You’re building your career and figuring out your future; amidst these processes, it’s likely that you’re encountering some periods where opportunities to make a little extra money would come in handy. Have you been saving up to buy something expensive, like a car or a house? Or maybe you simply want to have an emergency fund in place. Whatever your goals, there are lots of ways to save more on your budget by looking for ways you can make some extra money. Here are seven ways to increase your income.
Side Business
With a side business, you have another source of income. While it won’t make up for the loss of a lucrative day job, it can go a long way toward helping you as you look for another job. Plus, you can use the extra income to build up your emergency fund for just these situations.
Voiceover Work
Voiceover work is a way to make extra money by having your voice recorded.
How to Make Money at Home Using Your Voice
Voice Overs for Videos. One of the most popular at-home jobs using your voice is to voice over for videos.
Voice Overs for Commercials. Voicing commercials is another way you can make money at home using your voice.
Sell Radio Ads.
Create Audio Books.
Make money from your hobbies
If you do something you love, it can be turned into a new stream of income.
Here are 12 Profitable Hobbies that make money
Writing
Illustration and design
Music
Cooking
Gardening
Photography
DIY crafts
Comedy
Coffee
Memberships
Brewing beer
Gaming
Share your Ride
You can apply for Uber or other rideshare companies if you have a reliable vehicle and a good driving record.
Sell clothes online
The way to bring in extra money is by listing your old clothing on an online platform like Poshmark.
Online Surveys
Many companies are hiring people to answer surveys, so you can increase your income by doing them.
Share skills
Suppose you have any unique skills. You can share your skills online like Upwork, Fiverr, and others to increase your income.
The ability of e-commerce to connect you directly with your customers makes it the perfect place to promote various products and services. This really comes into the spotlight due to COVID-19’s influence on this generation. Starting a business online can feel intimidating at first, Given a large amount of competition in the market, it is important to carefully evaluate your strategy and follow certain steps (listed below) to ensure that you take full advantage of the enormous benefits available in e-commerce.
Organize Your Web Assets
This extends much further than just organizing your business. Your web assets are everything from your website to your social media profiles to your hosting account. These need to be in order.
Stay On Top of the Latest Trends
The online world is one that is constantly changing and evolving. It evolves faster than anything you’ll see in the real world. Furthermore, you’ll see social media trends evolving all the time.
Listen to your loyal customers
Listening to customers gives you valuable feedback
After all, the best business decisions are based on concrete data, not guesses or estimates. You want to understand how your customers really feel about the product or service you deliver. Use this feedback to guide your business and marketing decisions.
Protect Your Brand’s reputation
Define your brand’s journey. …
Take good and positive action to build trust. …
Leverage three to four social media platforms to boost your brand’s likability and brand engagement efforts. …
Believe in your brand’s purpose and growth potential. …
Have fun and stay positive. …
Perception is powerful.
Hire the right employees
A bad performing employee will negatively impact the other employees they are around, could drive down sales, and could cost a business a lot of unnecessary expenses. By hiring the right person – the business will move in a positive direction and will become more successful in the future.
Do you need help or advice in setting up your online business? Whether you need a website click funnel created, business structure, bookkeeping, help with your business credit, or even on getting your own virtual assistant.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Many others are feeling the pain of lower reach on posts. But these tips may help!
CREATE A HOOK
The first slide in your carousel or the headline of your post can make all the difference. Think of those items as an email subject line that would entice a subscriber to open the email!
ENTERTAIN
People are not on Social Media to get pitched products every few posts. Mix it up and find ways to surprise and delight your audience.
ENCOURAGE
Share an inspirational story or a favorite quote that impacted you in a low moment. You never know how it may encourage others.
EDUCATE
Go behind the scenes, share a tutorial, or post an industry tip that will help your audience save time.
CALL TO ACTION
End each post with some type of “call to action”. Let your audience know what the next step is!
LET’S RECAP
Hook
Entertain
Encourage
Educate
Call to Action
One of the best ways to implement these steps is by getting a Social Media Manager to manage your online platforms and keep track of your online presence and engagement.
Many people might need to file their taxes late because of the disruption of the pandemic. This could be a result of either not having an income as well as changes in your routine.
If you missed the deadline and had to file for an extension. Here are a few tips to help you keep your tax return on track before October 17.
GATHER all the documentation that you have and create a checklist of missing items.
MARK any estimated amount on the returns so you won’t forget to go back later.
KEEP your checklist UPDATED and ORGANIZE every time your receipts and other documentation arrive.
ENTER any estimated PAYMENTS you made when you asked for an extension.
Did not make the deadline and still need to file your taxes? No worries, Ingram Taxes is still accepting tax clients. If this is you, or someone you know, don’t hesitate to reach out so we are able to take care of you.
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Business and a brand are two different things. They may sometimes be used interchangeably but they are pretty different for entrepreneurs.
