Congratulations! You are the proud owner of a business. You have thought of an individual brand that will surely impress the public. But first things first, you need to make sure that your employees feel happy and secure in your office building. Does your office décor really symbolise what your brand has to offer the world? Here are some tips and tricks to make sure that your work building fully shows off everything that your brand has to offer its customers.

Consider your atmosphere

The first thing that you have to think about when it comes to designing your office is its atmosphere. Every office will have a specific atmosphere that will complement its business culture. If you are a young and upcoming SEO company, you may find that your atmosphere is relaxed and laid back, meaning that you may opt for a quirkier design (fit with colourful desks and relaxation spaces). However, if you have a high-paced sales environment, you may need an open plan office, where your employees can see each other and keep in communication during the busier hours of the day. Have a think about your office’s atmosphere before reaching out to a workplace design specialist, like Maris Interiors. That way you can ensure that the overall design of your office will suit your brand perfectly.

Colour Schemes

There is an important balance to be struck when you consider the actual colour scheme of your office. You may want it to reflect the colours of your brand, but not cause your office to look any smaller or unprofessional. Colour psychology is important when it comes to boosting the morale of your employees and opinion of others when they visit the office. If you want to incorporate brand colours into your office design, try thinking about how you can use it in small doses. That way it can stand out. Combine it with neutral colours, such as white and grey, to make sure that it brings a little life into your interior office. You may even want to consider whether or not you want to paint murals on the walls that show off your brand. This will certainly give your office a young and quirky.

Sociability

The last thing you want to do is keep your employees trapped in tiny cubicles that keep them isolated from their peers. If you want your business to feel sociable, friendly and inclusive, make sure that your décor has a modern feel to it. Using the layout of the original space and modernising it with the help of a building preservation specialist also creates a more inclusive special space to work. Office chairs, bright lighting, and open doors can encourage people to sit and comfortably do business together. It can also make people feel more at ease in their work stations.

Organisation

Remember, a tidy space is an organised space. When you have visitors come to visit your business’ headquarters, you want them to get a good impression of you and your employees. Soft toned décor, cabinets, desks and shelves can make anyone feel like with you and your brand – they are in good company (or even with a good company!). If your brand looks professional then this means that an inherent sense of trust is built up between you and your clients upon every visit.

You can also do the design yourself, especially if you know the various elements that could showcase the brand’s vibe. Learn all about them through interior design courses offered by the National Design Academy.

Working remotely was something of a pipeline dream before the internet. Now, with a host of options of remote workers, increasing numbers of businesses are saving on office space to employ remote workers. Marketing is a sector that is particularly thriving with this change. The likes of online marketing campaigns make it incredibly easy to perform your role at home.

• Take out insurance

If you are working as a remote worker in the marketing sector, you will need to consider taking out a tailored indemnity insurance policy against your work. Common claims which can occur,as shared by Hiscox, include errors or misunderstanding during advertising campaigns, resulting in claims of slander or copyright infringement. Taking out the appropriate insurance can ensure that you do not lose profits during these events.

Some marketing insurance policies, such as those offered by Hiscox, are tailored to your individual situation by their specialist team of underwriters. They can protect you if claims are made against the advice or services that you provide.

Connect with your colleagues

Working remotely can sometimes be isolating. Many remote workers find it difficult to connect with colleagues when working from home. However, establishing efficient communication methods is vital for creating a fully connected and streamlined marketing campaign. It can stop mistakes and misunderstandings from happening.

Not connecting with other is harmful to our health; it is, therefore, wise to get out the house (or office) and work in an environment that’s built with freelancers in mind. You can find many collaborative office spaces designed with the freelancer in mind. This allows for remote workers to work on their own but also talk to others just like them.

Many digital marketing experts conduct daily meetings through communication and social messaging applications such as Skype’s video-calling services. It will ensure that everyone can meet their targets and understand the message that your company is trying to broadcast to its audience. You can also raise any issues or improvements that need to be made.

