Ben Francia

How to Avoid Work From Home Burnout

2020-05-29T06:35:05Z

Recently, the World Health Organization has recognized workplace burnout as an occupational phenomenon. While not exactly classified as a medical condition, the “symptoms” of this phenomenon can definitely affect the way a person functions every day. These symptoms can be any of the following: aches and pains (particularly in the back and head area), sleeplessness and or chronic anxiety.

Given these, it goes without saying that burnout is something that a lot of professionals and business owners experience these days. Unsurprisingly, people who work from home can experience it. So long as the stresses of work and career aren’t properly managed, burnouts will be a recurring issue.

While it’s virtually impossible to avoid stress from work, being able to manage it is certainly doable. If you’d like to avoid, or at the very least, manage these symptoms of work from home burnout, here are a few things you can do.

Create Clear Boundaries Between Work and Life

In any aspect of life and relationships, boundaries need to be observed in order to keep things healthy. The same can be said about working from home. In an environment where the line between career and life is blurred by the daily demands of work and the comfort of home, putting up boundaries can be difficult but not impossible.

As a start, physically separating work from life is an absolute must. Doing this gives you more control over your circumstances considering how the line between these two aspects in life is thinned by the work from home setup. Getting a room specifically meant for work helps in this regard, as it allows you to stay focused and block out potential distractions.

Once you’ve put up physical boundaries, it’ll be much easier to say no to certain requests since you can physically lock yourself out of work. When it comes to agreements, make it clear to your clients or colleagues that you log out of work at a specific time. Unless otherwise necessary, work tasks and deliverables can be planned out.

Have Regular Breaks

Regardless of the nature business or the kind of work you do, working for hours on straight bereft of any kind of break can be physically and mentally taxing. It drains the inspiration from those who are passionate about what they do and it stresses out those who just want to make a living. In a nutshell, having people work 8 hours with just one single lunch break is draining and can definitely lead to more symptoms of burnout.

Breaks are crucial if you want to preserve your passion for what you do and manage stress from work. This allows you to reset your mind and body for tasks within the day. As a general rule, productive organizations require its members to take a lunch break and two 15 minute breaks.

Another productive way of taking breaks is to follow the Pomodoro Technique. Essentially, it is a method that requires you to work for chunks of up to 25 minutes and take 5-minute breaks afterwards. After four of these cycles (they are also known as pomodoros), you could take longer breaks of up to 15 to 20 minutes. This is particularly helpful specially for those who work eight hours per day as it fits very well with having two 15-minute breaks and one lunch break.

In Work and Life, Stay Focused

One common cause of people extending hours at work is because they want to make up for lost time. They lost this time because they’re either attending to a matter outside of work, that of which can be a range of things or they’ve had to attend to another work-related matter that’s not scheduled for the day. These distractions are a major inhibitor of productivity and, in a world of decreasing attention spans, it might lead to people spending more hours in front of a monitor than with family and loved ones.

The solution of course is to eliminate potential causes of distractions both at work AND in life. Work-wise, having your phone in silent mode and going off only in particular life and death situations is strongly recommended. Blocking social media platforms that you know you’ll get distracted by for a certain amount of time can be considered good practice as well. If you live with family or friends, have a discussion with them about not having you do household chores when you’re working.

When it comes to work breaks, it’s important to keep those boundaries. During work breaks (either 5-minute ones or 15 minute ones), generally avoid going on social media so you don’t have anything that can potentially distract you from getting back to work. You can check on your phone for updates on loved ones or maybe even news – anything that’s not from social media. If they’re on their break as well, chat with your team and ask how they’re doing.

If, as an individual, you’re aware of being susceptible to distractions, get support from your colleagues, friends and family. Have them remind you that there is a time for work and a time for things other than work. At the end of the day, staying focused is essentially being in the moment – make the most out of it.

Clearly Communicate and Reach Out

This recommendation is helpful for both work and life as communication is a vital part of any healthy relationship. When it comes to work, it goes without saying that proper communication about tasks and deliverables can go a long way in terms of getting things done at the right time. Miscommunicated expectations can not only cause you to extend your working hours because of lost time and momentum, it can also affect your working relationship with your colleagues.

So be clear about what you need from each other and be honest in case one of you requires clarification. One way of being able to do that is to write correspondence that leaves no room for interpretation. Having a prompt that encourages a team member of yours to reach out to you for questions is also strongly recommended. At the end of the day, your colleague is someone you ultimately work on your goals with. So trust and clear, uninhibited lines of communication, can do wonders for business processes.

By reaching out and checking on your colleagues every now and then, you’re not only actively showing them that you care, you become more aware of other people’s circumstances and generally have a good idea of how to work with them better. With this in mind, you eventually learn how to communicate with them better therefore eliminating the possibility of your having to work longer hours. Plus, you’ve potentially also made a friend out of a work colleague.

Stay Healthy, Keep Healthy

It goes without saying that if you’re not physically feeling well, it’s going to majorly affect your productivity. That said, it’s imperative that you keep yourself healthy physically in order for you to manage stress effectively. For starters, exercising before you start your work day encourages better blood circulation and produces happy hormones. Going to work in a happy mood won’t only increase productivity, it will also create a more positive environment for your colleagues.

The saying you are what you eat isn’t just a figure of speech, it’s a fact. Eating junk food and other unhealthy articles can cause a lot of problems for your body in the long run, so having a healthy diet is an absolute must. A mix of meat, vegetables and fruits helps in keeping your body on tip top shape, thus allowing you to manage the stresses of working from home better.

Sleep is just as important as regular exercise and a healthy diet. It is when you sleep that the body does most of its repairing and other related processes. Sleep deficiency has often been linked to heart diseases, increases in blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and other unhealthy conditions.

