Business | Shannon Procise

What Your Business Needs to Stand Out Visually

August 11, 2022 By Shannon Gronich Leave a Comment

One of the aspects of business that can be easily overlooked is your company’s visual appeal. However, beauty is one of the things that can be a big factor in customer satisfaction. To help drive more customers to your business, make sure it stands out visually.

The Right Location

When you’re running a business, location is everything. You want your business to be in an area with heavy traffic and a lot of public engagement. Location is a huge factor in customers’ perception of your business. For example, if you open up a cafe next to a sewage facility, you’re probably not going to attract a lot of customers. On the other hand, you could choose a building that is in a central area of your town, surrounded by other popular businesses. This location is far more likely to help you stand out as a high-quality business. Keeping all of this in mind when purchasing a business property can help you avoid the negative consequences of a bad location.

Add Color

Once you’ve acquired the perfect space, you need to personalize it to your business. One fantastic way to do this is to add color. The more you can make your business a spectacle, the more likely people are to remember it. Add colors that resonate with your branding imagery and business style. By putting a mural on your business, you make art accessible to the community. Adding a mural to your space can also greatly benefit your business as well. Murals have been shown to increase foot traffic to businesses, as well as bring tourists to your community.

Organization

Color and decoration are great, but if your business looks unorganized, they won’t help you much. Customers don’t want to shop in a business that is cluttered and messy. Organizing your merchandise makes your business look far more professional, and helps with its aesthetic appeal. Divide your merchandise based on type and style. How you choose to do this is up to you, but be sure to keep track of how things are organized. Not only will this help customers find what they are looking for, but your employees will be able to better assist them.

In order for your business to stand out from the competition, you need to place a lot of focus on its visual presentation. If a customer has to choose between spending their money somewhere beautiful and somewhere plain, they will always choose beauty. Utilize these tips to help your business stand out visually.

Check out this article on what business expenses are tax-deductible!

Filed Under: Business

How to Make Your Next Business Event More Engaging

August 10, 2022 By Shannon Gronich Leave a Comment

Many business events tend to get a reputation for being boring, but they don’t have to be. In fact, you can plan amazing business events that are engaging and help your clients and employees to connect in meaningful ways. The important thing is to make sure that you understand your audience and how to help them have a good time.

Make it Dynamic

The problem that most business events have to contend with is that people don’t have enough to do. At static events, everyone simply has to sit around and wait for the next thing to happen. But when you create a dynamic event, there is lots to do and your guests can keep themselves occupied. Think about your event as something that should have simultaneous activities available. This may mean a more complicated time planning but it will result in a better party that leaves people feeling great.

Get Speakers

If you want your event to be special, one thing you can do is invest in having some great speakers come to talk to your guests. You should focus on speakers with relevant expertise who are also engaging and exciting to listen to. Try to keep each speech short so your guests have time to process information and don’t get overwhelmed. The venue should have the technical equipment you need to put on the event. Otherwise, you won’t be able to ensure that everyone can hear the great speakers you book.

Choose Good Food

The catering menu is one of the most important parts of a great company event. You want to have fun foods that are easy to eat. It is also a good idea to make sure that you have foods that are tailored for any guests with allergies or specific diets. You can have lots of great finger foods or a sit-down meal depending on the kind of event you want to host. You should think about things like what guests will be wearing to help you to choose the right menu.

Your corporate event has the potential to be a huge success if you take the time to plan it and execute it correctly. When you carefully think about engaging your guests, you can create an event that is meant for them and that they will remember. That will help you to make your business even more successful as you create meaningful relationships.

Check out this article on what every business these days needs to stay organized!

Filed Under: Business

How to Reward Higher-Up Employees at Your Business

August 3, 2022 By Shannon Gronich Leave a Comment

Everyone, no matter who they are or what position they hold in a company, likes to be appreciated. In the case of a company, appreciation is often shown through incentives, benefits, and rewards. While it certainly isn’t the case in every business, sometimes it can be easy to get a little too caught up in rewarding those employees who are lower on the ladder at the expense of some of your employees who are higher up. They deserve to be rewarded for all their hard work too, so what can you do to reward them?

Create an Additional Retirement Plan

Saving for retirement is (or should be) a priority for everyone. It’s not always easy to do that by yourself, however, which is part of why businesses that offer retirement benefits can be seen as more attractive to work for. If you want to do a little extra for your higher-up employees, you might consider creating an additional retirement plan for them. When it comes to saving for retirement, short of saving so much that you put yourself in a bind in the present, you’d be hard pressed to say you’ve saved too much. You can still offer them the 401(k) plan if you include that as a part of your benefit. You might also consider offering a cash balance plan on top of that.