• Establish a Routine

Although working from home can be fantastic, it is also easy to procrastinate or feel unable to finish all of your work within the deadline. To work efficiently, you should establish a daily routine which will help you to focus on the work you need to complete. Although this can be altered to fit your routines and preferences, ensuring that you have a daily plan will allow you to follow your marketing schedule. It could be publishing content on time, responding to messages efficiently, or posting to social media regularly.

• Invest in the Right Tools

To work from home as efficiently as in the office, you should also ensure that you invest in the right tools that will allow you to work to the best of your ability. For instance, for digital marketing, you should download mobile applications such as calendar and scheduling applications that can help you plan your scheduled posts and appointments. Additionally, social media applications can be downloaded onto your mobile. It means that you can respond to messages and create an online presence from wherever you want to work from. In remote marketing communications, PowerPoint presentations have taken unprecedented importance. Try these visually impactful PowerPoint templates that can be a great addition to your remote marketing communication arsenal.

• Track Performance

You should also make sure that you evaluate your performance at all times. Doing so will show you where you need to improve and what aspects you should focus on. Without your manager in direct communication with you, it can be challenging to find the motivation to succeed. However, by tracking your performance, you will be able to increase your productivity and ensure that your work is of high quality.

Not many people would say they lack ambition. The urge to succeed is embedded in all of us. From children to elders, all individuals measure personal success according to their own inner criteria. Unfortunately, most people fail to realize their full potential due to a complex set of reasons, but most often that set consists of only a couple of elements. Lack of ideas and absence of courage are usually the ones responsible for holding you back, but what happens when you take those two out of the equation?

If you are exploring your possibilities and are looking for a way to break free from the closed corporate system and dive into the ocean of self-employment, we are here to provide a list of helpful items you’ll need to consider if you wish to start your own business.

The Right Mindset

The first thing you need to do is actually convince yourself that this going forward solo is a good idea. Studies show that majority of people that actually have a potentially lucrative idea are afraid of stepping out of their comfort zones out of fear. At the heart of it hides not the fear of failure as you might think, but rather the fear of success.

Fear of success is actually very common. When one individual decides to try something, he is met with two opposing outcomes: either he will fail, or he will succeed. Now, we generally spend too much time thinking about failing that the notion of success is far from our minds. However, as we overcome the obstacles and approach the goal, we are faced with the frightening thought: “What if I actually do this?”. So logically, after so much time spent focusing on the negative aspects, failure becomes a constant, even safe option. Winning becomes something that now scares us even more.

To get out of the vicious circle, visualizing situations in which you were successful is one of the best strategies that you can use. Keep reminding yourself why you decided to do this in the first place and find a reliable source of motivation. If you believe in yourself and your goal, you become practically invincible, and that mindset is one of the key components of success.

Profitable Field

The era of capitalism and mass production brings forth countless products and dense marketing spaces. To sell something never seen before, you will have to incorporate an extra layer of creativity not only in terms of advertising but the individual product as well. To put it simply, sliced bread has gone stale.

The matter we would like to address is the choice of field of work coupled with accompanying advertising. Intense marketing strategies focus on selling products and services that directly affect us precisely because they are not selling the product as much as they are selling a lifestyle. The perfect example is Apple and the world-famous motto ‘Think Different’. From the beginning, the company focused on selling items that may be only pieces of electronic equipment, but each device represents something much bigger than just a phone or a laptop. The entire brand promoted the idea that you are unique and if you want to be different – you’ll want something that resides in its own league. Ironically, today Apple is one of the most recognizable companies in the world, with iPhones being the preferred choice for a mobile device for billions of users.

That is why it is important to create a unique outline for your product, calculate where and to whom you desire to sell it, and devise a marketing strategy that completely fits the entire concept.

Of course, you do not need an actual product in order to achieve success. Considering that you now have the internet as a medium, you can explore infinite fields and professions and try your hand at lucrative jobs you never knew existed before.

