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Choose a Great Topic for Your Podcast

So, you have finally decided that you are going to ride the Podcasting wave and launch your own Podcast. There are number of Podcasters airing their shows these days. Many more are coming up every day to join them. But this fact should not stop you from beginning Podcasting. You should have no fear of competition because the potential of Podcasting is immense and there is still lot more to be done.

Podcasting has become so easy today that you need not be a genius or a hard core techie to start Podcasting. With anyone entering the fad, many of the Podcasts available are nothing but junk. Do not be afraid of the competition. Just try to produce quality that will help you stand out among the quantity produced by the crowd. In the process you will be able to create a crowd of fanatic subscribers, who will provide a new dimension to your Podcast.

Choosing the Right Topic

Make a list of the subjects your interested in before starting your Podcast. Here are few tips on how to add more topics to this list. Think about the things that you do during your free-time. Also think about what you spend most of your money on. Note down the movies, music, TV shows, games, political parties, philosophies, books and religions that are interesting to you. You will see that your list start to grow. If a particular topic interests you, possibilities are that it will be of the interest to some other people also and they will listen to your show. After listing the topics, you can pinpoint a theme and topic for your Podcasts.

Visiting Podcast directories is a great way to get potential topics. ‘How to Start a Podcast’ http://www.howtostartapodcast.com has a large list. This can be very helpful and give you some brain storming ideas. Visiting them will also tell you how many people are interested in your particular topic for a Podcast. There may be a lot of competition in it or there may be no competition at all. However, you need not worry in either case. More competition just means that you could have a huge listening base of subscribers.

During your research you might also download some shows of different Podcasts that you find interesting. Analyze them carefully and make notes about what you liked and didn’t like about the existing Podcasts. If you’re starting with a topic that already has an established subscriber base, then you may consider choosing a Podcast topic that will complement, rather than compete with them.

Start your own Podcast and ride the wave by taking advantage of the latest technological trend and have some fun at the same time.

How To Choose The Perfect Retail Location And Make It Profitable!

Choose The Right, Retail Real Estate Location! Family Expenditures – And How They Can Guarantee Success!

Location, Location, Location – we’ve all heard that catchphrase! Choosing a great location is of the utmost importance…the correct location is one of the most important factors in a successful retail business.

Family expenditures will greatly increase your chances of selecting the correct area and location for your business. Whether you are starting a new business or increasing the number of stores in your multi-unit retail business, the benefit of evaluating the immediate area through family expenditures is immeasurable.

Firstly, we need to establish an understanding of our product or services, then pick a couple categories which our product/service falls into. Any demographic profiling consultant firm can give you a list of the different categories of products or services which they track or have in their profiling databases.

Secondly, we need to establish a radius or catchment area, which we believe we can draw clients from. For a typical small to medium retailer the catchment/trade area , is typically approximately 3KM surrounding your potential or existing location. When we have finalized our product category or service category and our catchment or trade area we can move to the next stage.

Let’s assume our product is widgets, the category we fit into on the database with our local demographic profiling consulting firm, is general widgets. We have also concluded we can pull customers from up to 3Km’s away; therefore we will use a 1KM and a 3Km radius circle around our potential or existing location; as the parameters for our study. We then produce a map and a list of variables, showing our potential or existing location; firstly the map can show, traffic counts, traffic generators, daytime populations etc, which will help us evaluate the immediate trade area. As well secondly, we produce a list of variables which includes; family expenditures on general widgets. Along with the previous information which also needs to be examined, let’s go into a little more detail on the family expenditures.

The data will show us…how much money is spent within a 1KM radius and a 3Km radius on general widgets within a year period. The data will also show us how much money is spent per household on general widgets within a year period. Now we have some hard data on dollars spent and can begin to establish a sales prediction model. Let’s assume $10,000,000 is spent on widgets within a 1Km radius of our potential location within a 12 month period…we want as much of those dollars as possible for our new potential retail location. A good first step would now be to check out the competition in the immediate 1Km radius and compare their widgets to the widgets you intend to sell. Also the competitions- service, quality of widgets and the look and feel of their stores. Some of the elements we could look also evaluate are the competitions, price point, quality of widget, quality of packaging, merchandising, location, convenience, store hours, store build-out, return policy, delivery service…these are just a few tips, there are many different variables you can incorporate in your comparison.

