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Great marketing always starts with understanding what is actually being marketed. Some numerous techniques and strategies only work best for certain types of promotions. One of the key distinctions that marketing constantly has to make is the one between products and services. The differences between selling an actual product and selling a service of any kind on your business website are vast (see our guide on how to start a service business ). As a result, naturally marketing pros tend to think of them separately and strategize them in completely different ways. There is a lot to gain, however, in applying a product marketing approach to service marketing and vice versa, as long as you do so thoughtfully. Read Also: How to start a business Service as a product? How it works In this post, we specifically explore the benefits of marketing services by considering them as products. Products, unlike services, have the advantage of being physically palpable and visible. They are available right here and now, and do not require the customers to rely solely on promise and belief in the service provider. Obviously, you can’t pretend that your service is equivalent to a tangible product in every way. But you can create a marketing strategy that highlights the tangible value and real-time results, just like those that products can give. Let’s inspect how you do that: Market to the senses Emphasize the gain Redefine "packaging" Empower your clients Bring relationships into the deal 01. Market to the senses Service providers can use marketing that emphasizes the tangible aspects of their services, even if it has no physical dimension. The idea is to apply branding that appeals to your customers’ senses by using visuals and texts that create a feeling of a real experience. How would this be applied to finance consulting, for instance? In some ways, the “product” of this service is power, wealth and prestige, so we want to translate these concepts into images and words that reflect them—photos of respectable offices with well-dressed and confident employees; writing that is eloquent; precise and inspiring; and classic and simple design layouts for ad materials. For a travel and tourism website , this could mean videos of amazing locations and experiences, while for healthcare websites , this could mean photos of up-to-date medicinal technology. 02. Emphasize the gain You want clients to be able to perceive clearly the expected end result that you offer them, even if getting there involves an enduring process. That’s why video editors, for instance, market themselves primarily with examples of previous works, not by highlighting the gear and software that they work with. Clients will be excited about your service if they can imagine how it would benefit them. Use your marketing techniques to get their imagination going. 03. Redefine “packaging” Goods come in packages, which is a huge advantage because packages can be utilized to emphasize branding and improve the customer’s interaction with the product. What about services? Here packaging still exists but has to be more creative. If your service has a brick-and-mortar location that clients actually visit, it should function as a “package” and fully reflect your brand identity, as well as your type of business . If your service interacts with clients primarily online, your business website and your social media presence should also function as a service “package” that you use to appeal to your target market. Design and branding are the keywords here. Make your offline and online spaces striking and attractive to inspire your clients to open the package. 04. Empower your clients There’s a certain sense of control that goes together with purchasing products because the customers are ultimately the individual agents who operate and work with the products they buy. With services, the service providers themselves have so much influence on the end result, and this can cause a distancing feeling for the clients. To avoid this sense of estrangement, make your clients feel more involved in the process by emphasizing their importance to the process and by demoting your own position to that of a mediator (even if it’s only half true). 05. Bring relationships into the deal A vital aspect of every service operation is the relationship between the provider and the client, which rarely evolves with product manufacturers. Use this fact as a strength in your marketing efforts and present the advantages of the relationship as part of a bargain. The guidance and feedback of an expert is one of the most valuable products on the market, and you want to make sure that your clients understand that. Looking for further inspiration on which service business to start? Check out these guides: How to start a virtual assistant business How to start a babysitting business How to start a nail business How to start a plumbing business How to start a party planning business How to start a food prep business How to start a pool cleaning business How to start a painting business How to start a tutoring business

Between pictures, videos, PowerPoint presentations and plain old docs, you need a place to store all that important information. For most individuals and for businesses large and small, a computer rarely offers enough storage. Luckily, there are lots of free web hosting solutions available, where you can keep your files safe and accessible online. Having trouble knowing where to turn? Here are some hints about what to look for when choosing a storage solution and a review of some of the top online storage options. Why you need online storage Storing your data on the web frees up valuable space on your phone, computer and hard drive. You can store enormous amounts of documents, images, videos, music and more, without worrying about running out of megabytes. A good storage solution offers other benefits, too. When your information is stored on web infrastructure, you can easily share it with coworkers or clients. An employee in London can work on a document simultaneously together with a colleague in Chicago. Plus, online storage offers the reassurance that your information is backed up and won’t get lost if something happens to your computer or phone. Accessibility is also a huge bonus of online storage. Headed on a business trip? Use cloud hosting for your data, so you can access it from any computer, phone or tablet with an Internet connection. Learn more: How to host a website, Web hosting costs What to look for in a storage solution There is no one-size-fits-all solution for online storage. Your needs will vary based on factors such as how much data you want to store and how many people will need to access it. When examining the options, consider the cost, the amount of space you receive, how many people you can share it with, how easily the information is synced and how securely your data is stored. Cost Amount of space you receive Number of people who can share Syncing/Sharing Security The Best 6 Online Storage Solutions Dropbox If you already worked out how to make a website on Wix, Dropbox is a great solution for you because Dropbox and Wix work hand in hand. Using the app Get Files to Dropbox, you can change up a photo on your Wix website with any image stored in your Dropbox. (You can even make the change straight from your phone!) Plus, Dropbox offers 2GB of storage for free, the ability to earn free storage if you share the app with a friend, and an affordable premium version for users who need additional space. Dropbox is easy to use and offers an effective way to share large files with colleagues and clients. You can share specific folders and send data to anyone, even if they don’t have Dropbox. Plus, you can seamlessly sync all your files straight to your computer. Dropbox is a good solution for small businesses with several employees who need to access the same documents. Microsoft OneDrive OneDrive offers a somewhat stingy 5GB of free storage, but it’s a great solution if you’re used to working with MS products and only you need to access your files. Or, if you already have MS 365 - you can enjoy unlimited storage for free! Some limitations are that you can’t correct spelling on OneDrive in Excel or PowerPoint and file size is limited to 2 GB. They are also less secure than some of their competitors. Google Drive If you run your own business, Google Drive may well be the only online storage you need, particularly if you have a Wix website. They offer a generous 15GB of storage for free and for a modest fee you can purchase additional space. Through Drive, you can store and organize documents, spreadsheets, images and more and then access them from anywhere in the world. Plus, using the Google Docs app, you can quickly and seamlessly display any doc straight on your website and customize it to match your site. On Google Drive, you can share files with anyone who has Gmail. One great benefit is that several people can simultaneously edit a document and see the changes in real-time. Unlike with Microsoft OneDrive, you don’t need to download or purchase anything in order to use Google Drive. The one downside is that there is a size limit for documents that can be converted to Drive. Mega Being based in New Zealand automatically makes you cool, but that’s not the only reason we love this online storage solution. Mega offers users an impressive 50GB of free storage (with more available at reasonable rates) and makes file or folder sharing super-simple, even with people who don’t have a Mega account. Mega is best known for ensuring your information is accessible from anywhere in the world while still keeping your data super-secure with end-to-end encryption. That means only authorized users (and not anyone at Mega) can see the information stored. Box Box has an easy-to-use interface that can integrate with pretty much any computer or device. It allows for file syncing and sharing,  but unfortunately, you cannot password protect shared files. They offer 10GB of free storage and 100GB additional space for just $10/month, however, the free plan limits file size to a max of 250MB. We recommend Box for small businesses who are able to pay a modest fee for the service. Those users can then take full advantage of Box’s features, while individuals will find that free services from other providers more than meet their needs. Amazon Cloud Drive Hey photographers! If you’re looking for a place to store unlimited images, Amazon Cloud might be the right option for you. If you want a storage place to sync files, automatically back up your info or shared docs with your employees, you will have to look for another solution. Cloud Drive comes along as a freebie with Amazon Prime membership, and even it’s super affordable, but if your business has more than one or two employees, it probably won’t work as a one-stop-shop for your cloud needs.

