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Cont e nt s 0 2 MessagefromtheEditor 0 3 AreYouCutOutforStarngaBusiness 0 5 BusinessgrowthTipsfor2018 0 7 TheImportanceofCreangBalanceinYourLife 0 9 HowtoExpandYourSmallBusinessUsingTranslaonServices 1 3 IssellingonAmazonFBAworthit? 1 7 TooMuchStressIsNotGoodForBusinessOwners sY ourBus i ne s sGoi ngUnde r ?S t a yF i na nc i a l l yAfloa twi t h 1 9I T he s e4T r i c k s
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Are You Cut Out for Starting a Business By Jade Anderson Many of us have the dream of starting our own business. Flexible working hours, nearly unlimited room for growth and the ability to realise a vision are some of the benefits of this opportunity. However, there is a massive difference between a far-flung fantasy and clear-cut reality. The fact of the matter is that not everyone possesses the traits required to become an entrepreneur. Let us take a look at some of the most critical questions to ask yourself honestly. You will then be provided with a much clearer picture before making such a substantial commitment.
Do You Bring Work-Related Concerns Outside of the Office? One of the benefits associated with being employed by a company is that in the majority
of cases, you can leave work-related stress at the office. However, this is not always the case in regards to entrepreneurs. There are many instances when business concerns will bleed over into your day-to-day life. Keep this observation in mind, as balancing your business and personal life can sometimes prove to be challenging.
Can You Make Pragmatic and Difficult Decisions? Entrepreneurs will often need to make decisions associated with unpredictable or stressful outcomes. For example, would you be able to fire three or four close staff members if your business was failing to turn a profit? Would this action impact you on a personal level? The truth of the matter is that you need
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to be able to find a balance between a thickskinned attitude and personal responsibilities. Pragmatism is sometimes necessary for the workplace and yet, this needs to be combined with a people-centred approach. This is one of the most challenging aspects of running any company.
account that your circumstances could dictate that such a lifestyle is not an option. If you have recently married or if you have a young child, balancing work and home life could be very difficult. While a willingness to go the extra mile is essential, you will need to weigh your other responsibilities.
Do You Work Well with Others or Would You Rather be Alone?
Are You Tough, Fair or Both?
This is somewhat of a trick question. One of the defining characteristics of an entrepreneur is an ability to think outside of the box and to follow a vision. However, this is rarely accomplished without the help and support of similar professionals. If you prefer to work alone, you might be better suited for a role such as a self-employed freelancer. Should you instead enjoy the concept of group collaboration with a specific outcome in mind, you might have what it suits to become an entrepreneur.
How Much Time are You Willing to Devote Towards Your Business? Most respondents will answer this question in one of two ways: • "I do not mind at all." • "It bothers me, but I understand that working extra hours is part of the process." Of course, every entrepreneur realises from the very beginning that success is the result of hard work and (occasionally) burning the candle at both ends. We should also take into
There are inevitably times when a bit of discipline will need to be instilled. Whether referring to sales performance, working hours or reliability, the fact of the matter is that leadership often involves toughness. Still, this attitude needs to be diluted with fairness. Favouritism and similar mistakes can quickly cause divisions to form within a firm. This leads to inefficiency and even insolvency.
Do You Regularly Monitor Your Health? An entrepreneur is often under a significant amount of stress. From a lack of sleep to odd working hours, this can quickly take a toll on your body. So, it is essential that you keep personal health as a top priority. Never forget that life is short and that the decisions you make today will have a direct outcome on the future. Starting a business could represent one of the best decisions that you have ever made. Honestly addressing the topics outlined above will provide you with the insight and clarity required to take such an important (and potentially rewarding) step.
Jade Anderson is an experienced In-house Editor at Upskilled. With a background in online marketing, Jade runs some successful websites of her own. Her passion for the education industry and content is displayed through the quality of work she offers.
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This means that, firstly, you must research your customers. What is your product solving, who does it benefit and how? Understanding this will help give you a clearer idea of who to target.
