7 Ways To Make Money From Your Home

 7 Ways To Make Money From Your Home

Are you looking for ways you can generate an income from your property or land you own? Your land can be an untapped revenue source, providing you adobe by local and federal laws pertaining to your property. Finding different ways to make money to help you cover the bills and top up your income can open your eyes to the possibilities for your property.

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How to Succeed as a Modern-Day Entrepreneur

How to Succeed as a Modern-Day Entrepreneur

Do you often envision yourself sitting pretty at the pinnacle of your career ladder? If you want to scale these heights and succeed in your entrepreneurial endeavor, it’s crucial that you put all of the advice laid out below into practice.

Here are three things you must do to succeed as a modern-day entrepreneur:

Know your audience

Skill, talent, and hard work will only get you so far in the world of entrepreneurialism. If you truly want to succeed as an entrepreneur, you also need to know your audience. These are the people that are going to be putting money into your pockets for years to come, which is why you need to garner a deep understanding of them. 

User research will help you do just that. Once you align yourself with an agency like Angelfish Fieldwork, you will find it easier to set up focus groups for market research. In turn, this will help you to perform in-depth qualitative research and, ultimately, get a better idea about who your ideal customers are, where they live, how much they earn, and the services/products that they like to purchase. The result? You will know everything there is to know about your target audience, and, crucially, you will have the capacity to tailor your marketing campaigns around their exact specifications.

Trust yourself

If you don’t trust yourself, who will? Once you wholeheartedly believe in your ability to solve problems for your target consumer base, your confidence as an entrepreneur will grow. This will then help you to provide a more well-rounded service to your customers, which in turn will aid you in your bid to forge an authoritative reputation for yourself in your field.

Does the trust that you have in yourself and your abilities currently leave a lot to be desired? If so, be sure to put the following advice into practice. Here are three tips for learning how to trust yourself in the world of entrepreneurialism:

•   Practice mindfulness on a daily basis, as this will help you to become more self-aware

•   Stop overthinking simple situations — you will be strong enough to cope with every hurdle that you encounter, so there really is no need for you to worry

•   Regularly take some time to think about how far you have already come in your career

Be tough

No matter which pieces of the above advice you choose to put into practice, all of your hard work will amount to nothing if you aren’t tough. No, this doesn’t mean that you should attempt to climb your chosen career ladder in a rude or hostile manner. It simply means that you need to persevere in your attempt to achieve your goal, no matter how many challenges you face along the way.

If you want to become a tough and gritty modern-day entrepreneur, you must:

•   Be courageous whenever you are faced with new opportunities

•   Take lessons from each failure that you incur

•   Exercise a lot of patience

•   Handle setbacks in a resilient manner

•   Have passion for everything that you do

•   Practice proactiveness

Product Designer: Manufacturing Tools That Can Fit Inside Your Home

There have never been more options available to those who want to make products from their own home. Technology has reached an exciting point, enabling normal people to make things for themselves without having to craft them entirely by hand. Not only does this save a lot of time, but it also makes it possible for you to create things far more impressive than you would be able to do on your own. But what exactly should you be looking at when you’re choosing the machines you’ll be using to help you?

3D Printers

3D printers have come a very long way over the last decade or so, with loads of models hitting the market at very low prices. Options like the Monoprice Select Mini V2 is shockingly affordable for the quality of prints it can produce, and this is making this hobby more and more accessible. You will probably need to spend a little more to get something that will be able to print at a high enough quality to sell, but this still doesn’t cost anywhere near as much as it used to. 3D printers are most commonly used with thermoplastics like PLA and ABS, though the high-end market is starting to bring materials like aluminum into the picture.

