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One of the toughest challenges for a startup is evaluating various sources of finance and raising the money needed to get going. You are the entrepreneur, and you believe you have a great idea that you can transform into a successful business.

But convincing others of the worth of your idea is no piece of cake. If you are unable to raise capital finances, you might never be able to see your idea become a reality.

It is essential to remember that careful planning is key when you wish to raise finances. You need to:

1. Know exactly how much money is required.
2. Consider the setup costs, the investment needed, working capital, and growth and development.
3. Evaluate how long you need these investments for and what security you can offer.

Assessing Your Sources of Finance

When you have compiled this information, you can check out the different sources of finance available for startups and opt for ones that seem suitable for you.

1. Personal Investment

This one is a given. You have to make some personal investments, which could include your savings or other assets.

You cannot start a business without putting something of your own into it. In addition, others will hesitate to give you money if you don’t contribute. By not investing yourself, you will demonstrate your lack of commitment or even confidence in the venture.

2. Friends and Family

The second step is to reach out to people in your social circle and ask them either to invest or to lend you the money.

This process is often referred to as patient capital, which is money that’s repaid later when the business becomes profitable.

3. Angel Investors

This category refers to retired company executives or wealthy individuals who make direct investments in startups and small firms.

These investors are typically leaders in their respective fields. They contribute by means of their network of contacts and experience and also provide their technical and management knowledge.

However, you should know that in exchange for their investments, angel investors might monitor your startup management practices and might want a say in your business.

4. Venture Capital

This funding source is ideal for tech-based startups that have a high growth potential in communications, information technology, or biotechnology.

The venture capitalists basically invest in your startup in exchange for equity, so you have to share ownership with an external party. Venture capitalists also expect a high return on investment once the business is properly established.

Always look for venture capitalists who have a background in your business’s industry and can bring relevant knowledge and experience.

5. Business Loans

Business loans are the most common source of funding, not only for startups but also for small and medium-sized businesses.

Banks and other financial institutions offer many types of business loans in return for regular interest payments. They will need you to have a solid business plan in place. Your plan should show potential and have numbers to back it up.

Having a good idea is not enough; you need to have evidence to support it. In some cases, banks might ask you for something as collateral, but every situation is different. If you don’t offer collateral, they might charge you a higher rate of interest but this will help you in avoiding bad credit too.

6. Incubators

This term refers to a university, company, or any organization that is willing to provide you with resources for your startup. These resources could include office space, laboratories, marketing, consulting, cash, or anything else you might need.

What do incubators ask for in exchange? They are aware that you are in a vulnerable position, so they will typically demand equity. The reason why is they see a lot of potential in your idea and want to profit from it in the future.

7. Grants and Subsidies

Bringing innovations to light is not always easy. As a result, some government agencies provide support to budding businesses.

Access to this funding allows you to cover different expenses, such as marketing, research and development, equipment, salaries, and improvement in productivity.

Technically, governments give grants to startups unconditionally and you don’t have to repay them. But you cannot use the grant money for any other purpose, or you will be vulnerable to legal action.

Once a government source has provided you with funding and you fulfill the terms of the program, that agency might offer you additional funding in the future.

8. Crowdfunding

As the name indicates, crowdfunding refers to getting funds from a crowd, i.e., the general public. Entrepreneurs typically use this option when developing a product that’s essential to people and not available elsewhere.

There are crowdfunding websites that enable members of the public to pool their funds to help various causes. Every member can contribute as little as $10, and the money can go a long way if many people add to it. Use a good crowdfunding platform, and advertise your cause to get more people to contribute.

Startups can use any of these sources of finance to launch their operations and offer quality products and services to people.

Managing money is one of the most important parts of any business, whether big or small. If a company wishes to survive in the midst of tough industry competition as well as a volatile and uncertain economy, it needs to implement proper finance management.

Small businesses, in particular, need to be cautious from the get-go when managing their finances because they don’t have a cushion to fall back on.

Having a good idea is not enough to run a business. You need to have a proper financial structure that can actually generate a profit in the long term. You cannot afford to make rudimentary mistakes. Even one of them could potentially end your business.

So how should you navigate the tricky and dangerous financial waters? Listed below are some great finance management tips that can assist small businesses with their monetary challenges.

Help Your Finance Management with a Realistic Budget

Most of the time, people see making a financial budget as a chore, and an unnecessary one at that. They consider it nothing more than regular paperwork.

In reality, having a budget can make or break your business in the long run. Having a budget, especially a realistic one, is essential because it tells you how you can move forward financially.

The purpose of your budget is not to lock you into any decisions. Rather, it serves as a guide to making them. A budget can also come in handy for finding out if your projected levels of income justify the expansion and growth plans of your business.

The budget helps to identify which aspects of your business you need to push harder and where you should cut back in order to maintain your desired level of spending.

Keep Personal and Business Finances Separate

You should never treat your personal and business finances as one component. A lot of small business owners don’t realize the importance of keeping these two areas separate until it is too late.

You need to keep all your business expenditures separate from your personal ones. Doing so enables you to keep track of your outlays and control them when necessary.