Aside from being physically healthy, it’s important to pay attention to your mental health. Anxiety and feelings of dread or unfulfillment are indicators of burnout. If you feel these, then it’s time to take a break. Breathe the fresh air and talk to a psychologist if you feel the need to. At the end of the day, health isn’t just about being in top physical shape, it’s also having a peaceful mind.

A Time For Everything

When it comes to avoiding burnout, there’s one crucial thing that needs to be kept in mind: There is a time for everything. Whether it’s focusing on your business or work tasks, or just being in the moment with your loved ones or your hobby, it’s important to have neither interfere or interrupt the other.

As always, the tricky part is always going to be the enforcement of these boundaries, considering the fast-paced world we live in and the demands of life in general. Given enough discipline though and proper communication, managing stress and avoiding burnout is completely possible. How do you deal with burnout? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

The post How to Avoid Work From Home Burnout appeared first on Ben Francia.

Small Business Ecommerce 101

2020-05-18T06:47:43Z

Having an ecommerce site allows you to reach and engage more potential customers online.

Back in the day, ecommerce was largely known to be more of a trend than an actual need. In the Philippines, where people don’t usually have credit cards, small business owners deemed it unnecessary and invested instead in brick and mortar shops.

In the wake of the COVID pandemic and in what seems to be the looming shadow of an almost inevitable recession, small business owners are struggling to find out how to keep themselves alive. It goes without saying that only the most adaptable businesses would survive, and those who saw ecommerce as more than just a passing thing would survive.

In fact, ecommerce isn’t only going to help you survive, it’s going to keep you alive. Consider your website as your very own brick and mortar shop, except it’s open 24/7 and you don’t need to think of utility costs other than your website costs.

You’re also extending your reach since websites are publicly available to anyone with an Internet connection. This allows you to target customers located not only across the street, but across oceans.

Lastly, you’re leveling the playing field in terms of reaching and converting more customers. Most big, traditional businesses are only starting to learn how digital works and, if you play strategically, you can potentially surpass them.

The whole idea of ecommerce being just a fad is long dead. By and large, this trend of smart and adaptable businesses getting ecommerce sites is slowly making its way towards being a norm. If you don’t want to get left behind, you should start building one on your own.

Truth be told, it’s not particularly difficult to start building your ecommerce site. It doesn’t have to be too expensive either. Here’s what you need to do to get started with your own.

Register Your Domain Name

Your domain name is the line of text your customer types into the browser’s address bar to reach your website. When choosing a domain name, note that it must be relatively short enough that it’s easily remembered. Having a non-lengthy domain name also lessens the chances of people getting a typo whenever they try to access your site.

To start, you can purchase your domain name from GoDaddy. Keep in mind that there are promo coupons that can help you get a discount on your purchase. If you’re targeting a more local audience and want to potentially rank higher in the search engines for location-based searches, .PH domains are the way to go. The thing is, they’re more expensive than your usual GoDaddy ones.

Select Your Ecommerce Platform

Your ecommerce platform is your digital brick and mortar shop. This is where your customers peruse and purchase your selection of products and services. When going about selecting your ecommerce platform of choice, you have two options.

The first option is to subscribe to an ecommerce website builder. Wix, Shopify and Squarespace allows you to build one for a monthly fee. If you’re tech-challenged, they have online manuals that can help you. This convenience comes at a price, however, as you will be limited to the available templates the builder has. You’re also limited to the payment and

The second option is to work with a website developer. You get more aesthetic choices and options when you build your ecommerce site. With the WooCommerce WordPress plugin, things become much simpler since it gives you the option of just putting up a standard eCommerce template. All you need to do is instruct your web developer on design choices.

If you’re opting for the second option, remember to ask for the developer’s portfolio, credentials and knowledge of search engine optimization concepts. Having an SEO-savvy developer ensures that you have a website that can effectively appear in the search results without issues.

At the end of the day, both options have their own pros and cons. When selecting, it’s all a matter of time, preference and budget. Choose wisely.

Consider Your Payment and Logistics Partners

Whether you’re selling physical goods or services, having payment and logistics partners is what’s going to keep your business alive. In a time of COVID, owning a brick and mortar shop can be potentially dangerous not only for you and your workers, but also for your customers. So having a way to digitally send and receive money is definitely the way to go.

A payment gateway is the medium through which your customers can send you money in exchange for goods and services. It is also what allows you to receive the money your customers send you.

In this regard, one of the more popular (and secure) payment gateways is Paypal. All you need to do is subscribe for a merchant account and have it selected as your payment gateway. Its versatility stems from the fact that your users don’t necessarily need to have their own Paypal accounts to pay, and would instead require only their credit cards.

Dragonpay is another gateway option that’s become more popular in the Philippines. Through online banking, e-wallets and other methods that do not require a credit card, you can easily set up your own payment Gateway through Dragonpay.

When it comes to Logistics partners, it goes without saying that you have to consider credibility and trust. Established logistics companies like LBC and JRS express are notable because of their tenure in the industries. Grab Express and Lalamove are rising players, however, tend to be more versatile in their delivery methods.

At the end of the day, these payment gateways and logistics companies will be fundamental to your ecommerce site’s survival. Experiment with options other than the ones mentioned here to see which ones work best for you.

Prepare Your Website Content

Most of the time, preparing for website content is the cause of delay of most web development projects. In this regard, it’s strongly recommended to spend a good week or two in figuring out what you want to feature in your website other than your products and services. Considerations like writing style, tone and voice need to be made in order to give your website an identity that your target audience can relate with.

To start, think of the products that need to be in your featured catalog. If you have around 10-20 products, it’s okay to feature them all. However, if you have more than 20 products, select the top 20 and have those featured. Most ecommerce builders will allow more than 20 products featured, but it’s best practice to have only around 20.