It’s no secret that good marketing is the backbone of any successful business. Ask any seasoned business owner, and they’ll tell you that you should invest in a well-thought-out marketing plan—from creating a website to building impactful social media campaigns. But with so many marketing strategies out there, how do you know which is right for you and your business needs? One option is outbound marketing, a tried-and-true marketing idea and approach that has many benefits. In this article we’ll explore what outbound marketing is, different strategies styles and when to use this approach in your own business. What is outbound marketing? Outbound marketing is a more traditional type of marketing, in which businesses actively reach out to potential customers as opposed to waiting for customers to approach them. This style of marketing can take on many forms, including TV or radio commercials, billboards, magazine ads, trade shows and cold emails. Outbound marketing is generally aimed at a large, diverse audience that has not heard of or shown interest in your brand before, so they're at the start of their customer journey with you. It can help to spread brand awareness relatively quickly and bolster inbound marketing efforts. Inbound vs outbound marketing Outbound marketing is often considered the opposite of inbound marketing, a form of digital marketing that’s designed to “pull in” specific audiences. Inbound marketing involves creating content that naturally attracts potential customers. This could include well-targeted blogs, newsletters, podcasts, online events and more. While inbound marketing helps to establish trust over time, outbound marketing aims to deliver immediate results. The interplay between inbound and outbound marketing plays a crucial role in generating buzz for any business and converting first-time buyers into loyal followers. Eventually, every outbound marketing campaign should generate a pool of potential customers, who you can target with more cost-effective inbound and content marketing campaigns in the future. Pros and cons of outbound marketing Although it may seem like outbound marketing no longer has a place in today’s economy—that couldn’t be further from the truth. There are still major benefits to using this marketing strategy, and it can still help you reach huge audiences, very fast. In a nutshell, outbound marketing has several benefits and challenges worth considering. Benefits of outbound marketing Fast results: You can get your brand in front of thousands—if not millions—of people immediately through social media ads, TV commercials and more (and all the places where mobile marketing really comes into its own). Scalability: Outbound marketing campaigns can be scaled up or down depending on your budget and/or needs. Targeting: Most ad platforms will allow you to define who sees your content, based on their demographics, interests, locations and/or recent activity. Testing: Given how easy it is to set up, target and adjust most outbound marketing efforts (at least online), you can more easily test new messaging and offers. Cons of outbound marketing Cost: Outbound marketing can get expensive, especially if you’re using more traditional methods like TV advertising or direct mail. Invasiveness: Ads and other outbound marketing approaches can appear pushy and spammy to some consumers. Cold traffic: Some people may have never heard of your brand prior to you reaching out—as a result you may experience low response rates. Difficulty measuring ROI: While some forms of outbound marketing may be easy to track, others (like billboards or radio ads) may be difficult to track. Types and examples of outbound marketing As we discussed, the goal of outbound marketing is to reach large new crowds. These campaigns aren’t designed to “close the deal” with customers who are already familiar with your brand. Rather, these marketing campaigns are designed to generate interest in your brand among new audiences. There are various types of outbound marketing and each example has its own value and potential gains. 01. Online advertising Cost-effective and convenient, online advertising is a great internet marketing strategy for reaching audiences on a large scale. By using this type of copywriting marketing strategy, small businesses can use online ads to engage with potential customers using a variety of mediums, including social media platforms, landing pages, search engines, native advertising and display ads. The special benefit of online advertising today is the convenience of targeting your content. Most tools and platforms can guide your advertising strategy, allowing you to track your ad’s performance and use insights to more effectively engage with your desired audience. Learn more: Small business marketing, Best landing page builders 02. Cold calls Cold calls are a semi-targeted form of outbound marketing, in which you contact potential customers who haven’t interacted with your business in the past. These are unsolicited calls, but you should try to only call people who may find real interest in what you’re offering. There’s an obvious downside to outbound sales calls. People may find them obnoxious, and sales representatives often dislike them as well. But that doesn’t mean you should toss aside outbound calls altogether—there are still benefits to this method. The point of cold calls isn’t to make an immediate sale. Rather, it’s a chance for your brand to get a foot in the door and create initial contact with a potential future customer. It might be surprising, but this form of outbound marketing is actually pretty effective: 82% of buyers said they’ve accepted meetings with salespeople after a series of contacts that started from a cold call. 03. Cold emails There are a few subtle differences between cold calling and sending out cold emails. While cold calls can be received badly by the other side, emails get much less of a negative reaction. In most cases, people just ignore them or move them to their junk folder if they don’t want to engage. Email marketing has the added benefit of not being tied down to a specific time, because unlike a phone call, people can read them whenever it’s comfortable for them. You can also schedule them to be sent at a certain time for convenience. If you’re going to send cold emails, make sure to keep your emails short and sweet. Offer something of value (like a discount code) and try to personalize your message. 04. Printed ads Many people consider magazines and newspapers to be a dying art, but that’s simply not true. As recently as 2021, there were nearly 223 million magazine readers alone in the U.S. Magazines are extremely varied, making them a great way to reach niche audiences. Newspapers can similarly be an attractive outbound marketing outlet to advertisers. National newspapers can get hundreds of thousands, or even millions or eyes on your brand. On the other hand, you can advertise in local newspapers to enable local marketing. 05. Billboards If you want to boost brand awareness and business in a particular location, a catchy billboard is a classic way to do it. A giant billboard on a busy highway can be expensive and may not be feasible if you have a tighter budget—but overall billboards enjoy a captive audience, and can expose your ad to thousands of people every day. The challenge with billboard advertisements is catching the attention of those passing by. You can reach a lot of people, but if your ad isn’t eye-catching with clear and attractive messaging, it may easily go ignored. 06. TV and radio commercials Commercials may seem outdated, but the potential reach of a nationwide TV commercial is massive. In the same vein, radio commercials can offer lots of reach, even on local radio stations. Commercials give your brand the opportunity to repeat your message to audiences over different channels for a specific period of time. The benefit of this is allowing potential customers to familiarize themselves with your product or service using creative advertising. TV commercials in particular are an opportunity to showcase your business using outstanding visuals, catchy tunes and strong messaging. 07. Trade shows The fact that trade shows serve to bring together a lot of people with a common interest makes them a gold mine for event marketing. Attending and participating in trade shows can land you new customers on the spot. At the very least, it instantly exposes your brand to a lot of people in your field, including industry leaders as well as local networks. While trade shows are great for creating relationships with potential customers, they tend to be more B2B-oriented, so they may not apply to every brand. 08. Guerilla marketing Guerilla marketing is a creative wildcard that’s all about the wow-factor. A guerilla marketing campaign can literally be anything, as long as it’s surprising, buzz-worthy and generates curiosity around your brand. Some awesome examples of guerilla marketing include this bus being strangled by a snake, a simple KitKat bench and Nintendo’s sticky note composition. As opposed to other outbound marketing methods, guerilla marketing isn’t necessarily expensive—in fact, if you can manage to leverage your creativity, it can even be free. When to use outbound marketing While many businesses these days prefer to invest in inbound marketing and focus solely on the cost per conversion, there’s still a time and place for outbound marketing. So when is outbound marketing a good idea? Here are some instances when it can benefit your brand. When your time is limited, but your budget isn’t As noted earlier, outbound marketing is generally more expensive than inbound marketing, but it can produce fast results. Compared to outbound marketing, inbound marketing involves things like building a bank of content or growing a social media following—all of which are very time-consuming. Instead, you can reach thousands of people within a matter of hours using some of the outbound marketing methods mentioned above. If money isn’t a limiting factor, incorporating some of these tactics can engage a constant flow of new customers. To collect data for future inbound marketing campaigns Inbound marketing relies on data about your target audience. The more information you have, the better the results. But in order to generate this data, you need a place to start. Outbound marketing campaigns can drive a lot of traffic to your website and to your social media channels, so you can start collecting information about who they are, what they like and more. All of this information can then be used to create more efficient inbound campaigns or to better target your existing campaigns. When marketing common or “seductive” products Some products just scream outbound marketing. Common items—like clothing—are universal, so going with a broader marketing campaign can still reach a good percentage of your target audience. Outbound marketing strategies work well for another type of product—the “seductive” type. These tempting products are desired by audiences almost immediately after seeing them, mostly referring to consumable products like food or drinks (notice how the fast food industry never gave up on billboards and TV commercials). If your business is expanding to new locations Expanding to new markets is never easy. It takes a lot of money and energy, and it’s necessary to make your stamp as fast as possible. One of the quickest ways to reach a lot of people in a specific location is through outbound marketing. Billboards and local paper ads ensure that the local population will be exposed and aware of your business’ arrival. For brand building and recognition Out of sight, out of mind—but if you constantly push your brand in front of people, there’s a better chance that they’ll remember you. This concept is especially important for companies that rely on returning business, like Coca-Cola, which continuously has multiple outbound marketing campaigns running. Billboards and commercials can do more than advertise a product. They can connect with audiences on an emotional level, too. A giant billboard or commercial that makes people laugh can make your brand seem personable, desirable and memorable. For certain businesses, these moments can be a game changer. Discover more types of marketing: Affiliate marketing, Referral marketing, Brand marketing

