Archive for the ‘small business’ Category

Freelancing Your Way To A Real Business

Wednesday, April 16th, 2014

When it comes to risk versus reward, freelancing is one of those vocation choices that has the potential of offering plenty of returns without a lot of up-front resources or capital at stake. Given the right opportunities, knowing the right people, and having the right skills can turn a casual hobby into something you can actually get paid for doing.

Here’s how you can take that freelancing gig of yours and turn it into an actual, consistent business. Of course, this isn’t the last word on the subject. Aspiring self-employed types should get as much knowledge and information as possible; especially in topics like how to promote yourself, Financial Management for Freelancers, and how to file taxes as a self-employed entity (spoiler alert: it’s a bloody nightmare).

Freelancing Your Way To A Real BusinessYou can turn your hobby into a business if you have the time, talent, and opportunity

Be Prolific
The best way to get your name out there is to be productive. Whether you’re selling a product (like a craft-related item), or offering a service (such as a writer or website designer), people need to see that you can churn things out that customers want. For instance, if you’re a writer, make sure to get your name out there by writing for magazines, blogs, or anthologies. Start getting that reputation as someone who delivers results. You need to leave your footprints and handprints all over the Internet.

Be Patient
Although it’s exciting when you start getting multiple clients, you really have to pace yourself. Having six clients giving you work at the same time may look good in terms of income, but if you spread yourself too thin, you’ll deliver an inferior product, and make it likely that you won’t get repeat customers. Know your limitations, and build up your customer base slowly. Don’t try to tackle everything at once. Better to start off with three clients that get excellent work from you than ten clients who get barely passable work. This means learning to say “no”.

Be Prepared
One of the most hair-pulling and frustrating things about freelancing is the inconsistency. On any given month, a client may give you four projects or purchase a large amount of the goods you produce. The next, they may barely remember that you even exist. Be ready for the lean times by socking away some money for emergencies, to tide you over when you have a light month. Also, having that reserve will make sure you don’t get desperate, and end up taking a job far outside your area of expertise, something that could have serious repercussions on your overall reputation.

Be Organized
Many freelancers and one-person businesses end up working out of their home. While this is an awesome aspect of the job, make sure you have boundaries separating your personal and professional life. Set up times when you’re “at work”, and when you’re enjoying time off. That requires a level of planning and organization in order to adequately map out your responsibilities and how much time you devote to them. Also, make sure you have a work space that’s separate and dedicated to your job, if for no other reason than making it easier to claim it as a business expense of your income tax return.

Be Visible
Finally, make sure that people know you exist. Since you are self-employed, then shameless self-promotion is key. After all, working for yourself means that you are responsible for every stage of the job and yes, that includes marketing. Make sure you have business cards, a business page on various social media platforms, and an easy way for people to get a hold of you, whether by cell phone or email. If you have a blog, make sure to drop an occasional reference about your business (something which should already reside in the About section of your blogging site). Seriously, you need to let people know you exist and that you can write. Or draw. Or whatever it is you do.

It’s exciting and challenging when you take an avocation and turn it into a vocation. It becomes even more exciting when a part-time freelance gig turns into a full-time job. And there’s a lot of advice out there for budding entrepreneurs, so keep your eyes open.

Byline: John Terra has been a freelance writer since 1985. He’s done the full-time writing thing, but these days he supplements his freelancing with a “regular” job.

Photo Credit: justinmatthew21

Understanding the Full Potential Of E-Commerce In Nigeria

Monday, April 14th, 2014

Nigeria, now known as The Giant of Africa, was recently declared as the region’s biggest economy, surpassing South Africa. Almost overnight, Nigeria was increase by 89% its current GDP, which is now worth USD 510 billion. This follows a recalculation of the GDP to include the rising “Nollywood” industry, as well as the banking, telecoms, and e-commerce sectors.

E-commerce and online trade make up two of the biggest contributors in the increase of the nation’s GDP. Over USD 1.3 billion has been invested in the retail industry, with USD 15 million of that channelled to the online trade industry.

Retail in itself is a major driver of economic and employment growth. With over 80 million Nigerians residing in metropolitan areas, the country has great opportunities for existing and new investors to take advantage of the online retail business.  A report from the Oxford Business Group indicates that foreign and local investors are already expanding their domestic retail footprints in the country.

