growing out of control, chances are your company’s budget isn’t working. You need to create a budget based on the business’s current financial situation. Review your last few month’s bank and credit card statements to help create a realistic budget; you need to be aware of all your sources of revenue and expenses so you can identify trends like revenues that are in decline or any costs that have been creeping up.

By categorizing your income and expenses, you will be able to get a clearer understanding of which parts of your business are the most profitable and which parts are draining your cash flow.

Cut Costs

When you’ve got a clearer picture of your business’s finances, it’s time to find ways to cut costs and reduce your expenses. You’d be surprised how many expenses just roll out each month that may not be contributing to the upkeep of your business operations.

There are three categories for your expenses: those you will continue with, those you can negotiate to a lower cost, and those to eliminate completely. Some costs will be unavoidable, like payroll taxes and renting the office space. Other costs can potentially be negotiated down, by shopping around for new suppliers or insurance companies. Finally, some expenses can be done away with altogether, but this could involve difficult decisions like letting go of an employee. However, if this becomes a necessity for keeping your business running, it might be a viable option.

Increase Revenue

Your debt problems likely arise from a low cash-flow, so increasing your revenue is a sure-fire way to help dig yourself out of debt or prevent it from getting any worse. There are many ways to do this, such as marketing your products or services more heavily towards your current customers or increasing your prices.

Thanks to your budget review, you should have a better idea about which sources of revenue are the most profitable. Focus your attention on these areas and try to increase this high-profit revenue to give yourself the best return on investment.

Collect Payments

Tying in to the increase in revenue, you need to keep on top of payment collection from your customers. Send out invoices promptly, as soon as your product or service has been delivered. Do everything you can to collect payment from customers as quickly as possible, so be diligent with your record-keeping so you know who still owes you payment. Make sure you’re chasing those payments regularly, so your cash flow doesn’t stagnate.

Consolidate Loans

Consolidating your debts doesn’t erase them, but it can make it easier to pay them back by combining them into one payment with a lower monthly cost that doesn’t affect your credit. By consolidating debts, you deal with a single creditor and can perhaps get a loan with a lower interest rate. This process can be done by a debt consolidation company that will take responsibility for negotiating the new loan, collecting the payments and paying off your previous creditors.

It simplifies the repayment process, allows you to reduce the size of your repayments and can help improve your cash flow position.

Be Transparent

Keeping the true nature of your business’s debt problems to yourself will only cause more stress and pressure on you alone to fix it. You don’t need to let every employee know, but telling a few trusted colleagues can help lessen the burden, and they may be able to offer help and guidance during this stressful time which could result in a better outcome than if you tackle it alone.

Alternatively, professional advice can be invaluable in this kind of situation. Business mentors or an insolvency practitioner can help you plan the best course of action for getting out of debt.

For more guidance and advice about going insolvent, Hudson Weir Insolvency Practitioners can help.

For more great Saving Advice article, read these:

Twenty-Three Disadvantages of Self Employment

Self Employment Myths You Need To Know About

The Truth Behind Unemployment Numbers

How to Earn Big in the Gig Economy

February 19, 2020 By Trey LaRocca Leave a Comment

Nowadays, the “side gig” has become all the more common. While many still maintain full-time work, the independent contractor has become a staple in the US economy. The good news is, you don’t have to give up your full time employment to take part in the gig economy. For many people, it just takes the form of monetizing a hobby they already do in their free time. The difference between those who strike gold, and those who don’t, is effort. Not only in your work ethic, but in your online presence and scheduling. To make sure you maximize your earning potential, here are some great tips on how to earn big in the gig economy.

Focus

One big mistake a lot of side-hustlers make is spreading their focus too wide. Casting a wide net can seem useful at first, but long-term business comes from building a book of business. The best way to do this is to begin by focusing in on one particular skill you have, and hitting it hard from the get-go. You can diversify later, but if you want steady income, spend your first months developing a clientele and a good reputation at one trade. Use that initial endeavor as the anchor for your independent work, and you’ll find yourself ready to be your own boss much sooner than if you spread your efforts around many different jobs.

Online Presence

Getting clients for your side gig is more than just posting ads. While it is vital to have adds up on all relevant sites like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, having a central point of entry is extremely important. Instead of just dropping your contact info on each ad, get ahold of a cheap or free web domain and create a site for your trade. This way, you can direct people to a website focused on you and your portfolio. Now, instead of saying “they did great, I found them on Craigslist,” your clients can send a link to their impressed friends and family. Now you are dealing with a faster referral process, and much less competition. The site will also provide more space for you to explain what you do, and how well you do it.