Once you create a website, the next step is to measure your online success. There’s more than one way to assess your performance, and how well your site is being promoted, from looking at the number of site visitors to analyzing the average amount of time they spend on your site. One of the most important KPIs, however, is your conversion rate. This article will teach you how to calculate your conversion rate and how to use this metric to find new ways of making sales and capturing leads. First, we’ll dive into what it means to have a good conversion rate and how your business compares to others in your industry. Then, we’ll go over some conversion rate optimization tips that will help you improve your marketing strategy and grow your business. What is website conversion rate? Your website conversion rate refers to the percentage of visitors who take an action on your site that moves them down the sales funnel. This can be any action that converts them to either leads or customers. The action you choose to define as a conversion is really up to you. Depending on your business’s goals, a conversion may constitute making a purchase, downloading an e-book, downloading a mobile app, signing up for a demo or free trial, or subscribing to an online course. Whichever option you choose, let’s call the action that leads to conversion the “primary action.” How to calculate website conversion rate The first step in calculating conversion rate is defining what a conversion is for your website. You might choose to look at a handful of primary actions, or you can choose just one. Once you’ve defined which actions constitute a conversion, count the number of those actions over a particular period of time (e.g., one month), and plug them into this formula: (#) conversions / (#) website visitors = conversion rate Conversion rate examples Let’s walk through some fictional examples of website conversion rate calculations to help you better understand what this formula means: Example 1: Concert tickets Let’s say you’re a musician, and you decide to use your website to sell tickets for your upcoming concert. After promoting the concert online and sharing a link to your site, you decide to analyze how many of your site visitors have actually purchased tickets. In this case, you’re defining a conversion as a single primary action: purchasing a ticket through your site. To calculate your conversion rate, you take a look at the numbers. During the month of March, your site had 1,176 visitors, and 56 of them purchased tickets to your show. By plugging these results into the formula, you can calculate the conversion rate for this particular action: (#) conversions / (#) website visitors = conversion rate 56 / 1,176 = 0.048, or 4.8% Based on this calculation, you learn that 4.8% of website visitors successfully converted. Example 2: Fitness tutorials In another scenario, imagine you’re a fitness instructor. You’re looking into small business marketing ideas and are trying to think of creative ways to attract customers and highlight your expertise in the field. As a result, you create online workout tutorials and instructional e-books that will be available for download on your site. You’ll offer both of these for free; the only thing you ask for in exchange is your visitors’ email addresses so you can capture these new leads. In this case, you decide that a conversion will be defined by the number of signups for your e-book or video tutorial. You see that in July, you had 635 site visitors and 21 signups. Using the same formula, you plug in the number of sign ups to discover your conversion rate: (#) conversions / (#) website visitors = conversion rate 21 / 635 = 0.033, or 3.3% Based on this calculation, you learn that 3.3% of website visitors successfully converted. What is a good conversion rate? These examples bring us to the next question: What, exactly, is a good conversion rate for your website? How can you tell whether your site’s conversion rate is satisfactory or whether it’s underperforming? Studies have explored conversion rates across various industries and marketing strategies, but there’s no one-size-fits all answer. Conversion goals can differ significantly based on various factors – geographic location, your target audience and their habits, the nature of the primary action and more. Still, looking at average conversion rates can give us a general picture of what’s considered high or low. Across multiple industries – including tech, automotive, financial, healthcare, legal and more – the typical conversion rate ranges from about 2% to 5%, with 3.9% being the average. For eCommerce businesses, the average conversion rate is a little lower, ranging from 1.84% to 3.71%. Conversion rates by industry: eCommerce, B2B and more Conversation rates are closely associated with eCommerce businesses, since these are the types of businesses that aim to make sales directly through their site. Studies show the following average conversion rates for different eCommerce industries: Sports and recreation: 1.75% Arts and crafts: 3.79% Baby and child: 3.99% Cars and motorcycling: 1.55% Electrical and commercial equipment: 2.23% Fashion clothes and accessories: 2.44% Food and drink: 2.37% Health and well-being: 3.62% Home accessories and giftware: 2.16% Kitchen and home appliances 2.48% Pet care: 3.28% These numbers are useful benchmarks for measuring your own website’s performance, but keep in mind that they’re quite general. First of all, conversion rates differ based on how a business defines a conversion, as mentioned above. Conversion rates for signing up for a free trial, for instance, will be much higher than conversion rates for making a purchase. Likewise, B2B conversion rates will differ slightly from B2C, with average B2B conversions ranging from 2.23% - 4.31%. Understanding conversion rate Comparing conversion rates for different industries, business models and goals is like comparing apples and oranges. Ultimately, you set your own goals for your website’s conversion rates, relying on your broader business plan, industry research and your experience in the field. Choose a conversion goal that is not entirely beyond reason, but one that is ambitious and challenging. Think of it both as a metric to evaluate your website’s success, as well as a motivation to set new goals. In addition, don’t get too caught up in your site’s conversion rate if the number of visitors to your website is low to begin with. If you only have four visitors a month, for instance, your conversion rate will most likely be zero, since there’s a low chance that one of just four people would convert. But if you get lucky and one person does convert, your conversion rate suddenly jumps to ¼, or 25%. This low sample size skews the numbers and isn’t an accurate representation of your website’s success. In cases like these, your main focus should be on promoting your website and getting more website traffic. Then, you can focus on conversions. Figuring out your website’s stats By now, you know what to look for when it comes to your website’s conversion rate. But how do you find these performance stats? Google Analytics is probably the most widely-used stats tracking tool, and there’s a good reason for that. It provides site owners and online marketers with extensive data that is invaluable for their work. When it comes to calculating your conversion rate, Google Analytics gives you real-time metrics on the number of site visits, and even allows you to enter your conversion rate goals to evaluate your performance more accurately. This important tool can easily be connected to your Wix website. Other recommended tools for measuring and analyzing stats are available to you directly through Wix. Wix Analytics, for example, displays statistics about your website visitors’ behavior, helping you understand where they spend the most time on your site, how first-time visitors behave compared to returning visitors, and more. All of this data can ultimately be used to understand your conversion rate and to better optimize your website. Conversion rate optimization tips Now that we’ve established what a good conversion rate is and how to find your website’s stats, we can move to the most important part – what can you do to improve your website’s conversion rate? The goal here is to get more and more website visitors to take the primary action that your website is promoting. We’ve created a list of ways to achieve this: 01. Create powerful landing pages One of the most tried and tested ways to improve your website’s conversion rate is to create a landing page. A landing page is a standalone web page that is specifically designed to convert visitors. It concentrates on a single offer, such as a particular product, free trial or e-book, and uses clear, concise copy that persuades visitors to click and take action. Because landing pages are the number one tool for driving conversions, they’re a crucial asset for every business. You can get started with this landing page builder or by using these free landing page templates. 02. Use high-converting forms If your immediate goal is lead generation, you absolutely must include online forms on your website. You can use these forms to get people to sign up for a free trial, subscribe to your mailing list, register for a service and more. Once visitors sign up, you’ll use their name and email address to market your product to them and drive them down the marketing funnel. To create an online form for your website, use this form builder. You can also check out these form templates, which are created by professional designers and easily customized to fit your business. 03. Prioritize UX UX, short for “user experience,” is an umbrella term referring to the level of satisfaction and ease of use that visitors experience when interacting with your site. Having strong UX is crucial for getting users to browse your site and convert. To maximize conversions, take the following steps: Make your site text clearly readable Reduce the number of clicks required to take certain actions Make website navigation straightforward and intuitive Ensure that the design and format of your site guides people naturally toward the next step, rather than interfering with their browsing By providing a smooth UX, you are actively strengthening your relationship with site visitors, making it pleasant for them to navigate your site while also guiding them toward places where you want them to convert. 04. Make it easy to complete the primary action Your goal in improving your site’s conversion rate is to increase the number of times visitors perform the primary action on your site, whether it’s a sale, download or signup. To make that happen, it’s not enough to just offer the option. You also need to make sure that every step toward completing the primary action is clear, simple and without obstacles. Here are some common mistakes that you should look out for: Vague phrasing on links and buttons. Abstract language or industry jargon can make it unclear what products, services or other assets you’re offering. An excess of information on your web pages. An overwhelming amount of text can bury crucial information and reduce the power of high-converting elements, such as CTAs. Inability to directly access the primary action. Instead, your visitors should be able to easily convert from every page on the site. Jumbled, inconsistent content. This confuses and overwhelms visitors instead of guiding them. Avoid these issues, and you’ll also avoid hindering visitors from completing your desired action. 05. Write strong CTAs Calls-to-action (CTAs) play an essential role in determining the conversion rate. This short but powerful text calls on your site visitors to take the primary action that your website is focused on. Typically, CTAs are 1-3 word phrases like “Read More,” “Buy Now,” “Join Us Live,” “Subscribe” and so forth. When a CTA is compelling, it generates more primary actions – upping your conversion rate as a result. If your conversion rate is lagging, it’s worthwhile taking a hard look at your CTAs and experimenting with changing their phrasing, placement or color to make them stand out. 06. Optimize your mobile site All the hard work that you’re putting into improving your conversion rate is not worth too much if you are only taking into account desktop or laptop visitors. Since mobile web usage is now surpassing usage on larger devices, you must provide your audience with a great user experience on smartphones and tablets in order to reach a significant chunk of your target market. Using Wix’s mobile editor, you can make sure that your website is optimized for mobile browsing. With this tool you’ll be able to customize how your site looks on mobile so that you can adapt your design to the smaller screen. This guarantees a smooth browsing experience for all visitors and ensures that high-converting elements, like CTAs and forms, are easily visible on your mobile site. 07. Engage visitors over live chat Put yourself your visitors’ shoes. Are you giving them every reason to trust your business? Are you approachable to them if they have a question or concern? When you open the new lines of communication, invite your audience to connect with you and actively engage with them, you’re showing them the human behind the brand. For that reason, engaging with your target audience should be a primary part of any marketing plan. Add live chat to your site and respond to their needs right away, and you’ll get them to trust you and develop an affinity for your brand. This, in turn, makes them more likely to convert. 08. Add testimonials to your website Even after people convert, do your best to ensure their continued satisfaction. Not only will this inspire them to buy from you again, but it will also encourage them to spread the word and advocate for your brand Follow up with supplementary offers, like exclusive content or VIP discounts, and kindly ask them to review your business. Honest recommendations from real customers are immensely effective when it comes to convincing others to convert. After you’ve turned past visitors and customers into endorsers for your brand, you can display their support directly on your website. One way to do this is to use a testimonial builder to collect testimonials for your site and import reviews from Google, Facebook and Yelp.

