New Business Ideas

A business idea is a plan on how a product or service can be exchanged for financial gain. An existing business idea can be transformed through innovation to give it an advantage over competitors. The business world is dynamic, and companies need to provide solutions for the new demands of their customers. A business idea should address present problems as well as have the potential to stay effective in the future. Here are questions that can help to determine whether a business idea is good.

Is the idea solving a new problem?

A business idea should focus on providing products for the ever-changing consumer needs. An aspiring entrepreneur has the advantage of learning from existing companies to follow consumer trends. The trends may include buying local and online shopping. A business idea can focus on the problems that may face the consumers while adapting to these trends.

Is the idea solving a problem in a new way?

A business idea can gain a competitive edge by inventively solving an existing problem. A good example is by offering more hygienic manufacturing and delivery processes. An ethical approach can prove to be effective and innovative. A business can focus on renewable materials that protect the environment or providing healthier food choices to consumers. Sharing an idea with the right people can help to view a problem differently.

Is there a head start?

A new business idea needs to be ahead of the competition for it to survive in the market. The idea should be unique in the industry. It should also be protected legally with a trademark to prevent competitors from developing it. An entrepreneur should take time when coming up with a business idea. They can start by brainstorming and analyzing the ideas.. This gives room for innovation and avoids redundancy. Constructive criticism and feedback can play a vital part in developing an idea.

Is the idea offering something new?

The idea should bring something new to the table. An aspiring entrepreneur should offer a distinct value that the competitors lack. Their experiences, tools, methods of operation, and resources can be the edge to overcome the market. Benchmarking the current market leaders and their products is an excellent way to innovate and become effective in the industry.

Considering Customer Acquisitions

Customer acquisition is one of the most important functions for any business. Attracting new customers is the lifeblood of any successful venture. However, in order to be profitable, companies need to limit the amount of money they spend to onboard new clients. They must be efficient, because if marketing costs outpace the spending of those customers, there’s no benefit to acquiring them.

With the advent of big data, businesses are able to track and analyze information more closely than ever before. Customer acquisition cost is something that many companies are starting to think about more. Originally, CAC was something that investors were interested in. By looking at how much work startups had to put into marketing, they felt they could understand how successful a company would be. Today, analysts and businesspeople from all industries have realized this is an important statistic for any venture of any size.

Obviously, every line of business is a little bit different. Grocery stores and airlines have fairly thin margins. Their efforts to acquire new customers will have to be inexpensive if they’re going to prosper. On the other hand, software generally has a large margin. That means that as a category, software companies can safely spend more on courting new customers. Their business can withstand a little more expenditure.

This can be explained, at least in part, by the nature of solutions these businesses provide. Software packages generally solve large pain points for buyers. Each program has to be the right design for the end user. On the other hand, people can buy potato chips at any retailer. Software companies can compete on value. Grocery stores are more likely to resort to competing on price.

In general, the idea is that healthy businesses spend only 25% of their margin on CAC. So if a business has a 12% margin, they will want to spend just 3% or less on CAC. For businesses like software, where margins are closer to 20%, companies can safely spend up to 5% on CAC. For consultants and others working purely in the idea economy, margins can be as high as 50%. This means they can afford to spend a lot more time and effort cultivating new contacts before converting them into customers.

Identifying A Boss With Leadership Skills

There are all kinds of leaders and each of them has a different approach. Regardless of their leadership style, there will always be a complicated array of personality traits that collectively define them.

Not all bosses are true leaders. Just because someone is in a position of leadership does not mean that they are meant to hold that responsibility.

In this article, we will take a look at three skills and traits that make a boss stand out as a real leader.

Ability To Inspire

One leadership skill that is absolutely indispensable is having the ability to inspire others. It is a leader’s job to inspire their team and encourage them to do the best they can do. A boss that cannot inspire others should not be a boss at all. More often than not, these people act as a drag on the company, making their position entirely counterproductive. The ability to inspire is essential.

Self-Awareness

The boss that is self-aware and has an objective view of themselves has a greater chance of success in leadership than those who do not have that ability. We always hear stories about bosses that say one thing and do the other. This type of hypocritical boss does not help anyone and tend to only make things more difficult for everyone involved. A lack of self-awareness alone disqualifies someone from being a real leader. In the world of leadership, self-awareness is key.

