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Many times, young graduates from different universities no longer find employment (or paid employment). A solution is for them to create their own business and generate wealth in their community. That is the great contribution of business incubation in the context of the national economy. Business incubation is classed as the "creation of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and to support them during their early stages of life."Many business mentors complement this view and explain that incubation aims to create projects that have a high potential, a certain degree of innovation and that are distinguished from what already exists in the market. It's also an area where entrepreneurs with good ideas receive counselling to generate their model and business plan, create networking and obtain resources.

For a business incubation initiative to succeed, it is essential that two factors are combined:

1. A good project, which can count on these features: a promising market, a good business opportunity, the existence of certain financial resources, knowledge and contacts; the definition of competitive advantage and the definition of needs.2. A good entrepreneur is usually one who exhibits the following qualities: Hunger for victory, determination, leadership, keen market insight, tolerance, as well as the ability to interact.If this combination is present, it is possible that the incubation process can begin to boost a business and earn it a place in the market; to survive beyond two years after it has been formed. A good entrepreneur will make any project succeed that comes their way, which is often not true in reverse: if there is a good project and not a good entrepreneur behind it, the best results will probably not be obtained.

Incubation process

The business incubation process consists of three stages: pre-incubation, incubation and post-incubation.This process meanwhile must try and meet these steps below:1. Selection Process. The incubators instruct the creation of an evaluation committee, to which entrepreneurs must submit their business idea.2. Pre-incubation. During this phase, the entrepreneurs selected will receive counselling to aid their entrepreneurship.3. Incubation. In this period, which can last from six months to a year, a mentor helps entrepreneurs to develop their business model and plan. Potential entrepreneurs also receive specialised advice on various issues: from intellectual property and funding to legal issues.4. Creation of the company. The incubators link entrepreneurs with public networks to formalise the establishment of their business. The company starts operating.5. Follow post-incubation. Incubators provide specific consulting on business operations, in order that it be consolidated and be successful. This support extends normally one year after the incubation process.Many in the industry say that incubation is a service, which requires future business leaders to invest some money. They also mention that some incubators for entrepreneurs seek a stake in the shares of their companies, but this is not a general rule.Moreover, business incubation is key to the emergence of MSMEs, which, according to recent data, suggests that they are the lifeline of the country in terms of volume business and jobs.Therefore, it is essential that both public and private sectors work together to try and strengthen the business incubation system, such as the UKBI, operating for 16 years now.Incubation is a very powerful tool that countries have to continue to try and grow, to generate wealth, employment and other successful growth mind-sets. When an entrepreneur creates their own company, they will change and become more responsible, a leader is a person committed their workers, their community and who takes pride in their surroundings.

Companies are not isolated agents, but economic entities affiliated to a full stakeholder environment. In this category, they are included alongside other businesses which, based on similar characteristics or diametrically opposite features, seek to keep consumer preference. In general terms, companies will have to beat their competition on their way to success; to do whatever is in their power to woo users and make a difference in the market.It is therefore essential that new owners understand that the evolution of their business depends not only on creating an attractive product, but that it is sufficiently different and helpful to leave an indelible mark in the minds of customers.For this to happen, corporate leaders, far from shunning competition, should think carefully about what their opponents are doing. Depending on that analysis, you can then design and implement an action plan that allows you to catch the public who are interested before anyone else.Experts in business development and marketing, point that every business leader in the making must study their business opponents. Here we explain in detail:1. Preliminary study. First of all, you should clearly define who your competitors are, for example: if you have a company dedicated to the production of glue, you cannot make a comparison with a restaurant. Your mission is to identify those who can take away customers or at least compete for them.2. Similarities. Look to provide products and services that could be confused with yours and make them look even better. If there are similar products or services, it is essential that the characteristics of your offer reflects added value. Remember that with similarities, the differentiating factor is the key to beating competitors.3. Marketing strategies. Have you thought about analysing communication channels using your opponents to spread their products? Do you know what is said about them in the traditional media and digital channels? Do you know what marketing strategies they used to woo their customers? Resolving these questions are essential to obtaining information that can compare with your market related actions. This will help you find the best ways to promote what you do and capture public attention.4. Digital-Mobile Presence. It is also essential that you analyse your own online presence. Do you have a website or a blog? Do you have profiles on Social Media? What kind of content is generated? Do you have a virtual shop? Do you accept payments by credit card or debit? Have you got feature Apps as mobile payment? The data emanating from these questions will help you visualise areas of opportunity that should be explored to get you on top of your industry.

