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4 Tips For Finding Customers For Your Startup Business

January 20, 2020 by Gary

Congratulations, you’ve got a great idea that you’ve decided to transform into a business. Unfortunately, this is only the beginning of success for your business. You may have thought the hardest part was over, but that’s the farthest thing from the truth.

Even if you’re convinced that you’ve got the best product or service in the world, it won’t do you much good if you don’t have anyone to buy it. You’ll need to find customers to pay money for what you’re selling. Take a look at some of the best ways to find them.

Increase Your Online Visibility

The internet is a place where you can market yourself on the highest level. Don’t be one of those old dinosaur companies that refuses to evolve and use new marketing techniques. There are other creative ways to build links beyond traditional networking, and that’s through SEO link building!

Increase your visibility online by making friends with search engines so that your name comes up any time someone searches for keywords within your line of business. If you don’t think you have the time to do it yourself, then consider outsourcing.

Start A Blog

Beyond the fun of starting a blog, there’s also a tactic behind it. Starting a blog is a great way to grow your startup by gathering attention. If your blog is successful enough, it will generate potential customers. However, make no mistake: blogging isn’t an instant results tactic. Blogging requires a lot of work and dedication before you’ll see it pay off. However, if you’re willing to put in the work, you’ll find that your efforts will be well worth it.

Find a Mentor

As with anything in life, a little guidance never hurt anyone. If you know someone who has successfully achieved what you hope to, then, by all means, make use of that contact. Use their knowledge to your advantage and learn everything that you possibly can from them about how they acquired customer leads.

Any time that you have a tough question or a pressing matter, don’t be afraid to look to them for guidance. Hopefully, if they’re compassionate enough, they’ll be willing to guide you when you need direction.

Keep an Eye On Your Competitors

You can learn a lot from your competition! Never get too comfortable and always keep your eye on the people around you who are doing the same thing. Know what the others are doing that you’re not, and make sure that you start doing it!

By following this advice, planning as far in advance as possible, and remaining dedicated to success, you can expect to grow your startup over time. Believe in what you’re selling, and your customers will too!

5 Penny Stocks to Keep Your Eye On in 2020

January 14, 2020 by Gary

If you are looking for ways to invest, here are five penny stocks you should keep an eye on for 2020. Penny stocks are any stock that trades for less than five dollars. They can be a great way to invest, as penny stocks can bring a significant return on your investment. All penny stocks come with some substantial risk, but with the right research, you can find the stocks that hold potential. We made this small list to show you some penny stocks we feel have great potential for 2020.

Western New England Bancorp Inc. (WNEB)

image via Flickr by slgckgc

With a 2% dividend yield and the scare that occurred after a yield curve inversion during 2019 has faded away. Bond markets are showing good things ahead as well. What this can mean is banking stocks have the chance to bring substantial returns in 2020. As a result, Western New England Bancorp Inc. is looking like it’s on its way up.

Veru Inc. (VERU)

Veru Inc. has performed well throughout 2019. Their stock has jumped up from $1.39 to aftermarket highs on December 11 of $3. Veru Inc. has some additional earnings coming in, and their 4th quarter and full-year financial reports will be out soon. CEO Dr. Mitchell Steiner has some big plans for the next year in terms of progress, making Veru Inc. another great stock to keep an eye on.

Nio Inc. (NIO)

Nio Inc. is a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer. Earlier in the year, Nio stock fell pretty hard. However, over the past few months, the company has created some impressive sales figures. The stock continued to climb for the 4th quarter of 2019, closing at a little less than $1, because of this change, we think this stock is worth following during 2020.

Chesapeake Energy (CHK)

After hitting an all-time low just a few weeks ago, This week, the stock recouped by over 50%. The company just released reports sharing information about a $1.5 billion term loan facility. This deal the CEO has in place stands to make the company’s shares continue to grow substantially. Because of recent moves by Chesapeake Energy, we recommend them as a good penny stock to follow in 2020.

