Author: Complete Controller

You want to pay the mortgage on your home, but you cannot for one reason or another. Falling short is a norm for mortgage payers as they stumble upon one issue or the other. Those who end up paying with success are the lucky ones. You may be wondering why paying a mortgage is such a big deal. It is for various reasons, some of which you have experienced. It is time to end your worries about how to pay the mortgage on time. 

Paying a mortgage is no more a problem than it once was using digital payment methods as we are going through a digital transformation phase. Soon, we will see more modern ways of making payments, but for now, let us discuss the idea of paying mortgages using the digital payment method. 

Digital Transformation 101

Using innovation is a human desire that drives the passion for developing new technologies. The idea is to make things as easy as possible, knowing that’s the only way forward. However, paying off a mortgage has always remained a huge problem for those who took it from lenders to purchase a property, a car, or another asset. A lump sum is one thing, but paying it in installments should be manageable for many.

Unfortunately, this is not the case, as people experience trouble paying the amount they owe to the moneylender. Handling issues related to mortgage payments should be a walk in the park, which it is not. Knowing that you will have difficulty paying the mortgage for one reason or another, it is best to use digital payment methods. How about using a digital point-of-sale system to pay the mortgage? It sounds feasible and doable, as the tech is mature enough that you can trust it.

Paying Mortgage Using Digital methods

Remember the yesteryears when you had to wait for your turn for hours to pay your rent and mortgage installments? Much has changed since then as we live on the brink of digital transformation. With everything going digital, using digital payment methods for a mortgage payment is no more difficult. You must check with the moneylender if paying installments utilizing this method is acceptable.

Paying Using Point of Sale Terminal

Point-of-sale terminals are now becoming common for a variety of reasons. The system works by combining software with hardware and provides excellent functionality. The POS device will take and process the payment using state-of-the-art payment processing techniques. The POS will also provide a confirmation message notifying you and the lender. You can make payments without worrying about slow processing and waiting your turn to pay the installment.

Digital payment methods also provide safe and efficient processing of your transactions without compromising security. These systems use a hassle-free and seamless loan application that improves customer experience. The application also offers handy tools such as a mortgage calculator that you can use to calculate the exact amount you have to pay until the next installment is due.

We are also considering the possibility of incorporating a live chat option in digital payment apps. This method would allow customers to communicate with lenders directly, discuss mortgage payments, and inform them whether they have yet to make the payment.

Less Time and More Profit

Leveraging digital technology can prove beneficial in many ways. Speedy payments of transactions will reduce operational costs and increase productivity. The process also improves transparency in a variety of ways. The statement is accessible to both parties, i.e., the money lender and receiver, so both know the amount paid and how much you still need to pay.

Another benefit of using digital payment methods is the automation process. Users can now pick the time they want to make the payment without worrying about payment delays and other mishaps common with manual systems.

Conclusion 

In short, it is worth noting that paying your mortgage using a digital payment system is worth looking into. Pay your mortgage reliably, safely, and with confidence. Use cutting-edge digital payment systems and stop worrying about discrepancies when paying your mortgage.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Customer experience and engagement can either build your brand or damage its reputation. Customer satisfaction is critical to an organization’s success, regardless of size. A great customer experience has the potential to build a relationship with loyal customers. Customer engagement is not limited to sales; it starts before that and needs to be treated as a priority element.   

Businesses Want Customer Engagement 

Customer experience and engagement build your online presence through customer reviews, image sharing, and storytelling. Positive reviews help you interact with your brand on social media platforms. Consumer advocacy played a critical role in many organizations’ success. C-suite ensures organizations have smooth and unified functioning to achieve their goals and provide an ultimate customer experience.

Ways C-suite Executives Can Enhance Customer Experience and Engagement

Employee First 

Top-functioning organizations constantly search for ways of improving customer experience. Doubtlessly, user feedback is crucial and worthy of executives’ attention regarding customer engagement enhancement. Feedback from clients, employees, consumers, vendors, suppliers, and other stakeholders helps design a better customer service strategy.

