Tag Archive : small business

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Website Chatbots – Benefits for Small Businesses

2019-03-21 | ALL | No Comments

Website chatbots have evolved as an extremely effective tool for small businesses since they first appeared back in 2016. Also known as messenger bots, this smart computer program initiates a dialogue with the intention of providing customer service or extracting useful information from potential customers.

In some cases, these chatbots are utilized by mainstream giants such as Facebook, Microsoft, and Google. However, small businesses can also use website chatbots to create their own messenger bot for various tasks such as building a subscriber list or even to act as a virtual assistant.

Either way, chatbots offer an impressive amount of value to small businesses through a wide range of features and benefits.

Here we will take a look at some of the benefits and the importance of chat bots to a small business.

The Benefits of Chatbots for a Small Business

Messenger bots are currently the focus of every corner of the digital industry for a good reason. After all, this unassuming technology is capable of incredible results related to almost every aspect of a business including marketing, customer service, and even profitability.

While many owners are skeptical as to whether the program is organic or harmful to their business, the statistics are a lot less uncertain

In fact, surveys have shown that more than 30% of customers are unfazed with the implementation of chat bots and more than 40% are perfectly happy to be assisted by a messenger bot instead of a real person.

For this reason, the same surveys demonstrate how more than 50% of people refer to these chatbot encounters in a very positive manner.

Utilizing Chatbots for Marketing

Although chatbots are extremely common in the marketing industry, most customers are entirely unaware of their presence.

Chat bot surveys are an easy way to invite potential customers without seeming intrusive while opt-in forms are an automatic way to increase a subscriber list.

Furthermore, the use of these chat bots on social media provides instant communication with customers which is surely an immense benefit to any business in a such a busy and fast-moving world.

At the same time, these chatbots have evolved to a standard which feels increasingly personal and less robotic.

That is to say, chat bots can be customized to encourage more interaction on social media, and this is an essential feature on platforms which are designed to encourage the sharing of such information.

Moral of the story: Chatbots are rarely intrusive and highly effective when it comes to marketing.

Website Chatbots for Lead Generation and Customer Service

chatbots-for-small-businesses

As already mentioned, website chat bots can be used as virtual assistants, and this is one of the most common use-cases for messenger bots.

As you know, these chatbots are capable of operating 24/7 which provides continuous access to small businesses and maximum potential for the business when it comes to sales and lead generation.

While chatbots can be customized for different scenarios, the idea is never to trick customers but rather to facilitate their needs.

With this in mind, small businesses can choose to be transparent with customers and use this technology to enhance the user experience without concern that they are harmful to the reputation or process.

Furthermore, these chat bots can be used for the sole purpose of “touching base” with a customer to let them know that they can speak with a person during a specific window of time.

All considered, when implemented the right way, chat bots are an affordable and valuable aide to compliment the customer service of any small business.

After Sales and Standard Requests

Customer service is one of the most important aspects of a small business and an opportunity to excel or stand out for most customers. At the same time, even when the sale is made, there is still an important responsibility to interact with these existing customers.

Whether a customer is following up on a tracking order or checking the price of a purchase, chatbots are highly competent when it comes to facilitating these requests.

Virtual assistant bits can also save ample time for small business by handling these enquiries which are often communicated via social media or chat facilities on the website for a product/service.

Again, once implemented correctly, these chatbots can appear both convenient and helpful to customers without causing any reason for them to question the method of this communication.

Integrating Chatbots for Small Business

Every small business should know their target market and the various inquiries which are likely to arise during the sales or after sales process. In some instances, the business may require a limited amount of interaction and chatbots can be integrated without the assistance of a developer.

At the same time, for advanced chat bots or support which requires a great deal of personalization, there is always the option of employing a bot development team.

On the other hand, free bot software provides small businesses with the opportunity to create their own chatbot to enable maximum flexibility.

However, there is always a learning curve with new technology of any kind which is often the reason why a small business will opt for a developer team to create anything more advanced.

The Importance of Chatbots for a Small Business

Chatbots are increasingly important in a sense that they offer a ready-made solution to the common needs of a small business. Once implemented the right way, these chatbots can initiate helpful dialogue with customers and extract relevant information to help the business excel.

Contrary to popular belief, these messenger bots are also non-intrusive, and statistics show that most people are positive when it comes to the end-user experience.

