How to Change Your Life by Buying a Business
A lot of people dream of being their own boss, but starting a business from scratch can seem daunting and risky. Here’s why buying an existing business could be the perfect solution.
The idea of running your own business can be liberating and signal a sense of freedom you’ve been craving. But setting up a business and turning it into a profit-making endeavor can be a step too far for some people. Running a business is for people who are entrepreneurially-minded, but not necessarily start-up entrepreneurs. Thus, buying an existing business can be a good in-between option for people who want a different kind of working life to the one they currently have.
Buying an existing business will change your life in many ways. You’ll be in charge and you’ll be accountable for the prosperity of the business. This is a great feeling for people who have suffered at the whim of mediocre managers and have been subjected to tiring office politics. Being in charge and accountable comes with great responsibility too, and you’ll have to educate yourself about all the relevant business operations and do everything you can to generate a good enough income. People who buy an existing business are usually ready to rise to such challenges, and the feelings of being successful, earning an income you’re proud of, and contributing to the business community are all incredibly motivating.
So how do you actually go about buying an existing business?
1. Consider Your Strengths
If you’re thinking of buying an existing business, it is important to think a little bit about what kind of business you are interested in. To do this, you’ll need to think about what strengths and attributes you would bring to different types of businesses. If you want the greatest chance of success, you’ll want to buy a business that you have a certain level of confidence in running.
Since buying a business is a total lifestyle change, you should also consider the ways in which you would be happy spending your life. After all, being a business owner means it’s your responsibility 24/7, so you’ll want to do something you’re interested in and at least a little passionate about. You don’t need to know everything before you buy a particular business, but do also think about what you would be willing and able to learn to make a certain business successful.
2. Look At Available Businesses
If you’re ready to take the step to buy a business, what you end up doing depends on what is available at a particular moment in time. Start researching all the businesses out there that are for sale, and getting the help of a business broker is a good idea at this stage. Not only will they have listings of businesses that are available to buy, they also have extensive networks and contacts, which may bring up possible opportunities that are not public knowledge yet. Business brokers can help to screen possible businesses, and help with the negotiations for the purchase when you get to that stage.
Sometimes buying a business takes a little time, either because there isn’t anything relevant out there for you at the moment, or because you need to weigh up all the different options while you are hunting around for businesses. Sometimes biding your time is a good idea, so don’t rush into something just because nothing better is out there at the moment. And if you have your heart set on a particular business, but it isn’t for sale, try approaching the current owners. You never know if someone might be willing to sell until you talk to them.
3. Do Your Homework
If you have found a business you are seriously interested in buying, it’s important to take a steady approach towards buying it. Get experts on board to interrogate the financial situation of the business and check if there are any issues with it. Hiring a lawyer and a business consultant can be wise, as they can look at a business from all angles and ensure it would be a good buy for you. Once you are certain the business doesn’t carry any unnecessary risks, you’ll need to secure funding. This could be a business loan, venture capital funds or another trusted source of finance. Remember to consider the sale price plus any investment you will need to make in the business once you acquire it.
The final piece of paperwork is to have a watertight sales agreement drafted. This means including all the details of the sale and what is included. Most people work with a business broker and a lawyer at this stage. Both parties should have had ample opportunities to feed into this agreement as the sale date approaches, so that signing it is straightforward when the date of the sale comes up.
How to Stay Energized at Your Desk
We have all been there. The clock strikes three and you find yourself with a serious case of the mid-afternoon slump. You try to stay focused but it gets harder to keep your mind from drifting and your eyelids from feeling heavy. Here are some tips on how to stay energized and productive throughout the day while being confined to your desk.
Maintain Proper Posture
A sore back is a common modern ailment that nobody should have to suffer. Sitting with good posture at your desk is essential to your quality of life at work. You should keep your back straight and your feet firmly planted on the ground. As comfortable as it is in the moment, try not to slouch; You will regret it later.
Proper posture not only reduces body and joint pains but also opens up your chest cavity to improve oxygen flow. A better flow of oxygen to your brain will enable you to be more alert and creative. Sitting up straight can even improve digestion as your organs are not folded and compressed.
If your office chair does not provide enough support, ask your office manager about changing your chair. There are now many ergonomic chairs that restore the right curves to your back and spine. Chairs for gamers, who spend long hours on the computer, can be particularly effective for posture.
Should you still find yourself unable to sit straight, consider using a stool or an exercise ball instead of a chair. Many people find that they are more likely to sit upright without a backrest. Alternating between sitting and standing desks is another good way to stretch out your back as you work.
Focus on the Eyes
Ensure that your screens are positioned at eye level and a suitable distance away from your face. Having a screen too close can hurt your eyes and having one too far away may cause you to squint and strain. Install blinds or an anti-glare screen on your monitor to prevent hurtful bright reflections.
Maintaining a horizontal line of sight to your screen also means that you will not have to hunch over your desk. Your body stays tense when you work in that position. Dealing with a monitor or keyboard that is too low can lead to persistent neck and shoulder pains as well as wrist injuries.
Our eyes are designed to look at different focal distances. So, it is no wonder that they get tired when you stare at a screen directly in front of you for hours on end. Try the 20-20-20 rule: After 20 minutes of screen time, focus on something at least 20 feet away for a minimum of 20 seconds.
