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How to Give a Great Impression at a First Business Meeting

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An important business meeting is coming up and you’re worried about giving a bad first impression? Well, you don’t have to worry at all because we’re here to help you out. Here are four important tips on how to nail this task and give a great impression, so check them out and enjoy!

Dress appropriately in the first place

’Dress for success’ – you’ve probably heard this phrase a million times, but you know what? Dressing appropriately is vital, especially when it comes to a first business meeting,so make sure to bear in mind the time of the day and the location of the upcoming meeting. Formal business attire in dark, neutral colors is a good choice if you’re meeting with representatives of other companies. Of course,you can also try to anticipate the style of other participants, as dressing too casually or too formally often means that you haven’t thought about the purpose of the meeting. On the other hand, meetings that take place outside the industry norms usually allow more casual outfits, but remember that clean hair and nails, properly ironed clothes, and freshly shined shoes are always a must!

Always, always be punctual

Punctuality is another crucial factor that will help you give a great first impression at a first business meeting, so do your best to arrive on time no matter what. This is particularly true if you need to ride a bus or rely on any other mean of public transportation, so be sure to plan everything out to the tiniest detail. Renting a car is also a good idea,especially if you’re afraid that you’re going to be late, so go for an Avis Car Hire and you’ll undoubtedly make it on time. Just ensure not to arrive too early, as it’s likely to make other participants uncomfortable by cutting into their ability to prepare for the meeting. A few minutes before it is ideal, but you can always wash your hands, fix your hair, or drink some water if you arrive too early.

Try to make small talk before the meeting starts

Even though making small talk isn’t always desirable, the truth is that it’s more than welcome when it comes to giving a good impression at a first business meeting. It’s likely to put everyone at ease before the meeting starts, so do your best to relax a little bit and start by introducing yourself to the other participants. Besides that, you should also listen attentively to the conversation, without checking out your emails or scrolling down social media feed, which is quite rude in the business setting. Instead of that, just put away your phone and actually pay extra attention to the personal details that may seem irrelevant at that moment. In fact, these are quite meaningful if you think about it, as listening to other people and showing interest can help you make new friends and build a long-term relationship with other participants.

Do your research beforehand

Last but not least, doing your research beforehand is undoubtedly one of the most effective ways to give a great impression at a business meeting. First of all, you should review all business materials in advance, so that you can figure out the company’s initiatives, goals, key projects, and recent accomplishments. You can also browse through their website and get a bigger picture of their business techniques and policies, so that you can gain some insight into the history of that particular company. Besides that, you should also come up with a few key questions before the meeting, so that you can find out everything you need to know and cover the most important objectives of the meeting. If your potential business partners are from a foreign country, you should definitely get informed on how to interact with people from other cultures and backgrounds, which may contribute to a better final result everyone will be happy about.

As you can see, giving a great impression at a first business meeting doesn’t have to be as challenging as you probably thought. All you have to do is to stick to our tips and guidelines and you’ll successfully nail this task, without a shadow of a doubt!

Guest author, David Webb, is a Sydney-based business consultant,online marketing analyst and a writer. With six years of experience and a degree in business management, he continuously informs the public about the latest trends in the industry. He is a regular author at BizzmarkBlog. You can reach him on Twitter or Facebook.

Things to Consider Before Relocating Your Company

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Moving is always hard, whether you have to relocate your home or your business, and there are so many factors you need to take into consideration. If you don’t do it right, you might face potential less when it comes to your customers, business partners or even your employees. However, there’s a way to avoid all of that,make the move smooth and continue working the same day you finish the move. In order to achieve that, you need to be organized and prepare everything in advance. That will help you spend as little time possible on the actual move and help you focus on what’s truly important – doing your job.

Do Market Research

In order to find the perfect space for your new office, you’ll have to do a thorough market research and discover the best areas. That means you have to see where the biggest companies are settled at the moment and find your spot there. Also, try to get closer to the companies you work with, because that will make organizing your meetings much easier.

On the other hand, you can move to a neighborhood where there’s no company like yours, and thus became a true leader. This will give you an opportunity to establish a new market and make your own rules, which is something many businesses are good at. You can be a leader if you research all of your options and offer something new to the clients in the area you choose.