The next step is to chart the results and compare your location or potential location to the competition. This study and comparison can become very lengthy and detailed or quite simple depending on your needs.Through the evaluation of our chart we can now make a determination of the percentage of sales we can expect from the $10,000,000 of sales of widgets in the 1KM radius. We can then, follow the same procedure for the 3KM radius, if needed. This greatly helps us determine our sales at our new potential location. Which can also help us determine how much rent we can pay, how much staff we can hire, how much stock to order etc. and be profitable. As well, if we are studying an existing location we can set targets for sales based on the numbers we concluded from our study. We can also see which aspects of our existing location are inferior to the competition and resolve those deficiencies, and hopefully surpass the competition on same.

Evaluating family expenditures will greatly enhance our chances of choosing the right real estate location for a retail business. As well, continuing to work with and evaluate family expenditures as they come available year by year, will also greatly enhance our chances of a healthy, successful and profitable ongoing business!!

Family expenditures can do so much more than you ever realized! Want to ensure your success and outsmart the competition? Choose to investigate the world of evaluating family expenditures and open yourself up to a whole new world of possibilities!

A Complete Guide to Choose Customized Business Stamps Online

The stamp is the most convenient stationery to possess as it completes any document or paper in a jiffy! These are also used for putting an official closure, or, for any document to have a conclusion legitimately, it needs to have a good impression. The businesses and companies treat this as essential and foremost stationery to buy online initially.

Here a few important aspects need attention while ordering custom rubber online. There are as follows:

Sizes: Diameter of the stamps you need.

Shapes of Stapes: It can be in various shapes round, square, oval, rectangular or triangular in any shape.

Text Font Style: The style of the font is very important, using a clean and simple font gives better results while stamping on a document.

Text Font Size: The size of a font is very crucial while choosing the design. Too small font size can be tough to read. Using a standard size font can give a better impression.

Logo Design: Logo design should be simple otherwise its proper impression won’t come.

So, here is the compiled guide which will help any institution or individual to buy online. After going through these practical situations the user gets the idea of using this important thing judiciously. Let’s learn from its usage perspective.

Signature Pre-inked:

As the title says, the signature is an implement personalized with an individual’s name for quick and easy authorization of the documents. This kind is available with just a signature or can be customized with signature or name, and used generally, for self- possession. These are bought online with a variety of styles like pre-inked, self-inked, and with handle etc.

Institution or company’s logo:

Usually, it is termed as a company stamp, it is used by the institutions or companies to authorize papers, therefore, it helps in building the identity of a company along with the authorized signature on it. When on behalf of a company or institution a document is served, it is mandatory to have a company seal on it. These are available self-inking, pre-inked depending on your choice.

Self- inking Type –

These kinds are generally possessed by the organizations to simplify documentation and avoid handwritten repetitive notes. If there are ample of the same notes to be put on documents, then, adding these personalized rubber becomes essential. These are available in different sizes and styles like self-inking, pre-inked depending on the note.

Pre-inked Type-

Stamps with a date or company logo with minimal words are often used by companies or institutions, simplifying frequent and repeated signing. It allows quick actions on putting a closure to the document on behalf of the company. You may customize them the way you want it to be like a round or rectangular kind with a pre-inked or self-inking.

Generally, we ignore the small details to mention while ordering a rubber stamp. We need to focus on the tiny stuff that has a useful impact while imprinting the documents. The self inking types are one of the useful one to get the best result while marking. Generally ink bleeds if the ink quality is poor, in case of self inking quality of ink is very good. So, the impression is very clear and good. It is one of the important things we generally ignore that can make a huge difference.

How To Choose The Best Digital Marketing Agency For Your Business?

Often do we read news of fraud, scam and reports of some digital marketing agencies that add no value to their clients’ businesses. In a world where companies spend millions of dollars every year on digital marketing campaigns, the need to distinct good agencies from bad cannot be stressed enough.

Combining various internet marketing tactics with other forms of media and strategies, digital marketing has become one of the most effective methods of lead-generation, branding and procuring bigger customer-base. Broadly speaking, it can be subdivided into internet marketing, mobile marketing and offline marketing.

The importance of having a digital marketing agency for any type of business is obvious. It is the nature of any firm to focus its whole attention to the industry that it is in and subsequently to the primary objectives that form the company. This necessitates delegating other works like digital marketing to external agencies.