Your employees are the most important stakeholders, as they are directly linked to your customers. You might wonder how employees can improve customer engagement and experience. Satisfied and motivated employees work harder and develop unique ideas to improve the customer experience.

On the contrary, unsatisfied and demotivated employees are unproductive at work and are less likely to suggest suitable ideas. For example, imagine an underpaid employee working at a call center. Will he pleasantly greet the customers, or will he work additionally to satisfy customers? Most likely not.

First, C-suite executives must actively improve employee engagement and satisfaction. Introducing company-wide achievement programs is a simple way to keep your employees engaged. This will help your employees grow and provide professional training for their career advancement.

After receiving employees’ feedback, you must recognize consistent and relevant themes to focus on for improvement. Even past employees can contribute valuable feedback. The feedback system also allows opportunities to interact with every employee personally.

Consistent Message 

Inconsistent messages and narratives can confuse your customers regarding your brand’s mission and vision. Be clear and concise with your brand message, as it reflects your company’s values. If your marketing team promotes your products and services through unprofessional slides, it will not make sense to your customers.  

A poor digital experience and inconsistent branding can send your consumers to your competitors. Users typically trust brands with a consistent message across all platforms, whether physical or online. Mixed or inconsistent messages confuse consumers and damage your brand’s image. To ensure a great customer experience and engagement, you must create a consistent narrative that grabs your user’s attention.

Social Media Platforms 

The increased use of the internet and smartphones has digitally transformed organizations. Building an emotional connection with users is the key to sustaining a business. Social media platforms are the best mediums for customer and brand interaction. Whether healthcare, user goods, media, or entertainment, social media channels help improve customer experience and engagement.

These social platforms allow people to interact with your brand, provide feedback, share experiences, tell their stories, and raise questions. Brands can build their digital presence by designing a successful social media strategy, but C-suite executives must implement technology to maintain it. 

Consider Consumer Challenges

To deliver exceptional user service, you need to consider negative reviews about your brand. This not only helps enhance customer experience and engagement but also identifies the root cause of negative feedback. Management can collect feedback from across different channels through tools such as surveys and polls.

A company needs to go beyond identifying the root cause of dissatisfaction and devise a strategy for improving it. This step completely changes the overall consumer experience. C-suite executives must leverage the collected data to improve user service and make certain improvements in the required areas.

Customer experience and engagement are shared responsibilities that can benefit your business when integrated with top-tier management. Consumer thinking, reviews, and experiences are beyond a brand’s control and can potentially shape your company’s image. When C-suite executives implement a customer service strategy across the organization, every employee is responsible for it and contributes to results.   

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Are you a leader or a manager? You might think there is no difference between the two; however, several traits make a project leader different from a project manager. Today, companies have divided their activities into different projects, for which they hire a project management team led by a manager. Company policies, size, and management highlight the difference between project managers and project leaders.  

Role and Responsibilities of a Project Manager

A manager is a professional responsible for project management, meeting deadlines, and organizing the team. A project manager is responsible for the fulfillment of the following duties:

• Implementation of the product strategy, product improvement, and cost management
• Scheduling the projects and setting up the deadlines
• Track project deliveries and keep the stakeholders updated
• Overseeing the project budget
• Documentation and staff management
• Resolving issues of the team
• Conducting quality assurance tests
• Identifying potential risks and preparing a mitigation plan

Role and Responsibilities of a Project Leader

A leader is a professional who leads, motivates, and builds a healthy relationship with team members. He is responsible for maintaining a productive work environment to boost the team’s productivity. The responsibilities of a project leader are given below:

• Attending meetings
• Keeping track of the team’s progress and preparing a progress report
• Keeping the team motivated and focused
• Product testing
• Team briefing and communication
• Resolving conflicts and barriers in the project completion
• Provide emotional support to team members
• Maintain a positive work environment

A project leader can also become a project manager by regularly dealing with technical tasks and motivating the team to perform best. On the other end, the manager cannot become a leader. Although their tasks are the same, i.e., to manage the project, their roles differ.

Here are the main traits of a project manager that make him different from a project leader.