What’s the difference between a small business that achieves breakthrough growth and one that fizzles quickly after launch? Oftentimes, it’s having a solid business plan. Business plans provide you with a roadmap that will take you from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur. It will guide nearly every decision you make, from the people you hire and the products or services you offer, to the look and feel of the business website you create. But did you know that there are many different types of business plans? Some types are best for new businesses looking to attract funding. Others help to define the way your company will operate day-to-day. You can even create a plan that prepares your business for the unexpected. Read on to learn the seven most common types of business plans and determine which one fits your immediate needs. What is a business plan? A business plan is a written document that defines your company’s goals and explains how you will achieve them. Putting this information down on paper brings valuable benefits. It gives you insight into your competitors, helps you develop a unique value proposition and lets you set metrics that will guide you to profitability. It’s also a necessity to obtain funding through banks or investors. Keep in mind that a business plan isn’t a one-and-done exercise. It’s a living document that you should update regularly as your company evolves. But which type of plan is right for your business? 7 common types of business plans Startup business plan Feasibility business plan One-page business plan What-if business plan Growth business plan Operations business plan Strategic business plan 01. Startup business plan The startup business plan is a comprehensive document that will set the foundation for your company’s success. It covers all aspects of a business, including a situation analysis, detailed financial information and a strategic marketing plan. Startup plans serve two purposes: internally, they provide a step-by-step guide that you and your team can use to start a business and generate results on day one. Externally, they prove the validity of your business concept to banks and investors, whose capital you’ll likely need to make your entrepreneurial dreams a reality. Elements of a startup business plan should include the following steps: Executive summary: Write a brief synopsis of your company’s concept, potential audience, product or services, and the amount of funding required. Company overview: Go into detail about your company’s location and its business goals. Be sure to include your company’s mission statement, which explains the “why” behind your business idea. Products or services: Explain exactly what your business will offer to its customers. Include detailed descriptions and pricing. Situation analysis: Use market research to explain the competitive landscape, key demographics and the current status of your industry. Marketing plan: Discuss the strategies you’ll use to build awareness for your business and attract new customers or clients. Management bios: Introduce the people who will lead your company. Include bios that detail their industry-specific background. Financial projections: Be transparent about startup costs, cash flow projections and profit expectations. Don’t be afraid to go into too much detail—a startup business plan can often run multiple pages long. Investors will expect and appreciate your thoroughness. However, if you have a hot new product idea and need to move fast, you can consider a lean business plan. It’s a popular type of business plan in the tech industry that focuses on creating a minimum viable product first, then scaling the business from there. 02. Feasibility business plan Let’s say you started a boat rental company five years ago. You’ve steadily grown your business. Now, you want to explore expanding your inventory by renting out jet skis, kayaks and other water sports equipment. Will it be profitable? A feasibility business plan will let you know. Often called a decision-making plan, a feasibility business plan will help you understand the viability of offering a new product or launching into a new market. These business plans are typically internal and focus on answering two questions: Does the market exist, and will you make a profit from it? You might use a feasibility plan externally, too, if you need funding to support your new product or service. Because you don’t need to include high-level, strategic information about your company, your feasibility business plan will be much shorter and more focused than a startup business plan. Feasibility plans typically include: A description of the new product or service you wish to launch A market analysis using third-party data The target market, or your ideal customer profile Any additional technology or personnel needs required Required capital or funding sources Predicted return on investment Standards to objectively measure feasibility A conclusion that includes recommendations on whether or not to move forward 03. One-page business plan Imagine you’re a software developer looking to launch a tech startup around an app that you created from scratch. You’ve already written a detailed business plan, but you’re not sure if your strategy is 100% right. How can you get feedback from potential partners, customers or friends without making them slog through all 32 pages of the complete plan? That’s where a one-page business plan comes in handy. It compresses your full business plan into a brief summary. Think of it as a cross between a business plan and an elevator pitch—an ideal format if you’re still fine-tuning your business plan. It’s also a great way to test whether investors will embrace your company, its mission or its goals. Ideally, a one-page business plan should give someone a snapshot of your company in just a few minutes. But while brevity is important, your plan should still hit all the high points from your startup business plan. To accomplish this, structure a one-page plan similar to an outline. Consider including: A short situation analysis that shows the need for your product or service Your unique value proposition Your mission statement and vision statement Your target market Your management team The funding you’ll need Financial projections Expected results Because a one-page plan is primarily used to gather feedback, make sure the format you choose is easy to update. That way, you can keep it fresh for new audiences. 04. What-if business plan Pretend that you’re an accountant who started their own financial consulting business. You’re rapidly signing clients and growing your business when, 18 months into your new venture, you’re given the opportunity to buy another established firm in a nearby town. Is it a risk worth taking? The what-if business plan will help you find an answer. It’s perfect for entrepreneurs who are looking to take big risks, such as acquiring or merging with another company, testing a new pricing model or adding an influx of new staff. A what-if plan is additionally a great way to test out a worst-case scenario. For example, if you’re in the restaurant business, you can create a plan that explores the potential business repercussions of a public health emergency (like the COVID-19 pandemic), and then develop strategies to mitigate its effects. You can share your what-if plan internally to prepare your leadership team and staff. You can also share it externally with bankers and partners so that they know your business is built to withstand any hard times. Include in your plan: A detailed description of the business risk or other scenario The impact it will have on your business Specific actions you’ll take in a worst-case scenario Risk management strategies you’ll employ Financial projections 05. Growth business plan Let’s say you’re operating a hair salon (see how to create a hair salon business plan). You see an opportunity to expand your business and make it a full-fledged beauty bar by adding skin care, massage and other sought-after services. By creating a growth business plan, you’ll have a blueprint that will take you from your current state to your future state. Sometimes called an expansion plan, a growth business plan is something like a crystal ball. It will help you see one to two years into the future. Creating a growth plan lets you see how far—and how fast—you can scale your business. It lets you know what you’ll need to get there, whether it’s funding, materials, people or property. The audience for your growth plan will depend on your expected sources of capital. If you’re funding your expansion from within, then the audience is internal. If you need to attract the attention of outside investors, then the audience is external. Much like a startup plan, your growth business plan should be rather comprehensive, especially if the people reviewing it aren’t familiar with your company. Include items specific to your potential new venture, including: A brief assessment of your business’s current state Information about your management team A thorough analysis of the growth opportunity you’re seeking The target audience for your new venture The current competitive landscape Resources you’ll need to achieve growth Detailed financial forecasts A funding request Specific action steps your company will take A timeline for completing those action steps Another helpful thing to include in a growth business plan is a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. A SWOT analysis will help you evaluate your performance, and that of your competitors. Including this type of in-depth review will show your investors that you’re making an objective, data-driven decision to expand your business, helping to build confidence and trust. 06. Operations business plan You’ve always had a knack for accessories and have chosen to start your own online jewelry store. Even better, you already have your eCommerce business plan written. Now, it’s time to create a plan for how your company will implement its business model on a day-to-day basis. An operations business plan will help you do just that. This internal-focused document will explain how your leadership team and your employees will propel your company forward. It should include specific responsibilities for each department, such as human resources, finance and marketing. When you sit down to write an operations plan, you should use your company’s overall goals as your guide. Then, consider how each area of your business will contribute to those goals. Be sure to include: A high-level overview of your business and its goals A clear layout of key employees, departments and reporting lines Processes you’ll use (i.e., how you’ll source products and fulfill orders) Facilities and equipment you’ll need to conduct business effectively Departmental budgets required Risk management strategies that will ensure business continuity Compliance and legal considerations Clear metrics for each department to achieve Timelines to help you reach those metrics A measurement process to keep your teams on track 07. Strategic business plan Say you open a coffee shop, but you know that one store is just the start. Eventually, you want to open multiple locations throughout your region. A strategic business plan will serve as your guide, helping define your company’s direction and decision-making over the next three to five years. You should use a strategic business plan to align all of your internal stakeholders and employees around your company’s mission, vision and future goals. Your strategic plan should be high-level enough to create a clear vision of future success, yet also detailed enough to ensure you reach your eventual destination. Be sure to include: An executive summary A company overview Your mission and vision statements Market research A SWOT analysis Specific, measurable goals you wish to achieve Strategies to meet those goals Financial projections based on those goals Timelines for goal attainment

