Decking Out Your New Office Space

Steaming Coffee Cup in an Office

 

The U.S. Census Bureau reports there are 543,000 new businesses started every month. A vast majority of these are single-employee ventures. But there are also those that christen a new office space and prepare to fill it with all the necessary people and equipment to turn a profit.

Those echoes you hear in that empty office are the sounds of opportunity. Now it’s just a matter finding the right furnishings and tools to create the type of work environment that breeds long-term success. The best part is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money doing so.

Government Liquidation

One of the best-kept of secrets of the corporate world is the Government Liquidation (GL) website. It is the official auction and sales hub for surplus and used assets the Pentagon either no longer needs or has too much of. GL houses this equipment in several warehouses on various military bases in the U.S.

New business owners with empty office space can purchase, among other things, computers, desks, cubicles, chairs and printers in bulk at a fraction of the price they’d pay a retailer. Simply register your company with the website and it instantly gives you access to its entire inventory. One caveat is that you may have to pick the items up yourself from a warehouse that is far away from your office. You may also want to find someone in the area to inspect the equipment before purchasing.

Network and Software

The first matter of business to address with your computer network is the choice of an in-house server or cloud-based services. The previous gives you complete control of your data and network because the server is physically on the premises. They are also very expensive and will require you to cool the room so the system doesn’t overheat. Scalability, lower costs and easy set-up are the advantages of the cloud.

There is no right or wrong direction to go. But a 2013 study by Colmar Brunton, an international marketing agency based in Australia, found that only 16 percent of small business used cloud services. The study also found the businesses that do embrace the cloud were 106 percent more likely to see revenue increases from 2012 to 2013.

Finally review different software for pipeline management and sales forecasting. Again, this will ultimately come down to personal preference. Read objective reviews of all software you may be considering and ask other business managers what they use for suggestions.

Floor Graphics, Wide Format Print

Brand Your Workspace

Especially if your office or workspace is also a retail environment or reception area for customers, you will want to brand your work area with your own color scheme and imagery. With wide format graphics, banners, and removable murals for walls, windows and flooring, the cost of creating a unique, branded workspace is within every budget. These products are removable, repositionable, durable and fade resistant. You can inspire your staff or clientele with a visually stunning workspace with just a few well-chosen and affordable graphics.

Amenities

Some office buildings have cafeterias with cooks who make fresh food for employees. That option can be expensive, so the alternative is vending machines. Aramark and Vending Solutions are two of the more common names for soda and snack machines. Health-conscious business owners can check out HealthyVending.com and FreshVending.com for machines stocked with fruits, smoothies and other things that do the body good.

 

Strive to buy your print locally! A community printer will understand communication and design, with a special emphasis on your local market. They should be able to provide you with the latest information, inspiration, technical advice, and innovative ideas for communicating your message through print, design and typography, signage, apparel, variable data printing and direct mail, integrated marketing and environmental responsible printing. If they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

Call us at 828.684.4512. ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your print and marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

Cash at All Costs: Small Business Trends for 2014

 

Small-Business-Trends

The U.S. economy is wrapping up 2013 with a piece of good news. November job growth cut the unemployment rate to 7 percent, the lowest it’s been in five years. Higher-paying industries including manufacturing and construction added more jobs, and hourly wages rose incrementally. Small business owners and prospective entrepreneurs are encouraged by the overall direction of the economy, and small business success goes hand-in-hand with the economy’s overall success. A positive jobs report means more opportunities for small businesses in 2014.

Small businesses will look to capitalize on growing trends in the upcoming year. Expect small business to become more mobile and look for unconventional sources of capital.

Mobile Credit Card Processing

Business was on the go in 2013, and it won’t slow down it 2014. Cash-only small businesses miss out on potential revenue because they don’t accept credit and debit cards, but smartphones are changing the game. Mobile credit card processors enable small businesses to accept credit cards anywhere. These card readers connect to a corresponding app to turn any smartphone into a credit card processor.

