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Common Mistakes to Avoid As a Small Business Owner

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Mistakes are frequently frowned upon in society. We are advised to hide our mistakes or place the blame elsewhere to free ourselves from the terrible responsibility of making a mistake.

Most individuals are scared of making mistakes, which prevents them from starting a business. Here is the trick: mistakes in business don’t slow you down; instead, they direct you toward a more advantageous course.

Viewing your mistakes as opportunities for learning is among the best confidence-boosting techniques. After all, you will make several blunders in the business world. While mistakes are inevitable, you may prepare for some of them. To offer your business idea the best chance of success, this post will walk you through some common mistakes to avoid as a small business owner.

1. Failure to Write a Business Plan

A lot of people have faith in their business idea. The issue is that they can’t know for sure whether their business idea is realistic or not until they draft a business plan. The primary objective of a business plan is to achieve that.

Even though it takes a lot of time and requires extensive research, investing some time now will save you a lot of money and time.

2. Failing to Validate Your Business Idea

Not conducting market research is one of the major mistakes you could make when launching a new business. Competition might come from smaller companies that sell the same goods as you or from industry leaders like Amazon and Walmart. You want to become familiar with the opposition and fully grasp how you might set yourself apart from them.

Sometimes business owners enter a niche industry without first deciding if they are a suitable fit. Sometimes, a niche has too much firmly established competition and little to no demand. If so, you might not want to start a business in that line.

3. Having Too Many Products on Your Plate for Sale

Business experts like Corporate Business Solutions Reviews agree that having too many products on your plate for sale is a huge mistake. Sometimes store owners would add more products to their business if one doesn’t sell well to draw in new customers. This is not always beneficial.

Imagine you run a shop where recyclable, eco-friendly bags are sold, but nobody buys them. So, you increase your eco-friendly products from your supplier. The result is a collection of goods that have nothing in common but being environmentally friendly. It would be challenging to draw in the right customers if your branding focuses on bags rather than other environmentally friendly products.

The mistake here is more related to a branding blunder than the actual product. Developing a brand is crucial because it shapes how customers view your business and are just as significant as the goods you offer.

4. Refusing to Hire

The predominant school of thought for most small business owners is doing it alone.

You will likely accomplish everything yourself if you are running your own business. You built the website, played around with it, uploaded the products, wrote the product descriptions, and handled all of the marketing… a magnificent one-person performance. The issue is that while handling everything yourself is excellent, it takes a lot of time and effort, preventing you from focusing on other important business matters.

5. Being Ignorant of Your Target Audience

Finding business product ideas and understanding your customers are the two components of doing effective research. The tough part of this is that while it’s possible to have consumers first and then create a product, it can be quite challenging to do the reverse.

When researching a niche, the most common wisdom advises looking at analytics and statistics, which is extremely necessary. Finding the ideal consumer and creating a customer profile is another crucial step that most business owners overlook.

Conclusion

If launching a business is in your near future, realize that it is a process rather than an immediate event. The chances of your new business prospering will be much increased if you devote time to performing the planning and research, as well as avoid the common mistakes in business mentioned above.

 

 

 

 

Employee Incentives: Life Insurance

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Running a profitable business is usually dependent on a stable workforce. If you have high staff turnover or lose key staff from time to time, you need to consider what you can do to retain these staff.

Disengagement stems from over-exhaustion, ineffective management, or misalignment throughout an organization. Low morale leads to high turnover rates, low productivity, and ultimately, disengagement. Unhappy workers cost the U.S. up to $550 billion per year.

When this happens, you need to find a solution, fast!

Business leaders and their HR departments play a significant role in sustaining employee engagement and motivation. They need to provide all team members with the resources they need to stay motivated.

If you offer your employees an incentive, 85% of workers feel more motivated to do their best.

The most obvious incentive is to pay more to your employees. But as soon as competitors match your pay rates, or offer to pay more, the value of your incentive vanishes.

Employee Incentive Programs

These programs can be introduced to attract, engage, and retain talent. The rewards and benefits included can be used to motivate positive behaviors in your workforce.

The cornerstone of many incentive programs is group Life Insurance.

What is Group Life Insurance?

This Life Insurance is of great value for employees because it is usually offered to them free as part of an employee incentive program.

Because all employees are covered, the insurer can average out the insurable risk and the cost to the employer is much less than the combined normal retail rates for all the employees.

The amount of cover can be as low as $25,000 or typically as high as two- or three times the annual salary, sometimes higher.

There are no medical questions to answer, making this particularly attractive to staff with existing health conditions.

