5 Ways to Grow Your Small Business in 2018

For 2018, small businesses must now learn to transform themselves to keep up with the ever-changing landscape moving the business world forward. Not only is success vital for any small business in a competitive landscape, but this success is also crucial to the success of the greater economy. As of 2013, small businesses accounted for 63% of net new jobs.

If you own a small business, here are 5 ways to grow that business for success this 2018.

Manage your office space and storage

To get started, you need to make sure your physical surroundings are neat and organized. This ensures that you will be able to perform at your highest level. In many ways, the organization of your small business is determined by how organized your desk is. For starters, make sure everything has a specific place, even if that place is the pile of papers on your desk. To make the best use of your business space, do some research on using vertical storage opportunities to improve your workflow and efficiency.

Merging online and offline customer experience

Your small business can’t just be purely a brick-and-mortar store or just on the Internet. You have to be everywhere. You need to merge online and offline experiences by getting creative. A good example is food trucks, an industry which achieved a growth rate of 7.9% from 2011 to 2016. They use social media to inspire offline engagement. Additionally, technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) make it possible to track and interact with customers anywhere. In 2017, it is estimated that there are 8.4 billion IoT devices already in use, impacting everything from logistics to the customer experience. In 2018, you’ll see more companies attempting to merge online and offline to create a multi-presence experience. That means adopting the right technologies and employing the right marketing tactics to meet your customers’ needs.

Participate in trade shows

Trade shows can be a great way for growth because the more exposure you get, the more you become known. Trade shows draw people who are already interested in the type of product or service you offer and can improve your bottom line. The trick is to select the trade shows you participate in carefully, seeking the right match for your product or service.

Conquer a niche market

A niche market is simply a narrowly defined group of customers. Think of them as a subset whose needs are not being met and concentrate on meeting those unmet needs. If your small business is already successfully targeting a certain niche market, try and conquer another.

Contain your costs

Bear in mind that when we’re talking about growing a small business, we’re actually talking about growing the bottom line. The difference between pre-tax and post-tax money can make this a very effective growth strategy. There are two main approaches to cutting costs; liquidating your “loser” products and improving your inventory turnover.

5 Steps to Make Sure That You Are Getting the Best from Your Tech Support Provider

Are there ways, steps, or tips that can be followed to make sure that you’re getting your full money’s worth from the services provided by your technical support provider? Of course there are.

When you need help fixing your computer, the first thing to consider is how your tech support provider handles communications and problems that go with it. A good technical support company knows how to keep every possible means of communications open sees to it that there is a two-way communication on both parties. So how do you know if your tech support provider is up to par to give the best service possible? Check out these 5 steps.

They identify and evaluate the problem level from your point

It’s important to pinpoint the problem immediately and quickly evaluate whether it’s something that can potentially be solved with a simple fix, always from the point of view of the customer. On one end of the spectrum, a customer might simply need instructions on how to recover a lost password or directions to return a defective product for replacement. On the other end, they might need to troubleshoot an unexpected device failure or report a software-halting glitch they’ve encountered that they have never been seen before. It’s also useful to identify more complex issues early on so they can be routed to other technicians with the proper expertise to solve them.

They always gauge the customer’s technical level

Using intuition and clues from the conversation or correspondence, a good tech support provider can identify the customer’s level of technical know-how in order to determine the best way to help them. For some customers, something that might seem like a simple fix could be a lot more complicated if they’re not technically experienced. Good tech support technicians on the phone or online never assume anything from their customers.

They also direct customers to other solutions like Q&A forums and videos

Good tech support providers often cultivate a variety of self-service options that provide solutions to common problems for their frequent customers. Since many customers prefer to find an answer on their own, directing them to the right resources can save everyone time and energy.

The value here is in creating the best resources possible for the most common issues raised by customers, then offering several different self-service troubleshooting methods. Some customers may respond best to a guided video walkthrough. Others may respond better to Q&A forums. Good tech support providers give options to explore, but still leaves the door open for further direct assistance if needed.

They keep solutions clear and easy to understand

Any solutions offered to customers, especially if they are pre-created, should be as clear to follow as possible. Good tech support providers avoid getting too technical, keep things short, and whenever it makes sense to do so, take customers through the solution step-by-step. They also gather feedback on the quality of any problem-solving materials created to fine-tune them for future customers’ needs and ability levels.