Meeting Deadlines

The project manager follows the approach of deadline meetings; if there is a due date, it must be completed on time. The project manager focuses on the fact that everyone is here to do their job, so they must do it properly.

Tactical Approach

The manager assesses the project budget, tracks schedules and deadlines, maintains documentation, manages Human Resources (HR) or staff-related issues, and keeps his team organized.

Progress Reporting 

The professional is responsible for providing updates on the project deliveries, progress, and bottlenecks in completing the project.

Has Less Freedom

Managers do not have too much freedom, so they cannot focus on people’s needs or care for them. Their only job is to manage the project efficiently.

Here are some traits of the leader that make them different from a manager.

Leads People

A project leader provides essential information to his people. He is always there to help people in case of any problems and acts as a guide for his team.

Focus on Project Outcomes 

A leader is focused on the project outcomes rather than the project completion. They are more interested in knowing how a project affects people, why it affects people and possible solutions. They ensure the project’s perfect delivery and take care of the details that improve it.

Followed by A Vision

The leader has a vision and works with people to achieve it. Leaders motivate people, give them ideas and hints, listen to them, and fulfill their needs. They also pay greater attention to their employees‘ feelings and try to understand them.

He ensures a productive and educational work environment so that his people can maximize their productivity and dedication. They possess outstanding leadership skills.

Has More Freedom

A leader has more freedom than a manager; they can give orders to people and guide them. He is not limited to project management and completion; he leads people and the project.

Add Value 

A leader adds value to his or her team by encouraging teamwork. The professional appreciates every team member’s contribution to the project and makes them feel valued and worthy. This keeps the team members motivated and satisfied with their work.   

Which Role is Best? 

A project manager or project leader has roles and responsibilities and fulfills them according to their predefined traits. Sometimes, managing a project or people becomes difficult, but both positions are related to aspects of leadership. Leadership is an essential element of project management, and both a manager and a leader must possess leadership skills for the project to be completed efficiently. Whether you are a project manager or a project leader, enhance productivity.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

We live in a consumer-driven world with messages right, left, and center, trying to convince us to buy all kinds of products or services. Thanks to the dramatic evolution of digital technology, the retail sector has witnessed several profound changes over the past few decades.

Below are cutting-edge digital marketing tricks to drive profits in the retail sector.

Adopt an Omnichannel Marketing Approach

The omnichannel approach involves streamlining the entire marketing process. This significantly improves integration and provides customers with a consistent and personalized experience. You can achieve this goal as a retailer by linking online and in-store purchase experiences. Another benefit of an omnichannel marketing approach is that it allows you to map your entire buyer journey. For instance, you can identify touchpoints differentiating between a potential sale and a missed opportunity.

Integrate Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence has opened a whole new avenue of opportunities for retail businesses to market their products and services and attract new customers. One of the most popular applications of this technology has been chatbots that provide seamless customer service. Artificial Intelligence (AI) bots are highly effective at resolving simple queries quickly. Also, they can direct complex questions that need a human touch to the appropriate channels. Several studies show that the top three benefits of chatbots are 24-hour customer service, instant responses, and answers to simple queries.

Use Data to Improve Customer Experience

As a retail business owner, you can access large amounts of data. If you actively use this data to target prospective customers and optimize their experience, you can dramatically increase sales. As such, you must be willing to invest in a data specialist to obtain useful insights. Next, you need to apply the data where it is needed. Research suggests that customer experience is the top distinguishing factor for people to prefer one brand over another. Thus, it is best to use data to tailor the experience of customers.

Invest in Employee Digital Training

You may have staff with the necessary training to keep up with all the latest digital developments. However, there always remains potential for their further professional development. This is especially true if you plan to introduce new systems or update existing processes. Invest in your employees’ digital proficiency and see how it pays you dividends in the long term.

Develop a Customer-Centric Culture

There is no doubt that technology has entirely revolutionized today’s consumer culture. However, remember that they should always cater to your customer’s needs, whatever the new developments are. It would help if you strived to create a customer-centric model for your business. You should understand your customer’s journey and establish a connection between their digital and in-store experiences. This could include various factors, from ensuring the online payments are working smoothly to checking if customers’ queries are being addressed efficiently.

