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  • New Releases – What To Expect From Your Next Smartphone

    New Releases – What To Expect From Your Next Smartphone

    Remember when you got your first smartphone? The excitement of unboxing it, the mild irritation of needing to charge it, the first, typo-laden, text that we sent as we got used to the keyboard layout?

    Yes, smartphones changed our lives in a heartbeat, and taught us all the word “app” into the bargain. The future was here!

    As we round the corner towards 2018, we’re all over that initial excitement. No new smartphone can really come close to the great leap forward that came with the first generation, so we need to be more discerning with our purchases.

    With some of the latest releases verging on costing an average month’s salary, which recent and forthcoming releases are worth moving up to from your current phone?

    Apple’s iPhone 8

    By far the market leaders, Apple are innovating again– the iPhone 8, recently released, has a veritable feast of delights. As with previous iterations, it’s big on innovation, with the home button replaced by a touch-sensitive digital version.

    Also, as Lucky Nugget Casino note, the phone can be charged wirelessly from greater range than rival releases. Its speedy processor, too, makes it one of the most reactive phones on the market.

    Samsung’s Galaxy S9

    Not much is known for sure about the next Galaxy, except that it could be here a lot earlier than expected, with rumours swirling that it will be on sale by February 2018.

    “Slow” and “fast” are the key words as far as features go; the super slo-mo video capability will allow for 1,000 frames a second, while the superfast processor will allow for downloading HD movies in ten seconds.

    Google’s Pixel 2/Pixel 2 XL

    Google boldly hope that their new Pixel phone will persuade even iPhone fans to break with their brand loyalty, and they’re throwing a lot at it to make that more likely.

    They’ve overhauled the camera for much sharper pics. The six-inch XL display is incredibly detailed whether you’re viewing those pics or watching a movie – and the Active Edge squeezable frame lets you launch Google Assistant wordlessly.

    Smartphone With Coffee

    Huawei’s Mate 10/Mate 10 Pro

    As Chinese tech becomes more and more competitive, their leading smartphone brand may not be the name on everyone’s lips– but they keep launching reliable, good-value phones.

    That’s actually damning the Mate 10 with faint praise; its SmartScreen function allows two apps to run side-by-side in the same display without lagging, which is no small feat. A twenty-minute charge is enough to see you through a day, too, which is revolutionary if you’re an iPhone user.

    HTC’s U12

    Many smartphone connoisseurs see HTC as consistently the best of the bunch, with phones that deliver innovative function, reliability, and ease of use without compromise.

    The U12, which will be with us in May, is set to be every bit as good. An eye-popping 96% screen-to-body ratio is the least of it; they’ve managed to work a fingerprint scanner and powerful speakers into the screen.

    It’s going to be later to market than its rivals, but with a Snapdragon 845 processor and beautiful design, it may be worth the wait.

  • Easy eCommerce Mistakes – Could These Simply Mistakes Be Holding You Back?

    Easy eCommerce Mistakes – Could These Simply Mistakes Be Holding You Back?

    Web design is difficult enough for just a regular business website but for eCommerce websites, the task can almost seem impossible. Mistakes will happen when it comes to designing your eCommerce website, making a misstep here and there isn’t anything to worry about.

    But if you make a lot of little mistakes it can quickly add up, web design takes a lot of time to master but with eCommerce websites, you can easily rush and make mistakes and sometimes what you think is a great design can be the complete opposite.

    Let’s take a look at some of the easy mistakes people can make when designing their ecommerce website.

    If you’ve noticed your sales stagnating or new products aren’t as popular as you thought they might be then these design problems could be the causes. So, without further ado let’s examine some of the simple, easy to make, mistakes that could be holding your website back.

    Wordy descriptions

    When it comes to ecommerce websites, not all the mistakes you can make will be because of web design elements like colours, layouts or graphics. One of the most common mistakes people make is with their text, to be more precise their product descriptions.

    Long descriptions do have their uses and are sometimes needed but for the majority of your products, you should have a short and concise description that tells the customer everything they need to know.

