Category: Business Insights

Business intelligence is the term used to refer to any form of technology, practices, and applications which enable and enhance the collection, analysis, integration, and presentation of business data. The main purpose of biz intelligence is to improve business decision making.

Whether your business is small, a start-up, or a global enterprise, you will need tools to enable you to leverage the power of big data. Smaller businesses can now accomplish this thanks to a wide range of available business intelligence tools that can quickly and easily make sense of big data. These software solutions can collect, collate, and convert information into efficient and understandable reports which can give you valuable business insights, which in turn, increases profits.

Best Biz Intelligence Tools

Let’s take a look at some of the best available biz tools for small and large businesses.

Tableau

Tableau by Sisense will help your business to visualize and gain a deeper understanding of information. It also allows you and your partners or colleagues to share data easily using your PC or tablet. Once logged in, users can create a dashboard that will allow them to publish and share information with colleagues. The interface does not require any programming knowledge. You can import data from various sources of information.

Features include:

• Embedded dashboards
• Highlight and feature data
• Data notifications
• Dashboard commenting
• Translate queries to visualizations
• Metadata management

BDxtra

BDxtra by Advisionario is a stand-alone platform which enables team members to create interactive dashboards and web-reports in just a few minutes, without any programming knowledge. This is the only tool you will need to organize project and data reports.

Features include:

• Financial reports
• Marketing reports
• Ad hoc reports
• Graphical data presentation
• Creates alerts
• OLAP

AnswerRocket

AnswerRocket by Answer Rocket was named the cool vendor in analytics by Gartner in 2017. This software solution provides a search-based analytics tool which uses natural language. Users can ask questions in everyday language and get results in just a few seconds. It allows you and your team to make business decisions quickly and efficiently.

Features include:

• Natural language processing
• Chatbot
• Machine learning
• Multi-language
• Predictive analytics
• Virtual assistant

Salesforce

Salesforce by Analytics Cloud is suitable for every business user, no matter what the size of your company. The software enables you to pull together your choice combination of data, procure instant answers and share with your team, quickly and easily from any devices, wherever you are.

Features include:

• Marketing and sales leads
• Communities for sales
• Approvals
• Workflow
• Real-time visibility
• Forecasting

Cyfe

Cyfe is an all-in-one business dashboard you can use to collect and collate data from your existing services such as Google Analytics and Salesforce. You and your team can review real-time information, so you are always ahead of the game. Data can be shared instantly and securely.

Features include:

• Auto email reports
• Business KPIs
• Branded client reports
• Custom visualizations
• Historical data
• Multiple sharing options

SimilarWeb Pro

SimilarWeb Pro is designed for any size business. Use it to extend your website’s reach. As well as keeping track of marketing expansion is will also enable larger companies to record their acquisition and merger activities. The software can produce in-depth data analytics related to the performance of your competitors’ websites.

Features include:

• Competitor website traffic analysis
• Engagement metrics
• Keyword research tool
• See traffic share according to channel
• Visual charts and graphs for KPIs
• Mobile app industry analysis

Clear Analytics

Clear Analytics is designed to help your business retrieve information from multiple sources and record metrics within Microsoft Excel where users can access data and create extensive reports. There’s no need to call on IT professionals because the software will extract all the data for you. Reports are all organized in layers by version, so they are easy to find.

Features include:

• Performance metrics
• Report generation
• Dashboard creation
• KPIs
• Problem Indication
• Predictive analysis

Report Plus

Report Plus enterprise-grade software is designed to enable you to create a centralized record of business metrics which is easy to share with your team. Not only does it provide users with real-time dashboards and interactive reports, but it also allows them to choose from more than 30 visualization types, to inform data-driven business decisions.

• Broad Variety of Integrations
• Real-Time Data
• Deployment Concierge
• KPIs
• Metrics
• Revenue and Profitability

If you’re not already, you should be using biz intelligence software. The benefits far outweigh the investment you will have to make. It can enable your business to garner information, so you can resolve business conflicts, affect growth, collect and analyze marketing data quicker, and anticipate future outcomes. This way, you can always be at least one step ahead of your competitors.

