Working from home can be both a blessing and a curse. This is especially the case when it comes to optimizing productivity in your home-based office.

Of course, there is a certain sense of freedom that comes when you escape from your old corporate cubicle. For a while, that sense of freedom can boost your creative mojo. However, familiar distractions can soon interfere with your intention to buckle down to uninterrupted hard work.

Therefore, whether you’re a freelance SEO marketer or an interior design blogger, setting up your home-based office for success is one of the most crucial pieces of putting together a dynamic workspace. With that in mind, the following methods of priming your home-based office will transform your productivity level in a few easy steps.

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Go Minimalist

Going minimalist takes a great deal of decluttering. In order to do that, you’ll need to assess what you need and what you don’t to an extreme. If you’re the distractible type, for example, ridding your workspace of temptation in its many forms is the first step to going minimalist.

Any tech you don’t need should be the first to go. For example, there’s probably no need for a 65-inch TV or an iPad if you don’t use either for work. Additionally, keep decorations to a minimum. For those who tend to let their minds wander, analyzing photos or intricate pieces of art will only result in wasting time. Therefore, pick a only couple of pictures or a couple of pieces of art on Etsy for aesthetic effect.

Declutter Your Desk

As we mentioned earlier, decluttering is part of the minimalist movement. What’s more, your desk is the easiest place to run wild. This is especially true given the amount of paperwork, bookkeeping, and note-taking you need to complete for an effective day’s work.

However, swimming in an abyss of pens and papers gives more room for distraction and less room for focus. Therefore, equip your office space with a multi-drawer storage stack to give a home to those loose materials. Also, invest in a wall calendar to keep track of important timelines. Use sticky notes for reminders. The more available space, the better. Do yourself a favor and clean that desk up!

Pick a Productive Space

Select a room in your house that has plenty of natural light, an operable window, and enough space to foster your big ideas. That’s because tiny, cramped, closet-sized offices can feel claustrophobic after a few hours. Therefore, be sure to pick a room that you can stand to be in for long eight-hour days.

Additionally, if you’re running a business out of your home and expect to have clients over from time to time, be sure the space is one you are proud to show.

Add a Splash of Greenery

Plants will brighten the space. What’s more, they will also improve the air quality in your office.

So consider buying a spider plant or a dracaena plant. Both are easy to care for and look gorgeous in any space. However, be wary of plants that may attract nasty insects. This can compromise the integrity and cleanliness of your office space. Though Housecall Pro’s pest control software makes finding a solution simple, you’re better off avoiding plants that attract pests in the first place.

Light up Your Space with Warmer Tones

Use warm colors rather than cooler ones. This could put your brain in the mood for learning and creating.

It’s interesting to note that studies over the years have shown that extended exposure to fluorescent lights has a number of negative effects on stress and anxiety levels. So instead of fluorescent lighting, use lights with yellow tones. This can make your space feel warmer and more conducive to work production. You are, after all, looking to make your home-based office feel productive. You might as well invest in things that make it sustainable, too.

Use a Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant could be the hands-free help you need for small tasks that would otherwise distract you. The Sonos One and Google Home Hub are both excellent options for voice-recognition commanding. If you need a reminder or simply want to know what traffic is like to the local print shop, your virtual assistant can let you know in seconds. All you have to do is ask! What’s more, their compact and sleek style fit into a minimalist setup without any extra clunk or distraction.

Apply These Tips to Make Your Home-Based Office More Productive

Having a career based out of your home is becoming more common. Further, telecommuting seems to be the next big move in the job world.

However, instead of falling into the trap of being too comfortable to work effectively from home, change up the pace of your workspace. Boost your productivity in your home-based office with these metamorphic changes.

Photo by Carl Raw on Unsplash

Experts warn that because of its easy availability, online gambling can be even more addictive than gambling in brick-and-mortar casinos.

However, if you do decide to indulge in online gambling, perhaps to take a quick break from the never-ending stress of running your business, remember that playing games in online casinos should be fun. And they are even more fun if you can improve your chances of winning. 

There are ways to make sure you don’t lose your bankroll within a few minutes of starting to play. Moreover, many online games players have become wise to these tips.

So if you want to take a break from the pressure cooker of running your business by playing games in online casinos, do so with caution, applying the wisdom you’ll find in this post.

Take Advantage of Incentives in Online Casinos

Most online casinos offer incentives both to new players and their existing customer base. This is one big advantage online platforms have over physical casinos. That’s because there is no way the latter are going to hand you some cash to play with as you walk in. On the other hand, online casinos offer free games. What’s more, they sometimes even offer a cash incentive. This is intended to encourage you to either join them or stay loyal to their site.

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There is such a huge variety of online casino games to choose from. Therefore, this very competitive market offers some great opportunities to enjoy some fun without spending a lot of your own dollars. Just be certain to check the rules attached to any bonuses. That’s because sometimes you will need to play a certain amount before you can withdraw your winnings. This is called a “playthrough” requirement. It is in place to keep players and operators safe from abuse.

Blackjack – Thanks to Taxrebate.org.uk on Flickr for the image

Bet a Bit at a Time

If you have a budget of $50, don’t bet $10 at a time. You are likely to run out of money if you do that. In order to be more likely to win some and have fun for longer, you would be better off with making wagers of $1 a time.

You could have a hand in blackjack, for example, that you are certain will win. However, you can never be sure what the dealer will have. Therefore, do not bet all your pot in one go. Any win is better than no win. And if your hand is as good as you think, you will be able to have more games with this strategy.

Learn
the Rules

With such a large choice of games, you may be tempted to play something new. Before you do, however, learn the rules of whatever it is you have chosen to play for the first time.

Just as an example, craps is a really fun game. However, if you have never played it before you might not understand what is happening. This could mean you bet the wrong amounts at the wrong time. That could cost you money. If you want to play craps, learn the rules first. Also, take advantage of some of the free games that will allow you to practice.

Craps – With thanks to Mark Hesseltine on Flickr for the image

Choose Games with
a Lower House
Advantage

Knowing the house advantage on your choice of game will let you know what the odds are of winning. The lower the house advantage the greater your chances are. So pick games with a low house advantage. This can make your betting pot stretch further.

