BizSieve Team | BizSieve.com

5 Things Every Business Owner Needs to Include in a Strong Marketing Plan

So, you are about to start your own business. How exciting! Alternatively, perhaps you already have a part-time business and you would like to see it blossom into a full time venture. Well, every business – no matter how small or large – needs a strong marketing plan in order to succeed. Here are five tips that will help give you a leg up on the competition.

Specialty

What makes you unique among your competitors? Is it your personalized service? Your pricing? What does your business offer that people cannot get elsewhere? If you do not know what you makes your business unique, then you need to come up with a specific angle that sets you apart. Be creative and think outside the box. Your specific niche is what you need to know in order to successfully market your business.

Branding

Your business needs to have an identity. A good logo design and a catchy slogan go a long way in helping give your business a “face” that people will remember. Do not just slap together a piece of clip art and some text on your own. If you do not already have one, hire a professional designer to create a logo and use it consistently on all your company materials like business cards, letterhead, etc. Good branding will ensure that people take your business seriously.

Growth

It seems simple enough that businesses have to grow in order to be profitable. However, how much should you expand? How quickly should you do it? The best way to answer these questions is to set reasonable goals for your business. Don’t let your ambition over exceed your resources. Set attainable monthly or quarterly goals for your business and keep striving to meet them. Once you start meeting your goals on a regular basis, then it is time to raise the bar.

Promotion

Advertising and marketing go hand in hand. Where are you going to sell your product? Who are you selling it to? The days of just being able to buy ad space in the phone book, then sit back, and wait for the customers to roll in are long over. There are other options like online marketing, radio commercials and attending business networking events. Set a promotional budget you can afford and then figure out which ways are the best ways to reach your target audience.

Goals

Not only do you need to have goals for your business, but you have to set personal marketing goals as well. You have to commit to doing a certain amount of marketing each month. It may be that you attend two business-networking events each month and send out five sales letters, or you write three weekly blog posts and leave ten comments on other blogs. Whatever your preferred methods of promotion are, you consistently have to keep marketing your business.

Marketing does not have to be a chore; in fact, it can actually be a lot of fun to go out and spread the word about your business. Additionally, it is exciting to see your efforts pay off when you see new customers start coming. A strong marketing plan will help your business prosper and allow you to keep doing what you love.

About the Author: Jamey Vazguez is a marekting specialist who enjoys working with small businesses. She particularly enjoys working with entrepreneurs who are in the healthcare field.

The Challenges of Working From Home

Many people believe that working from home is a luxury. Yes, you don’t have to make the commute every day, and yes, you don’t have to deal with those annoying co-workers, but while working from home may save you from the boredom of your cubicle, it still poses the following challenges.

1. Communication Barriers
If you work in an office, and you need to ask a coworker a question, you can simply walk to their office, pop your head in, and get your answer. When you work from home, you rely on other forms of communication, such as email, phone and/or social media. While these are all great ways to communicate, you can end up playing phone tag or waiting all day for an email response. This is fine when the answer you need is not time-sensitive, but it can be extremely frustrating if your deadline is fast approaching and you have a question about an important aspect of the project.

2. Distractions
There are distractions at the workplace, but there are more at home. Those dishes piling up could be driving you crazy. Your dog could be begging you to go for a walk. Your bed is also a short distance away, and would anyone really notice if you took a quick nap?

While you are working in an office, you can focus solely on doing your job. Aside from your co-worker’s drama, there is nothing there to distract you for the entire day like that to-do list around the house.

3. Allocating time appropriately.
If you work from home with a lax schedule, it can be hard to allocate time to complete your work. Maybe you have errands to run during the day that need to be done while the stores are open. Then when you get home, you have to make dinner, and after dinner, you have to help kids with homework. By the time you’re ready to start working for the day, the day is long gone.

4. Lack of social interaction.
Sure you are working in the comfort of your own home, but working by yourself can be depressing. We all enjoy taking that five minute break to talk about last night’s game or discuss social happenings with our coworkers. We get to know each other and build a rapport, and having an adult conversation, no matter how trivial it may be, is good for our social lives. When you work from home, you miss out on that social interaction. You don’t talk to anyone face to face, and you’re left out of the “goings ons” at the office. Plus, think of all those tasty treats you’re missing at those impromptu office parties.

