To Do Business in South Africa You Must Know Your Customers Brand Loyalty Considerations

There’s no doubt on South Africa’s being the best place in Africa to do business, however, the best places to do business are not easy to do business as well.

 Setting things up, licencing and other requirements may go without any hassle if you chose the right methods, but the biggest challenge is to develop a loyal customer base.

If your business idea is something that is delivering some value to the population, developing a loyal customer base is comparatively easier. Do check if your idea matches something in this list of best small business ideas for South Africa and if it is so, it must be able to attract the attention of masses.

South African customers’ loyalty for their favourite brands is very high; did you do a quick research on the loyalty factor with the food and beverage and banking sectors in South Africa?

Just go through the facts and you will know your way to success!

Related Reading: South Africa is the Ticket to Africa for Your Business

Why You Must Hire a UAE Company Registration Agent

 In the context of business startup in the UAE, I lately discussed When to Prefer an LLC over Free Zone Company in the UAE, but it doesn't end there. It is important for you to know the basics of business law in the country, but knowing these basics cannot help you to do all the stuff yourself.

Having a business idea is easy (but if you still do not have one, do check this list of best small business ideas for UAE). Well when it comes to implementation, it requires all the documentation and legal formalities to be done accurately. 

Setting up a business in any country needs hell lot of documentation, and spending your precious time on these basic chores may just over burden you and you will end up not focusing on the core issue of the business. That is why hiring a UAE company registration agent is a great way to take you through the process smoothly.

As a foreign investor, hiring a UAE company registration firm doesn't just register the company for you, but takes you trough the complete business set up process in the best possible way by making sure to remain in your budget!

Creating Great Content for Great Results

One of the basic rule of SEO and online marketing is that CONTENT is king!

Well, surely content is king, because content is the only way with which you convey your message to the digital world. And yes, it was once upon a time that content meant the text content only!

Now content has various dimensions, i.e. videos, eBooks, images, galleries, audio messages, presentations and all what you can think of by creating combinations!

So, what makes the content KING?

That’s quality and quality alone that makes your content a king!

Whether it’s about small business SEO, running an SEM campaign, using email marketing, distributing free content or even offering webinars and other resources, what matters most is content!

Keeping your end users in mind rather than thinking of tricking the search engines and bypassing the social standards works much better!

Here I am listing a few resources to help you create great content for your online marketing activities:

·         How to Use Visual Content to Drive Traffic, Shares and Sales with Donna Moritz

·         How to Make Content King: 3 Content Aggregation Tools Reviewed

·         How To Create Content That Drives Traffic For YEARS

Checklist for Starting a Micro or Small Business in the UK.

UK being one of the most developed regions for doing business has a lot of opportunities for small business entrepreneurs, however, starting a business in the UK is equally challenging.

Here's my quick checklist for those who want to start a small or micro business in the UK.

1.   Your Business Idea must be creating some value: Check these low cost UK small business ideas that actually work there.
2.     Check your ideal company name is available
3.     Get a loan to start a business if you do not have any funds. Borrow up to £25000 with https://www.startuploans.co.uk/ .
4.     Get your business cards.
5.     Look for crowdfunding your business. 
6.     Compare business insurance quotes and get one.
7.     Get a custom designed business logo and get your website done!
8.     Get a low cost business bank account.
9.     Trading overseas? Protect yourself from shifting exchange rates.

What to Include in the Personnel Section of Salon Business Plan

Hiring right people for your hair or beauty salon is probably one of the toughest tasks. But, when it comes to attract investors, most of the people who intend to invest in beauty business are very much concerned about the personnel details, i.e. their expertise, experience, repute and so on.