Furthermore, chatbots save time and money for everyone involved, not to mention the fact that these smart computer programs are clearly capable of taking any small business to the next level.

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By Darka Panovska

How to Effectively Manage Small Business Expenses

2019-03-14 | ALL, Tutorials and how to's | No Comments

Manage Small Business Expenses

If we try and analyze the reason behind failed small businesses expenses, very likely the factor that plays the biggest role as being ineffective is – expenses management.

Money is the most important part of any small business and in order to guarantee that your business survives long enough in the harsh and overly competitive market, is to make sure that your company usages available resources in an organized manner.

Small business owners must be aware of the different ways to allocate the available budgets so they can pay for different expenses. In the same manner, they must also figure out ways to cut  expenses where appropriate in order to increase the profit.

In this article we’ve decided to discuss the different ways in which small business owners can keep an eye on their expenses and categorize them.

1.   Keep Separate Accounts

One of the most important thing for small business owners to realize is that they have to keep their personal expenses separate from the expenses of the business. At first glance this sounds easy, but it is often a bit difficult to implement in practice.

The easiest way to do this? – Get two different bank accounts. Opening a separate account just for your business might seem to you like an extra expense on its own at first, but it will greatly help you in the long term.

A separate business account will also help you a lot with record keeping of the business. By keeping a separate business account, all of your business transactions will automatically be compiled at one place.

2.   Using Envoice to Manage Small Business Expenses

 

Keeping proper records and documentation for your small business expenses can save you a lot of trouble. No matter how small the expense, if it is related to your business, you must ask for a receipt and keep it in a separate file.

Also, if your business is related to the sale of any particular item, in that case you must issue invoices to your customers and keep a copy for your own record.

Envoice is a online invoicing software that can help you in generating customized invoices for your customer. The benefit of using our tool is that it automatically keeps a record of all the invoices that you issue to your clients.

If the revenue you generate is based solely on billable hours, Envoice has the option to attach documents to the issued invoice with the hours spent working. It has a robust invoicing feature that allows you to create custom invoices (add your business logo, for example), email them to your customers and accept online payments using PayPal, Stripe, Square etc. (see our full list of payment providers here).

Take Envoice for a test drive to check it out for yourself. You can use the tool for free during the first 15 days. After the trial ends, you will need to sign up for a paid subscription to continue using it. Plans start at $12 per month.

3.   Control Overhead Expenses

Controlling and monitoring overhead expenses is another very important step that many business owners fail to acknowledge on time. Overhead expenses can greatly reduce the efficiency of your small business model by overburdening it.

Small business owners often have a limited budget and they need to be sure that they are utilizing it in an effective way. Having a fancy office or aesthetically pleasing environment is something we all want,  but very often increases the overhead expenses and that won’t generate any revenue.

By using energy efficient devices and utilizing all the space available to you, you can significantly reduce your business expenses. Co-working space is also a nice concept for small businesses which can help in reducing these costs.

4.   Choose Organic and Low-Cost Marketing Techniques

When budgets are low, marketing might be the first of your expenses you look to cut.

We know that traditional advertising methods are costly and hard to measure. But, small businesses have never had greater access to cost-effective, trackable marketing tools.

Marketing is essential for any business to survive and thrive, but choosing the correct tailored marketing strategy is a must when you have a limited budget. One of the best marketing techniques for small businesses is email marketing.

Email marketing is the tried and true digital marketing channel with an average return of $38 for every $1 spent. Click To Tweet

Another saying worth mentioning is that even the best marketing in the world can’t save a bad product.

Meaning, your product should be able to advertise itself. The only way you can achieve this is by making it remarkably good in its initial phase, and subsequently in any other phases with constant improvements. This way your customers will end up recommending it to their friends and colleagues.

5. Use Prepaid Credit Cards to Organize Deductible Business Expenses

Prepaid credit cards are a very useful way to stay on top of business expenses. If you have a number of employees that incur travel and other business-related expenses, issuing them a prepaid credit card so they can pay for those expenses, would be a smart move.

There are a countless of benefits of using prepaid credit cards, such as:

–setting spending limits by person, expense category, merchant and time period;

–turning a card on or off at any time;

–being able to set alerts based on currency amount, type of expense, merchant etc.

By using prepaid credit cards access detailed spend reports that can be filtered by person, merchant or amount.