While working from home does have its benefits, it also has its challenges. If you have the choice to work at the office or work from home, consider the pros and cons of both. Working from home may be the gig for you, or maybe you would be more productive in the office.

About the Author: Hillary Fox is a marketing major at the University of Texas with a passion for writing on the side. She is a proud advocate of dining on quick and easy freezer meals. Hillary cannot cook.

The Fine Art of Bidding on Freelance Websites

In the last few years more and more workers have decided to go freelance and work for themselves. This is no surprise, both with the end of the old culture of ‘jobs for life’ and the precarious nature of the economy that makes it difficult to have confidence in your employers to keep your job secure. In addition, the global job market has been revolutionised by the rise of online contracting and freelancing sites where companies and people can outsource jobs that they need for their business and call upon the global workforce of freelancers to do their work for them. Regardless of what field you are employed in, there is a site somewhere that offers freelance work for you. A quick survey of the internet will show you that there are now hundreds of websites concentrated around connecting freelancers and contracts. The most established of these sites are Odesk, SoloGig, Virtual Assistants and Elance. Each of these provide work across all sectors, from Design and Multimedia to Engineering and from Marketing and Sales to Finance or Programming. Whatever your freelance niche, you will be able to find work. The only problem you will face is how to win the contract.

That’s because with so many people across the world also going freelance like yourself, the competition for all these jobs grows every day. No matter how good you are at your job there will always be contractors out there who are as good as you, or someone out there willing to bid lower than you to win the contract. So how do you get yourself a winning bid? Try the following:

(1) Immaculate Presentation – The first thing you should do is ensure that you have a well-written profile that is also immaculately laid out and appealing to the eye. The first place a potential client will look when considering your application is your profile and portfolio. So make it good. Put your very best work in there and outline all of your industry accreditations and qualifications. In addition, there should be a mission statement as to the way you work and a link to your own website and references. This area of the site will be your portfolio, business card and cv all in one place. Make it sparkle so people want to hire you.

(2) Reputation, Reputation, Reputation – The next most important thing to your profile is your reputation. This will be defined by the feedback that you get for every job you do through the site and will mean you are only ever as valuable as the last few jobs you have done. Get a poor review and you will find yourself struggling to get any work. This is why you always have to give 110% to every job you do through an online site – so that you build a reputation as an effective and reliable contractor. Bear in mind one thing as well – when you start out you will have no feedback at all so you will need to bid low for a while in order to win the bid. If you do this and manage to win a bid, make sure you get that all important top quality review for that first job.

(3) Tactical Bidding – There are two things to remember when it comes to bidding. Firstly, only go for those jobs you have a chance of being awarded. Bid on too much and you look desperate (plus you use up all of your credits). Secondly, you need to work out a bidding strategy that suits your work-style. Some people prefer to set themselves a minimum price that they will do a job for and then be the first to bid on a job at that price. The obvious advantage of this is that their bid will be the first one the client reads and will sit at the top of the list, getting the most attention. If the buyer likes your bid they will accept it and end the bidding early. Others prefer a different method, choosing to wait until later in the process. This has the advantage that you are able to watch the bidders before you and then put in a competitive bid that combines good quality work with a bid that sits in the middle between the highest and lowest bids.

(4) Immaculate Proposal – Lastly, make sure the proposal itself speaks to the client. Make it more appealing and more impressive than any of the other bids and show the client you have thoroughly engaged with their brief. Never, ever use a standard template to bid on jobs. They never work and you will never get the job. Highlight in your proposal how you will approach their job and include a timeline for each stage of the job and for completion.

Start with these important steps and you will quickly win your first bid.

Esther is a journalist and blogger who writes about small businesses and entrepreneurship. She also blogs for a Illinois injury attorneys.

