Working from Home

The lasting devastation of the novel coronavirus pandemic shows us how challenging this time was for many individuals. Most people’s world was turned upside down, businesses closed, lockdowns were enforced, and no one knew what was going on. While this was happening, consumer habits took a slight turn in the eCommerce industry, which boosted its turnover to more than 860 billion in 2020.

As this happened, it created an opportunity for plenty of intelligent, hard-working individuals. Suddenly, you can open an online store for a fraction of the price compared to brick and mortar institutions; you can increase impressions and sales using online techniques from the online business professionals utilizing long-standing tech-savvy commerce techniques to help uncomplicated the often confusing online e-commerce jargon. Helping businesses stick around as we’ll look at four tips for taking your business online in 2021.

Get a Website 

Getting your website up and running should be your first concern for creating an online presence in your market. If you have funds available, you can use the services of professional web developers to design and build the perfect site for your company. If you don’t want to spend too much, you can consider using WordPress or Wix to build your website using a simple drag and drop system. This system does all the coding for you, so you don’t have to spend years studying coding languages. You should also make use of some of the thousands of plugins available to optimize your customer and pathlock security experiences.

Use Social Media  

The easiest way to build up a sustainable following is by utilizing social media marketing campaigns. By boosting your posts and increasing your following daily, you can quickly build up thousands of followers in no time. Social media is also an excellent means of getting platform users to your website with special discount codes and promotions. Even promoting side ventures such as podcasts, streaming platforms, and book launching teams.

Create Content 

Research has shown that businesses that utilize video content get a higher percentage response from a specified amount of impressions. This is due to how much easier it is to connect with someone using a video compared to text. Your content should most definitely relate to your audience, so when you start, ensure you did your research using technical assistance such as Youtube API and Google Trends. It will allow you to accurately identify and target a market by using your analytical research. 

Digital Marketing

Your business marketing will be a crucial aspect of the online sales capability of your business. You can market your business using Google Ads, a system where you bet on keywords to obtain the first ranking on the results page. This is a short-term means of marketing and will show results almost immediately after your first placement. Search engine optimization is another excellent way of increasing your website ranking when specific keywords are searched. SEO is a long-term strategy and aims to increase website traffic by using organic search results. 

These four tips will assist you in taking your business online and selling to thousands of brand new potential customers. The world is changing how they shop; make sure you change how you sell.

Friends, how are you planning to take your business online in the last quarter this year? Will you be utilizing the above-mentioned tips? Share your thoughts and advice in the comments below.

This post is sponsored by Diamond Bloggers. All opinions are my own.

Feeling like you’re treading water with your small at-home business and not making progress towards your goals? Or are you having trouble choosing business goals to propel your business ahead in the remaining quarters of this year? If you do, you’re not alone. As all business owners are looking for ways to be more successful. But how do you get there? So if you want your small business to be more profitable than ever before, here are three suggestions on how to make it happen.

Focus on Customer Service

According to a 2017 survey conducted by American Express, 78% of consumers have canceled or declined an intended purchase due to poor customer service. Other studies have shown that it takes nearly ten positive customer experiences to make up for one negative one.

Given that loyal customers are much easier to sell to, its paramount to make good customer service your greatest priority. Do this by examining your current customer service and make the changes that need to be made to ensure that your small business is providing service superior to that of your competitors, whether it be investing in staff training, revamping your return policy, or basic improvements such as responding promptly to voice mail or email from customers.

Whether you operate your business in a small community or from home, word of mouth traffic will always be more important for your business. Most consumers turn to the net to search for reviews of businesses before deciding where to shop, so building a good reputation is vital to the success of your business.

This also includes site design. Particularly, comprehensive SEO logistics and a responsive site design, including watermarks, logos, media kits, side bar ads, about me pages, keyword searches, and end slate graphics from  a  seasoned media professional or firm. Specializing in a modern company logo. Aspects necessary to create, again, great word of mouth advertising for your site.

And how do you get positive word of mouth? By providing good, professional service, and gaining publicity by giving back to your community by supporting and sponsoring local organizations, houses of worship, and charities.

Build Your Online Presence

One of the best ways to build an at-home business is through gaining an online presence. Particularly in the pursuit of creating a professional-looking blog, business website and dedicated, curated social media presence and app-centric roaming control. Methods that can be quickly and easily help to generate traffic and income to your small business need. This is particularly important as it’s estimated that more than 73% of consumers research purchases online before buying in a store.

