April, 2013 | BizSieve.com

Business On Wheels: Top 3 Mobile Business Ideas

Today one of the fastest growing segments of the business world is the mobile business. They have an excellent history of filling the needs of consumers. There are mobile businesses that do everything from sell ice cream, fast food, provide veterinary care, library books and more. It’s important that when people aren’t able to come to a business, there is a business that will come to them. The need for new mobile businesses is increasing everyday. Here we will discuss in detail the top three mobile businesses.

Starting a Mobile Window Tinting

Today putting tint on windows is something that people have done to their home, office as well as vehicles. It is done to reduce glare and battle the negative effects of direct sunlight. Most people who use a mobile tinting service are willing to pay extra and appreciate a business traveling to them. Once the window tinting products have been purchased and workers are proficient in performing tinting, it’s then important to get customers. Many mobile tinting businesses serve local businesses like car dealerships, repair shops as well as auto detailing businesses and more. It’s important to be listed in business directories and regularly attend trade shows. Maintaining a website with all current contact information and more is also essential.

Starting a Mobile Locksmith Business

A mobile locksmith business provides a person with the opportunity to have a very lucrative income. Because of the nature of being a locksmith, traveling to customers has been part of the locksmith profession for a long time. A mobile locksmith business is designed to enable people to continue with their everyday routines, as their security issues are handled by a qualified professional. A locksmith is able to help people repair lock problems, install and repair keying, manage key control systems and more. They are also able to install simple as well as complicated locking mechanisms. Door locks can be repaired or replaced; electronic security systems can be repaired or installed and more.

One of the most important things for a locksmith is to have all of the proper qualifications. Training and experience are essential when it comes to being a locksmith. Depending on the location, there are a variety of legal requirements a locksmith must meet before being able to do business.

Starting Mobile Car Detailing Business

An auto detailer is an experienced professional who is skilled in cleaning a wide range of makes and models of vehicles. They provide thorough and detailed cleaning at a level most people won’t do themselves. An auto detailer will provide professional cleaning on a vehicle’s interior and exterior. They will provide detailed vacuuming, washing as well as shampooing on the inside. After cleaning the outside it will be waxed, polished and then carefully buffed. They know how to clean various fabrics and other materials. They know the best cleaning products to be used on specific materials for the best results. They can advise their customers on proper cleaning maintenance. There are a few training programs for auto detailers, but most agree it’s best to learn proper techniques from a trained professional.

One of the main things all mobile businesses have in common is the need for a well-maintained vehicle. Regular checks and vehicle maintenance are important aspect of any successful mobile business. As with any company, a mobile business must be registered with all necessary governmental taxing authorities. It’s important for any business to be properly registered and able to collect sales tax before serving customers.

About the Author: Thomas Jay is an avid writer and successful entrepreneur. In his spair time he enjoys working on cars and always recommends GlassClinic.netfor the best prices on mobile auto glass repair and windshield replacement in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and the surrounding areas.

Disability Insurance Requirements for Your Business

It may be difficult to think about what would happen to your business should you or your partner experience something unsavory, but it could happen. Your business depends on you, and your health and an injury or illness could prevent you from earning a paycheck. Protecting your company against any kind of income loss as a result of an accident or sickness can provide you with peace of mind, that’s why disability insurance is a smart choice.

What is Disability Insurance?

Disability insurance can replace a portion of your salary should you become disabled due to an illness or accident. It’s also an excellent safeguard for business owners and partners to help keep their company up and running during this difficult time. Depending on the coverage, you could expect to receive approximately fifty to eighty percent of your gross income. While it’s not the full amount, it’s definitely better than nothing, and it gives an individual an incentive to get back to work. However, whether you can go back to work or not is dependent on the problem or situation. Unfortunately, insurance companies may not always play fair, and you may be denied the benefit of receiving disability rewards. If you had a claim of disability denied, you can seek legal representation to appeal your case.

The Benefits of Disability Insurance

There are numerous benefits to securing your business through disability insurance that includes protecting your assets in case of an unexpected emergency. It can also provide income while you’re unable to work and cover overhead to pay for your lease, rent, taxes, salaries and any expenses related to the operation of the business. Key personnel disability insurance pays money to the business in case the primary business person is unable to work due to an illness or injury. It can also be used to hire a temporary replacement or outsource the individual’s job duties until they are able to work. In the event of death or a permanent injury, buyout insurance coverage will allow the remaining partner to purchase their portion of the business.

What to Look for in a Policy?