Optimize Processes for Cellular Devices

In this digital age, everyone has a cellular device they use regularly, so you must take advantage of this opportunity to reach potential customers. Research reveals that people use their phones even when shopping inside stores. Around 80% of customers will look up reviews and compare prices inside a shop. You can capitalize on this opportunity by optimizing processes for cellular devices. For example, you should have an active social media presence so buyers can successfully engage with your brand when looking for feedback from other customers.

Offer In-Store Wi-Fi

Finally, you should provide buyers with an in-store Wi-Fi facility to differentiate your brand from similar retail businesses. Studies show that 62% of retail stores that offer free Wi-Fi service to shoppers note they stay longer in stores. You can also use Wi-Fi to collect crucial data from your customers. For example, ask them for an email address, phone number, or other helpful contact information or product preferences in exchange for a Wi-Fi password.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the digital age provides many opportunities to enhance your retail business’s sales. Some of the digital marketing tips that you should use for your brand’s promotion are adopting an omnichannel approach, integrating artificial intelligence, using data to improve customer experience, investing in staff’s digital training, developing a customer-centric culture, optimizing for mobile phones, and offering free Wi-Fi to shoppers in your store. These tips can positively impact your retail business’s success.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Determining the level of business funding needed for your business is necessary. The requirement is based on the stage of your business’s growth.

Businesses must take a long-term view when considering the funding their business requires. It is essential that the amount of funding is enough for all stages of the business’s development; otherwise, there is a risk of your business shutting down in one of its development stages.

The Importance of a Good Management Team

Your business needs a competent management team with the right skills and the ability to increase your business’s potential. The skills may include managing finances, marketing, sales, production of goods, licensing, and additional skills necessary for your business goals.

Some entrepreneurs can recognize a business’s strengths and weaknesses. They help plan around your business’s weaknesses and utilize your business’s strengths, which may help you secure a good investment.

Now, freelancers have made it much easier for businesses to hire individuals for their specific skills. You must consider what skills your team may have and what needs to be brought in, and be open-minded about the relationship you have established with your team so everyone on the payroll is an asset to the establishment.

Establish a Practical Business Valuation 

It is tough for early-stage businesses to determine their value. However, there are certain steps you can take to approach and evaluate. For example:

• A well-thought-out and good business idea by itself: $12,000 roughly
• An idea along with a business plan: roughly $60,000
• Both the above, along with a good team and relevant resume, $300,000
• All of the above, including a sale of $600,000 and above

It would be best if you remembered to be realistic, make sure you can justify the valuation, and not be greedy. It is better to have a business with a low budget than to not have one at all.

Have a Unique Selling Point

It is important to ensure no one else is doing the same thing as you. Do your research in the field in which you wish to start a business before you make any important decisions unless your Unique Selling Point (USP) offers something better than your competitors.

If you are certain that your product is unique, then you have a higher position, and you have what it takes to establish your brand. You must research the market and your competition and put yourself in your competitors’ shoes to understand how they might respond to you entering the market.

Back Yourself Up Legally 

It is essential to appoint a lawyer with experience working with small businesses. It may not seem essential, but having legal expertise on the team will help you avoid getting ‘ripped off’ by experiences with bad clients or external factors.

It is good to ensure the solicitor you have chosen has relevant experience and that the fees you pay are proportional to the size of your investment and do not fluctuate too much.

Finding an Investor 

‘Bagging,’ an investment, is a category of a regulated activity that can only be carried out by firms authorized to do so by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Your FSA-approved firm must authorize the information of your business. It is a criminal act to approach an investor on a personal basis. It can result in the individual being personally responsible for any losses the investor suffers unless the individual has obtained specific certifications from the investor before seeking an investment.

FSA aims to protect both companies and investors by regulating the method of financial service providers’ operations, keeping an eye out for integrity, skill, care, and diligence with which the company runs, and the abilities of the people delivering services. The regulations under FSA put down the agenda within which approaches to the investors must operate to fulfill the requirements of the ‘Financial Services and Market Act‘ (FiSMA).