Prepaid debit cards are one amazing alternative to traditional bank accounts. A lot of them offer the same features as a checking account: online bill pay, mobile check deposit and direct deposit – without the overdraft fees.

The Balance website made a summary of the 7 best prepaid debit cards of 2019 analyzing their core features and perks (some even have sub-accounts with their own prepaid cards).

6. Utilize Business Credit Cards to Organize Deductible Business Expenses

Business credit cards are another potential way to streamline your business expenses.

In the same fashion as prepaid cards, you can have access to detailed reports that can be filtered by merchant, items purchased and credit card holder. You can even earn cash back on just about every purchase that you make.

Just some of the benefits of using business credit cards:

–setting up alerts for a specific dollar amount or type of purchase made

–detailed statements for each card available online to review at any time

–you can connect your credit card account to an invoicing software like Envoice, and get pay issued invoices fast and easy.

If you want to choose the best business credit card for your needs, a detailed list for 2019 has recently been published on The PoitsGuy.

7. Protect Your Business

Each small business requires its own level of protection, but you may want to consider getting an insurance or establishing an LLC or an S-Corp. Having an LLC or S-Corp allows you to separate your brand identity and finances from your personal finances.

Let say, if you ever had to undergo any legal issues, your personal property and assets would not be liable. So, make sure to renew any important certifications or licenses you need to remain compliant by adding it to your calendar.

Protecting your business is the best thing you can do for yourself to ensure any financial issues in the future may get affected by it and it doesn’t pour into your personal assets.

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By Darka Panovska

5 Tips for Working on an Airplane

2017-11-09 | Tutorials and how to's | No Comments

If you have to fly regularly you are probably wondering how you are going to have enough time to manage your schedule to properly run your business. You certainly cannot afford to waste valuable time and you have to find a way to be effective while traveling. But, have you ever tried working while on an airplane? There are so many distractions that make this task next to impossible.

Lucky for you, there are certain things you can do to be productive when working on an Airplane.

Here are 5 tips:

  1. Dress to impress

 

Think about function and comfort in the first place to get the most done. Wear the most comfortable clothes you can, no matter how long the flight is. If you need to come off the plane looking professional, bring clothes to change into. That way you can still maintain the look without suffering during the flight.

  1. Always Ask the Best

 

The best option for ensuring maximum comfort is asking for first class if your client is willing to pay for it. Since this is hardly the case, make the best of what you have by asking for a couple of things in coach.

See if you can get a seat in the middle section of the plane to avoid the most distractions, and request a window seat to ensure you don’t have to get up every time the passenger seating next to you want to use the restroom.

 

  1. Prepare your Trip

 

Make sure you have the right equipment for working in the air:

  • Laptop or tablet: You’ll be much more productive than with a smartphone
  • Noise-cancelling headphones: Use them to block out distractions or to listen to relaxing music while you work.
  • Pillow: Keep your head propped up comfortably to reduce neck strain while you do your work.
  • Portable charger: It is a good idea to always have it around. And, of course, always make sure to keep your laptop battery at full charge before the flight.

 

  1. Prepare for Air Travel

 

Although many flights offer Wi-Fi service, you can never be sure that you’ll have Internet access. Be prepared to work offline and ensure you have everything you need to complete your work. Create an agenda of activities you can do and try using a tool like Snagit to take screenshots of web resources.

  1. Turn Anxiety into a Challenge 

 

No matter how hard you try, there is always a chance that something unexpected will come up and make your working in the air impossible.

If the worst scenario happens, always have a joker in your hand. Bringing a learning resource is a great idea. For example, keep Ebooks on your Laptop.  You can sit back and enjoy some learning that will also positively impact your business.

 

You have to admit that staying effective while traveling is quite a challenge. However, if you have the right techniques and tools, anything is possible.

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By Eva Piperevska

6 Most Important Pieces of Information Every Invoice Should Have

2017-11-09 | Guide, Invoicing, Tutorials and how to's | No Comments

When someone asks how to avoid legal trouble in their invoice, they are usually interested in only one thing: how to ensure they get paid for the work they provide.

If you are one of them, you are probably wondering if there is anything you can include in your invoice to make it more binding and make sure that you will get paid on time, because, after all, there is nothing worse than wasting valuable time chasing payments.  