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (SIRI)

Sirius XM Holdings is a pretty solid penny stock to follow in 2020. As a well-known company that holds a monopoly over the satellite radio service, this is one of the less risky penny stock investments. They carry some significant pricing power, and as a result, they tend to be a safe bet to place, and worth following.

If you want to learn all there is to know about penny stocks, look at this article by Raging Bull. These stocks are worth following, but it’s essential to understand what you’re doing before investing your hard-earned money. Raging Bull has experts ready to teach you the market, with a great blog, and up to date information.

Filling in the Skills Gap on the Production Floor with Machine Tending

December 29, 2019 by Gary

One way to improve your current automated production line is through robotic machine tending. This ensures that your automation works better. More importantly, it helps to keep your business in good shape.

Machine tending simply refers to the robot loading raw material for the machine to implement its procedure. The robot then extracts the finished part and then loads again. This process is repeated for as long as you need it to be.

Benefits of Robotic Machine Tending

This collaborative robot application comes with benefits such as the following:

It facilitates extreme improvement of uptimes
Considerably boosts accuracy
Enhances repeatability

Repetitive Tasks

A worker is likely to get distracted or bored when they have to perform a task repeatedly for a long time. The possibility of errors is very high in this instance. In addition, they run the risk of injury. Robots are not encumbered with such limitations.

Hence, robotic machine tending enhances repeatability. Moreover, it repeats the same process with precision; a feat that would be impossible for a human to achieve. Robots are also a lot more accurate as their margin of error is less.

Chances of the final product having imperfections are greatly reduced. Correspondingly, there are fewer callbacks and repairs which results in more money for the business. Robots are also able to exchange parts faster and more precisely than a human operator.

Enhancing Safety in the Workplace

Robotic machine tending enhances safety in the workplace. There are tasks that pose threats to workers’ physical wellbeing. Pick-and-place tasks, for instance, may sound simple enough. However, wrong posturing can cause muscular-skeletal disorders that could land a worker in the ER.

In addition, the repeated motions, especially over a long period of time, can cause muscle-related injuries. Muscle pulls and other painful conditions can hinder as well as slow down production. Machine tending provides much-needed solutions to these problems.

More Work Gets Done

While your robot will need to stop occasionally for maintenance, it still covers a lot more ground than a human would. This is because it continues to boost throughput. Workers would need to take breaks every few workers but robots work nonstop without making errors.

Lowers Operation Costs

Automation also helps to lower operating costs as well as saving space. Robots allow workers to focus on more meaningful and fulfilling tasks.

Solves the Problem of High Employee Turnover

Factories are sometimes faced with high employee turnover especially when they need workers for certain tasks. Many workers eventually find better positions and move on leaving you to begin searching all over again.

Robots will not be sending out applications or demanding raises and promotions. They are used to fill in the gaps left by workers. Moreover, they provide a permanent solution. All they require is constant maintenance to keep them running at their best and your turnover problem is permanently solved.

Flexibility

Whatever you can conjure up for the production floor, there is a robotic solution that can be provided. Machine tending collaborative robots are designed and programmed to perform multiple tasks. In addition, they come equipped with flexible grippers.

Robots can, therefore, be adapted for many tasks on the production floor. In addition, grippers can be installed above in order to serve two machines simultaneously. Machine tending is applicable for applications such as the following:

Injection molds
Grinding
Milling and turning
Trimming and forging
Punching
Welding
Compression molds

Conclusion

Applications in a large number of factories and manufacturing plants lack skilled labour. Machine tending is well-positioned to fill in this gap. Collaborative robots that perform machine tending applications can be programmed to perform certain tasks without operators.

This is one of the skill gaps that are being addressed in industries such as manufacturing and material handling companies. If skilled labour is not available, robotic machine tending fills in and gets the job done.

How a Digital Transformation Can Improve Communications

December 18, 2019 by Gary

Modern business has changed. If you want to survive in an increasingly competitive market, it is essential you adapt your internal services to meet external demand. While your company might be cautious of a digital transformation, it is essential to move a business into the future, otherwise your company will be left behind. [Read more…]

Is Buysocialmediamarketing.com reliable?