    Long or wordy descriptions can look messy and will instantly turn off the majority of customers, writing for the web takes some practice but remember to try and be to the point.

    A confusing layout

    While it’s true that many ecommerce websites follow similar layouts there’s a good reason why they do, it’s because it is familiar and users will easily be able to find their way around your website.

    Web design allows you to be creative and sometimes you can get carried away looking for a way to stand out.

    This isn’t always a bad thing but can lead to some very strange design choices and will make it very difficult for people to navigate your website.

    So, before you implement any more unusual or quirky web design choices make sure you think about the customer’s point of view first.

    You don’t look trustworthy

    One of the hardest parts of web design is making your website look trustworthy there’s a lot of fake websites out there, especially amongst ecommerce websites.

    So, if you want your website to look trustworthy then make sure you take that into account when designing it.

    You can make your website look trustworthy in a number of ways, first of all, make sure you have a place for customer testimonials and reviews. You should also have an “about us” page and only use high-quality images and graphics.

    Ensuring your website design looks trustworthy is harder than you might think so take your time, you want to avoid looking amateurish but also want to avoid coming across as fake.

    Visit https://www.i3media.net/cambridge-web-design/ for some good examples of what a professional website should look like.

    You don’t make changes

    It’s important to get the balance right with this one, once you’ve got a good web design in place for your ecommerce site you will understandably want to stick with it and you should.

    At least for a while, but you shouldn’t be afraid of changing it because if you don’t your website could become boring.

    You could try tying in any redesigns with special events like sales or even public holidays and then switch back to your old design once they are over. The changes you make don’t even after to be big a small change to the design every now and again can make a big difference.

  • 4 Things Your Small Business Is Missing without Cloud ERP

    4 Things Your Small Business Is Missing without Cloud ERP

    In the past, the best business technologies have been reserved for only the largest companies. A small business, for example, can’t afford a high-tech assembly line or hundreds of employees to facilitate quick growth.

    This is changing, however, as more products and services move onto the web. Since cloud technologies require relatively little infrastructure, they are allowing more businesses to become competitive. Here are four things your small business is missing without cloud ERP software to boost its game.

    Small Businesses Can Scale Quicker Than Ever

    Cloud ERP software is one of the most effective tools for small business owners trying to grow their companies. This is because cloud ERP allows for fluid scaling on a level that has never been possible before. In the past, business assets have been highly physical. Buildings, machinery, hardware—the list goes on.

    Depending on the industry, many businesses today still require these material objects. Cloud ERP software, however, allows for small businesses to only use small amounts of services that otherwise could be too costly. This can also save money for seasonal businesses that only need to utilize services during certain times of the year. For more information checkout the TEC 2019 Cloud ERP Buyer’s Guide for SMBs.

    Cloud Computing Allows Universal Access

    Small business ERP software also allows companies to enjoy the benefit of location flexibility. There are many reasons why this is a powerful tool for small businesses. The most obvious of these advantages is being able to work from anywhere there’s Internet.

    Any device that can access the Internet can also access your company’s cloud ERP. Small businesses can ditch the need for a physical location since all workers can operate remotely. This feature also is extremely useful for companies that need field workers.

    Cloud ERP keeps them seamlessly connected at a job site.

    You Can Save Money with Cloud ERP Software

    Saving money is always important to businesses, no matter their size. But especially for small businesses, which inherently have less capital, resource allocation is critical to long-term viability and growth. Cloud ERP software can provide small businesses with a wealth of money-saving opportunities.

    One way cloud ERP can reduce costs is by automating certain tasks. This is most prevalent in the payroll and accounting departments.

    Comprehensive cloud ERP software can perform repeating tasks in these areas without committing errors. Not only are mistakes mitigated, cloud ERP keeps your company compliant by automatically updating protocol to satisfy regulations.

    Cloud ERP software also saves small businesses money because they don’t need to purchase hardware to build a local server or hire an IT staff to run it.

    Back-end security issues are handled by the ERP provider. This reduces upfront costs and the long-term costs related to system maintenance and employee payroll.