After the selection process is completed, it’s time to write specifically for your products. Put up a Google Sheet and input the necessary information as columns. Fields like product name, product description, product shot links and price need to be laid out horizontally, with products going vertically across the spreadsheet. Consider costing as well because products can be differently priced online as compared to when they’re being sold offline.

Another important web page you have to consider is the About Us page. Now just because you’re running an ecommerce website doesn’t mean you can make the usual, run-off-the-mill About Us page. It needs to provide details that show credibility and trustworthiness. After all, you are taking payments from users online, they need to know who they’re dealing with.

In line with this, write a 1,000-word article for your About Us page. Include in your About Us page the following:

Your Company History – Make sure you tell your company’s story, why it was built and who it’s for. Doing this gives your audience a little more insight as to why you care for them.
Your Founders – Talk about what inspired the creation of your company and how this inspiration became a reality because of your founders. Talk about what made them establish your organization and why.
Your Team Members – Attaching human faces to a brand doesn’t only make users online feel good. It gives them the security of knowing that they’re not dealing with machines and that they can hold people accountable for anything.
Your Mission-Vision – This sends the impression that your organization isn’t just out there to make a quick buck. You’re aiming for a purpose or a goal that must be met, after all, so feel free to include this.
Your Vision Statement – Telling your audience what you plan to be in the future is a great way of making them resonate with you. Make sure that your vision statement does exactly that.

It can’t be helped that a lot of users will feel a little bit overwhelmed with your ecommerce site. This is definitely the case with those sites that have more than a few thousand products in their catalog. Having a frequently asked questions page can help smoothen this transition and help your users purchase from your site more effectively.

Ask yourself, as a new user of the site who wants to purchase your products, what would you want to ask? Questions like, how do I make a purchase, what are the payment options, how would i receive my products and in how many days are FAQs of most popular ecommerce sites.

As mentioned earlier, content can take a reasonably large amount of time to complete. Commit an entire weekend at minimum to complete these requirements, ask your peers for feedback and decide on building a launching your ecommerce site.

Build and Prepare for Liftoff

After having completed content, the next phase involves the building and launching of your site. There are two ways to go about the building phase, based on the two options mentioned earlier. If you took the developer route, set up a kickoff meeting with your developer and agree on a target deadline and a set of deliverables. Remain in constant contact with this developer until you’ve completed your website in such a way that it’s ready for launch.

If you took the ecommerce builder route, it might take a little more time and elbow grease. So prepare to invest in long hours of reading directions on how to make your ecommerce website work and the like.

When it’s all said and done, do a test run with friends and family before publicly launching it. Ask them to purchase your products through your ecommerce site and watch the sparks fly. Whether or not it goes smoothly, ask them for their feedback. What worked? What didn’t work? What could work better.

All a Matter of Commitment

At the end of the day, regardless of the above-mentioned options you choose and as with all good things in life, making and maintaining an ecommerce site is going to take patience and commitment. By and large though, the benefits of having one far outweigh the cons.

What do you think? WIll having an ecommerce site save your business from the recession? Share in the comments section below!

The post Small Business Ecommerce 101 appeared first on Ben Francia.

Adapting to the Changing Needs of Customers in a Digital Age

2020-12-11T07:45:22Z

Learn the 5 key areas that can help you deepen your relationships with your customers in this digital age

In a time of rapidly changing economies and ways of handling everyday life, it goes without saying that users all over the world have evolved. Everyone and everything is connected, from your workout watch and your computer, to the people next door and their relatives abroad. The average reasonable consumer has a network of other potential customers ready to learn anything about a product or service they’ve experienced, effectively making them influencers.

These consumers are no longer a general set of people to broadcast to, they’re customer networks. These days, whenever a brand posts something on the Internet, consumers aren’t just “informed”, they’re given platforms to respond to it. When brands sell to an individual, it is selling to a member of a network who will most definitely be informed of the experience.

As a business owner, you should be aware of the digital transformation that’s already happening and how you can adapt. Your customer isn’t just another number on your list, it’s an individual who has thoughts, feelings and emotions. So delight them, and they’ll spread your marketing message to everyone in their network. Make them feel bad and the rest, perhaps including your business, is history.

In this regard, there are five key areas you can work on to build deeper and better relationships with your customers in this digital age.

Increase and Enhance Customer Access

In this day and age of digital connectedness, it’s no longer acceptable to not be online. As proven by the COVID pandemic, if you want to survive, you need to be present in the search engines, in social media platforms and in people’s mobile phones. Be where your customers are, and you’ll reap the rewards of accessibility.

Building a website is a must if you want to attract your customers to an online hub that you control. It’s through your website where you can feature your services and company story. If applicable, create an ecommerce site so your customers can peruse through your product catalog and order.

Being on social media is also a must because that’s where members of your target audience usually hang out and socialize. Lastly, make sure that your online places are responsive and can be easily accessible on mobile devices.

Engage Your Customer Online with Awesome Content

The only effective way to engage your customers in a landscape that’s full of distractions and short attention spans is through valuable content. As mentioned above, your customers are individuals who have their respective goals, barriers towards those goals and problems. Creating content that revolves around this allows you to effectively get their attention and keep it.

Valuable and engaging content is essentially anything that helps the audience solve their problems, achieve their goals or enhance their experience. How to blog posts and FAQ articles are focused solely on helping solve the problems of an audience. It goes without saying that it is these types of content that resonates with online audiences and gets shared more often than usual.

That doesn’t mean however that you can’t talk about your business anymore. Being audience-centric doesn’t mean you should talk about them all the time. You can actually talk about your organization while engaging your customer. By writing a sensible story about your brand and including its vision statement, you can create an image that your customers can resonate to. After all, audiences online resonate more to a brand with a human face than just one with a corporate logo.