Take Real Breaks
With the crowds outside, it can be tempting to have lunch at your desk. You also get to be more productive, right? Unfortunately not. Research has shown that working continuously for a long time can impede your creativity and efficiency. On the other hand, a short break can help to improve concentration and boost your energy levels.
Our brains love stimulation, so a change of scenery every hour or two is essential to keeping our minds engaged and happy. Leaving your desk periodically to stretch and have a short walk will also reorient your muscles and spine, warding off the negative effects of prolonged sitting.
Taking your full lunch hour away from your desk is a wonderful way to give your body some much-needed attention. Even if you bring your meals from home, spending time outside with fresh air and greenery can alleviate stress and improve your mood. You will be refreshed and ready to tackle any challenges when you return.
Choose to Move
Health experts suggest that we should aim to walk 10,000 steps a day to maintain our overall health. While this may seem like a lot of steps, you may be surprised at how quickly your efforts can add up. Keeping active will not only help you to burn calories, but will also increase the circulation of oxygen to your brain.
You can add little walks to your day by choosing the stairs instead of the elevator or going out to buy a coffee instead of ordering delivery. While some people do this unintentionally, pacing while you are on a phone call is a great way to keep your body moving without going anywhere.
If you really cannot afford to leave your station, do some ‘deskercises’ there. Lift your knees up and down to your chest or stretch your arms up towards the ceiling. Take a minute to meditate on the present. Take deep breathes to relieve stress and energize your mind.
Working at a desk all day can be a challenge. There are certain times of day when it is harder to concentrate. When this happens, remember that it is your body’s way of reminding you to take a break. By looking after your physical and mental health, you can perform better and achieve more at work.
A Quick Guide to Effective SEO
You have a website yet it still seems that customers are not finding you online. Just like in real life, having a good product or service does not automatically mean that you will get customers. Businesses still need to market themselves to make themselves more visible than their competitors.
What is SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimization, is a process by which a brand makes its web presence more attractive to search engines.
This, in turn, allows the brand’s web pages to rank higher in search engine result pages (SERPs). With most search users only viewing the first pages of SERPs and rarely clicking anything below the top three results, a superior SERP rank is essential to capturing search traffic.
Modern search engines such as Google are invested in their user experience. They want to ensure that the pages that they display to their users are relevant, informative, and easy to use. Therefore, a big part of SEO is tailoring your website to fit industry best practices, while the other part of it is persuading search engines of your value.
On-Page SEO
When search engine robots visit your page, they record critical information about it to later determine whether it will be relevant for a search query. On-page SEO refers to the tweaks that you can do to the visible content and HTML code on your website to improve how a search engine evaluates it.
Early attempts at on-page SEO were clunky and unsophisticated. You may still come across these poor examples of SEO today, where a rambling list of keywords is stuffed in the header and footer of a page. This not only makes your brand look unprofessional but also has little effect on the polished algorithms of Google.
Keywords
Keywords remain extremely important in establishing relevance. However, they need to be naturally blended into your page content. Keyword density is a fine balance—go overboard with repeating your keywords and Google may actually mark you down. Where you place your keywords and how you space them out make a significant difference as well.
Meta Tags
As search engine algorithms become more advanced, meta tags are less influential than they used to be. Nonetheless, they are still crucial to SEO. Meta title and description tags condense the content of your page to a simple sentence (or two), helping search engines to establish relevance. Well-written meta tags should not only contain target keywords but also persuade viewers of the SERP to click through to your page.
Heading Tags
Structure is another essential aspect of on-page SEO. Google wants to know that your content is properly formatted and easy to understand. Therefore, the use of heading tags (H1, H2, and so on.) is strongly recommended. Heading tags help your users and search engines to grasp the key structure of your content. Using keywords in your headings—conservatively—can also increase your page rank.
Writing for SEO
You may have noticed by now that a large chunk of on-page SEO revolves around ensuring that users are pointed towards the most relevant and informative pages. Hence, it is safe to say that to improve SEO, you need to fundamentally focus on the value of your website. Is your content helpful, credible, and readable?
In today’s world of search, content is king. SEO writing is the method of creating purposeful content that is designed to rank on the top of SERPs. Through SEO writing, brands can produce quality content that is both interesting to a human audience and appealing to search engine robots. A win-win situation!
To start writing a piece that would attract your target audience, you need to first identify the topics that are important to them. Think about the search intent of your audience and try to give them the answers that they seek. Then, you should spend some time researching keywords that give your content the highest possibility of ranking well.
The direct benefit of publishing more helpful content is that it will attract a larger audience. Readers on your page will share and forward your content, bringing in more organic referrals. As your page is shared, the legitimacy and reputation of your brand will rise, leading to more consumer trust. If you can keep it up, increased conversions will follow.
The less visible, but equally vital, benefit of publishing well-crafted SEO writing is that search engines will view you with more positivity. When you add outbound links to authoritative third-party pages in your articles, you show search engines that you keep credible company. Useful pages are also more likely to receive backlinks from other reputable sources, proving to search engines that your site is a veritable source of information.
Crafting pages for your website to impress both readers and search engines can be challenging. However, its benefits are huge. Increased visibility leads to more traffic, higher conversions, and ultimately an improved bottom line. If you are not ready to take on SEO by yourself, enlist a professional SEO writer. With careful planning, SEO can help transform your website into a digital marketing machine.