Setting up a vending machine business

Vending machines have a strange psychological effect on humans, perhaps one of the reasons why they are one of the profitable businesses today. Consider a person walking past a row of combination vending machines displaying all sorts of bottled drinks, snacks in colourful and attractive tins and packs, candies, sandwiches, dairy products – the list goes on and on. It is observed that even if a person is not that hungry, he/she will make a purchase because, for reason’s unknown, people just love to see their money go in and the food coming out. That’s the way the vending machines are designed – attractive and persuasive.

So, starting a a vending machine business may give you very quick returns and you shall be sitting on a pile of profits in no time. You can obtain a license from the government of your country or state, purchase a few vending machines, bid for a few locations where you shall set up the machines and there you go, you are all set with your business. However, there are some pieces of advice which you should keep in mind so that it works out smoothly. Here’s a list of dos and don’ts for you to remember:

DOs

Research. This is the secret behind the success of all those big companies and organisations out there. Do your research and analysis and try to find out places with high foot traffic. Find out as much information on the internet as you can. Sometimes, the government conducts certain surveys and the results of these surveys are available for free or for a little fee. Try to find out if there are any relevant surveys for you.

Calculate. You need to calculate your profit margins and plan your costs and expenses so that you are not surprised by any sudden expenses during a cash crunch. Decide the pricings of the vending items so that you can make enough profit to sustain the initial days of your business. Be vary of future expenses like maintenence or repair costs, insurance, etc..

Tie-ups. Imagine the profit you will make if you make an alliance with some organisation. Sure, you might have to share the profits but there is a certain security since incomes are guaranteed. For example, making an alliance with a hospital will assure you that your vending machine will have a busy time.

DON’Ts

Know your customers. You don’t want to set up a vending machine selling junk food in a school, do you? Have good business acumen and make sure the right products go to the right places.

Begin small. No huge investments in the initial stages, please. This fact is true for any business, no matter how lucrative the market potential may seem, start small, gain experience, get familiarised with the market and consumer behaviour, and then you may make expansion plans.

The possibilities are limitless in a vending machine business – malls, banks, stadiums, hotel lobbies, large corporations, factories, mills, etc. Just use your imagination and make it a reality.

How to Earn Appreciation in the Workplace

One of the main complaints from employees is that they don’t feel appreciated by their boss or team members. After all, you may work overtime to meet crazy deadlines, work weekends to complete new projects ahead of schedule or even run errands for your boss that aren’t part of your job description. Don’t you deserve a little appreciation? Here are a few tips on how to earn appreciation in the workplace.

Treat Others the Way You Want to Be Treated

Before you start expecting people to appreciate your hard work, maybe you should consider how appreciative you are of your coworkers. Do you thank them for the hard work they did to help you meet a deadline? Do you take their work on a project for granted? If so, why would they be appreciative of your work? Remember the golden rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated.

Notice How Other Employees Are Treated

Are you the only one who feels unappreciated? There’s a good chance that your employer may not show appreciation to any of the employees. Before you start complaining, think about whether or not Jim was congratulated and thanked for his involvement in last month’s record breaking sales or if Jill got recognition for earning 100 new clients. It may not just be you.

Ask for Feedback

Sometimes employers need a bit of prodding to remember that they need to provide feedback to their employees. You could meet with your employer to talk about your recent success and ask for feedback. If he compliments you on a job well done that’s great. If he simply talks about the success and forgets you were part of it, you may need to work harder to get noticed or give him a little help spotting your successes.

Help Others Take Notice

A subtle remark about a recent success may also be enough to get the appreciation you deserve. You could say something like, “Wow, I’m a bit worn out from last month’s project, but it was well worth it.” Chances are you’ll get the compliments and appreciation you’re looking for.

Be Thankful of Compliments

Stop blowing off compliments. When you act ungrateful for people’s appreciation, why would they continue to show it? When someone tells you, you did a great job, say, “Thank you so much for noticing. It feels great to know my job makes a difference.”

In today’s overcrowded offices and businesses, it’s hard to employers to give employees the appreciation they deserve. However, that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve it or that your employer doesn’t appreciate you.

About the Author: Coleman Tappeiner is a human resource consultant who enjoys working with employees to have the best workplace experience possible. When he’s not working he can often be found sipping the oolong tea blends he finds at www.goldenmoontea.com and surfing his favorite food and cooking websites.