Thinking of starting an ecommerce business? Once a complicated and expensive process, the rise of platforms like Shopify have made starting an ecommerce business simpler, cheaper and faster than it’s ever been before.

At least, that’s true for the website and marketing side. While there’s a lot of work to do on the supply chain side of running an online business, the rise of ecommerce software lets anyone, from a first-timer to an ecommerce expert, get their shop up and running.

As a would-be ecommerce entrepreneur, here’s what you need to know:

Ecommerce is growing, and there’s never been a better time to start

More and more customers are starting to shop online, including the elderly and young retail shoppers making their first online purchases.

According to data from Smart Insights, there will be more than two billion online shoppers by 2021 — an increase of more than 300 million from 2018. Whether you’re a retailer looking to branch out or a would-be entrepreneur, there’s never been a better time to get started.

Ecommerce software doesn’t just work online — it’s offline too

Thinking of expanding your offline business to sell online? The same software you can use to run your online business also works smoothly as point of sale software for your retail shop or other offline business.

Designed with small business owners in mind, options like Point of Sale from Shopify make it easy to accept payments via credit card, PayPal and other platforms, all while logging recent sales and managing inventory.

You don’t need to be a technology genius to succeed

Think you need to code to start an ecommerce business? Think again. Thanks to user-friendly ecommerce software like Shopify, you really don’t need advanced programming or design skills to get your ecommerce business up and running.

In fact, if you’re comfortable using basic PC applications, you probably have all of the tech skills you’ll need to start your ecommerce business and build it into a growing, profitable enterprise. Furthermore, with many modern business-to-business directories and online marketplaces, finding wholesale suppliers, manufacturers and dropshippers is easier than ever. Therefore, with the help of a simple online store builder such as Shopify and an online supplier directory, you could have your new ecommerce business up and running within hours.

Want to learn more? Master the step-by-step process you can use to create your ecommerce business using the infographic below:

In spite of the fact that customer support is one of the most important things for any company to focus on, there are actually a lot of different companies out there that offer some truly terrible service in this department.

#1 Comcast

Comcast is one of the most popular cable providers out there but in spite of this fact they have terrible customer service. The problem here is that they just don’t care. They regularly miss appointments and drag on the customer support experience for most of their customers. They are able to do this because they have a monopoly but it has resulted in a very poor opinion of them overall in the market, and is going to certainly lead to some serious problems for them in the long run. Avoid being like Comcast at all costs!

#2 AT&T

The problem with this company is that their service is utterly terrible. The call quality is terrible, the data plans are terrible, and the 3G speeds are often throttled in order to make sure that customers do not end up using too much data. One of the most important aspects of customer support that you could possibly look into is making a product that is good in the first place, ensuring that the people that are using your services don’t have a reason to complain. AT&T does the exact opposite of that, creating a product that is very poor indeed and not caring what customers have to say about the experience they are going through.

#3 PayPal

This is a company that deals with people’s money, but the terrible thing is that they are often very laissez faire about the money that they hold. You could find your money suddenly disappearing because of the fact that the people you received it from filed a complaint, and in most cases PayPal is going to make it very difficult indeed for you to get that money back. What you can learn here is that you need to treat your customers like they are your responsibility, and you need to be open and transparent about how their complaints are being processed.

If you want to avoid ending up like one of these companies it is highly recommended that you get Kayako’s ticketing software. This can help you handle a lot more volume and drastically improve the quality of your customer support. At the end of the day, human CSRs are going to be quite limited in what they are able to accomplish. If you want them to succeed and if you want your customer support to become something that people will look at in a positive light, automation is the way to go, especially if you are automating in such a manner that the regular people that work for you and depend on you for their regular income don’t end up getting dealt a bad hand and have to go through financial hardships.

Often, construction companies and builders main focus in uniforms and clothing is functionality.  However, in an increasingly fashion-conscious world, looks can also be an important way to attract employees.

Employee Concerns

Clothes impact how people feel about themselves and their work.  A smarter dress sense can increase self-confidence and lead to better work results.

While dressing for success is typically reserved for the corporate world, this does not mean that those in more manual labour positions do not feel the effect of confidence and clothing.  A drab, dirty uniform can impact the employee and make them feel of less worth to the company or project.