I started working full-time when I was 19, first as a marketing associate and then as a product manager when I transferred departments. Getting to work on a product I believed in with a fun and talented team was very fulfilling, and I enjoyed my time there a lot, but I found myself completely drained every day when I got home. There were a lot of things that made working full-time difficult for me. My sleeping disorder impeded my ability to get up on time every day, and I would often have to stay a little later to make up for sleeping in. I also had no time for creative projects and found it difficult to focus on work for hours and hours at a time. I started fantasizing about what it would be like to work from home and sleep in, take breaks to watch TV, and do things on my own time. Despite my self-employment ambitions, I took another full-time position when I moved to New York, so that I could pay rent. I would think and talk a lot about becoming a freelancer, but I was terrified that I wouldn’t find any work if I left my job to freelance. Getting laid off was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Suddenly, I had no job to fall back on and no safety net. I had never freelanced before, but I promised myself I’d never work full-time again. Over that next year, I worked hard at finding new clients, branding myself, and finding a balance of life and work that made sense for me. Here’s what I learned. How to become a freelance UX designer 1. Build up your portfolio 2. Invest in LinkedIn 3. Make a website 4. Contracts, contracts, contracts 5. Invoicing 6. Bring your personality 01. Build up your portfolio This is the first thing that a prospective client will look at. If your portfolio is lackluster, they likely won’t bother looking at your CV or your work history. If you’re not happy with your portfolio, take the time to make new things to add to it or create a new portfolio. 02. Invest in LinkedIn A lot of people looking to hire on freelance sites will want to see your LinkedIn profile to get a better sense of who you are and the environments you’ve worked in. Flesh out your previous roles and make sure you’re highlighting the accomplishments you’re most proud of. Ask your former (or current) coworkers to endorse you and write a review. They go a long way. 03. Make a website You should have a professional website featuring your work. Make sure to add a “Hire” or “Contact” option to prompt or persuade leads into taking action. This will generate more traffic for your business and give you a calling card you can use for interested clients or people you meet by chance outside work hours (this has happened to me multiple times). Learn more about how to make a website or create a freelance website. 04. Contracts, contracts, contracts Before you start a job, always make sure you have a contract in place to protect yourself in the hopefully unlikely event of any disputes. If you’re working through a freelancing site, they will have those in place for you. Sometimes clients have contracts as well, which you should read as thoroughly as possible. If you need a contract, Jyssica Schwartz was kind enough to create a great template you can use. 05. Invoicing Again, freelancing sites and clients sometimes take care of this, but you should look into your options and your local laws regarding payment and protections for freelancers. Generate invoices with Wix. 06. Bring your personality One of the most important qualities in a freelancer is personality. Your attitude, insight, kindness, and optimism will go further than you think in your relationships with clients. Being good at your job will get you gigs. Being a pleasure to work with will help you keep them. The combination of both hard and soft skills will take you far when it comes to starting a business. UX freelance designer tips Getting work is hard, but not impossible Before officially becoming a freelancer, I had eyed freelance job postings occasionally. I noticed that in the full-time job market, companies tend to look for UX designers, whereas in the freelancing world, clients were mostly looking for one person to work on both UI and UX. Having worked with UI designers in what was essentially an unofficial art director position for six years, I had already started dabbling in UI, but, when I decided to become a freelancer, I bit the bullet and invested in a graphic design course. While looking for work, I also continued practicing my UI design skills by doing the DailyUI Challenge and getting involved with the design community on Dribbble. Since I wouldn’t be able to share specs I wrote for my previous jobs, I made up an app for which I wrote a job application-friendly dummy specification document detailing its functionality. I checked a few different freelancing sites, but the clear choice for me was Upwork. They tend to list longer term jobs and have higher quality clients, unlike other sites that focus more on one-off projects and attract lower paying clients due to their branding and business model. The great thing about freelancing sites is that they list your profile and help clients find you for free, but the trade-off is that they will take a cut of your income for using their platform. While their fee may be a turn off, it’s worth noting that they provide other services that can make it worthwhile; while freelancing on your own can lead to contentious disagreements with clients, Upwork has hour tracking and mediation in place. Upwork also uses an automatic billing system that makes sure you get paid on time and verifies prospective clients’ ability to pay you. The catch-22 I found myself in when getting started on Upwork was that it was extremely difficult to get work because I didn’t have any logged hours or reviews on my profile, but I couldn’t get reviews or log hours without getting work. After a few weeks of applying to jobs with no traction, I decided that I would need to become much more competitive to get my first job, which would mean temporarily lowering my freelance design rate. I started sorting posts by number of proposals, so that I’d only focus on projects with fewer submissions that other designers with more work experience weren’t applying to. I had been on the hiring end of Upwork for previous jobs, so I knew what it looked like to receive submissions and what stood out to me. A lot of freelancers don’t invest in a cover letter (no one likes writing them, but they do make a difference), so I knew that, by putting some effort into mine, I’d stand out. I always used optimistic language, even going so far as to sign off every letter with “Looking forward to working with you!” While somewhat presumptuous, it made me seem excited and ready to get started. I would also try to pick out parts of the job that I have experience with and explain my expertise and why I’d be a good fit. After a lot of submissions and cover letters, I finally managed to secure my first gig at my lower rate. I made sure to work fast and communicate often and clearly–two important things to do while freelancing. After having a completed gig and a positive rating under my belt, I was able to raise my price to the hourly rate I wanted. While jobs were still hard to get, my win rate started increasing, and, after a few months, I was able to find my first long-term client. As a freelancer, nothing is guaranteed. Hang on to your long-term clients and work hard, but, remember, you’re not an employee, and they can stop working with you at any time with no notice. Work isn’t reliable I learned the hard way that nothing is guaranteed as a freelancer. After close to half a year of working with my first ongoing client, they had to stop working with me due to budget constraints. (I’ve since started working with them again–always stay on good terms with clients!) I was dealt a major blow because I wasn’t prepared for this significant change in income from what I’d assumed was going to be an ongoing client for the foreseeable future. This was my first hard-learned lesson as a freelancer. Nothing is guaranteed. Hang on to your long-term clients and work hard, but, remember, you’re not an employee, and they can stop working with you at any time with no notice. It took a few more months of scrambling and digging into my savings before I found another long-term client. Here’s freelancing lesson number two. Be ready financially. I’m incredibly privileged not to have any debt and to have saved up from working full-time for six years. If I wasn’t in this position, the months with little income would have been devastating. If you want to freelance, it’s absolutely critical that you have money saved up in order to weather the ebbs and flows of incoming work. Searching for gigs when you’re not making money is hard because you’re at the mercy of whatever that comes along. I’m certainly not going to tell you to turn down work if you need it, but if you want to find a long-term gig, make sure you’re in a position to accept it when the opportunity presents itself. There was more than one occasion where I was bouncing between several small gigs and was unable to take a job that would require more of my time. I always make sure to see projects through and to ensure my clients are happy with my work, even when it may be more advantageous to jump ship in favor of another project. For the third freelancing lesson, remember that your reputation is everything. Especially when using a freelancing site, new clients are looking at your reviews and your portfolio more than your resume. Most of the work I’ve gotten since that first gig has been because of positive reviews–Upwork even has a “Top Rated” status for users with 100% job success that boosts your profile visibility. Investing in your clients should be a no-brainer, but it pays off, too. Another thing to keep in mind is that you can be paid hourly or on a project basis. From my experience, working on a per-project basis is often not worth doing unless it’s meticulously defined, as misunderstandings are common, and you might end up doing more work than you had planned. This results in scope creep. Sticking to working on an hourly basis ensures you’ll get paid the amount you expect for the time you put in and will spare you from misaligned expectations. Work-life balance Working from home can be difficult. It requires a lot of self-discipline to constantly search for new work and accomplish tasks when you don’t have a supervisor looking over your shoulder. Figuring out what works for you–how many hours you want to work, when you work, and when you don’t–can be a bit of a trial-and-error process. Picking up a lot of projects can mean you work more hours than you’d like, and having deadlines you need to meet can make you pick up work at strange hours of the day (or night). Every freelancer has different wants and needs, but I found that it was important to create boundaries for work hours. I go through the different tasks I need to complete, and, when I finish, I log off for the day. If I get an email from a client once my “work time” is over, I set it aside and look at it the next day. When you set your hours, it’s crucial to have a hard stop so you can relax. Otherwise, you’re always working. I also have different users in Chrome for my personal browsing and my work, so I don’t have to see work-related content when I’m not working. Sometimes having several projects going at the same time with strict deadlines or client expectations can be daunting, and sometimes it’s tempting to work non-stop to get them done. But remember that there are only so many hours a day you can actually be productive. Working too long will affect the quality of your work. Use white boards, sticky notes, task management software–whatever you have at your disposal–and map out everything you need to do, so you have it written down. Work backwards from your deadlines and figure out where you need to work on what project in order to meet them. Sometimes, we have a lot of balls up in the air, and just writing it all out can help organize it in our minds. Once you see the hours you need to put into each project, you can budget your time, so you don’t overwork yourself. If necessary, pencil in your relaxation time, as well. That being said, I do glance at work emails and texts after hours just to make sure there’s nothing urgent that needs to be addressed because it’s still important to tend to client needs. If it can wait, I’ll put my phone back down. If it can’t, I can subtract the time I put in from my next work day (if possible) and have a longer break. Working from home can also be lonely and a little claustrophobic. When you don’t have to go to an office, your exposure to friends–or just people, in general–is very limited. I’m lucky to have a roommate that also works from home, so the apartment is never empty, which is helpful. When it’s safe to do so again, creating a space for other friends who work from home can make you much more productive. Also, getting out of the house and working from a cafe or a park can be a welcome change of scenery when you’re feeling cooped up.

