Business Errors to Avoid While Starting Up Your Business.

It is not unknown to many that failure is a risk one has to take in venturing into any business. But it can be avoided if you become aware of the common blunders entrepreneurs make in starting up. There are aspects that must be factored in to make sure that you find success in your first attempt at this endeavor. So let me give you 5 mistakes to avoid in starting up a business.

1. Failure to Measure.
You need to make sure that you have fully understood what you are getting yourself into.
Assess well your business capital and funds, costs, time, competition in the same industry, your market, etc. before plunging fully into the business scene. There is wisdom in the saying that “you cannot manage what you can’t measure.” So make sure you have more pros than cons as you begin setting up.


2. Operate Within Capital.
 In businesses there are economic realities and that includes expenses. But too much of it will kill your business before it is launched. There are fixed costs to consider, yes, yet anything apart from operational costs, like rent, salary for the staff (if you need any), electric bills, insurance, and other preset expenditures you can do without. Check if your capital funds can cover that thing you want to spend on. For example, spending money to put up a huge billboard of your startup company is not sensible at all. Be frugal and creative. Find other ways to promote your business without spending way out of your budget or capital.

3. Wrong Company Structure.
You need to recognize that for any business to flourish it needs to be founded on the right company structure. There are three kinds of business set up: sole proprietorship, partnership and corporation. Know ahead which set up you prefer. If you want to sell pre-loved items or second-hand products, you can go at it as a sole trader. While partnership can be beneficial too, you need to gauge if the enterprise you are starting up needs partnering. Many businesses close down because of partner issues. Determine the kind of business you have and set it up in a structure that will work best.

4. Underestimating Your Competition.
Sometimes even if the business has great potential, it shuts down because they cannot content with their competitors in the industry. Research how your competitors function, find any weaknesses vis-à-vis your company’s strengths then build on that, and distinguish your unique selling point that you can develop. Identify the competition so you would know how to compete, else your business will have a slim chance to survive.
5. No Marketing Plan.
Businesses need to have a good marketing plan. Confirm first if your product or service has a strong market in your area. Enhance the niche you have by creating strategies for people to know you and your company. It does not necessarily need to be expensive (remember mistake #2?). For your start up business to succeed, people has to know that there is a new business opening up and create enough curiosity for them try it out. Take advantage of the social media channels and make interesting videos of your company. Work out your connections and ask friends to try your product or service or give out samples and let them promote for you. You may also do the traditional method but make sure you have weighed the costs well. Just be sure that you have a fine marketing plan that you can work on and develop. Your start up business will find success if you have carefully mapped out a strategic plan that is feasible. You need to be aware of these errors when creating your start up business plan. Make sure that you factor them in so that you will be able to grow the business that you have started by avoiding them. Consider a careful study of your market and wise handling of cash flow and look ahead with caution. Do not be hasty but be confident. With thorough planning and preparation, your start up business will definitely turn out well.

Author bio: Celina Conner is a Yoga Instructor, a holder of a Marketing Diploma from Martin College Australia and a mother of a beautiful daughter, Krizia. She has a passion in cooking and formulating vegan recipes.Follow her adventures on her Twitter.

Is Your Florida Business Website, Cellphone Friendly?

In 2012 the need for Florida businesses to have a cellphone friendly website is paramount. If you find this hard to believe then take a look at these figures.

In the US alone in 2012 smart phone usage is set to top 55%. In fact,  by the end of the year a staggering 97.3 million American citizens will be  mainly accessing the internet via their smart phones. By 2015 this figure is set to hit 165 million. 

The reality is that these figures are pretty hard to ignore and any business who isn't marketing their company with smart phones in mind, is certainly missing out on a trick. For this reason a Florida internet marketing company who specialise in web design will be able to help.

In essence, even small businesses who are looking to compete online should be looking to make their websites cell phone friendly. It may be great having an 'all singing, all dancing' website with all the bells and whistles for a PC, but it just might not work when downloaded onto a cell phone and this is something that any Marketing Florida company can advise you of.

So what are some of the criteria that you should be looking our for when converting your website to cell phone use?

• Is it easily read?
• Can it be easily navigated?
• Is it user friendly with regard to option selections?

If the answer to any of the above questions is no, then you should consult with a skilled web designer. Florida has a plethora of such companies to choose from.

So what should you do in order to make the transition to cell phone friendly website?

One of the most important things is to keep it short and succinct. Walls of text and cell phones really don't go together. Therefore, tell people what you have to tell them and keep it very much 'to the point'. In addition a selection of carefully sourced keywords woven naturally throughout the text for SEO optimization purposes is also paramount. This is something that any Florida SEO companies will be able to help you with.