Consider other formats as well by entertaining podcasts and videos. These media are easily more consumed than academically written white papers or 1000-word articles. Of course, this should depend on your target audience’s preference and preferred way of communicating.

Customize and Personalize Your Customer’s Experience of Your Brand

Gone are the days when one size fits all. These days, digitally transformed brands give their customers a multitude of options to choose from. In a cutthroat landscape of constantly decaying attention spans and an ever-expanding list of growing demands, giving your potential and existing customers these options can give you the competitive edge.

Make things customizable for them from your online interfaces to the products and services you provide. If you have a product catalog that sells anything wearable, provide them a myriad of colors they can choose from. If you’re selling software, give them the opportunity to adjust its settings as it fits. Give them bundles and promos that will most likely address their needs and capacity at the time. This makes your brand more versatile when responding to the needs and wants of your target customers.

The same is true with the way you interact with them online. If your brand bible or style guide allows it, be a little more casual than usual. Allow your brand to become a person and address members of your audience or customer list by their first names. Personalize the experience of your brand, and you’ll keep their trust.

At the end of the day, it’s all about intuitive user-experience and entertaining the audience as individuals. Make them feel like they’re being served on an individual basis, and they’ll say wonderful things about your brand.

Connect with Your Customers and Join Online Conversations

As mentioned earlier, individuals online are part of larger customer networks that engage with each other on a regular basis. Whether it’s in a live webinar run by an expert in a specific industry, or in a community-driven Facebook page, people will talk about products and services.

As a business owner, you should take advantage of this by taking part in these same discussions. It is through these discussions where you can get feedback about certain products and services and how you can potentially make your business better. In fact, it is in the same channels where you might get feedback about what people are saying about your brand. So listen and engage well whilst in these platforms.

The tricky part is identifying which channels your audience hangs out in. Regardless of industry however, people will most likely be on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter. The rest should be a quick Google search for forums about certain topics or industries related to you. Once you’ve found them, join their ranks and listen.

Joining these conversations and listening to them isn’t enough however. When you’ve gotten an idea of how conversations start and how people react towards certain topics, start providing value. Answer questions, provide references for helping people with their problems and, given enough time, pitch your brand in when the opportunity allows it. The secret is to become a very active member of the community and be as helpful as possible.

When you’ve built a following, publishing a webinar that talks about a certain topic your audience members are very engaged with might be a good idea. It can be a common problem of members of the community, or just an industry-related subject that’s up for debate. Having webinars that discusses these topics and allowing people to discuss with each other doesn’t only give your brand more eyeballs, it also makes them recognize you as an authority in the subject.

Making yourself a valuable member in any of these channels gives your brand an opportunity to learn more about the needs of your target audience and how to help them. So join those discussions, listen well and answer to the needs of your customers.

Invest in Customer Collaboration

The Internet has amplified the already collaborative nature of human beings by providing several channels of communication. That, plus having several thousands of like-minded people located across the globe to converge in these platforms allows for more nuanced collaboration and cooperation.

It is through these innovations in communication and collaboration that crowdfunding finds its success. A lot of businesses have started and have flourished through mere crowdfunding. By either providing audiences with products or services that they’d love, or by straight up asking about it, crowdfunded businesses have been founded and thrived.

As a business owner, crowdfunding or having a healthy customer collaboration simply involves asking your audience to help in different areas of your enterprise. It can be as simple as sending them a survey form asking how else to improve your services or products or an email that asks them specifically what they’d like to get from you.

The point of customer collaboration is to have your audience help your business improve. This does more than that, however, because you’re literally involving your customer audience in the development of your business. This is significant because it makes them feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves.

Your Customers Have Evolved, Don’t Get Left Behind

At the end of the day, only businesses that have shown the utmost willingness to adapt and transform according to their customers needs survive. Since life has changed vastly over the span of decades, with people all over the world talking about points of interests, industries and, most of all, products and services, it’s time for business owners like you to evolve.

Long gone are the days when customers are mere numerical points of data, they’re living breathing beings that need your attention and service. They have feelings and thoughts that they would love for you to hear and build your business with. Adapt according to their needs, and you’ll thrive in this digital age.

At the end of the day, it’s all about accepting that times have changed and it’s time to take that first step into digital transformation. If you have questions about digital transformation or have suggestions on these five key areas, share them in the comments section below.

The post Adapting to the Changing Needs of Customers in a Digital Age appeared first on Ben Francia.

Why Start a Business During a Recession

2020-12-10T05:26:40Z

The biggest companies today were businesses that started in a recession

General Electric, IBM, Disney, and Microsoft have become massive companies that continue to provide value to their long time customers. Besides being world-shapers and masters of innovation in their own right, they have one thing in common with each other: they all started in a recession.

The economic landscape has been hit by many recessions in the past. Whether it’s brought about by uncontrollable factors like calamities or diseases, or completely man-made like war or bad consumer decisions, recessions cause problems. These problems, of course, need to be solved.

This is where your diskarte as an entrepreneur or a small business owner comes in. How does your business solve these problems? Can you provide your services or products in spite of the situation? Will you be able to readily adapt and rise above most of your competition?

At the end of the day, It’s all a matter of identifying what those problems are and how to resolve them. It can seem difficult at first, but given enough time and if you play your cards right, you can potentially become one of the most influential and biggest companies in the world.

RECESSIONS CREATE PROBLEMS THAT REQUIRE INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS

Considering how this recent pandemic has changed so many people’s lives in the span of a few months, it’s going to mean a lot more in terms of their needs and wants. Over the past couple of years, thanks due in part to the Internet and social media, consumer behaviour has changed.