They make it easy for customers to follow up

Good tech support providers never provide solutions that don’t work, and certainly never keeps a customer waiting for hours, even for an email response. They make sure never to frustrate any customer, so they give a quick way to follow up if their issue persists and requires further assistance, whether that’s a direct phone line to the technician who helped them initially or an email address.

Effective Ways to Go Green and Maximize Office Expense

One of the most popular tag line is to "Go Green" and how beneficial it is to our lives, our businesses, and even to our planet. But unless you have taken the steps to implement the green revolution to your business, the entire act of going green may seem to be overwhelming or even impossible.

Don't worry because all you need to do is check out these simple yet effective ways on how you can smoothly direct your small business down to the "greener path."

Use recycled paper around the office.

The first step for many businesses is switching paper types. Purchasing recycled paper is as simple as heading to your local office supply store. Every major paper manufacturer offers recycled paper in a variety of sizes and uses. There’s no drop-off in quality, no major price differences, and it saves trees, water, energy, and space in your local landfill.

Reduce the paper clutter.

Alleviating paper clutter can mean many things to you depending on the size of your company, but here are a few easy tasks to complete that will make a difference.

Mailing Lists
Your company probably receives more junk mail than you realize. Some of it is unsolicited and that’s hard to manage, but plenty of it comes from mailing lists you’ve joined. Remove your company from as many non-essential mailing lists as possible and you’ll see a noticeable reduction in wasted paper from the mail.

Digital Subscriptions
Most companies today offer paperless solutions for their various correspondences. Banks, utilities, service providers, government agencies, newspapers, and trade magazines all offer email or web-based alternatives to traditional mailings. Switch to as many of these paperless solutions as possible and enjoy further reductions in the amount of needless paper in your mailbox.

Reuse Printer Paper
There will always be a need for scrap paper, so don’t throw paper away. Reusing pages that only have printing on one side is an excellent repurposing of a product. Printing double-sided documents whenever possible is also an excellent way to get the most out of your paper supply.

Use recycled printer ink cartridges and recycle old ones.

If you have to buy ink for several printers it can become quite expensive. Recycled ink and ink cartridges have gained prominence in the workplace and offer businesses a legitimate way to save real money. Savings can be as much 70 percent versus traditional ink cartridges.

Office supply stores and printer manufacturers offer rebate programs and other incentives to recycle used cartridges and purchase recycled inks. And you’ll never have to wonder if there are cartridges available for your specific printers. Recycled ink cartridge manufacturers offer solutions for every ink-jet and laser printer in use today.

Make the switch to energy-saving light bulbs.

This is one those “green” initiatives we hear a lot about but might not fully realize the full impact the right kinds of lighting products can have on your bottom line. Traditional light bulbs are horribly inefficient compared to today’s energy-saving bulbs.

LED Bulbs
These bulbs are ten times more efficient than incandescent bulbs. This translates to getting the same amount of illumination at a tenth the cost. The tradeoff for this type of technology comes in the up-front price. LED bulbs run approximately $35 per bulb, which can certainly add up to a substantial amount at one time. However, these bulbs also last 40-50 years before they need to be replaced, so that means they’re about $0.70-$0.88 per year.

Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL)
These bulbs are roughly seven times more efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs and come in at a fraction of the price of LED bulbs. At roughly $4 per bulb, the ten-year lifespan comes to just $0.40 per year.

The savings on monthly utilities alone makes switching to the most energy-efficient bulbs and lamps you can afford a savvy financial move and a great way to green-up your company.

Start carpooling or using public transit.

Many companies offer employee incentives to carpool and to take advantage of public transportations. Preferred parking spaces are often an excellent incentive for employees to carpool, but there’s no limit on what a company can do to encourage participation in this type of program.

Public transportation companies also have incentives for businesses to participate in their clean air programs. These typically include discounted transit passes and some form of recognition for its participants.

There are countless ways you can take your company in a green direction; the trick is to just get started. Hopefully these ideas will get you moving in the direction you always wanted to take but weren’t sure if there was really a difference to be made.

Finding Online Resources that Can Help You Maintain Your Computer

Technology has come a long way in the last 10 years alone (imagine what computers and maintaining it was like in 1997). But like all machines, things can still go wrong. And though it’s nice to have a dependable computer tech support company to lean on and be subscribed to, it’s good to search for online resources from time to time just to learn about minor or general computer maintenance.