Location Matters

The word “location” has different meanings for different businesses location, but they all have one thing in common – staying close to their clients. If your office is far from your clients, they might realize that they don’t like the commute and could eventually stop doing business with you after a while.

This will also prevent you from getting new clients –you may have the best office in the world, but if it’s far from your potential clients, they won’t have time for meeting with you. Think about the location of your competitors and try to find a space somewhere close. That will allow you to be in the center of the happenings, and bring you closer to new business opportunities.

Organize your new office

Before you start moving all your belongings, think about preparing the space and making it ready. Start by painting one wall at the time and making them look more appealing, but be sure to pick the color that’s going to suit everyone. Fix everything before you bring in the furniture because it’s always easier to work with empty space, and you’ll be able to see what needs to be fixed.

Apart from that,find a company that will help you set up an electricity connection and make everything work before you move into your new office. This is crucial because you’ll have to power all your equipment from day one, so make sure you organize this in advance.

Cost issues

Find a real estate agent who works with office spaces, can negotiate a good deal for you and make sure you get the best space on the market. Although this sounds like an expense you don’t need, think of it as an investment in the future of your company because you don’t want to move again after a while just because it turns out that the new space isn’t working for you.

When it comes to your employees, they will have to balance doing their jobs and helping you with the move. You’ll have to give them bonuses, because this is definitely not what they’ve initially signed for, so make it worth their while.

Find a Moving Company

No matter how small your business is, you won’t be able to move everything on your own. With all the computers, chairs, desks and other furniture, it’s always better to leave it to professionals instead of trying to do it on your own.By doing this, you’ll avoid accidents that could damage your sensitive equipment and thus ruin your moving budget.

Organize everything and ask your moving company to pack your entire office and label all the boxes just to make the unpacking process easier. That will allow you to let your employees unpack their personal belongings on their own, and this will fasten the entire process.

Although the moving process can be stressful and exhausting, you can organize everything in advance and it easier. Include your employees but show them that you appreciate their help and they’ll be happy to help you. Think about all the steps you need to take after the relocation and don’t waste your time in the new office. By continuing where you’ve left things off in your previous office, you’ll be able to get back on the right track and immediately start making new deals.

Emma B. Joyce is a blogger based in Australia. She is a true home decor and DIY fanatic. Emma is interested in music and also is a big reading enthusiast. Finding new designs and patterns is her daily task. She is a regular contributor on https://smoothdecorator.com.

Starting a Business: How to Find the Right Technology Solutions for Your Company

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Starting a business can be a complicated experience, but it is often rewarding. If you are starting a business, you should consider using technology solutions to make the business run more efficiently.

Use Technology for Time Management

Time management is a necessary part of starting a business. You need to have a timeline, goals for your time and know what you’re doing at all times. If you know these things, you’ll always know exactly when you need to be performing a task or something similar. It’s important to start doing this right away.

IT Operations Matter

Handling IT aspects can be hard especially for someone who has never worked in IT before. Using Managed IT operation services might make it easier for you to handle different aspects of IT. It may also make it easier for you to form connections with the people you’re working with since it can be easier to get started with your business if you handle the technological aspects of it.

Team up for Technology

If there is a piece of technology you really want but just aren’t quite ready to invest in right away, you might want to team up with another company that’s getting off the ground. Split the cost of the tool and then split your use of it. There are different ways you can do this, but the easiest is finding software that can easily switch between different systems or companies.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Technology is all about working smarter instead of working harder. Dedicate different tasks to the way you want to work and make sure you’re doing everything you can to make the tasks easier. It’s important to try different things and make sure you’re prepared for anything that could come in the way of your business being successful.

Research before Investing

Always do your research. The chances are you researched about your business before you invested your time and money in it. Do the same thing with technology you plan to use in your business. If you know what you want, start researching it right away so you can make the necessary changes. It’s important to focus on how technology can improve your business instead of how it could cost your business a lot of money.

Starting a business doesn’t have to be difficult. Even though it takes a lot of work, there are things you can do to ensure the process goes smoothly.

