Startup Grind Lansing
Guest Post: 4 Services to Outsource While Building a Small Business
When launching a small business, it feels great when you have more work than you can keep up with because it means that your business is flourishing. Increased workload should not prompt you to have more employees. It makes more economic sense to outsource some of your company services. Outsourcing also takes off pressure from your internal team. Consider outsourcing these four tasks so that you can free your time for the core objectives.
Finance/accounting
Research by the American Psychological Association concludes that multitasking or attempting to manage several projects at once leads to a 40 percent decrease in productivity. The chances are that your projects will take longer to complete, and you might be under high-stress levels. Juggling is merely an illusion because the balls are thrown independently and caught independently. With such a high likelihood of error, it is not advisable to handle your finances. Allow an independent team to handle the bookkeeping. You also get to learn from the bookkeeping experts you hire.
Customer Service
When running a small enterprise, hiring trained customer service personnel is not always a feasible option. It means that the staff members have to manage this function by dividing their time between keeping the old customers happy and trying to get new ones. Consider outsourcing customer service to a contact center.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is one of the modern marketing methods that small businesses should embrace. The content should be easy to digest and not sound promotional. Its objective is to generate leads that later convert into sales. Rather than using your time to produce content or hiring a marketing team to handle it, you should consider outsourcing. You can also hire a design agency to create a website that fits the material perfectly.
Administrative Roles
It is easy to get overwhelmed by the dozens of small tasks that take up your time every day. As a business owner, your primary objective should be to expand your venture. If you don’t have time to focus on the core duties, the company may not succeed. By hiring a virtual assistant, you will save money because you pay only for the hours that the expert handles the tasks.
There is so much work you can outsource. All you have to do is to survey your team and process the work you should do regularly. Consider outsourcing tasks outside your team’s competencies. The cost difference between having an in-house team and outsourcing will also help you decide.
Emma Sturgis
Emma is a freelance writer based out of Boston, MA. She writes most often on health and education. When not writing, she enjoys reading and watching film noir. Say hi on Twitter @EmmaSturgis2
New Video: Men Making a Difference – Family Community Cookout
Men Making a Difference was our #GivingTuesday winner for 2017. More importantly, they are an organization aiming to encourage volunteer work, family activities and fatherhood.
Every year, they hold a family cookout for the community on the third Saturday of July. This year, they are holding the event on July 20th, 2019.
For more on Men Making a Difference and their event: https://www.mmad.us
#BetterCallPaul – June 2019 Recap
ICYMI – We launched 4 new videos in the month of June. We took a look into The Arts Council of Greater Lansing, Child and Family Charities, The Arbor Inn Assisted Living Community, and Helping Women Period.
Check out our main channel to watch all of these and more: https://bit.ly/2I6AGWr
Guest Blog: Infographic: Common SEO Mistakes You Need To Rectify Now
When it comes to running a successful online business, investing in internet marketing techniques is important. This includes social media, SEO, video marketing, SEM among others. However, among these, one technique that can help to improve your site’s traffic and ranking considerably is search engine optimization (SEO). It can help improve your brand’s visibility online and drive targeted traffic to your site. It can also help improve your ROI. More importantly, it can help improve user experience, thereby effectively reducing the bounce rate on your site.
Implementing the best SEO practices on your website is important if you want to drive greater conversions. But, SEO can be challenging and as a newbie, you would require a lot of time to fully grasps the many factors it involves. The two main categories that SEO is divided into is on-page and off-page. They both include a number of factors that can help improve your site’s performance.
However, these factors are constantly evolving as per the latest Google updates and algorithm changes. If you miss out on these, you are bound to make silly SEO mistakes that could hurt your siteÃs ranking as well as traffic. Thus, to steer clear from this, here is an infographic that has listed the common SEO mistakes website owners make, which needs to be rectified now.
The below infographic comprises 25+ common SEO mistakes. This includes both on-page as well as off-page SEO mistakes. By rectifying them, you’d be able to improve your ranking on the search result. It would also help increase website traffic and conversion. Thus, do check out the infographic to know what these mistakes are. And, take a look at this guide for more information on how to rectify these SEO mistakes.
Sudhir Bhushan is a Tech & Social enthusiast. He is also a Web Entrepreneur by profession and loves to write about the latest trends on Social Media & SEO.
New Video: Helping Women Period. – Magin’s Story
Magin fell on hard times and found it hard to support his family, especially during his wife and daughter’s monthly menstrual cycles. Luckily, Helping Women Period. have been able to help him get the sanitary products he needs for the women in his life.
Helping Women Period. helps low income and homeless women by giving them the sanitary products they need for free.
For more on Helping Women Period: https://www.helpingwomenperiod.org
#BetterCallPaul – MEET THE INTERN: Kat’s Intro
Meet Kat, one out of two interns who will be with us Summer 2019. Kat Mendez is a video production intern here at Uno Deuce Multimedia. She hopes to expand on her current knowledge of video production and become a jack of all trades.
Guest Blog: Starting Off Right: What You Need to Begin Your Small Business
Starting a small business is typically a challenging undertaking. It will require a lot of research, dedication, and diligence. However, it can certainly pay off in the long run because you will be able to work for yourself and achieve your career goals. If you are successful enough, you may also be able to employ others, which is rewarding in itself because you will know that you are providing someone with the opportunity to earn a living in a difficult economy. The following information will provide a closer look at what you will need to do in order to successfully run your company and start things off right:
Determine What Type of Business You Want to Be
One of the first and most important steps is determining what type of business you want to operate. The most common types are LLC, sole proprietorship, partnership, and corporation. This will affect your taxes as well as your personal assets. For example, if you operate as an LLC, your personal assets will be protected from debts and claims.
Raise Enough Capital
Typically, opening a business can be rather costly. You will likely need to pay for things like insurance, equipment, supplies, staffing, and stock. Therefore, you will want to make sure that you start saving money ahead of time or that you have investors who are able to help you cover some of the costs. Finding investors can be tricky but you might want to look into crowdfunding, investor networks, and sometimes your friends or family might even be interested in helping you to get started.
Utilize Professional Services
Since opening a business can often be overwhelming, it can be beneficial to reach out to professionals for assistance. For example, business transaction law services can be helpful because they can assist you with resolving disputes, commercial transactions, and contract management.Â
Find a Suitable Location
In order to choose the right location, there are many factors you will need to consider. For example, you will want to research your demographic in order to find a location that best serves your targeted audience. You will also need to research crime rates in each prospective area as well as find a region that is affordable and within your budget.
Overall, starting a new small business will require a lot of planning ahead. It can be difficult to know where to start. So, doing your research or reaching out to a professional can be incredibly beneficial. All of your hard work will eventually be worth it once you are able to work for yourself because you can guide your company towards success and know that you did it on your own.
Lizzie Weakley is a freelance writer from Columbus, Ohio. In her free time, she enjoys the outdoors and walks in the park with her three-year-old husky, Snowball.Â
New Video: The Arbor Inn – Assisted Living for Seniors
The Arbor Inn is a family owned and operated assisted living home community. At the Arbor Inn, they strive to provide seniors with security, fun activities, a close-knit community and growth. Here, your independence is preserved and you can pursue your interests if you so choose.
For more on The Arbor Inn: https://www.thearborinn.net
#BetterCallPaul – MEET THE INTERN: Will’s Intro
Meet Will, one out of two interns who will be with us Summer 2019. Will Jones, an aspiring video editor, is a video production intern at Uno Deuce Multimedia. He hopes to challenge himself in his time here, by applying his knowledge to the real world.