The process of starting your own business is made up of several steps, such as using a website builder, promoting your products or services, and obtaining funding. Before you dive into any of these pieces though, the initial thing you’ll need to do is draw out an organized overview of your business plan, otherwise known as an executive summary. In this article, we’ll explain what this concept means, and then walk you through the most important steps on how to write an executive summary to set your business off on the right foot. What is an executive summary? An executive summary is a high level overview of your business. It contains many components in brevity, such as your business model, market and competitors, financial projections, and a final request at the end. It’s the first and strongest component of all types of business plans, but it also serves as a highly functional standalone document. Not only does it need to persuade readers to go through the rest of your business plan, but it should also be used as a means for raising money, creating partnerships, launching a new product/service, and for other specific requests and recommendations. If you’re planning on writing a complete business plan at this stage or business proposal, it’s wise to do that first, and then come back to your executive summary after. Doing so will allow you to get the full picture of your needs and where your business stands amongst competitors. Then, you’ll be able to just pull out the most significant highlights and address them briefly in your executive summary. How to write an executive summary: When you craft your executive summary (and elevator pitch), keep the following two things in mind: conciseness and professional language. That’s your key to leaving a lasting impression when it comes to presenting your work, as long as you’re addressing the right audience with the right solution. Here’s how to write an executive summary: Begin with your table of contents State your objective Provide a brief company overview Research your market and competitors Write out your key financial data Address your request Polish your work 01. Begin with your table of contents Although the executive summary is meant to be brief, it’s still important that you distinguish between each of the categories below. The formal way to do this is through a simple and straightforward table of contents. With this, address each section and the associated page(s). Make sure that your table of contents is a complete page of its own, separate from the pages below, which should be 1-2 pages maximum. This is also a great time to start thinking about the layout of your information. You’ll want to list out your topics in the order of importance relevant to the addressed problem, as we’ll discuss in the following section. 02. State your objective The purpose behind writing your plan is as straightforward as this statement: there is a problem, and you have the solution to it. So, the first thing you should do after your table of contents is to introduce the problem, and then explain your strategy for solving it. Walk through your desired outcome and the final day you plan to reach that. Also write out the milestones you aim to reach in your journey to get there too. While doing so, have a particular audience in mind that will read this executive summary. Just like how you would modify your resume to impress a particular company you really want to work at, you’ll want to tailor this document to that audience. The problem you choose to present, as well as the writing style you’ll use, should all cater to the readers. This is because you want them to gain the most value from reading it. For example, an investment firm would be more interested in the numbers, while a potential partner would be more interested in learning about your vision statement and mission statement. If you have not written yours, here are some powerful mission statement examples that stand out. 03. Provide a brief company overview As mentioned before, what you choose to include should be relevant to your audience, so take all of these recommendations with a grain of salt. You will definitely want to address your key company information in this section, while the rest is subject to your goals. Give a background of who you are and what you do. Include information such as your mission statement, core values, and an overview of your company culture. Provide a brief summary of your business structure. Explain who the founders are and other top management. List your investors, partners, and other stakeholders. Talk about the size of your business, location, and whether you plan on growing or relocating anytime in the near future. Summarize your top products or services, including an overview of your production and sales processes. Lastly, make sure to address how the reader can get in touch with you by providing your contact information. 04. Research your market and competitors In this section, detail your target market, industry, and competitors. While performing market research is a core topic to your business plan and a SWOT analysis is a strategic process for making a major decision, this is just a summary of your key findings from those processes. You’ll mainly want to address your competitive advantage, strengths, and other positive highlights that make your products, services or business model stand out. Additionally, mention your plan for growing your customer base, ROI, or other goals and opportunities you plan to take advantage of in relation to your marketing efforts. Consider explaining a problem in your industry and the solution that you can or will be able to offer. 05. Write out your key financial data Since most executive summaries are focused around securing funding for business owners, detailing your key financial data is a must. Include the parts that are most relevant to your targeted readers, as there is no need to provide the entirety of your financial statements here. For example, you can show your income over the past few years if it showcases growth. You can also forecast your future earnings based on new developments you’re working on. 06. Address your request The reason you wrote this document was to get the attention of someone specific. Whether that is to seek partnership or for raising capital, you’re going to want to end on a strong note. First, recap your findings in a few short sentences to build support. Then, ease in on your request in a direct manner. If you’re asking for a certain amount of dollars in funding, you will need to explain what you will use that funding for specifically. In the case of investing, also give your investors a reason to want to back your business. What benefits are you offering them? Do you have a planned exit strategy? How successful do you hope to be? If the previous sections did a good job of persuading your requestees, then this part should be easy to sum up. 07. Polish your work Go back through your work to reread it. This is the time where you’ll want to look at your executive summary from the readers’ point of view more deeply. Think of your reader as someone who is very busy. They don’t necessarily have a long time to read a document like this that is meant to be short in the first place. As soon as possible they want you to get to the point behind why you’re asking them for funding. So leave out the fluff, make sure you didn’t state any points twice, and see where you can condense some of your sentences. Furthermore, make sure that you didn’t use any jargon or acronyms that can cause confusion. When you think the final draft is ready to go, have a colleague or acquaintance also give it a go-through to make sure that everything looks professional, legit, and impressive to your potential readers. Only then are you ready to present your executive summary to the world.

A mission statement is one of the most powerful tools you have for leading your business or organization to success. The trick is knowing how to craft the perfect one, before you start posting it around your office or on your business website. There are a few tips and tricks to nailing exactly the right wording to articulate your vision and values - to yourself, to your employees, and to your target audience. Let’s jump in and review what makes an effective mission statement and how to write one for your business or organization regardless of whether you're just starting your business or scaling. Plus, we’ve included seven excellent mission statement examples at the end for your very own inspiration. What is a mission statement? Let’s start with the basics. You’ve probably heard that a mission statement is the lifeblood of your business. But what really is it? A mission statement takes the ‘why’ of what you do and consolidates it into about one to two sentences (and no, a run-on sentence that’s the length of a paragraph does not qualify). This abbreviated expression of your values and purpose helps everyone who encounters your work to immediately understand what you’re all about (much like your elevator pitch). It's different from an executive summary but still important to your business. And it serves to remind you and your employees why you continue walking in the door each morning. A strong mission statement will contain four key elements: Value Inspiration Plausibility Specificity As in, readers will walk away understanding the value your works adds to the world or to their lives, feeling inspired to join your mission, convinced that your goal is achievable, and crystal clear on the nature of your business or organization. Once these four components are present, you’ve got yourself a mission statement that is dressed to impress. Why your business needs a mission statement The mission statement ingredients sound all well and good, but why exactly is it important for you to adopt one? There are both inward and outward-facing reasons. Internally, it acts as a guiding statement to frame all of your strategic business decisions. It’s easy to reference every time you need a reminder of the values you embody as a company, or the vision you are pursuing. Furthermore, it becomes an important contributor to workplace morale, serving up a dose of inspiration every time your declared purpose starts fading behind administrative emails and fundraising campaigns. Those are the moments when you write your mission statement down on a little sticky note and post it on your computer screen. Externally, this expression is a critical figure in the landscape of brand identity. Readers will associate your tone and register key words you select, and values you highlight with the larger persona of your company. The mission statement, then, communicates to outsiders who you are, and what you will do to guarantee quality business to your clients. In its concise form, its task is to explain how to foster a connection with the curious minds viewing its several sentences, and explain why yours should be the right business or organization for them to choose. How to write a mission statement for your business in 5 steps 1. Ask yourself three fundamental questions 2. Hold a brainstorming session 3. Narrow down your choices 4. Refine your words into sentences 5. Review what you've written 01. Ask yourself three fundamental questions What does your business do? How does it do it? And why? With the first question, evaluate your response through the lenses of your customers or beneficiaries, your employees, and - of course - yourself. When relevant, you can widen the perspectives to also define what your business does for your community, or even for the world. The exercise of answering these three questions will help you tease out your purpose, clarify the value you offer, and reconnect to your motivating passion. 02. Hold a brainstorming session Either by yourself or with your team, throw around words and phrases that convey the answers you generated in the previous step. Of course, we know each of those questions could give way to an essay - sometimes even a book. Yet, here, brevity comes above all. Try instead for “snapshot words” that capture the sentiment of your business’ value and purpose. Don’t hold back here: All ideas are acceptable at this point, and you never know when a phrase that’s slightly off can spark the suggestion of the phrase that’s exactly right. 03. Narrow down your choices Either through a group voting process or by soliciting the feedback of a few people you trust, whittle down the list you generated in step two. At the end of this step, you should emerge with a curated list of your favorite words and phrases that are fitting and truly reflect your brand. 04. Refine your words into sentences Set aside a few hours, a quiet area, and put on your best ‘eureka moment’ playlist. It’s time to start massaging your list of chosen words and phrases into one to two complete sentences, keeping in mind all the key elements we reviewed earlier. Check in frequently with those four criteria to ensure you’re on the right track. Finally, remember to write in the present tense. This an active proclamation of what you do - not what you hope to do someday. 05. Review what you’ve written The editing stage is best done with fresh eyes, after you’ve had some time away from your first draft. Notice points where you can tighten the phrasing, or make your wording even more precise. Run through potential future developments for your business. Will the statement you’re crafting now stand the test of time and an evolving business strategy? Take care to build some of this flexibility into your final version (without losing sight of the specificity, of course). Lastly, cut out the fluff. Big words that sound fancy but don’t add much value or clarity for your readers should be directed straight to the trash can. What survives your editing annotations will be the strong, durable, and exact material that quality missions statement examples are made of. Where to display your mission statement Once you have your mission statement polished and gleaming, it’s time to debut it to your colleagues and target audience. Find a place to print and proudly display it in your workplace so you and all of your team members can look to it as a source of guidance whenever a big decision is in front of you, or you need an inspirational boost. Additionally, your new mission statement should appear across all of your marketing and promotional materials, from printed brochures to your beautiful website. Due to its short length, it also makes for an excellent bio lines on your social media channels. It’s a snappy answer to people’s initial question of ‘What is this?!’ after they stumble across your profile - and on the Internet, it’s important to keep information flowing fast to keep a web visitor’s attention engaged. Your mission statement makes your point quickly and succinctly, giving your online traffic a reason to stick around. Now, that’s good for business! P.S. One little hint from us to you: Keep a note of all places where you feature your mission statement. In the event you update it, you will want to be able to make an easy sweep of your office and your online presence to implement the new edits across the board. Get inspired by these mission statement examples Enjoy some of these examples of great mission statements that have hit the ball out of the park with their bold precision: Amp’d: “To provide people with limb loss/difference resources that allow them to live to their fullest potential.” Southwest Airlines: The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit. Honest Tea: Honest Tea seeks to create and promote great-tasting, healthy, organic beverages. We strive to grow our business with the same honesty and integrity we use to craft our recipes, with sustainability and great taste for all. S’well: It’s S’well’s ongoing mission to create products that are both beautiful and eco-friendly, that infuse innovation with inspiration, and that continue to give back to communities in need. Girl Scouts of the United States of America: Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. Snap Inc.: Snap Inc. is a camera company. We believe that reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. We contribute to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together. The New York Times: We seek the truth and help people understand the world. This mission is rooted in our belief that great journalism has the power to make each reader’s life richer and more fulfilling, and all of society stronger and more just.