Nigeria’s population alone makes the country the largest consumer market in Africa. With the introduction of more Internet providers and the availability of mobile devices in the country, e-commerce businesses in Nigeria can easily reach their full potential, if business owners know how to take advantage of the ripe market.

One of the biggest hurdles to e-commerce in Nigeria, however, is online accessibility. Despite the increase of mobile telecoms, broadband capacity still isn’t widely accessible. In 2012, only 32.9% of the Nigerian population has Internet, despite the increase of Internet service providers in 2013. Most of the population can access the Internet via their mobile phones though, thanks to the introduction of GPRS and EDGE connectivity.

Nigerian E-commerce

E-Commerce in Nigeria on the Rise

Despite this, a handful e-commerce companies have won significant investments and are now considered rising stars in the online trade business. Jumia, an online retailer that began only with three employees in 2012, currently has USD 35 million in investments, over 150 partner brands, and more than 500 employees. The company was awarded as Best New Retail Launch in 2013 by the World Retail Awards, proving that e-commerce in Nigeria can be profitable and successful.

Similarly, Konga is another Nigerian e-commerce and online retail company, which has won investments of more than USD 24 million. Launched in 2012, Konga is currently the 16th most popular website in the country, according to Alexa.com.  HumanIPO also selected Konga as one of the African technology start-ups of 2013 due to its impressive and consistent service. Konga also recently launched a buy-and-sell platform where users can set up an online storefront with Konga.

Thanks partly to the success of these two e-commerce sites, online trade and retail in Nigeria maintains a positive outlook. Online retailers have been luring shoppers from physical stores, offering convenience and a greater variety of products offered. Online retail customers have the option to pay for their items on delivery, or through online payments via credit cards.

Analysts are actually optimistic that the upward trajectory in online retail will continue to rise, as more Nigerians start to see that local online shopping will be faster, more convenient, and cheaper. Add to the fact that more and more people are connecting to the Internet via their mobile phones and tablets, the dot com business is a viable way to profit in Nigeria.

Plans are also already underway to improve and increase Internet and broadband connectivity in the country. More accessible Internet access can pave the way for other online businesses aside from e-commerce—banking, services that offer online credit card comparison, affiliate blogs, consultancy blogs, and so on—to enjoy better opportunities for not only for business owners and investors, but also for local consumers.

Nigeria is still a developing country, despite the increase in its national GDP. With the proper investments both offline and online, and a consistency in government efforts to improve infrastructure, Nigeria is well on its way to joining the exclusive club of emerging economies in the world.

Author’s Bio

Ryan Del Villlar is a content strategist for MoneyHero. He is also a freelance writer for an Online Reputation Management company. He writes ORM articles for various clients.

Finding The Best Hashtag To Use On Twitter

Thursday, February 27th, 2014

Twitter is that beloved social media platform that asks you to sum up your thoughts in 140 characters or less. It forces you to keep the message short and sweet, and arguably stimulate your creativity. And when it comes to creativity, hashtags are in a class all by themselves. After all, if you want people to click on the hashtag and follow, you need to make it interesting enough. Read on …

What The Heck Is A Hashtag?
A hashtag is a metadata tag that lets people search for and label social media updates. If enough people follow and promote it, the hashtag can trend, which means more people follow it. A hashtag can also be used as a means of describing a particular promotion or deal.
HashtagWould this be hashtag hash? – (Photo Credit: powerplantop)

Hashtag construction is simple and straight-forward; it’s a pound sign followed by characters. So for instance, #hashtagsrule could direct people to a discussion on your website about how awesome hashtags are. Using it in a tweet could look like this: “We have some great ideas about using hashtags! #hashtags rule”.

Getting The Most Use Out Of Hashtags
Okay, so now you know what a hashtag is, but how to put it to the best use?

You can use a hashtag for your own branding purpose. For instance, Ed Young Jr Ministries uses #hecknology as their hashtag and their brand. Make the hashtag unique to your brand. You should do a search for it on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, Instagram, and Pinterest, to see if anyone else is using it. If possible, keep the hashtag short and sweet (easier for people to remember and spell!). If your hashtag pertains to a particular campaign, then make sure the names complement each other. If your bar decided that instead of holding a Happy Hour from 4 to 6, you’d have a Crappy Hour from 2 to 4, you could do #crappyhour2to4.