Keep in mind that your website should describe who you are, what you do, and how to contact you will suffice for many small businesses. At a minimum, your site should contain your logo, business name,  a detailed summary of what your intended products and services will be, contact information, mission statement, and depending on your target market, a curated view and links to access your social media accounts online. Particularly mobile engagement, roaming control, and quarterly SMS API rates.

Net Promoter Score Surveys

If you do nothing else this year for your at-home business, you need to make sure that your online presence, including your business’s Net Promoter Score surveys. Surveys that help gauge positive customer interaction rates, gauge business growth and serve as an internal benchmark to track your customer service efforts, as well as an external benchmark to measure your customer satisfaction and loyalty compared to your competition. This makes tracking customer satisfaction important, and the most popular way to track customer satisfaction in 2019 is with Net Promoter Score (NPS).

Thermostat NPS surveys free each month can help your business grow by offering you and your staff a straightforward metric that measures your brand’s customer satisfaction. It’s important to note that NPS ranges from -100 to 100, and is calculated using customer feedback to a straightforward question. Making it the best way to predict future growth. With mobile-friendly options that make connecting to your customer base easier than ever before online.

For the right customer success software lets you achieve customer success by helping users develop an immediate understanding of and connection with your product from the start. We help you do that in a data-driven, scalable and customizable way. There’s a whole range of software strategies you could be using to reach your target market with great effect, from text message advertising and mobile display ads through having an app designed for your own business. Choose options best suited for your business at home.

If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this article, it’s this; success is not a given. If you want your small business to be more successful this year, you need to make the necessary changes to bring that about. That work may be as simple as investing in a new tool or as difficult as changing your thinking about some of your business processes. But you haven’t brought your business this far to just let it stagnate, have you? Here’s to your best year ever! And remember; building a successful business is a marathon, not a sprint! What will you be trying from this post at home this season? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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When it comes to your career, you may find that you just don’t really know what you need to do to get to where you want to be. Or maybe you don’t know where you want to be. And it can be soul destroying. You may feel anxious about it and worried about your future. But there’s no need to be. You may be feeling lost or a little stuck right now, but that doesn’t mean that you will forever. Instead, you may find that you just need to stop for a moment, take a step back, and think about what to do next. Sometimes, all you have to do is shake up your prospects a little bit. There are always ways to progress in your career, start again, or just head in a different direction.

It doesn’t mean that you’re a failure because you’re not happy with where you are or you don’t know where you’re going. Instead, it just means that you need to slow down and get a lot more intentional about this. You know you want to earn well and enjoy your career, but you just don’t know the route to take. And that’s okay. Instead, you just need to think about the right plan of action and that’s exactly what we’re going to go over in today’s post.

Here’s what you need to do when you’re ready to shake up your career, climb the ladder, and reach your dreams.

1. Look To Your Life Goals

To start with, it’s always a wise idea to go back to your goals. And if you haven’t done so yet, setting goals for life can help you to work out what you want to do and how you’re going to do it. When you look at your goals, it can help you to work out what you should be doing next in your career.

2. Create An Action Plan

Next up, you might want to focus on creating an action plan. Take a look at your goals then figure out some of the steps that you might need to take to get there. This can give you a rough guide on what you need to do to shake up your career.

3. Focus On A Promotion

Maybe what you really need to be focusing on right now is getting a promotion? If you feel like you don’t have any prospects lined up, looking at your current career role and focusing on what you need to do for the next can give you something to work on.

4. Consider Going Back To School

It could even be that you consider going back to school too. Maybe you want to get an advanced degree so that you can get further ahead? Or maybe you want to shake things up and look at a program to become a speech language pathologist or something else that you’re interested in? Sometimes, getting further education is what you need to succeed and find happiness.

5. Think About Moving Fields

Maybe you even want to move into a new field? Doing your same role but in a new industry could be fun for you. It could be the case that you love the idea of going into something entirely new? Going back to school would help with that.

6. Get A Mentor

Sometimes, it can also help to have a mentor. Someone to give you advice and hold you accountable can make such a difference in your career. So think about finding one today to help your prospects.

7. Start Your Own Thing

Finally, you also have the option of starting your own thing. Don’t worry so much about how this will work out or put pressure on yourself. You can start a side hustle alongside your day job and just start off slow. Then, you can definitely always look to supplement your income, keep working at your business, and see where it takes you. If you’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur or your own boss, then this is definitely going to be a great option for you.