The roots of meditation travel back to ancient times. Scripts dating back some 5,000 years, known as the tantras, refer to several different forms of meditation. Yet meditation is not only an ancient spiritual practice; it is popular today as a contemporary mind-body technique used for completely calming the mind, relaxing, and re-energizing the body. Recent studies have also shown that is it effective in the prevention and treatment of a host of illnesses and diseases including cardiovascular disease, the management of chronic pain, fibromyalgia, coronary artery disease, stress reduction and hypertension, prevention of psychotic episodes in schizophrenia as well as anxiety, depression, and insomnia.

Why Meditate?

Mediation is sustenance for the mind and body. Buddhist sutras refer to Samadhi as food. Samadhi means contemplation or meditation. Meditation can give you a mental and physical boost when your energy is depleted and can put your body’s energies back in sync to prevent illness and disease. Meditation is a very beneficial practice, particularly in our fast-paced world of increasing stress and anxiety, poor diet, disease, and environmental toxins.

Meditation and EEG

Electroencephalograph (EEG) recordings taken of experienced meditators (people with more than ten years of training and practice), during meditation sessions show interesting changes in brain wave patterns compared to the normal waking state. During meditation, there occurs a significant rise in gamma wave activity to a range between 80-120 Hz. The participants also showed increased gamma activity when not meditating but merely at rest. This means that this type of mental training can increase the possibility for experienced meditators to control certain neurological functions.

Meditation and the Brain

Andrew Newberg, a radiologist at the University of Pennsylvania, conducted a study examining the effects of meditation on Buddhist monks’ brains.

Newberg and his team used brain imaging to measure the changes in the monks’ brains after they had been meditation for one hour. Once the monks had reached a transcendental state, they were instructed to pull a string that released a radioactive tracer into their bloodstream. This enabled scientists to watch the dye move to the active parts of the brain. Once the subjects had finished meditating, the initial image was compared to one of their brain during normal waking state.

The study revealed that during meditation, in the brain there is an increase in activity towards the front of the brain, which is the area responsible for focus and concentration. There was also a marked decrease in activity towards the rear of the brain; the area responsible for orientation. This may indicate a reduction of spatial awareness during meditation

In a study designed by conducted by Maura Paul-Labrador, M.P.H, and colleagues from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, coronary heart disease (CHD) patients received a sixteen-week training course in transcendental meditation. As a comparison, a second group received only instructions on how to maintain their health. The study was designed to see what effects, if any, meditation would have on risk factors associated with CHD such as high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, high cholesterol levels, and insulin resistance.

Significant positive changes were noted in the blood samples of the group using transcendental meditation. These included; lower blood pressure, an improvement in fasting levels of insulin and glucose and an overall improvement in digestive functions. These results suggest that transcendental meditation helps reduce the symptoms of CHD by reducing stress levels.

Finding a Perfect Space

If you want to improve your health and quality of life by meditating, you need to find the best place to do it. Whether you opt to meditate indoors or outdoors, there are benefits to both. The key factor here is to find a comfortable space where you will not be disturbed. Do your best to steer clear of distractions, such as the television or phone; interruptions will definitely get in the way of your meditation session.

Let it All Go

The key to meditation is relaxing and letting all your concerns slip away. One option for getting started is to consider some progressive relaxation techniques, relaxing slowly, one body part at a time until the tension has melted away.

Focus on your Flow of Breath

Inhale and exhale consciously and deeply through your nose. At the same time, pay attention to the flow of your breathing. If you are having trouble concentrating, it may be easier to use a mantra such as “om.” Alternatively, you could try counting down from 10 to 1 as you breathe deeply.

Silence your Mind

This is the one part of meditation that people find most difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. The best way to start is not to try and empty your mind completely, but to slow down your thinking so that you can focus on just one thing at a time. After mastering this technique, you may find it quite easy to slip into a meditative state and reap the benefits of this mindful practice.