The plan can be made even more attractive by adding living benefits like disability, critical illness, and long-term care. These are benefits where the life insured does not have to die for a payment to be made.

Being diagnosed with a condition that fits the definition of a successful claim for living benefits is far more likely than death during your working life. This could include cancer, heart attack, stroke, etc.

Typically, these benefits might pay $50,000 or $100,000 for each employee. Again, these additional benefits usually require no medical questions, so everyone is covered, regardless of the state of their health.

Coverage is tied to your job, so employees will prefer a plan that allows them to continue the cover if they leave the employer. This is generally available, with the ex-employee taking over the cost of course. The plan limits the type of insurance offered and the maximum sums insurable. If their personal insurance needs are greater, they will still need to seek that cover elsewhere at their own expense and based on their current state of health.

Often the plan will allow employees to voluntarily choose to increase their Life and/or Living benefits at their own expense. The costs will be much less expensive than normal retail rates for the same cover, especially for older workers, but approval for the increased amounts may be subject to any existing health issues.

Getting the base cover offered is easy for each employee, often completed as part of their initial hiring documents, it is free, and they are fully covered despite any existing health conditions.

To understand how to structure an Employee Incentive Plan with a Group Life Insurance that suits your organization, you should seek professional advice. Corporate Business Solutions Reviews is one place to start or contact them for assistance.

 

Find Your Competitive Edge: 6 Tips to Stand Out In Your Field

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As a small business owner, you soon realize how important it is to stand out against your competition. If you don’t, what’s stopping clients and customers from brushing past you and going to someone else?

Having competition is part of the business world. There are many benefits to having friendly competition in your field. It pushes you to achieve greater goals and helps you move your business in the direction of success. However, focusing solely on the competition can become overwhelming and quite stressful.

Don’t let your business fall behind and ultimately live in the shadows of your competitors. With the following six tips from CBS-CBS.com, you can find your competitive edge and get your business at the forefront.

Price Adjustments

One of the main reasons a customer will go to one place over another is due to the price of goods and services. Adjusting your price is one way to gain a little edge over your competition, as a lower price is more appealing.

There’s a fine line when it comes to pricing, however. Going too low, and ends up destroying the quality of what you’re offering. If your goods are significantly cheaper than other places, it begs whether what you offer is truly worth the price.

Exceptional Customer Service

Many individuals will stay dedicated to a company regardless of the price difference because of its customer service. How you handle customer complaints and issues can shoot your business to the top. So, spend time focusing on how you can improve your customer service experience to make it better than your competition.

Quality Matters

The quality of what you offer is another significant way to give you a competitive edge. We live in a world where quality means something. Usually, customers are willing to spend the extra few dollars if they know it’s worth the quality.

Your Environmental Impact

Going green has never been more popular than it is now. If you show your clients that you’re economically conscious about how you conduct business, it will mean something to them.

Sustainability is more expected from companies today. However, that doesn’t mean every business follows suit. If you’re one of the few companies in your field focusing on being environmentally friendly, you’ll have the edge over your competition.

Creative and Original

Your business is there to solve a problem or provide a valuable service to your customers. For your company to stand out, you need to show your customers why you’re the best choice and how you differ from the rest.

Get creative with how you run your business. Originality is important, so you don’t look like you’re simply copying what everyone else is doing.

Have a Message and a Purpose

Why did you start your business? When you have a story and a message behind what you do, it creates a powerful connection with your customers. That is an easy way to build up trust and keep customers dedicated to you. Just make sure it’s an authentic message.

The above six tips are simple ways to help you gain a competitive edge. Notice how these points tend to revolve around the quality of your business. Show the value of what you have to offer and enjoy the increase in customers strolling in.

Virtual Meetings: 5 Tips to Keep Your Zoom Meeting Productive

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If you asked the business world that one day we would spend more time working remotely and conducting virtual meetings more than anything in-person, many would likely shrug that off. Except, here we are today, and that is precisely the case.

We’ve talked before about how 2020 changed the business world (and the world as a whole, really). The Covid-19 pandemic forced many companies to shift virtually for the majority of their duties. To keep their team connected, Zoom meetings grew exponentially in popularity. As many found out, however, there are more challenges to maintaining a virtual meeting productive.

At Corporate Business Solutions, we know it’s essential to keep your team connected when working remotely. We have five tips to help you keep your Zoom meetings productive.

Invite Those Necessary

Have you ever attended a meeting where you left thinking that was a waste of time? Well, you likely didn’t need to be there. Keep that in mind, when inviting members to a virtual meeting. The more attendees you have, the more challenging it becomes to keep everyone engaged, and the meeting productive. So, invite-only the essentials that will benefit and contribute to the meeting.