Just in case you think that hashtags are all branding and trending, let’s bring up the concept of content hashtags. These hashtags point to content that helps to raise exposure of your business and improve SEO. For instance, if you run a hobby shop, your tweet may have hashtags that reference content on #modelwarships, #electrictrains, or #noroyarn.

There are no restrictions or guidelines in using hashtags over and over, but still, try not to overuse them; too much of a good thing, and all that. When you’re tweeting on Twitter, don’t exceed three hashtags. Furthermore, try to stay relevant to the topic at hand. Check out popular keywords and try to create hashtags based on them, but don’t ride the coattails of other trends; start your own!

And finally, avail yourself of some nifty tools, and speaking of which …

Tools You Can Use
… it just so happens tools are being discussed right here. Wow, you’d think this was planned somehow! Here are some cool tools for making better hashtags.

Hashtags.org- This free service shows what hashtags have been trending over the last 24 hours. Any heavy duty function like storing or monitoring hashtags will cost you.

What The Trend- This Hootsuite-owned resource lets you see global trends based on nation and city data. You can even track individual hashtags as streams in Hootsuite. The global trend tracking can be done either daily or monthly. While What The Trend is free, Hootsuite Pro has a monthly fee (though their basic service is free, and has fewer functions).

Trendsmap- This site visualizes the local use of hashtags and places them on a world map. This enables you to see trends by city, country, or even continent. If you own a local business, this tool is just right for you. There’s Free, Basic, and Plus levels of membership, each granting more functions. The Free level really just gives you the bare minimum, and is not meant for heavy use anyway.

All in all, hashtags help people find you online, alerting customers to a business that they otherwise may not have known about. Keep your hashtags informative, don’t overdose on them, and use trend-spotting tools to get some idea of what topics to link up with. Learn from others’ mistakes, and you’ll remain competitive. Good luck!

Byline: John Terra has been a freelance writer since 1985. He writes about everything from SEO strategies to home maintenance, and everything in between.

8 Points That Could Save a Start-Up from Messing Up

Thursday, February 20th, 2014

This article is built on the experiences of entrepreneurs who had fallen flat on their faces while trying to manage and host their start-up ventures.

We think of a mind-boggling business idea and expect it to spark up as soon as we prepare a proposal. Well, it never works that way. However good or bad an idea is, there are certain steps that need to be followed.

Before putting your idea into a set of plans and procedures on paper, here are a few things that need to be understood.

Business Startup

Business Startup

Is my idea functional?

Before getting caught in the excitement of your brilliant idea, spare a thought: can the idea be put into execution?

The concept needs to be grounded in bigger ideas for you to be able to sell it. Don’t tangle up too many ideas, focus on one at a time, and build different techniques to make them happen.

The objective here is to make sure that your idea can be pinned down to work out for the market.

Scoring funds isn’t easy

Take my word; capital will not come to you effortlessly.

You may have to pitch time and again to win investors to your side. Pitching is extremely significant. The dumbest idea can pass if the pitch is awesome.

Do thorough researches, take your time to prepare each slide to be presented, and propagate how unique your business proposition is.

If you feel it is taking too long to get funds and time is running out, pitch in your investments. It can help your business, and play the credibility factor when pitching to investors at the same time.

Be prepared to touch the highs and lows

The business is not going to flourish as soon as you start. It will take time to accomplish each milestone.

Additionally, it is important for you to be prepared in case the plan doesn’t work. Amend your strategies, be focused and push your organization to reach the targets.

If every move is drawing the results you desired, you can go for that extra mile to make your business better. But don’t be too hard on yourself or your employees.

Hire carefully and appreciate candidly

Only a good team, which believes and backs your idea, can let you take over the market.

Hence, hiring is going to be a challenging job for you. Ideally, your team should have skilled professionals, men and women with industry experience and members who have prior understanding of successfully managing a start-up.

Employees at every level need guidance, assurance and motivation, which are to come from you, the person who leads. A lot of effort is taken to build a start-up, so don’t miss out on appreciating employee efforts.

Work individually, but work more as a team

Needless to say, your team is vital to the success of your business.

The objective of the business can be reached faster and smoother if you are held together as a team. Organizational growth comes through sheer team work, and hence it is important to keep your employees as content as your investors.

Hear out the needs of the employees, provide them with adequate requirements and channelize them to use the limited resources available.

Bring the focus to limelight

With a considerable amount of work being allotted daily, it is easy to get carried away and slip into a whirlpool of confusions and heated exchanges.