Find a reputable corporate finance house with a good track record, and remember to ask them the right questions. No question is too small or too detailed. It is the firm’s job to respond to any legal queries that you may have.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Inbound marketing is a highly effective way to attract more customers to your business and build loyalty to your products and services. It entails email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, content marketing, and more tools to increase your brand’s outreach.

Below are eight essential components that make up a magnetic inbound marketing strategy.

Create Detailed Customer Personas

Inbound marketing is all about your customers, and if you do not focus on your buyers’ needs and expectations, your brand will compete in the market. So, it would help if you created well-defined and realistic customer personas that contain all relevant information about their buying history, behaviors, issues, and even thought processes. Your entire inbound marketing strategy must revolve around the buyer personas to outperform your competition.

Understand Your Client’s Pain Points 

Resolving buyer issues is another critical component of your inbound marketing strategy. It is important to understand how your customers feel when interacting with your brand and what problems they may face. Identify their problems before approaching you, and they will become loyal consumers.

Note Your Inbound Marketing Goals 

No marketing strategy can work without SMART goals in place. SMART is an acronym detailing goal-setting characteristics and stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time–Bound. So, if customer retention is your primary concern right now, much of your effort should go into devising a SMART goal and measurement mechanism that keeps your clients loyal to the brand. Also, your key performance indicators (KPIs) should be achievable and realistic based on your marketing campaigns’ previous successes and failures. This is the only way you can boost your clientele numbers.

Identify Your Content Marketing Strategy 

Content is a critical part of your inbound marketing strategy. It is best to define your content strategy early on so you can keep your clients engaged with your products and services and provide them with rich, meaningful information. Furthermore, it would be best to do some competitor analysis to determine the types of content your competition is posting. This will give you a clearer idea of the content landscape in the industry.

Establish a Lead Nurturing Mechanism 

It is common for people to visit multiple websites or social media pages to kill spare time. As a result, you will receive online viewers who are not ready to buy just yet but are browsing online. They may require more time to warm up to your brand, so it is your job to devise an effective lead nurturing plan to keep them engaged with your brand and ultimately drive them to buy from you. Email campaigns are usually considered an excellent way to nurture prospective customers. Find out what works for your business and then follow it rigorously.

Devise an Influencer Outreach Plan 

The growing influencer culture can also benefit your brand in numerous ways. You may not have many followers if you are a newly established business in the market. To compensate for that, you can capitalize on the quality relationships influencers have built in the industry. It is a great way to quickly tap into new markets and grow your clientele.  

Build an SEO Agenda 

If you want more of your targeted audience to find your brand online and buy your products and services, you must invest in a good SEO strategy. No matter how high the quality of your offerings or how unique your content appears, your business may not do very well if your site does not appear on the first page of search engine rankings. A solid SEO plan would help drive more organic searches.

Decide How to Report and Analyze the Results 

After establishing your inbound marketing strategy, you will need to figure out how to record and analyze its results. For example, will you employ Google Analytics to record your conversions? The tools you decide to use for reporting the progress of your goals will also significantly impact the overall success of your strategy, so choose wisely.

Conclusion

An inbound strategy is a highly effective method of garnering more clients and boosting brand recognition. Some of the key components of a magnetic inbound strategy are creating customer personas, understanding customers’ pain points, identifying inbound marketing goals, establishing a lead nurturing plan, identifying content strategy, devising an influencer outreach plan, building an SEO schedule, and determining the tools to report and analyze the results.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Unlock the potential of effective restaurant management by steering clear of six toxic phrases that undermine team performance and business sales. From dismissing problem-solving to avoiding accountability, these phrases can erode your leadership impact. Learn how to foster a positive and productive environment for your team’s success in the dynamic world of restaurant management.

“Solve It Yourself”

If your staff knew how to solve it, they would probably not ask you for help, do you think?

If you do not tell him how to fix it, the situation in the restaurant will get worse. Remember that not all your employees have the same experience or capacity as you and that each restaurant is a world.

Remember that you are in charge and that making your staff efficient and productive is part of your job. When doubt is solved, your team will have a solution for the future and prevent that problem from happening again.