The simple answer is that, there a few things that you can do to make the invoice more ‘enforceable’:

 

  1. The Correct Billing Contact

 

From the moment you start the project, make sure you request the contact details of the person who is responsible for paying you. Depending on the size of your client’s company they may have an accounting department that handles their billing.  It is much easier to deal with this individual directly, because this way you will be sure that the accounting received your invoice, and it might be easier to follow up on late payments with them directly.

 

  1. A Unique Identification Number in Each Invoice

 

Create some sort of numbering system for organizing and arranging your invoices. This could be a basic numbering framework that begins with 001 or it could be by date. This will enable you to keep your invoices organized for tax purposes. A good numbering system will also make things easier and a lot more professional, should you need to follow up with a client on a late invoice.

 

  1. Matching Invoice Terms and Contract Terms

 

When it comes to invoicing clients, you have to ensure that all the data information matches with the details written in your contract. For instance, if your contract says your terms are net 30, you can’t make a request to be paid upon receipt of your invoice. In case you’re not using a contract that includes payment terms, you’ll want to change that immediately.

 

  1. Specific Details Requested by Your Client

 

It is always better to ask your clients upfront if they have specific requirements for what information must be incorporated on an invoice. For example, some companies might require that your invoice includes your Tax ID Number, others may ask for a detailed rundown of the services you’re billing for. Few of them may indicate that invoices should be sent electronically or via snail mail.  Keep in mind that not having the right information on your invoice might delay the payment.

 

  1. Date and Terms of Payment

 

Every invoice should include the date of issue and articulate the terms of payment. The exact terms you use are up to you and your client, but here are a few suggestions:

  • Pay attention to the language you use for payment terms. Studies have shown that this has a great impact on the likelihood and time to get paid. Something like the following is optimal language: “Thank you – we really appreciate your business! Please send payment within 21 days of receiving this invoice.”
  • Be clear and specific. Clients may not know what the term “Net30” implies, so writing “within 30 days” or even include the specific due date might be easier for everyone to understand.
  • Avoid using “Due upon receipt” whenever possible. You might think this language will help you get paid faster, but not specifying an actual deadline can result in delayed payment since some clients may interpret it as “pay whenever you can.”

 

  1. Billable Services Specifics

 

Each invoice line should indicate the exact services that are being billed. Try to be as clear and thorough as possible. If the client is being charged a flat rate for services, use your judgment to determine the level of details needed to specify what they’ve received. If you are billing by the hour, make sure to specify the hourly rate, the number of hours billed and what they’ve received for that time.

 

Final Advice: Always Discuss Payment Terms Up Front

A proactive approach is always the ideal way to ensure your invoices will be paid on time. Talk about payment terms in early conversations with clients. A simple question like “My other clients pay me within 21 days of completing the project. Will that work for you?” might do the trick. If you notice any red flags in their reaction, trust your gut and move on.  

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By Eva Piperevska

5 Tips How to Find a Friendly Bank for your Business

2017-11-02 | Guide | No Comments

5 Tips How to Find a Friendly Bank for your Business

Finding a bank that is going to handle your small business it’s not a piece of cake and requires a lot of work. When you select a bank for personal checking and savings account, convenience and fees are the two primary factors that influence your decision, but chances are that your business probably has greater needs.

So, whether your needs are simple or complex, choosing a bank that meets your needs is essential. Consider these 5 factors in your search for your small business friendly bank.

 

Factor 1: Business Transactions

First of all, consider the kind of transactions you do on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Do you make daily cash deposits? You should also think about the way you receive your revenue from your clients, and how you pay your bills for your business.

You probably should find a bank that doesn’t limit the amount of cash per billing period, and one that meets your needs in order to save you time.

 

Factor 2: Unexpected Fees

If you considered the kind of transactions you’ll need your bank to handle, it’s time to find out how much it will cost. Get a detailed breakdown of the fees your bank will charge for each service and be on a constant lookout for unforeseen fees and  “free checking” advertising tricks. They may have many limitations or charge for online payment service.

Look for a business checking account that closely fits your needs and banking habits and always know what your bank offer includes in order to lessen the impact of fees.

 

Factor 3: Additional Business Services

Many banks that offer small business checking accounts also offer additional services catered to small business owners. They may provide payroll service, employee benefits administration, send invoices, collect client payments, provide investment advice and even tax preparation assistance.

Consider not just the services you need right now, but those you may need in the next two-to-five years as your business grows.