You may have been nursing your unique idea for a business for years, or it may be something that came to you in a sudden burst of inspiration. Either way, if you have a solid idea and you’re determined to get it up and running, then there are a number of steps that you need to go through. Here are some pointers to help you take your business idea from concept to business plan and beyond.

Fine Tune Your Idea

You’ve come up with an idea that meshes with your strengths, passions, and goals. The next step is to flesh out your idea. You may find that your initial idea changes quite significantly, so don’t be too possessive over it. Give it room to grow and transform.

Talk it Over

It’s a good idea to talk your business idea through with someone who is business savvy. Perhaps you have a mentor or a friend who is already running his or her own business. These people would make the perfect sounding board, and you could end up coming away with some great advice. You could also consider talking it over with potential customers in your target range and see what they think.

Consider it From Every Angle

Think about your business idea from the perspective of an investor. Be objective and analytical. Consider who your target customers are and what they really need. How big of an opportunity is there for you in this niche and is the timing right? Make a list of all the steps it will take to execute your business plan and assess if the payoff is worth the risk involved. Also, think about what type of business plan you’re going to utilize.

Get Plenty of Feedback

Talk to people who are familiar with the market and the type of business model which you intend to use – people who have this type of experience can help you understand what works and what doesn’t out there in the business world. You cannot do enough research before laying out your business plan.

Take Your Feedback Onboard

Don’t just ignore feedback, especially if it was not what you wanted to hear. Use it to make wise changes to your business plan and your go-to-market strategy. Make sure that you crunch some numbers so that you can develop an idea of how much you need to invest in key milestones. Now’s the time to decide who you need on your team to help you put this plan into practice.

Come up With a Minimalist Product or Service

In your mind, picture your product or service in its simplest form. Strip it down to the very basics that your customers need: the minimal requirements. This exercise will help you to build a prototype. Once you’ve got the basic model designed, go ahead and make it as quickly and inexpensively as you can. You can add a full set of features later.

Start Selling

You don’t have to wait until your product is 100 percent perfect before you open shop. Once you have it out there on the market, you will be able to listen to customer feedback and see where tweaks and improvements need to be made. This will give you a greater ability to react to customers quickly and upgrade your product as you go along. The key is to get your core product to market as quickly as you can.

Test Your Products

Now you have products in the marketplace; you can try to make them a better match for what your target customers need. For example, you can test different elements such as optional features, pricing, and branding features. Then you can search for a cost-effective way to draw customers by experimenting with sales pitches, promotions, marketing campaigns, and distribution channels. Once you have your results in, you can see which ones are most effective.

Don’t let the Process Stagnate

Now you’ve learned which aspects of your branding and marketing you need to change, fix them as quickly as possible. But you will have also gotten some things right, and obviously, you will want to leave those as they are.

Prepare for Expansion

Now is the time to update your business plan and gather all the resources you need to grow. Start raising capital if you need to. Pitch to investors, start crowdfunding, whichever path you choose, now is the time to do it.

Speed Up Your Start-Up

At this point, you have a market-tested business plan and resources at the ready. You should be ready to expand. Make sure your whole team is on board, and you’re all in line with the same goals.

Following these steps can help you move your business from concept to plan to reality.

Effective communication is essential for your business to succeed. Not only does it transform the way your team works together, but it also reduces in-house conflicts and redundancies. If you communicate effectively, your employees will like you and will listen to you. So, what is effective communication and how do you develop it?

What is Communication?

Communication involves the exchange of information and the method used to make this exchange. In a company, whether it’s a small business or a global corporation, communication is the means by which people exchange information about various business operations. Maximum effectiveness of communication within any organization is very desirable. Here are the elements of effective organizational communication. It is necessary for it to be:

• Verifiably factual: Optimal communication is comprised of information that is completely factually correct.
• One hundred percent complete: It must express absolutely every important piece of information that needs to be said.
• Completely accurate: As well as being complete, communication must be completely accurate.
• Well-targeted: The information you are communicating must be aimed at the right group of people within your organization.
• Easy to understand: You must organize the information so that the people who are listening to it do not need to spend a lot of time processing it to understand it.
• Timely: The information you are conveying must be passed on at the right time.