“No Problem”

Any phrase that starts with a negative word is usually doomed. Two are harmful when you say, “No problem,” deep down, you say there is a problem. Suppose using this expression becomes a norm in your restaurant, and your staff is accustomed to it. In that case, a customer can misinterpret it when the server uses it without maintaining visual contact with it and in a flat and carefree tone.

“You Should”

There are too many things you “should do” in your restaurant and your personal life. You should eat healthier, sleep better, and train your staff to sell more, but you do not finish doing them.

When you address your team using this word instead of others, such as ” I need you to do this ” or ” You must do that, ” you allow them to set the priorities that best suit you instead of doing what you or your clients need. And this ends up being a problem.

Most likely, your employees do so with the best intentions but still receive your complaints because they did not do what you asked them to do when you did not clarify what they had to do.

“This Is What There Is”

Sometimes, we are unaware of how words can hurt someone. This very toxic phrase is said too much when explaining a new rule or policy to team members. If someone asks you for clarification about a new procedure that, for example, will change your work, the most normal thing is that you solve your doubts.

If they understand the reason for the measure, their work will be easier to perform. From the perspective of restaurant management, this phrase will also weaken your ability to lead the team.

Whether you need convincing about the measures you are going to adopt or do not understand them, an explanation will help them put themselves in your place, understand the pros and cons, and be empathic.

“That Will Not Work”

Really? How do you know? Have you considered that maybe your staff worked for them before? Have you tried different approaches?

The fact that you manage a restaurant will make you aware of the situation in the hospitality sector (or at least it should be) and give you access to other people’s experiences who have the same dedication.

But if you’ve heard that such a restaurant started a strategy that did not work for you or that you applied another one that did not give good results, it does not mean that the one you are now proposing, or a different perspective, cannot be successful.

“Have You Not Seen This?”

“Have you seen the empty coffee cup on the table?” “Did you see that table 7 is calling you?” “Did you see that the plates are ready to leave the kitchen?”

Yes. Your staff almost certainly saw it. It most likely hasn’t been addressed yet because your employee was in the middle of something else. If you manage your team with this question, employees will feel attacked and criticized if you continue to make assumptions.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

When starting a business, the first factor is deciding if an external investment is necessary. Check your metrics, projections, industry size, and the actual market opportunity for your company. Once you complete this analysis, if you determine it is necessary, ensure you know exactly how much you need and under what terms you will be willing to accept this investment. Please do not make the mistake of assuming any amount without knowing the fund from which it comes. In some cases, due to lack of experience, we give up too much shareholding, which could be a wrong economic decision for you.

An investment round requires an approximate time of six months, during which you will look for investors who want to participate, make presentations, have several negotiations, and finally manage to raise the necessary capital. Think that during those six months, at minimum, your company should be able to support itself. Otherwise, what can happen is that you start the investment round. 

Still, before you can even close negotiations with a first investor, your company is in bankruptcy, forcing you to complete. If you manage to survive those first six months, your first round of investment should be able to keep you for six more months. This term, you should get sustained growth of 3 years, and after this time, you will reach an equilibrium point from which your company can have a higher income than expenses, and then you will have growth possibilities.

Now that you know exactly how much capital you need for your business, we share these five steps.

Approach Investment Funds

These companies are dedicated to injecting capital into new companies in search of new business options. Once you choose a fund, it won’t be easy to convince them to invest if you don’t have a well-developed business plan that shows them the growth options and goals you are targeting. An important detail is choosing a fund that may be interested in your company’s turn. How to know: Enter their website and meet other projects they have invested in. 

It will also help you connect with other entrepreneurs who have received investments from that fund, with whom you can talk about the benefits they received. Another option is online investment funds, which have other services to better approach your search. Or, for example, you can look for crowdfunding options such as Kickstarter or Fondeadora, through which users invest a small amount that when added, achieves the capital you need.

Prepare Your Material 

Collect all the information and data you think can help you make a compelling business presentation. Perform an in-depth analysis of your company’s current finances, organized and audited by an accountant, which allows you to present the current situation and generate realistic projections. Do market research that will enable you to explain to investors why your business is a good investment option, which will have optimal results in the short, medium, and long term.