One such lucrative idea is affiliate marketing. If you are drawn to this branch of business and wish to dive a bit deeper, affiliate marketing is a great place to start. Essentially, affiliate marketing brings a lot of money through promotions of other companies’ products. It is present in all spheres and industries, especially in entertainment and iGaming, where some of the top UK online casino establishments work with elaborate affiliate networks.

Possibilities are endless; you only need to choose what you wish to do.

Business Structure and Plan

Once you make a decision about your line of work, industry, and product, you will need a firm structure that will enable you to put it all into motion.

A solid, bulletproof business plan is vital – this will be the foundation of your business venture. Most start-up businesses fail during their first three years of existence precisely because the structure and planning were not based on reasonable goals. Failing to predict potentially harmful circumstances is one of the first obstacles – an obstacle many individuals fail to notice. Take your time in devising your plan.

It needs to be precise, so do your homework: research your target market, work on your marketing strategy, formulate your product, and most importantly, devise a reasonable funding goal.

As it comes closer to opening a new franchise, the thought of marketing the launch and business has to be front and centre. While franchisees benefit greatly from the assets provided by the brand, they need to catch the attention and interest of their local customer base. Your franchise, employees, and technology may be ready, but a vital part of the launch is getting your potential customers or clients ready too.

No franchise can successfully launch without notifying the relevant consumers that it is open for business. And while you might have the help of your franchisor for general brand marketing in terms of content and creative, you’ll need to create some local hype around your new franchise to get people walking through your doors. Here are some simple tips to get the buzz going, written in collaboration with F45 Training.

Sneak peeks

While the general public may know the bigger brand, they might not know one is opening up on their doorstep. A sneak peek is the perfect way to let them know without revealing too much. By only showing a sneak peek to the community, potential customers will  start thinking about you before they’ve even stepped inside. Whether it’s a short video clip of a section of your shop or studio on social media or a taster of your product as people pass by, it will generate interest.

Local influencers

Social media is the perfect platform to find relevant influencers (with a decent number of followers) who would be keen to talk about your franchise. While this can cost you a significant amount of money, a little bit of upfront capital won’t hurt if it gets the word-of-mouth strategy up and running. With well-known Facebookers and Instagrammers spreading the news, your new franchise won’t only gain some much needed attention but also an element of trust and legitimacy in what you offer.

Opening deals

An opening deal is an easy way to give consumers a reason or the motivation to sign up or walk through your door in the first place. If you’ve bought an F45 franchise for sale, for example, you could make a good first impression and gain vital initial interest by offering a discount or first free session. When people start getting in touch or stopping by to find out about your deal, you and your staff can  share more information about your service. This builds upon the initial interest, and allows you the chance to further sell what you have to offer.

Generating some local buzz around your new business shouldn’t be left to the marketing efforts of the broader franchise. Your franchise will be situated in a specific location and home to a unique  consumer base–your launch should be tailored to spark their attention and interest. Creating this buzz need not be expensive. With the help of some local influencers, a good opening special, and a sneak peek for locals, you will generate some much-needed awareness.

All businesses share the need to
maximise profit. Whether those profits go into your own pocket, into the pockets
of shareholders or are earmarked to be ploughed back into the business, the
greater the profits, the greater the measure of your business success.

So how can you maximise your
profits? Once you have identified and measured your key profit drivers, you
should be able to develop strategies to grow them. So
the most obvious way to make your business more profitable involves looking at
ways to increase income – usually in the form of sales revenue.

But it is not the only way to
improve the financial wellbeing of your business. You could increase your
profits without putting on a single extra sale if you can decrease your costs.

Cost cutting needs to
be done carefully. Done wrong, and it will result in penny pinching that can
alienate employees and customers, and even make it look as though your business
is in trouble. The professional approach is to look at your competitors and
benchmarking your business to see where you can save money.

The forgotten costs

Making savings can mean many
things. Changing to more efficient lighting could reduce your energy bills.
Finding new suppliers who can provide the things you need at a keener price
night cut your monthly outgoings.

But there is a class of supplier
which is often overlooked on cost-cutting drives. Your financial providers. The
chances are that your business has borrowings, which can range from the finance
to buy your premises and equipment to various forms of funding designed to keep
your cash flow positive.

