7 Benefits of VoIP for Your Business

business woman working in her office

VoIP is short for Voice over Internet Protocol, also called IP telephony. Simply put, instead of using a traditional phone line, this modern technology lets you make calls over the internet. As such, VoIP is a convenient way to connect with your employees, stakeholders, and customers worldwide. 

Even though VoIP has been around since the 1970s, it has recently started gaining momentum. The global VoIP market share is expected to hit t$55 billion by 2025

In this article, you will learn more about the major benefits of VoIP for businesses.

Lower Costs

Small businesses operating with limited budgets need to consider every opportunity to save money. One of the most effective ways to lower costs is to switch from a landline phone system to VoIP providers.

VoIP can improve your bottom line in multiple ways:

  • Reducing monthly costs

Landline phone service costs between $40 and $50 per line each month. On the other hand, VoIP services often cost less than $20 per line monthly, meaning you can now cut your company’s phone bills in half. 

  • Minimizing recurring expenses

Unlike conventional phone systems that charge for maintenance and fixes, VoIP service providers include these ongoing costs in their monthly subscription plans.

  • Cutting installation costs

No matter if you run a large corporation or a small business hiring a handful of employees, traditional phone services require you to purchase or lease costly on-premise hardware (PBX) that connects your landline phones. 

The initial PBX costs are immense and, as your business needs rise, these expenses may even grow. With VoIP, you can reduce installation expenses. Namely, given that your phone services are powered by a broadband connection, VoIP minimizes the need for installing additional hardware.

  • VoIP is mobile

Since you can use it on all devices, irrespective of your location, you will be able to reduce mobile phone costs.

  • No expensive add-on features

Traditional phone service providers can also offer many advanced features, such as call queuing or call transfer. However, those options are not a part of their standard offers. Instead, they are additional features you need to pay for. 

On the other hand, VoIP service providers offer most of these options for free, as a part of a subscription plan you choose.

  • Allowing remote work

A plethora of VoIP features, such as video calling, conference calls, or call waiting, enable remote work and keep your employees connected. This way, you will reduce the cost of office space, utilities, and commuting, as well as enhance employees’ productivity. According to recent studies, your business could save approximately $11,000 per person yearly by allowing them to work remotely 50% of the time.

laptop on table

Better Mobility

Based on the cloud, VoIP services are available to your team members, regardless of their location. All you need to have is a reliable internet connection to make and receive business calls. Even if you cannot answer the phone call, the VoIP service can direct it to your coworkers or store voicemail on your email. Providing your team with greater mobility, VoIP services will improve their communication and collaboration. 

Enhanced Security

Have you ever audited the security of your phone system?

Telecom fraud is one of the most dangerous and fastest-growing crime areas. Research says that telecom scams cost modern businesses $32.7 billion yearly.

They focus primarily on your employees’ negligence. Not being aware of their vulnerabilities both offline and online, your employees can easily be tricked to reveal your company’s confidential information and be victims of the cyber criminal

The perpetrators of telecom scams have a simple goal in mind – using social engineering to enter your phone system and steal your company’s money. Vishing calls are one of the most common phone scams, where a criminal manipulates your employee into transferring cash to their accounts or divulging your company’s financial, security, or customer information. 

That is exactly why you should switch to VoIP. By leveraging advanced data security technologies, such as encryption or identity management, VoIP providers will help you reduce security risks. Most importantly, you will not need to perform network security audits yourself. A VoIP provider will do that for you. Precisely because of that, you should read Voice over IP provider reviews to choose a reliable service that will provide you with the utmost data security. They should perform regular security audits and automatically create alerts for suspicious calling patterns.

Improved Flexibility and Performance

Softphones are software applications that are installed on your devices, helping you make phone calls over the internet. Typically, softphones use simple interfaces, helping employees interact with their coworkers or customers easier. 

A well-known example of a softphone is Skype For Business and similar video collaboration tools, although many VoIP services provide their softphones for business purposes. VoIP industry leader Nextiva, offers softphone support, among many other features.