Lay Out Ground Rules Before the Meeting

Before you even begin, lay out ground rules for the meeting. Having ground rules can help prevent the meeting from going off-topic, attendees talking over one another, and frustration for you as the leader.

Some ground rules to consider include muting those who aren’t talking, use the “hand up” feature when someone wants to speak, ensure all attendees keep their video on so you know they are paying attention, and that everyone will have an opportunity to speak when called upon. These rules help keep the meeting running smoothly.

Send the Meeting Agenda Beforehand

Those who attend a meeting want to know that it is worth their valuable time, helping keep their focus. One way of doing that is to send an agenda before the meeting begins. Not only does it ensure the attendee that it’s essential for them to attend, but it will also help everyone stay on task.

Keep the Morning Short

Long, drawn-out meetings typically aren’t the most productive. They drag on and lose the attention of the attendees. Some research suggests that the human brain becomes bored in only 10 minutes. Now, that may be a bit too short to run your meeting. However, you can use that timeframe to move onto different topics.

Keep in mind, when you’re conducting virtual meetings, attendees are usually at home. That means there are more distractions compared to being in the office. So, that 10 minutes could become shorter. Keep your meetings short and your topics concise.

Follow Up With Attendees

The best way to know how the meeting went is to hear from those who were at it. Follow-ups are an excellent step to take in the meeting process. It gives you a chance to get feedback to help improve the next meeting, and it allows you to further any discussions that got cut short during the session.

Ready to increase productivity and engagement at your next Zoom meeting? Use the five tips above to boost your meetings.

Dare to explore.

Learning from a Pandemic – 4 Lessons Covid-19 Taught the Business World

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The global pandemic has affected virtually everyone worldwide, whether it be physically, emotionally, and mentally. There is almost no aspect in our lives that hasn’t been impacted by Covid-19, and the business world is no exception.

As we continue to battle the novel virus around us, we can already look back on the last several months as a learning experience. The world grappled with an event, unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetime. With that comes lessons to help us in the future.

Reviews for Corporate Business Solutions understands the impact Covid-19 has had on your business. We take a look at some lessons we’ve already learned from the pandemic, and how we can adjust in the future.

Have a Risk Management Plan Ready

Although there are many instances, like what we’re currently going through, that you can’t plan for, you can have a plan for potential difficulties your business will likely face. Every business will have at least one hardship it must overcome as it grows, no matter the company’s size.

First, identify possible risks you’re likely to face as your business grows. It could be an employee quitting or getting fired, you getting sick and being off work, or hazardous challenges like a fire in the building. These are a few examples that a risk management plan should go over.

Employer-Employee Relationships Are Crucial

For many businesses worldwide, the only way they could continue to operate is if their employees took their offices home. Remote working puts your relationship with your employees to the test. You must have trust and faith in each individual to continue to perform as they would in the office.

These relationships stem past trust – they also include empathy. We’ve learned that showing compassion in difficult times is essential in any relationship, especially when mental health is involved. Moving forward, being empathetic to an employee’s situation will go a long way to maintain that positive relationship.

Personal Development and Growth Never Stops

It doesn’t matter if you run the business or have an employee who just started; you are always growing. With an ever-changing world, what we knew one day could be different tomorrow. Personal development and growth are something that should never end, just because you’ve reached the top of the ladder.

Be Resourceful and Flexible

One of the first things Covid-19 taught the business world is the importance of being flexible and resourceful. Many companies would have gone under if they didn’t change their tactics. Closing your doors doesn’t mean your business has to end.

Take the fitness industry as an example. With gyms and studios abruptly closing, personal trainers and group instructors got creative and moved everything online. Since we have the tools to do so today, the transition from in-person to online classes was relatively simple. However, this is still an excellent example of being resourceful and flexible. Many trainers would have lost their jobs if they didn’t think quickly and switch to online sessions.

 

Use these lessons above to help your business in the future. As we continue to battle with Covid-19, let these lessons remind us that change can bring about positive things.

Harness the Power Of A Business Valuation

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Sometimes, it becomes necessary for both shareholders and business owners to know the exact value of the organization. Whether you’re planning to sell your company, or sell or buy shares, getting an independent business valuation is often the best place to begin making well-informed decisions.

However, when it comes to finding out the value of the business, it’s surprisingly common for shareholders and business owners to be disappointed. Corporate Business Solutions consultant’s report that all-too-often, shareholders, and owners have an unrealistic idea of how much their company is worth. While sometimes, the valuation they receive will be higher than they anticipated, in far more cases, the figure is much lower than they expected. Why is this the case?