Guest author, Lizzie Weakley is a freelance writer from Columbus, Ohio. She went to college at The Ohio State University where she studied communications. In her free time, she enjoys the outdoors and long walks in the park with her 3-year-old husky Snowball.  @LizzieWeakley

How to Find Work and Jobs Abroad

/ nancyrubin

The idea of working abroad and leaving the U.S. is one that appeals to a lot of people. Maybe you’re a new graduate and you’d like to go overseas and utilize your skills, or perhaps you’re further along in your career and you’d like to make a change.

The idea is similar to people who come to the U.S. for work. Many people come to the U.S. on temporary work visas, and then they’re able to send money back to their families using services like Remitly and develop valuable skills in the process.

The following are some ways employees in the U.S. can take a page out of foreign workers’ books and go abroad to work.

Learn the Language

The sooner and the more thoroughly you can work toward learning the language of where you want to work, the more appealing you are going to be to prospective employers. You don’t necessarily have to be fully fluent, but if you are bilingual in both English and the native language of where you’d like to go, it’s going to be much easier to find employment.

Some employees may have the plan to go abroad from the start so they’ll start studying a foreign language while they’re in college. If you didn’t do that, don’t worry. There are plenty of online courses and classes that can help you with your foreign language skills as you’re searching for employment.

Consider U.S.-Based Employers

When you want to work abroad, you might automatically start looking at companies that primarily operate where you’d like to go. That’s fine, but there are also plenty of companies in the U.S. that have a reputation for sending employees abroad for a period of time.

For example, Deloitte is one such company. They have partnerships in countries throughout the world, and while their headquarters is in New York City, they also often send people on international placements. You don’t have to be a top executive, either. They send everyone including interns and entry-level employees abroad if they’re interested.

Another example is HSBC, which has an international management program.

Frequent Travel Jobs

Even if you don’t find employment with a company that will place you overseas for a year or two, there are jobs where it’s all about travel. One example is the Uber Launching Team, and another is Airbnb. These companies are known for having positions that are almost entirely travel-based, and they may even offer travel-based perks and benefits to employees.

Finally, you might explore a working holiday visa as well. A working holiday visa is something that people aged 18 to 30 or sometimes 18 to 35 may be eligible for, depending on the country. These options let people work abroad in different positions around the world as they’re traveling. You will have to show that you have a desirable skillset to get one of these visas, and you may need to show your resume as well.

It’s definitely possible to work abroad in different settings and ways, so if it’s a dream you have, doing some research can help you make it happen.

How To Launch Your First Physical Product

/ nancyrubin

The world of business is changing. Years before, it could take a lot of time and thought in order for you to get your business off of the ground. You could spend years doing your research and raising the funding you need to create your product and put it out into the market. However, now, you can also work on your craft at the same time. Because launching a content website is often the first step. When you have a blog, social channel, or online magazine, you’ll find that you’re able to create an audience, generate an income, and really get your research together before you launch that product. Sometimes, you don’t even have the intention or launching anything until you discover that there’s a need for it. So, your next project begins. But when it comes to actually launching that physical product, how should you go about it?

  1. Use Your Research

As we’ve lightly touched on, your research here is going to be crucial. When you’re working with an audience that you know well, you’ll have a lot of insight into who they are and what they want. You’ll even have the data to back it up. So make sure you pull all of your analytics data and any feedback you have to work out what they want. You can even ask them directly, just to make sure that the first product you launch is exactly what they want.

  1. Source A Manufacturer

When you do know what product you’re going to go with, you then need to find your manufacturer. The beauty of the modern world is that you don’t have to do any of this in-house. You can work with a dedicated supplier that will design, produce, and ship this product for you. Just make sure you pick out a company that you trust, that you can work well with, and that you think will do the best job.

  1. Design Your Packaging

While this is all starting to take off, you’re going to want to decide on your packaging design. For this, you might need printed labels for the actual product itself, boxes or outer packaging, shopping packaging, and even tags. Regardless of what you need, just make sure that everything fits with your brand.

  1. Anticipate The Launch

From here, you’re then going to want to make sure that you’re ready for your product launch. A great way to do this is to build up your product launch email list. Not only will you get to see what kind of interest there is, but you can market directly to the interested parties when you’re about to launch.