Generally, blackjack is one of the best, followed by craps. But of course this can change from casino to casino. The good thing is that with none of the overheads that physical casinos have to stand, online casinos usually offer you a better chance of being a winner.

Photo by Aditya Vyas on Unsplash

Stock market investing can be a prudent financial decision. However, you must educate yourself first. Also, you’ll need to manage your funds wisely.

Moreover, like an old English proverb says, “A fool and his money are soon parted.”

Unfortunately, too many people are tempted to throw caution to the winds. They think they can get rich overnight in the stock market, but this is seldom the case.

RELATED ARTICLE: 4 REASONS WHY BITCOIN INVESTING IS A LONG-TERM GAME

Experts generally recommend that you consult either a broker or an investment adviser. However, it is possible to work out an effective investment strategy on your own. Do this by conducting the appropriate research.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Take Some Advice from the SEC

For instance, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has detailed some important steps. Follow their advice, as it can help you to define and meet your financial goals. Here’s the gist of their Roadmap to Saving and Investing:

Define
Your Goals

Determine an acceptable time frame for meeting specific goals. Do this by calculating what you’ll need to save each year.

Evaluate
Your Finances

Create a personal net worth statement. That is, look at what you own alongside what you owe. Next, determine whether you have a positive or negative net worth. In other words, subtract your liabilities from your assets.

Start
Tracking Your Income and Expenses

Tracking your income and expenses will tell you how much of your income you have available to invest.

Take Advantage of Compound Interest

Leveraging even small amounts of money in savings can lead to big returns because of compound interest. In short, avoiding impulse purchases could be your key to financial success.

Eliminate
High-Interest Debt

Experts encourage consumers to pay off credit cards before doing any stock market investing.

Put
Money in Savings

Even though your money will earn a low interest rate, it’s typically safer to put it in savings accounts, checking accounts, and certificates of deposit. That way, your money will be insured.

Assess
the Risks

You always assume some degree of risk with stock market investing. It’s true that returns on successful investments can be greater than many other options. However, in some cases, it’s possible to lose the entire amount that you’ve invested.

Understand
Your Risk Tolerance

If you want your money to grow faster, you might have to  consider riskier investment products.

Know Your Investment Options

There is a variety of products for consumers to consider for stock market investing. For example, you could invest in stocks or mutual funds. There are also corporate and municipal bonds, annuities, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), money market funds, and U.S. Treasury securities.

Know the Types of Stocks and Their Costs

According to Nasdaq, there are two different types of stocks when it comes to stock market investing. That is, there are full-service stocks and discount stocks.

Investors with a higher net worth typically partner with full-service brokers. These brokers provide them with stock recommendations, guidance, and so on.

However, if you want to stay in charge of all of your investment decisions, then seek out a discount broker. That’s because discount brokers charge significantly lower fees than full-service brokers do.

What Fees Can You Expect?

There are two main fees that investors incur in with stock market investing. The first comes in the form of commissions every time you purchase and trade stocks. These fees can range from $10 to $30 per transaction through discount brokers.

Additionally, there are mutual fund fees. These are the fees that you’ll incur when you invest in mutual funds.

Remember, the best way to manage risk is by investing in a range of assets. This is also known as diversification. For example, a well-diversified portfolio will often incorporate mutual funds that include a large number of stocks and other investments.

Should You Invest in Products or in Stocks?

A concept that some people struggle with is whether they will earn more from investing in a stock or in a product.

To answer this question, a group of consumers conducted in-depth research on 35 different companies. They sought to determine how much they would have made if they had invested in a company’s stock instead of buying that company’s product or service.

Apart from a few exceptions, these investors concluded that an investor would make a profit if they invested in a company instead of purchasing that company’s product. The key takeaway was that the changes in a company’s stock value can dramatically alter an initial investment.

Educate Yourself Before You Begin Stock Market Investing

Finally, it pays to do your homework and educate yourself before you begin investing in the stock market. Follow the suggestions here and you’ll be sure to have greater success with your own stock market investing.

The evolution of work in the digital age is making workers’ lives easier. For example, online freelancing job sites have paved the way for many people to work from the comfort of their own homes. But the freedom to work your own way has its challenges, too. And one of those challenges is learning how to manage finances as a freelancer.

Freelancers often market their skills and services online today. Moreover, in the online world almost every skill is in demand. Whether your specialty is content writing, web design, social media, digital marketing, or something else, you’re bound to find your freelancing niche.

Freelancing Can Be a Risky Business

Freelancers have the freedom to work anywhere they choose, whether it’s a nearby coffee shop or their own home office. What’s more, many freelancers think of themselves as entrepreneurs, and claim the right to create their careers their own way.

On the other had, freelancers must almost continually market themselves and their skills. Otherwise, they’ll never attract the clients they need. Additionally, some admit that they miss having a regular job with a fixed salary. Instead, they have to manage their own business with its ever-changing cash flow.

For many freelancers, the main struggle is that the work is unpredictable. Consequently, they don’t necessarily have a steady income. One month, they might land a great client and make good money. The next month, they struggle just to keep up with basic expenses.

No longer can freelancers look forward to a paycheck that shows up in their bank account twice a month. Gone, too, are the end-of-year bonuses, group health insurance, and benefits of the corporate world.

In other words, freelancing can be a risky business if you don’t learn quickly to generate sufficient income and manage finances. What’s more, since freelancing is a one-person business, all of the responsibilities and liabilities fall on your shoulders.

Therefore, if you’re going to survive as a freelancer, you need to have an organized plan that will keep you afloat financially.

How
Smart Freelancers Manage Finances

Project Your Income

At the beginning of the month, make a list of your current clients. Then, estimate your projected monthly income from each client.

If you see right away that you won’t be bringing in enough cash to make it through the month, you’ll know that your first order of business will be to market your skills to attract more clients.

Calculate Your Expenses

It’s pretty easy to keep your expenses low as a freelancer. No longer do you have the expenses of commuting and maintaining an expensive wardrobe.

Basically, your expenses as a freelancer will fall into two major categories:

• personal expenses such as food, water, shelter, and car
• business expenses such as Internet, electricity, taxes, equipment, software, and supplies

It can help to keep a simple spreadsheet where you keep track of your business income and expenses. Then, at tax time, it will be relatively easy to sort things out and report accurate numbers.