Softphones can enhance your employees’ performance in multiple ways. As they provide greater mobility, they will help you create a constantly connected team and allow you to hire global talent. As you will not need to invest in additional equipment, they will also help you reduce costs and free up desk space.  

man typing on laptop

Greater Flexibility and Scalability

One of the greatest benefits of VoIP lies in the fact that it adapts to your specific business needs. You can choose a pricing plan, based on your budget and business requirements. As your company evolves, a VoIP system will grow in step with it. This way, you will be able to add new features and functionalities to your phone system, without having to invest in additional phone lines or hardware.  

Better Call Quality

In the past, one of the major disadvantages of VoIP services was their poor call quality. Today, VoIP provides clear voice quality, minimizing lags or call dropouts. This will enhance your employees’ performance and boost the effectiveness of your customer support. 

Most importantly, VoIP providers offer advanced features, such as noise-canceling microphones and audio compression, helping your team minimize interruptions and maximize call quality.

Advanced Analytics Options

By improving the quality of phone calls, you will provide more reliable customer support and enhance consumers’ satisfaction. VoIP providers allow you to manage all customer interactions using a single platform. No matter if they use email, social networks, live chat, phone, or SMS, VoIP platforms will show customer data on a single screen and allow you to provide immediate feedback.

Most importantly, VoIP gives you the opportunity to collect and analyze customer data so you can improve your customer service and personalize marketing campaigns. VoIP integrates with your CRM platform, allowing you to analyze customer interactions easily. By collecting customer data, you will be able to take actionable steps and build meaningful customer relationships. 

That is exactly what your customers want. According to Accenture, 91% of customers would rather buy from brands offering targeted offers and recommendations.

Over to You

The benefits of VoIP for businesses are multiple. It allows you to reduce costs, as well as improve call quality, enhance workplace performance, enable better workplace connectivity, and keep your customers satisfied. Therefore, if you are still using a conventional phone system, maybe it is time to switch to its more efficient alternative. 

Sure, keep in mind that there are no uniform VoIP solutions. They depend on your business needs. Before investing in a VoIP plan, do thorough research to find a reliable VoIP provider and implement their services strategically.  

 

How do VoIP services benefit your business?

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5 Essential Benefits that ERP Brings to the Retail Industry

retail industry

Now that business leaders in the retail industry have the opportunity to run a successful brand both online and offline, so do the opportunities for long-term growth and expansion arise in ever greater numbers. However, with greater success comes great responsibility, meaning that maintaining a competitive retail business becomes more cumbersome, costly, and riskier than ever before. In order to scale a retail company accordingly and ensure a steady and cost-effective rise to prominence, it’s important that you integrate a digital operations platform that will help you manage every aspect of your brand.

This technology might have been considered clunky and unreliable a decade ago, but nowadays it can help you truly revolutionize your company and optimize every process, ranging from sales to HR, from inventory management to sales channels, and more. ERP systems are now becoming commonplace in the retail sector, but if you’re still unsure whether you should make the switch from your legacy systems, here are the five essential benefits that this technology can bring to your company.

Real-time data tracking and analysis

Staying on top of the latest trends in the industry should be one of your priorities, but staying on top of all relevant business plan and data in real-time should be your key objective, simply because the best business decisions are based on timely, relevant, and verifiable information. However, the more you grow your company in the online and offline realms, the more data you have on your hands, and the more difficult it becomes to collect and collate all of that information into actionable reports – not to mention the time it takes to implement changes and adapt your processes to boost your competitive advantage.

As your company grows, you need to focus more on data synchronization on all platforms where your brand has a presence, as this will prevent errors in your sales cycle and it will prevent people from taking advantage of mismatched information on different platforms across the web, for example. A well-optimized ERP system will help you keep all information in check and prevent human error.   

Better inventory management

Successful online and offline retail is about carefully managing your inventory and keeping it synchronized with your sales channels (more about sales channels in a bit) in order to prevent order and shipping errors, setbacks, and keep customer satisfaction high. After all, you can expect your customers to be somewhat displeased if they find out that they won’t be receiving their order due to an error in your inventory information – for example, when one of the products is said to be in stock on your website, but in fact the last unit was sold earlier that day.

