Most Common Mistakes That Every Startup Makes

There are a lot of start-ups in the industry, but only a few are successful. And most of them make the most common mistakes which lead to start-ups failure. We are here to discuss the most critical and common mistakes that every startup makes to help you understand better of the startups' world.

You may be thinking you have a unique idea or an invention which may rock the startup world but here is where everyone makes a mistake without realizing it.

Want your startups to reach heights and don’t want to commit the same mistakes that every other startup makes; then here are the top most severe mistakes that every startup makes:

1. LIMITED MARKET DEMAND:

A lot of times startups fail due to the lack of demand for that particular idea or invention. Many commence their business with a unique approach but fail due to:

• Scarcer demand for that product or service.

• The service or product is not able to provide a solution to already existing problems.

• A product or service may also fail due to the insufficient requirement in the current generation but may be useful in the future.

• When a product or service is bounded by the lack of technology, which is a product that is ahead of its time, and unique.

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Is Workplace Surveillance a Digital Dirty Work?

If we have to answer is workplace surveillance a dirty game, the answer would be no. The employers have a right to monitor the staff following the federal and state laws when it comes to workplace surveillance. However, it can be dirty if the bosses don’t maintain transparency and the employees have issues with what is being monitored. Like, you can use video camera in the workplace but not in the private areas like bathrooms. Similarly, everyone should be monitored and not a single or two people in the office.

Nowadays, the workplace surveillance has become mandatory due to growing concerns of the bosses. This is even the biggest challenge for the bosses to maintain good environment, protect the staff as well as the company assets and details. Many cases have been reported when the internal members in a company joined hands with other people to steal computers and sensitive data. The hacking attempts have been made by the staff to get something.

Facts About Bad Employees at Workplace

Every company has computers, internet as well as other devices and tools for the staff. However, everything from computers to internet is misused and this is the real problem where the bosses should get alert. It is reported that 26% people at work have been fired after they violated the rules and the company found inappropriate search in their browsing history. Similarly, 6% people were fired from the job after they were found wasting time on social media.

26% were those people who lost their job because they were using the company computer, internet and other devices for personal and private emails. That means, a lot of people do personal work using the company tools and computers. There are even those who leak and share sensitive details with competitors to earn few bucks. This practice is dangerous and not in favor of the company.

Why Employers Are Using Workplace Surveillance?

The facts and stats mentioned above reveal why the workplace surveillance is on the rise. The bosses are concerned about the data as well as the staff. They cannot compromise on the security. Employees are now being tracked and monitored in order to improve the safety measures at workplace and prevent any theft or data breaches.

Furthermore, the safety measures let the employers feel comfortable. In case something fishy happens, the culprits will be caught with the help of cameras as well as other monitoring tools. This improves the data protection and the reputation of the company. No one wants to face huge financial losses so the employers are increasingly using workplace surveillance as a tool to protect themselves.

How Workplace Surveillance Affects Employees?

Most of the people at work have no issues if they are monitored and kept under surveillance after they are informed. They are fine with it as long as the company practice secrecy and takes care of the staff. The motive of the workplace surveillance is the most important thing. If it is done for the useful purpose, employees will never protest against it. However, they will definitely feel scared, nervous or even uncomfortable when they are being monitored and they learn about it at any moment.

How Workplace Surveillance Should Be Done?

When it comes to how and in what ways the workplace surveillance can be done rightly, we have some suggestions for the employers. The first and the most important thing are to understand the workplace surveillance laws. Most of the employers forcefully do monitor the staff. It is a bad practice and can land you in jail.

The second important thing is to get the consent and approval of the employees. Whenever something is to be used or the staff is to be kept under surveillance, the bosses should inform the workers and get their approval. This is the best thing to do when you have to use surveillance for the safety and protection of the company. Employee monitoring staff without their approval or knowledge makes them feel uncomfortable.

Even if the company wants to track browsing history, internet use and what the employees search on the computer- they should be informed about it. They will be careful about it and not do anything wrong or illegal. Moreover, this will improve the productivity of the staff as they will know the bosses are watching them and their performance will be monitored. A company can improve the work output of its staff with honest and transparent surveillance.

Author Bio:

Lina Jackie is Web Content Writer at BlurSPY. She's relationship adviser. She spends most of her time browsing dating feature and applications through digital devices. Most recently her focus has shifted towards the Android spy app for the cell phone which is making waves in the technology world today.