Recessions, too, will adversely affect the way a consumer decides on their next purchase. Aside from cost however, consumers will also make choices based on what’s more innovative and convenient. Considering the COVID pandemic, they might work with businesses that have contactless payment options and trusted logistics partners.

There are cases where consumers prefer the more convenient option over the cheaper ones. For instance, going to the wet and dry market to buy fish can definitely be cheaper, but inconvenient because you have to step out and expose yourself to the elements. If you have a mobile app that allows you to order fresh fish, it might be marginally more expensive, but it’s very convenient. This is also much safer because you don’t need to go out due to COVID.

This is why startup companies that cater to more innovative solutions that make it more convenient for their customers, can go head to head against larger, more established companies. Companies like Lazada, Shoppe and other ecommerce sites get way more attention than more established retail companies because they’re more adaptable.

The takeaway? Innovate and evolve based on the problems brought about by this recession. The world’s changing, it might be a good idea to do so as well.

SOME BUSINESS OPERATIONAL COSTS ARE CHEAPER

Because of the rise and fall of some prices during recessions, business operational costs tend to shift. As a notable example, gasoline prices have gone down, making other resources relatively cheaper as a result. Depending on your business’ industry, you might find that some costs can be cheaper or more expensive than before.

For instance, rental costs for business use have gone down because of the recent COVID pandemic. Advertising costs have also gone down because of some organizations’ hesitance to invest in advertising in these trying times. Labor relatively costs lower too (or at least is more easily negotiable) mostly because, just like how companies are not willing to advertise, they’re not willing to hire new people as well.

It’s true that this may not always be the case. But with a little resourcefulness, you can potentially make operational costs lower for you in the long run. Do a little research on opportunities to make business operational costs lower.

A LOT OF TALENTED PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR WORK

It might seem counterproductive, but now is the perfect time to build your team that will help you build your business. Considering the amount of people being laid off or leaving their respective companies for greener pastures, there’s definitely someone out there who can help you out in any facet of your venture.

Since a lot of people are looking for opportunities in the job market, there should be no short supply of skilled or talented people who can help you build your business. What makes this even more of a good opportunity is the fact that, depending on this potential new hire’s background of course, you’re potentially helping someone in great need other than your customers.

In line of course with operational costs, it’s important to define what human resource you actually need, including their job responsibilities. Costs are still an important consideration to make, along with making your people happy, so strike a balance.

LEARN FROM THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS

Regardless of the situation, it’s always challenging to start a new business. In the midst of a looming recession and the wake of COVID-19, it’s difficult enough to keep your business afloat. What more putting up a new small business?

As an entrepreneur however, you have to keep in mind that along with change comes opportunity. In an age of digital transformation and an incoming recession, there’s bound to be a lot of change, hence, more opportunity. This is evident even before the pandemic since customers’ needs have started changing ever since the Internet has been introduced.

One of these opportunities is to learn from hardship. You can learn things from the current situation that you won’t otherwise learn in a positive and booming economy. It goes without saying that if you become successful in a situation like this, it would be much easier in an economy that picks up.

BE OPEN TO CHANGE

At the end of the day, the norms have changed along with consumers and their behavior. It is the perfect opportunity to reconsider old belief systems about how businesses are run and start coming up with new, more innovative ways of providing value to your customers.

Regardless whether you’re starting a new business, if you’ve lost your job and want to start a new venture, or have recently closed down an old one and are reconsidering to open another, now is the perfect time to strike. All you need to do is identify a problem that needs fixing by your business.

Once you’ve done that, do some internal thinking about how to proceed with your business. Start from your strengths and passion and see how you can align it towards taking advantage of opportunities and helping your customers.

If you’re starting a new business, or if you’ve lost your job and you want to start a new business, or if you’ve lost your company, now is the perfect time to start over. All you need to do is identify a problem that needs to be solved, start from your strengths and passion and solve the mentioned problem.

As mentioned earlier, General Electric, Disney, IBM and Microsoft survived the worst economic conditions because they’re adaptable and took advantage of opportunities present at the time. As contradicting as it sounds, this might potentially be the biggest break in a lifetime. So think about it, find that one problem that needs solving and see how your passion and strengths can help solve it through business.

If you’re looking for more content like this or anything about digital marketing, feel free to subscribe to our newsletter to get notified via email. What do you think? Is it a good idea to put up a business in the midst of a recession? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

The post Why Start a Business During a Recession appeared first on Ben Francia.

10 Things You Need To Have In Your Business Website

2020-05-14T09:23:11Z

Most business owners have embraced the idea of digital transformation and are adamant about establishing their organization’s online presence. Besides the usual Facebook and Instagram, they’ve also opted to get their own websites. More often than not however, some business owners tend to focus on the look and feel of their websites rather than overall experience.

While it’s an important factor for the website to be attractive in order to catch people’s attention (and keep it), its functionality tends to be compromised. Low page speeds because of heavy graphics, strange placements of menus and the like tend to sour user experience. It’s as if the website doesn’t fulfill any other purpose than to just look pretty at the cost of substance and utility.

That said, a purpose-driven website is one that doesn’t only manage to fulfill the look pretty part, it also manages to be thoughtful of its visitors and establishes good user experience. Good user experience tends to make users stay and visit more often, which in turn increases the possibility of turning them into a customer.

It’s not all about experience, however. At the end of the day, a website is built to reach more leads and create a relationship with its customers. Below are 10 tips that you need to have for your website.

Register a Sensible Web Address

By default, you’d probably like to get the name of your company, your brand or your services as a web address. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s strongly recommended to keep it simple. A website with a long domain name is prone to typos and might potentially be harder to remember.

