Plan Your Way To Success

Starting a business without a plan is a lot like setting off on a long journey to an unknown place without any sort of guidance to your destination. You will need an awful lot of luck to get there safely. This is why it is crucial for any business to have a plan in place right from the start.

An important part of any plan is conducting thorough research. You should perform an analysis of the market that you plan on entering. This will give you a better understanding of whether or not you should actually be entering it in the first place. Find out whether your product or service will have any chance of succeeding in the marketplace and learn everything you can about the competition.

Try to make a list of everything that sets your product apart from the competition. This is important because it will allow you to develop a strategy for success. Your marketing efforts need to focus on what makes your product or service unique.

You need to estimate your costs as accurately as possible to avoid cash-flow problems. Doing this incorrectly is a common cause of business failure for many start-ups. If you require funding from an investor you will need to be able to show them realistic figures to convince them that investing in you is worthwhile.

Don’t forget to use your business plan to set clear objectives and remember to refer back to them in the future so that you can evaluate your success.

How we can help…

WinWeb’s passion for small business means we have tools and services in place to get your small business to where you want it to be.

Cash-flow Planning – This software enables you to accurately predict your small businesses income and expenditure.

SWOT Analysis Tool – By working out your small businesses Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats you can make sure you’re taking your business in the right direction.

For more information on how WinWeb.com can help you plan your way to small business success contact us today. Or why not sign up for a free trial?

Starting A Rural Business

If you are looking for a complete lifestyle change rather than just a change of career, you might want to consider starting a rural business. This is a completely different prospect to running an urban business and perhaps may even require more effort to be successful, but it is extremely rewarding.

Rural communities depend on a wide number of economic activities, even though these days they are more likely to have travel to an urban area to get their needs fulfilled. Most rural businesses are service based to some degree.

If you are moving away from the city to a rural area, try to determine whether there is a gap in the market for you to provide a service that local people require. Try to evaluate whether the potential market is actually big enough to support your business and allow you to make a living. If your business is in demand, customers will come from other nearby villages. Make sure that you focus on marketing in local papers and networking at village events.

If you don’t want to run a shop, consider opening a bed and breakfast or purchasing a property with land that you could rent out to campers. Market your B&B on the internet to attract holidaymakers. If you are interested in agriculture or just want a business that is 100% environmentally friendly, you might want to consider farming. You will become self-sufficient and hopefully earn enough to make a living.

Of course, you can run an internet based business from anywhere in the country; being a copywriter, web designer or bookkeeper no longer means being based in an office, within a city. You can live the rural dream and still advance your career.

How we can help…

WinWeb strive to help small business, so here are some suggestions of ways we can help you to start your business. Anywhere, any time.

Business Ideas - Want to set up your own business but no idea where to start? Look at this series of short videos from WinWeb.com for some inspiration.

Website & Domain – WinWeb can help you build a website, putting your business on the web and on the map, no matter where you are.

Cloud Computing – By storing your data remotely you can access it from anywhere in the world, with the peace of mind that security is our number one priority.

WinWeb Business Services – Need PR but miles from anywhere? Let us take care of it for you. Only pay for what you need, when you need it.

To find out more ways to start your business from anywhere contact us, or sign up for a free trial, today.

Tell The World About Your New Product

It can be frustrating launching a new product because it often feels like no-one is listening to you. You genuinely believe that you have invented something that there is a market for, but you simply cannot reach the people who would be interested in it. This is not a problem for a big company as they will simply hire a PR firm and throw money at them. Small businesses have to be a bit more creative when it comes to spreading the word.

Firstly, make sure your new product is completely ready before you start marketing it. Don’t promise things that you are unable to provide. If you still have glitches to work out, ensure they are sorted before you go to market.

It is worthwhile to pay for professional photos to use in your promotional material. You could probably take decent pictures by yourself, but an expert can make your product look spectacular. Print high quality business cards and brochures and remember to hand them out at every opportunity.

Pricing is an extremely important aspect of your promotion. You need to consult with distributors and manufacturers to get a completely accurate set of costs. Knowing costs will allow you to determine how much profit you will make. The sale price of your product will also be affected by what market you are targeting and whether or not it is a luxury item.

Get out of the office and start demonstrating your product to the local media. Local television and radio stations are often looking for content to fill up airtime. If your product is unusual or interesting they will likely be interested. Couple this with written press releases sent to local and national press.

How we can help….