Statistics of the latest reports conducted in 2014, indicated that the UK has 22 million households (84%) with Internet access, up from 57% in 2006. Various consumer profiles showed that around 76% (38 million) people in the country used the internet every day and a similar percentage (74%) made purchases through the internet, up 23% from 2008.Given this scenario, the micro, small and medium businesses (MSMEs) must develop online sales strategies, such as e-commerce to capitalise on this massively growing industry in the country.To develop a successful strategy into online commerce, it is necessary to make good market research and create a profile of the current buyers who have entered into sales and made online payments.The recent study by an e-commerce portal produced an analysis of the different profiles of users who make purchases on the Internet and we will share the results.

Detective

This is a person who likes to surf the internet and find out where they can get the best price for the product they want. The detective therefore spends a lot of time visiting all pages of online stores.

Critic

These examine in great detail the whole process of purchase. They also rate customer service and delivery procedures etc. and are inclined to give positive or negative comments about their experience so as to pass the information on to others.

The fan

This is a person with active profiles on social networks and who knows and is convinced of the benefits of electronic commerce. Moreover, unlike the detective, the fan does not inquire much about deals.

Impulsive

These are people who are driven by their instincts and are regulars to making purchases online.

Bargain hunter

This user will only take advantage of purchasing the product if it`s at a lower price. They will not necessarily value the additional services such as delivery, customer service and technical support.

Rational

Their online purchase process is balanced, and will not make any sudden, rash decisions - similar to the detective type, but less analytical in approach.

The cautious

This person has little or no experience in online shopping. They will buy only from highly recognised websites or brands and will not make the payment without being sure of the reliability of the site.

Inventory management is an operation that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) should not exclude from its sales strategy if you want to generate profits and avoid economic losses.Inventory management is the efficient handling of raw materials, manufacturing phase items and finished products. This process requires the involvement of the entire corporate structure, in order to perform specific actions and to facilitate proper handling of the goods.Here are the kinds of tasks that each corporate division must run to meet that goal:

1. Procurement

This sector is responsible for relations with suppliers. The duties are:a) Check the availability of delivery agents by type of manufactured item.b) Manage the delivery time of the requested orders.c) Negotiate the price of inputs.d) To process credit with suppliers and define their terms.e) Report the difference between the prices of inputs to cash and credit.2. ProductionThe request for purposes of inventory management is to provide information on the number of items that can be manufactured every day and spending inputs required for that process. This area is also responsible for recommending the use of racks or shelves for storage of merchandise.

3. Storage

This segment must be designed and the necessary space to store supplies and products to be installed, depending on the goals and production requirements.

4. Finance and Accounting

The objectives of this department are:a) Valuing inventory, determining production costs and defining sales prices.b) Determining the prices of finished goods on credit.c) Assess the availability of resources to purchase inputs and store all types of inventories.d) Define the right time to hire financial solutions such as Credit Card Working Capital, designed to meet operational needs as inventory management.e) Calculate inventory turnover and create strategies for managing surplus or missing supplies.f) To establish the balance between revenues and expenditures associated with the handling of goods.

5. Administration

This division is responsible for plotting escape routes to the unexpected, such as the absence of a supplier, the lack of key inputs, production equipment failure, reduction or the occasional increase in productive capacity.

6. Sales

This department is responsible for establishing direct contact with consumers and implementing strategies for placing manufactured products and even agree to acquire items in progress.Read more helpful and insightful articles brought to you by Robert Carter from Your Virtual Office London on our startup and business blog.