Create and Follow a Budget

While you’re building your freelancing business, you might not be able to live as you did when you were pulling in a regular paycheck. For example, instead of eating out every night, you might need to learn how to prepare your own meals at home.

Additionally, create a financial plan and follow it. Also, record all your expenses and track the receipts. Stick to your budget and stay disciplined.

The practice of following a budget will give you more peace of mind. In turn, this will allow you to focus on creating a great experience for your clients. Before too long, word will get around, and more clients will come your way. Eventually, you’ll notice that your freelancing business is growing and thriving.

Manage Finances by Saving More Money

When you’re learning to manage finances as a freelancer, remember that saving money is not an option. During those months when clients come calling and you have so much work you can barely keep up, use that additional income to start a rainy day fund.

Then, the next time you have a dry spell, you’ll be glad you did. As a matter of fact, if you can, try to set aside enough cash in a dedicated account to cover your basic expenses for at least four to six months.

However, there may be times when you’ll need to turn to additional resources just to keep going. When that happens, you could apply for an online loan at inexpensive rates and decent terms. For example, Best Moneylender offers good opportunities for funding.

While you’re building your freelancing business, learn to save money wherever you can. Take care of your basic needs and postpone luxury purchases until you’ve built a steady flow of income. And don’t be discouraged if that doesn’t happen overnight.

RELATED ARTICLE: THE SELF-EMPLOYED BUSINESS OWNER’S GUIDE TO SAVING FOR RETIREMENT

Manage
Finances Well for More Freedom as a Freelancer

There’s a lot to like about life as a freelancer. For example, freelancing gives you freedom and the flexibility to work the way you want. However, freelancers who don’t learn how to manage finances well in the beginning can have a difficult time.

Therefore, learn how organize your finances, manage your money wisely, and keep track of your expenses. Learning how to manage finances will give you greater peace of mind and allow you to become an even better freelancer.

Image Source: StartupStockPhotos on Pixabay

Being a rental business owner is not easy. You have to wear many hats at the same time. Whether it is damaged equipment returned by a customer, a missing product, or a scheduling conflict, everything falls on your shoulders. All these mounting responsibilities can be hard to deal with. However, they serve as a great reminder that running a rental business is no easy feat.

Let’s take a
look at five truths all rental business owners should never turn a blind eye
to.

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1. There Is No 9 to 5. You Have a Rental Business Because You Love It!

Being your own boss might sound attractive. However, it comes with its fair share of troubles. It isn’t all parties and CEO moments. The truth is there is no such thing as a 9-to-5 workday or a clock-in and clock-out for an entrepreneur. Running your own business is much more demanding than that.

For example, if something obstructs your rental operation, you can’t leave it at the risk of it hindering your business processes. Sometimes, steering this ship is an all-around-the-clock thing. You might even need to tend to a 3 am emergency.

But if you’re putting in a ton of effort, you need to make sure that it has the maximum impact. This makes your health a top priority for the health of your business. Therefore, take care of yourself. In other words, account for your energy output and health so you can always cater to tasks to the best of your abilities.

Also, always, always prioritize tasks. Moreover, delegate the ones that someone else can handle. In this way, you can maximize your output.

You have to put your day and night into your business.

Image source: freepik.com

2. People Don’t Just Rent. They Buy the Experience of Renting

There could be many companies in the market that offer the same product lines. While products play a crucial role, they start to lose their importance when everyone has the same offering. That’s where the importance of a wholesome rental experience kicks in. In short, it is not about what products you offer but how you offer them.

Even if most of the rental businesses in town have identical camera brands or party supplies, you can still distinguish yourself from the crowd. Provide a meaningful customer experience to stand out.

For example, offer a pleasant atmosphere, helpful customer service, hassle-free paperwork, and timely deliveries. These all play into how your customers perceive your brand. What’s more, if you focus on all these fronts, you are likely to become a customer favorite.

People are always willing to pay for a better, easier, and more satisfying experience. Therefore, make sure you make it worth their money.

3. Customers Will Not Come to You. You Will Have to Be
Both the Buyer and the
Marketer

Let’s consider this: You have a great product line to rent out. You are using cutting-edge technology and incorporating innovative strategies for better customer experience. However, you still aren’t getting any customers.

The problem is customers don’t come flocking in long queues to a new business. On the contrary, the competitive world of business requires you to aggressively market yourself. It is through consumer-driven marketing, fool-proof content strategies, and growth hacking plans that your business is going to get traction.

You have to spread the word by marketing yourself.

Image source: freepik.com

Therefore, be sure to study ongoing rental and marketing trends, and always try to be in the shoes of the buyer. What are they expecting and what will move them to make a purchase? Thinking like a buyer will make you a better marketer. Moreover, it will help establish a permanent spot for your business in your target audience’s mind.

4. Overnight Success Doesn’t Exist. You Can’t Do It
Without Consistency

There is no such thing as overnight success. Notably, all successful business owners will testify to the fact that getting your first 10 clients is going to be the hardest feat that you’ll accomplish in your career.

Often, another company’s hard work does not gain a lot of attention. What’s more, it might seem like certain companies made it to the top because luck was on their side. However, that’s far from the truth. In most cases, they worked day and night to get to that stage of their career.

The bottom line is that there’s no route leading to instant success. You have to put in the necessary hours. Only in this way will you establish a strong footing for your business, especially in the beginning when you’re juggling multiple tasks.

However, once you know the ins and outs of your industry and all the ongoing trends, you can grow your team and outsource tasks. Remember to keep notes on all the mistakes you made while doing every task and what you learned from them. After that, share what you’ve learned with your employees so you can help them grow as well. In a nutshell, switch from hard work to smart work.

5. Your Product Line Isn’t Exclusive. There Are
Plenty of Other Fish in the Sea

Most rental businesses offer items that are popular among renters. This makes it hard to offer innovative product lines and gives rise to cut-throat competition.

There are probably companies out there that are much better than you. That’s because they feature a greater variety of products, offer better pricing, or use marketing strategies that instantly connect with their audience.