Business refers to the main purpose of a company, whereas branding is about generating value through the perceptions in people’s minds. It’s easy to see that a business is a company that sells a product. A brand is the way it presents itself, with its tone of voice, branding, and lifestyle. A brand is the business’s identity. It’s the part of the business that connects to the customers and builds lifelong connections.
Now that you know the difference between a business and a brand and why you need to be a brand, here’s how you can build a brand online to ensure longevity with your business.
This is where you’ll need to focus on getting the basics right if you want your company to grow. The basics of building a brand are:
Your why
—why does your business exist, and what is its purpose? Why are you doing what you’re doing and how does it matter to the world around you?
Mission statement
—What does your business promise to the customers? What is the mission of your brand? Why should people be interested in you?
The tone of voice
—How do you communicate with your customers—are you cheerful or serious? Casual or luxurious? Your language and tone matter when it comes to brand building, so spend the time honing your voice and what words you’re going to use when talking to your audience.
Visual branding
—There’s plenty of research that shows how colors can have a significant impact on how something is perceived. Younger generations are willing to pay more attention to the visibility and aesthetic aspects of products than older people, who usually focus more on the price. If you look at the success of makeup brand Glossier, a huge part of their success has been due to the careful packaging and branding of their products, as well as the dusty-pink color which is now known as Glossier pink.
Digital assets
—Digital assets include your landing pages, sales pages, and most importantly, your website. You have 0.5 seconds to make an impression on a person who first stumbled upon your website. Make sure that you manage your website well enough to attract high-quality clients.
Step 2: Be consistent
Building and maintaining consistency as a business is crucial. The key to success is showing up every day and doing what you do best. For this reason, it’s important that consistency is key if your brand is a top priority. Customers appreciate consistent branding over social channels and media. And research shows brands that are consistent seem to increase their revenue by 33%.
Showing up on your customer’s feeds consistently helps the customers to get to know your brand better. This, in turn, builds trust with them. Building trust is important because most customers need to trust the brand before they buy.
There are two ways you want to make sure your brand is consistent:
Showing up regularly for your customers and delivering on your promise
Visual brand consistency
Step 3: Choose your marketing channels
Marketing is essential to building a brand’s identity. When you start out, you might feel compelled to be on all the different platforms but it could be more prudent to instead start small and work your way up. It’s best to focus your efforts on two platforms. This will depend on the type of content you’re producing and where your audience hangs out. If you’ve done market research, then you’ll know where to reach them.
Set up your profiles, optimize them, and create a content strategy that will help you make connections with your target audience. This way, you’ll be present and consistent.
Step 4: Establish your presence as an expert in your niche
Fifty years ago, nobody cared who was behind the wheel, who was the driving force of a business. The change to 2021 means that customers care about the person behind the business and this provides an opportunity for you to be a real expert.
This can open up new opportunities. If you’re developing your own personal brand and becoming an expert in your field, you should build a network of experts to help each other grow. You’ll also want to dip into the audiences of some of those experts in order to get your message out there.
As a side business, you can jump on podcasts of people in your niche and guest blog on other websites. Let people know that you’re available to help them anytime with some insightful advice! If you do have a website with a blog, then allow guest blogs to be posted as well. This will build connections and cross-promoting between your audiences. There are many ways you can become an expert in your niche and build relationships with others. You just have to be willing to put yourself out there.
Step 5: Create a community
Your team of brand ambassadors will be the ones who are most interested and invested in your success. When you’re planning how to grow your presence online, think about building your community around your brand.
Building a strong community around your brand will allow you to do more with your business in the future. Imagine if you were able, by creating one social media account, to eventually release new content on a variety of other platforms, while attracting new followers to the things you have and do.
Building a brand takes a little extra work, but when it comes to a business that lasts, the input yields a high reward.
Would you like to make sure you are building your brand efficiently?
One of the best ways to build your brand is by getting a Social Media Manager to manage your online platforms and keep track of your online presence.
Creating more video content is one of the best ways to boost engagement and reach on Instagram. Especially if you are doing organic marketing. But if you are like me, or a lot of people in the community, you may find it difficult to be in front of the camera. Here are some different video ideas you can use for video content, without having to be on camera.
UNBOXING
Create a video of recently purchased products or UNBOXING of your products.
SLIDESHOW
Create a reel slideshow using your own photos with trendy music.
VOICEOVER
Use stock videos, add soft music, and share your message by doing a voiceover.
CREATE ANIMATION
Explain a concept through ANIMATED VIDEOS.
BEFORE AND AFTER
Utilizing photos of the before and after of your product or service, whatever it is that you do.
TIMELAPSE
With creative filming and video editing techniques, show a time-lapse of a product or service.Showing when it started to when it ended.
SCREEN CAPTURE
Record a video tutorial or documentary capturing your screen. Add music or a voiceover.
