Business owners know as well as anyone that saving money is always a priority. Running a business isn’t cheap, and you need a healthy flow of dough to keep everything operating without issue.

Finding solid ways to cut back on costs will give you a financial advantage over the battle you’ll face in the first few years of starting a new business. Take a few moments now to check out a brief compilation of some helpful ways to save your business some money.

Utilize digital marketing to the max

Traditional marketing can be a bit more pricey than digital marketing methods. Some digital marketing outlets are even free if you do the content work yourself. Either way, digital marketing is much more affordable and more effective than traditional marketing methods.

Use your website to boost your visibility online, and consider adding a blog to your pages as well. A good blog can do a lot to draw interest from web users. Check out how this unloading service blog does a great job at relevance and education regarding the industry.

Consider remote work for your employees

Remote employees don’t cost your business nearly as much as it does to maintain an office space. Remote employees use their own hardware, and they don’t have to rely on your business to provide a safe and comfortable space for them to operate.

Even if you can’t take your business completely remote, you may benefit from offering remote opportunities. Consider the various ways in which your business could work in remote operations, and create a way for your business to save some money along the way.

Outsource jobs whenever it’s efficient

Outsourcing various elements of your operation to other capable businesses or individuals could also help you save some money on operations. Setting up a digital marketing campaign is a good example of where you can use outsourcing to cut costs.

You can outsource your digital efforts to a professional agency that specializes in that particular field of business, so you don’t have to worry about the issue or use any of the valuable time of your employees to get the job done.

Negotiate with your vendors

If your business works with various vendors to operate effectively, you do have the ability to haggle a bit with those resources. Vendors are not strangers to negotiations, and you can probably work something out to make the connection more beneficial for you both. You never know until you try.

Always work with a detailed budget

Overall, it’s a lot easier to save money for your business when you work on a budget. Make budgeting a priority in your business, and take the necessary steps to make sure your spending sits within the boundaries set by your budget.

 

Few could ignore the protests that surrounded UK’s finance day on November 2nd, which threatened to overshadow COP26. Green activist groups were protesting against ‘greenwashing,’ frustrated that the public has been misled about the success of green initiatives. 

Rishi Sunak made a speech in which he promised multi-trillion-dollar commitments. He said all the right things and even suggested that he would put the required pressure on the private sector. Surprisingly, he even said that the government would financially contribute more readily to green initiatives in developing countries. He then went on to avail that the United Kingdom would become the first Net Zero Aligned Financial Centre. What does this mean? In a nutshell, all financial institutions in Britain will soon be required to achieve net-zero emissions. Ambitious? Yes. Achievable? Perhaps.

His speech wasn’t warmly received by everyone, with a Net Zero Asset Managers report essentially suggesting that the gestures made by Sunak weren’t as they seemed. Specifically, the report highlighted that a bit of digging is enough to show that the numbers are misleading. As the UK continues its recovery from the pandemic, it’s not evident where the money will come from to fund climate change initiatives.

A commitment to net-zero 

Bringing our carbon emissions to net-zero won’t be cheap. However, it’s definitely cheaper than dealing with issues arising from climate change. For context:

• The UK has suffered to the tune of £300 billion due to the pandemic.
• Estimates indicate that the cost of getting the UK to net-zero would cost £1 trillion over 20 years.
• If the government doesn’t take any action, the cost is likely to be nearer £2 trillion to deal with climate change.

Officials at COP26 made it clear that preventative measures must be taken as soon as possible. But what does the UK government think? Rishi Sunak highlighted the following:

• 80% of the planet’s economy is committed to carbon neutrality or net-zero.
• The UK has promised $100 billion to support developing countries with reaching net-zero.
• An additional £100 million has been pledged to the Taskforce on Access to Climate Finance.
• Mandatory sustainability disclosures will be created to hold the private sector to account.

What the chancellor omitted from his speech 

Despite his grandiose pledges, Rishi Sunak omitted one essential aspect from his speech: how on earth will the UK government achieve these targets? The financial sector is hardly squeaky clean when it comes to pledges and ignoring loopholes, so there’s a lot still up in the air about how things will play out. Given that so many governments are failing on targets laid out by the Paris Agreement – due primarily to Covid-19 – it begs the question, how will this be any different?

Activist investing brings hope to the table 

While the government’s announcement that they will pressure the financial sector is welcome, it’s not enough. For real, lasting change, investors must pressure their companies from within and develop metrics that can be tracked and evaluated. This is where activist investing has such an important role to play. It forces companies into action and necessitates compliance with key ESG initiatives.