This is a common problem for retail companies that are experiencing rapid growth and are unable to keep up with the amount of product they’re moving, which is why inventory management should be your top priority. Using a dedicated ERP system will allow you to manage every aspect of your inventory in real-time and across multiple channels, meaning that you will always know exactly how many units you have available.

retail industry

Managing multiple sales channels

Modern retail thrives on not one, but two or more sales channels. If you are still selling your products solely through your physical store, or if you are only selling on your website without capitalizing on social media sales, then you are wasting your company’s potential and jeopardizing your place in the competitive market. Take the manufacturing industry as a prime example of the need for this type of digital transformation.

In the manufacturing sector, business leaders are rapidly integrating dedicated manufacturing software like ERPAG that provides complete business management features across all relevant departments, ranging from parts procurement and inventory management to the optimization of multiple sales channels and their adaptation to the target demographic and the platform they occupy. No matter if you’re in manufacturing or if you’re running a typical retail store, it’s imperative that you find a dedicated ERP solution that will allow you to make sales more cost-effective and efficient.

Elevating customer management

Every growth-oriented retail business needs to have a comprehensive CRM system in place in order to manage their customers efficiently and effectively, and devise a strategy to achieve better customer satisfaction over the long term. The best ERP systems on the market will have numerous CRM features that will help you generate quality leads and convert them into paying customers, and most importantly, help you capitalize on repeat business and WOM. 

Automating sales and payment features

And finally, having a good POS system in place can help you save money and minimize extraneous financial expenditure over the long term, which is a feature that modern ERP systems bring to the table. Now that ERP solutions have integrated POS systems, you can easily manage sales and customers while eliminating human error and reducing customer effort to boot. 

Wrapping up

As the retail industry continues to grow, so does the need to implement better systems and innovative solutions in order to scale business growth and ensure efficiency across the board. With these benefits of ERP systems in mind, go ahead and implement a dedicated ERP solution yourself in order to take your company forward as a whole. 

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What Are Top 3 Ways To Improve On Performance At Work?

motivated employees

Excellent performance at work is the primary determinant on the outcome of the productivity of your job. You might wonder when to notice you are not demonstrating professional behavior. A significant percentage need to improve performance in one way or another.

You can do many things to make a change in your performance. The following are the top three ways on how to improve performance at work.

1. Positive Mental Attitude

Having a positive mental attitude is the first significant step to take. The positivity in your work will make you love what you do. Loving what you do will yield a great outcome on your work.

Workout

Have a persistent attitude of joy and love towards your employees or colleagues and try to motivate your employees. A negative outlook on your work impacts to poor performance. Additionally, a positive attitude of friendliness towards everyone will open your doors to success.

2. Manage your Priorities

When facing many tasks in the day, you should have the ability to manage what is more relevant than the other. The sense of urgency should be followed when undertaking the work.

Start with the most urgent one and finish up with the least urgent. By developing the strategy, you will improve your performance. here are other traits such as, speed and dependability when working. By working in this manner, promotion or increased pay can be guaranteed.

3. Improve your Work Skills

Working skills can be improved by seeking knowledge. Ensure you have scaled higher height on your line of work. You can attend seminars to learn more, consult people, research more in books or on the internet.If you are an employee, ask your employer to guide you and do what they recommend.

Team building

Ensure you report back to them and report on the strategies you were given to follow and how they have worked for you. Your employer will be impressed whenever you are striving to learn more and improve your skills.

In conclusion, as an employer or an employee, forming good habits creates good working ethics. With good ethics, you will stay focused to get them done. Appreciate what you do and show a sense of responsibility.

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Best Tips to Motivate Your Employees

motivated employees

One of the best ways that managers are able to increase their direct report motivate is through effective communication with employees. Here, discover several tips for managers to help keep employees working efficiently and towards your company s shared strategic objectives. Communication is one of the key elements that help business owners and managers to build long-lasting relationships with their employees. Consequently, a strong relationship is extremely important to any organization. A good manager and employee work well together to resolve any issues that may arise. In addition, effective communication allows you to easily keep abreast of the overall direction of your organization as well as what its employees are thinking and feeling.