You should also have a separate bank account so that you can make and receive payments without muddling your personal accounts.

Maintain Your Working Capital Levels

Even the most profitable businesses will eventually face insolvency if they don’t have sufficient levels of working capital.

Working capital is essentially the money you use for dealing with the day-to-day expenses that come with running a business.

How will you buy more inventory or pay your staff if you don’t have any money? If you are running short on cash, you can always apply for working capital loans.

These loans are easy to obtain and don’t require any collateral. You can get them quickly and fix your working capital issues in order to avoid bankruptcy.

Opt for Cloud Computing Solutions

According to the latest reports, a large number of small businesses have opted to use finance management solutions based in the cloud.

These platforms lower the barriers to entry in the market because they are either free or available at a very low cost. It turns out that using technology for a job is more cost-effective than hiring additional employees is.

Moreover, you don’t need a lot of technical expertise to use these cloud-based solutions because they have a small learning curve.

Avoid Unnecessary Spending

One of the best finance management tips for a small business is to cut costs and avoid unnecessary spending as much as possible.

You might be tempted to buy the best furniture or get the best machine. But it is better to focus on getting the business off the ground before you make any major investments that can blow a hole in your budget.

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For companies to grow, effective digital marketing strategies are key. With each increase in customer base, the marketing becomes more complex and requires new ways to help users stay engaged.

Every company could benefit from tools to market, measure, and optimize its efforts. This is true whether it is managing web traffic, automating repetitive tasks, or collecting data regarding email or promotional campaigns.

Depending on the business and the marketing strategy, parting with some cash for marketing tools might be the right decision.

However, for many, a tight budget necessitates tools that offer free, robust features and high-quality capabilities. These five free tools offer everything a company needs to stay on top of its digital marketing strategies.

IFTTT

IFTTT (If This Then That) is a platform that helps businesses do more with various apps and devices. This tool allows companies to streamline workflow based on triggered events. Choose from more than 4,000 events, or set up your own.

Once you set a trigger event, you can forget about it. IFTTT automates it for you from then on. For example, every time you create a blog post, you can choose either to automatically share it on Facebook or to generate a Tweet.

You can also use IFTTT to retweet a particular #hashtag, making it easy to foster buzz around a promotional campaign.

Hootsuite

Every company knows how important social media scheduling is for digital marketing.Click To Tweet Let’s face it—no one has the time to be on every account constantly posting fresh content. With Hootsuite, you can manage every account in one place.

A company can schedule posts for the future in order to remain relevant and stay engaged with its social communities without being stuck at a desk.

Hootsuite offers not only automated scheduling but also content curation, social media analytics, and app integration. Convenience and ease all in one place goes a long way.

SurveyMonkey

We’ve all had to make buying decisions for the bedroom that required filtering through thousands of bits of research in order to confidently make the right choice.

If this universal experience has taught us nothing else, it’s the importance of collecting data to understand how to move forward in the best possible way.

If you don’t have the resources to get data on customers by hiring a market research firm, SurveyMonkey could be the tool for you.

This robust platform is a survey and questionnaire tool, allowing companies to design and send surveys to an email list. It also allows you to utilize SurveyMonkey’s analytics tool to evaluate the answers.

You can send out surveys via email, chat, web, or social media. And you can extract actionable data from survey responses in order to discover ways to drive business forward.

The good news is the tool has expert-reviewed templates available to ensure any questions you create aren’t skewed by ineffective phrasing.

SurveyMonkey also offers survey tips for companies who prefer to create a more customized template. Templates include customer satisfaction surveys, marketing or market research surveys, and planning surveys for preparing to launch a new product or service.

There are many Surveymonkey alternatives you can learn about if this isn’t the tool you are looking for.

Traffic Travis

This tool is an excellent option for those with no SEO knowledge or experience. Proper search engine ranking makes it easier to know where you need to particularly focus.

Traffic Travis lets a company check the health of its website, keeping an eye on where the site appears in the rankings for selected keywords. Companies can also analyze how other sites are performing according to those same keywords.

By keeping tabs on your competitors, it’s easier to spot keywords that you should target. Traffic Travis also uncovers technical mistakes that might be affecting a company’s ranking.

For example, the tool highlights whether a page contains too many unrelated tags or if an image is missing an alt tag.

Trello

While this isn’t a tool directly related to marketing per se, Trello allows companies to market more effectively by remaining organized.

Trello’s site showcases individuals utilizing the tool to organize anything from kitchen and bedroom decisions to an upcoming vacation. Businesses can create boards that can be shared with the team.

You can also use these boards to track the progress of various marketing projects. Move a board from idea to to-do, doing, and then done. Along the way, you can add comments, upload files, create checklists, and add due dates.

You can also divvy up tasks by simply dragging and dropping people into each particular section while still allowing everyone to see the same board and the whole project at once.

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It is important for every business, regardless of its size, to run its operations as effectively as possible.

This is why project management is critical. Project management sounds easy. Just implement project management software and keep track of the projects, and you are on track. But it’s not!

Successful project management requires a team of individuals with different talents and skills who can plan and execute projects seamlessly.