Waterjet/Laser Cutters

While waterjet and laser cutters are quite different machines, they are capable of the same type of production process. They cut flat materials along 2 axes, limiting them a little compared to a 3D printer’s capabilities. Both laser and waterjet cutters are able to cut through a range of materials, from wood and acrylic to tough metals like stainless steel. These machines are great when you are trying to make products that have flat sides, as you can easily make a 2D net that can be assembled from the pieces you print. These machines are harder to look after than a 3D printer, and you will need to make sure that you have the right ventilation and safety measures in place to use them properly.

CNC Machines

CNC machines come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes, though the concept is quite similar to a 3D printer. Ahead is moved forwards and backward, left and right, and up and down using a series of extremely precise motors. Rather than having a plastic extruder on the end of it, though, they will have a spinning head similar to what you’d find on a Dremel. This enables you to machine materials like plastic, wood, and even soft metals, opening the doors to loads of different product design options. Product design services can often turn things that you’ve made on your CNC machine into a much more refined product.

With all of this in mind, you should be feeling ready to take on the challenge of building a mini-factory within your own home. This can be a great way to start a business, while also offering a fun hobby that can be enjoyed from the comfort of your desk.

Why Your Business Needs a Help Desk

business helpdesk

Even the most tech-savvy businesses have departments that need help with their electronics occasionally. This is where having a help desk is extremely important. Having one for your employees to access can improve your daily operations in many ways. 

What Is a Help Desk?

If you are not familiar, you might not know what a help desk does exactly. By definition, a help desk helps you, your employees, and sometimes your customers deal with issues that might arise with products, services, or technology. Helpdesk User allows a tech to access information specific to your industry, software, and computer systems, and any other products you sell or services you offer. The tech can then answer any questions that are asked or fix any problems that arise. 

Using One Makes Your Business More Efficient

Using a help desk makes your workers and your processes more efficient. Instead of an employee or customer having to search for someone to help them, they fill out a form, write an email or make a phone call to your help desk, and the problem is rapidly solved or escalated.

It Inspires Better Communication

Better communication makes happier customers. Customers feel better when they can communicate with a knowledgeable person through a help desk support system. When customers feel like they are getting the attention they need, they are more satisfied with your service. This communication works the same way with your employees. If your employees can get problems resolved quickly, they are happier as well.

Using a Help Desk Lets You Track Problems

A help desk can record and track customer complaints, product failure, and other issues. This tracking provides vital data for your quality control team. You can view any issues that your products or services are having with accuracy. The information that the help desk can give you allows you to fix problems sometimes before they start to damage your business or business reputation. This can help stop problems from reoccurring.

Allows You to Prioritize

A good help desk can prioritize problems. Similar to hospital triage, some problems are more pressing than others. You can prioritize each problem to keep all of your customers happy. If a whole system is down, you can dispatch workers to the area before resolving a simple question about your products or services. 

Increases Sales Performance 

The information gleaned from the help desk records can help your agents sell your products or services better. They can minimize issues and maximize benefits simply by using the data. It can also help your agents solve problems on their own. Over time, they will gradually learn the answers to common questions and issues, making your job easier and your customers happier.

Offers Remote Support

Your help desk does not necessarily need to be on-site. There are plenty of remote services available to help a smaller company provide the same support as a larger company. This evens the playing field a bit. There are help desk services that provide support for several companies at once. This allows you to receive the benefits of a help desk at a lower cost.

Multiple Points of Contact Available

With a help desk, customers and employees have more ways to contact you. They are not just left with a phone number; they can also email, message, or live chat. The customer can choose the contact method that best suits their needs.

Help desks can help large and small businesses alike. Although not every help desk service will work with every business, there is a wide variety of options available for you to choose from. Evaluate them based on your needs and choose the one that works best for your business or industry.

3 Ways To Know if You Are Ready To Start a Business

3 Ways To Know if You Are Ready To Start a Business

You are ready to strike out on your own and work for yourself. Starting a business brings the freedom to set your own hours and reap all of the rewards of your work like Declan Kelly has done. Here is how you can determine if you are prepared to start a business.

