In today’s world, a growing number of working professionals decide to leave their typical 5-9 jobs and take matters into their own hands, starting their own companies, whether as freelancers or a limited company. In fact, statistics show that there are over 5.5 million registered businesses in the private sector. If you happen to be one of these people, regardless of the business sector you decide to conquer, marketing your new company is one of the most important factors, which can directly influence your chances for success.  Approaching new, potential clients is definitely an exciting stage in any business life cycle, however, it is often much easier said than done. Within marketing itself, there are many aspects, which can not only increase the number of people who will see your message, but also influence their behaviour as consumers, consequently turning them into your customers. The good news is, in the digital era, marketing can be accessible and inexpensive even for locally based SMEs. Here are some ways in which even a small company can successfully market themselves to a wider, and in some cases international, audience.

1. Social media marketing

If used correctly, social media can be an extremely powerful marketing tool in the hands of a business owner. By growing a following on platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, you will be able to market your products or services and share your company’s message directly with the people who are already enthusiastic about your brand. Additionally, if you manage to create captivating content, such as videos, other visual material (images, Infographics) or even interesting and informative blog articles, which are able to capture their attention and make them want to be associated with your brand, by word of mouth, your digital presence and following will continue to grow, strengthening your brand image.

2. Search engines

Search engines, such as Google, are truly fantastic tools where rather than you searching for new customers, roles change and so the potential customers are searching for you instead. By creating informative and high quality content, which the reader will find valuable, your website will be visible to the potential clients. By being visible on search engines you are more approachable in the market, and so people visiting your website from organic search will already be interested in your services and therefore very likely to convert into customers.

3. Translation of your website

In today’s globalising world, it is easier than ever for businesses to successfully approach foreign markets. With the growth of technology and now widely available internet, even locally based SMEs can trade with overseas customers and partners. Nevertheless, before approaching foreign customers, it is important to look at some statistics. According to a study conducted by the Common Sense Advisory, 72.4% of consumers say they would be more likely to buy a product with information in their own language and 9 out of 10 people, when given the choice, always browses websites in their native language.  As you can see, although potential in the overseas markets is great, approaching them must be done correctly. Consequently, one of the most important factors which can influence whether your company will be successful abroad is the professional translation of your website and providing information about your products/services in the market’s native language. One of the most popular ways to go about website translation is working with an agency which specialises in such services. A senior project manager working for Translation Services 24, one of the leading translation agencies based in London and specialising in providing website translation services said that “The growth in number of UK based SMEs approaching foreign markets and needing their websites translated is clear to see. Interestingly, in 2017 we can see an increase in companies approaching not only the European markets, but also Asian and African sectors.”

4. Website localisation

Translating your website is an extremely important step in approaching foreign markets and being able to present yourself to new, potential customers, nevertheless, in some cases it is also vital not only to translate your website’s content, but also to localise it carefully. Website localisation requires an in-depth language knowledge, but also knowledge about the country’s culture and customs. By localising your website, you will ensure that your content is fully appropriate for the audience you are addressing. Social, cultural, political or even economic factors can influence whether certain material is suitable or not for your chosen market. You can find good examples of different approaches and how localisation can impact a business here.

5. Email Marketing

For many, many years’ experts claim that the end of direct email marketing is near, and yet, it continues to be an important channel of the digital marketing wheel. By gathering information about your potential customers, such as their email address, name, position within the company and approaching them via email, you will be able to deliver a message directly to the people who are interested in your brand and the services you provide. Email marketing is a fairly inexpensive tool which can generate fantastic business leads if conducted correctly.

As you can see, marketing a business, even one from the SME sector, can be extremely beneficial if planned and conducted correctly. From translating your website and content to growing social followers and being visible to your potential customers through search engines, there ways in which you can market your company are extensive. With the growth and developments in technology and now widely available internet, small and medium sized companies can find inexpensive ways in which they can approach customers, based in all corners of the world, something even 10 or 15 years ago sounded like a fantasy.