WinWeb strive to help small businesses, so here are some suggestions of how we can help your small business make a big impression.

WinWeb WebBuilder – Increase your small businesses web presence with WinWeb

WinWeb Hosting – Our hosting service is secure and reliable, meaning you’re always there when your customers need you.

WinWeb Business Services – WinWeb offer PR & Marketing services on an ad-hoc basis, meaning you can get the publicity and marketing you want, just when you need it.

There should be nothing stopping your small business from having a show-stopping website. Contact us or sign up for a free trial, today.

Avoid Start-Up Failure

The high mortality rate of start-up businesses is something that we at WinWeb strive to help lower. Most business failures are due to relatively simple errors that occur through lack of experience. With this in mind, consider some of the following common mistakes that a rookie business owner can make.

Don’t become arrogant and start assuming that just because your business started off well it will continue to do so. You need to continue to work just hard as you did at the start. Also, don’t be held back in the mindset that your company is too small to compete with the big boys and will never grow any further, or this will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Be careful not to underestimate how much start-up capital you will require. The early days of your business are likely to be quite slow and you will need a lot of capital to fall back on. It is advisable to have around three times the amount of capital you expect to need. This will safeguard against miscalculation and economic slowdown.

Try to avoid cutting corners wherever possible, especially in terms of the technology that your business requires. It may seem cost effective to purchase cheap second-hand equipment but if it breaks or is unreliable it will affect your profitability.

The most important thing to remember is that your primary goal in business is always to be profitable. It is wonderful to be creative, but it is very easy to head off on a tangent and lose focus on your core business. Your ideas must be able to be monetised or else they are useless to your business.

WinWeb offers practical solutions that allow small business owners to focus on their business by making the back-office of the business run smoothly. Just visit our website for a free trial and see what a difference it can make to your small business.

Do You Have What It Takes To Be Your Own Boss?

If you are dreaming of quitting the rat race, or have recently been made redundant, it is likely that you have been considering starting your own business. However, running your own business is not an easy option – it will be extremely hard work and not something you should enter into lightly. With this in mind, here are a few important issues to consider.

You must first have a great idea that you can transform into a real business. Discuss your business proposal with close family so that you can receive advice and input from people that you trust. Research the market that you plan on entering and realistically evaluate whether or not your business would be a success.

Motivation is a key factor in making any business a success. You will have to work extremely long hours, especially in the early days of your business. The days of clocking off at 5PM and forgetting everything work-related will be a thing of the past. If you felt aggrieved because your last boss was too hard on you, unfortunately you will probably have to be even harder on yourself in order to make the business a success.

Keeping focussed on goals will be vital if you want achieve anything. You will need to be self-reliant and have enough strength of character to make really big decisions. The buck will always stop with you if anything goes wrong.

If you feel that you can rise to these challenges, starting a business is your logical next step. You will likely be more satisfied with working life than you have ever been previously. Pay a visit to the WinWeb website to find out how our software could be helpful in making your new business a success.

Expanding Into International Markets

Traditionally, small businesses have never had much global reach. The catchment area for most businesses usually only extended to a radius of a few miles travelling distance. The only exception to this was mail order firms, but even they rarely targeted customers abroad.

The advent of the Internet has changed things completely. Whereas before only large corporations with giant marketing budgets could reach international markets, now small businesses with a web presence are able to reach a global audience without having to spend much money at all.

However, many small businesses still do not even attempt to try and reach a global market. There are a couple of commonly cited reasons for this. The first is the widely held belief that a product simply will not catch on in another country. This is probably an incorrect assumption. If you have an innovative product enjoying big success in your home territory it is quite likely that you will also find a market for it overseas.

The other big barrier for any small businesses thinking about entering foreign markets is the belief that they will need some sort of fixed infrastructure in place to provide administrative support to each country they supply. This problem can be solved easily enough by using Virtual Assistants.

A Virtual Assistant is far cheaper than setting up an office overseas. They can operate as a kind of freelance secretary dealing with all the administrative issues in their home country. Common tasks that international Virtual Assistants are given include call answering and first level support in their native tongue.

For more information about WinWeb’s Virtual Assistants, take a look at our BusinessServices page and get in contact with us.

Dealing with Auditors

Even the most law-abiding business owners get nervous when the Inland Revenue decides to conduct an audit on them. It takes a lot of time to prepare for an audit and you will likely need to work closely with your accountant so it won’t be cheap.