Between 60 and 63% of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Britain suffered a hacking attack last year, according to a recent study. The report by the firm specialising in cybersecurity notes that the lack of interest is the main reason for the attacks, since most SMEs think that they won`t be targeted because of their size. Therefore the situation is exploited by criminals to steal information.The report's findings ensure that smaller organisations implement less IT security measures than that of larger companies. Only 19% of small companies and 15% of midsize companies are reactive against cyber-attacks.In order for your business to prevent and mitigate IT risks, we share the following recommendations.

Delimit access

To prevent leakage of information or hacker attacks, you should define which employees have access to certain applications.

Put in passwords

This requires each of the members of your team using passwords on all devices from which to access information in your company. To reinforce this activity, you need to explain to them what consequences there would be if information is stolen from the company.

Always alert

Make sure your employees are aware of the most frequent threats to prevent them from becoming lackadaisical. This can be done through small notices by mail.

Protect

Ask the manager of your business systems to install data protection tools on mobile devices and so blocking the download of applications from dubious sources.

Say no to public networks

Prohibit your staff mobile devices from connecting to corporate and public networks that are risky. This is best done from the cellular network, whilst using a virtual private connection.

Ask to report any eventuality

Explain to your staff that it is their obligation to immediately report any suspicion of a security incident.

Put locks on social networks

To do this you must restrict disclosure of corporate information on social networks, unless it is through the manager. This avoids the danger of clicks on malicious links that have appeared.

Get cyber insurance

Businesses can now obtain specialist insurance to help limit the damage caused from breaches in cyber security. More firms are now choosing to take up insruance to ensure they can help mitigate any potential breaches with a well covered insurance policy.

Boost profits

As an entrepreneur, one of your biggest challenges concerns how and when to make your customers pay more for products or services of your company. This is because the way you increase price or reduce it can mean the potential loss of customers and put you in a vulnerable position before your main competitors.However, in most cases your company has no alternative but to continue with rising prices. Therefore, here are some tips and smart alternatives to raise prices.

Do not delete promotions

While most consumers know the exact price they paid for an item, it is common to remember if it was a good purchase decision and from that generate a position on the product or service.According to the business section of the newspaper Wall Street Journal, companies must maintain their prices and reduce the time in which they offer promotions or discounts in order to prevent rising prices and mitigate the decline in earnings caused by offers.

Keep or raise the quality and quantity

Never try to make more profits by lowering the quality of your main products or services, because that attitude will irritate consumers of your brand.In this case, experts recommend that you keep the quality of your product and serve to market a cheaper, lower-quality product online, so you can meet the needs of other sectors of society.Another initiative that rarely succeeds is to reduce the amount of product that the customer receives but in a similar package at the same price. A soft drink can lose a few millilitres or there may be a few less biscuits in a packet. The price does not go up, but what you pay per unit.The reason this does not work is that most of the cost of a product is usually with the packaging, transportation and other aspects of production outside the product itself. As a result, reducing the amount is unlikely to influence the results of the company.

Price Up

When you decide it is time to increase the cost of your product or service, you will need to take into account the expenses that you incur at the time and how they may affect you in the future.Companies should also make it as clear as possible the reason for the increase. They should tell customers if it is due to higher costs of ingredients or transport, for example.Research shows that consumers respond not only to the price, but what they believe is right. If they feel that a price increase is linked to your desire to increase their profits, they will consider it unfair.

Increase Your Appeal

Improve the image customers will have of your business, develop stronger brand assetts, show off a prestigious office location and show the value you can offer to your clients.

Keep an eye on the competition

When you take a new product to market, ask yourself if it is a good time to raise your prices, because consumers will know that your business is doing its best to meet their needs.At this point you need to keep an eye on the decisions of your main competitors, as the rise can be converted into a price battle where no one wants to take the first step, even if the whole market is facing the same cost pressures.