1. You Are Devoted to Your Concept

You may be tempted to choose a business based solely on how much money you might make. However, to be successful like founder Declan Kelly, you need to be enthusiastic about your business. You need to prepare to present your business plan to people who can provide you with funding. If you are passionate about your business, it will show. This will make it easier for others to believe in it, too.

2. You Know How To Make a Business Plan

No entrepreneur can flourish without a business plan. There are many templates online that you can use. The U.S. Small Business Administration can help you write a plan as well. You will use your business plan to explain what your business is, why it will thrive, and who will buy your service or product. A good business plan also includes an estimate of how much money you will need to launch your company, with a detailed description of how you calculated that estimate. 

3. You Are Ready to Take Risks

You probably understand that many small businesses fail or take years to become profitable. This can make some entrepreneurs too anxious to start a business. However, you will never know if you do not try. If you are willing to work hard and you are prepared for inevitable setbacks, you have the right frame of mind to start a business. All entrepreneurs will encounter rejection, whether from potential customers or investors. You cannot take this personally. Instead, put it behind you and employ creative problem-solving. 

How To Align Your Brand With A Social Cause

How to align your brand with a social cause

Marketing is a fickle beast. It can hurt as much as it can help, and so it must be tamed, and we must be prepared before unleashing it. That being said, there are many opportunities that we can make use of, which were not afforded to marketers of the past. With a smartphone in everyone’s pocket, all of a sudden we have the chance to reach so many more people without an increase in fees.

That being said, sometimes it can be a good idea to read the moment and understand how to improve based on that. This is why many brands seek to inject themselves into social movements. For instance, brands are now releasing their own branded face masks for those looking to stay safe from the spread of the novel coronavirus. Some companies decide to print and publish pride-celebratory merchandise for pride month. That being said, there’s a fine line between making use of a moment, and exploiting a moment in bad taste. Hitting that balance just right can be very difficult, but can really help in the right context.

Here are a few insights in order to help you with this goal:

Consider Your Delivery

It’s important to consider who is delivering this message. It can often be the case that your business isn’t well known, or requires further outreach, or is simply unsuited to push this marketing choice from a presentation perspective. This is why using influencer marketing with some of the best names out there, through services such as unrulyagency.com, can help you both connect with your audience, and furthermore, with the message you hope to convey.

Consider The Moment

It’s also important to consider the moment and what it means. Should you position yourself to take part in this? Is there anything you can do to help? For instance, it could be easy for a firm to take social unrest and try to make grand statements about that, but as a corporation, it is hard to really align yourself in the same wavelength. However, might it be you have something to contribute? It could be a service or something in your product line that could be there to help. Even if that means simple measures, such as printing COVID-related safety advice on your packaging - relevance is absolutely key.

Contributions & Risk

It’s important to consider what you have to contribute to this space. This is because you’ll often be walking into hot water, and alienating those who are not on board. For instance, you may have seen firms being vocal on Twitter recently, and actively disparaging those who reply with counterpoints. That’s never a good look, no matter if you ‘win,’ you’ll never really win. Keep hold of your need to be a savior. You can contribute, while also knowing where you stand as a business. This can help you remove some of the odiousness from tasteless marketing, and instead, you’ll fall into more intelligent alternatives.

With this advice, we hope you can more easily align your brand with a social cause.

Bottlenecks In Business: What Are They And How Can You Beat Them?

Bottlenecks in Business

Work is often a series of multi-stage processes. Sometimes a certain stage in the process may take longer or may encounter more problems than others. This can cause a queue behind it resulting in a ‘bottleneck’.

Bottlenecks can affect the entire workflow, often resulting in a stall in production. As the work queues up, it can become a frantic race to catch up and meet deadlines, causing work to get rushed. By getting rid of this bottleneck, you can help to maintain a manageable flow and ensure that work is done in a timely manner. Here are just several ways in which you can beat the bottleneck.

