Telephone marketing (telemarketing) is still very much relevant in today’s marketing world. If you want to generate leads for your business, consider using this approach. In this article, we help you with some ideas on how to implement a successful telemarketing lead generation.

What is Telemarketing Lead Generation?

It is the process of generating leads via the telephone. These leads could be a list of interested persons in a product or service.

In a world where paid adverts on platforms like Facebook and Google AdWords is common; it is interesting to have a different way around it.

When done the right way, lead generation through telemarketing can be one of the major sources of promoting your business.

Telemarketing Lead Generation is the process of generating leads (example, list of interested persons in a product or service) via the telephone.

How to Do Telemarketing Lead Generation

If your business has considered cold-calling, then these tips will come in handy.

1. It Starts with Picking the Telephone – and Making Lots of Calls

Telemarketing is basically “marketing over the phone,” which is why constant calls are required. Of course, there are a couple of best practices to follow to get the desired results – or something close to that:

• Gauge the Calls: you need to be intentional with the number of calls to make. Of course, you wouldn’t make repeat calls to the same person or company within a short period. Other best practices are choosing a desired timeframe to make the calls and deciding how long the calls will take.
• Assertiveness: you or your rep must be assertive with what you want, which is to generate leads.
• Scriptwriting before Calling: prepare a script that serves as a guide during the call. This also keeps you in check not to make mistakes when cold-calling.
• Be Clear: this goes both ways – you must be straightforward about the reason for the calls and clear with your answers to the questions the other parties ask.

2. Your Opening Line Shouldn’t be a “Bore”

Some opening statements are predictable and boring. The moment the “called parties” realizes this, the interest fades and they will only be waiting for you to finish to give an affirmative “NO.”

To avoid this from happening, here is how to keep your opening statements friendly, yet conversational:

• Always ask the permission of the decision-makers to go ahead with your pitch.
• Offer valuable resources and pieces of information to the decision-makers. This makes you less of a “leech” and more of a valuable person looking out for them.
• Even if you had a prepared script, don’t sound like you are reading it verbatim. Sound natural and occasionally take a few words out of the script.
• Always make the opening statements “tailored” – targeted specifically to the person you called. You don’t want to sound random, as that shows you didn’t do your research – which is a huge turnoff.

3. Telemarketing Requires a Lot of Questions

As to be expected, the person you called will ask a lot of questions, ranging from how you got the contact to how valuable your offer is. Likewise, you need to ask a lot of questions to help make an informed decision.

These questions range from:

• Open-Ended vs. Close-Ended Question Formats: which of these two should you use? It is common to use the open-ended question format due to the fact that it allows the responders to give a detailed response. This is better than the traditional “Yes” and “No” response obtained using the close-ended question format.
• Use Tailored Questions at All Times: make in-depth research on the target audience or responders before cold-calling. This saves the embarrassment of asking questions that they would find irrelevant.
• Prepare the Questions: always prepare the questions beforehand. This saves you the pain of having to come up with questions “on the spur of the moment.”

4. Make Your Research Properly

The fact that the fusion of telemarketing and lead generation can be profitable doesn’t rule out the importance of market research.

Cold-calling takes a lot of effort and you want to pull it off the best way possible. Market research and a background check on your target audience help.

You want to consider these factors when doing the research:

• Separate Need from Want: the target audience may “want” your business’ services, products, or solutions – but they don’t “need” the same. A separation of what they desire the most from what they wish for matters a lot. For the best results, go for the target audience that has a need for your service. When on a call with them, also pay attention to the response they give and the descriptions that come with that. It should help you determine if they really need what your business offers.
• Go for the Decision-Makers: speaking to the decision-makers during the B2B telemarketing lead generation call provides better results than speaking to a random member of staff. Conversing with the decision-makers with the right pitch increases the chances of converting the lead because they have the powers to accent to your request or not.

5. Telemarketing “Calls” for Appropriate Preparation

No soldier goes to the battlefield unprepared. Likewise, no telemarketer should start cold-calling without having a telephone – and adequate preparations.

Here is how to prepare beforehand:

• Create the “Best” Scripts: while some scripts wouldn’t live up to expectations, there are still creative ways to get the “best” scripts for telemarketing. These strategies include: keeping the lines simple, conversational and detailed.
• Fine-Tune the Scripts: always make important changes to the script. You want to jot down some ideas picked up from previous calls and don’t hesitate to ask professionals to review the scripts for you.
• Reps’ Evaluation: the reps in charge of the telecalls should also be coached and given routine guidelines to keep them at their best performance.

Conclusion

Telemarketing, when done rightly, can help your business generate more leads and quality ones at that. Keep the calls conversational, speak with confidence, go straight to the point, and don’t forget to make important suggestions.

Last but not least – reporting is important. After every call session, use the obtained data/feedback to evaluate your performance or that of your reps and take note of where improvements are needed.

The post Tips on Using Telemarketing Lead Generation for Your Business appeared first on SME SCOOP.

Personal development is an ongoing process and is not restricted to a particular gender. Today, you can find lots of self-help books on the shelves of bookstores and online. If you are a woman looking to get better at what you do, then reading some of the best personal development books for women is a sure way to get started.

In this article, you will find out some of the top personal development books recommended for ambitious ladies.

1. “The Untamed” – Glennon Doyle

Women live in a world where they are occasionally conditioned or stereotyped to a particular role. In today’s world, women can be a lot more and this is why Glennon Doyle wrote the self-help book titled, “The Untamed.”

Here are the key points in the book:

• It encourages women to “break out of the box” and from the things they have been stereotyped into.
• The book also motivates women to go the extra mile to fulfill their goals in life.
• For women who find happiness only from others; this book is a good teacher of making oneself happy.

2. “You are a Badass” –Jen Sincero

You are what you say you are. If you think yourself to be way below others; then that is what you are.

The personal development book, You are a Badass is dedicated to women who feel less of themselves.

The lessons in the book include:

• Helping you figure out what to make of your life.
• Discarding other people’s opinions of what – and what you do.
• How to grow your confidence and comfortably express it when required.
• How to scale through some of the society-laden burdens that most women tend to face.

3. “Atomic Habits” – James Clear

Some attitudes are worth “purging”. Do you find yourself exhibiting a character that reeks of ignorance and disgust for others? It is time to stop!

Atomic Habits by James Clear is one of the best personal development books for women as it teaches the importance of dropping bad habits and adopting new, better ones.

4. “Girl, Stop Apologizing”– Rachel Hollis

Do women often find themselves apologizing when they ought to have been apologized to? Yes! And it has to stop.

This personal development book by Rachel Hollis titled Girl, Stop Apologizing, teaches you how to do the things you wanted to and quit thinking about what every other person thinks of you.

5. “The 5 Love Languages” – Gary Chapman

Love languages are not entirely spoken words. Sometimes, they take the form of physical affection and gifting.

If you are unsure of the actions and expressions that trigger that adrenaline rush for your loved ones; read The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman to gain clarity.

6. “How to Be a Bawse” – Lilly Singh

Being a boss or in a higher position of authority doesn’t always translate to treating others in a bad way. The book How to Be a Bawse (boss) is a guide on how to be a good leader.

From this book, you will learn important lessons, such as how to take challenges as they come, ideal ways to treat others and how to beat the temptations that come your way.

Related: How to be a Good Public Speaker

7. “How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen” – Joanna Faber & Julie King

For some mothers, childcare poses a problem. You don’t know whether shouting at the top of your voice is the best way to correct these kids when they do wrong.

Pick up the book, How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen to learn new parenting skills that will make you a better parent – and one that kids listen to.

8. “Girl, Wash Your Face” – Rachel Hollis

This is another Rachel Hollis book. It is a motivational book designed to help women suffering from doubts.

This book will help you break away from the shackles of looking down on yourself and aiding you through the path of building back your self-confidence.

9. “Self-Love Workbook for Women” – Megan Logan

The fact that this book was written by a psychologist makes it more interesting. Megan Logan uses this book to teach the following:

• Inspire women to treat themselves right. They need to love themselves before anyone else can.
• How to build confidence and;
• Taking you down the memory lane to recall some of the enjoyable moments you’ve had.

10. “Everything is Figureoutable” – Marie Forleo

There is no doubt that we hit “brick walls” at different points in our lives. What really matters is the step we take after those setbacks. For some, it is the “end of the road” while to others, it is a motivating factor to make a comeback.

Marie Forleo’s Everything is Figureoutable inspires women to tackle their disappointments and stage a comeback after setbacks.

11. “Set Boundaries, Find Peace” – NedraGlover Tawwab

If there were no borders, then citizens of other countries will trespass into the neighboring countries. The presence of borders keeps all these things in check and creates room for struct regulations.

Likewise, you can control most of your lifestyle and related activities if you set boundaries. This is what this book teaches you:

• How to develop a solid, working principle and stick to it.
• How to reset your earlier perceptions of setting boundaries.
• The best ways to cut off the toxic people in your life.

12. “The Self Care Prescription” – Robyn Gobin

This book made it to the list of the top personal development books for women because of the inherent lessons.

The Self Care Prescription is a guide for women looking to take care of themselves, but don’t know how to.

From this book, you will learn:

• How to reduce anxiety.
• Tips on increasing your general well-being.
• Tips on coping with stress.

13. “The Confidence Code” – Katty Kay & Claire Shipman

This book helps women to regain their self-esteem, develop confident habits and have a general mindset conditioning to start seeing things like “winners” and not “losers.”

Conclusion

There are a hundred and one books for women’s personal development out there, but the ones covered in this article are some of the best picks. After reading these books and applying the lessons therein, you will get better at taking care of yourself, breaking through barriers and stereotypes, boosting your self-confidence, and looking out for others’ wellbeing.

The post Top 13 Personal Development Books for Women appeared first on SME SCOOP.

ChatGPT is a variant of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT); a language-based generation model used to come up with natural language texts. The model is powered by Machine Learning (ML) and developed by OpenAI.

Today, ChatGPT can be used for a variety of purposes, ranging from writing blog posts to creating a business plan. If you are looking to start a new business, it is also possible that ChatGPT can help you.

How Does ChatGPT Work?

It works by using Machine Learning (ML) to generate natural language texts. ChatGPT also works with prompts – specific words that can be decoded to give the desired outputs in natural language texts.

If you must get any ChatGPT business idea, then using the right prompts is your go-to. Continue reading to find out how to use ChatGPT to start and grow a business.

Create a ChatGPT Account

The first step is to create an account at chat.openai.com. This gives you access to the users’ backend for creating your business idea.

You can also upgrade to the premium version of ChatGPT to get access to more tools.

Learn How ChatGPT Works

The platform thrives on prompts and you need to be detailed as possible. With the right prompts, ChatGPT will generate a ton of business ideas for you.

Here are a couple of ChatGPT prompts to start a business:

“Fashion business ideas” – this prompt allows ChatGPT to generate business ideas in the fashion niche. It is ideal if you are looking to start a fashion brand or any other fashion or clothing-related business.

“Generate 50 business ideas to start in America” – this ChatGPT prompt is ideal if you are looking to start a business in the United States. Unlike the former, it is not detailed or focused on a particular industry. So, you are requesting the platform to suggest up to 50 businesses you could establish in the United States of America.

“Small business ideas for college students in the USA?” – while this ChatGPT prompt is asking the machine to state small business ideas college students in the USA can venture into. This is basically for college students looking for profitable business ideas they can start with little capital to support their education.

“What are the less-competitive transportation business ideas with high returns?” – this prompt is you asking ChatGPT to suggest the untapped markets in transportation. These markets or niches also need to be profitable, especially within the shorter timeframe.

What to do with the Business Ideas?

With the business ideas generated, you now need to flesh-out the details. Of course, ChatGPT thrives on giving outputs based on what you used as a prompt.

The business ideas are now subject to further optimizations. You can do this manually by making further research about the different ideas and see the viability at the time.

1. Integrating ChatGPT into Your Business Expansion

You can also use ChatGPT to accelerate the growth of your business. From generating more ideas on how to improve the business’ activities to searching for additional pieces of information – the usage can be very impactful.