WHITEBOARD EXPLAINER
Explain a concept using whiteboard animation to make it more interesting.
Starting a small business is a massive but rewarding undertaking. Part of starting a small business is doing things in a way that makes the most sense to you, but a little guidance can help as well. Consider these tips for starting your own company and incorporate them as needed:
Start with a simple business plan and grow it as needed
One of the first things you should do as a small business owner is to develop a business plan. It’s vital that you develop this essential document to steer future work and hold yourself accountable, but it’s also important to not go too in-depth during the early stages of developing your concept.
Recognize your strengths and weaknesses
Every small business owner has certain skills, abilities, knowledge and experience that give them an edge when it comes time to build up a business and start operating it.
Understand your target customers and existing market
It’s possible to develop an excellent business concept and deploy it in the wrong area. That’s why it’s important to understand the area in which you want to start your small business as well as your target customers.
Focus on something you have a passion for
Having a passion for something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s your all-time favorite activity or type of business. It does mean that you won’t quickly grow tired of running that type of business, that parts of it appeal to you and, ideally, you can use some combination of existing knowledge or skills
Don’t be afraid to ask for help
Even when a business is on the right track, unexpected issues and chances for growth and improvement can quickly pop up. Addressing these problems and opportunities is critical for long-term stability and prosperity.
Would you like to make sure your business is operating efficiently? Whether you need a website click funnel created, business structure, bookkeeping, help with your business credit, or even on getting your own virtual assistant.
Each day brings a set of tasks that needs to be accomplished. May it be personal or professional, we all carry around little to-do lists in our heads that generally dictate how our day will go. As a business owner, you need to know how to delegate certain tasks to help you focus on things you should be doing to grow your business. Here’s a list of tasks you can outsource or delegate to a Virtual Assistant.
Administrative Tasks
These repetitive daily tasks may not have a significant impact on your business’ growth but they are needed to keep things running smoothly. These are also time-consuming and can distract you from doing the more crucial tasks needed in your company. Most business owners outsource this through Virtual Assistants (VAs). These remotely-based skilled professionals can perform a variety of administrative tasks such as:
Data encoding
Data organization
Report generation
Online researching
Powerpoint presentations
Template and forms creation
Personal calendar management
Email maintenance (subject to your guidelines)
Project management tasks
Content Writing
Writing takes a lot of time and research. Although ideas are a dime a dozen, the way you communicate it will be the main thing that will differentiate you from the rest. Online marketing involves a huge amount of writing from blogs, social media posts, emails, etc. You need writers who can come up with interesting articles and punchy lines that involve the following but are not limited to:
The pool of writers available for you is just as good and qualified as your native English writers. Not to mention that you can get them at a significantly lower hourly rate. Who knows? You’re probably a click away from your personal wordsmith across the globe!
Graphic and Web Design
These tasks require a specific skill set and some degree of experience. Delegating these designing tasks can help you focus on the ideas you want for your site or other marketing collateral while letting your designers come up with studies for you. Creativity has no limits but it also comes with a price tag. By outsourcing these design tasks, you can save a lot of time and money, too.
Logo design
Brochure creation
Site design (banners, headers, and sidebars)
Flash presentation
Newsletter layout
Sales and marketing collaterals design
SEO Marketing
Online marketing is a lot of ground to cover. One of its most valuable aspects is SEO marketing. You need people who can execute and maintain this for you. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps your ranking in Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. High-quality content coupled with SEO management results in increased site traffic and ranking. Having a delegated VA doing this for you will help you to be consistently ahead of the SEO game. With constant monitoring and management, your business can thrive with the help of these outsourced online tasks:
Site optimization
Keyword backlinks or link building
Webmaster supervision
Sitemap submissions
Social bookmarking and tracking (Reddit, Stumble Upon, Digg, etc.)
Traffic and ranking reports
Forum moderation
Social Media Management
With most of your clients glued to social media, the need to be active and interactive is more crucial than ever. Social media involves real-time communication with your customers. You need to be able to monitor the latest buzz and the trending news in order to determine its effects on your business or target market. Having said that, you need someone who will devote her time and energy to managing your social media accounts. It will be too much load to pass it on to your marketing personnel who probably already have their hands full. Your social media VA can help you cover the following tasks:
Manage Twitter posts
Monitor retweets, mentions, and replies
Facebook page management
Monitor likes and shares
Reply to comments
Consolidate complaint reports
Post scheduling and curating
Content promotion
It wouldn’t be long before the Internet totally changes the dynamics of our workforce. With outsourcing leveling the playing field of the global work industry, we see the rise of mixed teams collaborating both in-house and remotely. The need for smart delegation is the game-changer in this ongoing work shift. Outsourcing these tasks and more will help you increase your productivity, spend your resources wisely, focus on maximizing your business’ potential, and ultimately, usher in its growth.
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