We’ve all had that moment riding in a car, listening to tunes on the radio when suddenly a song comes on that takes you back in time and makes you smile. It reminds you of a special person, a gorgeous place or perhaps just a cool thing. Music is a strong trigger for nostalgic memories, but can a game evoke those same nostalgic memories? Why is nostalgia so powerful? Our talented designers here at Wix, for example, tend to use their childhood memories as inspiration when creating our stunning website templates. Being a kid meant that you didn’t need much to be wowed, and those simple things you had to play with encouraged you to use your imagination and dream big. This is why we’ve decided to take a journey back in time and look at how some products we used to think were the bomb, came back to the future in a slick and sophisticated marketing package and left us all wanting to be kids again. Why looking back will take you forward If you want to create something unique – ahem, like a free website, you have to do your research. Looking back at what others have done before you will not only save you from copying or repeating what’s already been done, it will motivate you to dig deeper and find a way to create the next best thing. Just don't let this trip down memory lane stop you from incorporating sustainable marketing best practices into your strategy. Our needs change on a daily basis. Case in point? When you got your first cell phone and texting your friends or playing Snake was the highlight of your day. These days if your phone can’t multitask, send pictures, video chat and surf the Internet, there’s practically no point in owning one. Inventing new technologies is based on studying past user experiences and the ability to reinvent the wheel over and over again, while adding newer elements. Research is your key to identifying what worked and what didn’t. Use that information to inspire yourself in thinking of other ways to make your idea universal and timeless. Without further ado, here are some of the latest products and brands that made a comeback, using our childhood memories (remember 8-bit?) to create a whole new experience that any generation can enjoy. They would also work as part of a wider integrated marketing strategy. 8-bit – Simplicity is the name of the game The third generation of video games was also referred to as the ‘8-bit era’ and began in the early 80’s. Back then, the Japanese launched this exciting product that allowed people to play these games in their very own homes. Their invention used a two-dimensional bitmap and incorporated independent objects that were composed together to create an engaging game. Some of the games that were invented are still relevant today, such as: Pac-Man, Mario Bros and Donkey Kong. Games were easy to play and follow: a hero needed to collect stuff and reach a destination. Using only the keyboard to move and jump (space bar!), made that experience amusing and approachable for most ages. Nowadays major brands decide to use the old school 8-bit look and simplicity in order to push their products in a new way, such as: Old Spice – Youland The infamous male grooming company is always looking to impress everyone with their unique digital marketing campaigns such as their 8-bit inspired Youland game in which the player is the hero fighting to find their friends through various obstacles. Players could connect via their Facebook profile page and add their own friends to compete against. How fun is that? Check out their trailer for Youland: DJ Khaled / Champs Sports – Secure the Bag DJ Khaled is a major social media influencer nowadays, mostly known for providing his “major key” tips for a better lifestyle. Khaled partnered with Champs Sports in order to promote their newest Timberland boot. The decision behind creating this promotion through an 8-bit game was almost expected, as they’re combining a classic brand with a classic game.  The coolest part? When the game ends, the player can choose to play again or head over to buy the shoe. This type of marketing is a genius move. Play it now: La La Land Do you remember who won the 2017 Oscar for best film? La La L… oh wait! No they didn’t. The idea to create a unique trailer that incorporates the look of an 8-bit game with the functionality of a “quest” game (where you choose what the hero would do through a series of multiple choices options). This could have been a fantastic move, however, they fell a bit short when they introduced this promotion as a video and not as an interactive game like the other brands previously mentioned. Take a look at the trailer: Pokemon Go – bringing back the past to change the present Originally launched in Japan in the early 90’s as video games, Pokemon later branched out across many different outlets such as card games, an animated television show, comic books and toys. Throughout the years, this brand kept reinventing itself for the needs of the current gaming industry and kept in mind the importance of social interaction in a world full of endless screens. Their first social phenomenon was the card game of the late 90’s. These cards were a brilliant move during those days when video games became accessible to all, and the challenge to get kids outside was almost impossible. The game encouraged kids around the globe to gather in small groups and exchange different cards. Cut to the late 2000’s where everyone and their grandmothers own a cellphone. Smart phones have kept reinventing themselves, creating quite a segregated community worldwide, and making it one of our primary forms of interaction with the outside world. The latest invention? Pokemon Go. The game uses elements from the original game, like the lovable characters and the concept of locating them. But this time they’ve thrown in a major social twist; you actually have to step outside and search for them on the streets from your mobile phone.“Get Up and Go” is their promotional catchphrase, implementing both the craze of the smartphones and shifting back to a time where players explored what the world had to offer. NOKIA 3310 – When effortless counts as quality Do you remember when your mom got you that brick-like phone that had a small screen and you were able to text your friends and play Snake? Those were the days when charging your phone was just an option. Nowadays we call it a “smartphone” as it can do everything you could imagine and more, that is depending on how long the battery lasts ;). Today’s market is saturated with different smartphones, and the more complicated they get, the more fragile they become (some can even explode in your hands – yikes!). Seems like they’re adding features most of us don’t use, let alone understand. Nokia decided to bring back their beloved phone and gave it a slight makeover. Not quite a smartphone, but not totally old-school like it’s 1999. It’s sure to be a hit among hipsters and technophobes who like the retro and uncomplicated feel that this phone has to offer. Nokia wisely uses the nostalgic trigger in this case, allowing us go back to a time where we felt life was much easier. The benefits of this classic includes: Being a brick that can’t break Having a battery that lasts forever (and ever) Costing less than the competitors It has Snake (!!!!) Nokia took a big risk by bringing an old product back that has basically the same functions it used to have, yet they nailed it by marketing it in a new and a fresh way. This phone is made for all those folks who want to take a step back and enjoy their surroundings, rather than living their lives through an app. Bonus Brand Lego was launched back in 1949 when they first introduced their interlocking toy bricks. What makes them stand out in the crowd of toys is that no matter your gender, you’ve probably played it. Lego made it to our bonus round, for the prime reason that it has evolved throughout the years and branded itself across many horizons such as: video games, board games, films & TV, books and a chain of epic theme parks known as Legoland. Just from looking at their website, you realize that they’re one of the most current brands out there. Take a look for yourself: In order to become a power brand, you need to be in a constant battle against the future and you have to remain current, even when it’s not “cool” anymore. But even in a world that keeps on evolving and changing, you need keep in mind that what used to be hip, might just come back around and be totally lit.