Activist investing platforms like Tulipshare are already doing what they can to drive change from within. This collective approach to investing is undoubtedly a step in the right direction, at least where holding the government and private sector to account is concerned.

For many companies, having a business card seems essential. It makes paying for materials, office supplies, and other operational expenses much easier. But if you have poor credit, you may wonder if you can even get access to a business card. The short answer is yes!

There are plenty of top business credit cards for business owners with no or poor credit. You just need to know where to look and how to find them.

How to Find the Right Business Card With Bad Credit

If you want to find a business card that accepts you with bad credit or no credit, it is as simple as knowing where to look.

Some Great Suggestions

We have two great suggestions for top business credit cards for those with poor credit or no credit. These are Capital One Spark Classic for Business and the Wells Fargo Business Secured Credit Card.

Capital One Spark Classic for Business has a 26.99% variable APR interest rate and no fees. Just keep in mind that it requires a credit score of at least 580. If your credit score is lower than this, consider the second option, the Wells Fargo Business Secured Credit Card. There is also no annual fee, and because it is secured, you can get it with nearly any credit score. However, you will have to deposit into the account to use the card.

Be Prepared for Higher Fees or Interest Rates

There is one important caveat. As with personal credit cards, business credit cards are more likely to have higher interest rates or annual fees if you have poor credit. So, don’t be surprised.

Alternatively, you can look for a secured credit card for your business. These function like any other secured credit card, requiring you to pay a deposit upfront. As a bonus, a secured card is an excellent way to build your business credit.

How to Build Your Credit

As mentioned, a secured credit card can help you build your business credit, but there are also other things you can do. Just establishing your EIN will help boost your business credit score. This is also important as it separates your business and personal finances.

You can also try applying for a credit line with your vendor if you can’t find a credit card yet. This is an alternative with a similar result, and it helps you build your credit. You could also try getting a small loan for working capital.

Finally, be sure to regularly check your business credit report, just like you would your personal one. This lets you ensure there are no errors that could be bringing the score down lower than it should be.

Conclusion

Just because you have bad credit or no credit, that doesn’t mean that you won’t have access to any top business credit cards. While your options will be limited, there are still some great choices. The only caveat is that you’ll have a higher interest rate or need to use a secured card. You also don’t want to rule out alternatives, such as a line of credit with your vendor or a working capital loan.

Whether your blog is your entire business or just a facet of your business, if you want to experience any kind of growth in this area, you’ve got to learn how to market your blog and use your blog as a marketing tool for the rest of your business.

To help you see how this can be done, here are three ways you can make your blogs more of a marketing tool.

Blog With A Plan

The very first thing you’ll need to have in order for your blogs to be beneficial for your business is to blog with a plan. Without a plan, both from a creation standpoint and a marketing standpoint, you can’t hope to have your blogs work to accomplish any of your goals.

To help you in blogging with a plan, you’ll need to consider what type of content you want to include in your blog. Then, you can plan out when you’ll write what content and how you’ll incorporate things like products, sales, holidays, and more into your content marketing ideas. Additionally, you’ll also need to plan how often you’ll be blogging and what you plan to do as far as promoting your blog posts. Without having all of these things planned and prepared for, things are bound to fall through the cracks.

Spend More Time On Your Headline And Images

It’s not only the written body content of your blogs that you need to be worried about. In fact, it’s been suggested that people spend about 80 percent on their time working on the headline and the last 20 percent on the actual body content.

While this might seem like a lot to you, the idea behind it is that no one is going to want to click through to your blog if your headline doesn’t entice them onwards. And along the same line of this, you’re also going to need to spend time finding or creating beautiful images to accompany your content, since the visual aspect of blogs can have a big impact on your readers and visitors.

Write Content With SEO In Mind

As you craft the actual content for your blogs, one thing you’ll want to keep in mind is that you should be writing with SEO in mind. When you’re able to do this, your content will automatically become more of a marketing tool, as it will cast your blog in a positive light online and help people more easily find you. So make sure you’re doing things like using the right keywords, doing solid internal linking, compressing your images, and posting with a mobile-friendly theme.

If you’re wanting your blog to work a little harder for you, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you make some changes that will have your blog being more of a marketing tool.

 

What’s the one thing that’s always evolving when it comes to businesses? The demands of customers.