  1. React

And finally, you have to be able to react too. When you see how well your product is selling, you’ll want to determine whether you need to place another order, or start to work out whether you should launch another product and when. By reacting to what your customers want, you’ll always be able to ensure that your products are a success.

4 Ways Market Research Helps Your Business

/ nancyrubin

Market research represents a number of activities conducted in order to gather valuable information about customers and competition. It is commonly done by businesses that want to get more familiar with their target groups. Typically, market research is not the research of the entire market, but is concerned with just one bit of it that’s of most interest to a certain company or industry. It should be a part of every business strategy and implemented at various stages, starting well before you launch a new product or even before you start a business altogether. Here a few basic ways one can benefit from it.

Learning about your customers

Naturally, in order to reach your potential customers, you need to know very well what your target group likes, and what their habits, passions and preoccupations are. Getting acquainted with their opinions on your industry, your brand and various products is indispensable. Before investing in anything at all you’ll need some very concrete and straightforward feedback about all this. Without doing proper analysis that will provide you with some exact numbers it’s impossible to design a thorough and serious business plan.

Knowing your market doesn’t come down only to what people think about your branch or your newest line of products. It’ also about getting familiar with more general habits and practices of the target group in question. This will help you genuinely understand people that make up your target group and get some fresh ideas on how to stay close to them. Also, find out who their role models and idols are – this info can be very useful when it comes to choosing a potential influencer you’d like to link to your brand.

Market research can help you find practical advertising solutions for different segments of your target group. Finding a common interest or habit for different groups of people you wish to reach can be very beneficial. Also, have in mind that the market is a living, dynamic entity that changes over time. Teenagers today don’t want the same things as teenagers ten years ago. Finally, target groups for specific industries and products change as well. For instance, companies that make gadgets of all sorts didn’t use to address older generations back in the days, but today these people make up a significant share of their market.

Analyzing the market has been made much easier with the development of new technologies. There are all sorts of tools you can use in this respect, but having a direct, authentic feedback from particular individuals is equally important as having comprehensive stats, graphs and numbers. Focus groups and phone surveys are traditional, common methods used for decades for this purpose. Among relatively new methods, using paid surveys online as a means of market research has many advantages and is definitely worth considering.

Learning about your competition

Analyzing your competitors can be a very effective method to get to know your market. You can learn a lot by studying the brands that belong to the same niche as yours. Watch the big players, their business and marketing strategies and check how they differ from yours. Monitoring the feedback for different companies from your industry is also valuable – avoiding repeating their mistakes can give you some competitive advantage over them. Try to spot new trends and recognize what the industry is lacking at the moment. At the end of the day, just delving into workings of your competition and trying to understand how they function is thought-provoking in itself and can result in some new ideas for your business.

Optimizing investments

A natural consequence of getting acquainted with your customers and competitors is minimizing unnecessary expenses. Investing money in something that your target group is obviously not interested in would be pure madness. Just knowing the scope of your market and the financial capability of the people you want to reach is invaluable. Studying all these factors is absolutely crucial for making any serious financial projections for the future.

Choosing the right timing

You might have a product that’s brilliant and ground-breaking, but then again, this product might sometimes be a bit too ground-breaking to be profitable. There’s the right time for any new brand, product or service to be launched and sometimes it’s just too soon for that. For instance, you want to invest a great deal of money into an app that adds great features to a certain social network. However, if that social network is still not popular or developed enough, no matter how innovative your app is, you might end up losing a lot of money. Sometimes good ideas and solutions need to wait for the right time to be introduced, and you need to do proper research to be sure if this is the case with your project.

All in all, market research is not just a useful little business strategy, it’s a must for any serious company. Sometimes your instincts and intuitions will be helpful but you’ll also need concrete info and deep knowledge of what people you’re targeting feel, need and want. Try listening to them carefully. Caring about your customers is necessary if you want to reach them properly, keep them interested, build your brand and make your business grow steadily.

Guest Author, Raul Harman, s a B.Sc. in Innovative entrepreneurship and has a lot to say about innovations in all aspects of digital technology and online marketing.  While he’s not enjoying travel, football and great food, you can find him on Technivorz.com.