For example, a company that manufactures clothes will devote most of its workforce to manufacturing and selling clothes alone. The business of that company is clothes, not marketing or advertising; and even if it does its own marketing campaigns, there’s a better chance that a marketing agency, whose sole business is creating marketing campaigns, is going to do the job far better than the company’s marketing department.

And in a world where most consumers are now equipped with mobile phones, TV, internet and other electronic media, the need to digitize one’s marketing campaigns need not be mentioned. Because there’s a simple truth above all else: digital marketing works. It is cheaper than traditional strategies and visibly more effective.

So how does one find the right digital marketing agency to work with?

Choosing the right agency can be a daunting task especially because there are new companies springing up almost everyday. And because the variety of services offered by these companies is not the same. Let’s take a look at the various elements that will help you choose the best digital agency for your business:

Services Offered

The first thing you should always consider when looking for digital marketing agencies to work with is the nature and variety of services they offer. A good agency should offer as many services as possible under one roof. This will save you the trouble of finding another company for a specific service as you can easily delegate all your digital marketing needs to that company.

A full serviced agency typically offers:

– Web design and development

– Search engine optimization and marketing

– Mobile marketing

– Email marketing

– Social media marketing

– Online advertisement

– Online reputation management

Portfolio And Testimonials

A good digital marketing agency will always have a portfolio that consists of clients with visible levels of success. You can easily access this portfolio from their website. A portfolio page that lists a good number of clientele is more trustworthy than one that displays only a few.

Testimonials are another criterion to help in choosing a digital agency for your business. Good agencies will have feedback and testimonials from previous customers. The more testimonials, the better.

Online Presence And Reputation

It’s only natural for a company that deals in digital marketing to have a visible online presence. Does it have a Facebook page and if so, how many Likes does it have on the page? What is its Twitter following like? Social media presence and activity is a good measure of a company’s repute.

A quick Google search using the company’s name as the search term will reveal a great deal of information about the company, including reviews and feedback on review sites, if any. A search query that returns very little result may not be the best company to have your marketing work delegated to.

Support

Any good company should have excellent support. Try contacting the digital marketing agency that you’re currently researching on from their website or via their Live chat application, if they have one. How long does it take for them to respond? Call them up and talk to them. Find out how knowledgeable their support team is. This is a company that you’re going to give a lot of money to, it’s important to know before-hand if they are worth investing in and that if you ever run into problems, they are there for you.

How To Choose The Best Freight Broker Software

Are you just establishing a trucking business? In case you are, you know that this is a capital intensive business. Regardless of what you are investing, one tool that you would definitely need to run your business in an efficient manner is a good trucking software program. There was a time when all the accounts and logs that were maintained by those in this business were done manually. This led to a lot of bulk work and took a lot of time. Yet, in spite of the extra hard work that was put in, there still remained the chances of the mistakes and wrong entries in the accounts.

Obviously, the freight broker software comes as a boon for all those in the trucking business. So how do you pick the right software program for yourself? How do you know which is the best among the choices that are presented to you. You would have to ensure that it has all the programs that are important. Firstly you would have to ascertain that the log accounting system of the software is designed in a way that makes it easy for you to carry out your tasks. This should be carried out on an automated manner. This means that the system should not wait for the truck driver to come back. They should be automatically updated while the task is being carried out.

Another aspect that you would have to check is the fuel tax calculation functionality. This is a very important aspect in a trucking software program. A trucking business can never be kept restricted to one state. You would have to move from one state to the other. Once you cross state borders, the fuel tax structure changes. To complicate matters further, these state laws can be changed any time. You need to ascertain that the software that you choose allows the calculation of the fuel tax with the updated tax structure. Unless you have this feature on the software that you use, there is no way you can get a clear idea of how much cost you would need you make a trip.

Technology has always helped man to work out his life in an easier manner. The computer and the software industry have been further helpful to people in dealing with their life activities. Ever since the freight broker software was designed, the trucking industry was managed beautifully all over the world.

Tips to Choose the Best Business Web Hosting Platform

Are you thinking of taking your business to more potential customers rather than confining to the walls of the shop? Websites are the fastest and easiest way to reach a larger crowd. But to start and maintain one, you should approach a business web hosting company.