When designing a website for smart phone use it needs to be 'scannable'. Whilst it's true that all websites should be easy to scan it is particularly important for displaying on cell phones. Remember any data entry forms or email capture forms should be quick and easy to use.

The great thing is that even if you have a website already, making the transition to a 'cell friendly' service isn't particularly difficult to achieve and any south Florida marketing business or Palm Beach SEO company will be able to advise you on how to go about doing this.

Best Regards,

For: Marketing Florida
Jimmy Ghoffa

Top Five Tips to Protect your Pension

With the economy going into turmoil every now and then, some of you are rightfully afraid of what is going to become of your pension plans. These are tough and unpredictable times for the economy. But despite that pension plans are not in any serious risk. This is particularly true of those employees that have already leveraged some of the benefits of their plans. On the other hand, you are aware that defined benefit plans are in the decline mode and these days it is more pay for performance than a lump sum amount. Public pensions are also under scrutiny. But you should also know that just because the economy is in decline, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your plan is going to be effected. However it is always a good idea to check out your plan and its returns. Keep reading to know how you can protect your pension.

1. Keep a check on the plan’s funded status. It is the ratio of assets that a plan has on hand to meet its future obligations. If this ratio is 80% or more, it is considered to be healthy, any difference till 100% then is manageable. This is assuming that these funded assets actually earn the future investment returns.

2. Get a detailed annual report, or even better get it every six months. But one thing to keep in mind is that if the report is too detailed for your knowledge then you will have to enlist the help of a financial advisor. In either case it does well to understand the finer nuances of your plan. Also get a detailed statement on the benefits that you are entitled to receive when you retire. Get this revised at set intervals, so you know what the actual figure is going to be.

3. Most of you feel that the retirement benefits should come to you in lump sum, so that you don’t have to worry about the money later on. But experts say that it makes more sense to lock your vested benefits into monthly payments. It is better for retirement security.

4. Drill down to the detail of each plan and have your financial advisor explain everything to you. Pick up the annual comprehensive financial report and look at your employer’s contribution over time. Then figure out if the plan works for you and how healthy are the expected benefits.

5. If you are worried about government shortfalls and pay offs to employees when they are asked to leave, then it is alright to invest in individual retirement accounts and public defined contribution plans. You can also find some of the online retirement benefits calculator that give you a ball park figure and it is easy for you to figure out if you are saving enough for retirement or not. While these steps will help you plan adequately for your pension and retirement funds, it is alright to give the economy a little time to catch up. Your financial advisor will be able to help you more objectively in this regard.

Resource Box(Bio):- The Retirement Group educates corporate employees that are transitioning or retiring Netbenefits.

5 Reasons why you shouldn't Ignore your Facebook Edge Rank and how to Improve it.

Facebook is the latest weapon capable of mass destruction for marketing platforms. The battle for online domination has rampaged throughout the different businesses that are trying to get more likes and brand mentions from users. In this article, we will talk about what Facebook Edge Rank is, its importance and ways to optimize it. "Edge Rank is an algorithm developed by Facebook to govern what is displayed-and how high-on the News Feed" this is how whatisedgerank.com defines Edge Rank. To put it in simpler terms, Edge Rank is the system that decides which posts you will see on your News Feed. If you’re looking to maximize your Page’s visibility you should definitely boost your Edge Rank!

5 Reasons why you shouldn’t Ignore Facebook Edge Rank

1. It improves your post IMPRESSIONS An impression does not necessarily mean that your post was clicked or intentionally viewed. It just means that at some point in time your post appeared on the screen of a user. Every time someone browses through Facebook and somehow skims through your post that will count as an impression. It goes without saying of course that the more impressions you get the more likely you are to engage user interactions.

2. It increases your VISIBILITY The level of engagement your page and your posts have determined the amount of visibility you can reach. It's a common misconception that all of the fans of a certain page will be able to see every post. This is not true! Posts with little engagement will not be prioritized by the algorithm and might never even be seen by its fans.

3. It determines the amount of ENGAGEMENT Before any engagement is possible, you must first be visible to the eyes of your fans. The best way to do this is to show up on their news feeds! And the only way to get there is by having a good standing in Edge Rank. The better ranking you have the better chances there are of being able to reach out to your fans and invite them to engage in your content.