Small businesses are around three times more likely to face an audit than an individual. However, there are certain steps you can take to make the auditing process run more smoothly.

Avoid doing anything that will raise a red flag to the taxman. If you have a home office, consider skipping the deductions. Businesses are often subject to scrutiny if they claim on home office maintenance or utilities, especially if they also have another office elsewhere.

This may seem obvious, but make sure that you keep all your personal and business expenses completely separate. Have a bank account and credit card specifically for your business activity.

Don’t file a messy, handwritten tax return or make numerical errors. This will draw more attention to your returns than is necessary. You should always avoid estimating expenses or income because it won’t match up if a customer or supplier claims the exact amount.

Of course, the most important thing you should always do is pay your tax bill on time! For online accounting software that will help you get more organised, visit the WinWeb website.

Can Women Really Have It All?

Last week saw the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, a day created to focus on the goal of equality for women. So, 100 years after International Women’s Day was founded, have we really reached that goal?

I am a woman in my mid-twenties, married and with three beautiful children. I have a job that I love, and feel blessed that I can work with the flexibility to allow me to be there for my children when they need me. In fact, I almost feel guilty.

For many this is an impossible dream.

Many women have talents and gifts that are hidden under a bushel the moment they have children. I look around at my friends, and despite the fact many of them had careers before they became mothers, the ones who have returned to work are in the minority. Why is this?

The demands on parents who work are substantial; children get ill, school hours are considerably shorter than office hours and there are always long school holidays to contend with.

Our children are precious and should be nurtured and loved by those caring for them. As a mother that is my most important job. But, I love to work and need to do so for my sanity! Should one come at the cost of the other?

Guilt is something mothers do very well though: guilt if we’re not there for our children, and guilt if we’re not performing as well at work as we should be.

I feel very fortunate that I have a job that allows me to fulfill both of my roles, without one adversely affecting the other. In my circle of friends I well and truly feel like I am the one that is having my cake and eating it, and feel guilty that my talented, experienced friends can’t find similar opportunities.

I work evenings, weekends and early mornings to enable me to be there for my children, and I know for certain that many women would do the same if only the flexibility were available to them. Unfortunately, it isn’t, and for now their talents are lost.

So, can women really have it all? I have, but the same guilt that fills me with that extra large slice of chocolate cake comes when I talk to my friends about the job that I love.

Exhibit Your Product At A Trade Show

Trade shows are an excellent way of gaining more exposure for your product or business idea. However, they can also be quite a daunting prospect for anybody who has never previously exhibited, so here are a few tips to help you make the most of it.

Make sure that your booth has a high level of visual impact to catch the eye of anyone who passes by. It may sound obvious, but remember to smile! This is easy to forget if you are nervous.

You should be able to pitch your product or business within thirty seconds to people who ask about it. It is important to rehearse this before the date of the show, but don’t be afraid to stray from the script if the people you are talking to have specific needs. Your speech should describe all the features and benefits of your product.

Try to gain feedback from the people that you talk to at the show. If a lot of people throughout the day are all raising the same concerns or suggestions then it is probably something you should think seriously about when you get home.

Take business cards and contact details from everyone you can. Follow up with these people after the show by sending them a personalised ‘thank you’ for their interest, alongside a brochure for your product.

Ultimately, remember that the trade show is not just about you and your idea. They are a perfect opportunity for you to do some networking and learning.

The Sky Is The Limit For A Mumtrepreneur

A report this week from the World Economic Forum (WEF) suggests that women are still being underutilised in the workplace in many countries around the world. The main problem that women face is being unable to break through into senior management roles or onto the board.

Worldwide, the US has the highest number of female employees (52%) while India has the lowest with just 23%. The Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently spoke about the problem in the United Kingdom and called for more female role models in business. He also stated that the small amount of female board members in top companies was unacceptable, especially as now more than half of all graduates are women.

Many of these talented women who feel they have climbed as far as they can up the corporate ladder and are now getting frustrated should go it alone and start their own business. The number of female entrepreneurs starting their own businesses is currently growing at a faster rate than their male counterparts.

The biggest growth area is from mothers starting a business whilst also looking after their children at home. These individuals are often referred to as ‘Mumtrepreneurs’ in the media. Today’s technology has made it possible for women to achieve a better work / life balance and give a high level of care to their children without sacrificing their career.

In today’s technological society, do you think women really can have it all? Let us know what you think by sending us a tweet, @WinWeb.

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