The Project Management Institute’s Pulse of the Profession report found that around 89% of high-performing organizations value project management.

By not investing in it, organizations are wasting an average of US$97 million for every US$1 billion invested. This is a significant decline (20%) compared to the $122 million wasted for every $1 billion in 2016.

Moreover, according to the Project Management Survey 2017 by KPMG, 80% of organizations are using more than one project management methodology.

In 2017, more projects are meeting original goals, and companies are completing them within budget.

If you want to make your organization successful, implementing project management is a must. Here is how project management can help your business grow.

1. Prevent Cost Overruns

The biggest challenge that organizations face is completing a project within the assigned budget. In most cases, the actual costs of the project turn out to be much higher than the estimated costs.

The reason why is mainly because most companies fail to execute the project estimation process. They therefore fail to consider all possibilities when creating the budget.

A project is not successful if it exceeds the estimated cost, even if a team delivers it on time.Click To Tweet Cost management is, therefore, important.

Cost managment is the process of estimating, allocating, and controlling costs in a project. It is an important element of project management, and companies should implement it at the conception level.

3 Strategies

In order to control the cost, project managers should consider the following:

• Continuous Budget Forecast: Managers need to continually review the budget to make sure the project stays within the estimated financial plan. Continuous forecasting helps managers to control small budget overruns and keep spending in check.
• Resource Usage Forecast: Regular resource usage forecasts help managers track the people working on a project and ensure maximum utilization of the resources. Having more people working on a project than necessary increases costs significantly.
• Manage Scope of the Project: The scope of the project often changes and these shifts are one of the major reasons for cost overrun. Project managers should constantly review the scope of the project and create change orders to ensure extra funding whenever necessary.

A crucial part of business where managers can cut costs is purchasing. A unified procurement platform such as SMART by GEP can help project managers integrate all sourcing and payment processes.

It can help them analyze compliance tracking, analyze spending in relation to other business functions, and discover opportunities to drive more savings. At the end of the day, every business needs to consider the bottom line in every decision it makes.

2. Have a Competitive Advantage

Most companies view project management as a process to gain control over on-going tasks. But they do not realize they can use project management to create a competitive advantage as well.

The question is how? Project management offers measurable results. So you get to know exactly where you stand and what you need to do in order to surpass your competitors.

The problem with most organizations is that they rely on historical financial data rather than forward-looking indicators. In this age of cut-throat competition, stakeholders demand quick improvements.

Companies can guarantee improvements only through correct performance measures and a structured project management approach.

Project management helps you accurately measure your most important metrics, such as budget, schedule, scope, customer satisfaction, quality assurance, risks, and ROI.

When they know exactly where they stand, project managers are in better positions to answer the questions of senior management, customers, and stakeholders. Through project management, you can ensure greater transparency and instill a sense of trust among stakeholders and customers.

Take the case of Intel. Project management was always part of their business management, but they were not committed to it wholeheartedly.

In the past, it was common for Intel to miss deadlines and struggle to meet customer satisfaction. There was a time when the average IT project duration at Intel was 88 weeks. Delivery dates had to be pushed back by a quarter or more in several instances.

Upon realizing how harmful it would be to continue in this manner, the IT department implemented the Project Management Office (PMO).

Since the implementation of the PMO, the company has seen a steady increase in the number of projects. At the same time, the budget remained steady and project delivery improved significantly. Intel is now one of the most well-known technology companies in the world.

3. Manage Changes Effectively

Changes are inevitable in any project. Often project managers finalize plans, but the scope continues to change.

Changes in scope occur due to a number of reasons, such as fluctuations in the market and user needs. Sometimes employees need to make changes in order to meet the objective of the project.

If the changes are not implemented properly, the team members might feel lost or there can be massive cost and time deficits.

For all of these reasons, the changes need to be quantified, analyzed, prioritized, and then implemented in the project.

Change management is the process that helps teams create strategies to implement the required changes at any level of the project.

How It Goes

The change management process includes the following steps:

• Receiving information about the change
• Assessing the change—this includes evaluating how much time a change will take or how much extra money you will need
• Preparing recommendations
• Getting approval from higher authorities
• Utilitizing advanced (but simple-to-use) project management systems, such as Workzone

Such project managment systems go beyond the basic commenting abilities of Basecamp and Trello. They allow project managers to capture change requests and implement them systematically.

Workzone’s approval-based workflow lets you monitor requests, record changes, and send alerts to appropriate team members. Gantt charts give a clearer view of dependencies and timeframes.

Change doesn’t just apply to a single project. It can impact an entire organization. For example, you might be running an ecommerce business and thinking about using third-party logistics.

If so, then treating the implementation of warehousing and shipping processes as a project will help. You simply analyze the risks, choose which organization to work with, and make the switch at the right time.

Satisfy users’ needs, create products that are appropriate for the current market, and cut costs. By doing so, you can ensure growth and success for your organization.

4. Bring Agility Within the Organization

In today’s fast-paced business environment, teams are under constant pressure to earn good revenue, satisfy customer needs, and build a brand that people can easily recognize.

In order to achieve business goals and stay competitive, companies must adopt agile development practices.Click To Tweet This is because agile development ensures faster development, better quality and cost control, higher revenue, and better risk management.

