General Info

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.

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.

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.

If you enjoyed this Virtual Office Blog you can find more on our blog homepage here.

Today, work environment has changed and it is increasingly common for teams within a company to collaborate in new ways. This helps employees subjected to high amounts of stress to create and implement different things.According to experts, currently for a company to be successful, there is a need for innovation; however, the fact that their workers are not creative could stop their growth.Fortunately there are techniques that help improve the mood and performance of workers, which are directly related to fun, because when a person enjoys their work, they turnabout proposing new things.To do this, companies must make their employees feel confident to innovate and create fun in their environments.

• In the market there are already companies that do not require their workers to abide to a set schedule to work; i.e., they do not start and finish at rigid times every day, but are left to organise their time to work as they see fit, in order to meet their objectives.
• There are also companies that offer their workers a playroom in order to enable them to overcome stress and thus coexist with each other to achieve and establish new projects.
• Another way to achieve a friendly atmosphere is decorating the office with bright colours and funny pictures, in common areas where everyone can see them.
• The HR department from time to time should implement some dynamic activity with all members of the company, as this will be vital to promote integration and creativity of workers.

Remember that the conduct in meetings where all your employees participate could enhance the sense of teamwork, generating an atmosphere of trust where you can be more fun and so innovative.Your Virtual Office London are experts in helping start-ups become successful. A new business needs a lot of support to help it to reach its maximum potential, Your Virtual Office London provide mail forwarding address services including registered office address services, directors service address and telephone answering services.According to Fortune many businesses are ditching the normal office replacing it with a virtual office. This has huge benefits which include a large reduction of overheads which include office rent, full time staff pay and associated accounting and insurance fees.

In the world in which we live, full of speed and an infinite need to be in constant communication, a market that is gaining ground every day has come in the form of mobile messaging apps (applications).This sector has experienced a sharp growth in the area of mobile apps, and is therefore where a potentially multibillion-dollar market for developers who choose to engage in this type of business arises.Today services like WhatsApp, iMessage, Line, Viber, Facebook Messenger or Skype account for the majority of mobile messaging market in the world. For this reason this market is expected to continue to grow over time, so if you are interested in investing in this area then we give you some options that will leave you to make money with this system:

Stickers or emoticons sponsored by brands

To be known and reach more users, many brands have taken on the task of creating stickers or emoticons for use on a mobile messaging service, these no cost to users either.

Souvenirs and toys

Try to get your pets, souvenirs or virtual Toys to be traded physically, it may make you earn a lot of extra money to your mobile messaging services.

Charge for use

Perhaps the least liked by users, this option can be useful for your mobile app. It is to charge a fixed monthly or yearly fee for the use of mobile messaging service. Just be careful with this option because unless your service is the market leader, users will go to the competition.

Collection of stickers and emoticons

You can create two types of stickers and emoticons on your mobile messaging service, free or paid; with the paid option, usually the design or animation makes them unique for users, giving them a greater sense of value.

Selling advertising

This option is also a bit annoying for users because from time to time a number of messages may appear in a small window or completely fill the user's screen with advertising for any brand, event or other application, either from the same creator mobile messaging service or other developers to pay for it. However, for many companies it will work very effectively.

Digital marketing strategies have evolved over time; companies now are not only looking to sell a product but also fill it with valuable information to its users. This is what we call digital content marketing. However, this term does not refer only to notes written, but may also enter infographics, interviews and video tutorials and more.It also offers an important growth opportunity to develop videos of your web content strategies to promote your brand or company.The first advantage of integrating video and animation is that today people who are surfing the Internet have somewhat neglected the reading portion and have quickly become a highly visual public.Added to this, the videos tend to generate human value, allowing the link between brand and user to become more solid and durable.There is no better tool to tell a story than a video; we have stories, books and magazines, but nothing can be better to capture or document an event than video. This is because the visual things attract more viewers and ultimately make it easier for you to capture the audience.In addition, there are numerous free tools that let you create and publish videos for free - such as YouTube or VimeoVine, so you can spread them through these options and automatically redirect a link to your official site.What's more, it is expected that by 2016 videos on the web will be responsible for generating 55% of total Internet traffic, hence the importance of creating and innovating in this area.

If you have recently started your business, you may have some difficulties in managing issues related to personnel. One of the most complex points is when a person believes that they should be paid more, and therefore asks for a pay rise. Here are some clues to these situations.

Have clear market salaries

The first thing to know is how much to pay your employee and what they would expect if they were working for another company. There is no exact number, but you can get an idea by talking to contacts in other companies, looking at job ads or having a conversation with a recruitment agency. It is important to know as a starting point if your employee is claiming under or above the average wage, or if your salary is the usual amount.