Subscribing strategic alliances with other productive agents and exploring new markets are tasks that require employers to move from one place to another. There is a phrase in popular culture: "If the mountain will not come to Mohammed, Mohammed goes to the mountain." In relation, corporate leaders must make numerous trips to extend the scope of their customer base while optimizing business expenses.This dynamic represents certain costs, which can increase or decrease depending on two key concepts:

Financial discipline

Employers should be prepared to settle expenses directly related to their business and especially these three areas: transport, accommodation and food. But they also have to be ready to solve unforeseen circumstances during this journey; therefore, they must have sufficient financial freedom, that is, the ability to meet needs and to make the trip run smoothly.However, the fact that entrepreneurs possess surplus capital to meet the requirements inherent in these movements does not mean you can spend the available resources at will. At this point, the financial discipline becomes important.Men and women in business should understand that their movements are due to corporate objectives and not to holiday purposes. Thus, any excess or personal spending will have to be discarded, except that there are unique resources for it. Therefore, operating in the opposite direction could generate financial irregularities in the company.

To avoid such a scenario, there are these tips to entrepreneurs:

1. Plan trips in advance. Preparing shipments well in advance is essential to optimise costs. This involves exploring all alternatives in transportation, room and board, so shop around and check out promotions.2. Research destinations. Before traveling, employers should familiarise themselves with the places visited. It is essential to inquire about customs, habits and living costs.3. Differentiate costs. Employers must make a clear distinction between personal and corporate resources to rule out any possibility of financial turmoil. Specialists explain that the market has financial instruments that can help them serve this purpose, specifically, business cards. With a debit card, for example, they can afford the costs of their travel safely and accurately, while maintaining the line between the capital of the business and individual.4. Employers must reflect on what expenses are essential in a business trip and what contingencies they may face accordingly, they must establish the ceiling of capital use. They should remember that personal outlays come at their own expense.For any business, access to finance becomes a highly positive tool; especially if such funding means having an accessible means for consolidation and growth support to help you keep up and seize the opportunities within their productive activity.It is important to remember that making a good approach is essential to gaining access to credit.A largely positive response from a bank to grant a loan depends on the employer knowing how to clearly communicate its purpose, the potential of their business, the effectiveness of its infrastructure, as well as the positive results. In short, make your business viable.Enjoying credit is definitely a well-earned privilege. To properly size and assess affordability elements (flow and solvency); generated profit (profitability); operation and collection efficiencies (liquidity); evaluation of real business needs (present and future); and analyse the proper performance of its obligations, employers can optimally determine their credit requirements and translate them in amount, term, destination and use of the loan, using conditions that suit their capabilities and plans.The more experience you have with a business loan, the greater the opportunities for financing. Remember that the history of the company is recorded in the credit information, so having good references is essential to obtaining any financing.

The capital of a company is one of the first things that you must obtain to crystallise your dream of opening a business. Therefore, it is important to know how to attract investors to your start-up.The creator of iRobot, Rodney Brooks, had the idea of building a low-cost robot that could collaborate with workers in a safe, intelligent, low-cost way for companies who purchase the invention.It may only be an idea, but Brooks made an analogy between computers and robots with the argument that the adoption of worker robots would be similar to the introduction of personal computers in workplaces. This would result in higher office efficiency, more productivity and more jobs. This is why investors gave him $62 million to fund its start-up.So that your business idea has the support of more investors, we share a list of tips to help you create a connection with them.

Talk to the right people

The first step is to understand the interests of each investor, so we suggest you investigate your potential investors before talking to them about the ideas you have.This step will help you know if your company can adapt to and will thrive in the investment industry.

Create contacts

Once you determine who may be interested in investing in your business, you should look at ways in which the manager of one of the start-ups can present you with the investor.

Make a presentation

This refers to when you agree to an interview with the prospective investor and make a presentation that will tell your story in non-technical terms. In the presentation, you should talk about your team, the opportunity in the market, the need for the product, its value to the customer, your position against competition, how much capital you require to create the company and have a financial plan to present also.

Acknowledge your areas of opportunity

During the interview with the potential investor you must be honest in answering each of the questions you ask. If you do not have an answer, you should admit it and not lie about something you know about.

Listen carefully

It is possible that in the first meetings with potential investors, you fail to capture the interest of any of them; however, you should not discard the tips that they share.The best practice in such cases is to listen to feedback, absorb information and tailor your pitch.If you enjoyed this blog from Your Virtual Office London you can read more business tips and advice in our startup blog.

