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Life Tips for Personal, Financial and Business Growth

Maxwell

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How Much Does It Cost to Start a Supplement Company?

Health and wellness has long been one of the richest consumer industries in the world. In fact, at the end of 2018, health and wellness was the runner up to technology as one of the industries expected to grow the most over the next decade. What does this mean for the aspiring entrepreneur? Creating a business in health and wellness is a smart move. 

There are many types of businesses you can start in this field – a few options include consulting, training, nutrition, and selling products, just to name a few. One of the easiest and most profitable health and wellness businesses you can own is a supplement company. 

Types of Supplement Companies

There are many ways to sell supplements. The one you choose will probably depend on how much capital you have available and your particular skills and knowledge. For example, if you already have an existing storefront, you might be looking to expand your inventory with supplements. In this case, these products would probably be just a small part of your business model. 

However, if you’re starting your company from scratch, you’ll need to find a model best suited to you. One example is a health and wellness website. Many people who successfully run these have blogs devoted to one niche or another and sell their supplements right there from that platform. They might blog about weight loss, muscle gain, disease prevention, or women’s health. The key is to find a specialty that interests you so you won’t get tired of talking about it.

In selling products online, you can either choose to buy bulk amounts and store them or order individual items as your customers buy them. The first way will cost more upfront, but probably save you more in the long run. And the last way will cost more and may take too long to get to the customer unless your supplement company dropships.

What is private labeling?

In addition to deciding where to sell your product, you’ll also need to decide whether to label it yourself or just sell as a distributor for the company. If you do decide to label them yourself, there are some important things you need to know. When selling private label supplements, you have a little more autonomy on how the product is marketed and distributed. In other words, it’s your brand and you’re in charge of it.

The way it works is that you purchase bottles of supplements with no branding and put your own on them. Most companies will apply the labels for you and some will even design them for you for a nominal fee. Either way, you’re giving your own name to someone else’s product, so make sure you’re getting something you believe in.

What costs are involved in starting a supplement business?

Some experts estimate that you can successfully open a supplement business for around $5,000. In this estimate, they include several items, but keep in mind that these costs may be very different for you. Your main expense is the supplements themselves. These will, of course, be very different between companies. While the $5,000 estimate includes about 150 bottles of product, most suppliers require you to purchase a minimum of 500. 

Other costs include liability insurance, a website, and label design. As you can probably imagine, each of these costs can vary a great deal. The type of insurance policy you buy will likely depend on how you’re selling the product and the size of your business. But the average cost of a business policy is around $400 a year. Websites and label design can cost you next to nothing if you can find the right budding designers. Or they can cost you a fortune if you choose to go with a professional with many years of expertise. In order to keep all your costs low, shop around for the best prices and seek expert advice on making the best decisions for your business.

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5 Steps to Recovering From a Financial Setback

Almost everyone in the world has experienced at least one financial disaster in their lifetime. But what sets the survivors apart is their ability to bounce back.

Of course, bouncing back can take time, patience, and a little creativity. The important thing is not to dwell on your mistakes, but to pick yourself up and start over before you have too much time to think about it. Here are five steps you should take to help you do just that.

Take out a short-term loan

Depending on the circumstances of your particular situation, traditional loans may be hard to get. This is especially true if you’ve just lost your job or if your credit is less-than-perfect.

In these situations, you can turn to companies like Eastern Loans to get you out of a bind. These types of loans can see you through a gap in employment, a medical emergency, or any other sudden change in your finances.

Cut back on expenses

During a financial crisis, you’ll probably find it necessary to cut back on expenses immediately. And these cuts can feel brutal in the beginning, especially if you’re typically a spender. But this will also help you out of a bind, possibly even better than the other solutions.

You might even find you can live on less than you thought. Some examples of budget cuts you can make are to stop eating out, cancel any subscriptions you have, and avoid expensive habits like smoking or drinking.

You’ll probably find out during your budget cuts that you’re spending way too much on a lot of things. Call your cable company and ask them if they have a cheaper plan. Start drinking tap water instead of bottled. The possibilities are endless.

Host a fundraiser

It’s become pretty common for people to ask for help with the emergence of websites like GoFundMe. So you shouldn’t feel ashamed about doing it yourself. The key to making it more than just handouts is to offer something in return, like a party or dinner.

Think of it as a way to spread cheer, gather friends and family, and have some fun. You don’t even have to structure it like a fundraiser if that makes you uncomfortable. Just ask for donations to help pay for the party. But if you can have a sense of humor about the situation, that’s all the better.

Look into a dunk tank rental and let people pay to drop you in the water. Ask your favorite cousin to cook up some barbecue and set up the karaoke machine. The people who love you will be happy to surround you in your time of need.

Learn what sells

Finding extra money may be easier than you realize. For one thing, you probably have a lot of useless items lying around your house that you could sell.

And before you think no one would want your stuff, check out some of the sold listings on Ebay. You’ll probably be surprised to find out that people have sold things as strange as boxes of toilet paper rolls, tumbleweeds, and pine cones for profit.