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Why Diversity Training is Essential for Company Culture

Every kind of organization is beginning to put more and more emphasis on their company culture. A strong, positive company culture promotes the well-being, satisfaction, and productivity of employees, leading to a workforce that has higher retention of key talent, an improved bottom line, and better levels of productivity. Diversity training in the workplace is often key for improving company culture. Here are just some of the best ways diversity training can benefit your employees.

#1. Be More Welcoming to New Hires:

The integration of various groups of people into the workplace is growing rapidly thanks to globalization. People of various nationalities, religions, sexual orientations, abilities, hobbies, health issues and countless more identifying characteristics that contribute to their unique identities are making workplaces around the world more diverse places. And, as the age for retirement increases, companies are also seeing a greater range of diversity in the age groups that they employ. Diversity training can play a key role in ensuring that all employees are ready for increased diversity at work, making it easier for new employees from diverse backgrounds to easily integrate into the workplace.

#2. Improve Collaboration:

Training employees in the subject of diversity helps them better understand the need for a variety of viewpoints and opinions, in addition to the many benefits of being cooperative and considerate of others. As a result, this can lead to greater levels of collaboration between both current employees and future hires when it comes to work tasks, as this spirit of collaboration becomes more ingrained in the workplace culture.

Also Read: How to Improve Employee Engagement

#3. Improve Company Reputation:

Businesses that care about their reputation should be very aware of how their culture is perceived by others. A workplace culture that is toxic has a way of being able to make itself known, whether by reviews from past employees or worse, making its way into ‘worst companies to work for’ lists in the media. The biggest issue with a toxic company culture is that it will not attract the best talent and workers. These workers tend to have a range of different companies to choose from and will usually always pick those that have a strong reputation for good company culture and avoid organizations where they feel their work will be undervalued. Diversity training can help create a workplace where all workers feel valued and appreciated, helping to improve the business’ reputation to the wider world.

#4. Encourage the Sharing of New Ideas:

Last but not least, one of the key benefits of a diversity training program is that it can help to encourage the flow of thoughts, opinions, and ideas from employees working at all levels of an organization. This is mainly due to the fact that diversity training places a high emphasis on valuing others’ thoughts and opinions. This makes managers and team leaders more accepting of new ideas, leading to input being gained from all areas of the organization, allowing management to collect insight on company processes that they may have otherwise been unaware of.

Training employees in diversity not only helps to promote acceptance of everybody in the workplace but also improves several company culture factors that lead to improved operations overall.

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5 Ways Your Small Business Can Impress First-Time Customers

Impressing the first-time customers is perhaps the most challenging task for a business. While satisfying the retainer customers is absolutely important, engaging with first-time customers is crucial for the success of any business. These customers can bring in new customers as they share the positive experience with you. 

In the competitive market today, nothing works well like a verified feedback. Customers are deeply influenced by what fellow customers have to say. Hence, every customer is important for your business and first-time customers should be treated the best. Helping customers to solve their issues is pivotal for your growth because these customers will either be satisfied with your customer support or will move on to your competitor.

Be Prepared to Answer the Queries: 

Research shows that 70% of customer tend to switch brands primarily because of their dissatisfaction with the helpdesk. The volume of your business doesn’t matter to those who are willing to do business with you. What matters to them is your preparedness to answer all the questions. 

Perhaps you are well aware of the fact that flawless communication is the key to the success of your business. But you need to make sure that there are enough channels to get in touch with you in case of urgency. Most of the unsolved queries make their way to the social media where customers tend to share the negative experience. 

Just like prevention is better than cure, your ability to answer questions on time is better than having queries unaddressed. In order to answer questions, you will require to have information on your product, the USP, the brand promise, return policy, refund policy and so on.

Understand your Customers: 

Most of the small businesses fail because they don’t have a clear image of who is their target audience. In order to understand your customer, you should create a profile of your ideal customer. With a comprehensive understanding of your customers, you can start developing fruitful marketing methods. 

While developing the marketing methods, you need to define what is the reason because of which your customers will believe in your product or service. Once you have all of these sorted, you will have more clarification on your strategy. 

Perhaps the first step of attracting new customer is to develop a website that actually informs and educates the buyer instead of trying hard to sell them. In this era of new media, a sophisticated website helps you to establish your credibility which in turn makes the customer more confident about doing business with you.

Also Read: Business Growth Hacks: Utilizing the Power of Surveys

Take Care of the Expectations: 

You can only expect your customers to buy from you when you meet their expectations. Every customer has his or her own expectation when they purchase a product or service from a brand. That expectation may be in terms of the quality of the product, experience with the customer service, ease of user interface and so on. 

