Daily Archives: April 26, 2018

How to Successfully Expand your Business Internationally

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Your business may have started as a small, local business, but there’s nothing that says it needs to remain that way forever. In this globalised world, it’s never been easier to look beyond the shore, and make your products and services available to foreign markets. But as with every other business decision, this is something that needs to be handled with attention and care. Below, we take a look at some of the essential steps you’ll need to take. All going well, you’ll have a successful international business!

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Conduct Market Research

You will have conducted market research before you began the process of creating your company, but when you’re looking overseas? Then it becomes even more important. You won’t just be looking to see what kinds of people you should be marketing your products and services to; you need to first establish whether there is any demand whatsoever. What works in the United States might be considered too outlandish in, say, England or other parts of Europe. If, after your research, you find that there’s a market for what you offer, then you’ll be able to proceed.

Connect with Local Businesses

You’re unlikely to pitch up in a foreign country and make it successful all on your own. You’re going to need to work with a local business, which will be able to give you access to insider knowledge, marketing tips, distribution help, and so on. To do this, you’re best travelling to your potential overseas market, and connecting with other businesses in person. If it’s not an English-speaking country, make sure you’re working with interpreter services; you don’t want a key part of your business proposal to be lost in translation! Of course, this relationship should be mutually beneficial, so make sure you’re ready to offer terms that are attractive to the other business, too.

Recognise Cultural Differences

Every country on earth is different to your own, even though they may, on paper, seem pretty similar. What might work in America might seem unusual in Canada, Australia, or Britain, for example. As such, you’ll be well served by investigating the key cultural differences between your home country and the one in which you intend to do business. The last thing you want is to accidentally offend the local population, or show that you’re not sensitive to how they live their life.

Be aware of Legal Matters

It is comparatively straightforward to grow into new markets, but that doesn’t mean you’re just about to do what you want. There are legal parameters within which you have to work. Before trading, make sure you’re fully aware of all the legal requirements you need to meet, as some countries have more paperwork that needs to be completed than others.

Start Small

You should attempt to start small when it comes to taking your business international. It’ll be more work than you realize; and while growth can be exciting, it’s possible to grow too much. Start small, find your feet, and then look at expanding further.

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3 Hidden Things That Could Be Harming Your Health

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Doctor Team Medicine

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Did you know that there are loads of hidden things in your life that could well be harming your health? It sounds a bit sinister, and quite scary too, but it’s true. We focus a lot of attention on being healthy by doing certain things and shying away from bad habits. But, there are many things that we aren’t aware of that are really bad for our health. So, I made a list of some of these, so you can now be aware of them, and hopefully, find ways of preventing them from harming you any further.

Bathroom Mold

Have you ever noticed bits of black in the grouting between your bathroom tiles? You’ve tried cleaning it as much as you can, but it isn’t going anywhere. So, you just assume that it’s a stubborn bit of muck and you’ll just have to live with it. However, this black stuff is actually mold, and it can harm your health. Mold can trigger allergies, and be very harmful to people with breathing problems like asthma. If you constantly feel like your nose is blocked and it’s hard to breathe, then this could be due to bathroom mold – or mold anywhere in your house! Get an expert mold removal company in to get rid of it and keep your house healthier.

Your Mattress

Yes, your mattress could be damaging your health in more ways that you really know. Firstly, a bad mattress with poor support can damage your physical health by causing problems in your back muscles that may well linger forever. But, the materials your mattress is made out of can also have damaging effects on your health. I’ve been reading a lot of Zinus mattress reviews lately and found out that they use things like plant oils to create memory foam. This isn’t the shocking thing, what’s shocking is that it isn’t the norm. Most memory foam mattresses are made out of crude oils and packed full of chemicals that can emit toxins. So, you could be lying on something that’s basically releasing bad toxins into the air for you to breathe in – not good for your health at all!

Your Computer

How on earth does a computer harm your health? Well, it can do many things to you that are not very good at all. For one, staring at a screen for too long will damage your eyesight and could cause repetitive headaches. However, the main problem is that using a computer puts you in a very bad position. You’re hunched over typing for hours, and it messes up your posture. Having bad posture is so harmful to your overall health. It can impact your breathing, alter your mental state, and cause lots of physical pain. As a result, if you work at a computer all day long, make sure you take regular breaks to avoid all these postural problems.