Get a side job

Selling your old stuff can certainly be considered a “side job” if you do it enough. But aside from that, you can also pick up a buck or two by doing things no one else wants to do. For example, you can earn decent money walking dogs, mowing lawns, or tutoring.

But if you don’t feel up to starting your own business, you can always check with local retailers or temp agencies for seasonal or part-time work that’s flexible with your schedule.

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4 Low-Budget Marketing Strategies That Everyone Should Know

 

Digital Marketing, Technology, Notebook, Stats

These days, the success of a business often hinges on effective marketing. After all, there’s hardly any point in offering any products or services if the target customers remain unaware and oblivious to their existence. And more importantly, the strategies adopted must be as economical as they are effective in delivering their intended results; to keep the company costs low and, as a result, maintain consistently high profits. To this end, here are a few low-budget marketing strategies that everyone should know.

Social media

You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone without a social media account today. This presents a unique opportunity for many businesses to generate awareness and acquire many potential customers too. Best of all, it’s a cost-effective approach to marketing since it requires no more than a small investment of time in identifying your target market as well as promoting any products and services offered by your company.

Blogs

Blogging websites continue to become increasingly popular not only amongst aspiring writers but established businesses since they serve as a marketing strategy that demands no more than time in generating interesting and relevant content. And if the budget allows, you can monetise existing blog sites, creating more leads that will enhance your company’s presence online and allow you not only to secure your target market but increase it as well.

Website

There’s a reason why plenty of businesses today often have websites: not only does it help create brand awareness, but it also provides potential customers with more information and insight about what the company is all about too. This allows a business to build a relationship with the target market even before securing them, creating both rapport as well as social credibility in the process. Small as this might appear to some, you’ll be surprised at how effective a marketing tool a website can be to any business.

Promotional materials

While the World Wide Web may serve as an endless well of potential consumers to a company, not everything can be accomplished online. As such, it makes sense to augment marketing strategies with promotional materials. From display stands and outdoor banners created with high-tech banner printers to giveaways such as pens, clothing, and other items, the investment made in promotional materials can pay dividends. And by spending time on research, you’ll be surprised at just how inexpensive the investment can be too.

It’s not hard to see why businesses continue to invest in more cost-effective marketing. The methods don’t just fulfil their intended purpose, after all, but they do so without the need for a company to commit a considerable amount of resources. By adopting the marketing strategies mentioned above, not only are you far more likely to maximise your chances of getting the desired results, but you will be able to keep your expenditure at a minimum. And as small as this might appear to some, it can make all the difference especially for companies that have no more than a modest budget to work with.

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The 4 Tools Every Retailer Needs to Run Their Business

The world of retail is ever-evolving and complex. In the modern marketplace, more retailers are going out of business every year, even the established names that have been on the high-street for decades. However, the fact remains that there are well-run retailers who are doing quite well, despite the market conditions. For your retail business to do well like others, you need to use the right tools to help you on the way.

Below are just some of the powerful tools every retailer needs to keep their business running smoothly like a well-oiled machine.

1. Salesforce CRM

To run and grow your retail business, you need a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. Among other things, a CRM software enables you to record and store all the contacts and interactions you have with your potential and existing customers, provides a platform for your sales team to collaborate to win more customers, and automate customer follow-ups.

This is where Salesforce CRM comes in. Salesforce is one of the top web-based CRM applications in the world. With Salesforce, you can better manage all your customer service channels from one central dashboard, create loyalty programs, get insights, and move customers along the path to purchase.

2. Intuit QuickBooks

One of the more difficult aspects of running a business in the retail industry is taking care of accounting and bookkeeping. Many business owners find that they benefit from using a programme to make the job easier. Intuit QuickBooks fits the bill perfectly.

QuickBooks is accounting software that helps you keep the financial side of your business at your fingertips, across multiple devices, including your smartphone.

If you have been using Microsoft Excel before, you can easily import all your data into QuickBooks.

With QuickBooks, you can snap and store receipts, download your bank transactions, calculate and file your VAT, manage your payroll, track real-time stock levels, and much more.

3. Vend

The importance of the Point Of Sale (POS) to a retail business cannot be overstated. While the means of paying for goods has changed and developed over the years, the principles of the importance of the POS remain the same.

One great POS management system you should consider deploying in your retail business is Vend POS. Vend is a multi-outlet retail and inventory management system that enables you to collect payments and manage your sales with ease.

You can use Vend to manage returns, refunds, and store credit. With Vend it’s easy to restrict what individual staff can see and do. Another benefit of the Vend platform is the ability to track all cash movements to minimise errors and prevent theft. This feature is a huge relief because cash errors, discrepancies, and theft can have a devastating effect on your retail business, which is why contents insurance is vital.

4. Ximble

In the retail business, workforce management is another key area you must manage well to sustain your business and keeping it running smoothly.

If you’re looking for a tool to make staff management easy for you, look no further than Ximble – a web-based workforce management tool that enables you to maximise staff productivity, improve communications, and reduce the costs of labour.

