Setting Up A New Business: How To Increase Your Chances Of Success
If you’re looking to set up a new business, you may have come across some rather sobering statistics. It’s no secret that most new companies fail, but there are plenty that beat the odds and survive. If you’re preparing to launch a new venture, here are some steps you can take to increase your chances of success.
Picture credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-draw-a-light-bulb-in-white-board-3758105/
Research the market
A lack of demand for products and services is one of the most common reasons for new business failures. Before you invest time, money and effort into a new business, carry out extensive research. Analyse the market, find out who your competitors will be and define your ideal buyer. Look at sales figures and keep an eye out for emerging consumer trends and signs of growth. If the market is saturated or demand is falling, it’s best to think twice about trying to buck trends. Ideally, you want to tap into trends that are set to spiral and look for gaps you can fill.
Focus on customer service
When customers choose brands, they’re not just looking at the quality and price of services and products. They are also searching for the best value for money and they want to enjoy a positive experience. Prioritise customer service from day one. Treat every client like a VIP, add personal touches to make customers feel special and provide support. If you have consumers or business clients wanting to place an order with you, but they have questions, and they can’t get hold of an adviser or find answers on your website, you could lose out. Look into adding features to your site like live chat, and make sure you reply to emails, web enquiries and social media messages and comments promptly. Live chat is brilliant because it enables you to interact with customers and clients and provide instant responses. To learn more about business chat software, click here. If you run a business that depends on face to face contact, for example, you have a retail store, a restaurant or a hotel, it’s wise to consider offering staff training to maintain high standards of customer service and create the right first impression.
Spread the word
If you’ve got a fabulous new product or you’ve recently set up a brand new local business, you want to start accepting orders and booking jobs as soon as possible. Draw up a marketing strategy to spread the word and let customers know that you are open for business. Design and implement campaigns that target your ideal buyer and choose marketing techniques that will reach them and appeal to them. If you’re selling trendy clothes aimed at 16-35-year-olds, for example, social media marketing and SEO can help you drive web traffic and create a buzz around your products. If you’re offering dog walking, roofing or mobile hairdressing services, it’s a good idea to combine traditional and digital marketing methods. Flyering and local press adverts are a great way to generate leads, and you can also attract attention online using social media and local SEO. Over 85% of smartphone users will either visit or contact a business within 24 hours of completing an online search.
Image from https://www.pexels.com/photo/cheerful-young-woman-screaming-into-megaphone-3761509/
Launching a successful business is a challenge, but it can be done. Follow these steps to shorten the odds and put your brand name on the map.
Structure Yourself: How To Organise A Freelance Career
And this can be quite a shock to the system, especially when you are used to working a 9 to 5 career.
But if you are looking to get yourself into a freelance way of life or you've got no choice right now, what does it really take to get organised in the most effective sense?
One of the biggest mistakes many freelancers make is that they type up everything from scratch. It's important to get into the habit of working smart rather than working hard.
When it comes to various documents, whether they are legal or professionally oriented, there are resources like https://www.templafy.com/document-automation-software/ to take advantage of.
Organising your documents is all about ensuring these things are easy to access, especially when you need to get on with the task at hand.
When it comes to admin it's important to remember that, as frustrating as this can be, this is what will underpin your entire organisational prowess.
Time management is vital for any freelancer and on https://copywritercollective.com/5-reasons-why-time-management-is-important-for-a-freelancer/ there are some great reasons to understand.
But if you don't have a structure in place or a system to manage your time, you will soon realise the errors of your ways.
It doesn't necessarily have to be for the benefit of your working day but it could be a working method to ensure that you're not spending 12 to 14 hours a day on these tasks.
Resources like the Pomodoro method or getting an understanding of Parkinson’s law can provide you with some clarity in managing your time effectively.
And with Parkinson’s law, where the idea is that the work we do subconsciously fits the task, we can use this to our advantage by slowly tightening the deadlines.
We have to set aside personal time so we are are not stretching ourselves too thinly. Once you schedule something like downtime way in advance you will maintain productivity and it means that you won't be rushing around to try and fit in a break when it's all proving too much.
Breaks and downtime should be a key part of your schedule.
When we make the move to doing everything themselves, this is when we've got to truly get to grips with everything.
Best Family Phone Deals For You And Your Loved Ones
While they’re not wrong, there is one score that follows you around for your adult life and can impact your purchasing options: your credit score.
A credit score is a score ranging from 350-800 that determines your creditworthiness. In layman’s terms, it’s a track record for your spending and lending history.
The more you pay your bills on time and pay off any outstanding debts, the higher it goes, and vice versa.
Naturally, a low credit score can significantly limit your buying options, especially for higher-end investments like houses, cars, and even phones.
Today, we’re going to talk a little about how you can take advantage of these consumer-friendly programs that don’t discriminate against people with lower credit scores.