    Cloud ERP Is More Secure Than a Local Server

    For a long time people have been living with the assumption that things are less safe stored on the Internet. This fear is exacerbated by news stories about data breaches. Contrary to popular belief, it’s actually safer to store information on cloud ERP than on a local server.

    You don’t want your small business’s critical information to be available to hackers. Neither do the companies that provide cloud ERP services.

    It’s in their interest to keep client information discreet. In order to do this, they hire top data security talent to keep their systems free of vulnerabilities. Users also typically have to create individual accounts in order to access information secured on the cloud.

    This ensures that access is only granted to those who have proper credentials.

    Running a small business can often feel like an uphill battle when there are so many competitors with more money and better resources. Cloud ERP software can help level the playing field, so small businesses can thrive in the modern economy.

  • Why Entrepreneurs Should Master Basic Excel

    Why Entrepreneurs Should Master Basic Excel

    In today’s world, having basic Microsoft Excel skills is a necessity. Mastering Excel basics can benefit entrepreneurs in many ways, due to Excel’s widespread applications.

    Here, we will detail some of the major uses of Excel and how it can serve you in your business ventures.

    Most of you are very familiar with what an Excel spreadsheet looks like and have encountered it at some point in your careers.

    From a cursory glance, it is easy to tell that Excel spreadsheets are an excellent means of data storage, management, and sorting.

    The data that is stored in the cells can be sorted and filtered in many different ways based on parameters provided by the user.

    Any business deals with data in some form or another. Excel allows entrepreneurs to store any data — from accounts, to merchandise, to phone numbers — and view and track it in an organized manner.

    Due to its charting functions, it allows you to visualize data in many forms, creating different charts and analysis sheets. The powerful visualization tools make it easy for businesses to analyze and predict data, aiding with decision making at many levels.

    Excel is also able to automatically sort, enumerate, and calculate data stored in one worksheet and project the summary of the data in another sheet. For large amounts of data, these functions can be extremely useful.

    For entrepreneurs, Excel can create basic models that include sales forecasting, budgeting, and break-even analysis.

    This is integral during the initial stages of a business, where constant financial monitoring is necessary to make informed decisions.

    Now that you know some of the major uses of Excel, let’s talk about why it is significant for entrepreneurs.

    For one, Excel is one of the most powerful tools out there, as it consists of many different functions integrated into one program. Second, Excel is one of the most widely used tools available.

    For entrepreneurs, this means that exporting data and reports for collaboration internally and externally becomes a piece of cake.

    It’s user-friendly interface and ability to handle both numerical and textual data make it an indispensible tool.

    Utilized in many fields, from marketing and finance to fields like journalism. From students to professionals, anyone who has handled data will probably have used Excel.

    Finally, Excel is extremely versatile. It allows users to export data to other programs as well, should they need to.

    In light of its many virtues, a basic understanding of Microsoft Excel is something all entrepreneurs should have.

    There are many different ways to get the learning started, ranging from free online classes that detail Excel basics to more specialized classes about particular aspects of Excel suited for specific types of business.

    In terms of the usefulness of Excel, Micheal Tolkien, CEO of Merchant Exchange states, “Excel skills allow you to efficiently stay organized, which frees up more time for important things, like growing your business.”

    Ultimately, entrepreneurs who wish to succeed should hone their Excel skills. Even though it does come with its limitations, Excel’s advantages far outweigh its drawbacks.

    Its ease of use with minimal training, intuitive interface, ability to carry out complex calculations and modeling, and analytic and collaborative facilities make Excel a powerful tool for anyone at the start of their career.

    It is certain that a slightly-above-average understanding of Excel will be a strong advantage to any entrepreneur looking to streamline future business processes.

  • Pipedrive vs. Salesmate vs. Nimble – What Should I Use for My Small Business?

    Pipedrive vs. Salesmate vs. Nimble – What Should I Use for My Small Business?

    Cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) solutions have been gaining traction at a considerable pace. This can be seen from the fact that in 2008, only 12% of businesses used cloud-based CRM and this figure has now climbed up to 87%. According to a forecast by Gartner, CRM market will reach $37 billion by the end of 2017.

    CRM adoption has been quite rapid in small businesses. 50% of companies with less than 10 employees now use CRM. Small businesses can choose from a plethora of options available in the market.

    However, there are certain factors that should be considered before deciding which CRM to use. Here is a comparison of three business sales CRM software based on their features and prices, which will make it easier for you to choose one.

    1. Pipedrive

    Trusted by 50,000 sales teams around the world, this sales management software is one of the most popular CRMs in the market because of the features it offers. It comes with a clear visual interface that shows your pipeline, which makes your sales process look less complicated.

    You can easily pull out any stats that you want and customize it. The tool also connects email with your contacts and deals so that you don’t have to sift through them every time.

    Pipedrive makes analysis really easy as it shows your sales results in a graphical form. With Pipedrive you can easily keep an eye on your pipeline metrics and pinpoint any problems in your sales process.

    It’s best feature perhaps is that it allows you to make effective forecasts, plus it shows you which deals are lucrative and which activities you should focus on.

    You can also integrate a number of apps with the platform such as Google Drive, Google Maps, and Mail Chimp.

    Pipedrive is SOC 2 certified service provider, which means that your data will always be secure and confidential.

    The company has an excellent contingency plan in case of any mishaps.

    It backs up all data in real time to a separate server that can be used in case the original one goes down. Also, the entire database is backed every night and encrypted.

    This useful software comes with three pricing plans: Silver, Gold and Platinum. Silver plan is the cheapest one and costs $10, but comes with limited features, while Platinum plan costs $63 and gives access to advanced features.

    2. Salesmate

    Salesmate allows you to plan and track your sales activities, and delegate tasks to your subordinates. Based on your activities, it generates a personalized to-do list that syncs with your calendar and mobile.

    Salesmate takes the burden off your shoulders by automating your tasks so you can focus on closing deals.

    Salesmate automatically creates activities and assigns them to your team as leads start pouring in. The software also sends you personalized notifications whenever your team takes action on the delegated task.

    Moreover, it will also remind you of any meetings once you set your preferences.

    With Salesmate, you can never lose a contact in your email thread. The software will suggest contacts to be added whenever you email them. ‘Profile Enrichment’ is its coolest feature.

    You no longer need to dig information on your potential customers, as the software automatically looks up for contact information, addresses, and social profiles as soon as you add a contact.

    The sales CRM management software shows you insightful reports that can help you improve your sales processes. It also shows you monthly sales reports with pipeline conversion.

    You can easily analyse it in any way you want to. It also shows you how much revenue you have generated, how far you are from your target and how many sales you are likely to close.

    Moreover, you can analyse your sales results based on users and channels so that you know which marketing channels generate the most revenue.

    Salesmate comes with only one pricing plan. However, you have the option to select monthly or yearly payments.

    Monthly payments cost $15 per user per month, while yearly payments cost $12 per user per month. Before finalizing it, you can try it for free for 15 days.

    3. Nimble

    Nimble is an intelligent CRM that makes sales processes pretty simple. With Nimble you don’t need to spend time on manually entering your contacts’ information.

    Nimble will automatically update all the information including shared relationships, mutual interests, experience and education. It also makes it easier to manage events, contacts and delegate tasks to team members.

    With Nimble’s sales intelligence you can find out what activities you need to focus on to improve revenue. It also shows your team’s projected and historical revenue and informs you of activities that need your attention.

    Smarter Email prospecting is one of its most interesting features. The software tracks how many times your message has been opened and clicked so that you know how your customers react to your emails.

    It also shows you detailed analytics of the number of times contacts have opened your email.

    Nimble will cost you around $22 per user per month if billed annually and $25 per user per month when billed monthly.

    The package includes sales automation, contact management, 100 group messages per day, 2 GB storage per user, and email tracking among other features.