Common agile frameworks, such as Scrum and Prince2, help organizations introduce agility within the development teams. But the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) that Dean Laffingwell created is built to synchronize collaboration and delivery where multiple agile teams are involved.

While agile methods sound easy on paper, implementation is a different ball game. Training is what separates the successful project managers from the ones who fail.

Knowledgehut offers an instructor-led SAFe certification that is ideal for organizations looking to quickly implement agile/lean practices at all levels and help clients across verticals.

By adopting an agile framework, organizations can turn wins into processes and set the stage for rapid growth.

In Conclusion

The success and growth rate of an organization depend on its level of efficiency and productivity. Project management can help companies improve both to a great extent.

Regardless of the phase your business is in at the moment, project management practices can mean the difference between its success and failure.

Whether you improve your resource utilization, productivity measuring, budget performance, or customer satisfaction, project management can be a one-stop solution for you.

I hope your find this article useful and are inspired to implement or upgrade your project management system.

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Most business owners are not writers, yet a website needs content. How do you get around this dilemma?

Think **around** the brick wall.

Content writing is so much more than writing blog posts.

Neil Patel gives an excellent definition of content marketing – it’s all about telling stories. And you can tell stories in 1,007 different ways.

Jackie Pearce talks about using stories in your marketing on GrowMap.com here.

A Content Audit

Before you start adding any new content, you need to check what you have already. Outdated articles will increase your bounce rate and negatively affect visitors’ value judgments.

Ryan Stewart has a free content audit template that will help you decide what to keep on your website.

If a page gets traffic from Google, you need to keep that page. But if it has a high bounce rate, you will need to improve the page’s quality.

Content Audit Success: A Step-by-Step Guide [Videos]

Non-Written Content

Words only work for some people. Most people (65%) remember facts better if you include a relevant image.

Videos, infographics, photos, memes, and slide shows are all easier to view on mobile devices than pages of text are.

Screenshot source

Video content works, whether you embed it on your site or use YouTube. Live video on Facebook will appeal to many customers.

Use video to tell your story. Put a brief video on your About page, so people see and hear you rather than just seeing your photo.

Never set your videos to play automatically. If people are viewing your site from a work environment, the last thing they need is your auto-play video booming your voice all over the office without any warning.

Always use a transcription service, so your site visitors have the option of reading what was said rather than watching the video.

Podcasts are another non-writing medium to consider. A regular audio podcast is especially useful for building a loyal following when your marketing message is not a visual one.

You could then use each podcast episode (complete with transcription) as a blog post. Audio podcasting has a low start-up cost because all you need is a $50 microphone.

Both video and audio add another element of trust for customers. They see or hear you and can use visual and audio cues to form a better judgment of you and your business.

Infographics take a lot of energy to create, but are worthwhile because of the increase in user interaction they give you.

Be careful to make your infographic simple to understand. Avoid large blocks of text, and use color combinations that are easy on the eye.

It is better to outsource your infographic production because DIY graphics are often terrible.

Photos attract visitors’ eyes if they are of real people. Stock images and manipulated photos are widely ignored.

Having images just to break up your text is an inefficient use of your web page, so replace those images with your own photos. But you need lots of images, and they all need to be relevant.

Use graphics such as bar charts to illustrate points. Use relevant quotations, especially humorous ones, where you can.

Written Content

You still need words on your page.

Some visitors do prefer written content because they can skim it faster than they can watch a video.

If you can’t write your own content, then you will need to farm it out to freelancers. Even paying an employee to spend four hours a week writing blog posts is very expensive compared to typical freelancing rates for high-quality writing.

Forget cheap writers. When you pay low rates, you will get a random series of words that make no sense, even to the “writer.”

Pay a fair price for the work and build a relationship with one or two writers. Then they can come to understand your business and turn in better articles over time.

It’s All in the Brief

Unique content is not enough: everything on your website must engage readers on an emotional level.Click To Tweet

Every piece of content must have a purpose, solve a customer problem, grow your reputation, or provide a resource to which others will link.

Content for its own sake is just more internet clutter that people will never see. You must tell your writer what you want her to write.

Tell her your purpose behind each article. Doing so will force you to think about and justify each piece of content. Provide a provisional title, subject, and an angle that relates to your customers’ needs.

TL; DR

Video, other visual content, and podcasts have already left written content in the dust. Everyone needs more visual marketing and fewer written words.

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Patience is a virtue, but when it comes to technology, my patience is limited. If what I am doing takes even a few seconds more than I expected it to, I’m likely to move on pretty quickly.

For example, I recently signed up for a new app. I would describe myself as a moderately interested user: I was willing to try it.

Before long, the app introduced an update, which caused problems with logging in. I received an email from the company apologizing and promising to resolve the issue. But even after I tried their steps to take care of the problem, I still couldn’t log in. Being only moderately interested in the first place, I stopped using the app.

User experience is critical. When building your WordPress site, it should be as easy to use (and as appealing to look at) as possible.

Supporting Data

You probably already know that online users value ease of use as well as strong aesthetics. HubSpot, however, has gathered data demonstrating the importance of those qualities.