Square, Intuit and Paypal are among the companies that offer free credit card readers. Providers usually take 2-3 percent of the transaction cost. That’s a small price to pay to accept credit cards. Intuit’s mobile program even connects to its popular Quickbooks service, so users can automatically track these mobile transactions on the popular accounting platform.

Research firm Forrester forecasts mobile payments to reach $90 billion by 2017. Next year figures to be a major step forward for mobile credit card processors. Small business looking for a leg up on the competition would be wise to get on board.

Maximize Assets

In a rough economy, consumers get creative to earn extra revenue. AirBnB is a online home and apartment rental platform on which users can list available homes and rooms. Many owners stay with their guests throughout the agreement. It’s an unconventional model, but it provider property tenants with extra income and travelers with inexpensive shelter. Zipcar is a similar service in which users rent their automobiles.

Small businesses looking to boost their revenue will look to utilize their assets in similar ways in 2014. Perhaps that means renting a copy machine out to businesses that have high-volume printing jobs or renting out delivery trucks. These revenue add-ons could keep small businesses afloat through lean months.

More Crowdfunding

Venture capitalists aren’t exactly shelling out dough for every interesting idea, but that doesn’t mean startups won’t succeed in 2014. Crowdfunding is the latest trend in fundraising. Crowdfunder and Kickstarter are among the prominent crowdfunding platforms.

Crowdfunder consists of more than 40,000 investors and entrepreneurs, according to the company website. In this model, startups offer future incentives in exchange for donations. This might mean the earliest version of a product once its out of production or access to a blog that documents that journey.

Kickstarter, meanwhile, has successfully funded more than 53,000 projects. Expect that number to grow substantially throughout 2013.

Dana Hudson

Dana is a New York native and small business consultant with a penchant for social media strategy.

 

 

ImageSmith is proud to be a printer in an exciting era of digital communication. Your printer should be able to provide you with the latest information, inspiration, technical advice, and innovative ideas for communicating your message through print, design and typography, signage, apparel, variable data printing and direct mail, integrated marketing and environmental responsible printing. They should also be able to work with you to solve any difficult prepress issues with your files. If they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

Call us at 828.684.4512. ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your print and marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

5 Innovative Tech Tools for Small Business Owners

 

Tech Tools for small businesses

The advancement in digital communication technology tools has made it easier for companies to reach their target audiences and beyond, with small businesses and startups gaining the ability to impact the public at a minimal cost. While you may have a team of tech gurus, or may be one yourself, you’re still likely to be overwhelmed by the range of available technologies to help grow your business. From apps for your smart device to safe virtual file exchanging services, there are numerous tech tools designed for the small business owner on a tight budget. Here are five essential tech tools that every company like yours can benefit from.

Appy Pie

Mobile applications are a dominant force within every industry, leading many tech-savvy business owners to believe that signing on to the mobile app phenomenon is a must. Imploring the assistance of a mobile application may be unnecessary for the advancement of your company. And before you hire developers, or you attempt this endeavor yourself, don’t invest in an expensive mobile app before you investigate more affordable options. Appy Pie is a mobile app maker that allows individuals without much technical expertise to create custom apps for their businesses. It also provides small businesses with a test run before they spend money on a full mobile application. Ranging from $12 to $40 in price, this cloud-based service enables you to do everything from viewing your app stats through Google Analytics to helping you design and publish custom apps that your customers can download on iTunes and Google Play.

Crushpath

Promote your business with this app that enables you to construct a simple, one-page website detailing information about your business then sharing it with potential customers and clients through email or on social media. For less than $10 a month, users can create custom-made pitches based on their desired outcome, whether it be promoting a specific product/service or reaching out to a certain segment of your customer base. Crushpath sites are also viewable by anyone who searches for your company online, which helps you generate and keep track of leads even when you’re not actively promoting your business.

