Top Five Business Improvement Tips

Goal setting is the most important factor in business because it holds you accountable. It also serves to remind you of why you’re in business. If you don’t have objectives, then why even bother? Another important function of goal setting is that it allows you to narrow down what you have to do within a certain period of time so you can create abundance.

For Example: I have to sell 5 books each business day to reach my goal of selling 25 books in 5 business days. That’s a simple and clear goal that is achievable.

Setting goals allows you to establish a specific, measurable, and achievable objectives that you are capable of doing. You can easily sell 5 books per day … no sweat! If you should sell 30 or 40 books in one week, how does that make you feel? You’ve pushed yourself farther and accomplished much more than you planned and this builds your inner confidence level and helps create abundance.

If you’re just starting out, then consider these 5 tips:

Work temporarily for a business that is similar to yours. Don’t be afraid to do the dirty jobs. Learn all you can at every level.

Find a mentor or coach. Look around your community and see if there’s someone successful in sales who would be willing to coach you.

Hire an assistant who can do many of the menial or repetitive tasks.

Enroll in a business class. Every larger town has a community college where you can find various classes that can help you improve your sales skills.

Take advantage of courses online. Watch for seminars in your area that feature well-known experts in the field. This can also give you an excellent opportunity for networking.

The book, Create Abundance by Zhang Xinyue offers wisdom for relaxing and enjoying your business and your personal life. Learning to meditate and let go of worries is so beneficial.

How Competitive Gaming Has Become an International Sensation

Summary: Competitive gaming has gone from a hobby people would partake in on the weekends to a lucrative profession over the past decade.

For a long time video games were considered a hobby or something you could play to pass the time. Video games have been developed for a number of systems, such as your desktop at home, the console you have plugged into your television, and even the cellphone you take everywhere with you.

Over the years the video game industry has erupted into a major form of entertainment, with plenty of new releases coming out each month. While the industry has grown, so has the competitive scene. What was once only considered a hobby is now a legitimate form of making money for several people around the world.

Technological Advancements

Multiplayer games have been around for a long time but having the ability to play with others online has come a long way over the past decade, In the past, if you wanted to play games with others you had to meet up with them in-person to set everything up. Now, for most multiplayer games, all you need is a solid internet connection. In an online match you could be grouped up with someone down the street and someone on the other side of the world. This kind of gameplay has only become more seamless over the years, with some games even allowing cross-platform play.

Global Reach

The internet has made it much easier for people to get in touch with others who have similar interests. Even though competitive gaming had previously been regarded as a somewhat niche hobby, social media and streaming services have made it incredibly easy for communities to come together. You can easily learn more about a particular game and follow a competition.

How Command Centers Promote Transparency

Summary: Command center workstations give users easier access to critical information, promoting transparency both in and out of the office.

 

Control centers are complex environments with many moving parts working at any given time. These systems are designed to streamline business operations and help companies work more efficiently with the information they create and receive.

 

Command center workstations can help businesses in different industries work quicker and make better decisions to help their companies grow. One of the side effects of implementing command centers into a work environment is that it can ultimately promote more transparency.

 

Informed Employees

 

Since these workstations are designed with the intent of giving its users easier access to information and displaying data in ways that make sense, it should come as no surprise that they have the power to inform employees and keep them in-the-loop. Operations center desks can display critical internal information regarding the actual company, from sales to units produced for the quarter. Additionally, workers at these desks can pull up external information that might be relevant to people in different divisions, such as current events and data on competitors.

 

Information that would have otherwise been time-consuming to access can be readily available to your employees at all times if you set up an integrated system into your workflow.

 

Keeping Viewers In-The-Loop

 

While primarily designed to enhance the flow of information to employees, command center environments can also help viewers out. If you are running a sports broadcast, for example, companies like ConstantTech.com can help workstation operators gain access to the different camera feeds running. Being able to show the different angles of a play when a foul gets called could help both referees and players understand what is going on.

Driving Video Wall Solutions that Pinpoint Your Customer’s Needs

 

Summary: Understanding what your customer’s objectives are can help you choose what’s appropriate for their command center.

If you’re looking to recommend the appropriate video conferencing requirements, it’s all about paying attention the customer’s overall objectives. Now, there several ways that you can approach video conferencing and the only wrong way that you can go about doing this is to neglect the customer’s needs. Here is some basic knowledge that you should know so you can make the right video conferencing recommendations.

