Category Archives: Business

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Improving client relationships as a budding student startup

As a freelancer, you are your brand. If people like you, you stand a much better chance of being successful. If they dislike or distrust you, then you’re going to struggle to carve out a profitable business. With that being said, healthy client relationships need to be a priority for you.

5 Steps for Superior Client Relationships

When it comes to a service business, you and your product are essentially the same. In order to win over business (and hang on to it), you have to sell yourself as reliable, trustworthy, friendly, informed, (or whatever other characteristic your clients find appealing).

Winning over customers is one thing. But if you want to build a successful and sustainable business that’s profitable for years to come, you must maintain healthy client relationships throughout many years. This requires an investment of your time, money, and emotions. And here are some tips to help you along:

  1. Stop Trying to Sell 

In the sales world, people like to toss around the acronym ABC, which stands for Always Be Closing. But if we’re honest, this is outdated advice that rarely works in today’s marketplace.

Gone are the days when people responded to in-your-face sales tactics and aggressive closing strategies. Today, customers have a wealth of information and options at their fingertips and know that it pays to be patient. A salesperson who is always trying to close a deal will turn people away. As a freelancer, your best strategy is to stop selling and start helping.

“Selling to poor-fit customers is a stopgap solution that will result in customer turnover, lost income in the form of clawback penalties, and in the most dramatic cases even shutter a business if churn gets too high,” sales expert Dan Tyre writes. “On a less concrete scale, Always Be Closing tactics also hurt the brand. As soon your company gains a reputation for having aggressive and selfish salespeople, it’ll be much harder to gain customers in the future — even ones you actually could have helped.”

By helping your clients and genuinely serving their interests, you build a strong foundation for future growth. People trust that you want what’s best for them. It’s a game-changer.

  1. Be Professional

As a freelancer, your size is both your greatest advantage and weakness. The fact that you’re small means you have to prove your credibility and reliability to customers – every step of the way.

Professionalism comes off in both the big and small areas of your client interactions. Pay attention to how you invoice, how you handle customer service issues, and even how you answer your phone.

  1. Go Beyond Business

As you become more acquainted with your clients, try to get to know them on a personal level (as appropriate). Learn the names of their spouses and children. Find out what they like to do in their free time. Have conversations that have nothing to do with work. The more you strengthen your relationship outside of business, the closer you’ll become. 

  1. Be Forthcoming 

Trust is a huge factor in any relationship – particularly a business relationship between freelancer and client.

“We want clients to feel absolutely safe in challenging us, asking questions, and requesting our input,” entrepreneur Dan McIvor says. “But at the same time, we want to be free to express when we think clients are missing an opportunity. You need trust for this to work well, and the process of building trust usually starts off with discussing little things and then moving on to larger opportunities.”

Be forthcoming when you interact with clients. Show off transparency, and you’ll usually get some transparency in return. 

  1. Be Responsive

The fact that you’re a living, breathing person is highly appealing to clients who are tired of talking to automated voice answering machines. When a client calls you, pick up the phone and interact with them. Responsiveness will help you earn and keep business. 

Put People First

Never underestimate or overlook the importance of developing relationships. People are the key to success in business, and you’ll never realize your potential until you learn to put your clients first.

Whether it’s a client you’ve had for six months or six years, an investment in relational capital and positive rapport will never be returned empty-handed. Stay focused and commit to being excellent in this area.

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Consumer psychology: a review of impulse buying

We all have lived the phase at least once in our life when we purchase stuff that we don’t need. It is not because you had to purchase it or because you fell for the product. You purchased it because you felt an impulse to do so. There is this possibility that you have sometimes speculated how store owners know what to put at the sales counter isle that your customers can’t help to buy. It’s named impulse products; it is the things that you want and just can’t remember to pick up while shopping or stuff that is too good to resist. Impulse buying is buying items that you may or may not need or that you are unable to afford. It can be anything like candy at the convenience store, a shirt that is available on sale, or things like gadgets which you purchased, even in a tight budget because of urge that you liked it for some reason.