So having a personnel section right in your beauty or hair salon business plan is a great way to go. Here's a rundown of the hair salon and spa employees you're likely to need for the day-to-day functioning of your new business. Note them down and enter the respective information in your business plan:

• Owner/Operator: You're an employee, too.
• Salon Manager: It may be tempting to try to undertake all the management tasks rather than hiring a salon manager, but that's not how it is going to work.
• Hairstylist/Cosmetologist: Depending upon the size of business, you may need more than one. 
• Salon Assistant: Staff that is not expert, but can carry out small stuff like shampooing, hair drying and assist experts in other possible ways.
• Receptionist: You need someone to greet customers as well as answers calls and books appointments along with receiving cash from customers and other duties on desk.
•  Manicurist: For manicures, pedicures and acrylic nail application and tipping and must be a licensed cosmetologist.
• Aesthetician: This is one of the most skilled people on your spa staff.
• Massage Therapist. Although an aesthetician can provide many massage services, a massage therapist has a higher level of training and additional expertise.
• Electrologist: This person provides hair removal services and needs an electrologist license in many states.

The above personnel details cover almost all the services offered in a beauty or hair salon and spa. But you should not fill out your business plan with all of them if you do not plan to take any of them onboard. Just filter the list and complete your business plan.

What Do I Need to Start My Own Business?

Thinking of starting your own business is great, but doing it actually is not that easy. I mean, business cannot be a hobby; you are not working as don't have time, or got any other excuses.

Starting your own business needs a lot of physical and metal effort and you may face challenges on each stage from ideation to setup and then growth, so there are certain areas you should work on before steeping into the world of new business.

Here's the quick list:

• Identify your target market. Do check 2015 small business ideas to know what you can do differently.
• Look for multiple sources of funding for startup and growth.
• Stay up to date with the latest technology.
• Get hands on successful marketing.
• Explore profitable partnerships.
• Discover digital and social media tools.
• Know the Tax & other legalities.
• Read a lot
• Network with right people.

Working on the above critical areas will help you kick start your own business, and then will provide you with the supports in surviving the first three years as a business owner.

How Much Does it Cost to Set up a Laundry?

Depending upon the type of laundry business you want to start, the costs may vary. If you wish to operate a full fledged shop, it's definitely going to be a considerable investment while starting a home based laundry may be a cost effective option as you can save lot of costs.

The cost of setting up a laundry business depends on many factors, and to know the exact costs, you must conduct your own research properly.

Here I will share a few tips to bring your laundry setup cost effective. Do note down all things accordingly in your laundry business plan so you stay on track.

• Location Costs: Location is though very important, but in case if you are starting something like pick and deliver laundry service you may not need any physical shop to entertain customers. 
• Equipment Costs: Contacting suppliers for quotes on buying new or reconditioned machines can help you save on the equipment.
• Staff Costs: When you are busy building the business, you cannot of course do the laundry yourself, so hiring people is a must. Contact different laundries for job to inquire how much they are paying.

Take your time in doing proper research and you can start a very cost effective laundry business within few days!

Tips for Increasing Repeat Sales Online

Well, repeat sales can be the lifeblood for any business. So you should always stay updated with new and improved techniques for keeping customers coming back to your website.

Increasing sales through online marketing can be tough if you do not have a sound strategy. And a strategy that doesn't give space to repeat sales is useless.

So whether you are at the beginning of creating strategy or tweaking things up, include repeat sales in the goals too.

Here I will list quick tips to increase repeat sales online:

1. Remember that the key deciders for online customers are ease of purchase and quality of service, rather than choice and price, so keep them posted with latest offers right in their email.
2. If you're in fast-moving consumer goods or fashion, for example, you must replenish or introduce new stock regularly and keep them posted about it.
3. Utilize the Search engine marketing at its best.
4. Reward them with loyalty vouchers valid for their next purchase. 
5. Offer free delivery on XX amount of purchase.
6. Connect with customers over social media.
7. Maintain a blog and let them subscribe.
8. Send them a feedback followup on a purchase with some new ideas to buy.

Think of more possibilities that can create value for your buyers and they will surely be your returning customers.

Optimizing Call to Action for Improved Landing Page Performance

You spent a huge budget on PPC and finally your website is getting good amount of targeted traffic. But wait for a moment and see if your visitors donʼt know what to do, you have lost it all!

Well, your call to action, or CTA, is the primary element that lets your conversion goals be achieved. And so you need to follow some landing page optimization best practices to make this happen.

Your call to action depends on the goal, i.e. purchasing a product, subscribing to a newsletter, calling you on the phone, downloading an ebook or whitepaper, watching a demo or requesting information and so on. However, there are some common ideas on the basis of which you can write effective call to actions.