First, it’s so easy to search for online resources that can help you maintain your computer. All you need is to search on Google (or any other search engine you’re using) by typing key words such as “online resources computer maintenance” or “online computer maintenance tips.” However, if you want to go direct to the really helpful sites without doing generic searches, here are our suggestions.

Official sites of your computer’s OS

One of the best ways to get help and advice for computer maintenance is to go directly to the company’s official site, depending on whether you’re using a Mac or a Microsoft computer. Apple’s official site has its Apple Support Communities that give free advice in troubleshooting your Mac computer and other software or hardware issues. You can also engage in a live chat with an Apple technician. The Microsoft official website also has a Microsoft Community for free troubleshooting advice. You can search by category or you can post and an accredited expert will assist you.

Official apps and manufacturer’s sites

If you’re having trouble with apps like Firefox, SmartThings, and Spotify, you can simply search for the manufacturer’s websites themselves. They often have official wikis, support forums, and even telephone numbers so you can call their technical support.

Supportrix knowledge base

Supportrix is known worldwide for its outstanding and superb technical support services and they can handle a wide variety of issues such as virus removal and security, PC tune-up and repair, networking issues, data recovery, and the like. But it’s no surprise that they have a knowledgebase of technical articles arranged in categories that you can select in order to search for tips and advice on computer maintenance and other issues.

YouTube

Naturally, if you can’t find what you’re looking for in article format, then you can always search the world’s largest cache of roughly 85 million videos. You’re bound to find videos that discuss about computer maintenance and other issues, usually posted by those who have experienced the same problems. You can even find videos from the official manufacturers as well.

Social Media

Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites aren’t just for chatting, posting photos, and reading all that fake news (kidding), because you can find the official pages of manufacturers on social media. Also, like in Facebook, there are also third-party communities that you can join that provide free tips and advice on computer maintenance and other issues. You can also use Twitter to contact official companies so as to get a faster and accurate response.

4 Useful Tips for New Business Owners to Succeed in a Tech-Centric Generation

Not many people know that small businesses have large impact on the economy and job market. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), there are 28 million small businesses in America, accounting for 54 percent of all U.S. sales. While we may not initially think of small businesses as large employers, they actually make up 55 percent of all U.S. jobs.

Thankfully, with advances in technology, small businesses today have access to tools that can help streamline operations and enhance productivity, without spending a lot. With new and more efficient capabilities in technology, even the smallest of businesses can compete with large enterprises.

Technology can project a larger image

If a small business is just starting out and operating out of a basement or a small rented space, portraying the business as legitimate and larger than it really is, can be vital to its success. Your online presence is important so invest in a website, social media outlets, and other online profiles like Yelp, Google and industry-specific sites where customers may find you, intentionally or unintentionally. Make sure your business message is clearly defined, your branding and logo is consistent, and most importantly, your information is up-to-date and accurate. Make sure customers can find you everywhere they search and that contacting you is easy.

Technology enables collaboration with everyone

Many small business owners struggle with communicating with both employees in the field and customers as well. Regardless of the type of business, there are cloud-based communications and collaboration tools, customer relationship management software and project management tools available that will not only allow you to work and manage your staff remotely, but enable your employees to work from anywhere, from any device efficiently. This flexibility will enable more workers to be effective without requiring the high price tag of rent, and allow you to expand your business, without the overhead costs.

Technology will advertise the business

Small businesses can take advantage of all the free ways to advertise. This is the beauty of technology today with the Internet such as having an online presence. The business website and social media are obviously great free ways to advertise and promote specials, discounts, and upcoming events. But it’s not limited to just these because when you collaborate with customers on, say Twitter, you can actually advertise the business. You can also try texting and e-mail advertising if you have leads from your customers.

Technology for operations and finance

Now, you can use technology to help manage your money instead of just using paper and calculator.

§  Project cash flow

Using software ensures that you’ll have the money on hand to pay your workers and other expenses when bills come due. That means you can stay on top of the cash flow.

§  Keep financial books and records

Being in business requires you to keep track of income, expenses, and other items so you can analyze how your business is doing. It’s also mandatory for tax purposes; you need these records to prepare your returns and back up positions you take on these returns.

§  Invoice customers

Unless your customers pay on the spot with cash, checks, credit/debit cards, or electronic payments, you must send bills for the money they owe. Viewing outstanding invoices can help you monitor collections to ensure that all your customers pay and do not become delinquent.