Here are some ways that the integration of ChatGPT can help boost your business:

• ChatGPT can serve as your business’ automated virtual assistant. Thanks to the Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities, it can decode real-life/human-like communications and respond in the same format.
• Use it for speech synthesis, especially with regard to voicing instructions.
• Just as it aids faster information lookup, ChatGPT also aids in summarization. With the right prompts, you can use it to get a summarized version of lengthy texts, with an emphasis on the main points.
• Thanks to the NLP optimization, ChatGPT can be a veritable tool for translation. It can write upto 20 languages, such as English, German and Spanish.
• A business that integrates ChatGPT benefits from the text parsing This has to do with ChatGPT’s ability to recognize specific patterns in a text, as well as obtaining the relevant information/data from the same.

2. Use ChatGPT for Lead Generation

Generating leads takes a lot of time and you will spend more money hiring professionals to handle that aspect. Why not outsource that to ChatGPT and save some costs?

Here’s how to leverage it:

• Use ChatGPT to create a chatbot.
• Configure the chatbot and integrate it into your business’ website.
• The chatbot can perform a wide range of tasks, such as obtaining customers’/visitors’ data (email addresses and telephone numbers).

3. Use ChatGPT for Email Marketing

Are you unsure of the best subject lines to use and what the content of the emails will be? You could make a simple query on ChatGPT and get the emails written for you.

You could use any of these prompts:

• Write me a professional email of less than 300 words. The email should be about our new product that automates transactions for SMEs.
• Write a 500-word email encouraging the email recipients to suggest better ways to improve our services as a software development company.

4. Use ChatGPT to Write a Business Plan

Looking to get additional funding for your business? ChatGPT could help you do that! With the right prompts, it will write a detailed business plan for your brand.

Here are some ChatGPT prompts to use:

• Write a 2,000-word business plan for a food delivery company looking to generate an additional $40,000 to expand to the states of Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas. We are willing to offer the investors a stake in the company.
• Write a business plan in a professional tone, detailing how our software development has gained traction in the last 3 years of establishment. We currently have 14 clients and are looking to expand into new markets; hence, the new funding rounds we are seeking to raise the sum of $60,000.

5. Use ChatGPT for Informational Purposes

Turn ChatGPT to your favorite “newsman.” Find out the important details that make your business stand out from the crowd.

ChatGPT can be helpful in these ways:

• Use it to get insights into the possibility of breaking into newer markets – and what must be done.
• Ask ChatGPT to suggest how best you can position your brand to gain receptibility in a new location.
• You can also use it to find out some of the popular terms that prospective customers are likely to use when looking up the type of product or service your business offers.

6. Chat GPT Helps in Improving the Customer Experience

You can use ChatGPT to build chatbots that automate responses and aid the customers faster, as well as personalize your marketing strategies.

For personalization, ask for suggestions on how to set the tone of a conversational email.

Use ChatGPT to improve customers’ experience in the following ways:

• Use it to create a chatbot that answers some of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about your business.
• Use the bot to come up with creative ideas for your next social media content.

Final Words

ChatGPT by OpenAI is now a business tool in the hands of tool-centric business owners. The bot can do much more than create textual content. You can use it to create chatbots, get accurate software development codes, and personalize your business’ marketing strategies.

The post How to Use ChatGPT to Start & Grow a Business appeared first on SME SCOOP.

The CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and most recently Twitter, Elon Musk is not just known for his financial acumen and the business leadership he has exhibited to lead the aforementioned and other companies. He is also known for his vocality in giving ideas to up-and-coming entrepreneurs.

In this article, we present to you some of the top Elon Musk business tips. We hope these tips help you re-evaluate your small business operations and see ways to improve.

1. Persistence and Preparedness to Work

It is not uncommon for business owners to “sit back and let others do the work.” That doesn’t appear to be one of the items in Elon Musk’s playbook. He believes that business owners, particularly those looking to build a global brand should be ready to “put in the work,” as much as they have employees.

In some of the interview clips posted on YouTube, Elon Musk has been quoted as saying he slept a couple of times in the Tesla factory to motivate the workers. But beyond inspiring the feeling of his being there, he also does the actual work.

He encourages business owners to:

• Be prepared to work harder and add more work time. For example, he opines that someone that adds more hours to the work-life might have a considerable edge over someone that has less, simply because more hours equal more aspects of the business’ expansion to cover.
• Persistence is an important factor and must be taken as a mindset. Even after failing at some of the businesses that he started and co-founded, Elon Musk kept persisting until he did something great with the likes of SpaceX, Tesla and The Boring Company.

2. Building a Great Team Takes Time and Requires Excellent Decision-Making

Some business owners treat their businesses with kid gloves, especially when they leave the vision of the company out of the equation. Elon Musk believes that every team member or employee of a company should understand the company’s vision. That would help smoothen out any contrary opinions they may have.

However, Elon Musk also believes that people should be allowed to make their decisions. If the employees are not willing to see the company’s perspective of things and take steps to help bring the vision to life, it may be worth it to show them the door.

3. Communicate More

The statement “no man is an island” is one of the beliefs Elon Musk holds dear. He believes in continuous learning, which is why he encourages every businessperson to talk to people.

Doing this does not just help these persons break boundaries and learn new things, but also serves as a medium to boost communication patterns.

4. Contribute more to Society

No doubt, one of the major reasons for floating a business is to make profits. However, it is important that you create a social welfare program through which your company can give back to society. You can map out a certain percentage of your earning for Cooperate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Elon Musk thinks it is wise for people to make more positive contributions to society.

When you look around, you are bound to see some places where your help or input would be greatly appreciated. It could be by constructing drainage systems in poor neighborhoods, hosting community events or any other genuine gesture of goodwill.

Related: Sacrificial Giving and Its Benefits

5. Be Useful to the Society

Contributing to the society and being useful to it appear to be the same sides of the coin, but they have a thin line of difference. While the former has to do with contributing to the society more than one consumes, the latter has to do with doing the things that will make remarkable impacts in the society.

In his words, he says “do things that are useful to your fellow human beings, to the world.”

6. Life isn’t about Money

For a billionaire of Forbes’ recognition, a CEO of leading companies and a notable figure in the world, saying that “money isn’t everything” appears to be a statement that should be taken with a pinch of salt.

But Elon Musk seems to share a similar view as Bill Gates, the CEO of Microsoft. Both men have a view that money should be put to good use, to help people and push for charitable causes. That is perhaps one of the motivating factors for Bill Gates’ heavy investments in healthcare and scholarships.

For Elon Musk, investing in healthcare is not his immediate concern. He hasn’t hidden his love for Mars and continually talks about exploring that space. Mr. Musk plans on spending a huge chunk of his fortune to build something remarkable on Mars, perhaps, a new habitat for people to live in. The techprenuer once donated Telsa shares worth $1.95bn to charity.

7. Taking Risks is a Must

The business ecosystem is war-like, with many brands trying to outshine the others and knock them out of business. This tends to cause cold feet for some entrepreneurs who lack the guts to play in such systems.

For these persons, Elon Muskhas the following words for them, “everyone’s trying to optimize their ass-covering” due tothe “tremendous bias against taking risks.”

Elon Musk opines that risk-taking is an important element in running a business and should not be shied away from.

Related: How to Know If You Are Meant to Be An Entrepreneur

8. Interviewing is an Important Decision-Making Process for Hiring Employees

Elon Musk believes that getting applications for open roles in any of his companies is just the simplest part. The hardest part is getting the right candidates. For this, he believes that asking “meaty questions” during the interviewing process can make all the difference.

He has been quoted as saying the following, “Tell me the story of your life and the decisions that you made along the way and why you made them. And also tell me about some of the things you worked on and how you solved them.” This question is aimed at helping him pick the candidates that are a better fit for the job.

When asked why he does this, he says that “People that really solved the problem, they know exactly how they solved it — they know the little details.”

Related: 5 Marketing Lessons Business Owners Can Learn From Elon Musk

Final Thoughts

The best business ideas and strategies are better learned from the businesspeople that have excelled in that area. The Elon Musk business tips in this article are a few from the exhaustive list of techniques the CEO has talked about in different interviews.

The other business tips from Mr. Musk include having a vision for the business, being passionate about what you do and ignoring critics.

The post Top 8 Elon Musk Business Tips appeared first on SME SCOOP.

However, how you create your content and the strategies you apply will determine if your content marketing strategy will work or not. This brings us to the difference between content marketing and content strategy. They may be different concepts of creating content, but they depend on one another. In this article, we reveal the core differences between the two and the relevance of each.

What is Content Marketing?

It is simply the process of using content to promote a brand, create awareness about the service or encourage the target audience to use the brand’s service.

Content marketing is also a summation of the processes involved in creating and promoting a content.

What is Content Strategy?

Successful brands have a laid-out plan on how to keep the audience engaged and it all has to do with the buzzword –strategy.

Putting it simply, content strategy refers to the planning, development and implementation of a process of pushing out new content.

The strategy needs to be brand-centric, solve a particular challenge and have a defined, expected outcome or result. Usually, brands hire professional content strategists to help them come up with a better content strategy.

When Content Marketing and Content Strategy become Confusing

Many people confuse or interchange content marketing for content strategy and vice-versa. On the contrary, they are different concepts geared towards improving the reception of the content by the time it is released.

The confusion is whether content marketing cannot pass off for content strategy and that is not how it is done. It is pertinent to mention that marketing a content only happens after the strategies have been put in place.

The Differences between Content Marketing and Content Strategy

Below are the core differences that separate content marketing from content strategy:

1. Backstage vs. Reality

This is the core difference between the two. We refer to content strategy as the “backstage” because that is where the major planning takes place. With the plans that are drafted therein, it becomes easier to come up with the best content to put out there.

On the other hand, a content cannot be developed or launched except it has been created. For the creation to take place, it must have been strategized on and a definite process decided on.

Thus, the strategic planning of the content takes place “backstage” and the outcome of that planning/strategizing is what we see in “reality.”

2. The Research Approach Differs

It is important to point out that the research approach is one fundamental difference between content marketing and content strategy.

How do you plan for the content you put out for your brand? Do you come up with content ideas offhand or do you follow the trends?

In terms of content strategy, certain research approaches apply. The following are some examples:

• Content strategists tend to work with the information available at the time. They do more of research-driven strategies to help uncover some of the content aspects to cover.
• Content strategies also lean towards researching what the target audience really wants. The type of content they appreciate will be factored in. For example, some target audiences prefer videos to written content.

On the other hand, content marketers deal more with the marketing tactics to deploy to get the best results. For example, the tactics could include creating video trailers for the content, making infographics or doing series of live streams.

3. The Goal

The goal or outcome of the content matters a lot. Content that doesn’t have a predefined goal or expected outcome might not get the kind of publicity it needs.

First, the content marketers come up with unique angles for the goals for the strategist to expunge on that. Does the content aim at passing specific information? Does it propose a solution to a problem?

The work of the content marketers is to come up with the problem statement. This typically includes the existing lacunas, the type of message to embed in the content and the different content format suggestions for the platforms it is to be shared on.

With this information, the content strategy team takes over creating unique angles for sharing the solutions to the pinpointed problems, shaping the messages to fit into the yearnings of the target audiences and suggesting solutions to the problems.

The Importance of Content Marketing

If you are to prioritize content marketing, what should be the motivating factors? Below are some of the reasons why it is important:

Value Delivery

By marketing the content, you will be sharing the information that has been planned for the target audiences. It is imperative to also mention that the content should be valuable, as you don’t want to bore the content consumers/target audiences.

Content Optimization

After the promotion/marketing of the content comes the evaluation. For example, if you created a video content and shared it on platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, you need to check the engagements.

Check the following:

• Comments: what type of comments are coming in? Are they positive or negative?
• Video Views: how many minutes of airplay did the video get? How many persons viewed it (an estimate)?
• Shares: how many times was the video shared?

By checking and putting the above metrics into perspective, you should be able to decide if the video content measured up to the expectations or if there is a need to reoptimize it for better results.

Benefits of having a Content Strategy

Having a content strategy can help you in the following ways:

Traffic Generation

You can generate quality leads and close them in the future when promoting a product or marketing a service.