4. It determines the RELEVANCE of your posts Literally tons of posts from multiple fan pages bombard our news feed all the time and Facebook filters which ones we will see thru Edge Rank. Now, if your posts never really attain any real traffic then you will have low rankings, and with that your newer posts will be categorized as irrelevant and will never see the dawn of day light. However, if your posts regularly achieve high levels of engagement, your ranking will definitely increase. With high ratings, Edge Rank will deem your new posts as relevant to fans.

5. It either provides TRAFFIC to your page or drives it away Given that your Edge Rank determines whether or not your posts will appear on the news feed of your fans, it will also be a crucial factor to the traffic driven to your page. Low engagement will result to low rankings; low rankings will result into low traffic. With this much at stake, Edge Rank can either make your page a huge success or a tragic failure. How to Improve Your Edge Rank 1. Upload Pictures and videos Pictures and videos have more weight in Edge Rank than status updates and links. By posting interesting photos and videos, you can hope for a lot of engagement from your fans. Make sure that you have catchy titles too! Also, you may try using questions as captions to get users to interact with your post.

2. Do a great deal of updates Try to engage your fans as much as possible, three, five or even ten updates a day will do you a great deal of help. Don't dish out crappy material just for the sake of updating, instead try to come up with content that your followers will find interesting and will therefore start engaging in. Posting regularly will keep your page fresh which is a great way to invite interaction from the users.

3. Post quality content Content that will naturally engage your target audience or your fans will easily create healthy interaction thus improving your impressions which will in turn make you rise up in the rankings. By lodging quality content, asking your followers to like and comment on a post will be easy as eating cake! Edge Rank can be a good system, especially for Pages with high levels of user engagement already. Smaller sized Fan Pages however, may be the ones to suffer. A number of Facebook Fan Page owners have expressed their animosity towards this algorithm tweak deeming it "unfair" and "abusive." The system of Edge Rank seems to lean toward encouraging Page administrators to avail of the Promoted Posts advertising option. Availing of this subscription provides posts with more network reach and sustainability. The problem is not every Page has the means to afford Promoted Posts. Whether or not Facebook changes the way the algorithms of Edge Rank work is still a big question mark. The important thing that you must know now is that you need to optimize your Edge Rank.

Author bio: +Tony Evans is a freelance web designer, an alumna of Upskilled Australia and a mother of a beautiful daughter, Athena. She has a passion in Aerobics and cooking healthy recipes.

Ad Networks Tip For Making Money With Your Blog

When it comes to making money online, if you are going to build a website then you have to have a way to monetize that website for income. Ad networks provide you with an opportunity to feature advertisements on your website, where you will be paid whenever somebody clicks on those advertisements. There are many popular ad networks out there, deciding which one you are going to use can be a difficult decision. Below, you will find the most popular ad networks that I have come across as an online marketer, and you will also find some reasons why I consider these to be the best ones.

Google AdSense
Google AdSense is by far the biggest and most profitable ad network on the Internet. Most bloggers choose to go with Google AdSense because it typically pays the highest amount per click. If you want to make money blogging, AdSense is your foot in the door. By featuring these ads on your website, you can optimize your site to get clicks to these ads and make money. The best way to get clicks on your ads is to write good quality articles that people will enjoy reading. As you publish this content, your work will get found and your ads will get clicked if you have placed them in the right positions.

Adbrite
This is an alternative network to Google AdSense. If you can’t get accepted through Google AdSense, Adbrite is a viable alternative that you may want to consider. When testing this network, we found that they typically pay much less per click than Google AdSense. They also don’t have as reliable of the network. One thing that they do have going for them is a very simple backend interface. Navigating the interface is rather easy, all that you have to do is place the ads on your website and you will be able to track the statistics through the administrative account.

InfoLinks
This is a fairly new ad network but it has gotten incredibly popular. Unlike with other advertising systems, InfoLinks allows you to place ads directly within your content. InfoLinks will link some of the words found in your articles to advertisers within their system. This allows you to make money when people click on advertisements on your website. Through our testing, we found that people are more likely to click on ads that are text link ads, rather than banner ads. Most people have gotten accustomed to avoiding banner ads, so they know not to click on them now.

If you want to make money blogging, ad networks are a great way to do so. I particularly like ad networks because unlike affiliate programs, all that you have to do is focus on producing content that your readers are going to love. No longer will you have to create sales pitches in order to entice people into buying something. When you run a blog and focus on producing income through ad networks, you are not selling anything to anybody. Rather, you are hoping that people will click on the ads and be a supportive member of your website.

Author Bio :- Charles Dodgson works as a content strategist for WLM Link Building Company delivering affordable SEO services and a comprehensive range of Internet marketing solutions to help businesses establish a strong presence on search engines and the most trusted consumer hubs online.