Why Effective Communication is Vital for Your Business

Ineffective communication can cause all sorts of issues within your company. Workplace risks, incoherent policies, and under-performance are just a few. Optimal communication is key for decision-making and for allowing the flow of back and forth communication through your organization’s vertical channels.

A further benefit of effective communication is that it assists with cross-departmental coordination. This enables your organization to not only have a highly efficient system, but also one which is optimally collaborative, so that all your departments, be they marketing, HR, admin or acquisitions, are all aiming for the same goals.

Strategies for Developing the Most Effective Communication

Here are some measures to help you develop more effective communication throughout your company.

1. Make the most of multiple channels

By using more than one communication channel, you can establish exchanges of information that might not happen otherwise.

2. Improve two-way feedback

Nurture a positive environment and a sense of mutual respect by asking for and giving feedback throughout your organization.

3. Keep the steps to communication short

By making it easy for intra-communications to take place at and between all levels, you ensure improved fidelity in the exchange of information.

4. Be mindful of clarity

Encourage an organizational culture that always aims for sensitivity to the needs of the recipient of the information.

Strategies to Make You an Strong Communicator

If you introduce these tactics into your daily routine, they can help you become a more effective communicator.

1. Lead by example

Practicing what you preach goes a long way in the business world. If you always deliver on your promises, people will follow you because they trust you, so it always pays to be genuine and honest.

2. Keep it simple

Don’t over-inform your team. Too much information just causes confusion. Simply say what you mean; in the world of communication, less is always more.

3. Be authentic

Always strive to be the best version of yourself that you can be. Be who you are, and your team will know you are expressing yourself honestly.

4. Be here now

Always be present. That doesn’t mean that you can’t take a break from work from time to time, but when you are working on planning and strategy, be focused and be visible to your team. Make sure your presence does not go unnoticed. Always allow people a chance to see you around the company.

5. Leave your door open

Make sure that your team members feel they can talk to you when they need to. If you can’t leave your door open all the time, then schedule a time at least once a week when you can. That way your team will know that they can count on you.

6. Encourage self-improvement

Every time a member of your workforce learns a new skill, it’s better for your company as a whole. Many companies support continued education within or outside of the workplace. If you can’t support your employee’s self-improvement financially, at least try to maintain a little flexibility with their schedules.

7. Support vacation time

The last thing you need is a workforce that is burned out and unproductive. To make sure this never happens, be supportive of vacation time. Your team will be much more productive and creative if they are well-rested and refreshed.

Remember, improving your communication skills and strategies can make for a more productive workforce and more loyal employees.

Running your own business from home can feel like a dream. You get to make your own rules, you get to pick the background music, and there’s no fear that a co-worker might steal your lunch. However, starting a home business is no simple feat, but luckily there are plenty of tools available to you that might make the road to success a bit easier to manage. The following list of tools have been designed to make your work more efficient and your life easier whether you’re starting a business or currently running one from home.

Google Docs

Not only can you create a document with Google Docs, but you can also easily share your documents with several people at once. You can give them access to edit and make comments. If you’re both working on the document at the same time, there is even a tool to start up a chat. This is a great tool for those who are working from home and need to stay in touch with their teams.

Trello

Trello enables you to manage any project you’re working on. The site allows users to create lists on a card that you can then add to a board. Just like in Google Docs, it is very simple to share with a team. Open a card to add details, comments, or upload files.

Virtual Phone Numbers

When working from home, it can be extremely difficult to separate your personal life from your work life. That is why getting a virtual phone number for your business can be one of the best tools for your growing company. Having a virtual business number allows you to greet customers professionally, set solid business hours, and transfer phone calls with ease. Also, when you have a virtual phone number, you can access the phone calls and messages from multiple devices, including your tablet or computer.

