Category: Business Blog

If standard procedure when a crisis occurs in your business is to tear your hair out and panic, it could be negatively affecting your company. In fact, knowing how to deal with a disaster in the right way can make the difference between success and failure in the business world. With this in mind, below you will find a short guide on how to deal with the most common business catastrophes.

You are understaffed.

Not having enough staff due to illness on a busy day can be a nightmare. That is why it is essential you nip the situation in the bud as soon as possible.

A tactic that you can use to help you solve this crisis is to use a payroll app that each employee can download. This app can then be used to disseminate information about shifts that need to be covered instantly, as well as any changes in the rota patterns that you have to make at the last minute. Something that can ensure you rarely have to deal with last-minute understaffing issues ever again.

There’s a crisis at your location.

I’m betting that your business location is the heart and soul of your company. It’s there you will find all your stock and equipment that lets you do what you do. Therefore, if something happened like a fire that means you no longer had access to this location it could quickly send things into chaos.

Luckily, you can prepare for this by using a workplace recovery provider. These are businesses that provide equipped office spaces in case the worst does happen. Spaces where you and your employees can get on with the day to day tasks of running the business, even though your location is not accessible. Check out sites like this to get more info on this type of service. Remember, planning for a crisis in advance can help minimise the effect it has on your company!

Your supply chain fails.

This is something that the UK arm of the fast-food chain KFC could tell you a little about! Yes, they are a chicken restaurant that ran out of the fowl above. Something that wasn’t too great for their sales or PR, although their marketing team did have an inventive way of getting the public back on side as you can see below.

However, it is always best to not get into such a situation in the first place and to do this it is vital that you pick a reliable supplier for all the essential items and resources your business needs to function.

It is also crucial that bills to these suppliers are paid on time, as late payments can cause delays that will have a knock-on effect on your business. Also, if you are considering changing suppliers as KFC did, do your research on the new company first, and check that they can come through on what they are offering you. Otherwise, you may end up with egg on your face (or is that chicken?) just like Colonel Sanders UK troops did!

As a business owner, the majority of your time is spent analyzing different facts and figures surrounding your company. There are so many different rates, margins, and stats that you have to contend with. Amongst all these things is your website conversion rate. This is a vital statistic that shows you how successful your website is at taking all your traffic, and getting them to do something.

A business can convert traffic in many different ways, it all depends on what your aims are. For companies that sell products online, you may want to get your traffic to make a purchase. Other businesses may just want their traffic to fill in an online form with their details, or download a copy of an ebook, etc.

Regardless of what you’re trying to make your traffic do, it’s so important that you have a high conversion rate. Otherwise, you’re just bringing in traffic and getting nothing in return. It makes all your efforts to improve web traffic completely pointless! Well, you’ll be pleased to know that improving your conversion rate can be very easy. At least, it’s easy if you follow the points in this guide and implement them right away!

Target The Right Keywords

The first thing you should do is look at the keywords your business website is targeting. Are you as specific as can be, or are you targeting more general keywords relating to your industry? This is important as the more defined and targeted your keywords are, the more relevant your traffic will be. Keywords are such a vital part of every SEO strategy so you might want to review which ones you’re using and try to focus on the most relevant ones for your business and target audience. As a quick example, imagine you run a business that makes and sells wedding cakes (random, I know, but it’s a good example to use!). Here, you might target keywords like ‘cake business’ ‘fresh cakes’ ‘wedding food’ and so on. In which case, you may attract traffic from people that aren’t necessarily looking for wedding cakes. They might just be looking for fresh cakes, click on your site, and leave because they don’t need a wedding cake. Instead, focus on keywords like ‘wedding cakes’ ‘wedding cake supplier’ ‘homemade wedding cakes’ and so on. This will draw in an audience more likely to be interested in your business, making conversion a lot easier.