5 Ways to Ensure Your Employees are Happy at Work!

Employees are the key to the success of any business. They perform all important tasks that make the company going. They represent the business to customers and prospective clients. They keep the venture alive. No one can contest the importance of employees to any business.
It is important to make the employees happy. Happy staff will surely be more enthusiastic when dealing with clients. They tend to do more and they become more willing to achieve targets. They even develop a sense of loyalty and belongingness. Making them feel like they are part of a big and happy family at work will do more wonder. Here are some ideas that can help make sure they are happy while working with your company.

1. Create a Comfortable and Productive Working Atmosphere through a Good Office Design.
Logically, the physical layout of the working place helps maximize productivity of employees, who need more space to work, useful materials and supplies, and a pleasant office environment. A good office design will motivate them further to work. Give your staff good reasons to feel excited to go to work each day. A comfortable and pleasant working place can be a good start.

2. Become a Good Employer.
Communicate personally and be pleasant to them at all times. While being approachable, make yourself clear about the expectations you set for all your staff. Set clear boundaries, provide the right direction, and demonstrate effective leadership style. Always be fair and compassionate to all employees.

3. Allow Flexibility.
Your employees will appreciate it more if you can provide everyone more breathing room. You may start by giving your staff a flexible working schedule so they will not have to suffer any setback caused by traffic and other events that inevitably happen in the community. Occasionally, allow some personnel to work from home especially working moms who encounter emergencies at home, like having a sick child or waiting for a repairman to fix the heater.

4. Be Generous.
Employees will certainly appreciate high salaries, greater benefits, and more perks. Make them feel that working in your company will be enough to make them financially contented. You can do this without getting less reasonable in terms of the profitability of the business. Realize that well-paid staff are often more productive and loyal. At the same time, be generous in giving praises because as you know, making employees happy and appreciative is not just all about money.

5. Make Them Feel Important.
This way, you can target fulfilling their sense of self-actualization and accomplishment. People who feel important tend to be happy, and that happiness will eventually emanate to all other aspects of their lives.
Give them responsibilities, trust them, and make them realize how important they are to the company.

Author Bio: Irene has been blogging about office space design and how it impacts employer productivity. When she is not writing, Irene offers office partitions and interior design services to businesses looking at improving their office environment.

DIGITAL MARKETING AND EMAIL MARKETING - GOOD BEDFELLOWS

The digital age has witnessed the soar of a range of platforms that have guided conventional marketing to the online world. During the past few years search engine optimization a.k.a. SEO, show advertising and social media have turned out to be very crucial elements in the majority of the Company brand's digital marketing mix - however in spite of the development in these promotion means, email marketing is even now the most successful. Exhibit, SEO or even social media apparently cannot contend with email when it is with regard to return on investment or ROI which is the reason that the majority of the marketers should make certain that email remains the center of their marketing expenses.

Digital Marketing

A marketing company of late conducted a research so as to measure the success of email marketing in contrast to exhibit advertising and the consequences were amazing. Hence, it can be seen that even now Email is the most expenditure-efficient marketing means, helping you to get to people who have in fact provided you with their permission to contact them, and who are consequently more probable to pay notice to your communication and react to your calls-to-action.

Email Marketing

Email Marketing lets brands to mail messages based on their own agenda and it lets customers to react at their free time, while allowing a high amount of personalization that furnishes the ability to get used to crusades to the personal wants of each receiver. At its top, email marketing mixes art and science, furthermore an email marketing star can put on both hats evenly. With true consent achievement for marketing via email takes place when a dealer hands over a pertinent message to mark with the audience's requirements.

In reality all this means that the application side has to do with producing a message that utters to what your readers signed up for and what they anticipate and crave. Bear in mind that a recycled proposal of your newspaper ad or even a cut-and-paste work of your promotional material piece in HTML structure will not accomplish what you want it to. Hence, you can notice that a lot of times, the majority of the email marketing and digital marketing ads are established on a company's promotion goals, instead of what consumers require and desire.

At the same time at its heart, digital marketing focuses on the Internet and this has turned out to be both a communiqué vehicle as well as a very influential marketing means as the current double-click attainment by Google established. The Internet thus can be utilized to both drive a message to someone similar to email, IM, RSS, or voice broadcast, in addition to pulling consumers to take action.

Author’s Bio: Richa is an active writer who wrote many articles related to the Internet Marketing. In the above mentioned article she is describing Digital Marketing and Email Marketing.