December 3, 2019 by Gary

The right social media marketing service can finally kick-start your online presence or give that kick it needs to attract some help with its promotion from the platform itself. For example, https://buysocialmediamarketing.com/youtube/views, where you can buy YouTube views for a specific video, can make for what is essentially a strategic investment in that it can cause the platform to assign some interaction and engagement weight to it and promote it. Depending on the number of views you would have purchased, along with some other related factors, your video’s possible subsequent circulation on the YouTube homepage could not only result in a torrent of even more views, but result a spike in new subscriptions to your channel as well.

Those are pretty much the basics of online social media marketing, as is required in this day and age. This isn’t only to try and get ahead, but merely to compete. It’s actually been that way for quite a while now, which brings into view platforms like https://buysocialmediamarketing.com/. Buysocialmediamarketing.com is a platform over which to purchase social media marketing services such as the mentioned YouTube views, in addition to similar engagement services around Facebook, Instagram, and even Tik Tok along with SoundCloud.

Their Soundcloud ‘plays’ service can be acquired at https://buysocialmediamarketing.com/soundcloud/plays, starting at under $3 for 500, which can go a long way in getting any budding musician going in terms of starting to build up some hype. As suggested, the Tik Tok service would be used for something similar, but the burning question is of course whether or not this particular platform is reliable. Can you trust that the social media engagement services you purchase from Buysocialmediamarketing.com will be delivered as promised and that they’re facilitated in a safe way that won’t get your account banned?

One metric which suggests that it’s nothing but reliable is the refund offered, for which buyers are eligible if they fail to deliver the order. With the same breath, they make no guarantees that the users who are subsequently bought to ‘follow’ you will actively engage with your content. That’s obviously for services such as https://buysocialmediamarketing.com/facebook/views or https://buysocialmediamarketing.com/instagram/views, otherwise you can specifically buy engagement actions such Instagram comments at https://buysocialmediamarketing.com/instagram/comments.

How this relates to reliability is in the consideration of the fact that no legitimate social media engagement vendor has full control over how the end crowd-sourced contributor actually chooses to independently interact with your content, beyond what they’re required to do as their primary action, of course. So they can get someone to follow you, but they have no control over whether or not that follower will subsequently like your content enough to perhaps comment on it or share it, unless of course that was the particular service you bought via the Buysocialmediamarketing platform.

Lastly, perhaps to put the reliability debate to bed, visit the Buysocialmediamarketing.com platform and upon reaching the homepage, you might get the sense that this is one of the older type websites around. With regards to the indication of how long it has been around, that can only be a good thing as it suggests that its continued operation is on the back of satisfied customers, many of which are repeat customers who might perhaps offer their own social media marketing and management services to end-user clients.

Three Customer Service Mistakes You Don’t Know You’re Making

November 27, 2019 by Gary

In business, it’s only natural that you concentrate on serving your customers with as much grace and respect as possible in order to make them feel happy and contented that they chose to trade with you. With good customer service comes good customer retention, and a positive word-of-mouth style of marketing that rewards the best-practice organizations. However, in your overall customer service planning, you may have missed some key elements that can help you better understand your customers and plan for different demographics. In this guide, we’ll focus on the three most overlooked mistakes companies make in customer service – and how you can turn that around.

Neglecting the Entire Journey

Customer services are a little bit like medicine: you treat wounds and illnesses, but you rarely address the root cause. And, of course, patients and customers would rather avoid these unpleasant scenarios altogether, instead of getting ill or experiencing an issue with your product or service.

If you’re serious about boosting your customer satisfaction scores, you need to start looking at the entire journey that your customers undertake – from first discovering your brand, all the way through to the point at which they receive the product or service they ordered. With this holistic view of your customer services provisions, you’ll understand at which points the customer might become disappointed, and start directing your energies and expertise to these touch points that matter the most.