Even businesses with the best inventory tracking software or supply-chain management system reach a point where they have old, excessive or undesirable stock. While many companies opt to use liquidators, that method is never practical when you want to net more than just pennies on the dollar.

So, what do you do when you find your store overflowing with last season’s goods? The key is to sell them without making losses. Below are five effective tips and tricks to get rid of dead stock, create room for new products and even return a profit.

1. Sales and discounts

Regardless of your type of business, your first step to disposing of excessive stock should be to put it on sale. Everyone loves a good discount so, find out the smallest profit margin you can live with, and slap discounted price tags on the items. If you’re putting high quantities of a product on sale, placing all of them in dumpbins at the entrance of your store can encourage customers to sift through and pick up multiple items at a time, while freeing up your shelves for new inventory.

2. Creating an urgency

One of the simplest ways of boosting the sale of your dated stock is to let your customers know you want to get rid of them as soon as possible. Urgency tactics like advertising the items as limited in supply, placing a time limit on discounts or just using time-related words like “Now, Fast, or Hurry” will entice your customers to buy your products as fast as you want to dispose of them.

3. Bundling products

Selling related items in a bundle is another clear-cut way of offloading dead stock. If your dated inventory consists of air fresheners, for example, you can create a bundle with a brand of detergent for an enticing price. Bundled goods help to get rid of more than one item at once while keeping the customers happy that they’re buying your products for a bargain.

4. Flashing coupons

Flashing deals and discount coupons on your website and social platforms is a sure way of getting your dated stock off the shelves. This way, customers that visit your page will get attracted to those coupons first, even if they were interested in a different product. Let them know the moment they land on your site that you are offering free or discount coupons on select items, which they can redeem when they visit your store, and you will automatically increase your chances of clearing off dead inventory in time for the new season.

5. Listing on marketplaces

Online marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Craigslist, are great for selling off excess stock because they enable retailers to list their inventory on a platform that already has an audience. Craigslist is particularly preferred among merchants because, unlike Amazon and eBay, all listings, new or used, are free to post. Moreover, Craigslist doesn’t charge a commission on the sales you make.

You may also want to consider sending your excess inventory to price comparison websites like Google Shopping, Nextag, Shopzilla, and PriceGrabber, which will ensure your items receive ample visibility.

Conclusion

Promoting the sale of dated stock can be a challenge, especially when you’re rushing to make space for newer items. With the tips above, however, you can successfully get rid of your old products and possibly avoid losses.

This is not the first time I had a chance to hear about storage facilities in the United States. When I think about it, self-storage in the form of storage units Louisville is a brilliant idea. It gives homeowners a chance to store in their homes only those things that they really need. The rest of things can be stored conveniently in a self-storage facility located somewhere close to them.

Right now when I think about it, it all makes sense. Once you get a key to your own self-storage, you will never want to live without having one. This can make all the difference in your life especially if you happen to work from home and you have lots of office supplies lying around everywhere. From now on, you can store there anything you want if you are not sure whether you want to throw it or not yet.

I have heard somewhere that self-storage has been announced as one of the most profitable real estate investments in the last ten years. Those who invest in self storage facilities know what they are doing.

When it comes to self storage in busy places such as busy towns or cities, a good self-storage facility has a lot to offer to residents, students and businesses. The idea of self-storage is based on easy principles. A person or a business rents a unit in a self storage facility, obtains his own lock and a key, and everything is ready to go. A self-storage facility owner will never have access to any unit in his facility unless a lien is imposed for non-payment of rent, bank loan, etc. Once you put your inventory in a self-storage unit, you can be sure that it will be there next time you come to see it. Such facilities are usually very safe, as many among them use security cameras and provide computer-controlled access to units. You can check various self storage facilities before making your final decision which one to choose. I personally recommend those self storage units that are temperature and humidity controlled. This way if you store there your electronics you can rest assured that they will be undamaged next time you come to get them there.

When you combine the stress of work with the hassle of traveling, it can make business travel incredibly challenging, and it may induce anxiety.

