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Facebook has become more than just a social site. Companies can now benefit greatly from it due to the changes that have been made. A Facebook page allows a company to interact and communicate with clients about their products and services. Customers can easily post complaints and compliments as well.
Marketing is an important aspect of any business and Facebook is a perfect platform to advertise. However, there are some ‘secrets’ to making Facebook work to your favor.

Photos over plain links

Links without photos tend to attract fewer readers than those with photographs. Photos are more attractive, engaging and interesting to look at. This also applies to profile pictures and cover pages.

Changes influencing appearance of posts

The new changes to Facebook’s edgerank algorithm allow users to interact with posts that are much older simply because of the post’s content and popularity. This will ensure that all advertisements and important posts remain visible for longer thus attracting more clients.
Showing posts in reverse chronological order sometimes leaves the consumer with information that they would easily ignore. The new tweaks change all that and improve the experience for your clients. You can use this to your advantage by posting important updates and you are sure that they will be seen for a much longer time than your regular posts.
Ensure that your posts are well-written and relevant before you post them and they will return the favor by bringing in more clients. It reduces your work as well since you do not have to remove or push out the mundane posts that you might have made earlier.

Employees keep a business running so them being happy and satisfied impacts positively on your profit margins. You can begin by practicing a few tried and tested strategies from owners of different but successful small businesses.

Reward them

Everyone likes to be appreciated for the work they do. You can reward for higher sales, attaining new clients, creativity, and even thoughtfulness toward other employees. It may be a work environment but those that work there remain human and need the warmth of some kind.

Set goals

Setting targets and meeting them gives an employee confidence to handle their work. This encourages them to work even harder to meet set targets. Also, ensuring that your business remains relevant and successful makes an employee feel like they are a part of something bigger and special will keep employees loyal and productive. To help with meeting the intended targets, businesses can implement SharePoint Workflow software (check this out) so everything completed is tracked efficiently.

Trust

Trust that your employees will deliver as required and they will gladly want to prove you right. Allowing an employee full responsibility and ensuring that their decisions pertaining to their work count will give them a sense of ownership and a willingness to make better decisions thus get better results.

Hire those that have similar vision

Hiring people that share your vision will also ensure that the fire does not burn out as fast in your employees. It is important that any new employees fit well with your current team as having a bad egg can affect morale and trust. Therefore, conducting things like a background check and interviewing them to find out their views and skills will help them integrate into your team, and increase productivity. They should also effortlessly carry your brand. You can improve this by holding trainings often.

Choose the right clients

Your employees need clients that fit into your business model. If they have to drag themselves to make profits their morale will dip.

Good health

A healthy employee will work better to ensure they eat well and exercise even at work. You may want to set up an employee healthcare plan for them that can help keep them safe and well throughout the time that they are with you. Looking into virtual care is important too as they have access even when working remotely or at work so they are covered in all aspects.

In those early days of owning a small business, you might feel all alone, on an island somewhere. In fact, some people might think your vision won’t work. Often, they may not appreciate the value in your service or product. If you give in to their view, you may feel unable to go on.
When this happens, it is worth looking at the way big brands started. Companies such as Google, Twitter, and YouTube were once not as popular as they now are. Their founders were simply budding entrepreneurs without a clear idea of what the business would develop into.
This, for instance, YouTube is well-known for hosting tutorials, global presentations, music videos and more. The site has millions of top notch clips and it is among the most visited platforms online.
However, before YouTube could boast of groundbreaking achievements, it had only a single video known as “Me at the zoo”. Yakov Lapitsky uploaded it in 2005 and it’s simply a short clip that shows him speaking directly to a camera from the zoo. Other bigger companies had humble beginnings, as well.
So, for the young entrepreneurs and other small business owners who feel gaining professional momentum has been a struggle, look to such first posts and get inspired. Therefore, despite your industry, you can actually create your message, grow a brand and transform the market. Instead of letting others dictate your business path, you can forge your way through the business arena.

Whether you call it market research, corporate espionage or simply spying, many business owners do it. Most confess having monitored a competitor to help them adjust their business model. We asked different business owners from the social media how they usually observe a competitor and posted the tips in form of do’s and don’ts.

The Do’s

Research well – Scout where your local competitors are and visit those areas.
Play dumb- You can start by asking those stupid questions and slowly change it to what you would like to know. They’ll explain further.
Leverage technology – Use Google alerts to know more about your competitors.
Let them talk – Meet them at the conference and play dumb. A competitor could spend over 20 minutes explaining their sales figures, customer acquisition, staff pay and more. People enjoy talking about themselves, which they take more time to do.
Walk right in – You can walk into your competition shops and ask various questions on different products. If they ask whether you’re in the same business, be upfront about that.
Formally request for the information required – You can request for copies of a firm’s winning proposals to help you understand the pricing models they use. You can then use such information to revise your proposal plans, target projects, and pricing.
Be a customer – If you retail similar products as they do, you can visit their shops and buy a product. This will give you a chance to see their set up. You can also offer to supply them certain products just to see the purchase prices that they prefer.
Contact past and current employees – You can acquire important information from the competitors’ sales team to know more about their services or products. Also, talk to the company’s past employees to get the insider’s view.
Study their online presence – Do a Google search to know the competitor’s brand name, industry terms and product names. Check whether they’ve a Wikipedia page and whether their social media sites are on Google’s first page.

The Don’ts

Don’t ever assume you’re much better – Some competitors may be offering better services or products that you do so be prepared for a surprise, as well.
Do not act shady – Feel free to visit them and ask them to show you around. If they’re unassuming and friendly, reciprocate; when people ask about your competitors, be sure to give them honest reviews.
Don’t get your own company into trouble- you can use your personal cell phone to ask price quotes from your competitors. You can also call their service department and feign a problem with the equipment you both service. This will help you to know their wait times, customer service and pricing.

A number of business owners are a bit hesitant in terms of letting the providers of high risk merchant accounts to be in charge of the payment solutions. One reason could be the fear of associating with the unconventional industry. Also, they just don’t want to put in the much needed effort and time to research more on different options. However, going with a typical lender or bank can be costly.
Explained here are 3 main obstacles faced by ‘adult’ businesses when creating the credit card processing method.

High Fees

Because of the controversy in the adult industry, setting up your own business at low credit rates can be hard. Although the adult service industry has good profits, don’t allow the high fees to stop you from progressing on with your business plan.

Denied by Banks

A few merchants may charge very high fees – up to 20%, to help in offsetting their risk. This may cause credit card processors and banks to deem your business as prone to risks. While every lender won’t be heartless, it is worth looking at those with great expertise in the industry.

Stigma

Even when the merchant account provider is ready to work with a number of high risk accounts such as people with a poor credit score, or first-time business owners, most of these institutions may avoid working with an adult business because of the stigma associated with the industry.
The provider of adult merchant accounts can make it easy for those within the industry to receive payments for ecommerce sites. It can also make it easy for one to accept credit card details from customers using video streaming. Despite the specifics of the brand your have, if you’re in this category, you need to think of working with a more experienced provider of adult merchant account.