By strategizing on the best type of content to share, it is easier to come up with ideas on how best to get these leads.

Content Assessment

The task of assessing the outcome of the content is not limited to the content marketing team. The content strategists also have a role to play in the sense that they help to use the engagements in the current content to determine the best format types to create going forward.

Conclusion

Content marketing and content strategy are two different concepts that help improve the relevance of a content, boost the reception/acceptance of the same and increase the conversion rates of sales.

The post Difference Between Content Marketing and Content Strategy appeared first on SME SCOOP.

As a cryptocurrency investor, you are looking to maximize as much profit as you can. We, therefore, made a list of the top seven (7) cryptocurrency exchanges with the lowest trading fees.

What is Cryptocurrency Trading Fee?

It is the specific amount of money traders pay for their orders to be executed. It is expedient to mention that the trading fee differs by the volume of the orders and other factors.

Ideally, the cryptocurrency exchange has different trading fee structures for the different types of trading options it offers. For example, the trading fee for Spot trading differs from that of the Futures or Derivatives market.

What is a Cryptocurrency Exchange?

Let us start by understanding what an exchange means, as a term. It means the transaction process where one buys and the other sells. Therefore, the function of the cryptocurrency exchange is to help cryptocurrency buyers and sellers to use the platform for cryptocurrency transactions.

There are two major types of cryptocurrency exchanges – the Centralized Exchange, which is under the control of a few persons and the Decentralized Exchange (DEX), under the control of the entire community.

For the purpose of this article, we will focus on the CEX. Here is a list of the top 7 centralized cryptocurrency exchanges that don’t charge an arm and leg to execute your transactions.

1. Binance

This is the leading cryptocurrency exchange, in terms of volume, number of coins listed on the platform, management process and liquidity. Little wonder it has become the favorite for cryptocurrency investors not just in Asia but also from other parts of the world.

Here is an overview of the trading fee structure on Binance:

Specific Deductions

Binance has a dedicated coin called the Binance Coin (BNB). It is the platform-based coin or native currency of the Binance exchange. Traders can enjoy considerable deductions in the trading fee if they are trading with the BNB pair.

The following are some of the deductions:

• Up to 10% off on the USB-M Futures/Derivates trading fee
• Zero trading fee for specific stablecoin, BTC and fiat pairs on the Spot market
• Up to 25% BNB deduction on the Spot trading fee
• Zero Maker fees on the Binance USD (BUSD) trading pairs.

2. Bybit

Bybit is another cryptocurrency exchange with very low fees. On this exchange, the trading fee is dependent on the users’ VIP status. Users who have attained certain VIP levels would enjoy a significant fee reduction than the others who have not.

The following is an idea of the current trading fee structure of the exchange:

Non-VIP

As a non-VIP, you are required to pay 0.1% for the Maker and Taker fee for Spot trades. For the USDC Options Trading, the Maker and Taker fee rate is 0.03%. However, the Taker fee increases to 0.06% if you are engaging in either the USDT & Inverse Contracts Trading or the USDC Perpetual Trading.

VIP Levels

The following is the fee structure for the VIP 1 to VIP levels on Bybit:

• VIP 1: Pays 0.06% Taker fee and 0.04% Maker fee for Spot Trading; 0.05% Taker fee and 0.006% Maker fee for USDC Perpetual Trading; and 0.05% Taker and 0.006% Maker fee for USDT & Inverse Contracts Trading.
• VIP 2: Pays 0.05%, 0.045% and 0.045% Taker fee rates for the Spot Trading, USDT & Inverse Contracts Trading and USDC Perpetual Trading, respectively. The Maker fee rates for the same are 0.02%, 0.004% and 0.04%.
• VIP 3: Pays 0.04%, 0.0425% and 0.0425% Taker fee rates for Spot, Inverse Trading and Perpetual Trading. The Maker fee rates for the same is 0.01%, 0.002% and 0.002%, respectively.

3. Crypto.com

Crypto.com’s trading fee is analyzed over a certain period, usually in a month. The amount of trading volume within that period can influence the trading fee. For example, traders who executed less than $250,000 of trades in 30 days will pay a Maker and a Taker fee of 0.0750%.

If the trading volume is more than $250,000 within the same time, the traders will pay a Maker fee of 0.0700% and a Taker fee of 0.0720%.

Large-volume orders up to $10 million wouldn’t be charged a Maker fee but will pay a Taker fee of 0.0500%.

4. Kraken

Kraken is a cryptocurrency with another low-fee structure. The trading fees differ by the assets being traded. Below is a breakdown:

• Spot Trading: trades of $50,000 maximum attract a Maker and a Taker fee rate of 0.16% and 0.26%, respectively.
• Futures: if you are trading the Futures or the Derivatives market with a maximum trading volume of $100,000 in 30 days, the Maker and Taker fee rates are 0.0200% and 0.0500%, respectively.
• Stablecoins and Pegged Tokens: if up to $50,000 trading volumes were actualized in a month (30 days), the exchange charges 0.20% both for the Maker and Taker fees.

Also read: What is NFT?

5. eToro

eToro is a “social investment network” that aims to “revolutionise the way people invest, and enhance investors’ financial education.”

eToro is known for charging “overnight” and “weekend” fees on CFDs to keep those positions for the holders over the night and during the weekends.

The exchange also charges the following fees:

• Zero commissions on stocks and ETFs
• No management fees
• 1% fee for buying and selling crypto coins
• $10 inactivity fee to manage the accounts that haven’t been active for a year.

6. Uphold

Uphold assures the users of a “complete crypto trading experience.” The exchange charges between 0.9% and 1.2% spread on Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) transactions in Europe, the United States and the United Kingdom.

It also charges between 1.4% and 1.95% for Cryptocurrencies, Environmental Assets & Equities, as well as a 2% spread on precious metals.

7. CoinMama

CoinMama is one of the top cryptocurrency trading platforms with users from 120 countries. Customers can trade BTC, ETH, and other top digital currencies. Users can fund their accounts through bank transfers or credit and debit cards whether master or visa.

CoinMama also prides itself as one of the cryptocurrency exchanges with the lowest trading fees. CoinMama is safe and provides fast and personalized transactions. With a Maker fee and Taker fee of 3.9%. To deposit, users pay a 2.93% fee and a 3.9% withdrawal fee.

Final Words

Trading fees are one of the major sources of income for cryptocurrency exchanges. While some exchanges charge higher, others are considerate and charge lower. If you are looking for the cryptocurrency exchanges that charge less, sign up at any of the ones we reviewed in this article.

The post A List of the Top 7 Cryptocurrency Exchanges with Lowest Fees appeared first on SME SCOOP.

Little wonder that AIBees, in a December 2022 publication, mentioned that women make up to 82.5% of the total population of solopreneurs. Interestingly, this budding interest in entrepreneurship or running a private business might not always be profitable in the first couple of years because of some factors.

Females tend to suffer the indecision of choosing between their new careers and balancing their roles in the home. They also tend to lack support from mentors and their partners and have little capital to start the business.

Despite these challenges, there is optimism that women would make better solopreneurs. In light of this, we have come up with a list of the top business tips for women looking to venture into entrepreneurship.

1. Business is War; Entrepreneurship is a Battlefield

Generally, running a business requires a combination of industry mastery/knowledge and being good at execution. The competition is always there ready to take away your share of the market if you are not tactical about it.

As much as you are playing in an industry that may be dominated by the male-folk, it shouldn’t force you to give up.

Now that you understand that “business is war,” here are some of the things you can do to be a better “general”:

• Understudy the market to know what works and what doesn’t.
• Do not take your competitors for granted. Always come up with better services to remain a step ahead.
• Be confident in yourself and always remain resolute to keep the business running, despite all odds.

2. Connect with Other Solo Entrepreneurs

“No (wo)man is an island,” they say. You don’t want to stay alone when you could have networked with other business owners. Consider finding a tribe among other women entrepreneurs.

Other ways to connect with entrepreneurs include:

• Reaching out to other business owners (preferably in your niche).
• Joining professional organizations and being an active member.

3. Change Your Mindset and Approach

It is possible that you have been approaching the market as a “woman in business.” That gives off the aura that you want the market to patronize you because you are probably the first woman to venture into that line of business.

If that has been your mindset, it is time to change it. The best way to get more market share is to approach it as a businessperson. Find the opportunities and seize them. There’s no need to be sentimental about it.

4. Be a Solution-Provider

Why are you in business? Do you want to prove that women can start businesses and scale the same? Or do you want to make profits? If the latter is the case, you have to become a solution provider.

Before starting a business, you have possibly understood the market challenges, including the services that were missing. That is a “perfect” opportunity for you to step in and meet those needs.

5. Don’t Hide

One thing some women entrepreneurs may be forced into doing is to “duck behind” or stay away from publicity. The modern-day business environment favors entrepreneurs that are the “face of the brand.”

People want to know and connect with you. So, seize every opportunity you can to talk about your business and the mission it has. Use social media, grant interviews, and give keynote speeches when possible.

6. Build a Strong Team

Except you are looking to be a solopreneur, it makes sense to build a strong team. The employees or the people working for you have a role to play in the business’s success.

If you are not sure of how to go about it, here are tips on how to pick the best team:

• Business Structure: Start drafting an organogram, stating the different tiers in the business and who is responsible for what.
• Create Departments: You are launching a startup, which means playing in an industry or market with established brands. Creating departments for the respective business operations will help the employees to focus on what moves the needle in the different departments. You can have a sales, digital marketing, and financial department.

7. Be Hungry for Knowledge

Nobody knows it all and the person who is starting a new business doesn’t know much. With many “big players” already in the market, you probably have little chance of breaking into the market.

It is for this reason that you have to submit to learning. Be inquisitive. Be hungry for knowledge. The following tips should help you get more information about how to run your business:

• Ask for help from professionals in the industry.
• Seek mentors in your field and get them to guide you.
• Always keep an open mind and be willing to learn new things.

8. Take Branding Seriously

No doubt, your business has a good product but it might remain the “best-kept secret” if no one knows about it.

Get a branding team to help brand the business and give off the vibes that you want it to be associated with.

While working on the branding, also step-up on the product and service offering so you don’t end up offering a brand that doesn’t have any market acceptance for the products and services.

Also read: The Importance of Color in Marketing and Branding

9. Don’t Submit to Stereotypes

It won’t be long before you start getting a barrage of unsolicited advice and calls for you to take it slowly on how you run the business.

These are stereotyped ways of thinking, whereby the general belief is that a woman wouldn’t succeed in business.

Do not let the general submissions, stereotypes, and negative opinions hold you back from running the business to the highest heights possible.

10. Become a Financial Guru

Sometimes, a business crumbles not just because of poor management, but also because of the absence of financial education.

Although you may have financial experts working for you, it would also be nice if you had a bit of information on how to manage the finances of a business – especially that of a startup.

Here are the things you want to learn:

• Financial Projection: How much do you anticipate your business to make? What are the plans you have in place to meet that financial projection?
• Learn how to track the business’ cashflow, including the income, profit margin, and expenses.

Final Words

It might not be easy running a business as a woman, but it is doable. Whether you are already running a business or looking to start one soon, having an idea of the market you are venturing into should help you plan ahead.

Above all, your conviction should be your propelling force. Have an audacious goal to run one of the most successful brands, put in the efforts and you could just hit the mark.

The post Top 10 Business Tips for Women Venturing into Entrepreneurship this Year appeared first on SME SCOOP.

In this article, we talk about the top nine (9) business ideas for couples. If you and your spouse have considered going down the entrepreneurship pathway, starting any of these businesses could be worth it.

1. Get into the Wanderlust Business

We must mention that any business you intend starting with your spouse needs to meet the market demands. Also, the business or the industry should be lucrative so you can make steady income.

With that being said, one business that matches that description is the travel business. There are lots of opportunities here and with the right education, you and your better half could be on the way to “getting into the money.”

Here is an idea on how to start and scale your travel business:

Become Travel Planners

The truth is that both individuals and business executives tend to have a hard time getting around their travel itineraries. If you can help them plan their trips, it would be an opportunity to make money.