Scheduling

Consistency is key. If you have a set schedule of when you can get jobs done, make it public and stick to it. One of the biggest issues people have with independents is reliability, and you can be the one to change that impression. Having this schedule public will also serve to reduce friction in the customer acquisition process. “Can you do 6pm on Thursday?” leads to a close much faster than “When are you able to come by?” As with anything, the more information you give at the onset (without overloading) the less they need along the way. When it comes to business that more or less has to finds you, a fast initiation process can make or break you. People are usually asking around many different ads, and the person who can close them the fastest will usually win the day.

4 Ways To Cost-effectively Save Money With Business Security

February 17, 2020 By Susan Paige Leave a Comment

Saving money isn’t the simplest thing around, especially when your business is concerned. The company is your bread and butter, and you should do everything in your power to keep it running smoothly.

The issue here is that ensuring that your business is entirely streamlined requires you to spend a significant amount of money. Spending so much on your business isn’t ideal, mainly because most business owners don’t have the budget for it. But its true – you’ll be able to save money by carefully allocating your spending.

The following four tips will generally be applicable to most business types, so without further ado, let’s get into it.

Strict Employee Vetting

When you’re running a business that has more than a few employees, you need to take care of who you are hiring. Employees can be beneficial to the company’s effort, but a bad hire can be just as detrimental to the bottom line.

Having faulty employees that aren’t only lazy with their work, but are actually contributing to the degradation of your business costs you money like crazy.

Solving an issue with an already hired employee can be a laborious process that requires a couple of extra steps like notices, payments, and other things that wind up costing a small fortune.

Employing a robust but fair vetting process beforehand is going to cut down on your business expenses significantly. Vetting your employees based on their skill, their experience, and their general outlook towards your work is going to do wonders for your budget.

Your vetting process when hiring an employee should consist of:

Checking the CV
Checking the References
If they’ve changed a lot of professions, why?
Asking important questions
Calling the reference

Invest Into Actual Security

If you’re running any business that hosts events or operates with any people who aren’t employed in your company, you need to pay mind to the security. The security on any given occasion, location, or business can do as much good as evil.

If you have a good security team protecting your clients and your business, you can rest assured that your business is going to gain some additional reputability. If you have a bad team, on the other hand, it can drive people away from your company.

When picking a security team, make sure that they’re going to perform their job well. Check the employee’s credentials and past gigs to make sure they’re up to the task.

If any criminal incursion occurs, you can rest assured that both your employees and your assets are well-protected. It will save you a fortune in eventual losses or possible lawsuits.

Cybersecurity

When people are running a business, cybersecurity is more often than not wholly overlooked. That is a horrible thing, as employing proper cybersecurity is perhaps one of the most important things you can do.

If you’re running a modern business, you’re most likely to own a myriad of user or customer data. Other forms of company data can be susceptible, as well.

Employing the best cybersecurity or VPN program on the market is going to protect all your data, hide all your browser history, and make sure that you’re protected from:

Hackers
Blackmailers
Scammers
Nosy ISP
Geo-blocked content

An excellent VPN security service can help you avoid all of the issues that come with it. Protecting all your data and ensuring privacy is the first step to protecting yourself when you’re using the internet, thus saving money.

Set and Enforce Firm Policies

Enforcing firm policies can help you in in a myriad of ways. It will not only beef up your security but is going to do wonders when it comes to avoiding costly lawsuits or other business expenses.

If you’re running any type of website, app, or anything with user content, enforce strict password policies. It will protect the users from any possible hack and protect you from any liability.

When you’re running a company and enforcing strict policies with your employees, it will help you build discipline. A happy, disciplined, and efficient employee is going to put out much more work than a lazy one, and firm policies are the way to go about it.

For more great Saving Advice articles, read these:

Twenty-three advantages of self employment

Twenty-three disadvantages of self employment

Ten tips for entrepreneurial success

Image Source: Pixabay.

3 Cheap Hobbies That Can Also Bring in Cash

January 28, 2020 By Trey LaRocca Leave a Comment

When it comes to the monthly budget, wiggle room is hard to come by for most people. Whenever a new expense comes up, we are always looking for what we have to go without to compensate. Well, what if you didn’t have to sacrifice anything to have an extra date night? What if that new yoga membership didn’t mean you have to give up post-work drinks on Friday? All this is possible, and you may be able to pull it off with your own cheap hobbies! To show you how this is possible, here are some cheap hobbies that can make you money.