According to research conducted by the CWT Travel Solutions Group, an employee can lose up to 6.9 hours when traveling for work due to the stress they feel. This means they’re neither working nor resting. The study also indicated that the most stressful parts of a business trip are getting to or from the airport or train station and flying in economy class on medium- or long-haul flights.

However, business trips needn’t be something you dread. If you’re traveling for work, planning ahead can help make the experience much more pleasurable. So, here are some top tips for de-stressing your next work trip:

Plan in Advance

If you haven’t packed everything you need for your travels to sleep, workout, or work, you’re going to find yourself getting stressed right from the start. Make sure you plan ahead by charging your iPad, dry cleaning your suit, and packing your white noise machine that helps you get to sleep. Then, before you depart, make sure you’ve allowed plenty of time to pack your bags. This will feel much better than slinging everything into your case 10 minutes before you’re due to walk out the door.

Take Advantage of Corporate Travel Resources

Your company will pay for a number of services for their business travelers, and there’s a reason they do this – they can save you a lot of time and money. So, let them handle all the finer details like hotel bookings, car rentals, and plane tickets while you take care of the most important thing – securing that lucrative business deal.

Get Work Done Beforehand

If you know you’ll struggle to concentrate in your hotel room or you’ll not be able to concentrate mid-flight, try to get as much work done as possible before you set off. Battling with Wi-Fi outages in your hotel while you’re rushing to meet a deadline is not going to relax you. By getting work done in advance you’ll make your trip far more stress-free.

Make Use of Airport and Hotel Amenities

To relax before you set off, be sure to make use of any of the amenities on offer at the airport or nearby hotel. A number of companies, like Marriott hotel, provide airport hotels that include a wide range of leisure facilities, including swimming pools, gyms, and saunas. So do whatever makes you feel relaxed before your flight so you’re feeling recharged when you arrive at your business meeting.

Meet Up with Friends

Are there any friends or non-business acquaintances you know at your destination city? Then why not meet up with them for a couple of hours? Seeing familiar faces can really help you get out of “work mode,” providing you with a great way to de-stress and get to know the area.

Even though it’s inevitable something will go wrong during your trip, avoid adding to your stress levels by removing as many hurdles as possible. Plan ahead, take time to relax and put together a steady schedule that’ll let you focus on your own well-being as well as your work.

I am aware that there are some people out there who strongly believe that SEO marketing is dead. There are firm believers that the golden era of serp is over and that it is time to move on. I have to admit that I rather disagree with this view as I have reasons to believe that search marketing is going strong and this trend will continue to be valid for years to come.

If you know me in person, you know that once I get into something I am willing to focus myself totally on it. So when I started doing some research on the topic I came across various resources including this eBook here. This one was a real eye opener and it is a valuable read to all those who are into the topic as well as #SEOUncovered.

I also came across some fun facts about search engines. Here they are:
1. There is no denying that Google is the biggest player in the game. It is estimated that over 85% of search engine traffic comes through Google, which is more than all the other engines combined together. let’s admit it, Google is just too big to be ignored.
2. google actually distinguishes between the plural forms of words. This is why you will get different results when you write the term “apple” and different ones when you type “apples”.
3. The more backlinks coming to a website the more authoritative it is. This is why it is so essential to get some good backlinks to your website from other websites that have high authority. This might be sometimes easier said than done, but there are some effective ways to achieve that.
4. Many people using google are not that good at specifying keywords while looking for specific information, so often it might take them a few tries to come up with the result they are after. For example, writing simply “apple” will get you a lot of results about Apple Inc., but most Google users are looking for apple recipees and not particularly any information about the giant company.

As you can see from the points about, the knowledge about search engine optimisation can be very useful to a business owner, and the more you understand the rules behind Google, the more likely you will be to achieve the results you are after.

For dedicated business owners and entrepreneurs, the thought of handing over the keys to something into which you’ve poured your blood, sweat and tears can be a terrifying thought. However, until we find the fountain of youth, coming to terms with selling your business will just have to remain a fact of life. Here are a few signs that might indicate it’s time for you to sell your business.