As travel planners, you will help your clients in the following ways:

• Booking their trips with the airlines.
• Making reservations at hotels.
• Making arrangements for a tour guide to help your clients navigate their destinations.
• You can also help with handpicking choice (tourist) destinations for their sightseeing cravings.

2. Start an Event Planning Business

Ladies thrive the most in the event planning business but with help of the men, it becomes better. You can let your wife run the décor and other basic arrangements while you go client-sourcing, forming a team and building a brand around it.

3. Start a Virtual Assistance Service

Virtual Assistants (VAs) are in high-demand. Established brands often have one or more VAs working with them to help smoothen the communication with the customers.

As VAs, you and your spouse will help the clients with:

• Managing their emails
• Boosting the customer’s interest in their brand.
• Receiving and tackling customers’ concerns.
• Managing the social media presence of the clients. This includes managing the Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages.

Also read: How to Start a Social Media Marketing Agency without any Money

4. Start a Business Based on Subscriptions

Membership sites are examples of subscription-based businesses. This type of business thrives on the renewal of the customers or users’ subscriptions to continue enjoying the services rendered.

Before considering this business idea for couples, here are some of the things that must have been in place:

• The Service: you and your spouse should have a service or product that needs to be subscribed to and which is subject to re-subscription to keep using it. The service or product could be an online educational resource, a limited product or a beauty product.
• Subscription Basis: how long does the subscription last? The best subscriptions are between a month and a year. So, you can choose to accept monthly subscriptions or make it annually.

However, offering a subscription straight-up might not fetch you a great deal of money. You need to offer a lot of freebies and even give discounts to win the market over.

5. Start a Rental Business

A lot of opportunities exist in the rental market. There are lots of items to be rented and earn a recurring income from the same.

Below are some of the opportunities:

• Home Rental: this has become increasingly popular following the surged interests in short-let apartments. If your home has some rooms unoccupied, it may be ideal to put them up for rent on a short-let basis.
• Catering Rentals: invest in purchasing catering items, such as buffets, spoons, plates and chairs. You are to rent these out to celebrants and earn an income.

6. Co-Invest in Real Estate

Gone are the days when you have to build a home before you can make money from real estate. You and your spouse can make recurring income from a smart investment in real estate.

Here are ideas to inspire you:

• Airbnb Arbitrage: you can become arbitrators for Airbnb, by connecting homeowners to lodgers and vice-versa. You can make a percentage of the fee from the deal.
• Home-Flipping: this means buying a house at an affordable price, improving it by way of renovation or adding new furniture before selling at a higher price.
• Traditional Real Estate Investment: you can also go through the traditional route of buying a home and putting it up for rent.

7. Run an Online Educational Business

You and your partner can start an online-based educational business. There are several ways to go about it and these are some of the ideas:

• Online Course: you can create a video course on the topic or industry you are knowledgeable. Put up the course for sale on platforms like Thinkific, Udemy, Coursera and your private Learning Management System (LMS).
• Run a Blog or Vlog: if you are knowledgeable about an industry, you can consider starting a blog around it. Say you know how to keep a home neat; you can run a home improvement and décor blog. You can also repurpose the content and make a vlog out of it for publishing on YouTube. You get to earn money both ways –income from ads placed on your blog and revenue generated from vide views on YouTube.

8. Start a Transportation Business

Do you know how to drive? Is your spouse good at making customers happy? Are you familiar with your locality? If the answers to those questions are “yes,” there is a chance that you can run a transportation business with your spouse.

These are some of the best transportation business ideas to run as a couple:

• Food Truck Delivery: you can partner with food delivery companies like Uber Eats and DoorDash. You will help them deliver food from restaurants to the buyers.
• Run a Courier Company: you and your partner should also consider running a courier company that helps people pick up products and deliver to the designated locations. You can partner with online vendors, dry cleaning service providers and companies in need of delivery of confidential documents.

9. Delve into Digital Marketing

The Internet has blessed us with lots of money-making opportunities. With an Internet-enabled device (such as a smartphone or laptop) and an active Internet connection (with a knowledge of something), you can make money online.

The entire process is called digital marketing – and there are different facets of it for you and your spouse to explore:

• Affiliate Marketing: this simply means referring people to buy a product so you will earn a commission. It could be a physical product or a digital product.
• Online Store: you can also run an e-commerce store with your spouse. The rule of thumb is to stick to a niche. Say, you can run an e-commerce store that sells electronics or the one that sells online handmade crafts.

Also read: Digital Marketing Tips for SMEs

Final Words

A look at some family-owned businesses like BMW AG, the Raymond Group, KONE and Red Bull proves that a family can operate a joint business and make it work.

Which of those business ideas would you want to start with your spouse and why?

The post Business Ideas for Couples: Top 9 Ideas appeared first on SME SCOOP.

With many successful brands out there, you may think that there is no other business idea you can start and run with. On the contrary, the established brands you see today have one or more loopholes that create a market opportunity for startups that will dare to take it up.

In this article, we introduce you to seven (7) different techniques you can use to generate a business idea.

What is a Business Idea?

It is just what it is – an idea or general information about a business. However, for a business to kick off, you must convert that idea to a working principle.

Want to learn how to generate business ideas? Here are the major business idea generation techniques you would like to explore for your next startup:

1. Build a Business around Your Hobby

There’s no doubt that not everyone is passionate about the business they started. You could see a vehicle manufacturer that doesn’t give a hoot about how the vehicles are produced, but the major goal is to satisfy the demands of the market and make money.

However, there are a couple of business owners who built something around their passion. You could see a fitness center owner that is passionate about keeping fit; a skincare brand owner that doesn’t want any blemish on her skin and a clothing brand owner that doesn’t like being caught un-trendy.

If you have a hobby or something you like doing so much, it might just be that next big business you will start.

It is better to start a brand around something you like doing so that when things don’t get all rosy, you can always be fired up to keep at it.

2. Look for Problems and Solve them

Today’s startups don’t just start out of passion or the desire to have a big brand in the face of the people. If you take the time to interview some of these business owners, 5 out of 10 would tell you they found a problem and they started a business to solve it.

For example, Financial Technology (Fintech) companies are being launched every year to help facilitate cross-border transactions, especially because of the lacuna of higher remittance fees when using the banks.

Here are some of the best ways you can spot these problems:

Follow the News

If a particular topic is being talked about often on the mainstream media and the news is always negative, there is a chance that nothing has been done to resolve those issues.

For instance, you may have access to news on limited water supply in an area. If that persists, you could start a company to help supply water to those areas and make money from it.

3. Come up with a USP

Sometimes, you don’t need to brainstorm the best business idea for you. Most of the time, what you want to do is to “add value” to an existing market.

The goal is to offer something better or more unique than the current service providers offer. Here are some ways to do that:

• Introduce a better service or product to an “underserved area” –an area where that product or service is not so popular, but there’s a demand for it.
• Improve the customer experience by offering exceptional service.
• Reduce the cost of getting the service or product, if possible.

4. Ask for Business Ideas

The first place you may want to turn is your family and friends. Ask them to help you come up with business ideas. Sometimes, these people have ideas that they may not be willing to go ahead to implement but which they would be willing to share with a budding entrepreneur with the right resources to build on the ideas.

Also read: Small Business Ideas for College Students

5. Explore Your Neighborhood and Travel if Need be

You cannot come up with the best business idea if you stay put in one place. If you are earnest to start a new business, consider exploring your neighborhood.

Pay attention to the “word on the streets.” What are people talking about? Which service are they yearning for?

If you have the resources and time, it may also be a good idea to travel to other places. Sometimes, the inspiration you need to start a Fortune 500 company is in other places. You just need to pay a visit, understudy how existing businesses operate there, find the loopholes, and find out a way to do something better.

6. Implement the Low-End Disruption Model

It may take a while for a new Electric Vehicle (EV) manufacturing company to become as popular as Tesla is. Why? Because Tesla has established its presence as a leader in the EV market. Despite selling the vehicles at a higher price, the company still has lots of customers.

Thus, starting a new business in the same niche and aiming to sell at the same price may not cut it for you.

We would suggest starting with a lower-priced EV. The low-end disruption model suggests offering a lower-priced or affordable variant of an existing product or service.

As your startup gains traction, gets customer loyalty, and has brand awareness, you can then consider stepping up in your game to penetrate the larger markets.

7. Fill the Market Demands

Sometimes, you don’t just need a new business idea. You may not even need to compete with anyone. The market is there for the taking. All you have to do is to provide the services or products and acquire your customers.

An instance can be the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, which saw many pharmaceutical companies manufacturing and shipping nose masks, and hand sanitizers. Yet, the market demanded for more.

In such an instance, you can jump on the bandwagon and fill the market demands.

Conclusion

Coming up with a new business idea can be somewhat difficult, especially when you want to offer a service or product that the market doesn’t have at the moment. If you are unsure of what to do, consider taking advantage of the business idea generation techniques shared in this article and run with it to launch your startup.

The post Top Business Idea Generation Techniques for Startups appeared first on SME SCOOP.

However, there comes a time when you need to “slow down,” give it a few thoughts and get on the corporate world. When that comes, you would ask the question, “when should I incorporate my startup?”

If we are to advise, we would say to incorporate the “young” business during its “teething stage” – between the first 3 and 5 months. But that isn’t always the case. We have had startup owners running the business for 2 years without getting incorporated.

Depending on the idea upon which the business is based, this might not be a problem. But if you are tired of “playing small,” want to start doing business on a broader scale and want that legitimate recognition, it is time to get incorporated.

What Does Incorporation Mean?

Incorporating a startup means registering it with the authorities and that certifies that the business is now open for the public to officially deal with it.

Getting incorporated is also a good way to diversify risks, in the sense that the liability of the owner(s) doesn’t affect the business. Likewise, the business’ liability doesn’t have a negative impact on the owner(s).

How to Know that Your Startup Needs Incorporation

For some new business owners, the timing of getting the startup incorporated might be “wrong.” They are looking to break even after spending huge sums of money to start the business. These business owners are also looking to expand the business and with little marketing costs, that wouldn’t be possible.

Thus, in the short-term, incorporating a startup might not be worth it. But if you zoom out and look at the “bigger picture,” getting incorporated is a means to grow the brand even further.

Here are some of the clear signs to tell you that your startup needs to get incorporated:

1. Incorporation Helps Early-Stage Investors and Founders have Clear Expectations

Sometimes, using a “gentleman’s understanding” to run a startup is not the ideal way to go about it. One of the parties may come up tomorrow to sue the business on purported claims of “breach of contract.”

Therefore, incorporating the business on time helps to “set things on stone” so that every key member has a clear expectation of what to expect and do to make the startup thrive.

For example, with the incorporation in place, the founders, early-stage investors and even the employees will have a mutual agreement or understanding on the following:

• The vesting conditions
• The ideal to distribute ownership of the business (it is usually by sharing stocks).

With that in place, your startup will “carry everyone along” and all the key members (cum owners) will play their respective parts to help the business succeed.

2. Incorporating before any Contracts is Better

The best time to incorporate a startup is before the business signs its first contracts. In a bid to get new customers and break even, your startup might just make silly business mistakes.

It is better to get the incorporation on time, because you may make bad decisions when signing the first set of contracts. From getting limited protection to facing personal liability, not getting the incorporation can be disadvantageous.

But when you have gotten the brand incorporated, you will benefit from the following:

• The startup will make better contract decisions.
• The contracts will be fully backed by the business, meaning that if anything goes wrong, the business will bear the liability, and not you, the founder.
• The target prospects will trust the business the more, because it is now recognized by law.

3. Incorporate the Startup when You are Transitioning from Sole-Proprietorship to Partnership

One of the best times to incorporate your startup is when you want to give it a business structure. It will interest you to know that by law, every business is required to have a business structure before it can take in any revenue from sales. You can consult your lawyer for advice on what applies in your location.

If you are looking to bring in a new partner or make someone a co-founder, it is a good time to get incorporated.

The advantages to making this consideration include:

• The business wouldn’t be liable for any liability caused by the partner or even you – the founder. Instead, both you and the business partner will bear the responsibilities, provided it is a personal liability.
• Getting startup incorporation also helps to earmark responsibilities and assets to the founders or owners.