In order to keep your premiums to a minimum and to avoid the risk of not being insurable, you want to buy your policy at an early age. It also helps if you purchase something that caters to your specific business needs. Some insurance companies will only take care of certain areas of your employment, while other policies ensure that you have the best possible coverage, so you need to do your research beforehand carefully. Disability insurance can also extend to your employees and coverage can protect them, any personal debt, and the costs necessary to run your business. Guaranteed insurability saves you time since you won’t have to re-qualify for future coverage. You can also lock in your rate with a non-cancellation policy, to keep your premiums and benefits the same.

Disability insurance is a safeguard for business owners who want to protect their well-being along with the company that they’ve worked so hard to establish. It also has a variety of terms and uses, so you need to do some investigative work to ensure that you’re getting the best policy for your company’s specific needs.

Author Anthony Joseph likes to write about different legal and small business topics for people who may be interested. It can be a terrible thing to have your claim of disability denied. The law firm of Marc Whitehead & Associates is fully dedicated to get justice for individuals who have been wrongly denied for their long term disability benefits.

Maintaining Company Culture Remotely

When you have employees working remotely from various different locations, it can be difficult to maintain a consistent company culture. Your company culture is comprised of how each person thinks, makes decisions, works, and communicates – and it can have important ramifications for how productive and satisfied your workers are.

You can maintain your company’s attitude and values remotely by recruiting the right people, communicating effectively, and promoting an inclusive atmosphere for both local and off-site workers.

culture management — photo credit: niels-mulder via photopin cc

Recruitment

Leading with your culture in your recruitment strategy can ensure that you hire remote workers who hold the same values, goals, work ethic, and attitude as the rest of your company. The more you can ensure that your new hires fit with your culture from the start, the more likely you’ll be able to continue promoting that culture in your relationship with both local and remote employees.

Your job listing have to convey not only the position and the requirements of the job, but also information about the company itself and its values. Use your job applicant recruiting software to post listings that sell your company and use language that is appropriate for your company culture.

Look for potential employees who have the right attitude for working from a distance. If you plan to give your remote workers free reign over their projects, look for candidates who excel at time management and self-motivation. Should you desire more day-to-day managerial control, find candidates who are excellent communicators and good at taking direction.

Open-ended interview questions that seek to determine what kind of work style and environment the candidate is most comfortable with. Whether the interview takes place in person, over the phone, or through your office’s video conferencing software, it is integral that you assess potential remote employees beyond a resume read-through.
Don’t neglect reference checks. Try to get a sense of what kind of values the candidate has and how well those fit with your company.

Communication

Communication is key in any business, but it is especially important in one that deals with a mobile or remote workforce. The more closely you communicate with your employees, the better you will be able to maintain the relationship according to your company’s culture and values.

Make sure your remote workers have the right communication skills. They should be comfortable using web conferencing, telephone, email, and social media to touch base with their managers.
Chat clients – whether cloud-based, located within the email client, or installed on the desktop – help employees communicate more efficiently. They can message their team members or managers instantly in order to ask a quick question or get into a lengthy discussion.

Inclusion

One of the dangers of hiring remote workers is their exclusion, due to location, from their coworkers and the rest of the company. You can increase the inclusiveness of your company by implementing an enterprise social network (known as “Facebook for business”).

Employees use the platform as a means of communication inside of and between different departments, helping them to align goals, increase productivity, and promote interdepartmental cooperation and collaboration. Since the discussion is all taking place on the web, it matters little whether the participants are located across the office or across the country.
Since all conversations are open, everyone can see what everyone else is working on. Coworkers can provide input and align their own work to fit better with company-wide efforts. Everyone –whether local or remote – feels more tied to the company, its goals, and its culture.

Although it may be difficult to promote your company culture with employees working remotely, the right strategy and tools can make it much easier. Work on hiring employees who have values that align with yours, communicate with them regularly in accordance with those values, and help them feel included with the rest of the company.

About the Author: Megan Webb-Morgan is a business blogger who focuses on startups and small businesses. She writes for lead-generation provider Resource Nation. You can find Resource Nation on Facebook and Twitter!

What Does Your Domain Name Say About You

Designing and publishing a website for your business is an important way to enter the world-wide market and choosing a domain is a critical step to that process. Experts agree that choosing the right name can help the success of your business when it’s to the point and describes what your business does.

What is a Domain Name?