You may think that your business has everything to make your customers happy, and then what you have is just not enough. That’s because times change, and customers’ expectations change with it. You have to keep evolving your business strategies in order to stay ahead. Today, the success of a business is defined by the customer experience it offers.

Customer experience has become the top priority these days. Your clients may compromise on how technologically advanced your business is or what is your brand value, but they won’t compromise on the standards of customer experience.

So, if you want to earn and retain a loyal customer base, then you must focus on developing a top-notch customer experience strategy. And to do that, you should know what factors influence the customer experience.

Factors Affecting Customer Experience

There are many factors that can affect a customer’s journey. Here are the top 3 key aspects that can have a huge impact on customer experience. Read on to know all about them.

Demographics

Demographics refers to the structure of your target audience. You should know the age group, gender, and other traits of your audience before developing your CX strategy. Once you understand your target audience, you will have an opportunity to better design the way you interact with them.

According to a recent survey by #CXInsights, your customer’s demographics decide how they interact with you. The survey revealed that younger people (age bracket: 18 to 24) are a lot more technologically advanced as compared to older people. So, providing a good experience to younger customers can be easier than that of seniors. Therefore, you have to use different CX strategies for people with different demographics.

Industry

Customer experience is equally important in all industries. However, some industries need a bigger improvement when it comes to communicating with customers.

The survey by CXInsights revealed that for some sectors, the time and resources required to complete customer communication might be greater than others. According to the survey participants, who were customers or customer service providers, the financial services industry takes the longest interaction time with customers.

The more time you take in communicating with your customers, the lesser the quality of customer experience becomes.

Language

It’s not what you say, it is how you say it. We have always heard this statement, and it applies accurately to the way you interact with your customers. We live in an ever-changing world where the tactics of communication are always changing.

How you get across your communication to your customers can be a huge factor in getting your message across. Dull flyers or imagery is out of fashion and customers don’t respond in the way they used to. Digital signage for businesses has become the industry standard for communicating with customers in a fast and efficient way.

If you want your business to succeed in these times, you should keep updating the lingo in which you talk with your customers. For example, using gender-inclusive language can significantly influence the way your customers perceive your brand. As per #CXInsights, 70% of 18 to 24 year olds said they are aware of gender-specific pronouns and know when a brand uses them.

Wrapping Up

There are many more factors to shape your efforts in offering better CX. These factors decide how your customers perceive your business. The more effort you invest in discovering and implementing such factors, the easier it will be to produce extraordinary experiences for the most important asset of your business, your customers.

Sometimes working for someone else just doesn’t work with your personality. Some people are made to be the leaders of their own destiny. Becoming an entrepreneur is a journey, and for some people, it’s the spark that lights a fire.

If you’re someone that wants to make your own way in life, you may be seeking a way into a gig of your own. Take some time to start researching the way now, and check out a few tips and tricks to remember when going into business for yourself.

You need the right attitude

Succeeding on your own means that you will have to pull up your boot straps, and really dig into the nitty gritty. A successful entrepreneur works long hours.

You’ll have to dedicate a lot of your time to your goals to truly achieve independence. It’s crucial that you have the “go get ‘em” mindset from the very beginning.

Get a visual on your goals

You need an idea of where you want to go to start taking steps forward. If you want to run your own business, develop a solid business plan. If you plan to be a real estate agent, start researching the path you’ll need to take now.

You could start getting your creative thinking amped up by building a vision board. Put your mind to work envisioning what you want out of the next year of your life. Don’t go more than 5 years on the board, so you don’t lose focus.

Wake up and step out

You have to have the go-getter spirit to get things moving as an entrepreneur, and part of living in that mentality is taking literal steps towards your goals. Take chances, and get yourself out in the world of whatever kind of business or specialty you wish to operate within.

Spend time networking. Talk to people who know more about the industry than you do, and take notes. Being thorough in the knowledge you absorb will serve you well along the way to becoming a successful entrepreneur.

Wrangle your personal finances

Every entrepreneur has to have a little bit of money to invest in their passion, and it’s a good idea to start reframing your financial situation sooner than later. If you have several thousand in your savings account and an excellent credit score, then you’re already on the right track.

If that’s not the case, then you have some work to do. You’ll need a decent credit rating to get the funding you might need in the future. Start working on reshaping your financial situation, so money isn’t a hurdle to clear when you’re ready to start a business.

Never stop the learning process

Always work towards learning something new about your area of interest. Even when you’ve got a thriving business that’s been running successfully for years, you could still stand to learn a thing or two.