Driving Around

DO you have a comfortable car, and enjoy cruising around your area? Uber and Lyft have become mainstays for side-hustlers. Sign up for an account, grab some snacks and drinks for the back seat, and earn that extra dough! Be careful about this one, and make sure you have the right vehicle. Certain higher-end vehicles depreciate heavily with mileage, and the loss you’ll take on that can compound with premium gas expenses to rapidly make this one not worth it. Older reliable cars that just barely make the year/make/model requirements for the apps are the best option. these have already depreciated, and are probably cheaper to fix. Bonus points if you have a hybrid!

Cooking

Got some skill in the kitchen, and need some extra fun-money? Not only can being a good cook save you cash on eating out, it can also be monetized by selling the food you make! You can sell homemade snacks to coworkers, cater for parties, or even work on the side as a private cook. There are options here for all skill levels, as dealing some easy pastries at work doesn’t take too much expertise and will make you an office favorite. The more you can make, the more money you can bring in, and this one is very easy to work around your own schedule.

Tutoring

Do you have a degree in a high-demand field, and love to teach? Tutors can make great money on the side using online sites like Varsity Tutors or even Craigslist. You can also become a part-time staffed tutor at local educational institutions for a more reliable workload. Usually a degree is required, which elevates the pay past your usual side hustle. Tutoring holds an extra special spot on this list, as you are earning money by helping educate your community. Not only are you providing better for yourself or your family, you’re also giving back to those around you. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Predictions For The Evolution of HR Software

January 6, 2020 By Susan Paige Leave a Comment

The rapid evolution of technology in recent years has disrupted how the world does business. Perhaps no other department has been impacted as thoroughly as human resources.

Developments made in HR software are causing a paradigm shift in human capital management. The controversy is running rampant about computers replacing humans, when, in fact, this technology allows HR professionals to have more focus on the people they manage.

Here are five predictions for the evolution of HR software and what it means for businesses.

Automation Will Take Center Stage

Automation is a scary word for many employees, who fear that the removal of simple tasks will result in the elimination of job security. However, automation is meant to reduce monotonous tasks so that human capital can focus on high-value responsibilities.

Not only will HR professionals have to manage the transition and employee concern as automation is integrated throughout a business, but they’ll have to incorporate it into their own processes. Software that automates the employee onboarding process or candidate screening will result in a shift in daily tasks and responsibilities within HR.

Applicant Tracking Systems Will Become the Norm

Gone are the days of sifting through piles of resumes and creating lists and schedules to keep track of everyone. Applicant tracking systems are streamlining the hiring process to cut back on costs and ensure the right person is put in the right role.

Wondering how Applicant Tracking Systems work? This software is used to create a job posting and simultaneously post it across numerous channels. Job seekers apply through those channels, and the applications are submitted to the tracking system. Applicants are screened and sorted– sometimes without human intervention– so that hiring managers can schedule interviews. Results from the interview and references can be recorded within the system to determine the best fit.

This technology will revolutionize the hiring process for businesses with an incredible return on investment.

Centralization Will Be a Priority

Many companies are still working in departmental silos. However, HR is unique in the sense that it integrates with every aspect of the business. In 2020 and beyond, centralization will become a top priority in the HR world.

One of the main shifts businesses will see is the centralization of accounting and HR management software. This will be made possible by workflow collaboration software that allows a single project manager to oversee and coordinate many different people at once across departments. Tasks like payroll, benefits management, and even employee onboarding will be captured in a single, unified software. This interconnectivity between HR and accounting will create a more efficient workflow and a productive environment.

Development of Real-Time Performance Management

The modern world is growing accustomed to instant gratification. Thus, the traditional annual performance review is no longer sufficient. Instead, companies are investing in HR software that allows managers and employees to see real-time performance updates.

This technology helps employees and managers clearly identify expectations and have an open conversation about challenges and barriers. Many of these programs offer incentives like “kudos” that can be sent easily to show appreciation for a job well done. This HR software will improve productivity and employee morale.

Cybersecurity Becomes More Important

With newsworthy data breaches in recent years (Facebook, for example), everyone is more aware of the risks associated with cloud computing and sensitive information. As a result, the future of HR software won’t just be about efficiency and performance, but also about cybersecurity.

As HR holds a lot of sensitive, personal data about employees and the business as a whole, software providers need to prove that they have checks and balances in place. Education about safe computing and internal cybersecurity will also play an essential role in HR.

These upcoming trends in HR software will transform how businesses interact with their employees. By getting ahead of the curve, organizations can improve their productivity and profitability for an edge on the competition.