Category: Tips and Tools

What pops into your mind when you hear the word ‘entrepreneur’? Perhaps you think of driven, competitive people with fast, expensive cars and lots of money. Or maybe famous entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson and the entrepreneurs on Dragon’s Den. It can be hard to think of ourselves as entrepreneurial because most of us lead very different lives to these people.

While there definitely are entrepreneurs with fast cars and lots of money, it’s possible to have an entrepreneurial mindset without the lifestyle that we associate with entrepreneurs. So what is an entrepreneur? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, an entrepreneur is ‘a person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit.’   The difference between an entrepreneur and a business owner is that an entrepreneur usually starts a business with the intention of growing it and selling it. In other words, the business IS the entrepreneur’s product.

The qualities an entrepreneur needs include resilience and determination, as well as a willingness to take risks. There can be many failed businesses on the road to selling a successful one for profit, so self-belief is also a must.

Many entrepreneurs are portrayed as living extravagant lifestyles, but they can be very generous, too. For example, Matt Redhawk is an entrepreneur who is giving back in several ways, including helping families become self-sufficient. Bill Gates has taken the billionaires’ pledge to give at least half of his wealth to philanthropy.

There’s an entire category of entrepreneurs who start businesses with the purpose of doing good, known as social entrepreneurs. A social enterprise makes a profit like any business but reinvests or donates those profits to create positive social change.

As you can see, the entrepreneurial mindset is about being able to spot an opportunity and take action on it; resilience, determination and self-belief plus generosity and wanting to give something back. Realising that you have many of the facets of an entrepreneurial mindset will help you take action towards your goals and could ultimately lead to you making a huge positive difference to your own life, your family and friends or your community.

So if you feel you may be a budding entrepreneur avoid comparing yourself the entrepreneurs in sharp suits and fast cars on TV and think about the opportunities you could pursue instead. Where could you make a difference? What product could you make better? Sniff around for opportunities and don’t be afraid to be a nosey parker!

If you see an opportunity but feel you don’t have all the entrepreneurial qualities you need, don’t be put off. Getting to know other entrepreneurs can be great for building self-belief as well as offering practical advice. If you have a great business idea and can prove it by getting some good initial sales, you may be in a position to get funding to grow your business. Having clear goals and a long-term vision helps keep you on track when things get tough. You don’t have to rely entirely on your own willpower, although you will need to be pretty determined to succeed!

Running a home business is something that many of us dream of. We spend days sitting at our desk or behind a till, dreaming of leaving it all behind. Of going it alone and launching our own business. Of working from a home office, around our other commitments and responsibilities. We see ourselves learning from the mistakes that we’ve seen others make. Doing it right. We daydream about the products that we’ll sell and the money that we will make. It’ll be easy, it’ll be fun, and we’ll make it a success.

Image: Rawpixel

Managing your own home business can be great. It certainly takes a leap to get started. But, once you take it, you get the chance to follow all of those dreams. You can do everything that you want, and make your business what you want it to be. But, the realities aren’t often as easy as our dreams made them seem.

You might find that in the early days you are working on a very low budget. That you can’t afford to employ staff and that you need to do a lot of the work alone. You need to learn about all areas of business. Even if you are making money as a blogger, with a blog that you’ve had for years, you can suddenly find that you need to know more. You need to learn about accounting and marketing. You have to be able to research the market, prepare business plans and financial forecasts. You need to make contacts through networking. There’s a lot to do and more to think about. Many home business owners find that they work seven days a week, for many hours a day. That they actually get less time off, and less time with their families. But at the same time that they can’t ever give their business their full focus with so many home distractions.

This can lead to burnout. Many small home business owners find themselves becoming stressed out, tired and overworked. They can become ill or depressed and find that they are unable to give their business their all. Many become upset, and even give up because they just can’t find the time to do it all. Here are some ways that you can avoid home business burnout.