However, there’s no reason to lose heart. Instead of being discouraged, you can use this to your advantage and try to improve yourself. In other words, turn your competition into your driving force. Use it to continually re-evaluate your strategies. Who exactly is your target audience? What are others in your field doing differently? What’s more, how can you position yourself better in the market?

In short, focusing your efforts on the right people along with the right strategies will help you grow sustainably and outrun your competition. Moreover, to automate the process and keep your data secure, you can implement online rental software across your organization.

Running Your Rental Business Can Be a Rewarding Experience

Whether your business is a furniture rental, equipment rental, or party rental, there are some downsides of being a rental business owner.

However, it’s only a problem if you see it that way. You really only need to have a thick skin and a drive to pursue excellence, and you will be able to succeed. Without these two qualities, you might give up on what could’ve been a large enterprise.

On the other hand, if you’ve committed yourself to your business, don’t let harsh realities bring you down. That’s because there is always something waiting to be created, customers waiting to be served, and opportunities waiting to be made the most of.

And YOU can
make it happen!

Author Bio

Kiran is a content writer and marketer at EZRentOut, which offers equipment rental software for SMBs, mid-sized rental businesses, enterprises and more. She is a guest writer and an MBA graduate. Kiran is enthusiastic about the way technology interacts with contemporary businesses. She is willing to explore beyond her knowledge.

Photo by Fancycrave.com from Pexels

Working for yourself is a long-held dream for many. The day you finally get to claim your place among full-time successful freelancers is one you’ll never forget. Moreover, there are few who would wish to return to the rat race once they’ve glimpsed the freedom of self-employment.

That said, freelancers don’t always have it easy. It be difficult to make ends meet, especially in the early days. What’s more, there are major downsides when it comes to sick pay, holiday pay, and maternity leave.

This means that in order for freelancers to earn their monthly bread and butter and still be able to take the occasional break, their overall turnover has to have a little extra included to set aside for a rainy day. 

So, are you one of the world’s growing number of freelancers? As such, are you looking for a few simple ways to make more? Then here’s what we suggest.

Successful Freelancers Learn How to Spend Less

Source: Pixabay

For successful freelancers, having more in the bank is not entirely reliant on an increased monthly income. Spending less can also contribute toward your goal.

That’s why we recommend learning how to budget, both in your professional and everyday lives. Keep an eye on your overheads, cut out unnecessary expenses, and do your best to master the art of savvy shopping. It’s the little things that will make the biggest difference, such as knowing where to find the most economical offers around.

Those who enjoy an online flutter, for example, might want to click here to find the best real money mobile casino deals. On the other hand, freelancers who enjoy the occasional spa day may wish to head on over to Groupon to save some dollars on their chosen indulgence.

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Look for Collaborators 

Spending less will inarguably leave you with some extra funds each month. However, you’d no doubt like to increase your income, too. One of the best ways to do this is by looking for collaborators. That is, look for websites, agencies, or other related companies who can send some business your way.

There are plenty of these to be found online, from sites such as People Per Hour to agencies that advertise for freelance talent via job websites. The important thing is to be proactive. Therefore, whether it’s attending networking events to meet others in your field or spending a few hours on the Internet each evening, try to build a web of professionals who need successful freelancers like you.

Grow Your Talents 

Source: Pixabay

Last but not least, it’s a good idea to consider how you can expand your professional appeal. We’re not saying you should make forays into a different field entirely. However, the more strings you have to your bow, the more in-demand you will be.

Let’s say, for example, that you’re a copywriter. Although your grasp of punctuation and prose may be impressive, would it not also be helpful to be able to perform basic HTML for your more technologically challenged clients? If so, see if you can teach yourself. Adding this sort of small accomplishment to your portfolio can only be helpful in increasing your appeal to those on the hunt for a specialist professional such as yourself. After all, the more boxes you can tick, the more sought-after you’ll be. 

Isn’t
it time to make your business earnings the very best they can be? If so, you
know exactly where to start. 

Franchising is a great way to grow a business and generate meaningful income. But having a successful franchise marketing plan can be challenging.

A successful franchise marketing plan ensures that you deliver the right message to the right audience. It’s rare to see a franchise being sold out of coincidence. In other words, you don’t normally see clients coming in to buy a franchise just because they want to.

On the contrary, franchise sales are usually a byproduct of a series of well-executed franchise marketing strategies.

However, if you don’t have a plan in place yet and you’re looking into franchising, you’re in luck! Here is a list of the five basic elements of a successful franchise marketing plan.

#1 Buyer
Persona

Buyer personas are fictional representations of your ideal buyer in a particular market. There’s no sense in having the best franchising system in the world when you can’t market it to the right buyer. Successful franchise marketing is all about knowing who your target audience is.

Therefore, before launching ads or doing content marketing, it’s crucial that you know who you’re talking to. Understanding your buyers will mean that you can maximize the return on investment on your ads and the content you create.

RELATED ARTICLE: THE BEST WAYS TO DELIVER YOUR BRAND MESSAGE TO YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

To create your buyer persona, do the following:

Research

If you’re new to franchising, you may not have an existing client to talk to who can help you with your research. What you can do instead is to find your direct competitors and look at their existing clients. Use services like Similar Web to help you find out where their online traffic is coming from.

Additionally, visit their blogs and look at the people leaving them comments. Look at their profiles and learn about who they are. At this stage, get as much detail as you can.

Find
Similarities

After doing your research, find something in common from the things you’ve gathered. Doing so will help you narrow down the specifics for creating your buyer persona. Here are some details you can look into:

• What are their ages?
• Where do they live?
• What is their occupation or level of
  income?
• What are their interests?
• What challenges do they have?

Refine

Once you’ve figured out the core qualities of your buyer persona, create separate categories for each type. For example, a male customer in his 40’s will have different financial goals when compared to male customers in their 60’s. Moreover, create names for each persona you create. Doing so will help you refine your message more easily. This will help you to create content for a specific buyer persona.

Your buyer personas will change as
you learn more things about your target market. Be sure to revisit them and
update their information when needed. Your buyer persona is the cornerstone of
your marketing plan.