Advertising is a huge business, you can see it everywhere, at the superstore, discount stores almost every place that you shop even in convenience stores i.e. the fruit at the counter for as an example. We are overburden with compulsive shopping wherever we go, and when we watch TV or listen to the radio, Ads are another good one. They make you believe that you can’t live without this product or that this may be the only opportunity that you have to purchase the product at this price or the store or company would run out of it. It is also known as Shopaholic syndrome when purchasing unwanted things is an issue for a lot of people and is the source of a lot of credit card debt. Just think about it for a minute, how many times have you done it in your life so far? Everybody has this opportunity to study online MBA now. There is no doubt about the fact that there would be a lot of occasions where these purchases are legit and required but could you have done without the purchase. The best way possible to not fall into this promotion trap is to know what attracts you to make impulse buying and be able to control it.

Following are some significant factors that influence the level of impulse buying:

Consumer Characteristics

This is one of the main and foremost factors that meaningfully influence the consumption choices of many people. Customers may have an inclination to involve in compulsive purchasing. Most of the times, it is that customers enjoy shopping that they end up purchasing things that they had not decided for or that they do not really need. Apart from that, a person is inclined towards impulsive buying that depends on the degree to which he/she recognizes with the product. Impulse buying starts when the customer sees the product.

Emotions:

There are many customers who expect their emotional support to be satisfied by their social communication, fundamental to the shopping experience. The time when they are in an emotional state that forces them to make needless purchases, purchasers are most anxious about their greater feelings of enjoyment, pleasure, and joy without thinking about the outcome economic consequences.

Visual Merchandising:

Visual merchandising is designed to communicate the product worth and quality to customers. It is a trick that traders utilize to enhance the image of their stores and show what they sell to consumers in a way that attracts them and induces them to go for those products. There is this possibility that these stores may be doing this with innocent intentions, such strategies and displays meaningfully affect a customer buying decision, and therefore it is a great contributing factor when it comes to impulsive buying.

Displays:

A well-organized store with an attractive and calm environment with lovely surroundings inclines to initiate good spirits in customers inspiring them to visit the store and buy even if they didn’t plan to. Customers get quickly appealed to attractively set up stores and intriguing displays. This is the reason why most store owners go for this approach to appeal to consumers into their retail stores.

Money Availability:

This along with the income level of an individual is a suggestively good factor to why consumer involves in uncontrolled buying. The time when a purchaser has adequate funds at the time of shopping, he/she will extend the shopping to contain things that they hadn’t prearranged for and those that they also don’t need. The obtainability of money inclines to develop positive feelings in people which therefore lead to impulse buying.

Influence of Friends and Relatives:

Mostly impulse shoppers are inclined by their friends and relatives at the time of shopping. A friend or relative convenience you to make a purchase just because they think something will go well with you. They can also inspire you to purchase a dress or shirt because they think it looks good on you.

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Business analytics: a rising force

It is significant when it comes to systematic management of work that you are supposed to utilize all the tools and procedures that modernize and enhance the actions of your business. For example, you need to use software systems that allow you to get better productivity. These systems comprise content management systems, business process management tools, and document management systems. There is no doubt about the fact that the best workflow management systems can be overpriced and difficult to implement. Though, by looking for the services of an IT Business Analyst, your business will take advantage of them, which means that you will get the best revenues on your investments. Business Analysis Tools have many perks and they can be beneficial to enhance the productive power of your business. They are helpful so you could track and manage requirements. You can now go for online MBA courses. You can describe the required necessities in detail by utilizing these tools. Except that, you would also be able to model requirements diagrammatically wherever practicable like Business Process Diagram. There are no second thoughts about the fact that they are helpful for you so you could work together with teams and shareholders. Google Docs, SWOT, Microsoft Office Suite, Balsamiq, Rational Requisite Pro, Trello, Pencil, Wrike, SmartDraw, VersionOne are some business analysis tools that are vital for the better operations of any organization.

Following are some major factors that are interlinked with business analysis tools and their proper utilization:

Improved Accountability:

The finest Business Analyst Tools allow your corporation to be familiar with productivity. Don’t forget that there are many workers who don’t respond well when it comes to micromanagement, which means that you need to utilize modern tools to check their productivity. By utilizing the best tools and software, you would be able to know which tasks need to be done; the best worker who could perform that task and the time period when the work should be finished.

