Business | Shannon Procise

How to Run a Successful Brick-and-Mortar Store in 2022

February 15, 2022 By Shannon Gronich Leave a Comment

With COVID-19 lockdowns and social media shopping, it seems like the past few years have discouraged a lot of brick-and-mortar business owners. However, even though there have been a lot of changes in the last few years, you can still run a successful in-person business. Here are a few steps that can help you to find success at your brick-and-mortar location.

Stand Out

First off, it is necessary that you stand out. One of the most important tasks that you have in order to keep your brick-and-mortar store running is standing out from all your competitors. You want customers to walk into your store and instantly want to come back again. For example, if you own a photo lab, you don’t want your customers to enter your store and wish that they’d just ordered at Costco or Walgreens. You want your customers to think, “I’m never ordering photos anywhere else!” There are lots of different elements that can make you stand out. Of course, the décor and atmosphere of your store will prepare them for a good experience, but ultimately, the quality of your products and the interactions that your customers have with your employees will determine how they feel about your company.

Integrate With an Online Store

Next, you need to integrate your brick-and-mortar business with your online store if you want to be successful with your customers. POS software allows you to seamlessly integrate your online store with your physical store. This will allow you to receive online orders and ship products to different areas to customers that wouldn’t be able to visit your brick-and-mortar store. Having an integrated online store will also help you to gain a greater online audience and following, especially if you have an attractive and functional website.

Make the Most of Social Media

Finally, if you’re not taking advantage of social media to help your brick-and-mortar store, you’re making a big mistake. Social media isn’t only for online exclusive shops, or little Instagram businesses without a storefront. Social media can help you to attract new customers that would have never found your store by passing it on the street. There are millions of users on social media each day that could possibly be exposed to your great products and services, which could increase sales and help your business to be more successful. Social media can also help you to connect with other businesses or creators in your industry, which can expose you to customers or followers in your niche.

So, now that you’ve been reminded that it is still possible to have a successful brick-and-mortar store, even in 2022, don’t let any of your fears hold you back. Remember to make your business stand out, integrate your in-person store with your online store, and make the most of social media to better grow your business. This will help you to grow your audience, improve your sales, and reach goals that you’ve never dreamed of.

Check out this article on how to make your company an attractive place to work!

Filed Under: Business

How to Prepare Now for a Major Malware Attack

February 14, 2022 By Shannon Gronich Leave a Comment

There are few things more important to your business in today’s digital world than cybersecurity protections. Without cybersecurity protections, your business can be incredibly vulnerable to dangerous attacks that can end up costing your business in major ways. One of the most common types of cybersecurity attacks is the malware attack, where any type of malicious software that has been downloaded begins doing unauthorized tasks on your systems. This can result in things like spying, ransom, remote control of your servers, etc. Here is how you can prepare now for a major malware attack on your business.

Implement Cyber Security Protocols

The very first thing that you need to do to protect your business from a major malware attack is to implement cybersecurity protocols across your company. The only way to prevent cybersecurity attacks is with the proper protocol to ensure your data and systems remain safe. This includes things like requiring strong passwords and dual factor authentication, as well as mandating firewalls, and other protections. Make sure you work with a cybersecurity professional to discuss your options and find out what protocols are the most important to protect in your business from a malware attack.

Back Up Everything

Another important thing that you need to do to protect your business from major malware attacks is to back up everything that you have on your systems. Backups can come in handy in the event of a data breach. These backups will allow you to have a system backup with all the data that you have, ready and able to relaunch as soon as you notice a problem. You should be backing up your servers and systems very often, so that whenever anything changes, you have a new backup that can be used for information or as a backup plan.

Update Your Software Always

The final thing that you need to do to prepare your business for a major malware attack is to update your software frequently. When your software is old, there is more time for hackers and cybercriminals to find the weak points and exploit them to their advantage. One of the major reasons software has upgrades is for better security. By updating your software, you are ensuring that you have the most up to date protections on your computers to keep your business safe from attacks.

There is nothing more catastrophic to a business than a major malware attack. And they are far more common than you may be led to believe. Make sure that you are following these steps to ensure that your business is properly protected from the threat of a malware attack.

Check out this article on how to make your company an attractive place to work!

Filed Under: Business

How to Prepare for the Worst at Your Business

January 25, 2022 By Shannon Gronich Leave a Comment

Hope for the best and prepare for the worst. These words of wisdom ring true for most ventures, and it’s smart to take this advice in your business practices as well. It is very easy for many business owners to hope for the best, imagining huge success and growth for their business, but it is harder to get business owners to prepare for the worst. But time and time again it is the businesses that are prepared to get through the bad times that experience the most of the good times. Here are three ways that you can prepare your business for the worst to improve your resilience.