Accountability

Another issue that we see with bad bosses is that they tend to lack accountability. True leaders always admit when they are wrong instead of hiding behind the authority in their position. Transparency and accountability go a long way when trying to gain the trust of the team. If there is no accountability, there is no way that the team members will be able to respect or follow the leader. Leaders without accountability put their team members in an uncomfortable moral dilemma. People should never be pushed into that kind of position. Accountability is an indispensable characteristic of a true leader.

While there are many traits a good boss should possess, these three are essential. Any leader that has these traits is bound to be respected and have a greater chance at success than the leader that does not.

Major Work Changes Post Covid-19

The spread of Covid-19 has forced us to change the way we do everything, including how we perform our jobs on a day to day basis. Even as cities start to open up, it’s becoming obvious that some things won’t return to the “normal” ways and that might be okay. Many professionals and business leaders are finding that some of the changes they have been forced to adopt have actually helped them become more productive.

Teams Will Work Better Together

In an office environment, it’s easy to take the other team members for granted. However, when everyone is working from home, the lines of communication must be improved. Each member of the team has to make a conscious effort to communicate with their co-workers by sending out messages, emails, phone calls. Once everyone is back in the office, they will realize that the isolation has helped them to become a stronger team, and they will carry those practices with them.

Software Will Focus on Remote Opportunities

Even after things get back to normal, the opportunities for remote work will continue to expand after the Covid-19 lockdowns have been eased. Moving forward, more workers will be looking for remote positions, and companies will be encouraging these positions whenever possible. Software developers are aware of this trend and will be creating products to help employers build teams that are comprised of in-house workers and remote workers. In the coming months, you can expect to see new software packages designed to help your teams work more efficiently together, wherever they may be working from.

Greater Emotional Support

Even for those who choose or prefer to work from home, the isolation this option entails does have an impact on the psyche. Now that business owners, managers, support staff, and others have all experienced the reality of remote work, there’s a growing interest in providing emotional support for remote workers. More companies are taking a greater interest in their employees’ emotional wellbeing, so it may not be long before emotional counseling and therapy services are added to the standard benefits packages.

Working from home has forced the entire workforce to come up with more efficient ways of communicating with one another. Above the dozens of other changes Covid-19 has brought about, these improvements in communication are here to stay. The new apps, communication policies, and personal communication habits will remain in use, helping employees work more productively with one another.

Simplifying the Work-Life Balance

Finding harmony between professional and personal endeavors becomes increasingly difficult as society becomes more connected every day. Technology means work is always carried home to some degree, and the temptation to check emails, tackle projects and continue to address business after-hours is a challenge for many, especially during downtime when it’s so easy to pull out the laptop or cellphone and pick up work again.

When one first turns their attention to their work-life balance, crafting an effective strategy can feel like work in and of itself. These simple guidelines will make it easier to stop stressing and simply live in the moment, separating work from life naturally instead of forcefully.

Set Clear Boundaries

Healthy boundaries are vital to good mental health and a balanced lifestyle. When it comes to work, boundaries can include saying no to more projects, sticking to personal deadlines and taking routine breaks. Branching out, work boundaries can help establish a healthy balance outside of the office.

For example, someone may decide that they will check emails and respond to work-related messages on their evening commute, but they will silence notifications and only focus on their personal hobbies and family when they arrive at home. They can also enforce a weekend policy that gives them total liberty to enjoy their free time on their days off.

Prioritize to Decrease Procrastination

Many people who wind up working after-hours do so because they let too much fall to the wayside during the day. It always feels like there’s not enough time to take care of everything during normal work hours, but the truth is that there will always be something more to do.

In such a goal-oriented society, it’s important for employees to know how to prioritize tasks and be content with achieving a set amount each day. A list of five to 10 core responsibilities and assignments that need addressed each day can reduce anxiety, relieve stress and prevent procrastination that ultimately leads to working overtime.

Divide Time Based on Investment

How much energy does it take to spend time with family and friends? Do personal hobbies require emotional investment, too? Nothing in life comes without cost, and emotional and mental resources are just as important as physical and financial ones.

Using a pie chart can be a helpful way to visualize how much energy each “slice” of a person’s life consumes. If work is taking up 60 percent, then that only leaves 40 percent for loved ones and activities.

By understanding how time is being used, it becomes easier to adjust and feel more rewarded by one’s efforts.