Whether you own a big business or your business budget is low, creating your own online platform is considered as the basic promotion nowadays. Most of the potential customers love to shop at home, where they can get their needs delivered to their doorsteps. So the website plays a vital role in the growth of your business and to get great customer satisfaction you should maintain them properly. This job is done by a business web hosting company.

Web hosting is a service provider for your website, where they store and maintain your files, documents, etc. There are diversified options for selecting a web hosting for your business. But basic thing to keep in mind is the type of business you own. Whether you own a big business and can afford good budget web hosting or you are in need of a more affordable choice. Also, consider what you expect your website to provide your customers with.

Commonly found types of web hosting are; shared, dedicated, VPS and cloud hosting. Shared hosting is the cheapest and has less disk space. As the name suggests, more than one website share a single server. They are better for new websites, as they are cheap and such websites may not expect a larger customer traffic.

Dedicated hosting offers a single server for your website and thus provide a larger disk space. They cost big than shared and other types, so it is best for big-budget businesses. They can handle customer traffic and better website tools as they have greater ranges. VPS and cloud type are a combination of both shared and dedicated hosting.

While choosing the web hosting company, check out whether they provide the following features.

The bandwidth and disk space they can provide for your budget: All your documents, website pages, your expectation of the number of customers who approach your website, all depends on the space your host offer. For customers to access every element of your website without any lag and traffic, you are going to need a decent range.

Compatibility and reliability: Make sure that the web hosting platform you approach has a higher availability rate which can also be termed as uptime. You don’t want to upset your customers by keeping your website unreachable or unavailable at times.

The security they offer is also important to keep your website away from malware and viruses.

24*7 customer support is a vital feature of a reliable business web hosting company can offer. Customers may even search for their need at late night, so it is better your website is available the whole day.

How to Choose a Good Business Process Outsourcing Service Provider

Did you know that organizations that prioritize business process outsourcing services see 12 times higher return on sales than companies that do not? This was observed by the International Customer Service Association. Therefore, it is imperative that you indulge in delegating the work in order to achieve the set target of your business. A provider of BPO services can successfully handle your diverse work areas while you concentrate on the core functions.

Things to Make Sure While Hiring Business Process Outsourcing Services

Businesses that choose to hire business process outsourcing services can cut down their cost of investment to a great extent. Following are the top guidelines to adhere to while choosing a BPO services provider to reap the benefits of outsourcing:

1. Effective Government

The government should not only be supportive but should also actively contribute to the BPO industry. The government of the leading countries, such as India, formulates policies and regulations that help the business process outsourcing economy grow. Make sure that the political structure is stable enough so that the economic structure does not face any threats. Economical threats, low foreign direct investment rate, may shake the stability of the outsourced company.

2. Infrastructure and Technologies

A developed infrastructure and latest telecommunication advances can help your business grow leaps and bounds. Problems, such a congested phone lines, frequent server downtime, outdated software can lead your business to face a hard time. Make sure that you research well and choose a location where there are more numbers of high-tech parks built for smooth business operations.

3. Skilled Executives

Skilled professionals are essential to reflect the goals and values of your business effectively. Customers often feel hostile and frustrated when the customer support executive is not tech-savvy and take more time than expected to troubleshoot. Such inefficiencies in business process outsourcing services companies can make you lose customers in no time. Therefore, ensure that the BPO service provider appoints IT and software skilled personnel.

4. Anytime Service

Businesses do not want to stop their sales at any point of the day. Therefore, hiring business process outsourcing services in countries which offer a smooth flow of your business at any hour of the day will prove useful. Customers calling for support during late evening hours or early morning hours would be effectively entertained. Employees of the outsourced BPO service companies also would not have to suffer with ‘graveyard shifts’. Customers rely a lot in companies that facilitates 24×7 support services and want to deal with the company again in future.

Business Banking Sales Strategies – How to Choose and Attract More of Your Best Customers

Think about fly fishing for a moment (bear with me – I do have a business point here): A fly fisher’s success is based on alignment of three elements: 1) the fish they want to catch, 2) the fly they use and 3) the cast, or the way they deliver the fly to the fish. The better the fishers define these three elements, the more success they’re likely to have.