Here it goes:

• Make your CTA(s) clear and unambiguous
• Donʼt promise one thing and then deliver something else.
• Allow the CTA room to be expressive visually. 
• Use a Vibrant text color that makes the CTA prominent with the background color.
•  Create a high contrast between the CTA and surrounding elements to assert it’s dominance.
• Keep it where it can be seen more. 
• Repeat CTA variations if you have a long page, i.e. in the begining, mid and at the end.
• Personalize/localize the call to action.
• Donʼt place offers or navigation on the page that could let the users do something else. 

Take your time to work on your CTAs, test variations and see the results!

Killer Headlines Can Turn Your Visitors into Customers

One of the biggest online marketing challenges every digital marketer and small business owner faces today is increasing conversions on website. Let it be an e-commerce website or a B2B services portal, sales is the top priority.

Well, a good website conversion optimization strategy always keeps lead generation goals in front, followed by secondary objectives like newsletter signups, content downloads and similar stuff.

Let it be any goal, selling a product or service or lead generation and signups, headlines play a vital role in converting visitors.

Here are some ideas for writing killer headlines:

• What we need to make sure is:
• Keep the headlines in simple words.
• Keep the headline text short.
• Feature different benefits in your headline. 
• Highlight a problem to your target audience in a headline.
• Tell what product/service does right in the headline.

The above ideas are very generic and can be customized depending upon the product, market and its features. Work out on your headlines on website as well as in marketing materials and see how they work in getting more clients.

Strategic Partnership: A Virtually No Cost Startup Growth Option

Aligning yourself either with a similar type of business or the one that complements your business/services/products etc can be a powerful way to expand quickly.

Well, some entrepreneurs may be hesitant in approaching to be strategic partners. That can be due to  the fear of misalignment, an imbalanced relationship or a branding disaster. But when done correctly, strategic partnerships prove to be one of the fastest growth options.

So, if you are looking to grow small business faster, you need to make sure that you do the strategic partnerships rightly. This is how you can do so:

1- Identify opportunities: Look for companies that might be able to bring in valuable customers, credibility or links, among other resources

2- Look for well-known brands rather than XYZz.

3- Make sure you have the resources required for your partnerships. This means that both sides need to have the capital, people power and leadership in place to be able to devote time, energy and money into the partnership.

Having build strategic partnerships on the above grounds, your startup will certainly gain momentum and will grow as desired!

Bakery Business without a Business Plan is Nothing More than a Dream

Placing things in writing before beginning just about any business is not just the formality, but an essential to business success.

The way it assists you to determine your goals what and precisely how items to be exercised has no comparison. Proceeding according to the approach lets you leave out the option of losing time period and money.

For this reason you should have a profitable business approach right before starting off the bakery business, no matter precisely how little scale set up you need to have got. This is what we call a bakery business plan.

Below is the list of contents, a good bakery business approach need to have.

1. Executive Summary (including Mission & Keys to Success) 
2. Company Summary 
3. Products 
4. Market Analysis Summary 
5. Strategy and Implementation Summary 
6. Management Summary 
7. Financial Plan 
8. Appendix 

To learn more about writing an excellent bakery business plan, getting help of appropriate business plan experts is the best idea. If not, finding a bakery business plan sample or template can save loads of your time and money!

Writing Company Summary Section of a Beauty Salon Business Plan

Writing a business plan where it is the first step to cut the knot, is also the most important one. No matter how experience beauty professional you are, when it comes to write the beauty salon business plan, you may encounter various issues, like where to start!

Company Summary is the part needed to be written first. And this is one tricky part, where most of the salon business owners get confused, i.e. what to write and what not to. So here is a quick list that should help you sort things out:

• What exactly will the beauty salon sell upon commencement of operations, i.e. a wide range of beauty services and products. 
• What will it set apart from the competition.
• How much the cost is incurred?
• Total expenses.
• Startup Assets.
• Any Funding you received so far.
• Liabilities
• Capital
• Planned Investment
• Company Locations and Facilities.

All the above heads that have numeric value can be best represented as a table or chart! Good luck with writing a good company summary for your beauty salon business plan!