If a site has trouble loading, 39% of users will stop engaging with it, as will 38% if it is ugly.

Did you know that there is certain information visitors want to be able to find on your site? Fifty-one percent of users believe that company contact info is not detailed enough, and 44% will leave the site if that info is completely absent.

After arriving on the homepage, over half of visitors want to view the “About Us” section. I resonate with this stat in particular. When browsing the web, I constantly check that section to determine the nature of the sites I visit.

And this is not even to mention the importance of optimizing your site for mobile.

Platform and Hosting

There are various website building platforms you can choose from, but there are reasons why WordPress is one of the most popular options. Not only is it free, but it is easy for beginners to use, and it also has a great support community. Most of the themes are mobile/tablet friendly, and it works well with sites of different sizes. Once you know how to use WordPress, you will see how useful it is

After choosing your platform, it is key that you select a quality web hosting service. Your decision here will impact your user experience, SEO, conversions, and sales. Some of the services that provide the best web hosting for WordPress are:

• Bluehost
• HostGator
• SiteGround
• iPage
• DreamHost

These solutions are reliable and extremely affordable, with some only costing a few dollars per month.

Themes and Plugins

After you’ve installed WordPress, your next step will be choosing a theme. The theme that is best for you will really depend on the purpose of your website. Are you an ecommerce business? Are you primarily concerned with blogging and getting content in front of your readers? Or are you a freelancer or business owner who wants to feature your work to prospective clients?

In the first case, your primary goal is conversions or sales. In the second, your focus is content. And in the third, you want to be hired or for people to sign up for your services. Make sure the theme you choose supports the purpose of your site.

For best optimization, you also need to make sure your themes are mobile friendly. Do your research ahead of time to make certain they are and also that they are coded well.

In addition to themes, you’ll want to select your site’s plugins. You can get a plugin for just about anything you might want to do, from creating pop-ups and map routes, to maintaining security or managing your SEO.

WordPress.org has over 49,000 plugins from which you can choose, some free and some not. Remember to be purposeful with your choices. If you go crazy getting tons of plugins, you’ll slow your site down. But individual plugins can also be slow. You might consider getting a plugin that can monitor the overall performance of your site, including your other plugins.

Content and Customization

Next, create the particular pages you want for your site, as well as any content you would like to add.

Remember, as we noted earlier, the About Us page is very important to users, as is finding your contact information. HubSpot also reports that when people land on your home page, 86% expect to learn about your product.

Forty-seven percent of them will look at that information before going elsewhere on your website. Statistics also show that the navigation is important to visitors and that 36% of them expect your logo to take them to your home page.

So it is extremely important to make sure your site’s layout meets your goals and to know your users’ expectations.

Once you’ve added pages with content, you can customize your design to be on-brand, clean, and beautiful.

Other Caveats

Images can make your site speed extremely slow. Make sure you resize and compress them using sites such as compresspng.com or compressjpeg.com.

Don’t let deleted content collect in the trash. If you have six revisions of a post saved on the site, it will take up six times the amount of space that one draft will. Pingbacks, trackbacks, and spam comments can also slow you down. Configure your settings to prevent yourself from losing unnecessary space.

Other steps you can take to minimize your site’s loading speed are:

• Don’t use official social media buttons and widgets
• Use Gzip compression
• Minimize Javascript and CSS
• Try browser caching and a cache plugin
• Consider a content delivery network

Know Your Strategy Ahead of Time

Before you get excited about building something new, you need to have a clear idea of your objectives. You should know your audience members and what you want them to do on your site.

And even if you think you have a good idea of your goals, it never hurts to re-evaluate where you are. I know of a 10-year-old startup that just recently re-examined its marketing strategy and found the process helpful. The more refined and coherent your plan is, the more effective it will be.

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It’s a common saying: the customer is always right.

It’s not hard to see why this expression became popular. Saying the customer is always right seems to emphasize the high standards of any company that would follow this motto. Contradicting this idea seems to imply that businesses should focus on themselves over those they are supposed to be serving.

But some would argue that any company making it a habit to listen to its customers over its employees has misplaced its priorities.

Of course your customers are important. Your product or service ought to be one that benefits the people who trust you enough to give you their money. But recognize that satisfied and reliable employees will work that much harder to serve the customers.

If you’ve done your due diligence during the hiring process, then you should have a competent and trustworthy staff. If you do not, you might re-evaluate how you go about assessing and selecting potential hires.

Valuing Your Employees Is Essential

But simply hiring the right people isn’t enough. You need to be able to trust them, yes, but investing in them is important as well. If you cultivate your employees, making them feel valued and helping them do their jobs better, you will by default maximize their productivity.

If you undermine your employees, make it obvious you don’t trust them, and always listen to the customer’s word over theirs, you will demoralize your staff.

I know of a lady who had years of experience working retail at a particular shop. She noticed that people were frequently buying items and bringing them back broken. They would get their money back for the item, but still leave with their original purchases. They were exploiting the store’s return policy and getting the merchandise for free, albeit slightly damaged.