Start Outsourcing

Running a home business often means that you can’t afford to hire staff. Or that you haven’t got the space for a team of employees. But, that doesn’t mean that you have to do everything on your own. Outsourcing work to a virtual headquarters means that you always have someone to help you when you need it. They can answer phones, make calls, reply to emails, arrange your schedule and take on other tasks, giving you more time to do more important things. Or even to take a break.

You can also outsource social media management, content creation, marketing, design, accounting and more. Think about the jobs that you don’t enjoy or don’t feel you are very good at, and ask yourself if it would be worth paying someone else to do them for you.

Take a Day Off

Many self-employed people rarely take days off. They work from early in the morning to late at night, every day. If they do schedule a day off, they find themselves updating the business website, posting to social media and replying to emails. That’s really not a day off.

Give yourself at least one day a week off. Completely off. What’s the worst that could happen? Then, when you can, book a holiday. Leave your business behind for a week, either closing your doors or hiring someone to help out for a few days. It’s good for you and allows you to come back to the business feeling refreshed and filled with good ideas.

Work Set Hours

Image: ThoughtCatalog

One of the many advantages of working for yourself is the flexibility. But, it’s still a good idea to try to sit to a schedule. It doesn’t have to be 9-5, nor does it have to be the same every day. But, get dressed for work, sit in your office, and stop work at a particular time. Once you’ve stopped, leave the office, and your phone behind for the night.

Talk About It

Running a home business can be lonely. If you are used to working with, or around other people, suddenly spending your days alone can be a shock to the system. This is made worse by the feeling that no one else understands. You might not know anyone else that works at home, and your friends and family might think that you’ve got it easy. Talk to them about your day. Tell them what it’s like. Then, try to make friends with other homeworkers online or at networking events.

If you own a credit card, or more than one, then you need to be aware of the techniques used by scammers to get your card numbers. Even if you only have a debit card associated with your bank account, there are still going to be ways that dishonest people use to try and get access to your identity so they can make some purchases for which you will be held accountable. You can use Ivrnet for PCI compliance so that you will feel a little more secure, but you should still know about these five ways that thieves might try to steal your card information.

 Skimming

Skimming is one of the easiest ways for thieves to get your card info because all they have to do is install the device on an ATM and then come back to get it later. For anyone who used the ATM without paying attention, their credit card number and pin is now in someone else’s possession, and they will seldom lose any time in racking up charges in your name. Try only to use ATMs in your local bank branch, and if you do have to use one somewhere else, look it over carefully to make sure that there are no suspicious-looking devices attached to it.

 Phishing

Phishing schemes come in several different forms, but with each one, the intent is the same. The individual who sends you the email or text message tries to impersonate another entity and feed you whatever line they think you will fall for so that you will give up your card information, which they will then use or sell. They might impersonate the federal government, an African prince, or some damsel in distress in a foreign country. Don’t ever open emails or look at text messages from numbers or people that you don’t recognize.

 Old-Fashioned Stealing

There’s nothing simpler than old-fashioned theft, which might take place if you leave your purse unattended for a moment while you’re out in public, or it could involve smashing one of your car windows. Credit cards left in your home might be vulnerable too if you don’t have any security system in place. It’s unfortunate when this happens, but at least you should be aware of it quickly, and you contact the card company without delay.

 Change of Address

This is a particularly clever one. A thief will submit a change of address form for your house, in the hopes that they will receive one of your credit card bills which will have all of your info on it. That’s why it’s best to get credit card bills sent to you by email.

 Dumpster Diving

This is when a thief will go through dumpsters or trash cans looking for any bills that might contain credit card information, which they can then use. You shouldn’t have these bills sent to you in paper form, but if you insist on it, at least shred them before you throw them away to prevent this from happening.

Most schemes can be avoided if you’re careful and use a little common sense. Try to think about security measures as you use your card, and you should be able to avoid the more conspicuous of these strategies.

Image credit: Max Pixel

 

All the business professionals reading this post will have one thing in common; you want low overhead costs. For a business owner, this is usually the main thing that restricts your profit margins and makes it hard to make any real money.