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Create Dedicated Landing Pages

There are a couple of ways people will end up on your website. They may find you through organic search results, or they might click on one of your adverts and get taken to your site. It’s that second option we’re going to focus on in this point. It’s so crucial that you have a good conversion rate from any adverts you place online. Otherwise, you’re wasting a lot of money. The key is creating dedicated landing pages for people to visit when clicking an ad. They’ll get taken to a page that’s set up to help convince them to complete an action. For example, if you run an accounting company and your advert says ‘free guide to bookkeeping’ then you need a page setup that has a download link for the ebook. This means people click the advert because they’re interested in what’s offered, and they see it right away. It’s easy for them to download the ebook, and you’ll make a conversion. Compare this to if you just sent them to your homepage, it would result in a lower conversion rate. They’d have to find the link to the ebook you advertised, and would eventually give up and leave. So, landing pages are an absolute must!

Simplify Things As Much As Possible

If you make things too complex for consumers, then you’ll never convert them. Let’s say you want them to fill in a contact form, but you have endless details they need to add in, loads of boxes to check, and just too many fields for them to pay attention to. They’ll look at the form and think it looks more like an exam paper than a contact form! Consequently, they’re less likely to spend their time filling it in. On the other hand, if you make the form as simple as possible and include very few fields, then it immediately looks more appealing. They’ll see a small form that requires a couple of details, and think they may as well fill it in. You can apply this concept to a lot of other things too; just make life as simple as possible for your web traffic.

Make Them Feel Like They’re Missing Out

Let’s be real here, why would someone complete an action that doesn’t look as though it benefits them in any way? No one is going to buy a product or give you their contact information just for the fun of it. They need a genuine reason to do whatever it is you want them to do. Or else, they’ll just go about their day as normal. The secret is making them feel like they’re missing out. Make your traffic really feel as though they need that product, or they need to download your ebook, or they need to sign up to your mailing list. The easiest way to do this is by simply convincing them with the language you use. Clearly talk about how they’ll benefit from everything, and make them feel as though their life is worse without it. You could also use reviews and testimonials on the page to help with this too. By seeing how everyone else is raving about your business, it convinces consumers that they need to act fast to gain the same benefits.

Conversion rates are often underrated and hidden below the buzz surrounding web traffic. Every business seems intent on trying to get as much traffic as possible. But, what’s the point if you’re not converting anyone? A high conversion rate comes first, and then you’ll make the most out of your web traffic.

There is no getting away from the fact that even small business owners need to invest a percentage of their profits every year. That is the only way to guarantee your company continues to grow and expand at a suitable rate. However, knowing where and how to spend your money is sometimes confusing for those without lots of experience. With that in mind, and in the hope of setting the record straight, this article will point you in the right direction. You should have a much better understanding of your requirements after reading this post. Make sure you share it with any business owning friends or associates too.

Staff training

All entrepreneurs must understand the value of professional staff training. While you might not have to pay for courses for some of the unskilled people working for your company, all managers and team leaders would benefit. If the managers you employ all have ILM Award Level 3 qualifications, there is a decent chance they will come up with excellent ideas and help to improve your operation. You just need to search online for the best training providers in your home country and then get in touch with them to obtain some quotes. In many instances, your staff can complete their training courses online.

Marketing and advertising

Your company could supply the best products or services on the planet, but you will never make millions if people don’t know your brand exists. Considering that, it’s critical that you invest in marketing and promotion as much as possible every single year. We live in the digital age, and so there is no need to pay for TV and radio ads in most instances. Instead, you should pay some professionals to build an online presence for your business. You can then invest your budget in social media advertising and tools like Google Adwords.

Expanding into new markets

There will come a time when you need to expand to ensure your company continues to grow at a suitable rate. You should aim to develop slightly every single year, and that could mean many different things depending on the nature of your operation. Those who supply products might consider adding some new items to their list according to entrepreneurs like Richard Branson. Those offering services to other business owners might attempt to sell their assistance in new territories overseas. Just make sure you always conduct a lot of research and never rush into anything until you consult your legal team.

You now know about three essential investments that all small business owners will need to make this year. Of course, there are always other ways in which you might want to spend your profits. The information on this page is just here to make sure you don’t overlook any of the fundamentals. With that in mind, you just need to create a plan and work out how much you can afford to spend this year. There is only a month to go until you need to submit your tax return to HMRC, and so there is no time to waste.