    Before deciding upon any software, you should know what your needs and objectives are. For example, Pipedrive offers you a lot of features, but its features are not as advanced as Salesmate or Nimble.

    However, if you have just set up your business, Pipedrive can be an ideal choice for you. In case if you have an established customer base that you need to manage, Nimble can be a great choice as it is more of a social sales CRM.

    If you want to focus more on automation, you can opt for Salesmate. All CRMs have more or less the same features, but your choice should depend on what you really want out of the software.

    Author bio

    Erica Silva is a blogger by choice. She loves to discover the world around her. She likes to share her discoveries, experiences and express herself through her blogs.

    Currently, she is associated with Airg Team for development work. Check out her firm’s performance reviews.

    Find her on Twitter:@ericadsilva1

  • How to Generate More Traffic to Your Website

    How to Generate More Traffic to Your Website

    When you are building your first ever website for your business, there are loads of different elements that you need to quickly get up to speed with.

    From knowing how to find the best web hosting service to developing an effective marketing strategy to attract new customers, you will have your work cut off for you.

    Choosing your web host comes down to much more than price and it can have a big impact on gaining new customers.

    For example, if you have an unprofessional looking website because there are loads of ads flashing up, or if your website takes ages to load up, this will put people off. The whole point of having a website is to enable people to find your services but then also to impress them and convince them that you are the right company to go with.

    So make sure that you choose a web host that will support these requirements.

    Once you have your website set up you can start on the next part, which is driving traffic to your website. There are a number of different ways that you can do this, so let’s look at some of the most effective methods:

    Paid traffic

    A lot of people are turning to services like PPC, where their website is advertised somewhere online and they pay a fee each time someone clicks through to their site from it.

    If you are reluctant to spend money then you might want to look at some of the other options but remember that saying ‘You have to speculate to accumulate’?, well sometimes you have to pay a bit to get a lot of traffic.

    You can work out for yourself whether it is going to be a cost effective solution for your business. Say you pay £1 per click but half of your generated traffic makes large purchases, then you would be making a lot more money than if you didn’t pay for traffic.

    Provide free stuff

    Everyone likes a free offer, especially if it is something that they really need. So whether you create a blog on how to rewire a plug or you offer an online guide to fitting hair extensions, creating useful, free content will draw people to your website.

    When you are writing your blog or article, remember that this is your opportunity to demonstrate your expertise. But having said that, people don’t want a hard sell so you have to get the tone and content right.

    Get all of your useful content together and then just include a fairly subtle link to your services/website etc. at the end.

    SEO

    Don’t fancy paying fees for PPC? You can always become a SEO master and get your website to appear high up in the search engines.

    Finding out which keywords to use and other techniques such as linking to authoritative sites can help you to appear higher up when people are searching. You can get a lot of traffic through organic means when you understand SEO and how to optimise your website.

    There are a lot of factors that determine where your site appears in the search engines and the likes of Google update their algorithm on a regular basis.

    This means that you should try and keep up to date with the most current successful SEO practices through SEO expert updates.

    Of course, there are lots of other ways to get traffic to your website, such as direct mail, email campaigns, YouTube videos and much more but you’ll be onto a good start with these ones listed above.

  • Is Building an App for Your Business Justified?

    Is Building an App for Your Business Justified?

    Mobile is becoming an increasingly important platform both for entertainment and business today. An ever-increasing number of people use smartphones alone to access the internet, to keep up with the news and social updates, to consume entertainment, to make payments, and to shop.

    According to Smart Insights, the number of mobile users accessing going online has exceeded that of desktop users back in 2014, and the gap between the two categories is widening year after year. So, going mobile is more important today than ever.

    The first thing that pops into mind for most businesses is to create an app to be closer to their prospective customers. But is this always necessary and justified?

    Probably not, and there is a viable alternative to consider – a web app.

    Web apps do just fine

    Millions of smartphone users worldwide play slot games at a secure online casino destinations day after day.

    Online casinos are in a pretty sensitive situation: Apple’s is the only app marketplace that allows them to list real money gaming apps (the Windows Store is irrelevant in this context), but their main market is dominated by Android-powered smartphones.