The cost of this finance might
not be forgotten – it will make a serious impact on your bottom line – but the
possibility of reducing that cost may be overlooked when you are thinking about
cutting costs elsewhere.

This may be because it is easy to
believe that your arrangements with financial suppliers are fixed, and that you
are tied in. Nothing could be further from the truth

You can change your financial
providers, just like any other supplier. And that means you can cut the cost of
one of the biggest drains on your profitability – your monthly repayments to
lenders.

Getting a better deal on your
finance

You may feel that business finance can have a
lot like firefighting. Any finance will do when you need to keep your business
afloat – but like any distress purchase, the lending you arrange in an
emergency will be expensive.

Having the right strategy and the right finance
in place before a crisis could help avoid the need for firefighting in the
first place.

So there are two ways to organise your finance
to maximise your profit. Plan ahead to find a better deal when you need it –
and switch to a better deal to replace your existing arrangements by
refinancing.

Planning ahead

A clear view of your financial needs will make
it easier to plan ahead and to secure the funding you need at the lowest
possible rates and the most favourable terms.

Look at the operational challenges you face:

• Staffing costs
• Premises and
  overheads
• Materials costs
• New technology
• New challenges
  from competitors
• The need for
  marketing – especially online
• Obsolescence of
  plant and equipment
• The need to fund
  growth

Once you have identified the particular
business challenges that you need to answer, you need to look at the most
appropriate type of funding for each one.  It is rarely just a matter of
arranging a generic business ‘loan’. Each type of challenge can have a
different solution.

Getting the right solution for any given
business purpose is vital because it means lower costs. For example, if you
need a new vehicle, you should probably
look at an asset finance solution. Leasing or HP will have lending secured on
the equipment itself reducing costs compared with a generic loan.

There is a wide range of specific financial
solutions designed for buying premises, for dealing with problems with cash
flow, for customers who pay late, for unexpected tax bills and more.

Once you have identified the financial
challenges, the next step is to identify the most cost effective financial
products to answer them. The key is to do this before your need for finance
becomes acute. Having the chance to shop around,  to get the most
appropriate form of finance and even to play different lenders off against each
other to get the best deal can make major savings on the monthly repayments
your funding need will generate.

The benefits of planning ahead don’t stop with
reduced costs.  When you need for finance as part of planned expansion,
you will already know exactly what that finance will cost, simplifying your
decision-making process. When an emergency does come along you have a lifeline
ready and waiting, and when you see an opportunity, you will know exactly what
it will cost you to grasp it.

Refinancing  to cut your existing costs

If you
realise that you have a business loan or loans with a high rate and repayments
you may be able to cut them by refinancing. Refinancing is simply the process
of replacing an existing loan with a new financial arrangement. The new loan pays off the current debt.

You will be
faced with a new debt with a new lender, but your new debt should have better
terms or features that are a better fit for your business, and which will
improve your financial position.

Lenders vary
greatly in the interest they charge. By refinancing to a lower rate, and
perhaps to a more suitable type of loan, it may be possible for your business
to save on interest costs. However, you can also refinance your borrowing into
a longer term.This could reduce your monthly outgoings by giving you longer to
repay.

If you have
several loans running at once, you may be able to consolidate them into a
single loan.

Getting help

Of course, few people running their own
business can expect to be an expert in finance, so whether you are planning
ahead or dealing with some expensive decisions in the past you may find things
easier with some expert help. Business finance has moved on a great deal in
recent years. Getting the best deal is no longer simply a matter of calling on
your bank manager and relying on their generosity. The fact is that since the
financial crisis many banks are a lot less helpful to small businesses than
they once were. Fortunately, there are now many specialist and alternative
lenders who will be keen to do business with you.

Of course, not all lenders will be able to
offer the funding you really need, and only one will be able to offer you the
lowest price. The final step in getting the finance you need to build your
profits may be to call in a business funding expert who can look at the entire
business lending market to find the solutions that are right for you and your business.