It is definitely better to acquaint each team with the other ones, mainly to have them understand where they are heading in the middle of a mission. As a leader, you should take up the responsibility of constantly reminding (of course not nagging) them about the objectives of the business.

Time is precious – start acting!

When you are done with thinking and researching, the next step is to start acting, whichever small way possible.

It takes quite some time to build the brand; the earlier the better. You don’t need to wait for investors to fund in order to start your business. Begin with limited costs and resources.

Build networks and relationships

Bond with everyone – investors, employees, suppliers and stakeholders.

Start-ups usually tend to make mistakes or face hurdles frequently. Be it with resources, technology or monetary issues, it doesn’t matter. Building reliable relationships can actually help your company cope with such setbacks.

Most of these tips might have passed your thoughts, but it’s easy to forget them. To keep it simple, make a journal of everything that you did and things you have to do.

Your start-up can go terribly wrong if you don’t have these pointers on your mind. These are simple steps. Without them, you will end up pushing costs too high and fail to impress.

Author bio:-

Matt Davis a partner at Empire commercial Finance, a firm specializing in business mortgage Chester seeking to serve client of UK with ease.  A company with expert professional commercial finance brokers providing financial support for all start-up business 

Entrepreneurs: Build Your Brand, Build Your Opportunities

Monday, June 17th, 2013

“Business is as old as life,” says author and entrepreneur Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha, “there is no living being that does not have a business.” Business may be as old as life, but many of us get so caught up perfecting new technology, we forget life’s business basics.

According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), a whopping 59 percent of us believe that the most credible purchase recommendations come from face-to-face, or voice-to-voice interactions. What does this mean for you? If you’re not armed with tangible brand collateral, confidence and a pitch that resonates, you’re missing invaluable opportunities for success.

Invest in Affordable Tools of the Trade

Whether you’re the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, or you’re trying to get your handmade furniture business off the ground, your business card should be an extension of your hand. Prescott Perez-Fox of Starship design likens your business card to an artifact that everyone you meet can remember you by. A properly designed and distributed card can be the thing that signs your biggest clients. Kyle Laser of Laser printing tells businessinsider.com that he modeled his company’s business card after a Google search result, and he estimates that 10 of his largest clients were signed because of the card alone. The printing business is competitive, and many companies offer unique reasons to print with them: Printing for Less business cards are produced in a tri-certified green way, allowing you to feel good about your mark on the environment.

Be Your Brand: Make an Impression

A study published by “Psychology Today” reveals that more than 80 percent of communication is conveyed through non-verbal means like body language and tone. And, according to businessinsider.com, 55 percent of someone’s opinion of you is based on your overall appearance. What does this mean for your brand and business? You wield the most power in person, so take advantage of it.

  • Clothing: You don’t need to be clad in Gucci from head-to-toe, nor should you be sporting a wrinkled T-shirt from your college water polo days. Conservative clothing diminishes the chance of anyone being turned off.
  • Eye contact and body language: Posture, eye contact and a strong handshake have the ability to poise you as a titan of industry or a nervous wreck. Sit up straight, look your potential clients in the eyes, and you’ve nailed most of their expectations.
  • Tone: Remember that 38 percent of someone’s opinion is based on tone, so find one that resonates. Businessinsider.com recommends you come across as a calm blend of enthusiastic, humble, secure and determined.

Master the Word-of-Mouth Pitch

Face-to-face, or voice recommendations are the most powerful tools for your business, but how do the numbers translate? According to WOMMA, 54 percent (the largest piece of the pie) of purchasing decisions are a direct result of word of mouth. Good-old-fashioned conversation is one of your strongest allies in the business world. In our economy, a good elevator pitch or introduction can seal any deal. An elevator pitch is as much as a science as it is an artform, and if you haven’t perfected yours yet, now is the time. Entrepreneur.com’s Barbara Findlay Schenck breaks down the art and the science of the perfect pitch:

  • Take five words to describe yourself, preferably less
  • Say exactly what you do in one sentence
  • Explain who your target market is
  • Paint a picture of your vision
  • Practice until your voice is horse
  • Now, reduce the whole thing to less than 20 words

Your business might be new, and your online presence might be tailored to perfection, but every business transaction has value. Every new encounter you make has potential. Be ready with the right collateral, poise and pitch, and you can take on the world.