Recognition

Recognition is a powerful motivator. Employees feel more confident and committed to their jobs and the organization when rewarded for a job well done. However, just as there are different types of rewards, there are different types of recognition. If you want to successfully motivate your employees then you need to recognize those that are achieving the goals that are important to your company.

Performance review

One of the best rewards or motivators that you can provide your employees is performance review time. You can give them an individual performance review, group performance review, or a committee performance review in order to motivate them. You can get some advice on this from your HR manager. A group performance review is an excellent way to motivate your employees because it allows them to display their strengths and weaknesses in front of other employees. If they know that other employees know about their achievements, they are more likely to work harder. Furthermore, the entire group gets to share the information so no one feels left out.

motivated employee sitting in front of laptop

Setting goals

Setting goals is another great way to motivate your team members. When employees know that they are accomplishing the goals set by you, they will work harder and further achieve the goals assigned. Set clear and specific goals that you can easily accomplish. For example, if you set goals to increase sales, then choose specific times of the week when you would like your sales to be the highest.

A well-structured employee motivation and engagement strategy will allow you to identify your goals and achieve them. For example, your sales team should be encouraged to sell products that are in high demand. By having this information at hand, you can easily determine how to motivate your employees for greater success. You should also involve your salespeople in the process of setting goals because they have a better understanding of what motivates customers. They are able to identify the areas in which they need more assistance or may be better able to suggest other ideas.

Communication

Communication is very important when you want to motivate your employees. You should hold regular communication sessions with all of your employees to communicate the important details of what is going on with your business. It is also a good idea to hold weekly staff meetings that allow your employees to express any frustrations or questions they have.

Recognize their individual achievements

One great way to motivate your employees is to recognize their individual achievements and help them feel positive about their roles. Remember that when your team members are motivated, they tend to do the things that they are best at. You can motivate your employees by rewarding them for their work on a regular basis. You should also make sure that you provide your employees with some resources and tools that will help them enhance their skills and knowledge.

Give them small gifts

When you have created an engaged workforce, you need to give them a few things to make them feel part of the company. Give your employees freebies on a regular basis or include some inexpensive items with your company logo that your employees can take advantage of. When you include free items or coupons, your employees will feel more appreciated and will actually want to use them. Giving your employees free things like stationery, pencils, sticky notes, and other office necessities are one of the best ways to motivate your employees.

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Guide on How to Write a Business Plan

people writing a business plan

How to write a business plan: The process of how to write a business plan starts with an overview of your venture. It includes a description of who you are, the market, what you will do, and how it will profit from existing or potential customers. Your plan should also include a short-term vision of how you predict things will go in the future. While it’s important to layout your mission, it’s equally important to make it clear that this is only a goal and not a promise of what you’ll actually do.

Writing a business plan for any kind of small business requires a deep understanding of the industry you are involved in and why it exists. A successful business plan typically includes projections for future sales, profit margins, operating costs, expansion opportunities, and long-term plans. A well-written plan will attract investors, boost your credit rating, and increase your chances of obtaining bank financing.

Writing a business plan doesn’t have to be a daunting task; the basics remain the same. In fact, the steps to writing a successful, lean startup plan are almost identical to those required of a traditional business plan. All small businesses require funding in one form or another, and a traditional business plan will outline ways to raise that capital through various means.

Create a basic business strategy

For most entrepreneurs, the first step in how to write a business plan is to create a basic business strategy. A traditional business strategy sets forth a series of business ideas and goals for the company, including what products or services it will offer and how it plans to achieve its goals. Most investors prefer to see a business strategy than to see a list of products and services, so you may want to consider including this detail in your plan, too. Include financing details, including a budget or financing sources and an alternative method for obtaining those funds, as well.

people writing a business plan

Decide on a budget

Next, you’ll need to decide how much money you’ll need to invest. As with any investment, you must consider the risk of loss before you put down any money. Write down how much you expect to earn through sales, taking into account factors such as your market for that product or service, the competition, and how much you can afford to spend on marketing and promotions. If you’re looking for private investors, you’ll want to mention potential reasons why your company will be ideal for their types of investment, such as a service that is in demand or a product or service that is unique or desirable. Investors don’t like to make investments they can’t be comfortable with, so it’s important that you outline the exact risks and rewards of putting your business together.