In contrast, a relatively shorter web address is easier to recall and has fewer chances of being misspelled. You can definitely be creative in thinking up your domain name. You can brainstorm at least 3 examples that do not stray away from your brand and have your peers select which one has a better ring to it.
Clearly Communicate Your Online Value Proposition

Your Online Value Proposition is essentially the solution you provide to your customers. It solves your target audience’s problems, makes them have better experiences, answer their questions and/ or improves their quality of life.

It goes without saying that having this visible at the moment they land on your page can spell the difference between having a customer or another bounce rate statistic. It often comes in the form of a short tagline – an elevator pitch – that should ideally appear in the upper fold of your website.
Your Story In Your About Us Page

Your About Us page is your prime location to talk about your company. As far as best practices go in this page, you must have the following sections:
- Your Company History – talk about how your company started and what prompted its creation.
- The People Behind Your Company – talk about your company’s leaders, its people, major holders and a little bit about your customers who keep you going.
- Your Mission-Vision – this is how you communicate your company’s character and values in public.
- Your Purpose Statement – your purpose statement is important because it tells your audience that you have a goal besides just acquiring leads and customers
You can also talk about your future plans, goals, aspirations, affiliations and anything that can help your target audience resonate with your organization. This is your opportunity to tell your story that your leads can potentially relate to.
Make Intuitive Navigation Menus

It’s important for each label on your navigation tab to accurately describe the page it points to. If, for example, you want a menu label to point the user to your About Us page, name the page “About Us”. If you want a menu to point to your products and services, name them in such a way that your target audience can understand them.

You might also want to consider having your navigation menu placed near the top of your page or at the left side. Having a navigation bar on top of the page gives you more room and menus to work with. This is so you can avoid confusion and give your visitors a good user experience.
Make It Easy For People to Contact You

It’s important to have your Contact Us button or link prominently displayed. Statistically speaking, on average the most trafficked pages for a website are its home and contact us page. Once you’ve proven that you have what your visitor is looking for through your home page and other related pages, they’ll most likely go to your contact page to reach you.

Having it relatively hard to find or inaccessible can compromise your chances of getting more leads for your business. That said, label the menu that points to your contact us page “Contact Us” and highlight it with a different color for it to stand out.
Establish Legitimacy

There are many ways to approach establishing your legitimacy and credibility. Firstly, publish the credentials, certifications and awards that your company has acquired. Second, put up a list of all the clients that have worked with you or your affiliated organizations. Third, publish case studies, portfolios and success stories that you have. Lastly, if possible, you can also ask your clients for testimonials as social proof.

Keep in mind that these elements are best accompanied by graphics and even videos. This is not only content for your website after all, but a vote of confidence by your customers and the organizations you work with.

For social proof from clients, having a written testimonial with their pictures in a slider should do well enough. If you have been to industry-related events or training, it’s strongly recommended to include pictures or videos of those in this section as well. Remember that while establishing legitimacy can be just about having a list of who you’ve worked with or served, going the extra mile can bring you more opportunities.
Get Good SEO

Having an elegant and well-thought-out website is for naught if it doesn’t even show up in the first few pages of the search engines. This is why it is important to keep Search Engine Optimization in mind when making your website.

For starters, do your keyword research and determine which keywords you’d like for your website to appear whenever someone does a search for them. Google’s keyword planner should be able to help you come up with a list. Once you’re done finding your keywords, place them across relevant pages on your website and have content created that revolve around these.

It can also help if you can work with a web developer with a basic SEO background. This is so whenever they build your website, it’s done with SEO best practices in mind.
Create High Value Content

Not everyone who lands on your page will work with you nor buy your products. Most of them are either searching for information on what you offer or just looking at their options. Whatever the case may be, it’s important to give them a reason to come back.

Creating content that provides value like blogs and freemiums gives your visitors an incentive to keep your website in mind, whenever they’re searching for what you provide. This allows you to create and nourish a relationship with them until such time that you convert them into customers. Other than establishing rapport, you can also establish authority and credibility by publishing content about industry news and trends.

Besides being a way for you to engage with your customers, consistently making high value content is good search engine optimization practice. It allows you to get more links and more pages for Google spiders to crawl on, making it potentially more prominent in the search engines.
Create Clear Call to Actions

Most websites don’t have clear calls to action in spite of getting tons of traffic from multiple sources. This is mostly due to the fact that their calls to action aren’t near specific nor prominent enough to inspire action. Worse, they don’t have calls to action on their website at all.

Besides highlighting your call to action buttons in a different color and giving them a different font to catch and keep their attention, it’s important for it to be glaringly obvious and simple. Words like “BUY NOW”, “SIGN UP”, or “CALL US” are simple enough to warrant a click.
Have User-Friendly Web Design

Establishing user-friendly web design doesn’t have to be rocket science. Sometimes all it takes is to come from the point of view of your target audience. Making the website easier to understand and work with is key to excellent web design.

Large walls of text, width to width sentences, dark backgrounds, brightly colored fonts and unoptimized media are examples of things you should avoid when it comes to web design. Work with an experienced web designer in order to build your website for better user experience. If you don’t have the budget for one, you can use premium WordPress themes that are already custom built with the user in mind.

That about wraps it up for the things your website needs in order for it to become a channel to get leads and customers from. Remember, having a successful website doesn’t need to be too expensive, it just needs to have a clearly-laid out purpose for your business AND it needs to fulfill said purpose.

If you don’t have a website, these are great considerations to keep in mind. If you already have one, do a quick website audit and find out if you’ve missed some items. Share what you think in the comment section below.

The post 10 Things You Need To Have In Your Business Website appeared first on Ben Francia.