Because you’re paying monthly, mobile carriers are less likely to deal with the fallout should you be unable to make a payment.
The four leading mobile carriers in the U.S., Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T, all provide prepaid plans that typically run for less than their traditional programs.
Other smaller carriers offer only prepaid plans, like Boost Mobile and Cricket Wireless.
One of the perks of these smaller carriers is that they’re often owned by one of the more prominent carriers, therefore combining the coverage of a big carrier with lower prices. Talk about a win-win!
These were also the days when you needed a cosigner to do anything significant, such as renting an apartment or leasing your first car.
Fortunately, you can still opt for a cosigner even if you’re well into adulthood and stuck with a low credit score.
Of course, your cosigner will need to have a good credit score (that’s the whole point of having a cosigner). However, unlike an apartment lease, your name will not appear on the payment agreement--only your cosigner’s will.
If you’re interested in maintaining a friendship with your cosigner, though, you’ll want to make your payments on time.
Otherwise, your cosigner will have to foot the bill, which could sour any good feelings between you two pretty quickly.
One of these companies, FlexShopper, offers a list of payment plan options for the buyer.
You can choose to make weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly payments, which are spread over a year. To qualify for one of FlexShopper’s payment programs, you must be a U.S. citizen over 18 years old and also must have a monthly income of over $100.
Using FlexShopper is quite easy, too: log onto their website and create an account first. After filling out and submitting the application form, choose a phone, and wait for it to be delivered.
You will then sign a leasing agreement upon your new phone’s delivery. Pretty simple, right?
The only minor difference between FlexShopper and LeaseVille is that unlike FlexShopper, LeaseVille requires your social security number to sign up for its services, have an active U.S. bank account, and also have a consistent income.
There are plenty of viable options you can take advantage of to upgrade your phone, at least in the case of phones.
Even if you’re not so keen on the options mentioned here, it’s possible to join an existing family mobile plan with no additional credit check.
As you can see, a low credit score is not the obstacle you’d expect it to be when buying a new phone, and knowing there are companies out there ready to help you purchase a new phone should reassure you.
How Our Broadband Choice Affects Our Netflix Binges
Last Minute Christmas Gifts
Decisions,decisions...
Yesterday I've been having so many contradictory thoughts when thinking what should I buy for my husband.Christmas is getting closer and closer, the stores are getting more crowded than usual and the panic starts kicking in.
Over the last couple of years, I've always left the gift buying for the last moment.What can I say?! I'm a busy woman. :)
So, I have a few options that I think that my husband would like for Christmas.
Option number one: Today I went for a free eye check and surprise surprise, I will need to wear glasses every now and again, but what I want to say is that this place was next door to a pet shop. My husband is crazy after fish.We've had fish when we were and after we finished Uni, and he never stops reminding me of how much he misses having a tank with small fish. Extremly relaxing and fun to look at,but we don't have the time to care after them.Also,the humidity from the tank makes me have second thoughts.
If your partner is a technology geek- just like mine is - then the gift choice is pretty clear.
Let me explain to you how Nick is - when he wants something, there's no review left unread for the products, Nick has to know everything: specifications,cost, efficiency how the competition presents itself.Therefore, I cannot dissapoint-I have to do the same thing.This leads me to option number two: a fitness tracker. Not only that he likes being active, but he used to play professional basket ball a few years ago and still enhoys doing sports.Luckily,I found a website that reviews, compares and contrasts only the best quality smart watches out there, so I got my eye on a few products.
Option number three: Going on a holiday. I've been praying to go on a holiday ,just the two of us for almost one year, but 2019 was...hecktic to say the least, you know that we have our own business now, Nick Calini Photography &Videography and that's extremly time consuming.We love love love what we do, but many times this means that we will spend more time together indoors editing and less time travelling and just chilling. It all comes with a cost,so booking a holiday might not be the best idea right now, but it's still something on my mind.
Please do let me know, did you manage to buy the Christmas presents?Can you give me any ideas,which option should I pick?? :)
Leeds Light Night
Hi,guys!
The last couple of weeks-what am I even saying, months- my schedule has become hectic. I've been working non stop for at least 12h/day and weekends included.If I think about it, in the last half a year I've had max 3-5 days that were my selfish days,meaning I would just relax and forget about the things that need doing,so having a day off was a complete luxury.Anyway you can read more about what I've been up to with Nick Calini Photography over here.
So thinking about all the hard work that I've put into our business I've decided that enough was enough and that we should have a date night, out in Leeds.
Friday night we've been fortunate enough to catch the last day of Light Night. If you've never been to Light Night,please go next year, it's an absolute treat for your little one and a delight for adults as well.There are different locations throughout Leeds City Centre where you can see different shows, loads of good food and just good vibes all around.