You’ve Had Enough Risk

Risk is an inherent element to owning a business. There are no companies that face a zero-risk environment—be it from competition, changing business climates or disruptive technologies. Managing and mitigating these risks for years—or decades—can become a tiresome affair.

Risk is one of the great ironies of business. As your company grows and realizes success, it’s also accumulating risk. The repercussions of a PR disaster, or mismanagement, has much more negative potential for a company like Apple than a startup with three employees. There’s simply much more to lose when you’ve already gained a lot. When you reach a place where you want to start limiting your risk exposure, it might be time to sell your business.

Someone Wants to Buy Your Business

If you’ve led your company to a position in which suitors want to buy it, you should think long and hard about their offers. Of course, just because someone’s interested doesn’t mean you must sell. There are a few aspects that you should consider before pulling the trigger, such as:

• Is It the Right Buyer? While some people might not consider this aspect important if the price is right, selling your business to someone who doesn’t really understand or appreciate it is something you potentially might regret later in life. Longtime family-run businesses especially need to consider the viability of potential buyers.
• Are They Offering a Good Price? If a potential buyer is making you an offer at or above what you value the company, you should consider the offer no matter how much you like being the boss. That money could easily catapult you into starting another business.
• Are Your Books in Order? Before any reasonable buyer pays you anything, they’re going to want to see your business’s financial records. They’re going to want to see a list of your assets, the types of business insurance you use, accounting statements and a litany of other information. Make sure your numbers all check out, or risk scaring away buyers.

You’re Anticipating Market Changes

There are several ways markets can determine if it’s the right time for you to sell your business. The nature of your business dictates its reactiveness to changes in broader equity markets. However, almost all businesses suffer during down periods and recessions. If you anticipate a downturn in the markets, it might be a good time to sell your business, especially if you were already considering it.

Changing sector climates can also determine if you should consider selling. Disruptive technologies and companies are responsible for turning entire industries upside down seemingly overnight. If you see your business as susceptible to disruption, it might be prudent to get out too early rather than too late.

Ultimately, it’s your decision whether you’re ready to sell your business. If you’re still passionate about coming into work every day, maybe it’s not worth selling even if that’s objectively the best decision.

There’s something you know you need to do, but you can’t get yourself to actually do it. Despite how important the task is, you just don’t feel compelled to take action. We’ve all been there. Here are three things that I often procrastinate:

• Writing or finishing other tedious work tasks
• Paying bills or completing paperwork
• Having difficult conversations with friends, family or colleagues

I discovered an interesting approach for beating procrastination while listening to “Beat Your Genes,” a podcast about psychology and finding happiness. In episode 39, the co-host, Dr. Doug Lisle, an evolutionary psychologist, shares how to stop procrastinating by being aware of the living conditions of our ancestors, how our brains have adapted to account for those conditions, and how to update your decision making “algorithm” to account for the living conditions in modern society.

Sometimes procrastination is a good strategy

Dr. Lisle posits that procrastinating is not necessarily indicative of a character flaw or moral shortcoming. Rather, it’s an adaptive strategy that was quite effective for our ancestors, and can even be effective today.

Dr. Lisle discusses why procrastinating on paying back debt may have been an effective strategy for our ancestors. In pre-civilized times, there was more significant risk that your lender would die before he was able to collect on the debt that you owe him. Therefore, it wouldn’t make sense to pay back your debt before you needed to. Rather, procrastinating was a better strategy because there was a chance that you may never need to pay back your debt, which would save you time, energy and money.

However, in modern times, there is significantly less risk that your lender will spontaneously die or disappear. In other words, you’re gonna have to do that thing that you don’t want to do! Yet, we haven’t updated our algorithms to account for the new conditions.

We need to update this algorithm in part because waiting to do the work until closer to the due dates means that your time will be monopolized and you won’t be able to pursue more promising opportunities. For example, if writing your term paper will take twenty hours, and you wait until two days before it’s due, you will have to spend most of those to days on your paper. So if a new opportunity comes up, such as an invitation to an important event, you won’t have the time to seize it.