With Ximble you can create and publish a schedule for all your workers to see online. Also, Ximble empowers to manage multiple departments in multiple locations and assign shifts to specific employees with the skill to do the job. Also, your workers can clock in through an app, tablet, or browser. And it comes with facial recognition to help you prevent buddy punching.

Conclusion

When you combine the power of relationship management with proper accounting, easy electronic checkout, and workforce management, your retail business will not only run smoothly but also thrive. It’s possible when you use the right tools.

 

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25 Link-Building Tips For 2019

Link building has been key to SEO for years, but these days it’s all about link quality over quantity. It’s no longer enough to have reems of external links (also called backlinks) pointing towards your website;  they need to be high-quality, relevant links from websites with high domain authority. These links will make your website look more trustworthy and authoritative, helping search engines to rank you higher. Don’t just take our word for it; Google confirmed that links and content are the two most important ranking factors back in 2016. Plus, the more relevant places that link to your website, the more chances you have of gaining relevant referral traffic.

Follow our 25 link building tips for 2019 to make sure that you’re attracting relevant links and getting the most out of them.

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  1. Understand your existing links
    Tools like SEMRush can help you see which pages are linking to you, and their quality. This snapshot of your present link profile will help when it comes to tracking the progress of your work.
  2. Put someone in charge
    Link building can be resource intensive, so it’s important to have someone dedicated to promoting your content and always looking for new opportunities.
  3. Create inspiring content
    Creating content that people are excited to share is the best way to earn natural links back to your website. Infographics are popular and engaging, performing the best in comparison to other visual formats.
  4. Leverage existing relationships
    Reach out to relevant partners, customers, industry associates – anyone you share common ground with –  for valuable in-content links.
  5. Build new relationships
    Identify niche-related communities: blogs, forums, social media groups. Contributing to discussions within these will help create contacts who should be primed to offer you backlinks going forward.
  6. Optimise your blog
    Make sure that your blog is regularly updated with unique and engaging content. Post about your passions and expertise, creating linkworthy content that people will value.
  7. Look at competitor links
    Try a tool like Majestic for an in-depth look at competitor link profiles,  providing you with ideas on where to focus your efforts.
  8. Pursue links your competitors don’t have
    Once you have a clear understanding of your competitors’ link profiles, you’ll be able to identify inbound links they don’t have. Pursue these for a competitive edge.
  9. Links from bloggers
    Establishing connections with relevant bloggers can earn you quality links. Try offering them your product or service for free. Using a blogger outreach service can speed up the process of identifying and reaching out to new contacts.
  10. Connect with influencers
    Influencers within your niche will be well-respected and authoritative. Their recommendations carry weight, and a link from them is valuable for SEO and your reputation.
  11. Guest blogging
    Reach out to websites where your input and opinion will be valuable. This will build links and your reputation as an authoritative voice. After a while, websites should start approaching you for guest content and blogs.
  12. Interviews
    Text interviews, videos, podcasts – interviews provide a valuable opportunity to earn backlinks in any format. Be as helpful and expert as you can, to increase your chances of being approached again.
  13. Links earned from webinars
    Webinars are a great opportunity to position yourself as an expert and to earn links. Host your webinar somewhere that makes it easy for other websites to embed your content, such as YouTube.
  14. Links from surveys and research
    Holding surveys or commissioning research on a regular basis – and publicising the results – can generate content that editors love to link to.
  15. Trend-watching
    Keep your ear to the ground for new trends that are relevant to your niche. Being the first to share insight or opinion will earn you quality links.
  16. Content round-ups
    Does your industry have regular content curators who round up the best pieces from the month? Earning a link in these is a great way to generate relevant referral traffic.
  17. Turn mentions into links
    Use tools like Content Explorer and Screaming Frog to discover unlinked mentions. These could be your brand name, unique products or services that you offer, or brand representatives. Once you have your list ready, reach out to the websites in question to see if they’ll add the link in, making the experience more useful for their users.
  18. Prospect for broken links
    Scan industry or influencer blogs for broken links using a tool like Check My Links. Contact the publisher with any you find and use the opportunity to pitch your content as a replacement.
  19. Outdated content
    Scour industry/niche publications for content that is outdated and offer to provide fresh, up-to-date content in exchange for a link.
  20. Testimonials
    Reach out to businesses and suppliers you’ve worked with, offering them a testimonial in return for them linking back to your website.
  21. Feature in membership lists
    Join industry or local associations or organisations. These usually have an online directory of their members, which include business details and website links.
  22. Run competitions
    Run weekly or monthly competitions and contact relevant websites to see if they’ll provide a mention, with a link, on their site.
  23. Business listing websites
    Create profiles on business listing websites for your industry. You might need to pay a small fee, but you should be able to include a link back to your website.
  24. Press releases
    Having news about your business or brand picked up by digital news publishers is a quick way to generate high quality, natural links.
  25. Internal linking
    Internal links might not be as powerful as external links, but they still play a part in where your pages rank. Make sure that your internal links help guide your website visitors through your content logically and helpfully.

It’s simple when you break it down – the higher you rank in search engines and the more places you promote your content online, the more potential customers or partners you’ll drive to your website. Follow our top link-building tips and watch your SEO performance soar.