Once you personalize your communication to meet the needs of your customers, you will be on the path to develop a long-term relationship. While large corporations might not be able to show their care for the customers very effectively, you can and this will differentiate you from others once you do. 

While purchasing the product, every customer is keen to be treated as valued. Therefore, your approach can make a difference. A simple discount or a coupon to be used in future can do the trick. But you should be able to portray that this is not a no-strings-attached relationship.

Staying in Touch with Customers: 

Staying in touch with customers is another important thing that you need to excel at. Your relationship begins when a customer enters into your shop or online website. Irrespective of whether the customer makes a transaction or not, you should never leave them. Get in touch with them after they make a purchase and be keen to know their feedback. 

Multinational companies usually send a birthday notification or email a newsletter every month. But you can personalize it by offering a discount, especially on his or her birthday. You can also ask them politely to review the service they availed or the product they purchased. 

This unravels the rejuvenating path for you to know the level of satisfaction of the customer as well as to invite other customers. You can also invite your customers for a sale or a conference that you are speaking at.

Thank Them: 

Many businesses forget to express their gratitude to the customers once they are done doing business with them. This is not the way you should adopt. While you can be creative in your way of saying ‘thank you’, you can take a simple route as well. 

However, a customary thanks don’t do much good. So it is wise to mean what you say. By resolving an existing issue that your customer is suffering from, you become a valuable resource for them. 

Thus you stay in their top of mind. All of these can help you to grow your business as you ensure customer satisfaction and hence get referred to other potential customers in the neighborhood. 

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Barriers to Starting Your Own Business : And How to Tackle Them

Starting a business is a dream of every entrepreneur, a passion and a vision for someone.  And it is very difficult for people who are newly entered into the arena. Obstacles are tough to handle, Few barriers to starting your own business are faced by most entrepreneurs and small business owners.

In this article, we will cover the biggest barriers entrepreneur face and how you tackle that barrier make all the difference and decide your future.

The 5 Biggest Barriers to Starting a Business:

1. Lack of Capital

For many people, this is the biggest obstacle and finished the idea or plan even before starting, especially for a young entrepreneur.  Majority of entrepreneurs give up because they don’t have sufficient funds.

There are some steps and options which help you to tackle this challenge and getting the financing, take a personal loan, bootstrapping is the best option you can start without wasting time, but strapping is nothing it’s a self-funding,  crowdfunding,  and from the investors.

Try to start a business that leverage online presence, like this you can go globally without much capital, even you have the option take the price value in advance of your product or services.

2. Run Out of Cash

Poor management and poor sales lead to failure, poor management could be a cause of run out of cash, spending money on unwanted things, to spend money in a proper way save a lot of cash. And the second reason for lack of sales poor marketing leads you to slow sales of your product and business.

Traditional methods of advertisement are costly so try to market your product online, it will save you dollars and get you sale and leverage the liquidity. And get the momentum for business growth.

3. Lack of Enough Time

Time is very precious commodity, starting business early in life is a good thing because you don’t have any liability that time, and to start later in life could be impossible for many people with the job and to get the momentum you have to sacrifice your holidays, your weekends and be ready to do late night.

Some people not focused and they do different things parallel, that destroy their time and effort and they don’t see the good result in the near future.

When you handled the initial setup you have chances to grow exponentially that brings money and leverage for you. And your workload reduces drastically.

4. Lack of Courage & Self Doubt

Self-doubt and courage are the killer instinct for any entrepreneur,  entrepreneurship is a roller coaster ride and full of unwanted challenges you need very tough mentally and belief system should be strong in every situation whatever the condition outside. Creeping and crying is not the solution to any obstacles. And that time you want to give up if you walk through the hurdle your success is certain.

That is why a business person should have leadership qualities if you don’t have those qualities create those qualities in your skill set that is essential for an entrepreneur, negotiation skill, a flexible mindset.

Sometimes leaders also doubt themselves but they overcome self-doubt and take action. Make a goal and write them, keep working on your goals with consistency take you closer to success.

5. Unable to Handle Stress & Pressure

Stress also a business killer most business fails because the owner gives up the amount of stress the weak mind are the reason for giving up.

You have to learn the art of stress management, business means stress, there is no business without stress, but handle the stress who reaps the fruits of success.

These are some traits that describe your success and failures in the long run for a business and the good things are that all are achievable, doable and skills learnable. And be prepared in advance before doing any business.

Author Bio: Naresh Kumar is a freelance writer and a professional blogger, founder of www.realspark.in Enjoying the internet lifestyle he found his passion in entrepreneurship, That's how he turned what he love doing into a career and become his own boss.

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