Advertising is a factor that helps companies to position their brands on the market. To make this possible, it is necessary to identify the sector that will be addressed, how well it will perform, as well as the duration and knowing what is the competition, among other factors.To make a successful ad campaign, you need to customise it according to the audience you want to reach. In this way, there will be immediate identification with it, which will ensure a good brand positioning.However, sometimes the audience does not identify with advertising messages that are released to the market, leading the campaign to not yield the expected results.To prevent this from happening to your company's products and to make sure the promotion is successful.

8 Different Advertising methods

1. Online Advertising
2. Newspaper Ads
3. Radio Advertising
4. Television Advertising
5. Public Speaking
6. Door Hangers and Flyers
7. Event Sponsorship
8. Word-of-Mouth Advertising

6 tips for an advertising campaign

• Before starting your planning, it is necessary to know in detail the brand and the product that will be positioned in the market; find out who are the main consumers, think of messages that suit them etc.
• During the creative process, think about an idea that suits different communication channels; if your concept is different in each medium, it will be difficult for the audience to understand that this is the same campaign or the same product.
• Setting goals is essential for brand an advertising campaign. These could be: win customers, market identification, make the product memorable, etc.
• Make a preliminary investigation of the location where you will place the ads, because it can determine the level of impact and scope that the audience has. Also take into account that there are media tactics, which can be of low investment such as the Internet or radio that the campaign can operate through satisfactorily.
• Monitor the responses of the audience, as this is key to understanding its impact among consumers. Use analysis tools depending on the environment in which the message is spread.
• Finally, never forget that advertising is a comprehensive set of strategies which if applied correctly will ensure the success or positioning of a product or brand on the market.

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Companies constantly launch new products or services after market research, because this kind of activity is a tactic to renew its validity in the market. However, before committing to this strategy, you should ensure that new items will be well accepted by customers.To understand their customers, companies often use market research, consisting of three elements: competition, consumer and strategy; which serve to determine the viability of a product before making them available to customers.Such studies provide insight into accurate data on numbers and percentages of sales between certain types of consumers or areas where data favours the process of planning a more accepted marketing strategy.Conducting personal interviews via online or phone calls will let you know the opinion of prospective consumers and who are the main source of feedback. This is because they express the acceptance or rejection of the product, and the places where you will have greater penetration.Market research also helps a company to learn about the areas of sales, production and distribution; in this way you will know what the most profitable markets are and which need further attention.Always remember to use your market research to complement your sales strategy that fits your needs in the market.The information obtained through scientific market research is usually reliable and should be used as a guide for developing business strategies.

Market research is a guide to communicating with customers and prospects

If you make good research, the results will help you design an effective marketing campaign, giving to potential consumers the information with which they are interested.

The research will help identify market opportunities

For example, if you plan to start a business in a certain geographic location and discover that there is little competition there, then you already identified an opportunity. Opportunities for success increase if the region in which you plan to do business is highly populated and residents have the characteristics of the selected group.

Market research minimizes risk

If instead of identifying market opportunities, the results of the investigation indicate that you should not continue with the plan of action, then it's time to make adjustments. For example, if the findings show that the market is saturated with the type of service or product you plan to offer, then you know that it might be better to move to another location.

Market research identifies future problems

Through research you may discover, for example, that in the place where you want to establish your business, the council plans to build an bypass or an alternate route in order to relieve traffic congestion. You have identified a possible problem!

Market research helps you evaluate the results of your efforts

With research you can determine whether you have achieved the goals and objectives you set out to start the business.Demographics: This is specific information about a population. It includes:

• age
• sex
• approximate income
• academic preparation
• marital status
• family composition
• nationality
• residential zone

Demographic data is based on findings from the national census, government agencies and private companies engaged in collecting such information.Psychological data: The data collected information is in the consumer's mind:

• attitudes
• lifestyles
• interests
• values
• culture

By obtaining this information, we will either determine what factors motivate the consumer to buy your product or service, identify any willingness by consumers for cultural or environmental reasons, and meet consumer preferences.Obtaining demographic and psychological data save time and money for the company. The information used will help to delineate the profile of our client.If you found this article interesting you can read more on our blog here.