Also read:

• How to Know if You’re Meant to be an Entrepreneur
• Grow your Business as a Starter by Avoiding These 9 Mistakes
• How to Respond to Objection in Business

4. Incorporation Keeps the Startup’s IP Chain Straightened

The last thing you want to do is to get your startup losing most of the Intellectual Properties (IPs) – and it is pretty easy to do that. When you failed to allocate these IPs to the startup on time, it turns to a “personal property” and most times, you wouldn’t be able to use the company to fight for its protection.

Here is how it works:

The IP is Idea Turned to Reality

For the meantime, what you have at the time of launching the startup is an idea and like most ideas, it doesn’t get to materialize until something is done in that regard.

You’ve taken the first step of launching the startup. Congratulations on that! The next step is to get incorporated to protect the IP so that the business can lay claims to those properties.

The Intellectual Properties (IPs) we are talking about include but are not limited to:

• Trade secrets
• Patents
• Trademarks
• Copyrights

IPs help Validate the Startup’s Valuation

You have seen companies listed as “unicorns” and “million-dollar businesses” and you are wondering what makes them so?

The Intellectual Property (IP) of such companies also contribute to that valuation. When a company has more IPs and these IPs are exclusive, people (including prospective investors) tend to value it the more.

So, if you are looking to build a “billion-dollar business,” it is better to start today to get your IP’s security by incorporating the startup.

Conclusion: Incorporating a Startup has Huge Advantages

From increasing the startup’s credibility, helping the business build credit and getting more partners on board; incorporation has lots of advantages for small businesses.

However, it may not be a good idea to rush into incorporating the business. You may need it at the moment if you are unsure of the business idea blossoming into a big venture. In that case, you want to run it as a sole proprietorship until you are sure.

The post Business Structure: When Should I Incorporate My Startup? appeared first on SME SCOOP.

However, the customers may be slow to make a buying decision and that could result in low patronage. As a business owner, you want to figure out the best ways to get more patronage from last minute shoppers.

Whether these buyers haven’t decided on shopping because of time, money or some other factors, it is in your advantage to draw them to your shop.

Here are some of the best ways to get more customers and raise your sales revenue during these festive periods.

1. Prepare Ahead of Time

Just as your prospective customers are taking their time, you also want to seize the opportunity to prepare ahead of the sales.

These are some of the things you should be doing ahead of the sales:

Stock Up on Goods

It wouldn’t make sense to wait for more buyers when you don’t even have what they intend to buy. If you haven’t stocked up on your goods, now is a good time to do so.

Already, you have some products that get the most sales all-year round. Those are the ones to prioritize. And because priorities change, your prospective customers may have new products they are interested in.

You can start by asking them what type of products they expect to buy at a discount during the festive periods. From their responses, you will know the new products to introduce to your store.

Create a Buzz for the Offers

Already, you know that it is important to make an offer if you expect to turn more last-minute shoppers to steady customers.

One of the best offers you can make is to create a buzz to get more of these prospective customers to know of the latest deals. You can do that by:

• Creating an online contest and rewarding the winner and the runner-up with a discount for their next purchase.
• Creating a time-bound offer that expires after a few hours or days. With this, prospective customers would want to jump on the offer and get a discount.

Be of Help to these Shoppers

The fact that these people are buying later than they should have could be because of different reasons, ranging from having little time to go shopping, not having enough funds at the time or simply because they wanted to wait until everyone had shopped so they can shop with ease.

Whatever their reasons might be, they are all valid because the customers have a right to decide when to shop and when not to.

It is best if you can help them out during this time, because honestly, it is not easy to shop at the “last minute.”

Here are a couple of ways you can assist the last-minute shoppers:

• Offer free shipping
• Promise to ship their goods in the shortest time possible.
• If they chose to shop in-store, you can offer to delegate someone to help them shop faster.
• Consider attaching a gift when the customers buy up to a certain amount.

2. Use the Scarcity Marketing Tactics

Enough of the “pity.” The fact that they are shopping later means that they have decided to buy after all, but you don’t want to give them more time to decide on whether they should buy immediately or wait a little longer.

That is where scarcity marketing tactics come in to help you “push” these prospective customers to add more products to their carts and checkout in good time.

These are some of the best marketing tactics to deploy:

Offer Limited Stock

Limited stock refers to those products that have only a few of the items left on the shelf. Anything between 10 and 100 can be counted as limited stock.

The idea? It is to convince the prospects to buy those products, seeing that there are only a few of them left.

Use Upselling to Sell More Products

If you are the type of business owner that wants to enjoy more patronages from last-minute shoppers, one of the things to do is to upsell.

Upselling is a type of marketing tactic that allows you to generate more sales from offering additional products. For example, you can “upsell” a pair of white sneakers to a customer who purchased a pair of black jeans.

The goal of upselling, aside from making more sales, is to offer a product that compliments the previous product. You can make up to 3 or 4 upsells and with a discount on each of them, you will make more sales.

3. Use Online Shopping to Make More Sales

Due to the fact that most retailers would be too busy processing walk-in purchases and attending to in-store buyers, it may take a lot of time to attend to everyone.

Thus, some prospects may turn to the Internet to get their purchases done. If you have an eCommerce store, you can close more deals by:

• Making sure that the site is smooth, in terms of having a faster loading speed and excellent navigation.
• Add countdown timers showing the prospects the time they have before the entire product page and all the offers go down for good.
• You can also embed a YouTube walkthrough video to show the prospects how to pick items, add these items to the cart and checkout in real-time.

4. Take Steps to Prevent Shopping Cart Abandonment

Shopping cart abandonment refers to the inability of the prospects to complete their purchases. Many factors ranging from lack of further interest in the product, the lengthy checkout process and not having sufficient funds in the credit card to complete the purchase could cause that.

You may be able to reduce your online store’s shopping cart abandonment rate by:

• Integrating a feature that saves the cart for the prospects so they can always come back to complete it. You may as well, consider allowing them to sign up on the site. That way, they will have a profile with all their intended and completed purchases in one place.
• Send follow-up emails, reminding them of the need to complete their purchases.

Final Words: More Sales are Made in the Last-Minute

The “last-minute” can be one of those times you make the most sales. Of course, it takes more time and you have to be strategic about it to break even.

Now that you know some of the best ways to get patronage from last-minute shoppers, which of the strategies would you use going forward and why?

The post How to Get More Patronage from Last Minute Shoppers appeared first on SME SCOOP.

Due to the competition in your industry, you may not stand a chance to get organic patronage. Making active promotions of your brand and what it has to offer is the best way to go about it. But how can you go about it when you have a limited budget?

According to Statista, the average amount of money spent on advertising by SMEs in the U.S. is $534. From the survey, the respondents affirmed the commitment to increase the marketing budget as the months go by.

However, your business may not have up to $500 to spend on ads for now. If so, how do you go about marketing on such a shoestring budget?

Here are some ideas to help you gain more brand exposure, promote your brand’s services and land more sales even with a limited budget.

1. Publish ONLY Quality Content

There has been a trend on using storytelling and content marketing to grow the brand exposure of every Small and Medium Enterprise (SME). In case you are wondering how this can benefit your business, here is a post we made about it.

When we talk about publishing ONLY quality content, we mean the following:

• The content should be informative.
• It should be about your business or the industry in general. For example, the content can focus on the new trend in your industry.
• It should involve storytelling so your audience don’t easily get bored.

2. Become a YouTuber

Gen Z has caught the trend of making YouTube videos. Today, YouTube has gone beyond being a platform where people go to watch videos. It has become a platform for business owners looking to tap into newer audiences.

Here’s how it works:

• By uploading your videos on YouTube, you get free traffic. That is what you need and since you cannot afford to pay for all that traffic for now, it makes sense to use a free traffic source – YouTube.
• Using YouTube helps you to prove your brand expertise, as the audience will get to understand what your brand is all about.
• You will start getting enquiries from your videos and from there, you can close more sales – all for FREE!

3. Ask for Referrals

Have you sold any product before? Gotten people to patronize your business even if all they bought was worth $10?

Start by asking them to give reviews of their buying experience and how effective they found your service or product.

Then be direct to ask for referrals. Ask them to share the same experiences they had with their family members and friends who may be in the need of similar services.

To get the best results from your referral-asking, consider doing it with the following factors in mind:

• Start by asking your best customers or clients for those referrals. These are the customers who are loyal to the brand so their referrals would mean a lot for the brand.
• Develop a sequence to help them make the referrals. The sequence could be in the form of an affiliate link, a template or customized text for them to share with the prospects or a short video about your services.
• Consider giving a referral bonus or commission to encourage your previous customers to make new referrals to the brand.

4. Grow Your Email List

Yes, we said that you shouldn’t invest so much on ads, since you have a limited budget. But that doesn’t mean that you would expect to get all the traffic you need for free.

One good way to deploy your limited budget is by growing your email list. It involves generating the email addresses, the telephone numbers, names and possibly – the residential addresses of your prospective customers.

To maximize the budget, consider running only lead generation ads on Facebook. You can also do the same on Google, but for an SME like yours, using Facebook is a lot cheaper.

One of the major advantages of having an email list is that you can nurture them with valuable content and freebies until they feel comfortable to trust your brand.

With time, they will become steady customers and you will keep selling new products to them, as long as you have their details for sending new offers.

5. Use the “Power of Free”

People love it sometimes when they don’t get to pay to access something. For a new business or even an existing business looking to expand the frontiers, it makes sense to leverage that mindset.

There are different ways to give out value for free and in turn, get new customers. These tips should get you started:

• Organize Free Classes: If you are a service-based business, it would make a lot of sense to offer free classes. You can hold it on Facebook Live, YouTube Live or even on Instagram. If you have more people to talk to and you want to make it interactive, it may be a good idea to use Zoom. The goal is to talk about important information relating to your business.
• Share Free Resources: Rather than spending all the time making live sessions, why not compile the content into a resource and distribute? You can create an eBook, a mini (video) course or even an infographic to share.

6. Take to Public Speaking

Since you have a good understanding of the market or industry where your business plays, it would be great to publicize it personally.

Go online and look for openings for speakers at events relating to your business line. You can look on Facebook, Twitter and on Google.

The goal is to speak in the front of an audience that is already interested in that industry and would be willing to buy what you sell, provided, of course, that you delivered your speech well.

Also read:

• How to be a Good Public Speaker – In 5 Steps
• Best Skills to Learn to Make Money Online
• The Biggest Enemies of Success and How to Conquer Them

7. Sponsor Events and Get Brand Exposure

Got an event coming up in your locality? Looking to market on a budget? Instead of spending $500 on ads, you can spend a half of that amount to sponsor such events.

The sponsorship could be in the form of:

• Sponsoring some of the event materials, such as writing pads, pens and souvenirs.
• Paying a part of the important bills, such as video coverage.

What this does for your brand is that the event organizers are likely to:

• Mention your brand when acknowledging the sponsors.
• Placing your brand identity (logo and name) on the official banners of the event.

This will create some sort of buzz around your business and the guest may want to know more about your brand.

Final Words

There are a thousand and one ways to promote your brand with $500 or less. If those tips don’t look like what you want to engage with, consider partnering with affiliates to promote your services for a fee. You can also create an online contest for the participants to promote your brand using flyers and other forms of informative content.

In all, promoting your brand is a full-time job and with the ideas we shared in this article, your little budget will go a long way.

The post 7 Ways to Marketing on a Shoestring Budget appeared first on SME SCOOP.

In this article, you will discover expert tips for selling an unprofitable business.

Selling an Unprofitable Business: When to Consider Selling

What could make a business unprofitable? It could be making lower sales, spending more money than it makes or having more competitors to share the market with your business.

According to Entrepreneur.com, it may not be worth it to sell off your business. By looking at important factors like expenses, paying more attention to customers’ feedback, and making better offers, you may be able to salvage the business.

But when all those don’t work, here are some of the best tips to selling off your unprofitable business:

1. Prepare for Due Diligence

The fact that you have declared the business for sale attracts many prospective buyers. They are not just coming to buy the business. They also want to know what went wrong to see if it is something they can salvage once they are at the helm of affairs.