Logistics and Delivery Services for Small Business Ecommerce

2020-12-17T08:25:18Z

As the Coronavirus spread forces the nation to undergo preventive measures, our economy is heavily impacted by the restrictions of these newly implemented rules such as Community Lockdows, Social Distancing and Mandatory Curfews.

Ports, main roads, and various trading establishments all over the country are forced to close or seize operations, in order to prevent the spread of this pandemic. As a result, business owners marked declines in terms of revenue due to restricted logistics activity which is crucial in most businesses’ operations.

Most business owners take their daily transactions online, and in the absence of access to physical stores, the need for shipping and transportation rises among entrepreneurs. A number of logistics companies remain operational despite the lockdown, making them indispensable for struggling businesses.

Compiled below are a list of Operational Logistics Companies that can help business owners transport their products or materials while adhering to safety measures enforced by our government:

Grab Express/ GrabFood

Founded in 2012 originally as a ride hailing app, Grab, Southeast Asia’s largest mobile technology company connects millions of consumers to millions of drivers, merchants, and businesses.

Aside from its recently suspended ride hailing service, Grab offers same day point to point deliveries for individuals.

Grab has been considered as one of the essential apps a Filipino must have especially during this time of crisis especially with the restrictions caused by the ECQ.

Grab Express and Grab food help small businesses deliver their goods to their customer’s doorstep. These features merit grab to be tantamount to a lifeboat for businesses facing challenges due to this pandemic.

Pros:

Partner businesses have their goods advertised on Grab’s in app catalogue.
Has GrabPay: A cashless payment method integrated within the app.
Large consumer base

Cons:

Operation for 4 wheelers suspended during ECQ
Prices spike up to 200% during peak hours

Angkas Padala

Angkas is a motorcycle ride-hailing platform and courier service that aims to help tackle transport mobility for Filipinos where country traffic is some of the highest in the world.

They take pride with their “Professional Riders” who undergo a training program before being a certified rider to ensure safety and quality of service. Motorcycles are quality-checked to ensure safety of its passengers and parcels in transit.

Angkas has this new feature called angkas x restos that allow consumers to call any operating restaurant or food business, place their order, and have angkas deliver the goods to them.

There are no lists of partner businesses nor prior applications, as long as they are operational, angkas can cater to their logistics needs which can be arranged by a few taps from the consumers phone.

Pros:

No Prior registration or fees needed to utilize services for business use
Uniformed pricing depending on distance
Riders undergo stringent background checks, safety training, and skills assessments
Frequent users get discount vouchers via SMS

Cons:

Booking is restricted to one pick up and drop off destination only
Items to be delivered have to be under 10kg, and sizes are limited within motorcycle capacity
COD option will depend on driver’s discretion, business owners need to have a fallback ePayment option

Joyride PH

Joyride is another motorcycle ride hailing app which started in 2019 that endeavoured to help filipino commuters tired from the day to day traffic and with the help of their biker partners, create an enjoyable traffic free lifestyle in the Metro.

Since the Enhanced Community Quarantine or ECQ suspended their ride hailing operations, Joyride PH has started campaigns to help filipino individuals and businesses cope up with challenges and restrictions that the ECQ has brought us.

They have launched a Delivery and Pabili campaign, in which consumers can advise the drivers via their app to pick up or buy essentials for them under 2000 Php and have them delivered to their doorstep. Business owners can instruct their patrons to utilize these to ensure a safe and efficient delivery.

Users are given the option to participate in a donation campaign in which they could donate goods like medical supplies and Personal protective equipment (PPE’s) to our frontliners while utilizing their services. If you run an online mini-mart for example, customers can purchase essentials that they need through you, and have the Joyride biker buy the needs for them and deliver it to their doorstep.

Pros:

Basic App interface allows users to book in a few taps.
Cash On Delivery option offered
Donations during covid season negotiable in terms of rates

Cons:

App does not enable users to manually enter an address
Items to be delivered have to be under 10kg, and sizes are limited within motorcycle capacity
Online presence/ Customer service limited

Lalamove

Lalamove is a logistics company that provides on-demand and same-day delivery services through their mobile and web application. They do this by connecting customers to a database that includes thousands of partner drivers.

Let’s say you market rubbing alcohol online, and you have 20 customers all around the metro who want a bottle, you could have Lalamove pick them up from you in bulk, and deliver them separately.

Lalamove has its own purchase service, in which they could save customers the hassle of leaving home and lining up by purchasing items worth 2000 Php or below on behalf of them.

Even with the covid19 travel restrictions limiting travel and transportation of goods, Lalamove remains fully operational, giving business owners the ability to operate amidst the limitations set by the lockdown.

Pros:

Multiple vehicle choices and flexible delivery options
Multiple destination delivery feature.
Assigned account manager for business users who transact over 10,000Php
COD option offered
Offers rebates

Cons:

Drivers are not allowed to enter commercial establishments
Feedback contains occasional complaints for drivers demeanor

Transportify

Transportify is a full-service logistics marketplace powered by advanced mobile and web app technology that enables businesses to book and manage ground transportation of their goods, freight, merchandise and more.

It connects businesses to their network of 76,146 Active Vehicles around Metro Manila, Rizal and Pampanga. They offer Long Haul trucking services from city to city at an affordable price which can be determined from the app itself. They have customized equipment that is designed to cater to the unique needs of each of its clients.

Transportify has a round the clock customer email and chat support team and allows real time tracking of customer’s parcels through the app which gives them full visibility and assurance from point to point.

Pros:

Interregional delivery on going despite ECQ
Business Partners get flexible payment methods
Customized Equipment tailored for clients needs
Round the clock customer support

Cons:

Rates are notably higher for non business partners
Not much feedback for deliveries within the city

RML Courier Express

RML Courier Express International Corporation is a multi vehicle logistics company that helps businesses and individuals transport their cargo both locally and internationally.