Strategic Decisions to Make Before Considering Hiring an Online IT Support Team

It’s obvious that when you’re running a small to medium sized business – whether product or service based – you don’t have enough overhead and aren’t big enough to have your own IT department to take care of your IT needs for computer maintenance and support. But having IT support is necessary because should any breakdowns occur with your desktops and devices, these problems can be immediately addressed.

The best solution here is to get an outside online IT support company. It makes sense because all you need to do is to subscribe to them (usually paying just an annual fee) and all you need to do is call or message them should a problem arise with your IT infrastructure. However, before you go registering with just any IT support company, be sure to strategically research the company and consider the following:

Consider how long the company has been in business

According to the latest research by the US government, roughly 50% of startup businesses closed down within the first 5 years. Thus, you need to strategically research for an IT support company that has been in the business for at least 5 years, and the more years, the better.

Strategically research the number of employees

A very stable IT support company will have a lot of employees, and we mean a lot, probably not lower than 500 in several locations in different cities or states. They may also have several overseas locations that may also serve as their technical or call center hub in good English-speaking countries like Canada or the Philippines.

Ask about their engineers and technical staff

You need to strategically research for an IT support company with many engineers and technical staff that specialize in different technologies that are either licensed, well-trained, or are professional graduates of their specialized course. Be aware that there are IT support companies that have “jack of all trades” staff that are good, but don’t specialize in anything. Beware of companies that have negative comments or complaints in their reviews pertaining to complex projects, overruns, and overall bad service. Their helpdesk staff (made up of the same engineers and technical staff) should all be dedicated and are not field technicians that are merely called when not busy.

Ask how many clients they service for IT support

Strategically search for an IT support company that services a lot of clients on a daily basis. Ask about their success rate since established IT support companies share their success rates to inquiring customers. A 90% average success rate is good enough. Their IT and helpdesk support are also onsite in their company locations or branches and not outsourced to outside merchants. This means their helpdesk engineers and technical staff are trained by the company itself and their certifications updated.

Onsite calls must always be part of their managed IT services solution

Look for an IT support company that is a permanent managed services provider that provides onsite support as part of their monthly price subscription.

Using Social Media for Customer Service in Any Small Business

Social media is an important tool for marketing in any business, especially for small businesses. Aside from posting photos and other business updates, using social media for customer service can level up any small business and increase sales.

Any small business should have specific strategies in place for handling customer service issues through social media as this will also improve getting in touch with customers as well as customers inquiring about your product/service.

Social media is now the accepted leader in the mode of communications that customers are now choosing when inquiring about brands or sharing customer service issues. What also makes social media a viable marketing tool for small businesses is that it levels the marketing playing field since a small business can have just as large social media presence as a large corporation. The usual top social media sites that businesses can utilize for their customer service are:

§  Facebook

§  Twitter

§  Instagram

§  LinkedIn

§  Pinterest

Social media builds real customer relationships

Any small business can use social media as one of its main channels for both self-promotion and to respond to customer inquiries and comments. In this way, real relationships are built with customers since conversation is engaged.

Using a hashtag

In simple terms, using a specific hashtag helps to search concerns under the hashtag, making everything organized and easy to navigate. Original information and accurate content can be added to the hashtag as the business sees fit.

You can focus on creating a strong customer base

If a customer has a bad experience with the small business, one of the first things that customers is likely to do is to write about it on social media. Instead of trying to find ways on how to manage and respond to any negative comments, businesses should focus on providing such excellent customer service that they create a strong and loyal customer base that will advocate on behalf of the business if anyone has some negative comments to say.

Always present

Some small businesses fall short on social customer service because they simply are not active in listening and engaging with customers on social media. Companies that want to deliver effective customer service on social media should realize that all messages, inquiries, and comments must be flagged especially when it relates to the product or service.

Train your staff on social media

If your small business has all its employees handling customer service, then the company should have a clear understanding with everyone in handling customers, guiding principles, and protocols. Train the staff or employees by reviewing your social media strategy and product/service positioning and the types of social media tools the business uses. Walk everyone through the process for managing customer service, stress the importance of customer sentiment, and explain how positive and negative reviews can impact the business. You can also provide a list of potential questions employees need to respond to, including examples of negative feedback.