    For lack of a better solution, online gaming venues like the Red Flush Casino have chosen the path of a web app. The Red Flush Mobile offers its users all the features and functions they are looking for – a significant game library, safe and secure connections, and a simple and easy way to handle payments – inside a web browser.

    This has allowed the Red Flush not only to reach a wide audience no matter what mobile operating system they use but also to provide its players with a quick, convenient way to use its services.

    In the case of many online services, creating a native app is simply overkill. There is no need for the user to install an app to read a blog, for example, especially since the coveted push notifications that keep visitors returning to the website can now be set through a web browser, too.

    Besides, web apps are most of the times little more than mobile-friendly websites, which makes them accessible on any device running any operating system as long as it has an internet connection and a web browser.

    Why native apps are so popular?

    Of course, native apps do have many advantages that make them more popular among service providers.

    For one, they are present in app marketplaces – it’s far easier for a user to stumble upon an app in the Play Store than to do the same with a web app in the infinite sea of internet addresses.

    They offer a faster, more reliable, and responsive experience, they can access more functions of the device they run on, and the list could go on. They have a few disadvantages, too – they are specific to the platform they are built for, and they cost way more to be built (and maybe twice as much if you want to deploy the same app on multiple platforms).

  • 3 Ways Technology Can Better Your Business

    3 Ways Technology Can Better Your Business

    In today’s world, technology is becoming an increasingly important addition to almost every part of our daily lives. From home life to the workplace environment, the rise of technology has been almost unprecedented, helping to contribute to the modern, technically-savvy world that we currently live in.

    Although it is virtually impossible to run a successful business without using technology nowadays, the way in which you harness the benefits that technology can bring, can have a big impact on your business.

    From the creative use of new and innovative technologies right through to reliance on tried-and-tested old staples, the way in which you use the technology that is available to you can speak volumes about your business.

    For that reason, it is vital that you do your best to incorporate technology into your company, making full use of all the options on offer to you. However, technology has the ability to work to your business’ advantage in far more ways than you might originally think.

    Take the office computer set-up for granted, and instead, focus on using technology in some different ways to improve your business in the months to come.

    Vehicle Fleet Tracking

    1. Vehicle Fleet Tracking

    If you have a fleet of vehicles or trucks as part of your business, it may be worth investing in a vehicle fleet tracking system. These sophisticated systems can help to keep drivers safe as well as help you to keep tabs on individual driver’s location, fuel efficiency and driving habits.

    Smart technology like this can help you to keep everything running as smoothly as possible, ensuring your entire fleet is always optimised and working to full capacity.

    Not only should this help to increase levels of productivity and efficiency, but it also has the potential to save you money in the long run. This is because they are able to free up time for those who would otherwise spend long hours doing admin tasks like logging and compiling data or planning routes.

    When utilised across your fleet, you should easily be able to begin cutting costs and working towards creating a more efficient, effective business strategy.

    2. Sophisticated Computer Systems

    From a dedicated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system right through to specialised accounting software, many computer systems and software packages are consistently becoming more and more valuable.

    If you don’t have the digital or coding experience necessary to create a bespoke computer solution that caters exactly to your business’ needs, there are still plenty of existing systems out there and available for you to use.

    3. Established Online Presence

    Nowadays, more and more potential customers are heading online to check out a business before deciding whether or not to use them or buy from them. For this reason, it is important that you not only have an online presence but that this presence is a strong, effective and valuable one.

    Make sure that your company website is up and running, looking its best and showcasing the image of your business that you want to portray. In addition, you should also look to incorporate social media as part of your online strategy – this way, you can work to create a consistent approach to branding across the field, as well as encouraging customers to interact directly with you.

    If you have been bitten by the technological bug, now is the perfect time to start incorporating the use of some new and exciting technology into your everyday workplace routine.

    Of course, every business is different and these are just a handful of ideas – with the ever-changing digital landscape, there are plenty of opportunities to tailor your technology to suit the exact needs of your business!