5 Business Expenses a Startup can do Without

It can be so easy to get carried away during the initial phases of setting up your own business, but it’s vital that you keep your head. Many new company owners waste thousands that they haven’t earnt yet on illogical expenses, so here are just a handful that you should avoid.

Fancy business car

1. Extravagant “image” purchases

The last thing you should be spending your money on is a fancy suit or designer watch; you can certainly get a smart-looking, good quality suit to match whatever your budget is. As long as you look professional, your client won’t know or care where your clothes are from.…

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7 Awesome Ways to Get More Instagram Followers

Do you want more Instagram followers –silly question, of course you do. More Instagram followers mean more exposure for your blog, site or business and more eyes on your business mean more publicity for you. So, follow these tips below to see how to grow your following.

Instagram on smartphone

Tell People About Your Instagram Account

If you have a large following on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or have a blog, tell people to follow you on Instagram for more content. Don’t hesitate to tweet a link to your Instagram account or to add a link to your Instagram in your blog or YouTube channel description.…

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5 Marketing Campaigns That Helped These Small Businesses Grow

The goal of a marketing campaign is to help your audience understand the brand, increase awareness and engagement, and of course, generate sales. The best marketing campaigns go above and beyond to resonate with consumers by playing into emotions and generating excitement for a product or service.

Marketing strategy

Regardless of the industry you’re in, there are always unique ways to create effective and relevant marketing strategies. One of the best ways to help business owners think outside of the box is by working with marketing firms like Polar Mass. Often, it’s difficult for entrepreneurs to step outside their comfort zone and devise research-backed solutions to their problems.…

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7 Customer Service Best Practices Tips for Retaining Great Customers

Let’s face it: Getting customers is easy most times compared to actually keeping them. There’s so much competition to contend with these days, it’s near impossible to keep running with the best prices in your industry, your city; your little cozy niche that nobody knows about… Yet!

Then one day Joe Bigtime, who’s been watching your every move and figuring out how to do it even better than you, strolls into town and upsets everything you’ve been working toward. While you’ve been focusing on customer acquisition, your retention efforts have been left on the back-burner.

Suddenly, your customer’s lack of loyalty toward your business, and your obvious lack of loyalty toward getting their business again and again becomes of significant importance to your bottom line.…

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7 Employee Retention Strategies You Should Start Using

Ever noticed how every smart entrepreneur refers to their employees as a team? That’s because they know the value the right people bring to their companies. A business cannot be successful without the right people.

That might sound obvious, but many small businesses ignore the importance of their human resources. According to a recent survey, more than 50% of companies said that they don’t have a strategy for retaining employees.

The problem is that most managers see retention as a compensation issue – incentives, salaries, benefits, etc. In reality, what drives employees goes deeper than merely physical possessions.

With that in mind, let’s look at seven employee retention strategies every business should use.…

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5 Tips for a Successful Product Launch

A successful product launch is what every business wishes for, but which a few achieve in real life. Having a revolutionary new product or service is no guarantee of success. After spending millions in product development, you can watch your brainchild fail to gain traction from day one. While it may look easy when Apple sells over a million new iPhones in the first few days, successful launches require strategy.

Product launch

Here are six strategies they use to ensure a successful product launch.

1. Focus on the Needs of Your Target Market

A good product solves a real and acute problem that buyers are facing and are frustrated about.…

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Top Tips for Gathering Actionable Data for Your Business

Understanding your customer base is one of the key elements of running a successful business; but that can be a much more difficult prospect than it sounds at first brush. How do you gather quantitative data about potential customers? How can you analyze it for actionable information? How do you deploy those suggestions in your business framework?

Actionable data analytics

All of these questions are big ones for businesses which are trying to be more data forward. But fortunately, there are plenty of systematic ways to answer these questions. For our purposes, we’ll be elaborating on some of the best ways to collect actionable data for your business.…

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The Lost Art Of Customer Service Within The Tech Industry

Reinvigorating Customer Service in the Tech Industry

Tech industry

The tech industry is often highly impersonal — especially among companies that sell digital goods. A company can sell a digital service entirely over the Internet. The buyer pays online, and the service activates itself automatically. During the buyer’s entire time as a customer, he may never interact with an actual person.

Throughout the tech industry, customer service has become something of a lost art. Too often, companies rely on support forums, automated chat programs and online FAQ pages to answer customers’ questions. Customers who are unable find the answers they need through forums and automated solutions can end up feeling lost in the shuffle.…

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Learning to Scale: How to Grow a Home-based Food Business

Many home-food businesses, particularly artisanal producers, fear that there is no way to sustain or scale their food business without investing in their own premises and resources. Thankfully it’s just not true thanks to rental commercial kitchens.

Coffee shop owner pouring coffee

If you’re one of the UK’s 2.9 million homepreneurs, don’t be afraid to grow your food business. Its intimidating at first but perfectly possible, with planning. There are plenty of opportunities to enable your business to grow at the rate you wish it to, even as you make the transition from home food business to stores.

Commercial kitchens are the first step

Graduating to premises is the biggest initial leap a home business will take.…

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Worker Worries – Preventing the Simple Mishaps of Workplace Safety

Workplace injuries are one of the worst things that can happen to your employees and your business. Not only does it cause your employee physical and emotional distress, but it also decreases work morale, and can also put your business in serious financial trouble if something drastic has happened.

Workplace safety

Don’t let your business fall victim to an injury or hazard that can be easily prevented; we’ve put together 5 simple tips and tricks that can help you prevent the simple mishaps regarding workplace safety.

1. Prevent injuries

Believe it or not, the most common occupational injuries are usually ones that can be easily prevented.…

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