So, there you go; three hidden things you probably weren’t aware of, but they’ve been damaging your health this whole time. If you’ve fallen victim to any of these things, then I hope my article has helped shine a light on the issues for you to take care of them!

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Making Sense Of Your Business’s Big Data

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If you’re in the world of business and you’re hoping to better understand your market, then you have undoubtedly heard of how valuable big data can be. The ability to collect data on all aspects of the business, from internal processes to customer desires and behavior, is a reality. Now businesses are figuring out how to make use of it to gain insights and provide real solutions. But with the sheer amount of data we can now gather, how do we make sense of it?

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Know what you want to know

As mentioned, there can be a lot of data to comb through once you’ve found your methods of collecting and storing it. The “haystack problem” has become a challenge for many businesses getting into big data; many business owners don’t know how to find the data relevant to them. First of all, you need to think of what data will help you and what kind of questions you want to answer with it. WaveApp suggests data that can improve market research, for instance. But there’s also data that can help you better understand your sales funnel, internal efficiency, and much more. Find your goal and you can find the relevant data much more easily.

How you find it

Where do you get the little data points that all contribute to your big data strategy? The truth is that most of us are collecting it already. If you’re using online advertisements, most platforms already have data tools built in. Your website can be connecting to online analytics tools. Most social media channels have insights features. Customer management relationship software can help collect even more data. It’s all of these sources that allow you to pull the data points that contribute to the central strategy.

Fitting it all together

Another of the challenges of a big data strategy is fitting it all together in one centralized source. There are teams that can help you specifically find software that does that, however. For instance, you can move data from Mongodb to Redshift, ensuring that your organized document data storage can fit in alongside the table and more traditional SQL databases that other software tends to produce. One central source of data to search through and work with makes it a lot easier to find the relevant data points when you need to.

Don’t forget the context

A problem with big data is that it’s quantitative, not qualitative. If you forget the context of the insights you’re trying to develop and work solely with the numbers, you can miss the bigger picture. We can misinterpret datasets, we can have our bias narrow our sights down to only what we want to see, and without a process of quality assurance, we can use data that is incomplete or irrelevant depending on the circumstances. Make sure you have ways of qualifying your data before you use it for any grand insights.

A business with a big data strategy stands to make huge improvements. However, there’s a growing population of data scientists, if you’re unwilling to put the effort in to learn it all yourself. Consider getting one on your team if you don’t want to miss out.

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Want To Improve Your Lifestyle? Maybe A Change Of Career Could Help

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Have you ever found yourself lost in a moment wondering what it was all for? Many people can find themselves questioning their choices, especially when it comes to the day job and their career, and wonder whether or not there is more to life? We can spend a lot of time working, doing a job that perhaps we don’t enjoy, and may find that we don’t earn as much as we could if we did something else. It is never too late to change your career and you may find that being happier in the day job could help to improve your lifestyle. I wanted to share with you how that could happen.

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Figure out what you want from the day job

Sometimes we just need to take a step back to really work out what we want from life. Our jobs happen to be something that we spend a huge chunk of our time doing, so it is important to ensure that we are happy with what we are doing and not just seeing it as a means to an end. There has to be some future in it, something that you want to do and achieve. Figuring out what you want, be that job satisfaction, money making opportunities or room to progress will help you to make sure that you find the right career path for you and your goals.

What are your passions?

If you are seriously considering a career change then why not seek some inspiration in terms of the right job for you with the passions you already have in your life. What makes you tick? What could be advanced in to some sort of career? Is it following things like the CMC Markets for trading and investment opportunities? Is it a passion for how you look and feel and the actions you take to achieve it? Is it having a head in a book all the time and being fascinated by words and literature? Sometimes these passions highlight potential career options that we never thought existed.

Could your personality help you decide?

Maybe you have the answer already. Maybe your personality is the key to finding the right career path to take? Perhaps you feel that you have a caring nature, and so something in the health profession be that as a care assistant or training to work in hospitals or doctors surgeries as a nurse could be the options. Maybe you have a feisty personality and feel that project management or some form of managerial role could be the key. Knowing what you are like will help determine your strong points and skills to help choose the right career path for you.

How do you plan on making it happen?

Finally, once you know what you want to do with your life how do you plan on making that happen? Is it a case of changing your resume and sending it out? Is it best to approach different companies or industry experts and be bold? Writing up emails or training for new skills and qualifications. There are plenty of actionable steps you can take to change your career, you just need to work out the best route for you.

I hope that this gives you the change in lifestyle that you need.

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