#2 Branding

Most people buy a franchise because they’re familiar with the brand and feel an affinity for it. For this reason, it’s your job as a company to shape how people react and relate to your brand. For example, brands like Apple, Microsoft, and Google all have one thing in common: They all have a high brand value.

Why Is
Branding Important to Customers?

Your brand value may be intangible. However, a strong brand will benefit from high customer awareness and credibility. Moreover, franchise buyers want to make sure that they’re putting their money in the right investment. A conscious buyer is willing to look for additional value through the following methods:

Online Research

A customer’s buying journey usually
starts online. Customers will try to research everything and anything there is
to know about your business.

Social Proof

Some customers will also look for
social evidence from customer reviews and social media profiles.

Identity

Franchise buyers will buy from companies who share their values. Without a strong brand identity
baked into your marketing plan, how will you expect people to know about you
and relate to your business?

Your branding journey starts with focusing on creating a strong brand message and logo. You also have to think about the tone of voice to use when talking to your target audience. Additionally, think about your color schemes, font types, and sizes. All of these things are important. That’s because you want every marketing material you use to be associated with your brand.

Be
Consistent with Your Branding

There’s no sense in creating a strong brand identity when you’re not strict about its usage. As a franchisor, you need to ensure consistency with all your franchises. Create strict guidelines for your franchisees to follow when they market their products across different channels.

The bottom line is to create a
strong brand identity that’s incorporated into your marketing strategy. Strong
brand identity will help set you apart from the competition.

#3 Budget

Your budget is one of the most critical elements of your marketing plan. Budget allocation will depend on your goals and your available resources. More often than not, there’s not enough budget for you to do everything. Therefore, you learn how to be more strategic. Just as when you’re handling your personal finances, a marketing budget will require you to think creatively about how to use your marketing budget.

Most franchising companies make the mistake of limiting their marketing budget to ads and promotional materials. However, a realistic marketing budget covers all aspects of your business. For example, consider the following:

Market Research

You need to conduct market research to figure out what the marketplace needs. You can’t create a product without first knowing if there’s a need for it. Therefore, allot budget for focus group discussions. Additionally, you’ll want to bench mark the competition. You’ll also need to conduct surveys and hire consultants. Finally, you’ll need to test market your franchising system.

Product Development

This includes payment for design, prototyping, and paying for other services that relate to your product. For example, if you have a food business that you plan to franchise, you need to pay for a culinary expert to optimize your recipe. Moreover, you’ll need to make it competitive against other food franchises.

Advertising

This includes your media plan to get your product out there. The cost consists of copywriting and designing. Additionally, it includes the purchase of advertising spaces for offline marketing efforts.

Public Relations

Public relations take into account how you spread awareness among your market. This includes attending trade shows and sponsoring events.

The costs of marketing aren’t always apparent. Whether doing an email marketing campaign or launching an ad on social media, your goals should be to increase brand recognition and establish a relationship with your customers.

Your marketing budget may seem significant at first, and that’s natural. As you learn what marketing strategies work for different types of audiences, you will be better able to optimize your marketing efforts. In other words, as you become more experienced, you’ll be able to create a more realistic budget.

#3 Sales
Funnel

Your success in sales depends on your numbers. In other words, the more money you spend on your franchise marketing plan, the more of your franchise you can sell. That’s because the money you spend on your franchise marketing generates leads. In turn, these leads fill out applications. Then, a portion of those customers who filled out the form will set a meeting. Finally, a percentage of those who went for a meeting will translate into your selling a franchise. This is what marketers call a sales funnel.

A sales funnel is a representation of a customer’s journey from awareness of the product to purchase. A sales funnel has one single purpose. That is, its function is to drive sales. When you’ve figured out who your target audience is, you can start targeting them and begin to guide them through your sales funnel.

4 Stages of a
Sales Funnel

Prospecting
Stage

This is also called the lead generation stage. This stage is where you identify the right customers for your franchising opportunity. When you’re looking for buyers, it’s crucial to keep an open mind and try to fill your funnel with a lot of leads. You can generate leads for franchise marketing through the following:

• Referrals
• Networking
• Website opt-in data
• Participating in trade shows and
  organizations

Your marketing team should always be generating leads for your franchise business. The more leads you have, the more chances you have of closing a sale in the future. It’s also vital for you to gauge the spending capability of your leads at this stage. You don’t want to be spending time and resources on a lead that can’t buy your franchise.

Cultivating
Stage

At this stage, you’ve already established a relationship with your lead. Now, you can consider calling them a client. This stage usually takes the longest. That’s because people want to do business with people they trust. Moreover, at this stage, they’re still undecided about whether you’re a reliable business.

What’s more, cultivating relationships is a two-way street. More than showing off what your business can provide, you have to listen to your client so you can meet their needs. Follow through on whatever you promised, whether it’s to get back to them regarding additional information or just to follow up on their decision. Doing so will help build trust and make the buying decision easier.

Positioning
Stage

The positioning stage is the part where you explicitly tell your customers what you can do and how you will do it. You’ve almost closed the sale but the customer needs a bit more push.

There are various strategies that you can employ to seal the deal. For example, you can use videos to influence their buying decision. You can send your customer a video about how your franchising system works and how you’ve spent time refining the processes. Additionally, you can include stories and testimonials of other franchisees who have succeeded with your business.

Closing

Closing is the easiest part of the funnel. There’s no extra work needed. All you have to do is seal the deal with payment. Your marketing effort has paid off at this point. You were able to find out what the customer needs. And they were able to see that doing business with you is a good fit. All that’s left to do is maintain that level of relationship between you and the franchisee.

#5 Timing

Your timing will play a significant role in your marketing efforts. Franchise businesses that don’t take into account the season of the year can optimize their marketing efforts by spending more money at specific times of the year.

For example, people aren’t usually keen on buying franchises or making any substantial investments during November and December. During this time of the year, most people aren’t focused on making life-changing decisions. That’s because, generally, people are occupied with the holiday season.

Likewise, during the summer season, people are more focused on spending more time with the family and splurging on vacations.

Therefore, the first quarter of the year is the best season to generate leads for your franchise business. For example, January is the best month to target potential franchise buyers. That’s because people are generally in a reflective state at the beginning of the year.