Give Them Equity

Depending on how your business is organized, you might consider offering your higher-up employees equity in your business as a way to reward them. This essentially makes them the owner of a percentage of your company. It isn’t an option that makes sense for every business, in part because not every structure supports trading in stocks. A C-corp lets you provide stock options to employees. LLCs, however, cannot issue shares of stock.

Give Them Gifts

Whether it’s for a job especially well done, for holidays, or for other special occasions, gifts can be a great way to reward your higher-up employees for their hard work. You have a couple of ways you can go about this. There’s always the generic gifts that can be nice but don’t require much thought behind them. Then there are the gifts that your employees will really appreciate because you took the time to think about what might make a good gift for them personally. There’s a time and a place for both options, so consider your choices carefully.

It’s always a good idea to reward your employees for their hard work, no matter what their position within your business. Don’t make the mistake of forgetting to reward those who are higher up for all their hard work and efforts. What rewards make the most sense will depend on the situation your business is in. Take that into account along with your employees’ preferences so you can reward them in meaningful ways.

Check out this article on which business expenses are tax deductible!

Filed Under: Business

How to Maintain Your Company’s App

July 20, 2022 By Shannon Gronich Leave a Comment

In 2022, it seems like almost every business has an app for their customers to use. And while creating an app is an important next step to your business’s success, it won’t be effective if it isn’t well maintained. You need to make sure that your app is always in great condition by making app maintenance a regular part of your business practices.

Hand Management Over to a Dedicated Team

Some business owners, especially those who aren’t in the tech industry, think about apps as something static. However, this isn’t actually the case, and having regular maintenance is essential to an app that works well and serves its purpose. Having a dedicated team to take care of app maintenance can help you to ensure that the maintenance is actually completed. The team doesn’t have to only do app maintenance, but it should be a major part of their regular work. That way they can keep the app working great and looking amazing.

Keep the Software Updated

The software of your app is essential to its function. Updating your software gives you access to better features and better security. Making sure that the app software you use is always up to date can help you to ensure that your business is successful and that you have a high level of security. Make sure that your team knows when they need to update your apps and what updates are necessary.

Keep Up with Consumers

One way that many businesses forget to maintain their app is in order to keep up with the needs of their customers. Sometimes an app that was very effective initially can become useless or frustrating as customers’ needs change. It’s important to keep up with your customer’s needs by staying in touch and listening to their feedback. Industries change over time and that can make a great app obsolete in some cases. It is important to make sure that you are doing what you can to take care of your app and keep it aligned with the needs and values of the customers you serve.

Your app is almost a living thing that needs to be maintained in order to continue providing value to your customers. When you are on top of maintenance, it will continue to be an important asset to your business. Make maintenance a priority so you can make sure that your business is in good hands.

Check out this article on how to avoid regrets when hiring for your company!

Filed Under: Business

What No One Tells You About Running a Small Business

July 19, 2022 By Shannon Gronich Leave a Comment

Nothing is quite as scary, exciting, or fulfilling as running a small business. You might have heard all of the typical advice – about profits, insurance, and so on – but you may want to consider the aspects that no one tells you about. Here are some things to look out for on your first trip around the business block.

Progress Isn’t Steady

Business comes in cycles, and the reality is that most of those cycles are out of your control completely. That doesn’t mean that you can’t prepare for them and use them to your advantage. You absolutely should, as a matter of fact. Getting caught by surprise could have serious consequences, after all, since one big financial emergency in the early stages of a small business can kill the project entirely. Be aware that even if you’re getting regular customers, you may not be getting the kind of profit you might want or need for a year or even more. A lot of your money will go towards paying off loans, insurance, and whatnot.

The Busy Work

There are many aspects of running and owning a small business that have nothing to do with the product itself. Unfortunately, this means that your attention will always be demanded by something small or big. This can include accounting, hiring or firing, marketing, and a million other things – even just repainting the outside of your commercial property. And it’s not all unskilled labor, either. Accounting can be a time-consuming task that requires accuracy. Hiring new employees requires at least basic HR training on nondiscrimination. One thing you could consider is hiring professional contractors to help you complete whatever busy work you need done.

The Stress

Starting any new project is stressful. But a small, local business even more so, because its financial destiny can be so uncertain for so long. Thus, many first-time business owners have no way of regulating how much of their work can or cannot work its way into their personal lives. While it is important to make time for your business when an early-onset emergency demands it, you also need to create some healthy boundaries. That might mean setting at least a small amount of time aside for you and your family each week. It might mean delegating to business partners when you need it.

The reality is that every market and every location is different enough that you can only follow a list of guidelines so far, because your small business experience will be unique. That’s scary, but it’s also freeing. Don’t be afraid to plan extensively and then adjust as needed.

Check out this article on how to avoid regrets when hiring for your company!

Filed Under: Business, entrepreneurs