You face a similar challenge. Your success is tied to your ability to choose and attract more of your best customers. Like the fisher, you must choose the fish (target customers), select the fly (the benefits they want), and develop your cast (your sales system). Then, you must communicate these to your salespeople. Why? Because, you’re not fishing alone. Unless you’re careful, your salespeople will be tempted to sell to anyone with whom they can connect, pleading for larger territories, price concessions, better terms and giveaways that drive down your profits.

Step #1 – The Fish: Define your most desirable customers.

Your ideal customers are your most profitable, lowest risk, lowest cost to serve (relative to prices they pay), most reliable, most predictable, and most loyal customers. When you define your ideal customer, you’re saying “Here’s who we’re set up to serve best” and “Here’s who we’re not set up to serve well.”

How do you define your ideal customer? First, assess profitability and growth of your current customers (divided by location, industry, growth rate or other criteria that make sense to you). Then, look for the common characteristics of the most profitable customers:

Demographics – This is who they are in terms of age, gender, location, family characteristics, ethnic group and other indicators.

Psychographics – This refers to their decision-making:

What challenges are they facing? What problems are they seeking to solve?
How do they recognize it’s time to address the challenges? What are the circumstances?
What benefits or outcomes are they seeking when they buy?
What’s important to them about how they seek solutions or how the solutions are delivered?
Why do they buy from you rather than from competitors? (For example: Less time required, the experience of doing business with you, unique products or services, price?)
Why do you lose sales? At what point in your sales process do they typically stop?

As you define your ideal customer profile, avoid the trap of choosing the usual demographic markers of business type, age, income, and zip code (e.g. successful middle-aged dentists in zip code 02109) just because you can obtain the information easily or because they seem obvious. Push yourself and your team harder than that – ask how and why you’re choosing particular characteristics.

Look at the alternative direction as well: Do you know why your prospects don’t turn into clients? At what point in your sales process do people drop out? At what point in connecting with a business banker or walking around your branch do most prospects go away? At what point in your discovery and proposal process do you tend to lose people? Rely on your hunches and develop specific, quantitative data to test your hunches and provide a basis for comparison over time.

Step #2 – The Fly: Develop and tell a compelling value story.

Like a fly fisherman choosing a fly based on the type of fish, time of day, time of year and specific characteristics of the stream, choose your value story to entice your ideal prospects. Your best prospects, hearing the story for the first time, should see themselves revealed in your story and hear the benefits they want so clearly that they are called to bank with you.

To achieve this effect, you must craft the story carefully and say it consistently, even down to the same words, so you attract the prospects you want and so you can tell whether the story is working or not. There are many possible ways to construct the “why should I bank with you?” compelling value story. Here’s one example:

Script template: MyBank is in the business of giving target prospect group a specific benefit #1. And what I mean by that is, almost all the target prospect group members we’ve ever met find themselves experiencing problem or pain experienced by target prospect group members and not having benefit #1 or a related benefit. Have you ever wished that you could have that but you simply don’t know how to do it? Well, that’s what we do at MyBank; we give you the opportunity to have benefit #1 or related benefit when you want it.

Example: MyBank is in the business of giving small business owners the freedom and ability to check on their businesses from any place in the world, at any time. And what I mean by that is, almost all small business owners we’ve ever met worry about how they cannot just monitor but do something about customer receipts being deposited promptly, paying their vendors at the right times, and ensuring that there’s enough cash in the bank when they’re on vacation (if they ever take one) or tied up in a customer job somewhere for a few days. Have you ever wished that you could do that but you simply don’t know how to do it? Well, that’s what we do at MyBank; we give you the ability to see and manage what’s going on in your business when you need to be away from the office for a few days.

Of course, this story may or may not appeal to you or your ideal customers. You need to develop and test your own stories. The question is: Do you have a story? Does each member of your staff know how to tell the story in the same way? And do you have ways to test the story to see whether there might be other ways to tell it that would work better or faster?

Step #3 – The Cast: Define your sales system.

The last step in our fly-fishing story is the cast – how the fisher offers the fly to the fish. Serious fly fishers practice their casting techniques for hours, seeking to deliver the fly to exactly the right spot at exactly the right moment, with a motion that looks to the fish exactly like the real fly or bug they want for breakfast. You and your sales team must practice, too-polishing and refining your casting motion until it becomes a reliable, dependable and predictable method of drawing your fish to the surface and prompting them to bite down.