One of the most important parts of how to write a business plan relates to how much money you have to work with, budgeting for expenses, and how to increase your marketability. In general, how to write a business plan begins with a detailed executive summary, which provides a short version of everything major regarding your start-up. This is where you’ll reveal everything that you’re going to do, including why you’re doing it, what you’ll sell, how you plan to get it to customers, and who you plan to sell to. You’ll also talk about how much money you need, and why it’s essential to have enough of a cash flow to continue. Review everything you’ve written in the executive summary, go over it again, and then summarize everything for your readers.

Develop a unique value proposition

The next step of how to write a business plan concerns developing a unique value proposition. The value proposition is your promise to customers, investors, and anyone else who might be interested in your product or service. For example, if you’re planning on starting a coffee shop in your neighborhood, your value proposition could simply be “buy a cup of coffee when you’re ready.” However, you could also create a unique value proposition by describing your business in terms of having the ability to make the best coffee in the world. This competitive analysis will allow you to stand out from the competition, as well as prove to prospective investors and customers why you’re the best option for their needs.

Plan to market yourself to potential investors and customers

Once you’ve presented all your information, including your executive summary and competitive analysis, it’s time to take a look at how you plan to market yourself to potential investors and customers. There are many different marketing strategies you can use to do just this, such as creating a website and marketing it, emailing potential customers, social networking, and more. Ultimately, it’s up to you whether or not these marketing methods are going to be worth the time and effort that you have to invest. As long as you really understand the requirements and the reasons behind creating your business plans, they’ll serve you well.

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Best Startup Hiring Tips

man hiring

Startup hiring, in particular, has proved to be very challenging for many of us. However, that was exactly how it was for me and I am sure that it can be the same for you if you are trying to hire a new employee for your business. There is a lot of work to do in order to find the right person for the job. In fact, I even had to do a lot of research before I actually hired as the first employee. Luckily, I had an executive coach that helped me with this process.

There are two other startup hiring tips that will help you find excellent candidates for your business. First, you want to have an open hiring policy. Whenever someone applies for a job within your company, you should always offer them the chance to interview for the position. Not only will you be able to gather more information on the candidates, but you will also be able to select the best one for the job. There are many reasons why a great candidate may not be the best candidate for the position, but you should still include them in the interviewing process.

Get to know the company

One of the best startup hiring tips is to get to know the company that you want to hire. I started my job search by doing a simple search on LinkedIn. I was impressed by the number of candidates that were available and it gave me a good starting point. From there, I went on to do more research on the companies. It turns out that many of the companies had employees who had successfully completed their training and some of them were in the process of hiring.

Keep the job descriptions clear and detailed

The next of the startup hiring tips I got was to keep my job descriptions clear and detailed. My recruiter was really impressed by my ability to do this. If you have a very detailed job description, then potential candidates will know what to expect when they walk into the interview process. Remember that these individuals will be responsible for carrying out all of the responsibilities that you have for your business. Therefore, you should always make sure that everyone knows what the expectations are.

woman hiring

Stay in touch with your potential candidates

Another great startup hiring tip is to make sure that you always stay in touch with your potential candidates. As I mentioned above, you want to have as many candidates as possible so you have plenty of people to talk to. In addition, you also want to keep them informed of the progress of the hiring process. Keep in mind that some of these startups might be in operation for a while. Therefore, you should always have communication with your potential hires so that they know how things are going. You can send periodic updates throughout the hiring process to keep them informed of the status of the hiring process.

Another of the startup hiring tips I have is to make sure that you always stay in touch with your potential candidates. In order to find a great candidate for the job, you need to make sure that you are staying in contact with them. If you do not keep your relationship open with your applicants, you will never be able to make the best hire. If you are not willing to contact your candidates, then you will never find the best one for your business.