After observing this situation for some time, the associate finally refused to accept a return from one such customer. Instead of even taking time to hear her side of the story before he made a decision, her boss dismissed her concerns right in front of the customer. He followed “the customer is always right” motto to his own loss, both in merchandise and in a trustworthy employee. After that, the associate left the company.

How you show your employees you value them and keep them from leaving is limited only by your creativity. We’ve actually already covered one way you can do so: trusting them. Here are three more suggestions for how to demonstrate that you value your employees.

1. Build Time for “Non-Work” into the Workweek

One of the strengths of American culture is valuing hard work. A corresponding weakness is that Americans tend to be bad at resting well.

It is very easy for us to work ourselves into the ground, a practice that has harmful results for both our health and our personal lives. Entrepreneur contributor Daniel Wesley reports that working too many hours at the office actually increases people’s risk of heart disease. While individuals are primarily responsible for their own care, there are ways that as an employer you can encourage positive habits in those under your leadership.

One way you might do so is by setting aside a short period of time every week when you and your employees can relax and do activities not directly related to work. I used to work at a nonprofit. During the last hour of the day on Friday, we would all stop what we were doing, have some refreshments, and participate in a thought-provoking discussion. This hour was a welcome break from the daily routine, and I always appreciated it.

2. Help Them Establish Healthy Eating Habits

Another habit you could encourage is healthy eating. The Harvard Business Review observes that what we eat directly impacts how productive we are.

It’s common knowledge that eating fatty, unhealthy food makes people sluggish. A lack of energy is just one of the many negative side effects that arise from consuming unwholesome foods. But while it is easy to know this, many of us struggle to eat well—particularly given how busy we are.

I always get hungry between breakfast and lunch, as well as during the midafternoon. It helps me to have healthy finger foods available during those times. Try to make healthy snacking easier than unhealthy snacking by providing your employees with healthy tasty snacks in the workplace.

The ROI for providing snacks might not be immediately apparent to you. But because workers with poor eating habits become less efficient and productive, you’re still making an investment in your company.

If you don’t have the budget to purchase snacks for your workers, see if you can at least educate them regarding foods that are both convenient and good for them. Another option is encouraging the employees themselves to take turns bringing healthy snacks into work.

3. Be Thoughtful and Sincere

It’s important to communicate to your employees that you value them and care about developing them. This advice might seem obvious. But as I mentioned earlier, toxic work environments occur far too often. A positive office culture is not easy to achieve, even if it is easy to describe.

Make sure that giving sincere, positive, and constructive feedback is one of your priorities. Take time to give your employees thorough and honest evaluations, and make sure that you’re the one who communicates the feedback to them.

A friend of mine recently had a work review. The woman who presented the results to her was someone with whom she almost never interacted and who was unfamiliar with the workings of her office. This was a poor move on the company’s part. The person communicating the results lacked credibility to speak into my friend’s performance, however accurate the feedback might have been.

Cultivate Your Assets

Managing people is difficult. My hat is off to anyone who is in the position of doing so. But as you navigate the challenges of running a business, remember that your employees are one of your most important assets. Cultivating them can only benefit your clients and your company as a whole.

“People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. It doesn’t make any difference whether the company’s product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps.” – Mary Kay Ash, founder, Mary Kay Cosmetics

Running a business successfully is a lot more than just tallying up the monthly balance sheet or having a great-looking website. Companies are driven by human beings who put real ideas, feelings and emotions into doing their jobs to the best of their abilities.

When employees are generally unhappy or not being rewarded for their efforts, productivity and efficiency can sink to an all-time low.  Here’s what you can do to make sure you don’t find yourself at the receiving end as a business owner.

1. Encourage Employees to Relax

Studies indicate that employees who pay attention to their physical activity and fitness level are not only high performers, but generally have a very positive outlook on their work and office environment.

You should encourage employees to stretch regularly, take breaks from time to time and even engage in simple yoga moves as part of the workday. Sitting at a desk all day or staring at a PC screen for several hours on end can seriously affect productivity.

Ask everyone to get up and move around every 1-1.5 hours just to keep the juices flowing. Right before lunch hour or after meetings, you can have a quick yoga or aerobic routine. In addition, you can also encourage everybody to pursue an active lifestyle outside of work by sitting down and discussing ideas to stay in shape.

Some employers have gone as far as to dedicate an entire floor to gym and fitness equipment. However, make sure this does not end up being tedious or forceful. Also, make sure to take proper precautionary measures to avoid workplace injuries, including slips and falls.

2. Identify “Motivation Killers” – Get Rid of ’em!

You need to give this one careful thought – what are the underlying factors that are killing employee motivation? After all, if there’s little motivation, there’s going to be limited productivity or in some cases, none at all.

A good leader is also a keen observer. He/she will be quick to identify problems that are having adverse effects on employee productivity and efficiency. The usual suspects in this case may include:

• toxic and abrasive personalities – people who are quick to propagate negativity in the workplace
• lack of professional development and advancement
• no organizational vision or long-term goals
• no appreciation or positive feedback mechanism
• poor communication channels

You need to identify all such issues with an open mind and find ways to address them in a highly positive way that’s also rewarding for employees.