 

Factor 4: Personal Perks and Service

If you value a personal touch than you probably should choose a small local bank where you can develop a personal relationship with your banker. These banks may be more adjusted to local market conditions. On the other hand, large national banks may offer a lot of convenient ATM and branch locations, more online services and greater perk for using their services.

Whether you choose a community bank or a national bank, the most important things is that their hours of operation are convenient for your business. Inconvenient schedules can cost you time and money and nothing can make up for not being able to get help when you need it.

 

Factor 5: Borrowing Needs

Sooner or later, your business may need access to financing, whether a small business credit card or a loan to fund expansion.  Ask potential banks about their loan options for small businesses, like whether they have landing authority and how large a loan can they approve. Compare their published interest rates with those of their competitors.

Take into consideration that smaller banks are generally considered to offer more flexible lending options for small businesses, but larger banks may be more willing to issue corporate credit cards.

 

Once you find a bank, view it as a long-term relationship. Meet with your bank at least once a year to offer an update on your business’ finances. They may see your growing business as an opportunity to provide more useful services. A friendly bank is proven to be a significant partner to your small business, helping you borrow capital and plan for the future, so put some effort into finding the right bank and nurturing your relationship.

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By Eva Piperevska

The 6 Best Free Design Tools to Create Social Media Graphics

2017-10-31 | Guide | No Comments

The 6 Best Free Design Tools to Create Social Media Graphics

In the past, it was more than enough to share an image on social media every now and then. Now, if you’re not using images, you’re already behind.  The images you create should immediately catch your follower’s eyes and contain something that will influence them to click and share and continue looking for the next great thing you post. You also don’t want to spend a lot of time or money creating these images, because social media posts have a very short lifecycle.

The great news is there are a lot of tools out there to create engaging images that stand out on social media, and many of the best are free.

 

 

Canva is one of the best free tools for powerful template-based graphics creation. It offers a wide range of templates, image and illustration assets, dozens of fonts and text styles. The best thing about Canva is that it doesn’t matter if you’ve never designed an image in your life. It uses a simple drag and drop interface that allows beginners to start quickly and with just a minimal effort to create high-quality images that are great for sharing on social media or blog, design attractive graphics, presentations, and posters.

 

 

This free tool lets you choose from several professional templates sorted by industry category, design type, and size and then customize that template with easy to use filters. You can also replace template images with one from Adobe’s royalty-free library, or one of your own uploads. Unlike many tools, Spark makes it easy for you to change the design layout or even the entire template. Beyond their “post” graphic design type, Spark also provides two other project types: pages and videos.  

 

 

Created by the social media scheduling tool, Buffer, Pablo is the best tool for quickly creating great social media images.  The workflow is very simple: Choose a template or just an image for your blank template provided by sites like Unsplash and Pixabay. From there, choose from one of three sizes, each fitted specifically for Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook/Twitter. Image customization is limited—choose from a few preset filters, designed to provide the right level of contrast between your image and your text.

 

 

Desynger is a mobile app that lets you design polished social media images. Start with a template for the social media network of your choosing, or start from scratch. From there, build your design with Desygner’s library of royalty-free images and design elements such as shapes and icons. Even in its mobile app, Desygner doesn’t skimp on features. Multiple menus allow you to hyper-customize image and text settings, while never becoming cumbersome to use on a small screen. Desynger’s web app works almost identically, with sidebar menus to help you select the design assets and effects you need.

 

 

Snappa is ideal for text-heavy social media images. It includes a thorough template library, although it puts more emphasis than other apps on getting the background image just right. From there, Snappa offers an effects sidebar that helps you create the perfect image effects for your post–whether that means darkening or coloring the background image to make white text pop or brightening the image to highlight dark text.  Snappa is similarly thorough when it comes to text. Easily edit your text from the sidebar, adjusting font, size, alignment, line spacing, and opacity.

 

 

Best for more advanced social media graphic design. It includes many of the classic graphic design functions of tools like Photoshop, Sketch, and GIMP—such as layers, drawing tools, grouping, shapes, text, effects with a much more simplified, easy-to-learn interface. While Gravit Designer is ideal for building your own designs from scratch, it does come with a small library of templates, illustrations, and icons that are pre-sized for uses like blog posts and social media images.

These graphic design apps are great whether you want to draw extra attention to a blog post you’re sharing or you want to design a full-blown branded Facebook ad campaign.