Preparing ahead of time helps you to put all these factors into consideration. To point you in the right direction, here are some of the questions you should be prepared to give answers to once your unprofitable business buyers start calling:

• Why is the business failing? Did you do anything wrong along the way?
• What market share does the business currently hold? Does the target market trust the brand well enough to allow it to change hands?
• How does the business function?
• What is the current legal standing? Is the business bankrupt? Has a case in the law court?
• How long have you been running the business and what is the average yearly turnover like?

Being prepared for these questions helps you to be confident to answer them when asked. With the right answers and a bit of coercion, you can encourage the prospective buyer to give it a shot. Maybe, a change of administration is what the business needs afterall!

2. Consider Leasing the Business and Its Components

Sometimes, your business needs a change of administrator – but not permanently. You want to lease out the company and its equipment, including the office if required.

Allow “new owners” to run it for a while until it bounces back. Only after the leasing attempt fails to bring in the desired results can you consider selling off.

3. Make a Contrast of the Business’ Strengths and Weaknesses

Where have you fared so well in running the now “unprofitable” business and where do you need to improve?

Doing these assessments helps you to come up with a definite plan of how best to scale the business when it is sold. With the blueprint, new owners will sure have a foundation from which to start rebuilding the business.

4. Analyze the Business Worth

Your business may not be making as much profits as it used to, but you have a considerable number of contracts that can spin a magic in the next couple of years.

Evaluate your business and take stock of its current stock. Here are some of the things you want to analyze:

• The cost of equipment available to the business.
• Business vehicles and offices.
• The number of active contracts.

5. Sell to a Sister-Business

Business is war; sometimes, you want to accept that your competitors know better than you do. When your business makes less profit, you may consider selling an unprofitable business to a “sister-business” or competing brand.

This strategy works best if your business dominates a market the competitors would like to have. With this in mind, making an offer becomes easier.

6. Give it Time

By going through past financial records, you will notice when the revenue began to drop. In a couple of months, you have moved from a flourishing business to a near-bankrupt company.

As much as you want to sell at this point, it may be worth it to sit it out for a while. Probably, the business strategy or market appeal waned for some time. In a few months, you may be back in profits again.

7. Do not be Intimidated

The keyword is “negotiate from a place of strength.” When you give off the impression that you are selling an unprofitable business to clear out, you will receive belittling offers. But when you lay the offer on the table and stick to it, you will likely get a better buyer.

Here is how to negotiate the sale of your unprofitable business without feeling intimidated:

• Calculate and be sure of your business’ current worth.
• Highlight the strengths of the business.
• Keep a good financial record.

Doing all that helps put you in charge of the offer than your prospective buyers.

8. Pick the Best Offer

Prospective investors will make you several offers, from a one-time payment to taking the business on lease. Do not be in a hurry to accept any of the offers. Evaluate the pros and cons before deciding on one.

For emphasis, choosing a one-time payment may not be advised, because you may be required to pay tax for it.

9. Sell the Business and Keep it “Alive”

It is possible that you built the business to be a worthwhile venture, but along the line, it stopped making profits.

Choosing someone, preferably an investor who shares a similar vision as you do helps you keep the business’ aims going, even when you aren’t the one running it.

10. Talk to a Professional before Selling an Unprofitable Business

Seek help from a financial advisor who puts you through the process of selling the business. The professional can also help you follow the right procedures to listing the business for sale.

Bonus Tip: Have a Future Investment in Mind

That your current business doesn’t make profits any longer doesn’t mean that another wouldn’t. If you are bent on selling your unprofitable business, be prepared as well to venture into a new business.

The goal is to put the funds you raised from the sale into good use and build a better business in the next couple of years.

Conclusion

Selling an unprofitable business may seem impossible but you can make some money even though the profits haven’t been coming all this while. By talking to a professional, evaluating the business assets’ and reinvesting into another business, you can pick up from where you stopped and continue building a great business.

The post 10 Factors to Consider before Selling an Unprofitable Business appeared first on SME SCOOP.

From losing a client’s products to not being able to renew the existing contract, you want to learn how to deliver bad news to clients.

It can be as simple as calling the customer and relaying the message. But if you want to be professional and tactical at the same time, it is high time you followed the tips we share.

How to Deliver Bad News to Clients in 6 Steps

We have made a list of the top six (6) strategies you want to follow when looking for a better way to deliver bad news.

Here are the exact things you want to do:

1. Get Right to It and Don’t Beat Around the Bush

Understandably, you are looking to use an effective communication strategy when delivering a negative message. More often than not, you want to stick to using impersonal statements to break the ice.

However, coming “clean” sometimes might just be a better way to deliver bad news to clients. Give it to them directly. Tell them why the expected results didn’t pan out and what could have been done differently.

If you made a mistake, acknowledge it and ask the client to forgive your error. By being frank about the whole thing, the client will more likely appreciate your honesty and try to see reasons with you.

Note that this strategy can sometimes be tricky. You want to be sure the client is in a good mood and understands the efforts you have made so far.

2. Prepare Ahead of Time

Those who fail to plan tend to fail at the end of the day. Take as much time as you can to prepare ahead of telling your client about what went wrong.

Note, preparation has to be in line with the factors leading up to the mistake. You want to put the pieces together and get yourself emotionally prepared for whatever response the client may have.

Here are some of the things you want to do when preparing to deliver bad news to your client:

• Put yourself in the client’s position and try to understand how he or she would feel. That makes it a lot easier for you to be strategic with how you approach the issue.
• Show empathy by letting the client know that you understand how it all feels and you would be willing to help remedy the situation.
• Use statements like “I’m sorry”, “Please accept my sincerest apologies” to start the conversation.
• Don’t forget to tell the truth.

3. Don’t “Point a Finger” at the Client

We don’t mean pointing one of your fingers at the client; we rather mean literally. Even if the (bad) outcome was a fault of the clients’, you don’t want to make it obvious. You are not massaging their ego either, but you are trying to prevent an emotional response to the whole issue.

The client is hurting already and the last thing you want is to get the anger vetted on you. Here is a better way to approach the issue and deliver bad news to clients who made a slip:

• Be prepared to give a detailed breakdown of what went wrong (not exonerating the clients’ role of course). That way, you wouldn’t be “lying down” and taking all the blame, when the clients have some to take too.
• Focus on the issue alone and try not to paint a picture of the clients making a mistake.
• If possible, proffer a way out of the situation.
• Have a grip on your emotions. Don’t react out of anger.

4. Learn to Pay Attention

Okay, you’ve laid the cards on the table. The clients know what went wrong and the role everyone played to make it all wrong.

Now is the time to listen. What do the clients have to say? Are they all worked up? Not ready to commit further? Perhaps, the clients want to go through it all again and see if something can be done.

Whatever their decision is or whatever they are saying, it is your responsibility to pay attention. Listen to what they have to say and if there is any point to add, don’t hesitate to do that.

Also read: Professional Negotiation Skills You Need to Succeed in Business

5. Be Strategic with How You Deliver the News – Telephone First, Email Second, In-Person Third

Perhaps, you have wanted to drive down to the clients’ office or house and break the bad news. While that may seem a sensible thing to do (it is anyway), now is not the right time for it.

The rule of thumb is to telephone the clients first. Provide as much detail as possible. Second, you want to send an email, detailing the step-by-step laydown of what happened. Most times, you get an invite to come over and that’s when you conclude the whole thing.

Of course, these processes rely on how close your communication has been with the clients. If you have been doing more of email exchanges, it may be wise to send an email before meeting in person.

“The easiest ways to break bad news to your clients are going straight to the point, preparing before you contact them, avoiding blame-trading, listening to the clients’ response, choosing the best medium to relay the news and offering to help.”

6. Proffer Solutions and not Just be a News Breaker

Finding a fault is one thing and fixing it is another. Now that you have delivered the bad news to the clients, do you just sit there and wait for them to make all the decisions?

Since you are a part of the problem – or you were unable to prevent the problem, you may as well be a part of the solution.

Offer advice on how to navigate out of the situation. By explaining yourself and providing a viable solution, you make the clients believe that you are still interested in fixing the situation. That is how you win trust back and when trust is there, you have yourself a deal.

Also read: The Biggest Enemies of Success and How to Conquer Them

Conclusion: Break Bad News to Clients in 6 Ways

The easiest ways to break bad news to your clients are going straight to the point, preparing before you contact them, avoiding blame-trading, listening to the clients’ response, choosing the best medium to relay the news and offering to help.

In addition, you want to keep in touch with the clients until the situation is over and avoid doing anything that will cause another. That way, you fix the situation, win your clients’ trust back and continue doing business like it never happened.

The post How to Deliver Bad News to Clients appeared first on SME SCOOP.

But all that wouldn’t be possible if you don’t invest in content writing. This you can do by hiring the services of a content writing expert for your small business if you can’t do it yourself. In this article, you will find out why doing this is crucial to your brand’s growth.

Outlook to the Small Business Content Opportunity

According to Statista, content marketing thrived more around the COVID-19 era and is still very much relevant today. At an estimate, Statista pegs the revenue of the content marketing market at $76 billion by the end of 2022. This is an impressive projection, judging by the $66 billion revenue of 2021.

The Importance of Content Writing for Small Businesses

You need the services of a good B2B writer if you intend on having a solid brand presence on Google. Content writers optimize your content for SEO, meaning that your target customers are likely to come across the blog posts and check out your brand.

Another relevance is the brand authority that comes with content writing, whereby people trust your brand more when it keeps churning out valuable content.

With that being said, here are the seven (7) most important reasons why you want to invest in content writing for your small business:

1. Content Writing Draws Free Traffic to Your Small Business

One thing is consistent with SMEs – low marketing budget. And no, you are not to be blamed for it. You have a lot to channel money to, from paying employees to procuring equipment and running the business.

At the end of the day, you find out that you have little or nothing to put into marketing your small business.

Depending on your niche or market, you may spend anywhere between $500 and $2,000 monthly on marketing alone.

What if we tell you that you can spend less than 40% on that on content writing and still have your small business reach its marketing goal? By hiring a B2B freelance writer, you get to save more money than you could have working with an in-house content writer.

What’s more? A majority of these contents are optimized around the keywords your target customers are looking for. That in turn, brings in qualified leads at no extra costs. With consistent content marketing, these leads will turn to consistent buyers.

Also read: Low-Cost Marketing Strategies for Startups

2. Content Writing Connects Your Small Business to Local Buyers

There is something called Local SEO, which is the optimization of content around the keywords target customers in your locality are looking for.

Considering that more prospective customers tend to make a Google search before making any buying decision, it impresses why you need this content approach.

3. Writing Helpful Content Makes You an Expert

Trust is the singular currency your small business needs to trade with – and it takes a lot of time to earn it.

Why not cut down through the bureaucracies and earn it faster? Here is exactly how it works:

• By creating quality content, prospective customers will get more information about a particular service or product.
• The more information they have, the simpler it becomes for them to make a buying decision.
• More often than not, these prospective customers tend to patronize the brand that helped them make the buying decision.

Besides, with content marketing, you distinguish your brand from others, in the sense of providing information than coercing customers to buy from you.

Also read: The Importance of Color in Marketing and Branding

4. Record more Conversions with Small Business Content Writing

Tired of making low sales? Unsure of the target market to face with your services? Perhaps, you have been spending more money on marketing and not attracting consistent buyers.

It is time to use content writing for small businesses. Due to the influx of “organic traffic” (more persons visiting your site without paying for it), you will spend less to convert them. At most, you pay for the content written by freelance writers and enjoy a steady influx of traffic.

5. Content Writing Opens up more Marketing Opportunities for Your Business

Considering the tight budget small businesses work with, it may be impossible to use different market channels at once. They use Influencer Marketing (IM) or paid social media adverts.

Combining multiple marketing tactics costs more money and it may be difficult to monitor the results.

The reverse is the case with using content marketing. Beyond the blog posts, it is also possible to share these blogs posts on social media, thereby, giving you varieties of content options.

Content repurposing is also possible, whereby your content writers turn a blog post into a podcast, a YouTube script or even an infographic.