Bring in extra staff

Those dealing with the bottleneck may require a helping hand in order to keep on top of the demand. Consider whether you need to hire extra staff for this stage of the process if bottlenecks are frequent, or whether you can redistribute certain staff members when required.

Improve your tools

You may be able to improve your tools in order to speed up production during the bottleneck stage. For instance, if you run a law firm and often find that retrieving client records causes a bottleneck, you could consider looking into software such as https://www.recordrs.com/. Another example could be a manufacturing company introducing a machine to handle packaging instead of doing it manually.

Complete work in batches

Once bottlenecks become possible to predict, you may find that you’re able to complete work in batches to help keep up with the demand. For instance, if you run a restaurant and a certain dish is popular on a certain day, you may be able to prepare by cooking up large amounts in advance. There may be similar ways in which you can do this with manufacturing and paperwork.  

Maintain quality controls

When a bottleneck occurs, the temptation is often to rush work in order to catch up with the queue of orders. This can sometimes negatively impact the quality – make sure that you’re still putting quality controls in place so that you’re delivering a sub-par product or service. This is particularly important if you feel that you’re going to miss the deadline agreed with your client – if you end up delivering the product late, you should at least make sure that it is still done to a high quality.

Adjust deadlines ahead

When it comes to taking on new clients and agreeing to deadlines, consider the current queue and whether this is likely to delay work. By setting yourself longer deadlines for new clients, you can slow down the flow at the beginning of the process, taking pressure off of the bottleneck. It’s easier to adjust deadlines for new customers than it is for existing customers who may have already been promised a specific date or time. This guide at https://www.quickbase.com offers more information on setting realistic deadlines. 

4 Ways to Modernize Your Business

How to modernize your business

If you bristle at the thought of adjusting the way you do business, you're not alone. Many entrepreneurs are resistant to changing their companies. After all, you created your business plan and set yourself up for the successful workplace that you operate now. However, if you want your company to remain relevant and your employees to keep on thinking up good ideas, you must listen to constructive criticism. Educate yourself about ways you can improve your company's performance in these areas.

1. Technology

Perhaps you started your company with no technology more advanced than a landline phone and a fax machine. While this was a valid way of operating for a long time, it is no longer enough. Speak to your information technology experts about recent developments that could help your company, such as the Enterprise Knowledge Graph. Choose a few new types of software or machines to try, and evaluate them after a month or two. 

2. Time Tracking

You've used the honor system for clocking in and out since you opened your doors, but it's time to switch to a more accurate method. Most of your employees are honest about the times that they sign in, but they frequently forget and make up their times. To avoid losing money to this practice, purchase time-tracking software. Most platforms are available either on people's desktops or apps. Before you approve someone's hours for the pay period, you can see how long they worked each day, including any breaks they logged. Your employees may resist this change at first, but soon they'll like being able to quickly see how many hours they've worked each pay period.

3. Discrimination

Discrimination occurs whenever someone treats another person differently because of the second person's race, age, sexual orientation, gender, socioeconomic class, or another uncontrollable factor. Whether you're aware of it or not, discrimination is probably occurring in your workplace, and you need to address it immediately. Talk to your human resources department to see how many people have filed discrimination reports recently. Invite your employees to a forum where they can share their experiences of unjust treatment in the workplace. Once you've listened to these stories, invest in diversity training for your entire staff. Watch your own actions to ensure that you do not favor members of certain groups while rejecting others.

4. Environmental Issues

For a while, you could get away with buying the cheapest materials available, regardless of how wasteful they were. Now, however, climate change has progressed to such an alarming extent that it's time to use your resources responsibly. Buy materials locally whenever possible, and choose the ones that are made in environmentally sustainable ways, even if they're more expensive. Encourage your employees to bring their own coffee cups rather than buying disposable ones. Avoid using paper for memos that you can just email to everyone. While these steps may seem insignificant, together, they have a real impact on the environment.

Don't let your company get stuck in the past. Instead, take these steps to modernize your workplace.