Feedback is Crucial

You might find that following all of the rules of customer service is enough to please your customers – but how can you truly know that they’re leaving with smiles on their faces and satisfaction in their souls if you’ve not asked them? Of course, some individuals find customer feedback methods a little invasive and irrelevant, so you need to be careful about how you decide to introduce these feedback mechanisms into your business.

Possibly the easiest way to conduct in-person feedback is to use a retail customer survey that’s left at the exit of your store, or just after the check-outs. This is where customers typically ‘end’ their journeys with you, and a small machine placed here asking customers to rate their time with you can really help you understand the variables of their experience.

Adding Value

One of the major schools of marketing theory in the twenty-first century has been around behavioral economics. This theory suggests that it’s not what you experience from a product or service that tells you its worth – it’s how you are made to feel about your purchase.

In this way, you could sell a gold watch with terrible and careless customer service that can make it feel like plastic; but a simple digital watch wrapped professionally and delivered with a note of thanks can feel like a Rolex! It’s these customer service touches that can add a significant amount of value to your customer’s experience, and will encourage them to shop with you again – for the feeling, not the facts.

These three areas of expertise will help you deliver cutting-edge and exciting customer service into 2020 and beyond.

Why You Should Market Your Business Online?

November 25, 2019 by Gary

Almost every business today must have an online platform through which you can contact them or check their services and price. A website has become a necessity because as statistics show, more than 97% of the people went searching for services of your type on the Internet at some point and more than 30% of them are unwilling to hire you if you don’t have a website.

There is no doubt that the Internet has changed the way we look at businesses and marketing today. It managed to create a new way of promoting and creating services we never thought possible. Take the gambling sphere, for example. Online casinos have taken over the world due to the quality service and excellent marketing strategies. Sites like www.novibet.co.uk are offering tons of promotions for the players and even better Customer Support.

Many business owners do not trust the process of online advertising, so we decided to try and change their minds by providing a few reasons why you should start with that kind of marketing.

Easy to Target Your Audience

Because the Internet stores cookies on every user, they have a lot of data that describe their preferences. These cookies are especially effective in social media platforms. By paying for advertisements, social media like Facebook and Instagram are automatically using algorithms to pinpoint your desired audience, making the process highly effective.

Agencies that are Specialized in That Field

Digital marketing agencies have numerous experts that are more than willing to help you out in the process. You just hire their services and let them do their magic. Instead of creating the whole marketing process by yourself, you have a whole team that is dedicated to making the campaign successful.

Reach the Younger Generations

It goes without saying that the younger generations are mostly spending their time on the Internet. They can spend as much as 8 hours per day, as one story by Telegraph.co.uk suggested. That is why they can be easily reached through online marketing. You can use that fact to your advantage and launch social media campaigns to attract their attention and have maximum effect.

Lower Marketing Cost

Online advertising has a much lower cost than traditional marketing. Because there are thousands of companies that are using the same service from the same provider (like ads on Facebook), the competition made it possible for the campaigns to be cheap. Even political parties are slowly heading over to social media to promote their candidates and programs. In short, traditional marketing is slowly becoming an obsolete way to make your business known to the public.

Keep Up with The Competition

And lastly, we are bringing a simple fact. A huge majority believes in the process of online marketing, and chances are that even your competitors on the market are using that process. If you want to be successful, you need to be either leveled or above your competitions to stay relevant. And since they are using online marketing strategies, you should keep up with them as well.

Maximizing Productivity with Power BI Training

November 12, 2019 by Gary

Collating large-scale data can be a challenging feat for any organization. Presenting it in a manner that is understandable to regular individuals is even more difficult. In this golden age of business intelligence, the need to provide comprehensible and visually-appealing data reports have never been more crucial than ever.

Recognizing this, Microsoft developed the Power BI system to provide consumers with ease in analyzing and reporting data in a visually stimulating manner. To maximize its usage, Microsoft has curated Power BI training sessions for its clients.