Build a culture around your company

The third of the Startup Hiring tips is to make sure that you build a culture around your company with the help of your HR manager. You do not want to hire anyone without having a good culture or personality already set up. You need to be willing to promote within your company and encourage the potential candidates to apply for the positions. It is critical that you always have an open mindset when it comes to recruiting new talent. Otherwise, you will never attract great candidates to your company.

Get to know the candidates

Last, but certainly not least, is to make sure that the startup hiring process works for your applicants. Because your company is new, you may be very excited about this new opportunity. Make sure that you get to know all of the people who apply for the position. Ask a lot of questions about their work history and education. Also, ask them to describe what they like about the company and what makes them tick. This will ensure that you are getting the most out of your applicant’s responses.

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How to Get a Business Idea?

get business idea

So you’re looking for information on how to get a business idea. It’s a really great thing to have, as it lets you jump into something fresh and new without having to worry about all of the work involved in starting up a traditional business. And you can do just that with drop-shipping companies. But first, what exactly is a drop-ship company? There are really some very important steps to getting started with a business of your own and, in this article, I explain exactly how to look at a business idea…

Dropshipping

Dropshipping is one of the most exciting new business ideas out there right now. You may be wondering how it’s become so popular. Many people are starting to get into online selling because of drop-shipping companies. So how do you get a new business started? Here are some key steps to getting started with a new business…

Evaluate your idea.

Evaluating business ideas is really the most important part. After all, it’s ultimately up to you whether or not you choose to go forward with an idea or not. If you start-ups do not make money, it’s a pretty good bet that you won’t have another successful business idea after it. So what makes a good idea?

woman getting business idea

Get a business plan

To get started with a new business, it’s a good idea to get a business plan together. This is basically an outline of where you want to take your business and why. If you don’t have one yet, it’s very important that you get started with one today. It will save you a lot of time and effort down the road when you’re trying to figure out what you’re going to sell.

Next, you’ll need to write out a good business plan. A good business plan will help you to determine how you’re going to market your product or service. It will also help you to know where you plan to get your products and services. You need to know how much you’re going to charge for them. Your plan should also have goals that you can work towards once your business gets started.

Once you have your business plan, you’ll need a list of potential customers. For this, you can either use cold calling or email. Email can be effective but can also be very costly. In most cases, you’ll need to pay a company for their services to find out who is willing to purchase from you. If you don’t have to pay a fee, then email can be a very ineffective first step. Cold calling can sometimes get you a lot of results, but it usually requires that you spend a lot of time contacting only those who may be interested in purchasing from you.

Do some market research

Another way to know if you have a startup business idea that is good is to do some market research, before launching a business. Doing market research allows you to figure out how you want to get your product or service to market. You can do this by using simple business plan tools online or by hiring a consultant.

Apply for a loan

You can get a business idea by applying for a startup business loan. There are many different loans available, and you can choose the one that best fits your needs. If you can get a startup business loan with bad credit, then you can help you get started quickly. Even if your credit score is high, you can still get a startup business loan.

Before you apply for a loan, however, make sure that you are able to make payments on time. This is very important, especially if you are working with startup capital. If you don’t, you could risk losing your entire investment, including your business equipment, because you missed a payment. In addition, your financial projections have to be realistic, as well as carefully planned.

In addition, your executive summary has to be good, as well. This is the first part of your application that will be read by startup investors. Make sure it presents your idea clearly and in a way that interested investors can understand. The idea behind your executive summary is that you will detail the startup expenses and income that you have already outlined in your application. It will also highlight any other new or unique products or services that you will be offering.

Don’t forget to include any proof of your past success, such as awards from an accelerator program or an earlier-published book about your experience. You can also use the executive summary as the start of your mission statement, which is an essential part of the process when writing a business plan. Finally, when you are writing the business plan template cover page, be sure to provide contact information for any previous investors or mentors that can help define the future direction of your business.

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Main Differences Between a Startup and a Small Business

There are many differences between startups and small businesses. One of the biggest and most obvious is in the type of product that they are developing. Smaller startups usually begin with an idea for a product to sell to customers. However, there are startups that have no product yet, but one very attractive concept. These businesses usually look more like a technology company than a service business.