Leave a Good Impression

Once you have chosen the fund you want to approach, plan how you will present your business. You only have one chance to leave a good impression that captivates them and gives them reasons to believe in you and your company. Ideally, create a short presentation that explains through a story the problem, the existing market opportunity, the solution you propose, and why you are the best solution available. Establish the competitive advantages that your company offers, what you have achieved so far, and future objectives. Remember that investors will invest in you in new business, so communicate as clearly and effectively as possible. Explain your investment needs and the share percentage you are willing to assign.

Be Patient 

Resolutions on this type of investment are not overnight. Allow investors to evaluate your proposal and give you an answer on time. Once received, review the options offered and negotiate the points you disagree with. Remember that the business is yours at the end of the day, and you mustn’t risk your motivation and push to get an investment that is not necessarily what you need.

Get to Work

Once the capital is received, please do not use it to pay your salary or your partners. This investment must be for the growth of the business. I intend to achieve the results proposed to your investors in the shortest possible time so that you present yourself as a case of success and be subject to the second round of investment if necessary.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Digital marketing has opened new opportunities for businesses to reach their targeted audience and boost conversion rates and sales. With so many choices available, it could be overwhelming for a marketer to pick the right ones. This piece looks at the most effective digital marketing channels for your business and elaborates on their pros and cons.

Content Marketing

Content is the driving force behind every digital marketing strategy. Research suggests that organizations that use content marketing have a market share of 91%. People consume a considerable amount of online content daily, whether through blog posts or YouTube videos. Similarly, when your customers follow and support your brand, they expect to receive regular posts that offer insights, special offers, etc.

What are the pros of content marketing?

Content marketing has the following advantages:

• It requires minimal technical skills
• It can be adapted for multiple channels
• It boosts search engine optimization

What are the cons of content marketing?

Content marketing may have the following drawbacks:

• It requires comprehensive organization, especially if multiple authors are involved
• It can be a challenge to create unique and relevant content regularly
• It requires a publisher’s mindset

To boost your business through an effective content marketing strategy, you should keep in mind the following guidelines:

• Understand what your audience demands
• Weave a narrative around your content
• Keep publishing new content

Social Media Marketing

Over the past few years, social media has grown from merely a medium for socializing to a powerful digital marketing tool. Social media marketing entails strategically using social media channels to promote your business and reach your targeted audience. More and more companies are now resorting to social media marketing and advertising.

What are the benefits of social media marketing?

Social media marketing has the following advantages:

• It is relatively low-cost
• It gives your brand a unique voice
• Provides access to a larger audience

What are the drawbacks of social media marketing?

In contrast, social media marketing may have the following pitfalls:

• It can generate negative publicity for your business
• It takes a long time to get a return on investment
• May dilute your brand voice

If you want to attract new clients and tap into potential markets, your brand must have a highly effective social media marketing strategy.

Let’s see how you can develop one using the following tips:

• Create content that adds value to your client’s life
• Keep your social media marketing consistent
• Weave a narrative around your brand

Video Marketing

Online viewers love watching videos. Latest estimates suggest that in 2018, U.S. advertisers spent around 31% of the digital marketing budget on video marketing. It shows marketers’ significant inclination toward video marketing to acquire potential leads and convert them into loyal customers.

What are the advantages of video marketing?

Video marketing has several pros, some of which are:

• It instantly grabs attention
• Has high engagement and conversion rates
• It is highly compatible with cellular devices

What are the disadvantages of video marketing?

• Video production may be time-consuming
• Videos can be brutal to update
• Video overhead may be costly

Here are a few essential tips to make a stellar video marketing strategy for your business:

• Start with an end goal in mind
• Find your targeted audience
• Follow the latest trends

Email Marketing

Email marketing is the way to go if you want to reach out to new leads and grow your clientele. Although email generates only low to medium return on investment, it’s the only tool where you can experiment with the changing content marketing trends.

What are the pros of email marketing?