RML’S main operations include land, air and sea courier and freight forwarding service. International, Domestic and Metro Manila door-to-door pick-up and delivery of documents and parcels, sea and air freight cargo forwarding and trucking.

With the versatility of its services, RML can help move almost all kinds of items for business owners, whether from the supplier or to the customers.

The 23 year old cargo and freight company remains operational despite the ongoing lockdowns due to the coronavirus contingency measures. It keeps its customers updated with news about the Enhanced Community Quarantine and tips on how to help avoid the spread of the said virus on their Facebook page.

Pros:

One of the countries benchmarks for freight forwarding
Caters to all sorts of goods from documents to heavy machinery
Covers both domestic and international deliveries

Cons:

Doesn’t offer same day delivery service
No mobile application unlike most competitors
Charges valuation fee

RVMarzan Logistics Inc.

R.V Marzan Logistics inc. is a 40 year old freight forwarding company that leads in Philippine Logistics which aims to speed up the process in trade and commerce in the Philippines and throughout the world.

They have a fleet of trucks, trailers and transportation equipment and specialize in transportation of containerized cargoes.

Its services include domestic distribution, freight forwarding, vacuum packaging, wood casting, bulk transfers,supply chain management, trucking and warehousing.

With this said, If your goods are huge, fragile and need extra care, RV Marzan is a good logistics partner to consider.

With a wide selection of services, R.V Marzan is able to cater to businesses of every size. Providing their needs from Loading and unloading to delivery or installation if required.

Pros:

Specializes in bulk transport and unusual sized goods
Helps out business owners organize their deliveries with its supply chain management
Services like vacuum packaging help preserve goods

Cons:

Its nature of services are not ideal for start-up businesses
Services are fully beneficial to only certain kinds of businesses such as furniture, paintings etc.

Toki Toki

Toki Toki is a pasig-based start up logistics and customer management company that focuses on working hand in hand with clients and their E-commerce logistics needs.

They aim to provide top of the line services in a thematic with a cheap price. They offer free pickups, and are noted to be 60% cheaper compared to its competitors in the industry.

Toki Toki Targets a large market that ranges from casual sellers to young professionals and those small or startup businesses who operate online.

They are designed to be The first affordable, high quality, fast and reliable themed delivery service which makes them a go to for start up businesses who want an affordable but unique logistics partner.

Pros:

No minimum delivery required
Free Pick up service
Cheaper than most competitors
Services work well with eCommerce power businesses
Ideal for start up businesses

Cons:

Not much public customer reviews
No mobile app

J&T Express

Established in Indonesia in August 2015, J&T Express is a technology-based and internet development e-Commerce delivery company.

Locally they operate nationwide, with over 400 branches all over the archipelago. They have an extensive network that supports delivery services inter city, inter province or across the nation.

They take pride in their commitment to utilizing advanced IT systems to improve efficiency and quality of service to customers. They take the principle of easy and fast delivery along with an efficient claims settlement system which is appealing to many business owners who consider teaming up with them.

If you plan to sell some items such as cosmetics through online marketplaces, J&T Express will take over right after check out, by bringing your items from the warehouse to the customer’s doorstep as they update them in real time.

Pros:

Known affiliate of leading eCommerce websites such as Lazada and Shopee
Full monitoring of goods when in transit ensures item security
Easy compensation claims when items are damaged or lost
Round the clock support and business line

Cons:

Tracking tool is dependent on warehouse scans.
Deliveries within the metro take 1-2 business days unlike competitors
Notable feedback about drivers returning goods to sender after one missed delivery attempt

FoodPanda

Foodpanda is the leading online food delivery marketplace in 40 countries across 5 continents.

Originating from Germany and introduced in the Philippines in 2014, the online food marketplace is tied up with over 1000 partner restaurants nationwide.

It allows its app users to discover various food establishments around the neighborhood through the app and allow them to directly order via mobile phone.

If you run a restaurant or want to sell take out from the convenience of your kitchen, make sure you have it listed on FoodPanda.

They are known to be fully operational despite the various lock downs due to the spread of Covid19, allowing businesses to sell food to their loyal customers amidst the difficulty to go out.

Pros:

In app marketing
Automatically boosts awareness of your business around your area
Enticing promotions for customers boost business sales

Cons:

Only caters to food businesses
Some goods like ice cream or milk tea and the likes may not arrive in pristine condition

Gogo Xpress

Gogo Xpress is a local payment and delivery platform that helps startup businesses sell and transport their goods without using a website.

Having a one to one transaction billing and fairly low delivery fees, Gogo express attracts social sellers who eventually turn their casual selling into a full time start up business.

Being an integrated payment and delivery platform, Gogo Xpress also gives the buyers hassle free payment checkouts and deposits them into the sellers linked payment channel.

So if you plan to start up a business or sell some goods, Gogo Xpress can give you a jumpstart and put those plans to work.

Pros:

Payment and delivery platform in one app
Bills per transaction
Full interaction between buyer and seller
Most ideal for startup businesses who advertise on social media

Cons:

Not ideal for businesses with their own website
Not ideal to stick with the app when planning to expand small businesses

Keep in mind that these aforementioned companies may not commit to their usual advertised time due to the setbacks of the ECQ. Having different natures of operation, each company has different ways of fulfilling their deliveries. It is important that business owners would know which service in particular will be most efficient for the goods they sell.

On the other hand, among the different features and services these companies offer, they all have one goal in common: to help businesses move their goods during these trying times. Making them crucial for daily operations.

Partnered with proper online marketing, small businesses would be able to remain operational. This will keep business owners afloat despite the challenges set by the global pandemic.

The post Logistics and Delivery Services for Small Business Ecommerce appeared first on Ben Francia.