A franchise buying decision usually takes about 12 weeks so. Therefore, be sure to factor that in when timing your marketing efforts.

Seasonal
Franchises

Things may be a bit difficult when you have a seasonal franchise. For example, if you’re a lawn maintenance company, you’ll have to shut the business down during the winter. Moreover, perceptive franchisors will be hesitant to offer franchises during the off-season. That’s because they don’t want franchises to struggle until the market picks up. Likewise, they won’t want to offer the franchise business in the middle of the season when franchisees can get overwhelmed.

Seasonal franchisors with a successful franchise marketing plan work backward from the ideal opening time. For bigger franchises, this could mean working backward from the grand opening. They would take into account the build-out stage as well as training and the sales process.

This is of course not a hard rule. Some franchisors will still accommodate buyers during the off season as long as the franchisee is prepared for it.

Develop a Robust Franchise Marketing Plan

Every successful franchise marketing plan starts with an ideal customer in mind. Knowing who your customers are, where you can find them, and how you can relate to them is the most critical step.

Thereafter, create a brand that people can recognize no matter where they are. This builds brand recognition and generates profit for your franchises. Finally, figure out how you can guide your customers through your sales funnel while taking critical timing into consideration.

Image Source: Pexels on Pixabay

If you’re running a business selling online courses, you can’t help but wear a myriad of hats. Depending on the phase you’re in with your business, you’d have to be the marketer, the product creator, community manager, web developer, and more. It can be overwhelming to say the least. That is why, if you want to streamline and optimize your online course business, you need a tried and tested online tool—one that can accommodate your growing needs as a business owner. Kajabi is one such tool.

The platform is often touted as a one-stop-shop solution, an all-in-one tool for online business owners, or an all-encompassing software to run a digital business. For this reason, we decided to check it out to see if it lives up to the hype.

The result? We were super impressed with what we saw. Therefore, if you’re thinking of starting an online course business (or you’re already running one), you need to check out what Kajabi has to offer.

 

RELATED ARTICLE: TIPS FOR CREATING A SUSTAINABLE HOME BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

 

Overview of Kajabi

Kajabi is a knowledge commerce platform that empowers thousands of people to share and monetize their knowledge.

Through Kajabi, you can create websites, manage your users, market your business, create your products, and more. Moreover, industry leaders such as Chalene Johnson, Brendon Burchard, and Billy Gene use this platform.

 

Kajabi’s Key Features

Kajabi’s features can be grouped into four main categories: website creation, product creation, community management and marketing. Here’s how each one works.

 

1. Website Creation

The platform allows you to create websites for your online course business. Moreover, you could create a website for almost any type of online business with this platform. Through the site, you can create landing pages, homepages, static pages, a blog section, and so on.

Because Kajabi’s Premiere Framework theme allows you to customize your website into a myriad of layouts, you can create a beautiful site for your online course business in minutes.

Additionally, Kajabi has several pre-made layout presets available that users can choose from. Once you have chosen a layout preset, you can start adding content and customizing the theme’s styles.

This is a screenshot of Kajabi’s website creation page.

 

Here’s how it looks when you edit your pages using Kajabi’s editor.

 

2. Product Development

There are numerous product types that you can create through Kajabi. Among the many products are mini-courses, evergreen courses, email marketing courses, and evergreen training.

And because of Kajabi’s pre-made product templates, users can upload online course content without having to do much setup.

You can set your price, create offers, encourage upsells, and even send automated emails to people who abandon your checkout pages.

This is Kajabi’s blank template for creating products.

 

Here’s Kajabi’s Mini Course template for creating products.

 

3. Community Management

Kajabi’s People tab houses a good bit of its community management features. For example, it can show you the purchases made by a specific user and when they joined your community. In addition, you can offer them discounts, send them passwords, and so on.

 

4. Marketing

You can run email marketing campaigns, publish blog posts, set up automations, and even create events through Kajabi. These are just some of the platform’s main marketing features. What’s more, Kajabi even allows you to collect payments from your customers.

Another Kajabi marketing feature that’s worth mentioning is that they allow their users to create pipelines. They even have several pre-made pipelines:

• Freebie
• Sales Page OVO (Opt-in Value Offer)
• Product Launch OVO
• Coaching Campaign OVO

With these pipeline templates, you won’t have to set up your marketing funnels from scratch. You just need to pick a template, customize it, and add your content. Of course, if your funnel is a bit more complicated and none of the templates on the site fit what you’re looking for, you can also create your funnel from scratch.

One of Kajabi’s key marketing features is the email sequence.

 

Minimal Learning Curve

From the Kajabi dashboard, all the way to the specific feature that you’re looking to use, you’ll notice immediately how easy it is to figure out how the platform works.

For instance, you’ll see all the key functions categorized and bundled up in one place. Moreover, even the words they use to label and describe their features are easy to understand.

Here’s a screenshot of Kajabi’s dashboard.

As you can see from the screen captures, it’s very easy to understand how the tool works. Even someone who’s fairly new in the platform will have a good idea of what they’re supposed to do on the pages they’re on.

When you think about how the knowledge commerce industry is often visited by people who want to make money out of their passion—but aren’t necessarily exposed to the workings of digital marketing—it’s crucial for them to have a platform that they can understand and use to monetize their passion.

 

Customer Support and Training Materials

However, if you do happen to come up against a roadblock and you need help with your Kajabi account, you’ll be happy to know that Kajabi offers a myriad of support options:

• 24/7 Chat Support
• Knowledge Base
• Phone Support
• Video Tutorials
• FAQs

 

Pricing

For as little as $149 per month, you can sign up for Kajabi’s basic package to start using the tool.

This gives you access to a good bit of Kajabi’s most useful features to help you run a successful online course business. For example, you’ll immediately gain access to creating landing pages, pipelines, your website, marketing emails, and so on.

However, if you’d like more advanced features, you can opt for Kajabi’s Growth Package at $199 per month, or the Pro Package at $399 per month.

Simply click this link to learn more about Kajabi’s pricing packages and their features.

 

What’s Next?

Because of the multifaceted nature of running an online course business, you need to have a reliable online tool, a tool that can cater to your needs.