You can prevent yourself from procrastinating on an important task by understanding the algorithm your brain uses to make decisions about whether or not to procrastinate on a task, and updating the variables within it to account for modern times.

Update your algorithm

Your brain runs a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether it should procrastinate on a given task or complete it.

If there’s a high probability that you won’t need to complete the task, it makes sense to procrastinate. For example, if your friend often flakes on you at the last minute, it makes sense not to buy him an expensive concert ticket until the last minute. However, if you overestimate the probability that you won’t need to complete the task, you won’t be motivated to complete it until the last minute.

Thus, the key to overcoming procrastination is to properly determine the probability that you will need to complete the task.

In making this calculation, be aware that your algorithm will lead you astray when it’s driven by your adaptive brain — the brain that accounts for pre-civilized times rather than modern times. It’s critical that you calculate your probabilities based on modern times.

Once you’ve updated your algorithm, determine the best course of action.

If there’s a low probability that you’ll need to complete a given task, or if there’s a chance the probability will change based on upcoming events, procrastinating may be your best strategy.

If there’s a high probability that you’re going need to complete the task, complete that task sooner rather than later. Completing the task sooner will enable you to take advantage of new opportunities that may arise between now and the due date, reduce your stress levels, and potentially improve the quality of your work.

Beat your procrastinating genes

Don’t beat yourself up too much about your tendency to procrastinate. It’s natural. Procrastination was often an effective strategy for our ancestors.

To overcome procrastination, be aware of how our brains have evolved and how that can lead us astray, and update your algorithm to account for modern times.

This article was originally published on Medium.

Mike Fishbein studies psychology and philosophy and writes about how you can apply what he learns to your personal and professional development. He’s been featured on The Observer, Lifehacker, and Tiny Buddha. You can connect with him at mfishbein.com.

Working at home can afford you the unique opportunity to save money from your monthly budget. Here are some quick tips that will save you thousands each year and make working from home even more worth it.

Plan a Weekly Menu

Getting your grocery bill under control is one way to curb excess expenses and also makes trips to the store easier. Make a menu for each day of the week you will be eating at home and create a shopping list to make it easier while you’re at the store. It helps to know exactly what you need so you don’t end up buying things you won’t use.

Use Coupon Apps

No need to clip coupons anymore, there are smartphone apps that you can use to get deals all over town and everything is handled by the app. You can even look for deals on prescriptions to save money on those each month.

Rearrange Your Car Situation

Now that you’re working from home you may need to switch some things around with the cars. You won’t be my driving as much, a cost savings all by itself, so make sure you are left at home with the car that makes the most sense, in most cases the one that gets the worse gas mileage.

It could even be the case that you can get by with one less car now that you are not commuting back and forth to work. This can make a huge difference not only in the amount of car payments made per month, but also the amount of car insurance you pay over the year.

Assess Your Cable Needs

One way to cut back on monthly expenses is to determine exactly how much you are using your cable TV and decide if it’s time to cut the cord. With streaming services like Netflix and Hulu as well as on demand DIY videos on YouTube you could find that you don’t even need cable anymore.

Of course, as a work-at-home mom you’ll won’t be able to get rid of the high speed internet, but paying an extra $50 to $80 per month for a basic cable package, and even more for a premium package adds up to a sizable annual cost.

Get Into Gardening

Growing your own vegetables is a healthy way to go, and also is a way to save money on produce. It doesn’t have to be anything expansive, even a small herb garden will come in handy when you are making dinner and will take the place of dried spices. You can start off with just a few different plants and expand things as you get better at it.

Try DIY Household Cleaners

You can get most anything clean these days with natural household cleaners you make by yourself. Vinegar and baking soda can clean up just about anything when mixed properly, and vinegar itself has many uses around the home and is very cheap.

One side benefit of cleaning things naturally is that you won’t be using any harsh chemicals that can cause allergic reactions. Switching to an all-natural laundry detergent is often much cheaper per load, and can leave your clothes looking and smelling better than before.