Here are a few benefits of email marketing for your business:

• It is very cost-effective
• It can be scaled up at your convenience
• It has a high conversion rate

What are the cons of email marketing?

Email marketing has the following disadvantages:

• Your recipients can get irritated and delete your emails
• Poorly designed emails may remain undelivered
• It requires adequate technical skills

Here are a few tips to help you establish the perfect email marketing plan:

• Pick the right email marketing tools
• Define your goals
• Keep your emails brief, catchy, and informative

The Bottom Line

If you want your business to expand and reach your targeted audience, you must use digital marketing tools. Each tool, however, has both pros and cons. It would help if you weighed both aspects of each before opting for one.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Effective cash flow management is essential for the smooth running of businesses because it determines how much money is coming in and going out of the company. It is crucial for all sorts of companies but is very central to the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises. For SMEs, it is necessary to have enough money to pay their creditors and avoid extended cash shortages, mainly caused by a massive difference between cash inflows and outflows.

Cash flow management is quite a daunting task and requires a critical and sometimes miserly approach too. Even with all the sales targets being reached and your profits soaring higher than ever, your company can risk encountering cash flow issues that hinder day-to-day operations. 

Issues in cash flow generally arise when payables are due before receivables. This means you won’t have enough cash to pay off your monthly payroll or subscriptions until your next payment arrives. This is why managing cash flow in a small and medium-sized business is crucial. 

Here are the top tips to help you improve your cash flow. 

Lease Don’t Buy

To someone who is only paying attention to the bottom line, leasing supplies, equipment, and real estate is usually more expensive than buying. But unless your company is flush with cash, you’ll want to maintain a cash stream for day-to-day operations. By leasing, you pay in small increments, which helps improve cash flow. A bonus is that lease payments are a business expense that you can write off on your taxes. 

Pay Off High Debt Payments First

Having high debts causes difficulty in managing the cash flows and is a common problem a company faces, especially for new and small businesses. The leading cause of this problem is usually a high-priced loan with higher interest rates taken from the bank. Because of this, the net inflows reduce, which causes you to pay the debts from your profits and retained earnings, which can further lead your business into a deficit. The best solution to having extensive debts can be refinancing your loans. Refinancing the loans means replacing the high-interest-rate loan with a lower-interest-rate loan, reducing the payments by decreasing the interest rate.

Moreover, suppose the business must make higher payments. In that case, you can also consider cutting other overhead expenses, such as finding a cheaper supplier to reduce your sales costs. You can also increase the selling price of your products, increasing the return on capital employed, further increasing your inflows, leading you to pay your debts relatively quickly. 

Optimize Your Costs

Usually, for small businesses, debts aren’t too high, or most likely, you are only spending on things you need to run your business. However, if your debts are getting out of control, it’s about time that you look at your financial statement and analyze your costs. Start with looking at the subscriptions your business can do without, or you are rarely the ones you barely use. 

Unsubscribe from all such subscriptions. Cut down on office decorations and other expenses that add to your budget. Negotiate the payment terms with vendors and agree on a discounted or flat rate to minimize outsourcing costs. You can also eliminate any assets, such as that delivery van you rarely use. Marketing costs are another significant component that takes up a lot of additional budget. Optimize your advertising campaigns and switch to more cost-effective marketing methods such as social media. 

Reassess Your Customer Payment Terms

If your payment terms give your clients the leverage of several weeks in making payments for products and services purchased, now is the time when you might want to reassess those payment terms. Reduce the payment time by half, so you get payments earlier, thus helping you boost your company’s financial standing instantly. 

Conclusion

Effective cash flow management is indispensable for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) businesses, as it dictates the balance between incoming and outgoing funds crucial for financial stability. Despite achieving sales targets, cash flow challenges can emerge when payables precede receivables. The provided strategies, including leasing instead of buying, prioritizing high-interest debt repayment through refinancing, optimizing costs, and reassessing customer payment terms, offer practical solutions for SMEs to enhance their cash flow. These measures empower businesses to maintain operational efficiency, promptly meet financial obligations, and navigate the complexities of cash flow management, ensuring sustained financial well-being.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.