Kajabi’s numerous features are geared toward helping you advance, organize, and streamline your online course business. Accordingly, you no longer need to sign up for various third-party apps. Kajabi has everything you need and then some.

In the digital age, there are many effective ways to build brand awareness. Maintaining an active social media presence can go a long way toward this goal. Also, purchasing ad space on relevant websites can help make prospective customers aware of your business. However, once you get people to your website, you’ll need to entice them to stick around. And creating a thought-provoking and engaging blog can prove immensely helpful in this endeavor.

If you’re new to the world of business blogging, the following tips can help start you down the right path.

 

RELATED ARTICLE: HOW TO CREATE A BLOG: A SIMPLE GUIDE FOR BEGINNING BLOGGERS

 

Stick to an Update Schedule

If you want your business’s blog to succeed, it’s imperative that you commit to a regular update schedule. However, when deciding on the right schedule, select one you’ll be able to stick to. Promising daily updates, for example, is simply unrealistic for most business owners.

Update schedules vary from blog to blog. However, the most successful ones produce at least one update per week. This will give your audience a reason to regularly visit your website. Moreover, it will ensure that you don’t overextend yourself by promising to create more blog posts that you can actually produce. You want to create an engaging blog, after all.

Should the test phase of your blog prove fruitful, committing to multiple updates per week might be something to consider.

Updating your blog on a regular basis can also have the added benefit of boosting your site’s search ranking. When compiling search results, update consistency is among the factors prominent search engines take into account. Unsurprisingly, sites that go long periods between updates aren’t often among the first wave of results. As anyone well-versed in account-based marketing can attest, search engine ranking is often vitally important to small business websites.

 

Write With Authority

When composing blog posts related to your business or the consumer base it serves, take care to write with authority. You want your readers to be confident in the information you share. Consequently, it’s important that you write in a voice that conveys strength, intelligence, and an advanced understanding of the subject matter.

This will help your audience feel comfortable accepting the facts you present. It might even turn them into paying customers. To prove that you’re worthy of such trust, you’ll need to fact-check yourself whenever you’re unsure about something. In other words, take preventative measures against inadvertently spreading misinformation.

 

Enlist the Aid of Guest Bloggers

Enlisting the aid of guest bloggers can benefit you in two ways. For starters, handing off blog-writing duties to another person will provide you with an occasional break. This can allow you to recharge your creative circuits.

Secondly, getting a guest blogger who’s a popular figure in your industry can prove helpful in bringing in new traffic. However, even if a guest contributor is just another member of your company, periodically entrusting someone else with your blog will provide a fresh perspective. This can help keep things from getting stale.

 

Experiment with Keyword Integration

If you want to give your search ranking a shot in the arm, consider experimenting with keyword integration in your blog posts. This practice entails including popular terms that correspond to your business or its parent industry.

Make sure that you use this strategy both in your titles and in the body of your posts. For example, if you own a web design company based in Minneapolis, MN, including something along the lines of “best website designers in Minneapolis” can effectively boost your local search ranking.

When integrating relevant keywords into what you hope will be your engaging blog posts, however, do so in moderation. Furthermore, take care to integrate them into the content in an organic fashion. Shamelessly shoehorning keywords into your posts detracts from their substance. Moreover, it is likely to turn off readers who realize what you’re doing.

In addition to drawing the ire of your audience, keyword stuffing can earn your site negative attention from the web’s most prominent search engines. Sites that are deemed guilty of keyword stuffing can expect to see their search rankings plummet. Therefore, if maintaining a decent ranking is important to you, it doesn’t pay to take this gamble.

 

An Engaging Blog Can Boost Your Business

A regularly updated and engaging blog can be a boon both to your business and its website. In addition to keeping your regular visitors informed, a well-written and engaging blog can also be an effective tool for drumming up new interest in your enterprise. Despite the many advances made in the field of digital promotion in recent years, there’s simply no substitute for an engaging blog.

The biggest challenge that IT departments face in 2019 is keeping up with their ever-growing technology stack. SaaS management solution Torii goes a long way toward helping IT managers consolidate and centralize SaaS ecosystems.

You likely have hundreds of SaaS applications in your business ecosystem. Therefore, it’s hard to track costs, risks, access permissions, usage, and overall practicality. And IT departments often don’t even know when someone has registered the company for a new web app. How are you to remain in control?

 

RELATED ARTICLE: WHY EVERY BUSINESS—INCLUDING YOURS—NEEDS CLOUD TECHNOLOGY

 

What Is Torii?

Put simply, Torii is an autonomous IT platform. It turns a company’s cloud-based software stack into a readable, user-friendly dashboard for more effective SaaS management. Moreover, it improves your SaaS management on three fronts: visibility, workflow, and automation.

Stay on top of your company’s SaaS management with a robust dashboard. Turn numbers into actionable insights with easy-to-read visualizations and reports.

Did two team members just pay for licenses for competing tools that do the same thing? Did someone leave your company, and you need to make sure they can’t access any information relating to the business? Understand how your team uses your applications. Additionally, manage your software subscriptions and control which tools specific members can access.

Need certain SaaS management actions to take place instantly? Simply deploy the integrated bots. Automate tasks like renewals, downgrades, upgrades, and access changes. You’ll do this by combining relevant triggers with a list of supported actions.

Here’s a closer look at Torii’s main SaaS management features.

1. Insights

One of Torii’s primary goals is to make sure you don’t overspend on unnecessary software.

On the “Insights” page, Torii shows you an overview of your entire software library. This includes the total number of users, applications, and expenses over the last 12 months.

 

You can drill deeper by hovering your mouse over each section and clicking “See all.”

Doing so will allow you to assimilate the finer details of your infrastructure’s SaaS usage. For instance, you’ll be able to see user accounts and the total cost of each app.

Under the “Usage” tab, you can gauge the importance of each tool. This metric is based on the number of times the tool was utilized in the past 30 days. You’ll also be able to determine whether employees are still using an application.

For more in-depth information, click on the application’s name. You’ll then see details such as the number of active users, renewal date, and more. You can also change the application’s status on the spot. Do this by using the drop-down menu in the upper-right corner of the page.