A domain name is the way consumers look for a particular business by typing it into the browser. It can also lead to an individual website via your business link. This small line of text can aid users in navigating the Internet with ease. Imagine if the Internet didn’t use domain names, and you were required to utilize a string of numbers instead to search for a company. Domain names are registered daily and can cost the user between a minimal fee and thousands of dollars depending on the level and value of your search engine. There are many domain names for sale that can be purchased through a Domain Broker.

Finding and Being Found

The name that you choose is important and can help you reach your consumer base. Many businesses think up catchy names that have nothing to do with the services or products that they offer. As a business strategy, this makes zero sense and will only lead to confusion and aggravation. Setting up your domain name and website are important steps to a successful business, and you don’t want to change it later on. This could cause you to lose loyal customers and make your company look unprofessional and scattered.

Choosing the Right Name

Select something that showcases your business in the best light and tells them exactly what you do. If your company handles myriad services, focus on the one thing for your domain that you do best. You can easily add additional pages that will outline your other services or products.

Building a Solid Reputation

To ensure your business has a solid business reputation, you’ll want to choose the perfect domain name. In case your business grows and expands in the future, you may want to find something broad based. This allows you to add things down the road. It also gives you a bit more creativity with the actual name. Some well-known online retail establishments have found success with a particular domain, and the name has had nothing to do with the products that they offer. They also offer more than just books and may include DVDs, electronic gear and much more. You can also find success with something specific that targets exactly what you do or sell. Choosing something synonymous with what you do can generate greater search engine optimism and promotes the exact name in the URL window.

Selecting the right domain name is important from the beginning and can help consumers find the goods or services that you offer with ease, and the right amount of accessibility. It’s also imperative that it sends the right message to your customer base, and the image that you want to portray to them. Not only will it help your business achieve success, it will make you stand out from the rest of the competition.

Author Anthony Joseph enjoys writing about new business subjects to help offer information to start up companies. Toby Clements, a self made Domain Broker, is one of the top dealers in the world – creating millions of dollars in sales on a consistent basis. Buying and selling of these names are happening everyday, and knowing which one is best can have a significant impact on how well your business succeeds.

Business Isn’t Always Glamorous

When many of us think of long-term, sustainable profits we may envision a large multinational import-export company or a banking conglomerate generating billions in revenue each year. While these sectors are all indeed vital to the economy and can pull in uncounted millions, an often-times overlooked area that offers the opportunity to produce a steady and dependable income stream is the area of waste management. Let us get a better understanding as to why this industry is one of the most profitable business sectors.

Trash Does Not Disappear

Whether we find ourselves in a booming economy or one where the word “crisis” tops the headlines more often than we would prefer, societies still generate rubbish. Simply because an economic downturn may grip a region does not mean that people are consuming less goods. In fact, there may actually be more trash and junk to collect as individuals and households relocate; leaving massive piles of refuse and goods on the street. Therefore, the fist advantage of junk removal is the simple fact that there will always be business.

Better Usage of Waste Materials

The days of taking a few tons of trash and depositing them in an unsightly landfill are quickly coming to a close. 21st century environmental policies now dictate that much of the waste generated must either be recycled or even used as an alternative source of energy production. Thus, the waste industry has rapidly “gone green”. The main advantage here is that this situation gives junk removal companies the ability to diversify their current operations. This allows waste industries to realise more profits as they now can offer a valuable commodity to other organisations. Many CEOs are highly aware of this, as seen in this article.

Government Subsidies

Another benefit not to be overlooked is the fact that many governments are now providing handsome subsidies to those companies who develop and maintain environmentally-friendly policies. This lower carbon footprint is actively encouraged and industries such as waste management have the ability to take advantage of this extra influx of funds. Also, let us not forget that these more ecologically-aware policies will help protect our environment for generations to come.

Turning Trash into Cash

While these aforementioned benefits are particularly relevant for larger corporations, let us not forget that smaller enterprises can benefit from other aspects of junk removal. Not only can one person’s trash be another person’s treasure (as in the form of antique furniture, copper pipes, etc.) but due to the fact that we live in what has been called a disposable society, older electronic devices are more frequently thrown away. There are many rare-earth metals in this equipment including silver, palladium and even gold. Many smaller disposal companies will actually reprocess these for the metals they contain and turn a considerable profit from what would otherwise be simply known as refuse.

So, it is easy to understand why waster disposal represents a significant income opportunity. Although not the prettiest of industries, the profits that can be generated are quite attractive.

About the Author: John is a freelance business feature writer working with Skip & Bin hire in the UK – a comparison site for waste management services who work with skip hire companies to help promote their best deals when availability is high.