As technology has become more involved in every aspect of life, there have been more similarities among startups as well. But there are some clear differences between startups and small businesses that should be considered. Some of these differences between startups and small businesses are more about the type of product that is being developed. Here are some examples:

Service or product.

This is the biggest example of the differences between startups and small businesses. While the two have many common things, they also have some clear differences. A service startup will usually focus on providing a high-quality and reliable product or service, while a small business will often be focused on developing new products that can be used by other people. Service businesses also usually require more investment capital than do startups, so it is a challenge for them to find customers and raise money.

Leadership style.

While both startups and small businesses are led by leaders, there are some key differences between the two that are often misunderstood. One of the biggest differences between the two is that the leaders of startups are usually much younger and don’t have a long track record in business, whereas the leadership style of a small business is more mature. Because of this, the type of leadership style that a startup needs can be much different than that of a traditional small business.

a girl launching online business

Product range.

There are many similarities between startups and small businesses, but there are also some key differences as well. Both have products or services that are unique or offer extraordinary convenience to their customers. However, the range of products or services that are offered by a startup may be much smaller than that of a small business.

Market orientation.

Small businesses often try to sell their products or services in a very traditional way, which doesn’t always work for a startup. It’s important for a startup to realize that there is a market for what they are trying to offer and to take that market share through innovation. Unlike large companies, startups aren’t concerned with brand recognition, long-term profitability, or being “innovative.” They are more interested in first offering something new and then build from there.

Ease of use.

This is closely related to ease of product or service design. A startup can focus on getting their product or service to market faster and more efficiently, and perhaps do away with some features or add-ons that they find cumbersome or just not that important to their customers. On the other hand, small businesses tend to put a great deal of emphasis on customer satisfaction, so that they receive the value and satisfaction that they deserve and expect. Also, startups can be run from home.

In short

Both startups and small businesses face significant challenges in their early days. For startups, this usually means fewer resources and fewer customers and can indicate the potential for great success as a startup. But for small businesses, these usually mean a limited ability to compete with larger corporations and a lack of venture capital and expertise in marketing or product creation. The key differences between a startup and a small business make for a great discussion topic amongst business owners!

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What Is Merchant Category Code?

business finance

A merchant category code is a four-digit code assigned by international standards for retail financial transactions. An MCC is utilized to classify an organization by the kinds of products or services it offers. The term “merchant category code” (MCC) is sometimes used interchangeably with the International Standard Organization (ISO). Some other common names are International Standard Merchant Account Number (ISSN), Standard Merchant Account Number (SMA), and International Standard Organization Identification Number (ISIN).

Provide crucial information for both a buyer and a seller

One important feature of the merchant category codes is that they can provide crucial information for both a buyer and a seller. Buyers need to be able to identify a particular company and to find out whether it sells legal goods or illegal goods. Sellers, meanwhile, need to know which countries accept their items, and how much it will cost them to ship their merchandise to buyers located in other countries. For instance, if the seller wants to sell gold jewelry in Japan, the MCC would have a bearing on the price. Conversely, an MCC will not have any bearing on the price a person pays for gold jewelry in Canada, for instance.

Many organizations around the world have been able to use merchant category codes to assist them in international sales. For example, the United States Conference of Mayors and the United States Chamber of Commerce jointly developed the 1099 report. The 1099 Report classifies various merchandise as legal or illegal for each country. The information is used by buyers and sellers alike to facilitate smooth transactions. 1099 also helps in international trade because it enables businesses to accurately classify merchandise by country and even by continent.

In the US, the MCCs classify food service stations as “chargeable goods.” This means that customers must pay for beverages and snacks they consume, and for anything else they buy at the service station. Drug stores are not chargeable goods. Pharmacies are included in the “safe” category, but not all pharmacies can sell drugs. MCCs for these types of institutions are established in the US and other countries, such as Canada.

business finance

For many years, the MCCs classifies “rewards,” such as cashback and rewards, as “commerce-related expenses.” That means that merchants and other institutions must report each of their customer charges to the MCC. However, the newest classification, which is “rewards-based income,” has been introduced recently. This simply means that the MCC classifies the earnings from rewards and various other sources, such as the sale of gift cards and other items, as “rewards” instead of “commerce-related expenses.” The new code, 8584, was introduced in 2021. A person can have a different class of MCC if they make purchases with credit cards rather than cash or with checks.