Business Growth Tips for 2018 By Karren Smith Starting a business is a difficult journey not for the faint-hearted. Today’s entrepreneurs face many challenges in getting a business off the ground, but once it begins to run, the challenges will keep coming. Whatever stage your business is at, growth is an important area. Growth is important, be it from 1 to 10 customers or 10,000 to 1 million customers, and without a good growth strategy, your business will struggle to succeed. So, here are five tips for business growth in 2018.
Get a Plan Without a proper plan and strategy, business growth can be very difficult. To grow and acquire more customers, a business must have a clear idea of who they are targeting. A business must also be able to measure their growth.
Secondly, the strategies you use to target these customers must be measurable. Make sure your marketing strategy has clear goals which can be tracked with key performance indicators. For example, your strategy might have the aim of growing your website traffic by 15% in 6 months. Such a goal is relatively easy to track with things like Google analytics, which is an essential tool for any business.
Know your competition Another area that can help your business grow is to know your competition. If you perform strategic analysis on your competition, you will know what they’re doing well and what they’re struggling with. Understanding this will allow you to know where to focus your efforts. What can you do better than your competition? These are the area’s you should focus on.
Optimise your site In 2018, your website is one of your business's most important assets. Today, more people look for information, shop and communicate online than in any other way. Therefore, it’s crucial that you have a website, but more importantly, that you have a site that’s optimised to rank on Google through SEO and a site that can convert your traffic to sales. Web development and SEO are huge areas of expertise with dedicated professionals in each field. However, with the tools available online, you can build your own
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website and implement basic SEO strategies while seeing good results. Of course, this depends on how big your business is, but for a small business, doing these things yourself is definitely possible. Sites like WordPress make it incredibly simple to create websites and even have SEO plugins to help you optimise your site. This is a huge area with many facets, but generally, a website should be easy to use for your customers with clear information. Make your content easy to understand but make sure it also provides value.
Email marketing is crucial Email is one of the oldest parts of the internet, but this doesn’t mean it’s outdated. It’s estimated that over 280 billion emails are sent and received every day, and this is only going to continue to grow. If you’re not building an email list, consider how much potential business you are missing out on. Somewhere on your site should be a way to collect email addresses. This can seem like a hard task, especially if you’re starting at 0. There’s several ways you can collect email addresses. One way is to create unique and valuable content that your audience is interested in and send it out as a newsletter. Alternatively, you can offer discounts and specials for those on your email list. The important thing to do is to make your email list an exclusive place. Once you have an email list, you have direct communication to your most engaged customers which is invaluable to growth.
Get amongst social media
course, what mediums you focus on will depend on your target customers. Your audience may engage in emails much more than social media, however having a social media presence in 2018 is important. When it comes to businesses, social media is about more than posting what you had for lunch. Firstly, you must decide what platform will be most effective for your business. Spreading across every platform will be a waste of time and your profile’s will become disjointed. Instead, consider where most of your customer base is. The safest bet is Facebook. However B2B business might be better focusing on LinkedIn, whereas visual businesses like restaurants or tattooists may find more success on Instagram. When it comes to content, try to find your business's voice and convey this through what you post. Social media is all about engagement, so encourage it from your audience and also engage with them. In 2018, much of business growth relies on your digital, online efforts. A great website, an email list and a social media presence will help your business grow, but only if you have a good plan and implement strategic analysis.
About the Author Karren Smith is a content writer at HashChing, Australia’s first marketplace for home loans.