Now that you’ve read through all of the different ideas, do you have a clearer idea on what you can do? Sometimes, it feels like you’re stuck where you are, and you can’t see where you’re going. When really, you just need to take a step back and work out your options a little more. And as you can see, there are plenty! So enjoy planning and see where your career takes you.

Offering a wide range of payment systems is important for businesses these days. There are more ways to pay for goods and services than ever before and it can be frustrating for customers when you don’t accept their preferred method of payment. So, you need to make sure that you are set up for things like contactless and mobile payments. However, a lot of businesses focus on new payment options but neglect the old-fashioned methods, like paying over the phone. 

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Most young people think that paying over the phone is an outdated way to do things and there is no need for businesses to offer this option anymore. After all, isn’t it easier to make a direct card payment or use mobile payment apps? It might seem that way, but there are actually a lot of benefits to paying over the phone and some people still prefer that option, so your business should offer it. Here’s why phone payments are still an important option to include.

The Older Generation May Prefer Them

Young people are used to technology and they will usually use the most up-to-date payment methods. However, a lot of people in the older generation do not necessarily trust things like contactless payment and they might not be confident using an online payment form. They prefer to do things the way that they have done in the past. Offering a phone payment option makes them feel more comfortable and can increase your sales with this demographic. 

Phone Payments Build Trust

There are a lot of scammers online, so people may feel uneasy about putting their card details into a website that they don’t know. This can be a big problem when taking your business online and it may affect sales. But phone payments can help build trust and give people an option that they feel more comfortable with. It gives you more legitimacy if they can speak to a person on the phone, so people will be less concerned about getting scammed. 

They’re Easy To Integrate

Businesses sometimes avoid using phone payments because they think that it takes a lot of work to set up and involves using a completely different system, but that isn’t the case. If you use an integrated virtual terminal system, you can accept payments via mail or phone as well as taking standard card payments. All of the payments are taken on one centralized system, so it’s easy to track payments from different sources. This makes it quick and easy to set up phone payments. 

It Increases Customer Interaction

Customer interaction is important for building relationships and getting repeat customers. Connecting with people online is a good way to form those relationships, but it’s not a substitute for more direct contact, like speaking over the phone. Taking phone payments gives you a great opportunity to increase customer interaction and demonstrate amazing customer service. 

Even though phone payments have been around for a long while, that doesn’t mean they are obsolete. If your business doesn’t accept payments over the phone, you could be missing out on these great benefits.

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Does your website seem to be attracting fewer visitors? There could be many reasons for a drop in traffic. Below are some of the top possible reasons as to why your website is losing traffic. 

Loss of rankings

It’s possible that your website may be appearing lower on search engine rankings. Something as small as being relegated from page 1 to page 2 of Google could have a big impact on your traffic – many company websites are reliant on traffic from search engines and lower rankings means a lower chance of search engine users clicking on your site.

There are so many things that can cause rankings to shift (including many of the other factors mentioned below). Often the best way to maintain good rankings is to invest in ongoing SEO. Companies like Cardinal Digital Marketing are able to carry out SEO tasks for you such as adding keywords into content and building backlinks. This is easier than trying to do your own SEO, which requires doing a lot of homework. 

Lack of new content

Keeping your site updated with new content is essential for keeping it fresh and for keeping visitors coming back. This could include updating your product inventory, posting new blog posts, or posting new promotions. Fail to add new content and you could notice a steady drop in traffic. 

Try to add new content at least once per month to keep your website fresh. Make sure that new content isn’t hidden – shout about new products, features, and deals on your homepage if possible. 

Slow page loading speed

A slow-loading website is likely to put off many visitors. This could result in fewer visitors returning to your site. Page loading speed is also a big factor in determining search engine rankings, which could in turn affect traffic. 

Ideally, web pages should load in less than two seconds. If your website is taking five or ten seconds to load, it may be time to consider ways of reducing page load speed. This could include optimizing images, reducing code, displaying fewer ads, and possibly migrating to a faster hosting server. 

Bugs and errors

You should also be careful of bugs and errors on your website that could be fending off visitors. This could include broken links, buttons that don’t work, strange formatting, or failed redirects.

There are scanning tools that can scan your site for bugs. You could also consider hiring a website tester to go through your site and look for any problems that may need fixing.

Failure to keep up with the competition

Have you been keeping tabs on your competitors’ websites? It’s important to make sure that your competitors haven’t got a cooler website than you. If your website looks old or boring in comparison, don’t be surprised if you experience a drop in traffic.