3. Technology is Your Friend, as are Telecommuting Privileges

Not leveraging technology can be a grave mistake. There are a number of apps and tools available today that boost workplace productivity. Asana, for example, is one collaborative app that can lead to increased employee productivity, particularly if they’re required to communicate between different office setups.

For a fact, some workers do better when they are allowed to work from locations they are generally more comfortable with, such as their homework setup. For others, traveling can be expensive and/or time-consuming, so consider telecommuting, which can also boost productivity, according to this Harvard Business Report study.

However, make sure to explain all new technologies properly so that there is no rejection. Employees often feel anxious about new ideas; you must take steps to reduce this anxiety. This can be done by answering questions or providing tutorials.

4. Effective Communication Is Key

It’s no secret that open lines of communication lead to a highly productive workforce. Thanks to technology, we can communicate with each other at the touch of a button, or rather at the flick/tap of a finger, in some cases.

One would be inclined to believe that communication is efficient at all times, right? Not quite; one study found that too many emails, for example, can consume nearly 30% of an employee’s time.

Now we certainly don’t have anything against email; it is still one of the most effective forms of communication if used appropriately. However, if quick team communication is needed, a tool like Slack is better than just email. Or if you feel that a brief conversation can better resolve a matter rather than going back and forth with emails, go for it!

5. Set Clear Goals and Expectations

Do you honestly expect employees to be efficient if they don’t know what they’re aiming for?

• Step one: define clear goals.
• Step two: know what is expected of employees.

Without this formula, your employees may be shooting in the dark, focusing on mundane and redundant tasks day after day, eventually becoming less productive.

Try the SMART system: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely. Click To Tweet

Before assigning tasks, see if those tasks fit each one of the above requirements. If they don’t, determine ways to tweak those tasks so that workers stay efficient, productive and focused.

Additionally, make sure your employees know how to keep track of time and work hours. Overworked employees will be more stressed and much less productive.

That covers it! Take the above into consideration and arm your workforce with the tools they need to be more productive.

Data is a company’s biggest asset. Should it ever be compromised, the repercussions can be plentiful.

If you don’t protect company data, you could lose hundreds of dollars, your reputation, and, in some instances, your business.

As you hear about data breaches from big companies, the news likely alarms you.

You wonder how you can protect your company from the same. Below are a few suggestions for how to keep your assets from being jeopardized.

1. Assess What Needs Protection

What information do you need to protect? Some types of info might include:

• • • Customer data
    • Company financial records
    • Marketing plans
    • Trade secrets
    • Employee records
    • Client contracts

2. Determine to Store Your Data

Where you currently store your data can tell you a lot about how secure it is. For instance, if you store your information in the cloud, you might want to consider investing in software that enhances cloud security.

This software will not only secure your data but also back it up in case it becomes compromised for reasons beyond your control.

3. Put Protections in Place

You now know what needs protection. Your next step is to employ procedures that will help you to put protections in place.

The safeguards listed below are measures you can take in the office to ensure the safety of your company’s assets.

WebAuth aka Web Authentication is a security method for authenticating online users on a website using a FIDO security protocol.

Encryption

Encrypt files and data that are transmitted via email or stored in the cloud. Encrypting your documents will translate them into codes.

Only those who have permission and the correct passwords will be able to decipher the documents.

Password Protections

When it comes to accessing company databases and software, strong password creation is vital.

You should ensure that your passwords are unique and not easily identifiable by someone from outside your company.

And you might need to change your passwords frequently, especially when employees leave your organization.

Passkey authentication is a security measure that relies on passkeys to simplify access and secure login.

Secure Payment Portals

Does your business presently collect consumer cardholder information? If so, it is imperative that you are utilizing secure payment portals to keep this information safe.

Data Backup

There are several ways to backup company data. You can save it to another space on the computer, use an external hard drive, or work with a data center.

Come up with an adequate procedure for your backups. Your procedure should include how frequently you do your backups and what measures you will use to do so.

Additional Protections

Ensure you have the best anti-virus software, firewalls, and intrusion detection in place.

These will ward off a lot of cyber threats that are out there that could compromise your assets.

4. Training

Internal factors, particularly ill-informed employees, can compromise company assets.

Employees who are unaware of the risk factors involved with company data breaches and how to prevent them can heighten company vulnerabilities.

You could be at risk if employees access information on a Wi-Fi network or leave software open for others to manipulate.

Even losing a company phone could be dangerous. It is essential you provide consistent training on how to protect company data so that your employees are always informed.

Make sure your training includes an agreement form for employees to sign. The form should state they’ve taken the training, understand the risks, and will abide by the policies and procedures set forth in it.

This contract removes some of the liability from your firm and also provides peace of mind.

5. Plan for the Worst Case Scenario

Despite your planning and preparation, there is still the possibility that your company assets could be compromised.

It is beneficial to have a plan in place to retrieve this information and restore confidence in your business.

Having a backup plan will also minimize the blow to your company, vendors, and customers.

