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Don’t Waste Your Entrepreneurial Journey

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You’ll have put so much effort into actually getting your entrepreneurial journey started, you definitely don’t want it to go to waste. Yet so many people do. They either give up on their hopes and dreams, or they don’t put in the time and effort needed to make a successful business on their own. So if you’re just about to go on your own journey, we’re here to make sure you do it right. There are steps you need to take, and rules you need to follow to make sure that you go on the best entrepreneurial journey possible. So, without further ado, here’s what you can do to make sure you stay on the right path.

laptop and desk things

Start Off On The Right Foot

If you don’t start off on the right foot, you’re never going to end up in the place you need to be. So to begin with, your time and effort is the only way to start off on the right foot. Yes, you need to be selling a good service, or product, but without the commitment to what you’re doing, you’re never going to get anywhere. A lot of people struggle with this part. When you’ve always worked in full time employment, getting into the routine of working from home just isn’t easy. You need to plan your day before it has even begun. Set yourself time for breaks, and don’t overwork yourself. This is one of the main reasons why so many people just don’t make it. They’ll put 100% effort in in the beginning, and burn out their motivation. So take your time, and ease yourself into it. The more of a passion you have for what you’re doing, the easier it is going to be.

Spread Your Wings

Once you’ve found your feet a little, it is time to expand. Expanding isn’t always easy, and it can be a risky move with money. But one technique we know will help to bring you in that extra custom that you need is a virtual mailbox. This allows you to have an address somewhere else in the world, and is sort of a way of growing your business in a fake way. A digital mailbox forwarding service allows you to create a presence in a country that you wouldn’t usually have, without even having to do much. It will draw in more customers than you’re used to, and will make your business look so much more professional. It is a technique that loads of well established businesses use, and their customers never know anything about it!

Stay On Track

Once you’ve got to the point where you’re feeling comfortable on your journey, it is not the time to get relaxed. Just like we talked about in the opening paragraph, you need to try and be as focused as possible. The more you put into your business, the more you’re going to get out of it. Make sure you’re always looking for ways to improve and bring in more custom.

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Expanding Your Business : A Few Things to Think About

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Career ladder block analogy

If you’ve successfully set up your own little business and it’s doing well that you’ve started to think that now might be a good time to expand it, you shouldn’t be so hasty. Growing your business might be a great idea, but there are some things that you should absolutely take into consideration before you do so…

Can You Afford It?

Expanding your business isn’t free. You’ll likely have to invest in more infrastructure, more stock, extra employees and maybe even a new office. You’ll need to hire office movers to help you safely transfer your stuff to some place with more square footage, and you might even have to step up your marketing efforts too. Can you really afford all of that?

Are You Generating Revenue or Profit?

While we’re on the subject of money, it makes very little sense to start expanding your business when you’re making a decent revenue, but very little profit because that means that your business might have some way to go. If you’re actually generating a decent profit, after all, is said and done, then expansion probably does make sense because you will be able to start making more money, which is what business is all about. Revenue is nice, but attempting an expansion when your profit yield is low is madness.

Are You Meeting Your Targets

dart board bullseye

If you’re not meeting your targets now, with your business at the size it is, then it may not be the optimum time for you to think about expansion. Even if your business is in good standing and it is naturally growing, trying to push an expansion when you’re falling short in some areas doesn’t really make sense.

It might be better in such circumstances to invest more time and energy into meeting your goals. If you do this, natural growth is likely to occur, and then you’ll be in a good place to expand should you still wish to do so.

Is Your Company Scalable?

It seems obvious, but so many small business owners don’t stop to think about whether their company is actually scalable before they try to do so! This is essential because not all businesses are built for growth. For example, if the costs of expanding, some of which were outline above, are greater than the cost of organic growth, or are likely to take a very long time to break even, then sticking with your current mode of operation is most likely to work out for you.

Are You Easily Findable Online?

If you have websites, social media accounts and blogs that are all perfectly search engine optimized both locally, nationally and even internationally, if you wish to sell there, then you are undoubtedly in a better position to expand than if your websites and various other online efforts barely get any traffic at all. The fact is, the future of business, or the getting customers part of it, anyway, is online and if your online presence is poor, it’s probably worth spending more time and money on that right now.

Is Your Team Onboard

women business meeting

You employees are one of the most important parts of your business, so it really is important that, if you want to expand, you have their full support. After all, trying to expand will not only mean that they might have to work harder and do more for a while, but it is also taking a risk with their jobs, and if your staff are unhappy with the change, productivity might drop, and you might fail.

Do You Really Want to Do It?

If you’re thinking about expanding simply because you think it’s what you should do, and because you’d like to make more money, that’s fair enough, but it probably isn’t enough to make it worth your while. If you want that, and you want to expand because you love your work and everything it entails, from long nights trying to solve problems to quotas, data handling and dealing with employees, then go ahead, you really do want it and as long as you know what you’re doing, it probably won’t be seen as a mistake in your eyes, come what may.

Before you go ahead and start planning for expansion, do take the time to think about these issues seriously. Your mind might be set on building something bigger and better, but that might not happen if the time isn’t right for whatever reason. If it is, then great, if not, you can start making improvements and then re-evaluate in the future. Good luck!

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Thinking About Starting Your Own Business? The Devil Is In The Details!

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One of the most wonderful things about the modern era is that we live in an age where the possibilities of what you can do with your life are bigger and more expansive than ever before. There was a time when the idea of branching out on your own and starting your own business might have seemed like little more than a pipe dream, but these days it’s something that’s entirely possible. The truth is you don’t need much more than an internet connection and the drive to create something great to get started. Of course, things do get more complicated than that pretty quickly, and there is still a pretty significant challenge to running a business. One of the most important things to remember is that the devil really is in the details. You might be focusing on the broad strokes, but without these details, you’re never going to be able to make your business a genuine success.

Creating a pleasant atmosphere

inside a cafe

You could have the greatest product or service on the face of the earth, and it’s not going to make the slightest bit of difference if you can create a business that people actually want to interact with. The best way to do this is to create the most pleasant atmosphere possible. Everything from the music playing in your business to going to somewhere like APEX Commercial Furniture for the chairs and tables that customers will use has a massive impact on the way they feel about your business. Most of the time, customers won’t even be consciously aware of that feeling, but it’s something that is going to have a serious impact on whether or not they return to your business again and again.

Talking to customers

One of the saddest things to see is a business falling short of greatness because the people involved simply don’t know how to talk to customers. The reality of the modern business world is that customers service can be the thing that makes or breaks you in terms of how you’re perceived. You need to make sure that you make your customers feel as though, in the moment you’re speaking to them, they’re the most important person in the world. Creating that kind of feeling is going to make it much more likely that they will recommend your business to the people in their lives.

Consistent branding

Murrays Brewing

Branding has always been important to any business gaining recognition among customers, but there have never been so many different areas where you could promote your business to people. Everything from traditional print and TV advertising, to online marketing and social media strategies, require you to brand your business. If your branding isn’t consistent across all platforms, then people are going to become confused, and it’s not going to have nearly the level of impact that you want.

These kinds of things might not seem as though they would make that much of a difference to your business on their own, but when they start to work together, these kinds of things can be incredibly important and can potentially make or break your business.

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