This was for sure the best night that we've had in a long time.
If you follow me on Instagram,you might have noticed that...I have not posted anything about it,and it's not because I didn't want to.
Why didn't I post anything ? Well...this makes me feel a bit uncomfortable, but the truth is...
I am on a pay as you go sim card,sometimes it works for me , but every now and again I just run out of credit without warning. I've been going on like this ever since I came to the UK almost 6 years ago.
When you are on a pay as you go sim, sometimes you realised you just run out of credit in the most important moments...when you have to make an important phone call, when there's a special event, when there's an emergency...
Ps: You can see my Last Minute Christmas post here.
eShores Event
Not long ago I was kindly invited to the eShores event,which took place in Leeds City Center, at the Lambert's Yard where we got a bit of a taste of what the USA feels like. Personally, I have never been to the States, so this event sparked my curiosity .
I have arrived at the event with my fellow bloggers Lucy and Emma and we also met there the lovely Mr. Luke Christian.
The evening started with some delicious cocktails all inspired by San Fransisco and made by Anthony from Mix & Twist.These were:
- Wall Banger – Vodka, Mango & Pineapple Juice, Mint & Galliano
- San Francisco – Vodka, Cherry Brandy, Lime & Sugar
- Pornstar Martini – Vanilla Vodka, Lemon, Pineapple Juice & Passionfruit syrup
- Californian Ginjito – gin, Mint, Apple Juice, Lime, Sugar & Soda
Tell me, have you travelled to the USA ?
Ps: You can see my Last Minute Christmas post here,
When You Open Your Own Business - Our struggles and advices
I've been a bit on and off with my blog recently, so many things have changed in a short period of time and it was completely unexpected.
The last couple of months have been so hard, so beautiful, so time consuming and so rewarding at the same time. A beautiful chaos if you might ask me.
It all started when I asked Nick to take pictures for me at events because :1. I cannot take quality pictures of myself with a DSLR and 2. my time there is so much more enjoyable when I got him around.
This is how pixnkix.com was created.I told Nick 'hey,we are already doing so many things why aren't you opening your own blog where you can write about your own experiences ?'. He did open the blog and obsessively started learning about cameras and Photoshop. He would spend 12 hours in a row looking at tutorials and doing masterclasses.
We started investing in lighting and equipment and his skills were improving quicker than ever expected.When people started to ask for his services we knew for sure. We can turn this into a business.
Ever since, I've been working with Nick Calini on his new photography business.If you need a photographer in Leeds Bradford , feel free to contact him.
You will have to invest a lot.You can never be prepared enough when it comes to building a business,there's always going to be unexpected expenses,that's why it's good to have a good amount of savings or if you run out of money, a short term loan such as CashLady.com can be a good solution.Buying equipment can be very pricey,so keep this in mind.
You will need help.One person can't do it all, so if any of your family members can help with the small things, such as writing an email or picking up the phone or who knows, even SEO , then don't refuse them.
Networking is key.'It's not what you know, it's who you know that matters most' . Sounds familiar? I bet it does. You can be the absolute best at what you do and it doesn't matter if people don't know about what you're offering. That's why you have to get out there, and know like minded people who can help you promote what it is that you're doing. Knowing the right people will make your business thrive ,you can find mentors and people that can put you in contact with the ones that want to help you.Literally, your whole life can change over night if you meet the right people.
These are a few of the things that I've learned ever since we started our own photography business.
Tell me, do you have your own business? Do you want to start your own business? What are the struggles that you are facing currently?
You can know more about and my lifestyle.
Post writen in colaboration with CashLady.com
GLUTEN FREE SOFT CHEESE AND CUCUMBER STARTER
INGREDIENTS
(2 PERSONS)
1/2 ORGANIC CUCUMBER
70G GOATS CHEESE
125 G SOFT CHEESE
PANCETTA OR CRISPY BACON
SALT, PEPPER
PREPARATION:
IN A SMALL BOWL PUT THE GOATS CHEESE AND THE CREAM CHEESE AND MIX IT TOGETHER WITH A SPOON OR FORK AND SEASON IT WITH A PINCH OF SALT
CUT THE CUCUMBER INTO 1 CM ROLLS AND PUT THE PIECES ON A PLATE
ADD THE MIX OF GOAT AND SOFT CHEESE ON TOP ON THE CUCUMBERS
CUT THE PANCETTA OR CRISPY BACON INTO TINY PIECES AND ADD THEM ON TOP OF THE CHEESE
SEASON WITH SALT AND PEPPER
ENJOY!
About me
- Cupcake Splendens
- B E A U T Y , F A S H I O N , L I F E S T Y L E + T R A V E L B L O G G E R currently living in LEEDS, UK . CONTACT ME : CUPCAKESPLEND@YAHOO.CO.UK