Entrepreneurial Lessons

Entrepreneurship is currently one of the most common employment options, with many people preferring to take that route. Succeeding as an entrepreneur, however, requires patience, due diligence, and thorough analysis and understanding of the market. Luckily, there are hundreds of successful entrepreneurs from whom to learn a few vital entrepreneurial lessons. Here are some of the lessons to learn from Evan Britton and how to apply them to your business.

Embracing new opportunities

In the world of business and entrepreneurship, opportunities are all over. New opportunities are important frontiers that can usher you into a new level of competitive advantage. Whenever such new opportunities present themselves, it is vital to think of strategies to embrace them accordingly and without hesitation.

Think of your niche

In business, a niche is very important as it gives you the strategic focus you require for sustainable growth and expansion. You should, therefore, contemplate your niche very well in order to create a value proposition for your customers. Creating a niche for your business increases the chances of sustainability in the competitive market and enables you to make a business impact.

Make the customer king

Irrespective of the nature of your business, the customer is always king. Giving customers the benefit of the doubt by focusing on fulfilling their needs greatly boosts your chances of enhancing customer loyalty. Treating the customer in a friendly way is a strong incentive to facilitate brand loyalty.

Inject your passion

Passion makes all the difference between an investment that will flourish and one that is bound to fail. Injecting passion into your business is the easiest way to continually enjoy doing what you do, and achieving seamless success effortlessly. Passionate entrepreneurs give their businesses their best and are highly committed to the cause of their vision.

Living the vision

Everything around us revolves around a vision. In business, things are not any different as an entrepreneur should have a well-defined vision, which defines the strategic direction being targeted. Creating a strategic vision for your business gives you strong enough incentives to ensure that you can remain focused for the entire course of your business. In entrepreneurship, vision can range from having a clear direction of the things to come to the understanding of the goals you wish to achieve at the end of the year.

Small Businesses and Statistical Analysis

In a business world driven by data, most businesses realize statistical analysis is important. The word statistical analysis creates fear in people, which has led to an increased demand and statisticians during the past decade. Professional statisticians organize and translate enormous amounts of data to concepts everyone can understand. There are several ways statistical analysis can help improve a small business bottom line.

First, statistics and data analysis can improve small business operations. Various statistical techniques help to pinpoint the exact problems in your small business, allowing you to solve these problems and become more profitable. These statistical techniques can also apply to your people and their productivity. These techniques will allow you to monitor your staff’s productivity and make necessary improvements. For example, if an employee struggles with their workload, you can offer informed suggestions about improvement.

Second, statistics and data analysis can apply to company finances. There are bookkeeping programs and auditing software for your computer. However, this data will not do your company any good if you do not understand this data as a financial accountant would. Once you understand this data, you can make better financial decisions for your company and be able to organize your budget. Once you have your budget organized, monitor your expenditures and use statistical analysis to discover variances and the underlying cause. Statistics and statistical analysis also helps when estimating quarterly or annual revenue projections.

Third, you can find otherwise undiscovered trends in your business that can apply to business growth. For example, knowing what your customers want and demand is key to running a successful business. There are computer programs whose purpose is to predict future trends. A professional statistician (or a manager) can take these trends into account when adapting to their environment. Trends can also show a chance for the company to push ahead of conventional thinking and set new standards.

Fourth, statistics and data analysis can improve marketing of your business. With the internet’s explosion, businesses now can access analytical tools from social media sites and search engines, and the company itself. This is important because of the need for businesses to understand consumer behavior and activity. The better an organization understand its customers, the better able it will be to satisfy their needs.

Changes in Digital Marketing Trends

There are unique changes in digital marketing trends for 2020. Although the rapid advancement of technology continues, there is pushback on increased digitization of the interactions between consumers and brands. This is especially the case pertaining to automation as there is a desire to return to the human factor in marketing.

Data-driven marketing and technologies are big trends for 2020 but the main focus is people.

Personalization

Advancements in technology and increased data collection have had a massive impact on what customers expect from brand interactions and the possible level of personalization.

Consumers today are flooded with marketing from so many channels that they’ve begun tuning them out. What is the answer when traditional advertising is no longer effective? The answer is personalized marketing that fosters a genuine connection between a brand and its target market. Consumers prefer doing business with brands that provide personalized experiences by 80%.