Understand Your Customer’s Objectives

How does your customer plan to use their video conferencing? How are they establishing the baseline for system requirements? Ask the customer this prior to breaking down the project as it’ll help you understand the scope of the project that you’re being tasked with.

Once you understand their objective, what their budget is, and what type of command center they are working with, you can begin recommending solutions that you believe will work for them. Don’t recommend a system that is small or too big to justify the costs – be sure that you provide a solution that’s functional and affordable for the customer or you’re likely to just push them towards another company.

Figure Out the Right Hardware and Software

Now that the fundamentals are out of the way, you can now begin to define the specific requirements and design a system that’s scaled to suit your customer’s requirements. Select the appropriate display or digital signage system and collaboration software that aligns with the company’s goals. It’s essentially like putting the pieces together after finalizing the blueprints.

 

Four essential shopping cart features

Written by Secure Net Shop

There are hundreds of options when it comes choosing a shopping cart solution. There are free options, paid, subscription based, and even hosted offerings. There is also a lot of fine print to look at regarding features. Choosing an internet shopping cart is not something that you should treat lightly. Here are four essential features that should be a part of any shopping cart:

Images

A good product image is one of the primary drivers for customers to make a purchase. Product images are a standard feature for any shopping cart. However, there are other extensions to product images that make a sale much more likely. These are options like adding VR images, image zoom, and videos.

Reviews

Nothing sells products better than a recommendation from another customer. Often, people see these reviews as a recommendation, even if the review itself does not encourage others to buy. The feature does not need to be built-in but should provide support for at least third-party review platforms.

Navigation

A shopping cart should have the facility for a layered navigation system that is independent of the product category. The navigation itself should be dynamic and generated according to the attributes of the products within that category.

Fast checkout

“Just like the supermarket, online shoppers are looking for the shortest line” is an important statement to remember when establishing checkout workflow for a shopping cart. The script should support both a login based checkout as well as a single click checkout for convenience.

_____________________________________________________

Sell goods or services from your website with a website shopping cart from Secure Net Shop.

Two tips for dealing with shopping cart abandonment at checkout

2Written by Secure Net Shop

Do you have shoppers visit your site, spend time picking items and then leave before they checkout?

If you are, you are not alone. This behavior is called online shopping cart abandonment. This is a common issue for ecommerce sites and can happen due to a variety of issues. Usually the issue is present at the point of abandonment. In the case of the checkout page, it can boil down to two basic issues that can be fixed quite easily:

Full shopping cart

Most shopping cart systems default to an abbreviated view of the shopping cart at checkout. You see the options to proceed without the checkout and an order summary but not much else. This issue is caused by users not completely certain of the details of the items they are ordering and a short summary is not sufficient. When the only course of action is to exit checkout, then they just close to the tab and go somewhere else. Fix this by showing a full shopping cart at checkout.

Full product details

Another point in relation to the above. Along with the full summary should be all the relevant details. Let’s use online clothes shopping. The checkout should the full list along with each specific option prominently. The options could be color, size, fit etc. In addition the quantity of each should be shown right next to the item. In addition the product images are essential, so the images should be high quality, clear and ideally represent the color chosen.

_____________________________________________________________________

Sell goods or services from your website with a web shopping cart from Secure Net Shop

Why Mobile Video Ads Will Prove Effective in 2015

Ads compete with many distractions in order to get a user’s attention. Banner ads, for instance, compete with content. Radio ads compete with the ability to change stations, and television ads compete against the ability to fast forward. Only our smartphones manage to captivate our attention for any significant length of time, and that makes the mobile video ads an important part of the landscape in 2015 and beyond.

Hard Stats

It is common knowledge that smartphone adoption is up, but video consumption on these devices grew a staggering 400 percent during the latter part of 2014. That’s a significant chunk of all hours spent viewing videos online. It’s had such a significant impact that it’s triggered a debate over how to manage all of this traffic within the marketing community, and a debate over faster connection speeds at the government level.

A large portion of the videos seen are ads. Most of them are short, which explains the volume, but they must still have strong messaging to be successful.

Making Video Ads Effective

In order to make a video ad effective, you have to employ some of the same tactics TV shows and movies use themselves. Namely, make the ad hook the viewer in within the first few seconds. Keep your messaging simple and the video brief until you’ve developed a solid understanding of what your audience responds to.

