Month: December 2019

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How to Gear Your Business Up For the New Year

Taking a Look at Your Previous Year

As the year draws to a close, it is normal to want to prepare your business for 2020. January is right around the corner, and it may be tempting to rush into your plans for your business. However, it is important not to forget where you currently are. Throughout the year you have been monitoring the health of your business. This is a very smart thing to do because it allows you to make real-time adjustments when necessary. It is a good idea to keep note of all these changes for the year’s end so you can review all that has happened.   

Before you look ahead to 2020, be sure to take some time to reflect on 2019.  This will allow you to create a plan for your business’s immediate and far-reaching future. There are many metrics for you to look at, but in this blog we are going to give you three of our favorite tips on how you can structure your end-of-the-year business reflections. 

Man typing on laptop while looking at company metrics.
Photo by Ruthson Zimmerman 

1. Looking Back at Revenue Generated

Some of us start a business as a hobby, but for most people the business they create is an important part of their income. Sometimes it is supplemental to another job we have, or it is our sole income. Regardless of what your aim is for your business, it is essential to track the revenue you generate.  

In order to obtain our desired quality of life there are basic requirements we need to meet to pay our bills. Often this leads to the creation of a revenue sales goal or budget. As you prepare for 2020, be sure to look back at what revenue you generated this year and set it against the goals you set for next year. Did you make enough money? Was there surplus? Did you fall a little short? Asking yourself these questions will guide the process of compiling these statistics of your company. This will allow you to create a more precise budget plan for 2020. You will see the areas in which you came up short, areas in which you could improve, and areas in which you met goal.

How well are You Managing the COGS and the OPEX?

In addition to your top line revenue, the cost of doing business is another important factor to take a look at. Two main aspects of this, though there are others, are “Cost of Goods Sold” (COGS) and “Operating Expenses” (OPEX). Let’s take a look at these two elements.  

  • COGS = This refers to the direct cost of producing the goods you are selling. This can include the cost of the merchandise, supplies, and anything that goes into producing the product(s) you sell. COGS is subtracted from your gross revenue, which in turn tells you the amount of money your business generated. 
  • OPEX = These expenses include items such as rent, payroll, professional fees, and more. This number is also subtracted from your gross revenue.   

So why are we saying to take a look at your previous year’s numbers in these two categories? Looking at these categories will allow you to make innovative decisions going into 2020. For example, with COGS, you will be able to see if you are spending too much, or too little, creating your product.  

Take, for instance, a small grocery retailer that needs to acquire product to sell in its store(s). Goods can be purchased from a variety of sources. This store can buy product directly from the vendor, they can buy from Distributor A, they can buy from Distributor B, or they can have a program by which they purchase from all of the above.  

There are many options available to you, though some may be cheaper than others. You will be able to compare these prices for 2020 against the prices of 2019. With OPEX, you’ll be able to evaluate what you are spending to run your business. Perhaps you have too many employees. Knowing the OPEX will allow you to curtail certain operations if you find it necessary.   

Laptop and notepad at small workstation.
Photo by Andrew Neel

Are Your Keeping Pace with Your Competitors? Are You Ahead of Them?

This final tip is to help you see the larger picture. Often, we can get lost in our business and forget that there is an entire marketplace out there beaming with other businesses trying to get ahead like us. This competition is a good thing because it keeps us on our toes. It keeps us striving to be better. Without healthy competition we would become stagnant.  

As you look back at 2019, take a look at your competitors. How have you been able to keep pace with them? Are you ahead of them? By seeing what trends are occurring in the marketplace, and by analyzing what your competition is doing, you can make adjustments to your own business model. This will ensure you stay in a good spot in the marketplace. It’ll allow you to adjust so you can rise above the rest. It is easy to get comfortable in the marketplace, but this is dangerous. Remember Blockbuster and Borders? Both these companies got comfortable with their position in the industry. As the industry progressed forward they did not, and within a few short years they became relics of the past.  Be proactive to make sure your company is thriving for many years to come. 

Of course, this article just scratches the surface, but this is a good foundation to build off of for the new year. What metrics do you look at? Do you have an end-of-the-year routine you follow each year? Comment below and let us know!   

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Why Copywriting and Copy Editing are Key to Success for Businesses

Photo by Dustin Lee

Every business relies on copywriting and copy editing in order to navigate the online market landscape. It is an essential element in telling your story, growing your brand, and making potential customers become actual customers. However, despite its importance, it is an easy element to overlook when drafting your business plan.

What is Copywriting? Copy Editing?

We should differentiate between “copywriting” and “copy editing,” both of which are important to your business.  

  • Copywriting is writing with the sole purpose of advertising and marketing. I.E., to write catchy copy that will “sell.” This is different than “Content Writing,” which is more about “telling” instead of “selling.” Both are important, but we’ll focus on copywriting for now. 
  • Copy Editing is editing the written content for readability, for punctuation, and for purpose. A copy editor might change a word so that it has a greater impact. They may also rewrite clunky sentences to read easier, thereby ensuring audience engagement 

As you can see, both elements are very important and complimentary to each other. But how (and why) should you focus your attention on these elements? Let’s take a look.  

You Want Audience Engagement

Audience engagement is all about keeping your readers reading. The second they click away you have lost a potential client. This rings true no matter what medium you are displaying your text, whether it is a blog article, an advertisement, a social media post, or even white page and eBooks. The ultimate point is clarity and engagement.  

This is where having a creative spin on your copy is important. Boring and overly technical copy will coax your readers to yawn and turn away. Of course, there are times when this sort of writing is necessary, but when it comes to advertising and growth, even just a little creativity can carry you a long way.  

You also want to make sure that what you are presenting is not overly complex, especially with sentence structure. As with anything, there is a time and a place for complex writing, but first impressions are huge, so it is best to keep it simple and easy to read. The easier it is to read the more likely your readers will read everything. This is where a copy editor is crucial because they will know exactly how to edit the content for your purposes.

Quality Over Quantity

Photo by Peter Lewicki 

Now, it is very easy to want to put out as much content as possible, but is this advisable? Most likely: no, it is not advisable. But why?  If you are generating a lot of content (i.e., quantity) then it is safe to assume that the content is being generated quickly. Each individual piece of copy is not getting the attention it deserves and therefore will suffer.  

It is far better to make sure your content is perfect (i.e., quality) so that when it goes out into the world you will know, for a fact, that it is good copy that will engage your audience and drive traffic to your business. 

When you take care of these elements yourself it is far more likely that the copy itself will suffer. This isn’t because you’re necessarily a bad writer or editor, but because you have so many other things that need your attention that you don’t put the energy into the writing that it deserves. Remember when Old Navy forgot an apostrophe on one of their t-shirts? They had to reprint all their shirts because they wrote “Lets Go” instead of “Let’s Go.” That one apostrophe completely changes the meaning of the phrase in question.  

Professional writers will know exactly what to do to tell your story. They will work with you to create a product you will be happy with. A potential customer could come down to a single word choice or a piece of misplaced punctuation. Little errors like these will create an unsophisticated appearance, which is never a good thing. 

So the next time you’re thinking about writing an ad, or any copy at all, consider a copywriter to write it for you, or a copy editor to look at what you have written and polish it into something special. Remember, the editing tools that come with word processors (such as autocorrect or those blue lines indicating grammar) can only take you so far. These tools cannot know your intent, they can only know what you write. And even then they can get it wrong. It’s better for a person to look at it physically because they will be able to add intuition to the process.