Stay Financially Healthy

The very first step to preparing your business for the worst is just solid business advice regardless, and that is to stay financially healthy. The financial health of your business is one of the many aspects that excites investors and customers about your business. More than that, your financial health is what makes your business viable. After all, if your business loses money consistently, eventually you are going to flop. Make sure you can pay off all debts that you take on and that your business is generating a profit, or at the very least breaking even. You can always work from there.

Backup Your Data

The most important step to preparing your business for the worst in the digital age is backing up your business data. You should have a business backup both in the cloud and on a physical server location. Data should be backed up to a location offsite for the most security. If you are only backing up your data on site then you are leaving yourself more vulnerable, as cybercriminals will know where to be looking for your data and how to find it.

Business Insurance

The final step to preparing your company for the worst is to make sure that you have good business insurance. Business insurance can protect your business from all sorts of issues like theft, bankruptcy, and liability. With business insurance, you can rest easy knowing that if something terrible were to happen, your business is well protected and can survive just fine. If you have a business and do not have business insurance, you must get it ASAP.

There are few things as stressful as owning your own business. When you take your livelihood into your own hands, your chances of success go through the rough, but so do your responsibilities. Make sure that you’re doing these three things to ensure that your business is always prepared for the worst, so that you can keep hoping for the best.

Read this next: How to Form Lasting Connections with New Customers

Filed Under: Business

How to Keep Up with E-Commerce Competition

January 24, 2022 By Shannon Gronich Leave a Comment

E-commerce has been the major wave for new businesses and entrepreneurs in the past decade. E-commerce is any business model that relies on or solely relies on online transactions as the source of business. E-commerce stores do everything, but mostly you will find your e-commerce success stories are stores that sell physical products online. While e-commerce has made it easier for people to start a business, it also means there is way more competition out there than ever before. Here are three key strategies to help you keep up with e-commerce competition.

Adopt Their Strategies

With marking being one of the largest industries today, we see advertisements all around us. From bus benches, to online to billboards. When marking a particular product, you are sure to have a competitor wanting to market your same products. Send the time to investigate how they reach customers. You can use their methods to attract the same clientele base. You want to have access to the same consumer they are reaching to prove your product is better. This is especially true in E-commerce where you don’t have an in-store opportunity to market your products

Create a Mobile Shopping Experience

How many applications do you have on your phone? Many apps exist today to create a mobile shopping experience. About 47% of consumers use mobile phones to shop online. With the ease of Instagram and Facebook advertisements, mobile phones create a unique platform to market shopping. They provide easy access with shopping just one click away. There are no more cutting out hours to drive to a mall and try on clothing. The key to truly utilizing mobile customers is to craft a mobile shopping experience, much how you would craft an in-person shopping experience.

Improve User Experience

The last key to staying ahead of the competition with your e-commerce business is to improve the user experience, or UX, of your website. User experience is anything that your customers experience or interact with while working with your ecommerce site. If your website is clunky, slow, or not intuitive, then you are behind the curve compared to your competition. Customers will search for the easiest to use and most intuitive e-commerce site to do business with, don’t count yourself out by being clunky.

E-commerce is one of the best possible business models for first time business owners. But e-commerce business also has the struggle of dealing with a lot of competition. Try utilizing these three strategies to ensure that your e-commerce site stands out against the competition.

Check out this article on how to reduce your taxes as a small business

Filed Under: Business

How to Make Your Company an Attractive Place to Work

January 14, 2022 By Shannon Gronich Leave a Comment

A big part of running a successful business is finding ways to bring in great employees who love to work there. This can take a lot of time and is generally more difficult than you might imagine. But by doing things like offering competitive wages, providing great benefits, and building a positive work culture that truly emphasizes work life balance, you can make your business the kind of place where people really want to work.

Create a Great Benefits Package

The benefits may not be the first thing you think about when you consider what you are offering to your employees, but it may be the most important thing. Because your employees need to have their needs met, benefits can be an important part of why they choose to work with your business at all. Offering great insurance with a few different options, retirement and a generous vacation plan can help you to bring in employees with impressive resumes and a high level of loyalty to your company.

Offer Equity for Compensation

Another great way to bring in great employees is to offer them equity in the company in exchange for their work. This would help them to feel more invested in the company you are building together and give them a greater reason to work for you. The amount of shareholders you are able to have will vary depending on the kind of corporation you register as. For example, an S-corp can only have up to 100 shareholders.

Acknowledge Good Work

Everyone likes to be acknowledged when they have done something useful or impressive. And you should make it a part of your company culture to really celebrate the good work your employees do. You should not only give lip service to their good work but you should also reward employees with bonuses, raises, and other incentives. When prospective employees know that they will be valued at your business, they will be much more likely to seek you out and accept a job offer. Take time to notice what good work is being done and reward employees accordingly.

If you believe in the work you are doing, you should invest in the employees you hire. They will notice the difference and they will then be more willing to do what they need to do to make your company a success. This will create a win-win situation where everyone works together to make things better.

Check out this article on how to reduce your taxes as a small business!

Filed Under: Business