This means translating your knowledge about your ideal customers into steps, tools and activities that communicate to the prospective customers that “we’re the ones for you” and then testing them until you’re sure your approach works consistently. The successful practices become your sales system for catching your ideal customers.

Your purpose in defining the sales system is not to drive your salespeople crazy, although it may. It is to increase your revenue and profitability by consistently and predictably attracting more of your best prospects and retaining more of your best customers. If you find that asking certain questions leads to better results than other questions, or other sequences of questions, the questions and the sequence become part of your system. Likewise, if certain displays or a certain conversation while you’re ringing up the sale produce better results, they become part of your system.

Remember: No detail is too small provided you can test it and your tests show that the detail makes a difference in terms of attracting and selling to your ideal customer.

What Is B2B And Why Choose This Business Model For Your Startup? B2B Vs B2C

Choosing the right business to start is something that nobody can tell you except yourself. Seeking the advice of others is simply confusing and is a waste of time. Ask ten business owners what they think as to which business to start and you’ll probably end up with fifteen different ideas because answering the Golden Question of Entrepreneurship often proves difficult to even the most seasoned business professional.

The ten answers that I can guarantee you’re not going to get are of the businesses that those entrepreneurs are currently in.

The process of choosing which business to start is often done incorrectly and does not factor in the experience level of the younger entrepreneur or lay a foundation for the first-time business owner to grow both personally, professionally and fiscally.

The issue with many business plans is that, prior to inception, they fail to take into account certain variables that can determine whether a business has longevity, such as search engine marketing competition, the hassle and entrepreneur’s inherent ability to recruit and manage outside manufacturers as various globalization factors will flood a market.

With the advent of the web and the multifaceted programming features of WordPress, many younger entrepreneurs have the ability to go into business for themselves very easily and very cheaply, but very haphazardly. What may be a cost-effective business now could be a nightmare waiting to happen.

Despite factors such as a cost-effective start-up that should be considered major tailwinds, why do so many of these businesses end up becoming a hobby alongside a full-time job?

The reason these companies fail is simplistic. Many entrepreneurs don’t venture into industries that are truly needed by the market. Things such as social media, online vacation packages, online dating and video production are not a necessity for businesses or the consumer to purchase and often prove a lot harder to break into than the business plan formula claimed it to be.

Laying A Structured Foundation For The First Time Entrepreneur

To mitigate a failed start, I have attempted to lay down some industry and target market boundaries from which the entrepreneur can safely use to pick a business that has a fighting chance from the onset.

For one’s first business, I always suggest that they start a company that sells services to other businesses rather than directly to the consumer. There are a few reasons as to why entrepreneurs should venture into “B2B” (“Business to Business”) service based companies as opposed to any form of “B2C”(“Business to Consumer”) company, “B2B” product-oriented company or strictly a web-based B2B firm.

Prior to getting into the reasons why the first-time entrepreneur should play within these boundaries, let’s define and give examples in order to clarify the difference between a “B2B” service-based company, a “B2B” product or web-based company and, finally a “B2C” company.

We are going to leave out companies selling into municipalities or educational institutions due to long sales cycles that are very complex, hard to manage and even harder to profit from.

What Is “B2C”? Defining the examples:

“B2C” – means that you are selling a product or service directly to the consumer as opposed to selling a product to service to another business.

Examples of “B2C” product-based companies:

Ex 1: Selling t-shirts geared toward the individual consumer
Ex 2: Selling lipstick marketed toward teenage buyers
Ex 3: Selling custom skateboards

Looking Further Into “B2C” Product-Based Companies

Why do I recommend that the first time entrepreneur shy away from “B2C” product based companies?

For the seasoned entrepreneur with exceedingly strong fundamentals and monetary backing, there can be a lot of advantages in opening a “B2C” product-based company. If you look at companies and subsequent brands such as Abercrombie or Sephora, there is a lot of a money to be made in “B2C” product-based marketing if you hit a home run.

Though, the marketing, operations and other intricacies of these companies are well-above most seasoned entrepreneurs’ heads let alone the first-time start-up.

There are a few significant advantages that companies like Abercrombie enjoy and that falsely lure the first-time entrepreneur into starting a “B2C” product-based company. Two of these big advantages are that “B2C” product-based companies don’t have lengthy sales cycles like most “B2B” companies are likely to have, and that they can use their brand to justify significant pricing mark-ups.