Websites need to be constantly redesigned in order to keep them fresh. You also need to make sure that your competitors aren’t offering better deals or products/services, so make sure that you’re also updating your promotions and inventory/services.

Working from home has been a great experience for many of us, but not all. Yes, we like the idea of being able to roll out of bed and just get on with work without the usual commute. But if the underlying job itself isn’t what you want, then it is still a chore. 

In this post, we take a look at some of the signs that you need a better job and the alternatives available to you. 

It’s Disrupting Your Sleep Patterns

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It’s okay for bosses to demand your time, so long as they compensate you for the hours you work. But it’s not okay for any job to get in the way of basic life processes, such as eating and sleeping. 

Unfortunately, many people find that their work keeps them up at night. They worry about how they will face the day ahead and whether they will be able to do what’s being asked of them.

Prolonged sleep deprivation is dreadful for health, so you must avoid it at all costs. If your job won’t let you sleep, it is better to take a different one, even if the pay is lower. 

It’s Boring

Nothing is worse than being bored at work. The hours pass so slowly and you’re always watching the clock. After many years, it is enough to drive you mad. 

Switching jobs can be a great way to get out of the boredom trap. Plenty of employers, such as Teach for America, offer engaging work that keeps you on your toes. 

You Don’t Like The Company Ethics

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Working for a company with bad ethics can take a terrible toll on your conscience. You believe in doing things the right way, but your employer doesn’t. It creates endless conflict within you. 

The only solution here, usually, is to leave, unless you are in a position of authority. Turning your back on a company and letting them know why is a great way to force them to change. They don’t want valuable employees walking out on them. 

It’s Harming Your Health

Jobs shouldn’t actively harm employees’ health. But if you are actively stressed all the time, then it can. As stress levels in the body rise, the immune system begins to falter and you can wind up feeling a little worse for wear. Eventually, you can get chronic health problems that take a serious toll on your ability to enjoy your life. 

You Feel Like Anybody Could Do Your Job

Feeling replaceable is a sure sign that it’s time for something to change. If you are highly replaceable, then you are at a disadvantage against your employer. You have no power because they know that they could replace you in an instant. 

The trick here is to educate yourself outside of work so that you can take on more niche and skilled jobs. The better your education, the more likely you are to find high-paying jobs in the future. 

So, do you need a better job? Or are you happy with the one you have?

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Working from home is a challenge and requires you to adjust your management technique, especially if you’re in control of a sales team. 

Fortunately, making it work is easier than you think. In this article, you’ll learn some of the techniques that you can use to improve the efficiency of your remote selling team, even if you’re all working away from the office. 

Invest In Shared Resources

Don’t assume that every member of your sales team knows how to work from home. Many won’t. 

It’s a good idea, therefore, to invest time and energy into creating shared resources that everyone can use quickly and easily when they need them. Set up a Google Docs account and make important instructional articles publicly available. These storage systems make it easy for remote workers to access the information they need at any time of day, regardless of their time zone. 

Improve Trust In Your Relationships

It can be difficult to establish trust with a remote team. When they can’t observe you physically, they can find it hard to build a connection with you. 

The trick here is to improve communication between team members as much as you can. As a sales manager, you have to lead from the front. Your interactions should set the standard for the rest of the team. 

Where possible, implement group Zoom conversations every morning. Ask team members to all make short contributions that benefit other members. Where possible, encourage cross-chat, for instance, between senior sales reps and new recruits. 

Be Clear About Your Expectations

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Sales reps like it when managers set expectations. Research shows that they are much more likely to feel engaged in their work. 

Make sure that each rep has a sales quota and then use software to track their performance. Make it clear what results you expect on average so that each member of the team can strive for excellence. 

If there’s a problem with a sales rep’s performance, you’ll need to hop on a video call with them to figure out whether there is a way to resolve the problem. Be clear on your ground rules for calling cold prospects and how sales reps should be representing your brand. If possible, create a system that allows you to record calls to ensure compliance to protect your brand. 

Use Team Communication Tools

Sales reps shouldn’t be isolated, even if they’re working remotely. As in other sales situations, they should have other reps around them, showing them the ropes. 

It’s sometimes a good idea to get sales reps to “shadow” more senior members of your team. This way, they can observe the sales techniques that work, and those that don’t. 

You can also schedule meetings that allow your team to get involved in your sales strategy. You could have sessions in which you brainstorm new sales ideas. 

Make sure that you have a chat app that sales reps can use to talk to each other throughout the day. This can help to replace those essential chats that employees have besides the watercooler in a real office.