Newer than email is social media, which is just as important for business growth. Of
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The Importance of Creating Balance in Your Life By Malik Muhammad Operating your own successful business requires time and focus. Starting your business and expanding market share while increasing profits will make major demands on you, your team and your support network. It is understandably easy to forget, overlook or even ignore the need to STOP for a moment and create moments of relaxation. But, the importance of creating balance in your life is not to be underestimated. We are not only discussing the gains from actual sleep. We are looking at how slowing down the pace of our work rate every once in a while can make us more productive. How recreation/hobbies, spending time with loved ones and truly enjoying ourselves can make us better business people. Why we become more successful through creating balance in our daily existence. Benefits of sleep include:
1. Strengthening the emotional components of memory which may, in turn, bolster creative processes. 2. Allowing the body time to repair itself after being active for a certain period. 3. Avoidance of irritability, lowering of stress levels, healthy weight maintenance and the sharpening of one's attention span. 4. Creates time to repeat or practice skills you learnt while awake (this can be further explored by reading up on a process known as consolidation) Completing time-sensitive projects requires sacrificing sleep. That’s not what I’m talking about. What I am suggesting, however, is that consistent sleep deprivation has a negative impact on the cognitive process and our ability to function efficiently. You are more productive as a result of developing a regular
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sleep pattern. It energises you, plus enables you to function with a clearer perspective when making decisions in your daily business affairs. Have you come across people who are always busy yet their productivity seems negligible? People, who are busy doing nothing? If your efforts do not mirror your results, then it is time to PAUSE and re-evaluate. This ‘pause’ may mean:
Bringing in a consultant to offer an objective critique
Delegating responsibility
Seeking an objective opinion
Speaking with a business or personal mentor
Engaging with a coach or therapist
Listening to an inspiring podcast or watching a video/programme on the subject
Dining with like-minded persons
Most successful and/or financially strong business people love what they do. There comes the point where they still do what they do - even when worth millions. Only you define what rich means to you and what success means to your business. It is a personal conclusion. Loving what you do means making time for hobbies and experiences that reinvigorate/complement your ability to be better at what you love. Family moments remind you WHY you do what you do. Maintaining friendships and relationships fulfil our natural desire to interact as social beings. They also serve as an anchor to keep us grounded plus remind us that there are some experiences that no amount of financial success can ever buy - for example, the feelings of pride and support from a loved one for our success; the joy of being present at the piano recital of your child or the natural
fun in a family vacation. ‘We will be more successful in our endeavours if we can let go of the habit of running all the time and take little pauses to relax and recentre ourselves. We will also have a lot more joy in living.’ Thich Nhat Hanh Breaking the positive routine of constant productivity is beneficial - akin to the necessary pit stop in a Formula 1 race. The driver travels at phenomenal speed, then may be instructed to pull in to change the tyres or get something checked on the car. It is a temporary stop - a clear slowing down. Yet many an F1 race has been won by that crucial pit stop. Create opportunities for productivity pit stops for yourself and your team to be more efficient and get even better results. The odd day off, mini-break or all-inclusive vacation provides quality time to revive yourself. It can be as basic as treating yourself to a premium coffee at your favourite spot simply for the ambience. Pausing to imbibe a delicious cake or watching the sunset from a special place or watching your favourite show. These simple or extravagant experiences are fully earned and deserved by you. Business is better with balance in your life. Balance comes through creating moments to slow down, rest, pause and relax. Then get back to working even more productively. About the Author Malik is the host of online talk show ‘Reasoning Sessions’ and specialises in sharing selfempowerment strategies with diverse and multifaith audiences. LinkedIn | Instagram | Twitter
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How to Expand Your Small Business Using Translation Services
Global growth? We explore how
The first step is to tackle tricky translation.
translation services can help your
You may consider your business to cater for
business reach new markets
all markets. But, are you respectfully
internationally.
speaking the same language? Business translation services provide very positive
For years now English has been the international language of choice. But, that doesn’t always work when it comes to
results in helping businesses communicate with overseas customers and increase brand awareness.
marketing your business. The rise in technology and improvement in developing markets that prefer their own language means that UK companies need to do more to build relationships with multinational audiences.
Today’s competitive marketplace requires you to bridge the language barrier. For example, let’s take a UK business owner. Research has found that around threequarters of British people are not able to
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hold a conversation in a foreign language.
from the United Kingdom, you will still
This ignorance will hold a business back
attract international traffic. Unless you
from negotiating deals with international
track your visitors’ every move using
distributors and writing gripping marketing
Google Analytics, these metrics are not
messages. In a recent study, it was found
always visible. With the opportunity for
that £48 billion annually due to their
international readers to see your products
inability (or unwillingness) to speak a
and services, user experience needs to be
foreign language.
flawless. Keep in mind; it’s easier to
It’s time to re-think your strategy.
navigate a website when it’s in your
Many business owners see language
language.
translation as “wasted money.” This is a
Here are some of the many ways
detrimental error in judgement that will
translation services can be used to help
prevent them from achieving international
your business thrive in an international
growth. It’s time to consider the bigger
market:
picture. Forward-thinking business owners
Increased revenue:
will recognise that translation services are
Right now, overseas customers are looking
an important investment that will help bring
for a business like yours. Taking your
more business their way. Thinking of
business global will give you the
expanding your business to reach an
opportunity to tap into that customer base.
international audience? Unless you have
If your product receives a positive
the time to learn a foreign language, as well
international reception, you will enjoy
as run your business full-time, (wishful
increased profits that can be used to re-
thinking), you will need professional
market your business to interested
assistance.
customers.