However, just as there are many upsides to owning a successful “B2C” product-based company, there are even more deterrents to success for the first-time entrepreneur when opening one.

It is very hard to be considered a player in the “B2C” product-based world without a physical store location. When buying everyday goods, the consumer is going to tend to purchase from companies with actual stores as opposed to those with just websites. Consumers want to see and feel before they buy; it’s half the fun of shopping. The entrepreneur can attempt to have a store such as Macy’s sell their fashion products for them, however, as someone somewhat familiar with the fashion industry, this is a very long sales cycle and to get space from the Big Players is exceedingly competitive and often comes with the price tag of having to attend costly trade shows.

I have found that the marketing for “B2C” companies is very complex and often very expensive.Before even bringing their product to market, the successful “B2C” entrepreneur should be familiarized with the intricacies that make people open their wallet. Aside from the basic lists behind consumer buying that are readily found on the web, most drivers as to why Americans buy can be traced back to highly advanced persuasion tactics, pristine web design and sometimes costly celebrity endorsements.

The consumer buys on repetition. This means that the first-time entrepreneur, literally must beat their brand and its advantages into the head of the consumer before they are going to see any traction or credit card receipts. Accomplishing this can take a very, very long time. The consumer moves quickly for no one and the ability to stay level-headed throughout this pre-selling process (if it even comes to fruition), can not only leave the entrepreneur frustrated, but it can leave them writing a resume as well.

If the entrepreneur cannot afford a physical location that means that they have to gain the trust of the consumer to even a larger extent as people are very hesitant to give their credit cards to websites that they are not 100% familiar with. This is not always the case with the younger generation, however it is going to prove to be somewhat of a hurdle for anybody who is unfamiliar with Firefox.

If the entrepreneur is selling a product, he or she is most likely going to incur start-up costs such as warehousing, shipments, design and other fees from manufacturers that I can vouch firsthand can quickly add up.

Global competition is another headwind that “B2C” product-based companies have to contend with. Anybody, anywhere, at any age can manufacture competing t-shirts or could make and market the same exact custom skateboards. Because there is no human interaction needed with most B2C product sales, the competitive landscape immediately goes global. Another thing to remember is that when an industry goes global, the threat of losing money to intellectual-property theft skyrockets.

If the above didn’t deter you, here’s a good story for the “B2C” product-based aspiring entrepreneur:

In 2007, I got a call from a start-up company that sold yoga mats and the owners were looking to staff a sales representative. Based somewhere outside of Boston, the owners couldn’t afford a full-time sales representative nor could they afford my fees, therefore our conversation was not too lengthy.

However, about three months later and upon further review of the current competition in the industry, I determined that my search engine optimization skills would allow me to rank a website highly on Google for keyword phrases pertaining to “Yoga mats” and related phrases.

As quick as I was to pull the trigger on a new business back then, I was even quicker to pull the plug on this endeavor. It started when I began researching yoga mat manufacturers and quickly learned that to even have somebody produce a basic yoga mat, we needed to buy thousands of them… from China.

This was quite problematic for a few reasons. The first was that half of the manufacturers (particularly, the ones in the States) would not even speak to us because we didn’t have enough money to warrant them starting a new business relationship with. Second, we did not know where to keep these mats and, after shopping around, storage costs were very expensive.

Third, the storage companies charged exorbitant fees to ship the mats to the consumer. Finally, if we wanted to do custom yoga mats with custom art, we would have to manufacturer the mats ourselves because nobody wanted to print single mats for a new company.

Therefore, before the company was even off the ground, I was looking at a minimum fee of $20,000 in manufacturing, warehousing and upfront shipping costs as well as a warehouse full of unsold yoga mats and a website that ranked on the third page of Google.

Looking Further Into “B2C” Service-Based Companies

Examples of “B2C” product-based companies:

Ex 1: Dating services
Ex 2: Online travel services
Ex 3: Financial services

Why do I recommend that the first time entrepreneur shy away from “B2C” service-based companies?

Many “B2C” service-based companies are dominated by the big names in the industry. For instance, if you want to open an online travel company, you are going to compete against Expedia and you are going to have to make quite a compelling case as to why the Smith family should trust you coordinating their Honolulu vacation regardless of the bells and whistles you claim that you can deliver.