Protection and safety are clearly top concerns, and always should be, but this does not mean that cleanliness and appearance have to be sacrificed.  Many companies offer fashionable and functional work outfits.

Keeping the body warm and employee visible are key components of dress when a construction worker is on the side of the road filling a pothole.  But, higher quality workwear can greatly influence employee’s psyche.  If they are provided with more comfortable and better-looking uniforms then they will feel more comfortable at work and derive more satisfaction from their job.

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Furthermore, a sharp crew can increase a business’s profile and attract new clients.  Professionalism is often undervalued in many manual labour industries, and outfitting employees with a professional style can put a business ahead of their competition.

This effect can be seen across businesses and perhaps on the largest scale in the sporting world.  Football clubs pump a massive amount of funding into uniform development as they are aware it impacts their bottom line.  A popular uniform can bring in new revenue and fans and increase their club’s global brand.

In the case of smaller businesses, the same principles apply but on a smaller scale.  A cleaner and more professional uniform can result in new clients and profit, so proper uniforms can be seen as an investment rather than purely an expense.

Image and brand considerations are even important for small business, and uniform choices can have a long-term impact on success.

Work fashion for the individual

Work clothing has seen a resurgence in popularity in both high and popular fashion.  More people can be seen sporting workman brands and dressing like a traditional manual labourer.

Clothing items such as overalls, work jackets, are now sported by a young and hip crowd.  This can be seen as a co-opting of labourer culture or in a brighter light, an appreciation for hard work and a strong work ethic.

Either way, it is clear this trend can is seeping into the fashion world, and both business and individuals can benefit from the new-found appreciation for work clothing.

Some businesses are marketing specifically toward individuals wearing this attire outside of the work context.  This type of clothing will focus less on functionality and look to appeal more to the fashion aspect of consumer culture.

Workmen will not be caught in the purely fashionable clothing, but work clothing brands will increasingly appeal to the individual, so it is important to make sure you buy the right type of clothing for your specific need.

Trading requires much thought and attention. But did you know that our brain processes wins and losses differently and responds strongly to certain situations? Powerful reactions take place within certain areas of the brain – so let’s find out more about what happens during an unsuccessful trading session.

Loss Aversion and Chemical Transmitters

In 1979, psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman developed the Prospect Theory to help explain how people react to risks and uncertainties. This behavioral economic theory was based on the principles of loss aversion, which states that human beings are generally risk-averse. Losses have a more significant psychological impact on us than gains. This is because reward centers in the brain get silenced when losses are expected and are activated when gains are on the horizon.

Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers of the brain. One neurotransmitter, nor-epinephrine, is critical in shaping our responses. People with low nor-epinephrine levels tend to be less sensitive to the pain of losing money. Similarly, those who have higher levels of these transmitters, show greater loss aversion. They are more sensitive to losses.

Interestingly, people who react strongly to gains in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex of the brain, pay more attention to monetary amounts. Those who have shown sensitivity to losses in the ventral striatum region, on the other hand, pay more attention to probabilities or risk processing.

Another theory suggests that losses may trigger more significant activity in the brain regions associated with registering emotions and decision makings, such as the insula and amygdala. These regions are also associated with pain processing. So, there is a biological justification for human beings being loss averse in general. After all, no one wants to lose money, or experience pain, for that matter.

The Brain – A Trader’s Friend or Foe?

The brain can be divided into two parts – the reflective system and the reflexive system. The reflexive part is associated with emotional responses, while the reflective part is analytical and logical. For traders, it is a constant struggle to strike a balance between these two systems. Being too analytical is also not helpful, given how quickly market conditions change.

It is also important to consider that our brain is a muscle. The more we use a particular brain pathway, by learning a trading strategy or using a specific indicator, the stronger it becomes. Strong neural pathways are great for constructive activities but can be a hindrance if you repeat a mistake again and again. So, if you continue to pick the top of an uptrend or get stuck in “overtrading” activities, your brain will not let you escape unless you make a conscious effort to do so and this can be challenging. As all seasoned traders know, adapting your strategy with the view of limiting your losses is an essential part of the trading process and should not be ignored.

By remaining aware of our responses to certain situations, we can not only identify patterns but can also work consciously on changing unhelpful responses.