Also read: How to Market your Business for Free

6. Content Writing Puts Your Small Business Ahead of the Competitors

No, we don’t mean taking over the entire market. We are referring to the website competition, whereby your brand stands tall among the competitors.

If you hire the best SEO content writers, they can help optimize your content to rank higher than your competitors.

This is purely human psychology – the brand that shows up first gets the patronage!

7. Content Writing Automatically Qualifies Your Customers

The truth is that not everyone that checks out your small business services will patronize at the end of the day.

Some check you out to compare their options, while some do that to see if you have a better offer than their preferred brands.

With content writing, you filter out these “undecided customers” and get to the meat of it all – those who really want to buy from you.

Because you are exploring multiple content types and writing on different topics, prospective customers will come from left and right.

Depending on the depth of the information, the offer you make, and how concise the content is, these prospective customers will make a personal decision to patronize or not.

Although you will be doing follow-ups, these filtration method helps you to follow up with those who have a higher tendency of buying at the end of the day.

Also read: Best Marketing Tips for Content Creators

Conclusion

Using the content marketing strategy helps small businesses filter prospective customers, saves marketing costs, and establishes the brand’s authority.

To get started, hire the services of a professional content-writing expert. The writer helps create a content strategy for your SME, analyzes the competition, and writes on topics that bring in quality traffic.

The post 7 Reasons to Invest in Content Writing for Small Business appeared first on SME SCOOP.

We will give it to you directly – if you desire to scale a retail business, there are three things you must do. First, you must understand your business’s current appeal and explore how to scale it. Second, you must outsource the little aspects of the business so you can focus on the things that matter. And third, you need to structure the company, i.e., grow it into an LLC.

All those take time, and it cannot be apparent for some entrepreneurs. Therefore, read this article to the end to learn the step-by-step process of scaling your brand.

Step #1: Market Definition is Important

Before you launch the small-scale business, feasibility studies must have been done. At the time, you must have developed a concrete business plan and defined your target market.

Now that you are looking to retail up, it is imperative to go back to the drawing board and see how far you have fared.

Is your target market appreciative of the services rendered so far?

Do you still have the same passion you had when starting the business?

What are some of the current challenges faced currently?

By considering all these factors, you will be able to find loopholes and devise strategic ways to fill them.

The goal is to ensure that your business objectives have been fulfilled. Also, you want to reoptimize your brand concept to fit into the more significant business you are looking to build.

Step #2: Outsource Some Work

Take or leave it – building a great company takes time, money, and strategy. You may have doubled as the CEO and marketer of your brand, but that doesn’t fit into the futuristic brand you are looking to scale up to.

You want to hire more professionals to handle essential tasks while focusing on relationship-building in your industry. Hiring a brand manager may also help you remove your mind from the daily running of the business – of course, in the hands of a professional manager.

Step #3: Scaling a Retail Business Could mean Taking in more Funds

It takes more money to scale an existing business than to build one from scratch. By being in the market for a couple of months or years, you have understood how the market flows and the “big guys.”

Now that you are looking for how to grow your retail business, it may be time to inject more funding into the business. Bootstrapping is perfectly okay if you have the funds to spare. But if you want to spread the risks and get more funding without risking all your own, taking external investors is your best bet.

Consider partnering with:

• Private equity companies
• Angel investors
• Colleagues

Collaborating early can be essential depending on how fast you want to scale. Partnering with any of these investors could mean sharing your retail business ownership.

Step #4: Add a New Product Line & Produce More Variants

You are not just looking to scale a retail business. You also want to expand into a bigger market where established brands are already holding sway.

What can make your retail business outstanding to gain a considerable market share?

Launching a new product line can be the go-to strategy for penetrating the latest market, and we will tell you why. Launching a new product line gives the new market a “different taste of your business.” It is no longer the same type of product they know your brand for.

Doing this makes them curious, and that is what you need – attention. You want the new and existing market to stop and listen for a minute to what you have to offer this time.

But we must warn you; launching a new product line. Here are the tips to ace it:

• Create a new product in the same line. For example, if you have been manufacturing car speakers, it may the time to test how the market will react to home speakers.
• Subsidize your new product, which doesn’t mean selling at a loss. You can create larger and smaller product variations for the wealthy and the low-end consumers. That way, you balance the market’s needs while promoting your product.

Step #5: Invest in Marketing

What is there to see in a scaling retail business if nobody knows about it? Although your existing customers see the brand offhand, you want the same to happen when new customers come across your products.

It requires money, and you want to be strategic with how you spend the marketing budget. Find out where your target market hangs out the most – offline and offline. Use both print and digital media channels, including social media platforms.

Step #6: Don’t Blur out the Bigger Picture

The excitement of scaling a small retail business into an empire in the next few years can be out of this world. One minute, you manage a team of 10 persons with 200 customers; the next day, you are 100-team strong and have thousands of customers in the pipeline.

Nevertheless, you want to keep in mind that scaling a retail business is for the long term. Build something that will be here for many decades, not a “touch and go” kind of business that crashes like a pack of cards when the excitement is over.

Step #7: Invest in Technology

Besides automating your business, using the right tools can help you retail faster. From a Point of Sale (POS) system to accounting software, your retail business needs to invest in technology to scale more quickly.

You also want to look at logistics, Human Resources (HR), marketing systems, and servers (printers and computers inclusive). These technology tools go a long way to simplify how fast your retail business can grow.

Conclusion

The steps involved in scaling a retail business and growing it into a world-class brand are:

• Defining the new market and consolidating on the existing one.
• Outsourcing some essential tasks, especially those that don’t require much of your input.
• Taking in new investments, especially from friends, family, and external investors.
• Adding a new product line.
• Invest more money in marketing and promoting the retail business.
• Being focused on building a brand with a global presence.
• Invest in technology tools to automate the retail business.

With the above steps, you are good to go to move from a small retail business owner to the owner of a globally-present retail brand.

Are there other ideas you have to scale a retail business? Please share them with us in the comment section.

The post How to Scale a Retail Business in 7 Steps appeared first on SME SCOOP.

As a college student, you can niche down and tap into this burgeoning SME market in the US. This article gives you a clear direction on the best small business ideas for college students looking to make money during their studies in the US.

Am I too Young to Start a Business in College?

You are not too young to start a small business in college. In a recent report, Statista hinted that the number of young business owners was 0.27%, which translates to about 270 new entrepreneurs per 100,000 adults in the US.

The report checked the statistics between 2000 and 2021 and discovered that young business owners between the ages of 20 and 34 had a higher chance of starting a business.

Your age range certainly falls within that category, so yes, you can start that small business idea of yours as a college student.

Top 5 Small Business Ideas for College Students

With that being said, let us now look at some of the businesses you can establish with little funds and the potential to make more money over time.

1. Start a Dorm Cleaning Service

You need to live in the dormitory for this business idea to work best, but you may also stand a chance if you live outside. Cleaning the dormitory involves taking care of rooms and tidying the surroundings of the dorms.

Since these are student-dominated areas, they tend to be dirty sometimes, and these students may not have all the time to take care of their surroundings. You can easily tap into this opportunity by getting a small business license and cleaning tools to help you kick-off.

For a start, you may want to do it alone but as the business grows, consider hiring other students to help you. It would help expand the business and get more clients, as you now have more hands to take care of the cleaning jobs.

2. Become a Gig Worker

The gig economy, aka freelancing, allows you to work from any part of the world with just your gadgets (laptops and smartphones). Provided you have a good Internet connection; you can become a freelancer while still in school.

But there are certain factors you want to consider before towing this path. Freelancing can be exhausting, especially when you have more projects to handle and little time to complete them.

Due to your studies, you may want to take fewer gigs, especially the ones that aren’t on an hourly basis. That way, you have a flexible schedule that permits you to work at your pace and earn a decent income.

Several gig-based projects exist today and can be sourced through Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer, and Guru. You also want to become a near-professional in the specific skill to offer optimum services to your clients.

Examples of freelancing gigs or projects are:

• Website development
• Graphics design
• Content writing
• Ghostwriting
• Website design
• Mobile app development

Also read: Top Side Hustles That Can Make You Money Than a Full-Time Job

3. Sign up with Uber Eats

Students need food to survive. From snacks to meals, they need access to a decent dish to keep the worms in the belly happy.

It would help if you considered signing up with Uber Eats or any other food delivery service nearest you. What you would be doing is to help these delivery companies fulfill orders for their clients, in this case, students. You get to earn a specific amount of money for each delivery – and tips, too, if the customers feel like giving you some.

But this isn’t limited to food delivery. If you can run errands for people, you can pretty much fit into any of the markets. From laundry delivery to parcel delivery, you can start your niche-based delivery business in the shortest time possible.

Just find a lucrative niche, one that is in high demand. Find reputable delivery companies within your locality, partner with them, and start delivering these items to their customers on their behalf.

4. Become a Content Creator

Facebook was originally a platform for connecting with friends and family, especially the ones you haven’t seen in ages. Twitter became a hub for active discussions and real-time information across different industries.

With the evolution of the Internet over the years, these platforms have become a hub for content creators. So, who are these content creators? They are individuals that create different informational pieces of information, either in the form of written texts or videos.

The content creation market is extensive, from skit makers to writers and YouTubers. If you are versed in a topic or niche, you can consider becoming a content creator. TikTok has even simplified the process by allowing you to make short videos where you can talk about the things you know.

You can also leverage Instagram and Facebook, and when your page is monetized, you get steady revenue when people interact with your content and the ads served through them.

5. Write for Fellow Students

Have a knack for writing? Are you good at research? You can make a decent income by becoming a researcher for your fellow students. From term papers to essays and assignments, you get to help these students with their academic work and get paid for it.

You, however, want to keep in mind that third-party academic work affiliations aren’t always excellent, as some universities and colleges frown at it. So, be sure that the students you are helping are fully authorized to seek help in that area before working for them.

Conclusion

Being a college student consumes time, costs money, and can be exhausting. However, if you can make out the time, you will be able to start a small business idea as a college student. The ideas in this article are only a few, but they are also one of the easiest to start and scale into a more significant business by the time you graduate.

Running any of these businesses while in school helps you get real-world industry experience, and by the time you graduate from college, you will have the zeal, money, and passion for starting something more prominent.

The post Small Business Ideas for College Students in USA appeared first on SME SCOOP.

The problems of SMEs are far from over. According to various reports, some of the challenges facing today’s SMEs range from mismanagement of finances and the inability to balance the business structures.

If you have all these in place, your worries are almost over. Let us discuss how digital marketing can help expand your Small and Medium Enterprise (SME).

What are You Marketing Digitally?

Digital marketing means using online or digital advertising platforms like Facebook, Instagram and even Search Engines to promote goods and services. It is also a medium for SMEs to generate quality leads and close more sales without having to meet physically.

In today’s digital marketing era, all hands are on deck to explore as many online platforms as possible to generate leads and make sales. Email and affiliate marketing also form a part of digital marketing strategies.

That said, here are some reasons why you want to leverage digital marketing for your SME.

1. Digital Marketing helps You Create Brand Awareness

One of the challenges of running an SME is that you may fold up in the shortest time possible. It is because of the risks associated with managing talents, providing stellar customer service, and dealing with business expansion.

Some small-scale businesses end up closing or reducing their mode of operations within the first five (5) years. To that end, you want to use digital marketing to create brand awareness for your business.

Here are some of the benefits of doing that:

• Creating a brand awareness campaign helps your target audience to understand what your business or company is about.
• It also helps you to help the target audience become familiar with your brand assets, such as the logo, typography, and font.

Creativity with your digital marketing campaigns is also essential because you don’t want to start on the wrong foot.

2. Digital Marketing is Cheaper than Print Advertising

Before the advent of the Internet, the traditional press, including newspapers, radio and television stations dominated the advertising industry. Today, you can use the Internet, including social media platforms, to promote your goods and services.

One of SME’s benefits is that it helps you work within your advertising budget. Depending on your target audience, creativity, and offer, you may spend anywhere between$5 and $20 to generate a lead and make a sale.

When you combine this with email marketing for follow-ups, you spend less on your digital advertising.