Listen to your employee

Before making any decisions, take your time in a long conversation with that person. Hear what they have to say. Chances are, their main motivation for asking for a raise is the money, but they may have other issues that maybe you can easily fix. If you cannot offer a raise right now, improve other aspects by sitting down and chatting with your employee confidentially.

Analyse all aspects of the situation

What can happen if you accept the pay rise? There may be a domino effect with other employees also asking you for one, which may or may not be fully acceptable in your budget. On the other hand, if you do not agree, you may find that your employee will be discouraged, or even decide to leave to another company. No one is indispensable but some people are more necessary in an organisation than others, and may have an impact.

Never give in to blackmail

One of the arguments that you can find in these situations is that if you do not give the increase, the employee will leave. This can also be interpreted as blackmail. Usually yielding to this type of confrontation is not very helpful, because you can give a person the feeling of omnipotence, which can generate more conflict in the future. If it reaches a breaking point like this then it is better to let it go.

Is it deserved?

If you ask for a raise, maybe it's because you have failed to reward those who are more committed to your business. It's hard to be objective in these matters, but look at the work achieved by each, and seek to give raises to those who really are providing value to the company. If they see that their work is rewarded fairly, it`s an incentive to continue on that positive line, and peers may also become more motivated.

Looking for alternatives

If giving an increase right now is too risky given the financial situation of your company (very common in businesses just starting), look for alternatives to reward those that deserve it. For example, you can think of basing it on the results of the company or having strategic objectives incentives. In some cases, with key employees, you can even imagine sharing the capital of the company. In this way, everyone works toward the same goal: increase the value of the company.

One of the challenges for startups and companies today is to facilitate the coexistence and collaboration of several generations in the same virtual workspace. The question is: how to make different ways of thinking follow the same direction?Today, at least four generations share the same workspace: Millennials, Generation X, Baby Boomers and Traditionalists. Each has features and diametrically opposed conceptions of the world, but at work, they must combine their skills and talents for the success of the company for which they work.This raises the importance of such mechanisms as so-called 'mentoring schemes', which aim to build synergies between members of a company which strengthen their organisational culture. Also, it transforms differences into a competitive advantage and not a source of conflicts.The foundation of mentoring is to promote mutual learning; i.e. the more experienced colleagues infuse their knowledge younger staff, while they inject freshness and the desire to evolve.Overall, mentoring programs offer the following benefits:- Transfer of knowledge, values and efficient practices.- Accumulation of intellectual capital.- Speedy integration of new talent.- Retention of the human factor.- Cohesion of equipment and training of leaders.- Increased productivity.Therefore, it is essential that companies invest in a trained mentor, who not only has credentials in human management but who knows in detail how to advise businesses and industry.The tutor must work with those responsible for human resources in companies and preferably show the following qualities:- Listening.- Assertive communication.- Deep knowledge of guidance and motivation.- Knowledge of various industries.- Commitment to human development.- Experiences for sharing.If you have problems in your business to create bonds among your employees from different generations, you must remember that if your staff are not aligned with the values and goals of your company, it will struggle to succeed. This is because in the end its production capacity depends on the people within it.

Technology has become one of the guiding principles of the current corporate scenario. This is demonstrated by the exponential growth of e-commerce and electronic payment. In this context, the way we do business has changed and so too the mechanisms of interaction between companies, customers and financial institutions.All business owners are obliged to adapt their processes to new technological trends if they want to capitalise on contextual opportunities and transcend in a highly competitive world.As for electronic payment, there is data that predicts a more intense use of credit and debit cards as a transactional instrument. The proliferation of tools like Point of Sale (POS) and Mobile Points of Sales (mPOS, POS Phones) being examples, especially in the segment of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).Analysts have shown particular interest in mPOS, as they are an evolved form of TPV and allow businesses to run their operations through a smartphone or tablet.This gives them an important cost reduction, dissociation of physical space and openness to a growing market for cardholders, whose activity has increased over the past eight years. Basically transactions will be made at any time and place.But these are not all expectations for electronic payment methods. Technology and finance specialists point out that in the short term, contactless payment systems without physical-card-reading contact and Near Field Communication (NFC, Near Field Communication) will be consolidated, with which they interact directly with a terminal NFC and a smartphone.Electronic means of payment and electronic commerce have maintained a positive trend in recent years. In the immediate future of e-commerce, the growth was in double digits, but this continued development will depend essentially on three factors: first, that businesses and users give greater certainty about their online transactions; two, that the acceptance of debit cards in digital operations is maintained and three; that companies develop and promote friendly and efficient applications for mobile use.