EchoSign

EchoSign was created to free your life from the clutter of paper. It also a great way to get signatures from clients, employees, and other third-parties. Whatever you need to be signed, simply upload the documents to EchoSign and send them over to where they need to go. The third party simply needs to type in their name and initials, and Adobe Sign (formerly EchoSign) will do the rest. You can also keep an archive of your contracts, making it a breeze to find signed documents.

Asana

Asana is a great tool to use in lieu of multiple meetings. Asana is great if you have many people on your team working remotely. You can manage projects, start conversations, see what progress has been made, and create tasks from conversations in real-time.

Slack

Slack is an app for chatting and sharing ideas. It is a good tool for entrepreneurs because it allows you to create multiple conversations in one app. You can have public chats with your team and private conversations with one or two people. You can keep discussions about each project separately in a clean and well-designed app. It is also very simple to find old messages in the archive, and it can be synced on all of your devices.

Canva

Canva is a design website that can help turn anyone into a graphic designer. You can easily create artwork for any advertising you’ll need for brochures, business cards, Instagram posts, Facebook banners, and more. The site is easy-to-use with a drag-and-drop design tool and ready-made layouts.

Haro

Haro stands for Helping A Report Out. It is the perfect tool for small business owners who want to get the word out about their business but do not have unlimited resources to do so. This tool connects you with members of the media who are looking for content to cover. You can find amazing writers and have open discussions with them and read their media pitches. You might soon find your brand getting recognition from high profile publications you only ever dreamed of.

Jira

Jira is a tool that lets you capture data from every aspect of creating and executing your product. Finding the statistics of any product from the beginning to launch and monitoring the statistics after launch is possible with Jira. You can even get feedback from trusted sources. Since production is always changing, edits are easy, and your entire team will be able to see the new changes being added and taken away.

Many companies have expanded globally to great success while others have tried and failed.

The difference between these companies is not what they offer; it is often how they go about providing it. There is much research to be done for a business before considering global expansion and which countries are most suitable.

Simply because one business model works in one country does not mean that the same business model will work overseas in another country. Advertising elements such as slogans could mean completely different things when translated into another language.

The same goes for logos, a picture or gesture that is considered normal in one country may be regarded as disrespectful in another. Not everything a business offers translates into a new country.

You can save yourself some time by putting in research, looking at the success and failures of other companies, and getting help from experienced entrepreneurs.

Considerations When Expanding Overseas

When you decide that your company should be expanded overseas, you have to develop a well-thought-out plan. Looking at companies that have already expanded to other countries is a great place to begin your research.

What are the best practices for global expansion that successful companies follow? What did the companies who failed do wrong? These are both great questions to get you started in developing a plan of action.

A Few Examples

Take Best Buy, for example, the wildly popular electronics store in America failed overseas in places such as China, Europe, and Turkey. Why? Best Buy only took what worked for its US consumers instead of researching what consumers prefer in other countries. Europeans do not like large stores, such as Best Buy or Walmart. They prefer smaller and more conveniently placed shops.

IKEA is another example, having worked tremendously overseas and almost failed in America. When IKEA first opened in the US, it was a small shop like its original European customers prefer, featuring convenient, one-size-fits-all furniture. IKEA began to fail and quickly realized that American consumers like big stores and diverse wares. The Swedish-founded furniture retailer decided to redesign its warehouses and its furniture offerings to cater to Americans tastes.

Not Even Google is Fail-Proof Overseas

No company is safe from failing in an overseas market. Even Google can’t make headway in China because of its censorship laws and its inability to overtake local Chinese markets and its loyal customers. Without a proper long-term team to build brand loyalty and respond immediately to customer demands, Google will never be able to see success in China as it has in other countries.