I know there are some people reading this that might be new to all of this business lingo, so I’ll briefly go over what this term means. Essentially, overhead costs are everything you need to spend money on to run your business. This includes paying for employees, manufacturing overheads, and so on. If you keep these as low as possible, then you stop a lot of money leaving your business, which means you have more chance of making a profit.

So, moving onto the main point of this post, I have a few modern business ventures that have very low overheads. They’re all profitable ideas that are well worth looking into if you want to start a new business in 2019. Feel free to check them all out here:

Photo credit: Uni of Wolverhampton

Teaching

Yes, you can set up a teaching/tutoring business to help out students in need. These get extremely popular during exam periods, but you can usually find clients all year round. In fact, if you’re good at what you do, some parents will take their kids out of school to attend your classes full time. It’s not essential, but it helps if you have teaching qualifications as this makes you a more attractive prospect. But, as long as you know your stuff, and students see positive results, then word will spread, and you’ll bring in more clients.

Some people opt for this business venture and will specialise in one subject. If you have loads of knowledge in one area, then this can be a great USP to drive people to your business. Especially if you teach something that’s not widely covered in school curricula, but students want to learn about. On the other hand, some people will treat this business like it’s a mini school and cover a range of topics. Primarily, it depends on your own level of knowledge. I’d also suggest that you make your service different from traditional schools by offering new ways to learn. Perhaps you should use technology more prominently, keep classes very small, and have a more relaxed manner. This encourages people to come to you as they feel like they’re getting a better experience away from school.

With regards to overhead costs, it depends on how you operate. A mobile teaching business – where you visit students at home – has hardly any overheads. You may need to buy some resources, but that could be all it takes to run your business. If you want to have a little classroom that people come to, then you have the rental costs of that. Either way, the costs are minimal compared to other business ideas.

Image: London Personal Trainers

Personal Training

The world goes fitness mad in January, which means it’s the perfect time to start a personal training business. The concept is straightforward; you train people to reach their fitness goals. Obviously, to go through with this idea, you need the right qualifications. Otherwise, no one will choose you as their trainer. It helps if you can demonstrate that your training works by showing off people you’ve trained or looking good yourself.

What I like about this idea is that it’s simple, and yet you can alter it in so many ways to try and stand out. This is a crucial lesson for anyone that’s looking to start a fitness business. It’s such a saturated market that you must do things to stand out from the crowd. For example, offer outdoor personal training away from a conventional gym setting. Or, provide a mobile service where you visit clients in their home and train them there. Add in extras to your training packages like nutritional plans and 24/7 support – or even a mobile app. There are loads of ways you can alter the service to draw in more customers and make more money.

Right, what about overheads? Well, if you train people in a gym, then the only overheads are the fee you pay to use the gym. If you have your own gym, then you’ve got the costs of creating that gym. If you train people outside, then you have hardly any overheads to worry about – other than maybe equipment and marketing. In reality, the costs of running a personal training business are pretty darn low.

Photo: Vanmarciano

Content Creation

A content creation business venture is an excellent idea as it appeals to the current climate. All businesses are moving towards a more content-centric marketing strategy, with social media, blogs, and even YouTube channels becoming more prominent. As a result, companies need content, but they don’t always have the time to create it themselves. Not only that, but they don’t have the resources to bring on new team members to develop content and cover their wages, etc. After all, they’re trying to reduce overheads too!

Consequently, it makes sense to may a small business to provide content for them. This is where your idea comes into play as you can create content for different companies. There are so many ways you can attack this venture, and it all comes down to your personal talents. If you’re a good writer and have maybe spent time doing content writing before, then you can provide this service. If you’re good at creating infographics or animated videos, then this is the content you can provide. Of course, if you’re a master of everything, you can offer a range of different content options. Try your best to stand out as there are loads of businesses like this out there. One thing you can do is offer same-day content delivery options, or at least limit the production time as much as possible. Good pricing is always attractive, and if you run this business on your own, then you can usually offer much better prices than some content marketing agencies.