Localisation
Competitive edge:
Localisation is the process of translating
Your local competitors probably won’t have
website content and product information to
an international marketing campaign. Even
a foreign language. Although a large
if they do, who’s to say it’s supported by
percentage of your site visitors will come
professional translation services. Localising
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your business will give you a competitive
to fall victim to spelling slip-ups. This is
edge with marketing messages that will
especially tricky when it comes to content
drive traffic and see success for your
translation. Professional translation
business. The language of customers is
services will ensure that you never miss a
what people expect, not your language.
trick when it comes to communication.
Better international presence: When your site appears in international search engines and is optimised for competitive keywords, you will see a rise in brand visibility. Clever content marketing will ensure that customers understand everything about your products and services. Your international customers will thank you for speaking and/or writing in their language. It demonstrates a
Translating your website is not just about written content. Translations services will also take care of the overall aesthetics of your site from branding to functionality. They will adapt your site to account for the preferences of an international audience. It will account for fonts, colours and images to conform to local beliefs, customs and traditions. In doing so will show respect for your audience and an understanding for the messages they expect to receive.
willingness to connect with your international audiences.
Minimise miscommunication Don’t trip up with your translation. No matter what the marketing budget and company size (think big brands like McDonald’s), there’s always an opportunity
This article was produced in collaboration with www.intrawelt.com, a professional language translation service. Is your business looking to expand to reach a global market? If so, then Intrawelt can help your business thrive. Even if you are considering the move and would like some expert guidance, it’s worth giving them a call on 0203 6572572.
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J us twhent he cat er pi l l ar t houghtt he wor l dwas over ,i t becamea but t er f l y. www. bus i nes s br eakt hr ough. co. uk
Is selling on Amazon FBA worth it? It’s very easy to see the opportunity that the Amazon FBA or Fulfillment By Amazon program presents. You send your merchandise to Amazon, and they take care of shipping, handling, and picking out products as they are ordered from your listing on Amazon. The internet’s biggest merchandiser gets rid of all the headaches normally associated with e-commerce — from warehousing to the picking out and shipping of merchandise, to dealing with returns and refunds. The FBA program is so awesome that it seems that everybody is selling using this system. The question in the minds of a lot of wouldbe FBA players is actually quite basic: Is there still space for newbies on the Amazon program? This question comes from two basic fears that people have. 1.The uncertainty of not identifying a profitable product category to put up for sale on the Amazon platform 2. Fear of competitor saturation as too many sellers try to sell the same products Believe me; I understand where you’re coming from. If you are a complete rookie at Amazon, you experience the basic rookie mistakes. You go through the all-toocommon, and predictable learning curve that everybody cutting their teeth with Amazon has to experience. This is part of paying your dues. You might think that this is weird, but when I first started as an Amazon seller, I had the same question. I was asking myself, will I be able to find the right product to sell on Amazon or am I just going to waste my time chasing my tail looking for stuff that isn’t available? Will I be able to unload the
inventory that I bought or will other sellers in my product category edge me out of any sales? Please note that these thoughts were going through my mind in 2011. It’s funny how the more things change; the more things remain the same. If you are asking if there is still room for you in the Amazon FBA game, the answer should be obvious. The answer is yes. Why? If you think about it, the whole Amazon FBA ecosystem is actually very new. While it went through a very important growing stage, a lot of the things that work only fell into place fairly recently. Just like with any other complicated system with many moving parts, it takes some time for all the wrinkles to get ironed out. At this point, we’re just beginning to see a smooth fully running system. If you’re just getting started right now, you’re still getting in on the ground floor. I know a lot of people find that hard to believe considering how huge Amazon has become especially with their Prime program. The FBA program along with the main selling platform presents a tremendous opportunity for anybody just starting out. Here are just some of the reasons why I seriously believe that newcomers to the Amazon game still have plenty of opportunities to not only do well in the game but crush it. 1. Amazon is still fast expanding and needs new product categories You only need to look at Amazon as an online bookstore two years before the commercialization of the internet in 1996 to its rollout of other products in 1998, to its launch of today-delivery service in 2005, to opening the FBA infrastructure, to Amazon
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Amazon also has a very robust payment technology that makes the whole check-out process so smooth and effortless. Amazon is doing such a great job changing consumer behaviour that over 62% of all Americans purchase something on Amazon every single month.