Mobile video ads do have the built-in advantage of holding the user’s attention. Consider how we use mobile: while in transit or waiting in line. During times when we are seeking distraction. Use that time wisely and your engagement and conversion rates might see a bump in performance.

Bio: Ted Dhanik is the co-founder and CEO of engage:BDR. Ted Dhanik is passionate about digital advertising, and has been in the business since the early 2000s. If you want to buy targeted traffic to build your business, talk with Ted Dhanik and the team at engage:BDR.

What You Need to Know About Cameyo

A company known as Cameyo has created software where one can run programs not only from a USB stick but also in a browser as well.

There are a number of open source programs that are offered but one can also upload EXE files to the Cameyo account so as to run these programs that you might need wherever you are.

Of course, there are issues that come with using Cameyo because some programs tend to run slow while others will not work at all.

So, what should you do at first?

Sign for a Cameyo account and then link your DropBox account to it. After you do this, you can access the files that are located in the folder with the path: \Apps\Cameyo\Desktop. It must be said that any files that you create will also be saved at this location as well.

Starting a program is really simple. You can click on any of the programs that should display a ‘Play’ button and use it just like you would on any Windows system.

Of course, it goes without saying that when you are navigating through the file system, you will not be able to access any local files on your system.

As for the programs that are available for casual users, Audacity, 7Zip and Irfanview can be used for audio editing, file compression and video editing tasks.

That said, it wouldn’t be much of an everyday solution but Cameyo does come in handy if you are away from your computer.

Boost Your Mobile Advertising

Mobile saturation has finally reached a point where more companies are devoting significant resources to marketing on mobile devices. These ads still offer the same rich experience for the user, but they are tailored to fit smaller screens and devices without being obtrusive. Even though mobile marketing is a new field, these tips will help give your first campaigns a small boost.

About Mobile Users

Mobile users are usually on the go, and are often taking to the Web to find something they need. This might be the location of a store, a price check or a query about whether the item they want is even in stock. Mobile ads tend to do best when they satisfy a need for the user immediately.

Calls to Action

Once you understand more about why the user is surfing in the first place, you can tailor a call that moves them toward some action. Phrases like “Order Now” or “Play Today” bring home that sense of immediacy, and they tell the user what she is about to do. This is far more specific than the generic “Click Here” of yesteryear.

Also, design your button to be easy for someone to push. Even though they are clicking on the entire ad, the button gives them something visual to connect with.

Messaging

Mobile is notorious for being very limited on space. Mobile ads tend to function best when the copy and the call to action are as succinct as possible, so this is a great opportunity for marketers who have a flair for one-liners.

Bio: Ted Dhanik is the co-founder of engage:BDR, a digital advertising company based out of Los Angeles. Ted Dhanik sells engaging advertising and grows businesses online. To get started with engage:BDR, contact Ted Dhanik.

Improving Productivity In The Workplace Through Software

Written by Allied Time

Technology when used at work, contributes to boosting the efficiency of organizations and allow their employees to remain focused on value adding activities. Several productivity software target businesses particularly and provide these organizations with the adequate tool to perform their day-to-day tasks effectively. Through the automation of certain processes, communication is also enhanced.

Virtual Team Connections

Teams now perform well even at a distance. This is because they are connected via web portals, apps and software. These allow teams to share feedbacks and projects across different functions and branches. The quick sharing and access of information facilitates problem-solving and team working. People are able to show collaboration and partake their experiences and knowledge while being comfortably seated at their desks, and sometimes without even having to speak through the phone. All this is achieved through remote desktop sharing and email software.

Open and Communicative Environment

Software that are specifically designed to be used in the workplace aim mainly to break communication barriers. Even though email is a powerful tool, they tend to be more private and rarely constitute of a sharing tool. Collaborative tools are more appropriate for knowledge-sharing across multiple cross-functional teams, departments and branches.

Motivate Employees

Online time clock systems are used to monitor the attendance and working hours of employees. This data serves in the construction of effective reward systems. Some fingerprint time clocks allow people to consult their data online. This would help employees in knowing how they could improve performance and attendance rates.

Allied Time has operated since 1967. The company’s main line of products include employee time clocks and biometric systems.