Inflated Valuations

Typically, shareholders and business owners have a highly inflated opinion of their company’s value. This is usually because they’ve read or heard about vast sums being paid out for successful businesses overseas and so apply the same multipliers. Yet, realistically speaking, these valuation parameters simply don’t apply automatically in their situation. Those parameters will be driven by several different company-specific factors that are also based on the industry and economy in which the company is operating.

The True Value of An Independent Business Valuation

Although receiving a business valuation that is lower than anticipated is always disappointing for those who expected a much higher figure, it can be a very valuable experience. It helps the business owner and shareholders alike to understand their true position and to gain fresh perspectives about the organization so they can implement changes that will bring about improvements.

In business valuation, the calculations that have been carried out will be fully explained. Not only that, but elaborations will be made on all the assumptions that underlie the applied parameters. For business owners, this will clarify the reasons for certain discount rates or multipliers being applied to reach the given conclusion of value.

Armed with this valuable information, it becomes more obvious what business owners need to do to boost their company’s value and, often with just a few simple adjustments, they can begin implementing those changes within weeks.

How Can A Business Valuation Impact on A Business Owner’s Decision-Making?

When receiving a business valuation that is lower than anticipated, many business owners decide that they should postpone the sale of their shares or company. Instead, they frequently choose to implement an action plan, starting to work deliberately on improving elements of their organization so that their company can soon be valued at a higher price.

Receiving a strong business valuation report always offers a business owner added value. If they are happy with the valuation they are given, they are armed with everything they need to succeed in negotiations with a prospective buyer. However, when they are dissatisfied with the conclusion of value they’ve received, they can use the report to derive action points that will go on to strengthen their business and improve its value with time.

The Benefits of Making Mistakes in Business

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After reading the title, you may be wondering how making a mistake in the business world has many benefits. Wouldn’t you want to avoid making mistakes in the first place?

The truth is, every business is bound to make a mistake at some point or another. No matter how much planning and work you put in, there’s like a mishap that will catch you off guard.

Making mistakes is how we learn and grow. If you never take a risk, it’s hard to tell what truly will work for your business. By putting yourself and your business out there, even if it ends up backfiring, you learn more about your company and you as a leader.

With Corporate Business Solutions Consultants, we know the importance of growing a successful business, but also how a mistake can benefit that growth.

You Learn More

When you use a mistake as a learning opportunity, you can look at it as a good mistake then. However, this is only true if you genuinely use the mistake as a learning opportunity. If you ignore it and keep doing the same thing over and over, the mistake will no longer be beneficial.

When you see something gone wrong, take some time to investigate it. What happened and how did it happen? What could you do to prevent it from happening again? Was there any good that came out of it? How do you need to take your business so that this mistake doesn’t happen again?

You Can Try New Things

When mistakes are embraced, it allows people to experience new things. If you’re scared of mistakes and don’t take a risk, you will likely miss out on many opportunities that could benefit your business.

It’s not easy to be vulnerable. However, when you are, you start to experience more than what you usually would. These experiences allow you to take your business on new paths that could benefit you greatly.

Shows You’re Willing to Try

A mistake shows that you tried something new and daring, even if it ended up backfiring. For many, they see that as a positive trait. You’re willing to take risks needed to keep expanding your business.

It’s All on How You Handle It

In the end, if you or someone in your business makes a mistake and you handle it poorly, all of the positives that can come from it will be overshadowed. If you’re the leader in the office, handling a mistake calmly and professionally, all while being encouraging, that will go a long way.

The main takeaway is that it’s okay to make mistakes in the business world. It’s how you learn and how you grow. That isn’t to say you should go out and make as many mistakes as possible. However, it’s okay to put your company out there and let it be vulnerable. In the end, you learn more and can use that experience as you continue to push your company farther ahead.

5 Reasons Why Your Employees May Want to Quit

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Do you find yourself having to hire and train new staff members on a regular basis? If so, there is likely a reason why your employee retention rate is low. Whether it be from management, a different opportunity, lack of interest, or something entirely out of your control, employees will have their reasons for quitting.

When you can start to narrow in on those reasons, you then can make any adjustments needed to retain your current staff. Corporate Business Solutions Reviews came up with five top reasons why an employee may quit.

Bored and Unchallenged

Having a dull day at work will make time go by quite slowly. Employees want to be challenged and be passionate about coming to work. If they aren’t, it makes it quite tricky to get out of bed in the morning.

Check in to make sure your employees are happy and feel motivated to do their job.