seller third parties in 2006. On top of that, you have to factor in its Kindle direct publishing program. Given its pace of innovation and evolution, it’s obvious that Amazon still has room to grow. In fact, when you look at its online store and the growth of its categories, there’s still a lot of space left to move. As more categories get added in, subcategories start to appear. The only limit is market demand and your ability to create that demand through marketing. You can take advantage of fast-rising consumer trends that come and go as categories and subcategories keep up. This is only the beginning. As huge as Amazon may be currently, it’s just getting warmed up.
The amount of time separating each purchase continues to go down. Indeed, 67% of all Millennials and 56% of the preceding generation, the Gen Xers, actually prefer online shopping over mall
shopping. This is a demographic trend that is not going to reverse anytime soon. In fact, there is still a lot of room to grow as these percentages start heading closer and closer to 100% for each demographic group.
2. Buyers: willingness to purchase online continues to ramp up There’s a reason why a lot of malls are closing out all over the United States. There has been a tremendous change in consumer behaviour. People no longer look at mail order sales as something that takes too long and is too much of a hassle. Thanks to the Amazon Prime program and the todaydelivery, Amazon has become one of the most accessible and convenient ways to buy anything.
How can we be so confident? Well, when you look at American’s total budget for shopping every single month, only 36% of that budget involves online purchases. This means that there’s still a lot of space. Amazon needs your help to be able to increase this percentage to as close to 100% as possible. Third party sellers are needed to come up with the inventory to fill all the many different categories and subcategories being demanded by consumers as they move more and more to buying almost all their purchases online.
Not surprisingly, more and more people are perfectly comfortable with taking out their wallets, whipping out their credit cards, and filling out a payment form on Amazon. In fact,
3. Without third-party sales, Amazon’s total sales volume will drop by more than half
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Did you know that when Amazon opened its online sales platform to third-party sellers, it exploded their sales? It turned out that Amazon wasn’t really able to fully service the wide range of needs consumers had. When it opened its platform, sellers rushed in to provide a wide range of product variety and selection that consumers were looking for. This produced a win-win situation because Amazon was able to expand its reach while consumers became more loyal and this led to repeat sales. This also led to more consumers choosing to shop on Amazon for convenience. It all boils down to one simple synergy—Amazon is able to provide the platform, and third-party sellers are able to identify stuff to sell on Amazon. To put it simply, Amazon is dependent on third-party sellers to find inventory that Amazon itself can’t stock, find or merchandise. Interestingly enough, this all takes place in light of the fact that only
infrastructure to sell manufactured goods that still haven’t made their way to Amazon. Amazon is so dependent on third-party sellers that if Amazon decided to stop allowing third-party sellers from using its platform, over 50% of Amazon’s yearly sales would go up in smoke. That translates to billions of dollars of losses to Amazon. Obviously, they’re not going to pull the plug on this lucrative program. You can safely expect that the party will continue. 4. Amazon only recently overtook Google as consumer’s online shopping starting point Prior to 2017, people looking to buy stuff online would first start on Google. They would enter a search term for the things they wanted to buy. This is a big deal because Google was in a position to send the searcher to a wide number of websites ranging from alternative online stores, specialized online retail outfits, eBay, brand name stores, or to Amazon. This changed in 2017. Now, over 50% of people looking to buy stuff start to search for stuff to buy on Amazon. This is a tremendous competitive advantage because now, these people are not being redirected to any other online store except Amazon. This percentage continues to grow. There’s still a lot of room left for new third-party sellers because the demand continues to grow.
around 16% of global manufacturers sell directly through the Amazon platform. Putting it in another way, this leaves out around 84% of the world’s manufacturers that still can’t be found on Amazon. This is a tremendous opportunity because this is where you step in as a third party seller. You look for the stuff that is not currently on Amazon, and you use the FBA program or Amazon’s fulfillment
5 Too many of your Amazon seller competitors are still figuring out the ropes; this can be a tremendous advantage to you Looking at the competition aspect of the Amazon sales equation, things are looking up. Don’t automatically assume that since you are late to the party, then all the other people who have beat you to it somehow became Amazon sales experts. Far from it.