The reason you can offer attractive pricing is because your overheads are so low. Other than a computer – which you probably already have – there isn’t much to pay for. You can run this business from home, so I guess maybe the internet and office supplies come under the overhead costs? It really depends on how much money you want to invest in your business venture; you can spend as little or as much as you want. But, because there are no employee costs or office costs, the overall overheads are considerably low.

What are the benefits of low overhead costs?

Having meagre overhead costs isn’t essential for making a profit. Many businesses still manage to make money even when they have loads of regular expenses. However, you can benefit from reducing the running costs as it makes it easier to make a profit. Every penny you earn becomes more valuable as you don’t have to try and offset loads of overhead costs before it turns into profit.

What’s more, it makes it easier to run a business for longer as well. If you go through dry patches where you aren’t making much money – and this happens from time to time – then you won’t struggle to keep your business afloat as you don’t have many costs to pay for.

To sum up; it’s useful to find business ventures that don’t cost a lot of money to set up and run. If you’re looking for ideas, then these three businesses could work well for you.

 

It’s the start of a new year, and while many people will announce new year’s resolutions and tout “new year, new me” thinking, self-improvement is not the only focus you might have in January.

If you’re an entrepreneur, the start of a new calendar year also marks a new year in business. So as you put a bow on 2018 for good, spend some time reflecting on your small business and exploring ways you can boost customer engagement going forward.

Assess Business Success

Your reflection can and perhaps should start by assessing your company’s financials. To that end, look at your profitability and compare those numbers to where you stood last year. You can also look at overall profitability, but be sure to dig deeper. Compare your balance sheet, cash flow and income statement to those from last year. Your financial statements will help you clarify your worth as a business as well as how much liquidity and free cash flow you have.

Next, look at customer satisfaction. While making money is important, you won’t be profitable for very long if you aren’t taking care of the people that help you get there. Check in with your employees and suppliers, and try to gauge their level of satisfaction with you as a company and as a manager.

Finally, examine the relationships you have with your customers. After all, satisfied customers are repeat customers, and surveys and reviews are typically a good place to start. Of course, you can also conduct informal polls at checkout. Asking something as simple as, “Did you find what you were looking for?” is usually enough to get people talking.

Find Ways to Connect

Once you have an understanding of where your company stands, it’s time to look at ways you can engage customers and grow your business. As much as you may want to always be closing a sale, the reality is that it’s not always in the cards. Customer relationships require nurturing to grow, especially in 2019.

As a society, people are fed up with the ever-present sales pitch and the glossy “after” shots. They don’t want sales-driven customer engagement, and if they feel like interactions are only about sales, many will choose to simply take their business elsewhere. Whether it’s down the street or halfway around the world, your customers are looking to solve a pain point and will do business with companies that best fit their needs.

Thus, make it a point to connect with your customers rather than constantly trying to make a sale. Offer value during every interaction, like providing advice, when customers are shopping. You may want to reinvent your social media as well. Instead of selling your brand, try reinforcing its image by posting interesting stories and industry-related facts.

Think Omnichannel

You can also provide value to your customers by introducing different communication channels. This could include starting an email newsletter or hosting events (even if your business is digital) as a way to draw in customers, as well as providing post-sales support, like a short email asking a customer how he or she liked a recent purchase. It’s a small gesture, but it goes a long way toward making sure your customers are happy with your products or services.

Additionally, think about adding some technology to your operations. Implementing a cloud contact center with a customer relationship management platform could help you streamline customer communication to deliver a truly omnichannel experience.

The right service will let you offer a variety of contact options, from phone support to live chat, while integrating demographic data and history within your CRM. This way, you have context for every interaction so issues can be resolved quickly.

It Takes Careful Planning to Create Lasting Customer Relationships

Help your small business be successful in 2019. Start by assessing where you currently stand, then look for ways to engage with your customers, and offer omnichannel support for the best customer experience possible. When you help customers solve their pain points through your brand, you can start a business relationship that lasts.