Starting your Power BI journey online

Power BI is a step up to the frequently used MS Excel when it comes to data analysis and management. For those who want a snapshot of how to run Power BI, Microsoft offers a free guided learning module on its website. This customized training is provided with short videos focused on helping clients explore how to analyze data, familiarize themselves with its building blocks, combine acquired information from many forces, and manage data relationships.

It teaches users to create workspaces, make simple visualization, layout pages, and publish reports in various applications. It gives an introduction to DAX functions, calculation types, expressions, table relationships, and filters. Each video ranges from 3 to 30 minutes of explanation. Since they are posted online, they can be accessed anytime and anywhere free of charge.

Understanding Power BI In-Depth

For those who want a more custom approach when it comes to learning, Microsoft offers an official Power BI training session that will help users unpack this self-service business intelligence program in just within two days. Unlike online studies, taking this class will allow consumers to have an in-depth understanding of how Power BI works.

Also, they will be given opportunities to ask questions and clarify concerns with the program. Furthermore, they will be tasked with hands-on activities to test their learning.

What’s in Power BI Training?

In terms of content, users will be introduced to the features that make Power BI more advanced than the limited MS Excel application. Some of its core modules include navigating the core elements of this software such as Data Modelling, Data Analysis Expression, Advanced-Data Transformation, Custom Visualization, Power BI Q&A.

Participants will also familiarize themselves with how to customize dashboards and create interactive reports. Additionally, they will also learn how to integrate third-party software like Google Analytics and Salesforce.

Will I Be Given Certification?

A certification will be provided to everyone who has completed the course. This course is offered seasonally, but groups can ask for a particular class provided that they meet the minimum number of participants required for each run.

During the course, all individuals are required to have a corporate email address required for account creation, MS Excel 2010 or higher, and a subscription to the Power BI Suite. There is no software knowledge prerequisite to this course. However, familiarization with MS Excel applications is a plus. Participants will also be asked to download the Power BI Desktop and the Power BI iOS/Android App. Educating yourself with Power BI through online and classroom training will definitely boost your productivity level. With practice and patience, you will eventually master this program and become a much-coveted expert in data management.

4 Reasons Your Creative Business Needs an Instagram Account

October 31, 2019 by Gary

As a business owner, if you’ve previously thought of Instagram (and social media) as just something for Millennials to use that isn’t appropriate for business use, it’s time to rethink that! Social media is a major force in marketing today, and people of all ages are using it to communicate and to share photographs and video content they find interesting. They’re also open to marketing approaches by brands wanting to get noticed. Smaller brands can take advantage of that opportunity too. Here are 4 reasons your creative business should have an Instagram account.

1. Find More Customers Who Love What You Offer

The power of Instagram isn’t just that it’s used by hundreds of millions of people, but that they’re sharing and liking content based on hashtags. If you’re not aware, hashtags are a way to classify a message, photo or video posting into categories of interest. Content gets published using specific hashtags that Instagram users follow through their accounts.

For instance, with a company that sells a badge making kit, promoting their products by posting on Instagram using the hashtag #badgepins will draw the attention of anyone who’s previously subscribed to or searches for new posts using that hashtag. In this way, the company doesn’t have to find potential new customers individually – new customers can find their business with close to zero marketing spend.

2. Engage with Customers Where They’re Spending Time

People are using apps every day. They clock up hours on them. Even TV is being watched less in favour of smartphone use. For this reason, Instagram is excellent for engagement. In fact, Forrester Research discovered that Instagram is over 50 times more engaging for users than Facebook. Even Twitter lags way behind.

The power of the written word combined with pictures or video provides outstanding ways to connect with customers on a visual and emotional level. Nothing on social media is as powerful.

3. Bring a Fresh Voice to Visual Creations

Whatever your business does, people want to know that there are real people behind the brand. Faceless brands aren’t as interesting as they once were. Also, potential customers are less intrigued by slick marketing compared to decades past. Now they crave authenticity.