3. Digital Marketing helps You Reach Global by Being Local

No matter your location, you can reach as many people as possible via your digital marketing campaigns. If you are in Canada, you can target customers in the UK, or the US, especially if you are running an e-commerce business.

In addition, you can diversify your digital marketing campaigns and generate leads in your locality, including prospective buyers in your state or region.

4. Diverse Your Marketing Budget Across all Platforms

SMEs can now leverage several digital marketing platforms to generate leads and sales. From social media sites like Facebook and Instagram to Search Engines like Google, you can maximize these platforms to your advantage.

One unique thing about this approach is that you can maximize your budget across the platforms. For example, you can use a budget of $100 to test your digital marketing campaigns across these platforms. Adverts on Facebook can be $50, while that of Google can be $50.

By testing these campaigns across all platforms, you can find the platform that generates the most sales and scale the campaigns.

Also read: 

• Low Cost Marketing Strategies for Startups
• How to Market your Business for FREE
• Top Small Businesses to Start with Little Capital

5. Digital Marketing Keeps Your Brand Online 24/7

Traditional business owners close their offices or shops within a specific time. These offices can open early in the morning and close later in the evening, but that is not the case with running a business online.

Since you have an active online presence on your website and social media pages, you tend to keep the brand online all day long. Worthy of mention is that you would need to hire a brand manager to help coordinate the business activities. Hiring a social media manager to help manage social interactions across the brand’s social media platforms is also essential.

6. Competition Analysis is Easier with Digital Marketing

It may seem outdated to walk into your competitor’s retail outlets to inquire about a particular product or service to see if they already offer it. This time, you can analyze your competitors faster simply by leveraging digital marketing.

Here are some of the best ways to go about it:

• SEO Competitor Analysis

Since most brands now have an online presence, including a website, you can use SEO tools to analyze the competition. You get to see the locations they have a massive presence in, their content marketing strategies, and their digital campaigns.

• Make In-Depth Paid Advertising Analysis

You can also use paid advertising and social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google to spy on your competitors. Facebook, for instance, has a dedicated Library that digital marketers can use to get real-time information on the campaigns their competitors are currently running on the platform.

7. Use Digital Marketing to Provide Real-Time Customer Service

Now that your brand is online, you can get real-time access to the customers and attend to their queries similarly.

There have been times when customers turned to Twitter to register their displeasure over their favorite brand’s services. Using these online platforms helps your brand to provide real-time solutions to these customers’ problems, which in turn, helps to reduce your competitors’ chances of winning them over.

Concluding Thoughts: Digital Marketing is Beneficial to SMEs

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) often have a limited budget and continually seek room for expansion. By leveraging the Internet and, by extension, digital marketing techniques, they can build a huge following online and get more people to trust the brand and like to do business with it.

Statista estimates that the United States is leading in the digital marketing industry, with an estimated $566 billion ad spend for 2022 and projected to reach $700 billion by 2025. If you want to get started with digital marketing for your SME, consider using Facebook. As your brand expands and more budget is available, use other platforms like Twitter, Google Ads, and Instagram.

The post Benefits of Digital Marketing for Small and Medium Enterprises appeared first on SME SCOOP.

Before that, you want to remember that generating income online can be done solo or as a group. If you want to work alone, being a freelancer will be the best option. But if you want to build a brand and grow it into a more prominent company, consider partnering with others.

Making money online also comes with its fair share of challenges, ranging from unspecified paychecks to longer working hours and sometimes “nagging clients.” Your persistence and mastery of your skill sets can help you quickly make money online.

This article will show you the significant skill sets you need to know to start making money online.

1. UI/UX Design

User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) have topped the charts recently, following the growing interest in the skill. From the higher pay to work flexibility, becoming a UI/UX designer can help you make money online.

Most people see it as the advanced form of graphics design, and rightly so because it involves the transition from barely making designs to building user-centric interfaces.

2. Blogging

Blogging is as old as the Internet. If you have kept a diary or written some content for future reference, you can make a good blogger.

So, what is blogging? It is simply the process of documenting information in a particular web resource called a blog. As a blogger, you must provide valuable information on specific topics.

Depending on your area of expertise, you can decide to start a blog on home decoration or even focus on making reviews of products.

Blogging is one of the most accessible skills you can learn because it takes a little time to master the basics. As you progress, you get to familiarize yourself with the advanced forms of blogging. Not forgetting the numerous monetization opportunities in blogging.

3. Content Writing

Writing content or articles is one of the skills you can also consider learning. It can bring steady income for you. For example, this blog post you are reading was written by a professional content writer, and he was paid for it.

Note that content writing can sometimes be tricky, especially if you are a newbie in the niche. Here are some quick tips to help you get started.

Focus on a Sub-Niche

Content writing is a broad industry, so you don’t want to start from a generalized perspective. Ever heard about “carving a niche for yourself?” You can do that by choosing a specific sub-niche or aspect of content writing.

SEO content writing is the most popular, and that is because it has to do with optimizing content for Search Engines like Google.

Also read: Best Marketing Tips for Content Creators

As an SEO content writer, you are to write optimized articles for your target keyword. You also want to ensure that the articles are factual and provide information about what the searchers are looking for.

4. Virtual Assistance (VA)

Got time on your hands? Know how to communicate effectively and possibly close a sale? Do you know how to mediate between a business and its customers? If so, you may be able to carve a niche for yourself in the booming Virtual Assistance (VA) market.

As the name implies, it is a type of digital skill permitting you to offer assistance or help “virtually” or online. Your target audience is business owners who either have a busy schedule or want to outsource their client acquisition and retention to someone else.

As much as this skill is essential and can make you money online, it requires some commitment on your part.

Here are some of the things expected of you:

• Task Orientation: You should be willing to undertake tasks and get them completed in the shortest time possible.
• Data Entry: You should be able to enter or compile data or information about your clients’ users. The data can include their names, ages, locations, and occupations.
• Social Media Management: A good Virtual Assistant (VA) should also have a knack for managing social interactions, especially on popular social media platforms. From working a Facebook page to engaging prospects on Twitter and generating leads on LinkedIn, you should be able to do all that.

5. Become a Translator

Do you know how to speak a different language? Maybe, you know how to speak Spanish or French. You can become a translator, helping people convert the original language to other languages.

Worthy of mention is that you can become a translator online by using freelance sites like Upwork and Fiverr to connect to people who need your services.

You must have at least an entry-level skill or expertise in language translation to start.

6. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) means helping people run adverts or generate leads for their businesses using online platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Here are your duties and responsibilities as a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) expert:

• You are identifying the search intent of the users or target audience. It helps you target these users specifically for the products or services they are looking for.
• You are helping your clients come up with an effective SEM strategy.
• Continually test and optimize the adverts to get a lower conversion cost and segment the audience.

7. Amazon Self-Publishing

This skill refers to publishing your books or content on the Amazon platform. The Kindle platform has been dedicated to this purpose.

You can self-publish content or books across different niches, including:

• Business
• Fiction
• Non-fiction
• Marketing

Keep in mind that in-depth research of the target audience before publishing helps you gauge the interest and confirm if the trend is still there to favor you in making sales.

Conclusion

Making money online combines having an in-demand skill, mastering the skill, and leveraging the right platforms to sell those skills and make money. Acquiring the skills in this article will help you start your journey to making your first and subsequent income on the Internet.

The post Best Skills to Learn to Make Money Online appeared first on SME SCOOP.

It is a fantastic time to live in, and you, too, can cash into this opportunity to start a side gig that makes you more money than a full-time job can. This article breaks down the concept of side gigs, their benefits, and the top side gigs you can start today.

What are Side Gigs?

Also called part-time jobs or side jobs, these are the tasks you can take on a temporal basis and get paid. Today, you can become a side gig worker either by using the Internet or going the traditional way – offline.

Side gigs benefit people who have a lot of time to spare and are looking to augment their income.

Let’s talk about some significant side gigs you can start taking today to earn more money than your full-time job can ever pay you.

Online Side Gigs that Pay More Than Full-Time Jobs

To simplify these tasks, we will divide them into online and offline variants. Here are the primary online side gigs you can start taking today.

1. Start a Dropshipping Business

Dropshipping is a business model that involves three persons – the buyer, the seller, and the middleman. Your role is to become the middleman, agent, or intermediary connecting the buyer and the seller.

Shopify lets you start a dropshipping business by helping you set up an online store where you publish your dropshipped products and attach a fair price. Once someone buys from you, contact the original seller to fulfill the order and take your cut or percentage from the transaction.

2. Manage Social Media Platform Profiles for SMEs

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are now tapping into the digital normal of having an online profile or page for their brands. Often, these brands either don’t have enough time to attend to social media interactions or are not experienced in that regard.

Your job as a social media manager is to help these SMEs (and even the established brands) manage their brand’s “social life.” You can help engage the target audience, talk about the brand’s services and attend to queries and complaints in real-time.

3. Start an Online Reselling Business

Buying and selling take place online almost every minute of the day. You tend to see at least five sponsored posts daily on your Facebook Timeline and up to 10 on Instagram. If you are active on Twitter, you can see 15 sponsored posts.

What does this tell you? People are continuously paying to have their services pushed out to a larger audience that may be interested in them.

Likewise, you can model this and start your reselling business using your social media accounts and third-party platforms.

Examples of reselling businesses you can start today are:

• Thrift Shop: You can open an online thrift shop where you promote anything from clothes to used items. eBay is an excellent platform to start this business.
• Domain Flipping: Do you have an eye for detail? Can you spot trends? It may be an opportunity for you to start a domain-flipping Domain flipping means the purchase and sale of domain names. It would help if you knew how this works before getting started.
• Website Flipping: It is similar to domain flipping. But here, instead of buying and selling domain names, you are now selling the entire website. The idea is to buy a domain name, build a website on it, grow the website, and possibly make a brand out of it before selling.

Also read: How Social Media Visibility Can Improve your Business

4. Become a Freelancer

Freelancers make money online by providing services that their clients want. You can do anything from online blog post writing, graphics designing, voice-over and website development.

To get started, you can sign up on Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer.com and Guru.com. If you are looking at getting skilled, consider picking one or more skills on Udemy, ClassCentral, or ALX to get these in-demand skills that pay you more than a full-time job.

Offline Side Gigs that Pay Higher than Full-Time Jobs

Let’s now talk about some side gigs that can make you more money than full-time jobs, even when you do them physically.

Here is the list:

1. Become a Dog Walker

Do you love pets, especially dogs? Here is a side hustle that can pay you more than your traditional job could. Walking a dog entail taking the pet for a stroll and taking care of it.

Start pitching to dog owners in your neighborhood and see if they need your services. You also need to set a price range for your services, so you don’t sell yourself short.

2. Become a Nanny

Moms now have a lot to do. It’s either they are working at the office, needing some good time to take a rest, or taking care of the home. Either way, the fact is that many moms don’t have a lot of time for themselves, and that could tell on their newborns.

If you are good at minding babies, you can opt to become a live-in nanny or take it on a part-time basis, coming in the day and leaving later. You will help these moms concentrate on other things while keeping the babies comfortable and earning a decent income.

3. Start a Daycare

If becoming a nanny seems a bit off for you, why not start a daycare? Your home can be the first day care center; as you expand, consider looking for a bigger space and hiring more childminders.

4. Drive for a Ridesharing Company

Ridesharing companies like Uber and Lyft make money connecting passengers to drivers. Consider signing up with any ride-sharing companies if you have a car or know someone who can let you have one on a lease.

Even when you don’t have a car, you can get into an agreement with someone that does on the amount of money (and frequency) to remit either weekly or monthly.

 Also read: Top 10 Legit Sites for Job Hunting

Final Thoughts

Side gigs are booming right now, and more people are capitalizing on that opportunity to earn a decent income. If you love working online or are Internet-savvy, taking any of the online side gigs is best. Otherwise, consider continuing in the traditional path of taking two or more jobs offline and earning more income than a full-time job can pay you.

Which of these side gigs would you prefer to start and why? Let me know in the comment section.

The post Top Side Gigs That Can Make You More Money Than Full-Time Job appeared first on SME SCOOP.