 

Torii Identifies App Owners

Today’s business app users increasingly make tool selection decisions independently and unilaterally. Therefore, IT can no longer take full ownership of the tech solutions under its purview.

However, Torii works by identifying every software product’s in-house “owner.” This team member will be IT’s point of contact when it comes to all decisions and activity regarding the product’s use.

Knowing the owner of every application your organization subscribes to can help you to understand how it fits into your organization.

 

2. Workflows

Torii comes with a built-in workflow builder. This helps IT managers understand everything that occurs in the company’s software stack.

The most common use of workflows is to discover apps as soon as they’re added. This makes you a better software gatekeeper, as it allows you to keep a watchful eye on any new cloud-based app.

Once discovered, IT managers have the ability to set the software’s status. For example, it could be “discovered,” “in review,” “sanctioned,” and so on.

In turn, the app’s owner receives a notification that the IT department has discovered a new application. The app owner also gets a form to fill out to get IT’s approval.

You can customize this form by editing the introduction. You can also specify the information fields that the app’s owner must complete.

This should prompt the staff to carefully vet whatever software they want to integrate into the company’s IT infrastructure.

Remember, it’s a lot easier to monitor apps as soon as someone adds them. Given the risks of GDPR noncompliance and cyber breaches, waiting till later is a risk that IT departments simply cannot take. Additionally, these procedures provide a way to minimize the costs of inefficient and unnecessary software. These are just the basics of effective SaaS management.

 

Create an Onboarding Workflow

To create an onboarding workflow, navigate to the “Workflows” tab from the main dashboard. Then click “New Workflow.”

The rest of the steps involve selecting the workflow’s trigger and adding a string of actions to be performed. Torii’s user-friendly interface makes this a quick process. What’s more, you won’t need to write a single line of code.

 

Automated Offboarding Makes SaaS Management Easier for IT Managers

Lastly, it’s worth noting that Torii enables automated “offboarding” workflows. These are designed to revoke a user’s access to apps they no longer use. Torii triggers this workflow when a user has not used a specific app for more than 30 days. This saves the business money by preventing payments for unused seats of employees who, for example, no longer work in the organization.

 

3. Reports

In addition to providing you the data and a dashboard for executing changes, Torii also helps you make data-driven decisions with actionable reports. These give you a clear view of your company’s application usage and expenses. There are currently two types of reports you can generate with Torii:

 

Risk Analysis

SaaS management in a software ecosystem with hundreds or even thousands of apps comes with cybersecurity, governance, and compliance risks.

Torii makes sure you have all your bases covered with the Risk Analysis report. This gives you an assessment of each third-party application’s risk level based on their permissions.

 

Expense Analysis

You can comb through Torii’s Expense Analysis report to identify your most expensive software investments.

Of course, just because an app is the most expensive doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the most wasteful. But if you’re trying to cut costs, inspecting the utility of your expensive tools from top to bottom is definitely a sound approach.

Whenever needed, IT managers can easily download a CSV file for the expense analysis report. Utilizing this feature will ensure that your IT team and your finance department are on the same page.

Take note that almost every section of Torii has a “Download CSV” button in the same spot. This makes it easier for your IT department to communicate crucial information, both within the department as well as throughout the organization.

 

4. Users

Speaking of owners, each user could be associated with an indefinite number of applications on the Torii platform. This goes for app access and use as well as ownership. You can easily view which user owns which apps by looking at the app icons under the “Owner of” column.

If you wish to cancel a user’s ownership of certain apps, you can request their voluntary withdrawal. Alternatively, you can forcefully remove app ownership with the one-click offboarding tool.

Torii also keeps a complete record of every user who has ever become a part of your IT ecosystem. These user accounts are sorted into three tabs: current users, past users, and external users.

 

5. Expenses

To view the financial side of your software infrastructure, simply go to the “Expenses” page. This will show you a complete view of your company’s expenses.

If you’re using an ERP such as NetSuite, Torii will automatically pull all your business’s SaaS costs. This it does by analyzing invoices, transactions, and credit card statements via API integrations.

The expense analysis report shows how much you spend on each app per month. Then the Expenses page gives you a broader overview of your software budget.

Does Your Company Need a Manual Integration Option?

For businesses that don’t have an ERP solution that Torii can integrate with, the platform offers a manual integration option. Click on the “Upload Expense Report” button on the top right. Torii will provide you with a downloadable template that ensures readability. The platform will automatically match the expenses in the file to the SaaS applications. Then it will present the expenses report as seen above.

The bar graph shows total expenses for software over the past 12 months. This enables you to identify months with unusual spikes in terms of software costs.

The screenshot above shows an example of a spike in expenses from September to October, which appear to also relate to November and December. You can dig deeper by viewing the report for September when the spike occurred and see what caused it. This should help you identify the apps that might have contributed to the increase.

To find more apps that could have contributed to the increase in software spending, Torii also has a handy “Trend” feature. This feature shows how much each individual application costs over time. It comes in the form of a line chart that makes it easy to spot applications that are becoming costlier.

 

6. App Integrations

Finally, Torii lets you integrate the various applications your organization is using. This allows you to weave together multiple applications. By creating more connections between different software via their API, you can create a SaaS infrastructure that communicates better with itself. This process will allow you to further streamline your SaaS infrastructure.

For example, Zapier is an automation service that integrates with hundreds of other SaaS products. If your organization is using Zapier, Torii lets you configure and utilize these automation integrations from within Torii’s platform.

All you need to do is open Zapier from Torii’s “Applications” page. Then go to the “Integrations” tab, choose the integration process you’d like to create, and press “connect.”

As it stands, Torii supports thousands of different services in its database. This yields countless possible application pairs you can use for automated tasks.

For expandability, you can also integrate Torii with a number of third-party services. These include cloud-based productivity platforms like G Suite as well as CRM software like Salesforce.

 

Get a Grip on Your Company’s SaaS Management with Torii

As your software infrastructure grows and evolves, so must your IT management.

Torii has everything you need to get a better grip on your company’s SaaS management. It allows you to identify who’s using what. It shows you which apps have access to which systems. Torii also makes it easier to plan your software budget, automate software onboarding and offboarding, and more.

Overall, Torii is a smart investment for any company that has a large collection of software.