Use Instagram to create a face and a voice of the brand. Use their social platform to make a connection by showing your enthusiasm for your products or services. Show why it matters to you and how it can be impactful in their lives too.

4. Sell Through Instagram Posts

The photo/video sharing platform isn’t just for passive viewing; net savvy people are now looking to find interesting products and put their money where their eyeballs are. E-commerce with Instagram posts as the initial catalyst is on the rise.

Companies are no longer reliant on big spending through pricey marketing campaigns to get visitors to their website. Nor will they wait for Google to rank their new product months down the line. Instead, they’re taking advantage of Instagram to drive traffic to their site the day it’s released.

What does this mean for creative businesses? They can verify whether their new creative ideas are going to sell before they overly invest in them. And they can generate sales for new creations faster than ever before.

Instagram is as much for businesses as it is for consumers. There are many ways to use it profitably or simply to bring greater attention to the brand. Don’t miss out.

The Battle of the European truck giants

October 30, 2019 by Gary

European trucks are the leaders of the pack around the world, so naturally there are going to be fights between the makers. They are all great trucks, but the large cab-over models from Mercedes and Scania have shaken Volvo’s hold of this sector with their recent additions.

These new trucks from Mercedes and Scania have long been in the shadow of Volvo and Kenworth, the token American here. Delivering a record number of units to logistics and haulage companies worldwide in 2018.

Long live the king of the road?

Volvo are clinging on to their lead, as they are still the leading provider for heavy duty haulage and logistics trucks in Europe and Oceania, notwithstanding their dominance globally.

Mercedes Benz and Scania are holding their own well against the Swedish bad boy, with Scania (another Swede) shifting significant unit numbers. Scania have actually seen an increase in sales as a direct result of firms adopting the use of trucking route software as hauliers look to reign in their running costs with more efficient and hard-wearing fleets. They have seen steady growth over the past five years, having a positive effect on brand image.

The Mercs had a cracking year back in 2017, the new range undoubtedly behind the surge in popularity. That surge translating into near double their worldwide sales as they moved into 2018.

Fighting chance

If you think that Mercedes-Benz or Scania will be content to kick back and relax on the basis of those results, you’ve got another thing coming. Both of these behemoths want the top spot and buoyed by new and exciting model ranges they intend to fight hard to get there.

Cab-over models are the staple of European roads, yet in the US and Australia – along with Russia and parts of Asia – the conventional cab trucks have always come out on top. This is all about to change, as globally cab-over are now the top sellers by at least two to one.

These guys aren’t blind to the realities of the sector though, both understanding that a shiny new model range is all but a sweetener, and to really make waves in the heavy-duty market they will need to perform and sustained and polished attack on the likes of Volvo and Kenworth to really take that crown.

Whilst Kenworth is a valid champion to topple, the Scania and Mercedes guns are firmly pointing at the Swedish giant, Volvo. Remove this market leader and the game is anyone’s – a fact the contenders are well aware of.

Immovable confidence

Let’s be realistic here, Volvo aren’t ones for complacency. Achieving such a market position takes a shrewd business model, a solid and dependable product and a continued effort to be one step ahead of the competition.

All attempts to take down this giant will feel its full force. The advantage of global production plants, a reputation that surpasses them and a integrated route optimisation software capabilities, a well-established and fully comprehensive service network see Volvo’s products offering the full package, and that is something the others haven’t quite achieved just yet.

Lets also not pretend that such a brand would not have its own new range in the making, including that much anticipated super-bunk on their FH models.

Quite the fighters

Mercedes and Scania have intention of letting the fire in their bellies go out. Spurred on by strong sales and increased interest they have just announced B-double combination each, pushing the boundaries of truck development even further along. Maybe it really Is time for Volvo to look over their shoulder, even if it just to check how far ahead they really are.

About the author

David Bailey-Lauring is a single father of three boys and a content writer and regularly writes about sport, fitness, education and tech in the UK, USA, and Europe.