ShareFile

With customized business solutions for professionals in over 30 different industries, ShareFile offers companies solutions for transferring and sharing files safely and securely in a custom-branded, password-protected space. Send large files via email, arrange secure file transfers, and coordinate a collaborative arena for project-related files by using tools like the Virtual Data Room. ShareFile’s best attribute is that it can be used on smartphones and tablets on Apple iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows mobile applications. What’s more, ShareFile users can download and use these mobile apps for free.

Slide.ly

small business tech tools

Maximize your social media presence with an app that will grab the public’s attention visually. With Slide.ly you can create unique slideshows and share them on popular social media sites. Simply choose your photos from your Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, or Google Images account, pick some theme music, add special effects, and then share your slideshow on your company’s social media pages. Slide.ly is a free and easy way to promote products and services and engage with customers and clients.

TinderBox

Create, manage, and track everything from sales documents to your company’s marketing strategy with this web-based proposal writing program. TinderBox helps keep your employees on the same page and provides you with the ability to streamline contracts, proposals, and other significant company documents in order to ensure that you’re sending a uniform message to clients and customers. You’ll be able to write, make edits, organize, approve, and disseminate your documents no matter where you are.

Author bio: Greg Richards is a tech blogger who writes posts on the latest news and reviews products in the industry.

 

 

ImageSmith is proud to be a printer in an exciting era of digital communication. Your printer should be able to provide you with the latest information, inspiration, technical advice, and innovative ideas for communicating your message through print, design and typography, signage, apparel, variable data printing and direct mail, integrated marketing and environmental responsible printing. They should also be able to work with you to solve any difficult prepress issues with your files. If they can’t, you have the wrong printer! The best advice, always, is to ASK YOUR PRINTER!

Call us at 828.684.4512. ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your print and marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

Generosity – good for business, and…well, just good!

Generous Business Practices and Marketing

Your business reflects your principles. They are part of your brand – the basis of how you interact with your customers and your community. Putting a spirit of generosity in the way you work will always in the end bring benefits to you, your customer, and your bottom line.

Now generosity doesn’t have to mean giving away the farm with some wacky doorbuster special. It means finding ways to show appreciation for each customer – value-added services and perks that can range from something as low-cost as friendly customer service at every contact, all the way to valued gifts and rewards. Your budget and resources will determine what level you can invest in, but the point is to act on a generosity of spirit regardless of the economics.

At ImageSmith, we have sought ways we can show consideration for our customers above and beyond providing quality services on schedule.

  • Friendly, helpful customer service – when you put yourself in the customer’s place, you can see many ways to provide information and guidance to meet their specfic needs, rather than just direct them in a way that will profit your business. Dealing with them while keeping their schedule and priorities in mind will go far in creating good will. generosity is good for business
  • More than expected – seek to give your customers more than they expect. Often for us, as printers, this can mean packaging a few extras from a print run for delivery – pieces that might have just been thrown out as extras can be given free of charge as a way to say “thanks.” When we are embroidering items and have an extra, we include it with the customer’s order as a nice surprise and a way of saying “thank you for your business.”
  • Advertising that is also beneficial to our customers – this means promotional products. The exposure and advertising we receive from our branded promotional products is married to the usefulness of the products themselves. Sports cups, bandage dispensers, t-shirts, office supplies… the variety of available promotional products is vast. Think about which ones best fit with your brand and enjoy the process of giving them out to your customers.
  • Information & “paying it forward” – We live in an information age, and being generous with knowledge and expertise has a greater value than ever. I think there is often an old-school tendency to try to “guard” knowledge – when you have figured out a better way to accomplish a task, you don’t want your competitor to learn it and benefit from your struggle. But here again, being generous with your expertise builds good will, and, perhaps more importantly, establishes your authority and skillfulness in your field. To be a source people trust and turn to for information is a benefit to both them and you. As printers, we specialize in marketing and communication skills. We want our customers to turn to us a marketing consultant who has their best interests in mind.

Blogging is a great way to provide information to customers – and to receive feedback from them. Also, the world of social media allows you a powerful venue to help establish your principles in the minds of your customers. Use it to attract attention with helpful information. Being generous just makes good business sense. Box of printed material with sticker

 

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.