Incorporate Home Automation Features

You can have it set up so that certain lights in your house go on and off at certain times, and everything can be controlled from your smartphone. That way you won’t leave lights on in the house all day. Now rather than walking all through your house discovering lights that have been left on, you can command everything from your home office and save money in the long run.

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We already know that big companies such as Amazon use a lot of their resources in big data in order to increase their efficiency. If this is the case, you might be wondering how small businesses can benefit from big data services such as www.ibds.com. Here are five reasons for small and medium-sized companies to get involved in big data too:

1. Being data-oriented is a smart move in this digital age. You might not have the budget of Amazon in order to analyse the data the way they do, but the least you can do is to use tools such as Google analytics to get you the goals you want to achieve. In fact, this is almost the only way to make your operations better.

2. Getting engaged in big data will allow you to understand the target market. In other words, you need to find out about the preferences of your customers even before you release any product. This way can you be certain that what you deliver is exactly what they need.

3.Big data can help you fight with competition. It is especially useful if in your industry your competitors do not take advantage of big data yet. This way you can outsmart them on every corner.

4. Big data helps small businesses understand trends. Very often, people can be very predictable. they shop following certain trends, their economic status, or even the general way the world is changing. You have to admit that the world today is a lot different from even 20 years ago and it’s best to embrace those changes by making sure that you fully utilise them to your advantage.

5.Finally, get the best staff members using the power of big data. Yes, big data can be used to get the best of the best using various big data channels. Lots of information is available for you to interpret such as productivity of a person, absenteeism, etc., which makes things a lot easier when it comes to your staffing choices.

Below you find an infographic that tells you a lot of interesting things about big data. Feel free to familiarise yourself with it so that you can tell your friends or family members all those facts you have learned from it:

A lot of stay-at-home moms love the idea of starting their own business but it can be difficult to know where to start.

Offering a wonderful work-life balance, being your own boss is an attractive prospect. But what business idea will provide you with the success you need to start generating some cash?

Well, thankfully, all it takes is some hard work, commitment, a good attitude, and the drive to succeed. With all of these key features, most people will be able to turn any idea into a business.

Here are some great ideas to get you started:

Be a Consultant in Your Area of Expertise

Before you had kids, what job did you do? This area of expertise might be something you can help other businesses and/or people with. You’ve already got all of this knowledge (not to mention that great list of contacts), so why not put it to good use?

Take a look at your experience and knowledge. How can this be useful to others? How can you add value? Could you save someone money or make someone’s life/business much better or easier?

Answering these questions will allow you to pinpoint an area of expertise you could turn into a consultancy business.

Sell Your Products Online

Thanks to the Internet, it’s now possible to sell almost anything online – even the kitchen sink! So, why not turn your hobby or idea into a money-spinning business?

This doesn’t have to involve creating the next Amazon or being a savvy digital entrepreneur. Instead, it’s all about putting your skills to good use before selling them on all of the available channels there are online.

For example, have you always enjoyed making your own cards or are you a budding artist? Then get your pen to paper and start creating some key pieces you can sell online (through Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and so on). The best bit? You can buy everything you need to get started online (click here for great stationery ranges), so you don’t even need to leave the house to get your business idea off the ground!

Write Your Own Blog

If you enjoy writing or you feel as though you have a lot of advice/stories to share with people, you might like to create your own blog.

Granted, you will want to earn some money from this blog, which means you will have to write frequently and consistently, but this will mean you’re getting paid for something you love.

You don’t have to look far to find some mommy blogger success stories, providing you with plenty of inspiration for your own blog. Furthermore, as you start to drive traffic to your blog and you start to get noticed, you may even find yourself being snapped up by other companies, magazines, or publishers to write more.

To make it a success you just need to find a topic that’ll work for you and is something people are searching for. Thankfully, there’s plenty of information online about how you can get a blog started, so a quick Google search will provide you with a plethora of handy how-to guides.

Setting up your own business doesn’t have to involve a lot of time or money. Instead, it’s all about finding your own niche that you’ll enjoy working within. Then, making money becomes a welcome bonus for doing something you love!