Many “B2C” service-based companies are too cyclical and thus advanced for the first time entrepreneur. When opening a first business, the entrepreneur wants to choose an industry that is in need regardless of economic conditions. Waiting for an industry to come back, then hoping to compete in it is not a solid business plan.

Many “B2C” service-based companies must compete globally just like their “B2C” product-based counterparts. As a first time entrepreneur, you are going to want to avoid this at all costs. For all intents and purposes, the fewer players in the game, the better.

If the first-time entrepreneur opens a “B2C” service-based company that is strictly web-based, the advertising costs are going to be astronomical. These days, Google advertising a.k.a. pay-per-click (better known as”PPC”) costs can quickly amount to five figure sums as single clicks can easily surpass $5 per visit to your website. This is not factoring in more advanced marketing costs such as your website’s bounce rate. Even further, this is not factoring in your conversion rate that essentially tells you how many clicks it takes to make a sale. Therefore, you could be paying up to $60 in advertising costs just to make a single sale of $130. The web is no longer a cheap place to advertise and more and more “B2C” service-based companies have turned to television because simply advertising on the web shows little to no ROI. Another thing to remember is that when it comes to “B2C” service-based companies, you can assure yourself that the top 10 ranked on Google will be competitors for life.

The first time entrepreneur will often make the mistake of marketing towards a consumer that is fun and hip, but has no money. For instance, coaching entrepreneurs and job seekers is fun, but entrepreneurs and job seekers, by definition, typically don’t have excess funds to spend.

Starting a Startup Business? Choose the Right Business Consulting Firm for Success

Being your own boss is the dream of many and lately, the instinct seems to be taking the world by storm. People are now more inclined to start their own firm, it seems to lure many people and running an own business shows the larger than life picture, however, the reality is a bit different. As an entrepreneur willing to start a new business you need to understand the market, do the need analysis and many researches before executing your plan. You might be budding with business startup ideas but mere planning will not help you succeed, rather you need a right plan of action to succeed.

The upsurge of small business consulting firms has proven to be a panacea for startups. They offer the consultation and startup mentoring services which work as a guide for entrepreneurs to successfully implement and execute their business plan. Not only it supports the Business Startup Ideas but provides feedback to improve the business plan which helps in removing bottlenecks usually faced by startups.

Why do you need startup mentoring?

There is no denial to the fact that many startups fail in their nascent stage, and they may have a number of reasons for the same, the likes include entrepreneurs being naiveté and lack of supportive startup ecosystem, lack of funds, poor market conditions and much more. But, the most important factor that most of the startups miss is a lack of guidance, inspiration, and feedback from small business consulting firms and no startup mentoring. It might sound absurd to a few strong-headed entrepreneurs to take the support of a mentor to execute their business plan but these firms are a must to make your business successful.

Startup Mentoring – your ultimate supporter and motivator

In the lead to succeed, most of the entrepreneurs break rules or make mistakes which they are not even aware of, these mistakes, however, can adversely affect their business. Also, many times as an aspiring business builder you find yourself stuck in a situation where you don’t know how to proceed. Startup Business Consulting firms and mentors work as a savvy guide who constantly provides you feedback.

Initially, you may be having a lack of confidence but with the mentorship of a good startup mentor, you can move ahead with confidence and without hesitation.

How to find the right startup consulting firm or a startup mentor for your company:

You are entrusting your faith and vision on a person who will be your mentor or support or guide, hence, it is very important that you have a strong relationship with them and at the same time, it’s important that your startup mentor’s or consulting firm’s vision should coincide with yours. A good startup has the following qualities:

An expert-level experience
Already a successful entrepreneur
Are patient and action oriented
A harsh critic yet supportive

Before moving ahead and getting associated with any firm or person, as an entrepreneur you should check for the aforementioned qualities.

What does a good startup mentor do?

A good startup consulting firm or a mentor will:

Listen to your concept and give honest feedback
Will give you time and talk through your areas of difficulties. Since they carry with them good amount of experience, they also share their experience which helps you understand your problems and come up with right solution
They are action oriented and hence, always suggest practical ways on how to start a business by making optimum use of available resources

Takeaways-

You must accept the fact that it takes a village to become a successful entrepreneur, of course, your vision and idea is important but what’s paramount is its right and timely execution which only comes with the right support system. The upsurge of companies like Virgin startup is a move to support and guide the newbies in the business world to succeed and survive.