Top fast-food restaurants that are staples in America have had their share of struggles overseas as well. Places such as McDonald’s, Starbucks, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s have all struggled in certain countries. When Wendy’s tried to move into Japan, they were quickly defeated by established Japanese burger restaurants and American competitors, McDonald’s and Burger King. However, McDonald’s has had its struggles in other countries, too. McDonald’s has seen significant success in places like Japan and the Philippines because of their ability to cater to the tastes of the local people. They were unsuccessful in the Caribbean and Latin America because of the high costs to run the restaurants and the sluggish economies of the countries they chose.

There is no way to know if your company is going to fail or succeed in another country, but you can make the necessary changes to your company to ensure that your business is prepared for the different marketplace and new consumer tastes. Also, never assume that because your idea is different, it is going to work.

Before you move your company overseas, start by purchasing an international virtual phone number in the country of your choice. When foreign consumers have a way of getting in contact with your company, the consumer will feel safe in their decision to purchase from your business.

Always consider the risks and rewards of each country, too. It also helps actually to spend time in the country of your choice. When you travel to another country, you will get a feeling for what their market and tastes are all about. Talk to the local people, even people you meet on the street, and find out what it is that they like and what they are looking for. If they are going to be your consumer, you will need to understand what makes them tick. Finding ways to stay in contact with your consumer is always the best first step to success.

Related: Top International Business Expansion Mistakes to Avoid

Managing a full-time job and finding the time to set aside for the things that you enjoy is a problem for many people. A majority of people believe that their work commitments demand too much time from them. Not every 9-5 job ends at 5. Being successful means having success in both business and your personal life. In order to achieve this elusive success, a balance must be struck.

In order to begin setting aside the right amount of time for work and play, first, you must become cognizant of how to establish boundaries and set goals. Read on to find out how you can get started on achieving harmony in your life today.

Be Prepared

The best way to achieve more in your week is to set up a plan and execute it. Write down every task that you need to accomplish and organize each task by importance. Give each task an amount of time that it will take so you don’t take on too much in one day. Taking one-half hour out of your week to plan the days ahead will save you a lot of time in the long run.

Focus

Now that you have a list to refer to, concentrate on finishing one task before you move on to the next one. Looking at your list, you may start to feel overwhelmed with all of the items left, but as you slowly tick them off, you will begin to feel relief. Try to prioritize harder tasks at the beginning or when you know that your focus and energy is highest.

Create a Morning Ritual

Crafting out the beginning of your day saves on time, too. Having a strong routine that prepares you for the day ahead will create a more productive workday. For example, if you like to enjoy a cup of coffee before work, be sure to set your coffee maker in the morning. You don’t want to end up in a long, stressful line at Starbucks when you’re running late to work. When something goes wrong in the morning, it tends to make people spiral out for the rest of the day. It is best to set up more than enough time to get ready and get to work to avoid any morning mishaps.

Don’t Let Your Vacation Days Go To Waste

So many people let their vacation days expire and disappear. They are there for a reason and you’ll be refreshed and ready to work once you get back. Even if your budget only allows for a staycation or a weekend trip to visit family, make time for it.

Don’t Miss Out On The Holidays

Holidays are similar to vacations because they are a break from routines. Make plans for every holiday and carve out time for the people you care most about. Even if you have to be at work, it’s fun to celebrate with little things like holiday cookies, office decorations, and costumes. Without holidays, how would we break up the months and distinguish one from the next? We all need a moment to sit back and think about the things that we are grateful for because that is where the fruit of our efforts really comes in.

Set Boundaries

At work, be present at what you’re doing at work, and at home, be present at home. Sounds simple? Not really. We live an age where we are constantly reachable by call, text, email, or fax. Set boundaries and designate work hours that work for you. Don’t forget to let your bosses and your clients know the best time to reach you and when you will be out of the office. A great way to make sure you don’t slip back into old habits is to stop staring at your phone. If you can’t resist the urge to check your emails while you walk your dog, then perhaps you should leave it at home. Or remove your email account from your phone.

When you have a full-time job and a full-time personal life, there is always something that won’t get done. However, that’s life and you should not beat yourself over it. The most important thing is that you prioritize what is important and recognize what is good or not good for your health and relationships.