• • • Identify what data has been compromised and how this loss will impact your company and/or clients.
    • Change your passwords, servers, and storage methods to prevent further intrusions.
    • Assess how the breach happened. Was it internal or external?
    • Contact a data security company to determine how you can prevent future breaches.
    • Collaborate with law enforcement agencies if necessary.
    • If the data breach will impact them directly, notify your customers.
    • Offer assistance as best you can in securing customers’ identities. You should inform clients of the need to contact their credit card companies, as well as three major credit bureaus.
    • Assure customers that you have resolved the matter, and explain how you will protect their information going forward.
    • If necessary, be prepared to offer your customers restitution for their losses.

It goes without saying that in the last few years alone there have been an alarming amount of company data breaches.

These have directly impacted customers, as well as the reputations of the firms who have been hacked.

The best move you can make to protect your company from suffering the same fate is to plan and prepare.

Nothing is foolproof, and threats are constantly changing. But being prepared ahead of time minimizes your risks and, at the very least, ensures that you’re ready should a breach occur.

If you have not yet taken the proper steps to protect company data, be sure to take action now before it’s too late.

Additional Resources

• • • 5 Cybersecurity Best Practices for Small Businesses
    • 6 Cyber Security Measures Your Business Needs for Protection
    • Minimizing Your Vulnerability to Online Security Risks
    • Key IT Security Considerations When Choosing Your Technology Partner
    • How to Create a Password Convention for Memorable Passwords

In affiliate marketing, high ranking quality content does not matter if customers are not enticed to click the affiliate link. At the end of the day, affiliate marketing is about making sales and earning commissions to compensate for the effort you put into building a website, promoting it to the right audience, and producing compelling content.

The problem is that it is not always easy to include an affiliate link in your content without being spammy or sounding salesy. Remember that you need your content to flow naturally; abruptly adding an affiliate link can disrupt the reading experience of your audience and cause them to lose trust.

However, by writing product reviews, it is a lot easier to include affiliate links naturally. After all, reviews are built specifically to encourage readers to check out the product for themselves. But you need to write convincing reviews that will spark the interest of your readers. Below are some strategies that you need to remember in order to write effective product reviews.

Be as Exhaustive as Possible

One of the biggest mistakes in affiliate marketing is adding the affiliate link too early or not having enough content to “warm up” readers. First of all, remember that more content means higher rankings in SERPs. According to research done by serpIQ on the average content length of the top 10 search results, the 1^st place usually has 400+ more words than 10^th place.

The reason why is that, on top of providing quality content, the highest ranking pages have a lot more to offer web crawlers. Web crawlers are bots that search engines such as Google send to index web pages.

From the point of view of your readers, learning more about a product increases their confidence in making an investment. You need to build value with your content first if you want people to be interested in you and be more likely to convert. Furthermore, providing in-depth details about a product shows that you know what you’re talking about and improves your credibility.

Empathize with Your Readers

Remember that the actual product review must be relatable and believable to your audience. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and write about the problem the product is trying to solve—not the product itself. Focus above all on building trust, keeping in mind that your job is to write a review, not an endorsement.

It is a good idea to test out the product yourself so you can offer personal insights and share your firsthand experience with it. Don’t forget to include practical, out-of-the-box tips to further increase the authenticity of your review.

You should not be afraid to use a conversational tone since your audience wants opinions from an actual person. Try not to obsess over formality and just write as you would when writing to a friend.

Be as Objective as Possible

Millennials, and particularly members of Generation Z, can tell from a mile away if a review is biased. That is why your review needs to be as objective as possible. Talk about the product in detail, rather than making shallow descriptions taken right from the product page. Stick to the point and avoid making side comments about the seller.

To stir up interest in your product, focus on its benefits and what they mean for your audience rather than reiterating specific product features. But remember, there’s no such thing as a perfect product, and your audience knows that there isn’t.

Mention ALL the Pros and Cons

When it comes to being objective, you should leave no stone unturned and explore every possible aspect of your product. For example, which specific group of users benefits from a particular feature? How can a certain con affect the overall performance of the product and what can users do to avoid that problem?

A good example of this kind of impartiality is this SiteGround review from Marketever. Aside from thoroughly discussing the pros and cons of SiteGround, Marketever also did a wrap-up that lists the key takeaways from the entire review. This strategy is an excellent way to end a review since it helps readers with the decision-making process. You can achieve this effect with the use of online marketing tools.

Use Add-Ons or Plugins for Conversion Optimization

You need to be familiar with all the tools required to create actionable reviews. As in the example above, you need to make conclusive summary boxes that give the audience a quick recap. A good call-to-action in popup form may also make the difference between a visitor and a buyer, providing that extra “push” your audience needs to convert.

Keep in mind that most affiliate marketers build their sites with WordPress to access a wide selection of tools and plugins. These tools maximize functionality in order to improve user experience and increase conversions. You can refer to this post to learn more about the best affiliate marketing plugins for WordPress.

Now YOU Can Write Effective Product Reviews

At the end of the day, writing product reviews is only another content strategy that must prioritize user experience. To be successful as a marketer, you need to acknowledge your obligation to provide relevant and useful information to the online audience. In return, people will turn to you for insights and reliable data that will empower their online purchasing decisions.

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