The time you know which tasks and goals should be accomplished; there would not be any need to interfere. It also enhances the relations between the workers and management by eliminating personal opinions and concerns from any issue. Files can store records of what occurred in the system, which also gives the management the ability to inspect behavior in case it is required. 

Decreases the Need for Physical Labor:

Another main and foremost quality of these tools is that they give your team members the opportunity to work on non-repetitive tasks. It means to say that they can increase their expertise, by working on facets that need more human contribution such as in the manufacturing procedure. These management tools make it sure that work is done faster and with the exception of human errors. You can utilize these tools to make the workplace more creative and thrilling, which increases the firm’s overall performance.

Better Communication:

Best business analyst tools remove the need for paper and utilization of telephones. That makes the office more effectual which in turn lessens the firm’s business rates. Amongst the reasons for resigning jobs is poor communication in offices. By the proper utilization of tracking software, you can also offer workers a better way of discovering what needs to be done at that instant and in the future. For the sake of the smooth application of everyday business, you have to be sure that your communication is direct and clear to workers.

Modernizes the Business Operation Courses:

Systematic functioning of business analyst tools permits you to have advantageous awareness in the everyday running of your business. By utilization of automation software, you can decide which tasks can be done instantaneously as an alternative of being finished consecutively. You would be able to know which steps are needless; which means to say that you will make up-to-date choices and judgments. Apart from that, you would also be able to know which workers are able to perform certain tasks at their best, relatively to those who happen to be free at that exact time.

Faster Completion of Projects:

These finest business analyst tools permit you to reduce the time span of schemes. You can utilize them to lessen the period between initiating a project and having it accepted. As the organization, you can arrange these tools to inform workers when the closing date is near or in case they have missed it. The team leaders can let workers know of any latest plans, variations in development and guideline updates. Don’t forget that in the longer run, the time that has been taken to decide these matters can prove to be a lot, means to say that you need to utilize the modern tools to move on to new cost-effective schemes.

There is no doubt about it that for business analysts, a wide variety of tools can be utilized for researching the requirements of an association or business sector and recognizing the resolutions that are compulsory to bring it back to strength while simplifying the change.

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Leveling the gender pay gap in the tech industry

The technology industry has previously been a pool of male dominance. Although there are still more women entering the tech field than ever before, it can still be highly disturbing to know what it took for women to gain an active and wanted role in their positions. If one chooses to historically analyze the pay gap between annual wages of men and women, they will see that this number can be alarming in many varying fields and industries, especially STEM careers. Men and women both must fight for equal pay, but unfortunately, it is often that women are fighting against the men in the fight for equal pay. Although plenty of good males have stood up in protest alongside their female colleagues, it is the 21st century and all individuals must unite in the continuous fight for pay equality. This is true for all STEM companies, such as Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook.

Women find it difficult to break into elite financial roles such as stockbrokers or in the STEM field. Traditionally male-dominated fields like STEM careers are hard to join for women due to the negative backlash they may receive in the workplace. For some, it is finding it overwhelmingly difficult to navigate and climb the corporate ladder when it seems like an unreachable goal or task. The women who excel in the tech industries are often praised for working so diligently to get to the top of their field. These women hustle their way through coding seminars, free card numbers, working long hours in the office, engineering successful innovations, and reaching their lucrative company goals. However, the other women who are not always so praised in the media are also heroes of the tech industry as they did their part taking the time to enter the technology field.

Entering a STEM industry takes a hefty amount of education and thorough understanding of product and software knowledge. If mistakes are made, their program or gadget may not work properly. So they try and fail, and try again until they are successful. Dedicated and passionate workers, people who enter these fields are truly some of the most unique innovators in their jobs. As far as gender equality in STEM fields, this will only happen through continuously urging legislators to budget equal pay for men and women alike. Intelligence does not have a gender. Careers are not gendered. Work holds no gender. Passion is genderless. All of these things are required to enter the tech field, but being a boy or girl is not. Gender should no longer be a reason not to hire or not to promote someone. Discrimination is an intolerable act, and society needs humans that are capable of solving the most intricate of technology problems today in order to advance tomorrow. Problems are solved with profound and long lasting solutions. It will take cooperation of everyone to make change happen. Although societal change isn’t something that happens over night, humans can act as a catalyst in the change for equal pay of men and women in all fields. The need for technology masterminds is necessary now more than ever.