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By Eva Piperevska

How to avoid not-getting-paid situations

2017-09-28 | ALL, Guide | No Comments

How to avoid not-getting-paid situations

It happened to all of us. It does not matter if you are a freelancer or running a small business. We all have come in a situation to face clients that are not paying or being late with payments. In order to run a successful business and protect your cash flow if you are a freelancer, each of us has to have a strict organization in the client communication.

Here are several rules you must do in order to avoid not-getting-paid situations:

  1. Add Payment Terms and Project specifications in writing – either in the agreement contract or in each invoice to make sure the client is informed
  2. Research the client before you start working with him/her – do a simple google search and check out the client and potential reviews about that company or person online. You can check reviews on Google, Upwork, Linkedin or even Twitter.
  3. Have a paper trail: Email your client and ask them when you can expect the payment. Keep things professional and don’t sound too desperate. For me personally, it said: “We will pay on Monday” (it was Thursday).
  4. Follow-up: Wait a few days and send another email. If you have a good relationship with your client, consider an emotional approach. My client was communicating with me about recurring tasks every day so I waited and reminded him at the end of each day continuously for two weeks. The answer was always “We will send it tomorrow”.
  5. Do things automatically. Use software to send invoices, reminders to clients and notifications if the invoice is paid or not. That will keep you organized and you will not worry if you will forget that client or payment.
  6. Communicate, communicate – email, chat or even a short phone call can take you closer to getting paid. Just keep in mind to leave the emotions at home and stay professional.

Keep yourself organized from start to finish will make you a better professional, will create a better image in front of your current and potential clients and will get you paid on time. That way you will protect your cash flow and your business.

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By Eva Piperevska

SMALL BUSINESS GUIDE: HOW TO WORK FAST AND BE MORE PRODUCTIVE

2017-09-21 | Clients | No Comments

Each and every one of us is trying to be as productive as possible during the day. In this quick business world, we all struggle with the toughs of how can we be faster in finishing our work tasks, not be distracted easily and have time for everything we thought of finishing during the day.

Here are several tips on how to make your life easier, get your work done and have time to spare.

Have one task in mind. An average person has 70,000 thoughts per day which 49 per min. So keep things organized and do tasks one at a time. Multitasking is a bad habit that does not result in long-term productivity.

Don’t stop if you get stuck for more than 30 seconds move on. If you stop and decide to open Facebook or look at your phone, you can get easily distracted and lose time that you can spend working on your tasks.

Listen to music – Background music helps finish tasks faster. Choose music that will not distract you like instrumental music or hip-hop. Do not choose music that is too loud or too soft – it can distract you or make you fall asleep.

Keep the lights bright – increasing light levels from 300 lux to 2000 lux improve productivity by 8% (most offices work at 300-500 lux ) 1000 lux is full daylight (not direct sun).

GUIDE: HOW TO WORK FAST AND BE MORE PRODUCTIVE
Infographics courtesy of Funders and Founders

Don’t question anything you do in the first 15 minutes. Start your tasks and finish them. Afterwards, review them and see where did you make mistakes.

Make 1st draft in 15 minutes (let it be bad). Take a break, drink coffee or chat with collages, clear your mind and review your task from more clear perspective.

Do use a timer if you can’t hack it in 15 minutes you can’t-do it at all. Tracking your time is very beneficial so you can have a clear view on how much time you are spending on your tasks during the day.

Write short 140-characters emails otherwise you don’t know what you are saying. Make your emails simple and elegant. Gmail for example now offer a quick reply suggestions for their mobile app. This will save you time and you will still keep your professional attitude.

Keep your desk clear it will clear your mind. Many things on your desk are the same as many thoughts in your head. So keep things on your desk tidy and clean, that way you will be more concentrated on your work instead of your trash.

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By Eva Piperevska

SMALL BUSINESS GUIDE: HOW TO SET UP A BASIC SEO

2017-09-19 | Guide | No Comments

SMALL BUSINESS GUIDE: HOW TO SET UP A BASIC SEO

When starting an online business there are several key elements involving your website that you must do and have. From a well-made website, good design, readable content to excellent SEO.

So today we are sharing with you several easy things you can do while setting up your basic SEO when launching your website for your business.

On-Site SEO – Research and create your metadata.

