Taking Your Small Business To The Next Level
January 24, 2018 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Featured Articles, Front Page
Entrepreneurship continues to grow rampantly around the world and particularly in the United States of America. One of its key states, California continues to be a vibrant entrepreneurial hub. By 2016, California had over 3.8 million small businesses, employing over 49 percent of California’s workforce. The business life cycle tells us that every business eventually reaches a crossroads. The time comes where small businesses must decide whether and when to take the big leap and step up their business. If you are a small business owner, here are some signs that may be telling you it is time to consider a step forward.
Signs It Is Time To Expand
Your resource capacity is stretched thin. This may apply to your machinery and production capacity or even to the human resources in your small business. Perhaps labor is being overworked and demand is growing. Fears are rising about meeting the order quantities and as your customer base grows, so should your business.
Speaking of demand, it may be time to expand, if your market or industry is growing,
Even if you choose to secure external finance for your expansion plans, you want a steady positive cash flow to be assured you can afford the repayments and cost of finance. A steady stream also indicates your business is relatively stable; one year of great profits does not necessarily mean it is a good idea to expand. Be sure to look at your income over at least three years.
Now that you have an idea of the indicators that it is time to expand your business, how can you actually expand? There are many avenues and they do not all have to be drastic and overwhelming. Here are three ways and how to finance it.
Expand Your Capacity
One of the more common ways to step up your business is to increase your resources. This can mean several things including securing a larger business premises, expanding your workforce or upgrading your machinery.This can be tricky however and requires due diligence and research. Be sure to establish that the conditions that are conducive to your expanded capacity are present.
These options for growth can be substantial and require financing. If you are looking to secure a better property or to move your small business from your home into its first office, you will be looking at substantial expenditure. Your options for purchase can be either leasing or choosing to purchase the building. As with your home, mortgages or business loans may be needed to complete your purchase. You’ll need to calculate how much you can borrow as a commercial mortgage
hen planning your expansion, which will give you an idea of the monthly payments your business will need to cover each month. This is where your income stream comes in useful.
Don’t Go It Alone
Many small businesses have the misconception that they need to build their business alone. This is not true. Exploring agreements and partnerships with other businesses both in your industry and in complementary industries can be beneficial for your future in many ways. A great benefit of this option of growth is the reduced scale of financing needed. Having a partner business splits the costs attached to the expansion. Having partnerships with more visible businesses will not only get your product out there but also boosts your own visibility and brand at the same time.
Go Digital
Keeping up with the digital and technological shift is quickly becoming essential to any business wanting increased visibility. Having a digital presence comes with many benefits and minimal costs compared to other options. This is a great way to drive demand for your products and boost your brand name. By employing an interactive website and social media tools, your can get your customer base growing in no time. It does not require a dedicated office space either, with many startups and home businesses utilized online selling platforms such as Etsy to get their business started or to go national. Financing for digital expansions tend to be less and can be supported by retained profits. If you are seeking external finance, a marketing and business expansion plan is important for your interview.
It can be easy to automatically think of upgrading property/floor space or even production capacity when you think of growing your business. However, it can also mean simply growing your brand! Focusing on the marketing of your brand is still stepping up your business, and in the long run ensuring your success.
Black Business Expo on Tour
January 12, 2018 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Dr. Wright Live (Events), Featured Articles, Front Page
10 am! I’ll be talking Crowdfunding!
Blog Marketing For Profit By Jeff Klein
January 11, 2018 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Featured Articles, Wright Ideas
geralt / Pixabay
Blog Marketing For Profit By Jeff Klein
Most people who have their own blog have entered the blog marketing arena. Some even blog just to make money, but there are others who do not. When it comes to numbers, it all boils down to how you look at it. Let’s say you want to start a blog marketing business from the comfort of your own home; you would blog to make an income. But, if you are looking to find an outlet to express your thoughts, ideas, and opinions, you are not concerned with making money through a blog; you just want your blog to be more of a journal. The fact is, bloggers blog for different reasons.
When you market through a blog, you simply want to make a profit. In order to make a substantial income by blog marketing, you need to do two things: be persistent and be consistent. So, if you want to succeed, there are several methods and tools you need to become familiar with. This article will explain them to you.
Of course you want to have quality content on your blog. That is the first step to making money, but that content must also be original. It is not possible to market products and services on your blog with content written by someone else, unless you own exclusive rights to the material. If you are using content without the expressed consent of the author, you are considered to be plagiarizing, which will put you in a world of trouble not only with Google, but also with the author. So, always use content that belongs to you when you blog market to make an income. Content is crucial to achieving blog marketing success.
Free-Photos / Pixabay
Another blog marketing strategy is tracking. It is vital to track each visitor and find out how they came to your blog. This will tell you the keywords they used to locate your blog and what place they went to for their search. When you know this information, you will not need to guess as to how to optimize your blog. You the keywords are working in your favor and which ones are useless to your goals. Then, you can decide what keywords to use and what keywords to get rid of.
Also, when you blog market for income, find other blogs and websites that are in your niche with whom you can exchange links; however, do not do this with any competitors. This will be of great help to you and your endeavors. The higher ranked the site or blog you are partnering with, the better it will be for your blog. Major search engines, Google included, will be attracted to all of your linking and rank you more favorably. So, the more link exchanges you have, the higher ranked your blog will be.
kaboompics / Pixabay
Blog marketing to earn an income is not impossible. You just need to learn what will work and what won’t. It is simply a process of trial and error. So, if you have an idea for marketing on your blog, go ahead and give it a shot. That is the only way you will ever know if it works. And, if you do find blog marketing techniques that are effective, you could create your own eBook and promote that as well. Now you have the knowledge; you just have to apply it to your blog.
Jeff Klein is a professional Webmaster and Internet Marketer. Join this exciting profession and become a Web Designer today. Search for web design schools near you and request free information. Learn more at http://www.web-design-schools.net/.