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In fact, when you analyze a typical Amazon listing, of 100 sellers, very few actually put in the work to compete for that item’s sale. These other players are being charged fees for Amazon to stock their inventory. The fewer sales they make, the larger their losses. New players, like yourself, only need to tweak your Amazon sales strategy so you can effectively compete for every query or search for the products you sell in your category. 6. Mobile sales continue to gain momentum It’s tempting to think that online sales have pretty much peaked considering the fact that the internet became commercialized over twenty years ago. Twenty years, after all, is a long time. Keep in mind, however, that the continued spread of the use of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets leave a lot of space for further growth. Not everybody who wants to get a mobile phone has one. There’s still room to grow in that space. The same applies to tablets. It’s obvious that there’s still a lot of room for growth as more and more people choose to use their mobile devices to do shopping and to research their prospective purchases. This is a very big trend because when people become fully comfortable with shopping primarily from mobile devices, opportunities for online sales pretty much exist around the clock. Regardless of where consumers are and the time, they are always connected to the internet, and this presents tremendous sales opportunities. 7. Amazon still continues to attract new customers It’s easy to think since Amazon is such a mature brand, it has basically reached its peak. Well, there’s only one problem with this conclusion— Amazon continues to innovate. In fact, it has made it so easy to get refunds, to return merchandise, as well as to reorder
and receive your package through todayshipping. More and more people are warming up to Amazon than in brick and mortar shopping. As more people discover how easy it is to shop on Amazon, a lot of them continue to come back again and again. In fact, an increasing number of people shop almost exclusively on Amazon. Indeed, given the fact that Amazon has trained people to expect their packages to arrive in two days, it’s getting harder and harder for other online shopping platforms to compete. When people get used to how Amazon works and its fast delivery, all other competitors begin to pale by comparison. It is no surprise that its Prime program has grown from fifty million in 2015 to past a staggering seventy million today. These numbers show no signs of slowing down. 8. Connection to QuickBooks Online or Xero Accounting for Easy Taxes
Amazon can easily connect to Quickbooks Online (Turbotax) or Xero Accounting with taxomate. taxomate is an automated cloudbased service used by Amazon merchants to import their Amazon sales and fee transactions and to post summarized transactions to Xero or QuickBooks accounting systems. Given these facts, it’s obvious that you’re still early to the show and you can still easily get in the game! With some time and hard work, you can create a business with multi-million-dollar revenue. In the end, it is up to you to start selling and get in the game!
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Too Much Stress Is Not Good For Business Owners As an entrepreneur, it is believed that you
As mentioned earlier, denying your body a
have to work extra hard so that you can be
good sleep can affect your productivity as a
an extra mile ahead of your competitors,
business owner, considering most of the
which is true. This includes waking up very
times you need to make big, risky and
early in the morning and going to bed late
sensitive decisions. Deprivation of sleep can
at night. But sometimes this can overwork
also lead to short-term memory which is
your brain and body and may reduce
not great either. Therefore, with the best
productivity that’s why you may consider a
murphy bed mattress, try to sleep and
bed mattress for extra comfort and to relax
wake up late. You may have slept late at
your body for better productivity to grow
night maybe working on a project or
your business. You need to have a sober
thinking over a decision to be made. But to
and fresh mind, so you generate fresh and
avoid stress, try as much as possible to
great ideas for your business.
wake up the next morning without an
How to relieve stress as a business
alarm. Let your body relax and wake up
owner with sleep
naturally, with a strong fresh body and a fresh mind for better productivity.