The 8584 designation, which is sometimes referred to as the merchant category code, means that the institution is required to report the income earned on the sale of goods and services by using credit cards. It is based on the markup or regularity charged for certain goods and services. If the regularity rate is greater than twenty percent, the transaction is considered to be eligible for inclusion in the regular class of income for that consumer. If it is less than twenty percent, the income will be categorized as “other revenue.” The purpose of the interchange rate for this class of income is to classify the income more fairly between consumers.

High-risk men is another term that is sometimes used when it comes to the interchange rates for credit-card transactions. high-risk men are those that regularly charge high interchange rates for the credit-card transactions of a business. When a business earns a large income through such purchases, the business will be classified as being in the high-risk category, which can result in an increase in costs when it comes to payments for purchases.

Other interchange rates that will be considered by merchants for their businesses include ones that apply to domestic purchases and imports. These rates are also classified according to the classification of income of the consumer involved. If the customer has been classified as an “other consumer,” the merchant category code will be what is known as a “high-risk” purchase, and the purchase will be subject to more than just regular sales tax rates. The classification of income that these purchases are reported under may be “high-risk” for one reason or another, but when a merchant earns a large amount through such purchases, it is often what is called a “regularly-employed-consumer” and there are fewer restrictions on how the regular income is reported.

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The Initial Steps To Launching Your Online Business

a girl launching online business

You need not have a fortune or lots of funds to launch a successful online business successfully. But yes, you do require doing the initial steps of launching your online business very carefully. In this article, we will describe how to launch your online business, step by step in this article. will describe how to build a quality online business that has real competitive benefits which will make it very highly profitable and successful for many years to come.

The Internet has the open market concept

The Internet is becoming an extremely popular way of conducting business and in many respects, it is now the epitome of the open market concept. This means that prices for products and services can vary widely with consumers having the ability to buy at the point of fact rather than paying over the odds for a product or service. This has been a huge advantage for online businesses over traditional businesses because of the low barrier of entry. Having said that, it also presents potential risks. If your website does not convert then you could be facing a loss. But if you have done your marketing correctly then the chances are that your website will achieve a very high ranking in the major search engines and will attract a significant number of visitors.

Have a solid marketing strategy

A successful online business needs to have a solid marketing strategy which is the backbone of its success. You should seek advice from people who are already successful in their own business. Do not attempt to invent your own methods as doing so could lead to failure and ruin your reputation as well as finances. Do not try to implement everything you learn from these experts and instead concentrate on implementing the best parts.

a girl launching online business

Use link building

So, what are the best ways of attracting visitors to your site? One good way is through link building. The main idea here is to build links pointing back to your site. The more links you have pointing to your website the higher your site will appear within search engine results. This is a vital part of any online business.

Use social media

Another good way to generate traffic is through social media. It is now very common to see online businesses list their businesses on their profile pages and to interact with customers through blogs and forums. Social media allows you to connect directly with people. In fact, Facebook now has millions of users globally and many of them regularly add and receive updates. It is therefore an excellent tool to promote your online business.

Consider offline marketing

If you want to be involved with offline marketing, then consider setting up a booth at an event. It is not necessary to be the best salesperson in the world but if you can make some cold calls before the event then it will help. This is an opportunity to market your product in an informal setting. This may result in more sales than you would expect.

Finally

One of the easiest steps to start your own business is by getting involved with the local community. You can achieve this by becoming a member of local business groups or clubs. There are also national and international business groups that can provide you with useful contacts. All successful businesses started small and this is what you should aim to do too.

These steps to start your own business are really quite simple. They require you to research the market, network and get involved in the local community. If you follow these steps you will soon be on your way to running an online business.

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