Customer Experience

The year 2020 is all about customer experience. Trends indicate a paramount shift in what is believed to define marketing. It’s no longer ab attempt to convince people to work with you or buy from your company, The priority is now about delivering incredible customer experiences that keep the customer returning for more. As you are focusing on providing great service and fostering a positive business culture, marketing will take care of itself. What you offer has to be more than just information.

Employee Engagement

Your employees are the human connection to your brand. Concentrating on the quality of their interactions with your customers is a key factor in your marketing strategy. Your employees must want your business to be successful. The number one reason that customers abandon brands is that employees are not knowledgeable or have poor attitudes.

Visualization

Since voice search and smart speakers have exploded. While these advancements are influencing content creation, don’t neglect your visual content. Research shows that visual content is preferred over plain text. Image focused platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are proof of this.

Content marketing will dominate the landscape of digital marketing in 2020 and beyond. Most trends are based on content. Marketing continues to become more complex. To be successful, you must have a strong base of high-quality content spanning all of your marketing channels.

How to Become a More Effective Leader

Ineffective management can have a negative impact on everything from productivity to workplace morale. Business owners, executives and supervisors who fail to grasp the basic guidelines pertaining to effective management could be faced with an uphill battle. Understanding the management rules that make it easier to interact with employees and to provide the guidance and leadership they require can be an issue of paramount importance.

Stay Focused

Running a business often means having to contend with endless distractions. A loss of focus can be a serious complication, one that can make effective interactions with staff and employees all but impossible. Concentrating on what’s important can allow managers to avoid issuing confusing instructions, conflicting information or the clear and concise communication that will best benefit their operation and associates.

Ensure Employees Are Treated Properly

Treating their underlings and staff poorly is another misstep that managers and business owners would do well to avoid. Professionals who feel mistreated, unappreciated or undervalued are more likely to suffer from poor morale and job satisfaction. A key rule for effective management is to always remember that the work done by staff, employees and associates is of tremendous value to the company. The best leaders and management professionals are those who recognize that they are there to provide for their employees and not the other way around.

Know How to Delegate

Trying to do everything themselves or taking on more than they can handle is a common mistake made by novice business owners and junior executives alike. Delegation is an essential managerial skill, one that should not be taken lightly. Being able to identify which applicants or employees are best able to handle important responsibilities and knowing when to share important tasks or to seek help with a specific project can end up making quite a difference.

Set Realistic Goals

Taking an incremental approach or a long-term view towards improving both managerial processes as well as overall operational efficiency is often the best approach. Setting smaller, more attainable goals are often more viable than lofty benchmarks that could take months or even years to achieve. Setting more realistic goals can help to reduce frustration among the workforce and to provide employees and staff with the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction needed to ensure they remain motivated in the days ahead.

Identifying Leaders in Fast Growing Companies

Your company is growing rapidly which is exactly what you’ve been hoping for and working towards. The market is responding to your business and things are actually moving quicker than you were prepared for. When you were a startup that looked like a startup you were able to oversee everything that was going on, but now it’s getting bigger than you can handle on your own. Instead of looking for new voices and new ideas from the outside, consider promoting from within. But how do you identify the right people to promote? Here’s a few ideas for the best way to identify leadership qualities of those already within your company.

Reward Adaptability

The rapid growth of your company, while good news, can also be a scary time. Not only are you having to change policies and procedures to keep up with your new increased demand, but you’re trying to find a way to keep up with everything happening as quickly as it’s happening. The increased demands on your business will inevitably cause you to increase demands on employees. Take special note of the men or women who respond the best to this increase in responsibility. If you have someone who had always been good with doing a particular task, but now they have stepped up and are handling 2 or 3 additional tasks equally as well, you have a potential leader in front of you.

Who Has Bought In?

No, this doesn’t mean who has financially invested within your business. Rather, you need to spend time monitoring who has bought in to the vision that you have launched for your company. The culture that you have created is a large reason for your success, so you want to protect it. One way to do so is to find people who have clearly bought in to your vision and culture. Be prepared to promote them into leadership since they’re already promoting your vision.

Effective Communication

Ultimately, leadership is about communication. If you have an employee is who is an obviously gifted communicator, consider him or her for a promotion. Great leaders communicate to those they lead, as well as those who still lead them. They are the people who can sustain your company’s recent growth.

Congratulations on the success of your company. Hopefully you are surrounded by people who are ready to help you carry it into the future.

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