Wake up as late as you can
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Stay away from your gadgets when in bed
it’s a bad idea after a long stressful day
You get the most comfortable bed mattress
where you need a good sleep for
to get yourself a nice sleep after a long day
relaxation. Caffeine found in coffee and
at your business. But it has now become a
tea, and other stimulants regularly used
trend to be kind of addicted to check on
may keep you awake no matter how tired
your gadgets for notifications and
you are and they are not good to consume
newsfeeds, which may include smartphone,
at night. Did you also know that there are
tabs or PC. No matter how tired you are,
foods associated with digestion disorders
when you keep checking your gadgets, you
and may make your stomach feel
will not only strain your eyes and brain too
uncomfortable and you are not able to
much, but also you are depriving yourself of
have a good sleep? Avoid them for dinner,
valuable hours of sleep and stress relief.
so your body is comfortable, normal and
Hide your gadgets when you want to relax
free from any stimulants for a good sleep.
and sleep so your mind can relax and help
Practice to relax
you relieve stress. Urgent information will
Your mind controls your body. Therefore,
be sent through messaging or through
you should train your body to relax as,
calling. The rest can wait for your mind to
without that, it might be hard for you to
take a rest.
find sleep. Learn how to relax your body,
Dim your lights
starting with the toes all the way up to
It may seem like just a mere belief that
your head. There are other practices such
darkness helps with sleep, but it’s a fact. No
as deep breathing in, and out will make
matter how comfortable your bed mattress
you have a nice sleep and fall asleep
is, light prevents the release of melatonin
quickly.
hormones that are responsible for sleep,
Lastly, the most important way to relieve
hence keeping you awake. When you get
stress as a business owner is to have the
home, dim your lights and when it is time to
right bedroom conditions so you can sleep
sleep, just turn them off to have a good
comfortably. The lighting should be dim, a
long sleep. You should work under dim
peaceful and quiet relaxed room to relax
lights as early as after dusk so that your
your body. A bed mattress is great as it is
body will start to release melatonin and you
low, which is comfortable for the body and
will find it easier to fall asleep.
it will relieve your body from stress, and
Watch your diet
wake up fresh.
Coffee is a perfect drink in the morning, but
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Is Your Business Going Under? Stay Financially Afloat with These 4 Tricks By Hannah Whittenly There are lots of reasons that your business may be struggling financially. The most likely cause is that you haven’t been keeping a close eye on your bottom line. Here are some tricks to help you keep your business financially afloat.
Examine Your Expenditures Open up your books and examine your cash flow. Really understand where all of the
money is going. This is the only way that you can start to get a handle on your financial situation. You may need to consult with an accountant to get a more thorough understanding of where you stand. Break all of your expenditures down by category. The typical categories include utilities, rent, employee pay, insurance costs, marketing, and production expenditures.
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Look at Ways to Reduce Overhead Decide if there are ways that you can reduce your overhead costs. You may be able to shop around to get a lower rate on your insurance. Look at your product lines to see if they’re costing you more than the benefits that you’re receiving. It may be in your best interests to scale back on these more costly business ventures. Focus your efforts on the products and services that have the greatest return. You can always expand your business plan when you’re more financially stable.
Sell Unnecessary Equipment If you have equipment that doesn’t get used, consider selling it to generate a little bit of cash. If you have a spare industrial transformer, for example, then you could sell it to a surplus buyer. Selling off things that you aren’t using can help to reduce some of your overhead costs. These things sitting around not getting used were likely costing you money. You have to maintain them, and they might be using electricity
sitting idle. The point is to streamline your processes so that you can work towards a more secure future.
Find New Business Partnerships Look at developing new partnerships for your products and services. Offer an incentive to these other businesses to buy your products. Consider switching suppliers so that you can get a better deal on your supplies. Cut your marketing budget by switching to sources that are free or lower cost. You have to do everything that you can to save money if you want your business to keep operating. Your employees are counting on you to do the right thing. Don’t delay when it comes to taking on your financial problems with your business. This could result in you having to shut your doors before you have a chance to breakthrough in the market.
Hannah Whittenly is a freelance writer and mother of two from Sacramento, CA. She enjoys kayaking and reading books by the lake. If you do have an industrial transformer to sell that your business no longer needs, Hannah recommends looking into Solomon Corporation.
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