  1. First, you need to use the Google Keyword Tool to research meta keywords that are mostly searched by your potential customers on Google. This tool will give you an idea on which keywords you should use in your metadata as primary keywords.
  2. Crease a meta title that explains your business in one sentence and meta description that will give the searchers detail info about what you do. Use SEOMOFO to check if you are in-line with the guidelines. Keep in mind that this data should include your meta keywords.
  3. If your website is on WordPress you can use the free plugins such as All in One SEO, Platinum SEO, and SEO by Yoast. You can also get SEO suggestions by using premium plugins such as Scribe SEO. This way it will be much easier for you to implement the metadata in your website code without any knowledge in programming
  4. Keep in mind for the additional on-site SEO elements like internal links help search engines learn more about your website by internally linking to other pages on your website within your content; Header Tags are HTML header tags that help break the content into sections as well as let search engines know more about what each section of content is about. There is <H1></H1> tags surround the post title, <H2></H2> and <H3></H3> tags surround subheadings on the page
  5. Image Name & ALT Tags – If you have images on your website, you need to have good keywords for both the image name and the alt tag.

Quality content is a must. Today on the internet there are so many websites that are unique in their own way. If you want to have a unique website as well, you need to create a unique content that will connect to your industry. So keep in mind to enrich your website with content like Blog posts, Industry Articles, Tutorials & How-To Guides, Infographics or Videos.

Off-Site Optimization or so-called Link Building – Link building is one of the most must-have SEO tasks. The basic goal is to get other websites to link to yours. That way you can increase your Google website rank and your website will show up higher in the organic search results. What you need to is:

  1. Submit guest blog posts to popular blogs in your industry.
  2. Reach out to related businesses if they will link your website. In most cases, this will show up in their partner’s page
  3. Create social media profiles
  4. Submit your website to applicable industry directories
  5. Create links worth linking

Monitor your results – By using tools such as Authority Labs or Google Analytics you can monitor your SEO progress by reviewing your results. Here you need to set up goals that you want to achieve in order to review SEO metrics. Some of those goals can be website visits, purchases of a product, signups or registrations, downloads of a white-paper, clicks on a link etc.

By setting up your basic SEO you can improve the initial ranking of your website. That can give a clear and fast start to your first organic visits and first customers without any advertising.

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By Eva Piperevska

SMALL BUSINESS GUIDE: Create an accurate invoice

2017-09-14 | Guide | No Comments

SMALL BUSINESS GUIDE: Create an accurate invoice

How you create your invoices and what kind of content they have on them, can say a lot about you as a professional. That is why when drafting your invoices you need to think about the accurate content you put it, the design and the professional attitude behind them.

Here are our tips on what you need to have in mind when you construct your invoices:

Leave the best impression – with your invoices you send a message about your business. So when your clients receive that invoice can which more information about what you do. So if it’s not-well designed or it does not give the specific indication about your business, often can leave a bad impression on you as a professional.

Keep the number correct – the invoice is a request for payment so you need to be super careful while adding the correct amount of payment. So track your hours and product sales accurately, send the correct amount for payment and keep the same timing while sending the invoice – good time management can take you a long way.

Keep sending invoices regularly – it’s the most important part of your business. As if you not getting paid it’s bad for your cash flow and you won’t have a business by the end of the day.

Select a delivery method – some companies tend you have paper invoices, either prefer online documents as they are more flexible, they can more around faster, can be processed, indexed and search easily.

Create well-designed invoices – everyone loves beautiful invoices. If you don’t have design skills there are a lot of invoicing solutions that have pre-designed temples which can fit your needs.

Personalize and add your business information in the invoice– your invoice is same as your business card. It needs to have all the information about your business provided so it can look professional and can make your business stand out.

Don’t get surprised – create an invoice with the amount that was already discussed with your client. If there is difference in the amount that needs to be paid, leave the difference out of the invoice and setting the misunderstanding additionally with your client.

Keep your items in order – there are several items that need to be added to your invoice like services performed, date and time range, hours worked, the quantity of items supplied, the rate per hour or item, amount, sub-total, tax amount and total. Some invoicing software has all this data pre-arranged so you do not forget some of them.

Add previously discussed payment methods – keep in mind not to forget the pre-defined terms about payment methods with your client before you send the invoice

Be professional and polite – at the end, this is still a business communication and part of the overall image of your company and business. So keep things professional if you want to retain your customers.

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By Eva Piperevska