Workplace Relationships

One of the biggest reasons an employee will quit is due to having a poor relationship with their boss. No one says everyone in the office has to be best friends. However, having a positive and civil relationship helps ease tension and create an environment that employees are happy to be in.

Lack of Independence

Your employees want to be empowered. Doing so means you must trust them and let them perform their job as they see fit, as long as it is within the parameters of their description and the company. Showing staff that you trust them to do their job will go a long way.

Acknowledgement

How would you feel if day by day you put in your best effort, and it never gets noticed? After a while, it becomes demoralizing and can lead to you wanting to go somewhere else. If employees never receive recognition for what they do, how will they know they are doing a good job?

Acknowledging your staff can be anywhere from a pat on the back to rewarding them for beating their targets.

Company Culture

It could be that the company culture is no longer in line with the employee’s values. That isn’t to say the company culture is bad. It could just mean that the employee had a shift in what they want out of life and it is time for something different. However, if it is because of the way the company is running, then it may be time to take a step back and re-evaluate your business plan.

It’s important to have meetings with employees who express frustration or are walking out the door. When you know why they quit, you can then make the changes required to keep the rest of your staff happy.

Enhance Your Content Marketing to Drive Sales

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Content marketing can accomplish different things for different businesses. While some businesses use it as a way to increase brand awareness, others may use content marketing as a way to generate sales or sales leads.

Corporate Business Solutions experts recommend taking the following steps toward content marketing that generates sales.

Create a Content Marketing Plan

Not having a content plan in place is one of the largest mistakes marketers make when trying to drive sales. Sure, you’re aware that you need to create content and you want to boost sales. However, that’s not enough. You need to generate a strategy for finding and reaching your target audience to get them to convert to customers.

Understand Your Target Market

In order to produce effective content, you need to know who you’re creating that content for. Have a clearly identified target audience and speak directly to that audience through your engaging content.

Know Your Customers’ Common Concerns

Customers who are reading your content rather than buying your product or service are probably doing so because they’re undecided. To help them make their decision, it’s imperative for you to answer their questions and alleviate their concerns. Fortunately, you can do that with your content, if you know what your customers’ most popular questions and concerns are.

Listen to Your Customer Feedback

Coming up with those questions to base your content around can be as easy as simply listening to your current customers. If people consistently email you with the same questions or issues over and over again, those are likely things that would make for effective content.

Take a Look at Keywords

You should always consider the keywords and searches that bring potentials customers to your website. People will often enter questions into search fields if they can’t find an answer easily. Thus, if you see common themes there, that could be another source for your content.

Make a List of Questions

You should always go one step further than just simply keeping an eye out for common customer concerns. The very first thing to do is to create a list of the top 20 questions consumers have when deciding to purchase your product or service and subsequently create content to answer all of these questions in detail.

Take a Look at the Buying Process

When generating those questions and other topics for your content strategy, it can be helpful to put yourself in your customers’ shoes through each stage of the buying process. Spend the time to really familiarize yourself with the journey people take to purchase your product and then create the content to make it easy for them to purchase.

To learn more, visit CBS-CBS.com.

Five Techniques to Enhance Your Blogging

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It’s no secret that online blogging and other forms of published content can prove to be a critical aspect of your marketing strategy. Having said that, it takes a lot of strategic thought and preparation to make online content supplement your business goals. In order to help you improve those efforts, Corporate Business Solutions experts recommend the following five tactics.

Identify Optimal Keywords

 In order for your target audience to stumble across your blog content organically, you must integrate relevant and applicable keywords. While this can certainly be challenging, it’s up to you to invest the time and energy into researching the best keywords. Trust us when we tell you that you won’t regret it.

Get More Subscribers

So, you post your blog and you see that it hasn’t been viewed as many times as you’d like. Now what? To ensure that people actually read your blog, it’s helpful to offer an email subscription option. This will put the new blogs directly in their inboxes. What could be better?

Utilize Your Blog to Augment Your Reputation

Whether it’s via blogging, reviews, or social media, it’s absolutely imperative to not only monitor, but also constantly improve what is being said about your company online. Ultimately, your reputation can make or break a potential customer’s decision to buy into your business.

Personalize Your Content

Think about it – which will draw more interest: generic or personalized content? You got that right. Generic blog content will not yield the positive results you are looking for. Rather, take the time to publish personalized and relevant content that is specific to your target audience.

Make Your Content Shareable

One of the best ways to widen reach your reach is to optimize your content and make it more shareable. The more your content is shared, the more people you will reach.

To learn more, visit CBS-CBS.com.