Word of mouth has been one of the most powerful marketing strategies even before marketing itself was considered an actual practice. More than five centuries later, the majority of marketing executives still believe word of mouth to be the most effective form of advertising. The only difference is that nowadays this practice starts with a solid email marketing and outreach strategy. In order to increase your business’s exposure through the recommendation of trusted entities in your industry, you’ll need to put together a detailed plan of action. This plan is known as a marketing outreach strategy, and will help you identify the best sites through which to promote your business website and offering, as well as how to successfully reach out to them. What is outreach marketing? Outreach marketing is a type of marketing that allows you to build relationships with like-minded brands in your field, in order to increase exposure for your website and promote your products or services. As the importance of influencer marketing and event marketing grow, these techniques have become a crucial part of any strong advertising plan. Find out how to promote an event in 9 actionable steps. A mention of your brand on a well-known site or social media channel will guide a large number of leads to the higher-level stages of your marketing funnel, significantly increasing your chances of generating sales. Moreover, outreach strategies can have major SEO (search engine optimization) benefits, as backlinks from high-quality referral websites are seen as a signal of credibility and help you rank higher on search results. A practice with such potential comes, of course, hand-in-hand with fierce competition. In order to conduct successful outreach marketing, you’ll need to come up with a solid strategy that makes your brand stand out. How to craft an effective outreach strategy Define your audience Collect target sites Write a compelling email Follow-up with a fresh approach Track your results Build lasting relationships 01. Define your audience The first step to effective communication is knowing who you are talking to. As you set out to build an outreach strategy, you’ll need to start by identifying the unique characteristics of your target market. One of the most efficient ways to do so is creating a mold of your ideal customer, commonly known as a buyer persona. Your ideal customer profile should include between three to five strict points that are consistent through your entire client base. For example, your buyer persona might be defined as “20-40 year old females with high disposable incomes living in suburban areas.” The more precise you are when creating your ideal customer profile, the more accurate your outreach marketing campaigns will be. 02. Collect target sites Once you know who you’re targeting, you’ll need to find the right platforms through which to target them. For example, if you have a small business that sells baby accessories, you’ll need to find websites and blogs that are related to these products, such as a parenting or maternity blog. This stage is one of the most crucial and demanding parts of developing a marketing outreach strategy, as it requires thorough research of your industry and will directly impact your chances of success. To help you navigate these uncharted waters, we have selected three of the best techniques you can use to find relevant, high-quality websites in your industry: Technique 1: Google search Heading to Google for research seems quite obvious, but it’s the most straightforward way of finding relevant blogs and sites to contact. Just enter the type of blog or magazine (e.g. parenting news or parenting blog) in the search box and click to check out the results. Do they provide quality and relevant content? If so, start by copying the names of the websites into an Excel sheet. Organize them by type, and add a column for email addresses. The more organized you are, the easier it will be to keep track of your work. Technique 2: Related search So technique 1 already provided you with some great websites to approach, but you’re hungry for more. Cue: the related search operator. The whole idea here is to find other websites that would attract the same, or a similar, crowd of visitors. This will allow you to search more accurately for websites that are similar in topic, content and quality. How does it work? Simply enter ‘related: www.examplewebsite.com’ into the Google search box. This will generate a search engine results page (SERP) full of websites that are very much like the one you found. Technique 3: More advanced operators To be even more precise, there are several other advanced operators to search Google for relevant sites. These searches allow you to identify websites that have a specific search phrase in the URL, in the text, in the SEO title or as anchor text within the website. Here are a few of the advanced operators you can use to find more specific websites: allinurl: search phrase – the URL contains the search term, for example allinurl: best baby accessories. allintext: search phrase – the text on the page contains the search term. allintitle: search phrase – the SEO title contains the search term. allinanchor: search phrase – an anchor text (text that links to a URL) on the page contains the search term. 03. Write a compelling approach email Once you’ve identified the right targets, the next step is to reach out to them via email. Considering your prospects likely get numerous marketing outreach proposals on a regular basis, you’ll need to carefully craft every element of your email in order to ensure it doesn’t end up in the trash. More than a third of recipients decide whether to open an email based on the subject line alone. To make sure your messages pass this barrier, craft a short subject line that taps into a certain feeling such as intrigue or FOMO. Afterwards, personalize the body of your email to the person you’re sending it to - a practice that has proven to generate 41% more click-through rates. Show them that you’re familiar with their work and audience, and elaborate on how your product and services can be relevant to them. Making this connection explicit will help improve your success rate. End the email by pitching your plan for collaboration, which can be anything from offering to write a blog post on their site to sending them one of your products to test out and write a review. Don’t forget to include at least two calls-to-action (CTAs) in your email: one near the beginning and one at the end. The first one should offer more information about your brand’s offering, while the second serves as an invitation to respond to your proposal. 04. Follow-up with a fresh approach Follow-up emails are an essential part of a strong marketing outreach strategy. Since not every initial approach gets a response, it’s important to send a second or even third email. However, outreach etiquette determines that you shouldn’t message a potential target more than three times, waiting a week between emails. Set reminders for when to follow up on each email you send and keep track of your communications with each person. The more organized you are, the less likely you’ll be to end up messaging the same person five times within two weeks, or missing potential opportunities. Make sure to change the subject line every time you send a new email to someone, as otherwise they might appear as part of the same thread in the recipient’s inbox. This practice also helps to prevent an email from being erroneously marked as spam. 05. Track your results Outreach marketing requires managing an enormous amount of data. You have to track the websites that you’ve reached out to, the date at which you contacted them and what kind of collaboration you offered them. While a regular Excel sheet may do the trick, you should also consider using some of the more advanced tools available for this purpose: Buzzsumo (paid): This great tool will help you find websites that have covered the topic that you are searching for. Just type a topic into the search bar, and it will provide you with a list of the most popular pieces of content from blogs and websites. You can easily export your findings and create a full blown list of websites that you’d like to contact. Boomerang (free and paid options): This Gmail add-on will help you remember when to follow up on approach emails. If you don’t receive a response from a first approach, it will throw a reminder email right back at you. MozBar (free): This amazing toolbar instantly provides information about the site quality by giving a score called domain authority. The higher the score, the better the website. Email tools and extensions: Even after identifying a new website or blog to approach, it can sometimes be difficult to find an email address. Here are two tools to help you find website owner’s emails; Email Hunter (free and premium options) and Clearbit Connect (free Gmail add-on). 06. Build lasting relationships Paradoxical as it may sound, one of the best things about marketing outreach, is that you get to communicate with real people in your realm or industry. Once you’ve made a real connection with someone, they may continue to have a positive impression of your business and will be more open to further promoting your products or services. This is why keeping your industry colleagues updated with the latest news about your business is a great idea, enabling them to share your updates with their readers. There are several ways that you can invest in these relationships and make sure that your partners know how much you appreciate them, including: Use Wix Email Marketing to send out a newsletter updating your contacts about the latest news and products. To avoid overwhelming them, you should only do this every three to four months. Send them one of your products for free, or a coupon for a service. Send out a letter for the holiday season with a personalized message to each of your partners around the web, as a way to let them know you appreciate the relationship.

Aside from the business itself, there’s a lot that goes into owning a business that might not be in the realm of your expertise. Whether it’s managing employees, creating a business website and a marketing plan, or taking care of the admin side, running your own company will require you to become an expert in a broad number of subjects. Bookkeeping is one of the most important subjects where you’ll need to excel in order to run a successful business, as it allows you to have a full understanding of your finances both on a daily basis as well as in the long run. Despite its seemingly steep learning curve, especially alarming for those who describe themselves as “not a numbers person”, learning how to do bookkeeping isn’t difficult at all with the right guidance. In this beginners guide, we’ll take a closer look at the most important small business bookkeeping basics you need to know. What is bookkeeping? Traditionally, bookkeeping was the act of entering all your business’s transactions into a book to see how you’re spending money. While most businesses have already swapped books for spreadsheets and accounting software, the concept is still the same. Nowadays, the process generally starts by defining the limits between company and personal assets, selecting a small business accounting method, setting up payroll, and taking care of the business’s taxes. While this might sound similar to accounting, the role of bookkeeping and accounting aren’t identical, but they do often go hand-in-hand. Bookkeeping is focused on organizing your business transactions like revenue, debits, credits, sunk costs and expenditures. Once those transactions are organized, the role of an accountant is to analyze them in order to create statements and reports for the business on where they currently are financially and how they can improve in addition to filing tax returns. The importance of bookkeeping Bookkeeping isn’t a task you can sweep under the rug. It’s essential that you get a good grasp of what bookkeeping for your small business looks like before you turn to outside help or even accounting software. Here are a few of the main reasons why bookkeeping is so important for small business owners: Separate business from personal After starting a new business, many business owners struggle to separate their personal finances from their business. While any small business owner probably feels personally attached to their business, that doesn’t mean their personal accounts need to be involved in running it. Bookkeeping helps you keep those worlds apart in order to ensure your business debts are held completely separate from your personal finances. Help prevent errors Everyone makes mistakes. Whether a mistake is made by an employee, a miscalculation from your bank, or something you did yourself, bookkeeping allows you to closely track all your transactions to pinpoint specific errors. While one miscalculation likely won’t throw your whole business off its financial goals, the accumulation of small mistakes over time can make a difference. Regularly keeping on top of your bookkeeping prevents these errors from impacting your bottom line and helps you prevent them from happening again. Track your progress There are several ways to assess if your business is succeeding, and bookkeeping is just one of them. By regularly recording your transactions and staying on top of cash flow, earnings and retained earnings you’ll be able to identify areas for improvement and get a good overall picture of your business’s finances. Furthermore, looking at where exactly your money is going and coming from, you can make smarter decisions to cut costs and decide where to focus your efforts on the things that are bringing more money in. Make tax season easier Filing taxes can be a nightmare for small business owners, unless you’ve been keeping track of your finances all year long. When it comes time to gather all necessary documents and turn them over to your accountant, it will be much simpler if you’ve been bookkeeping the whole year and already have a good idea of what tax deductions your business is eligible to claim. Additionally, this will reduce the chances of any surprises after submitting your tax return, giving you more peace of mind. Allows you to get a loan Knowing the true cost of starting a business will help you decided whether you need to take out a loan. As a small business owner, you’ll likely be asked for proof in the form of financial statements and records. Lenders want to know the ins and outs of your business’s finances, and if that’s not organized enough to begin with, your chances of getting approved will likely decrease. By clearly having records of things like cash flow, revenue, liabilities, and debts, raising money for your business will become a lot simpler. How to do bookkeeping for small businesses Set up and separate your business accounts Decide on a bookkeeping system Categorize all transactions Decide how to store your documents Balance your books Create bookkeeping reports Make a bookkeeping schedule 01. Set up and separate your business accounts The first thing you want to do when establishing the bookkeeping process for your small business is ensuring that there’s no crossover with your personal accounts. Aside from making it easier to discern your business income from your personal funds, having a separate business bank account protects your personal assets from any liabilities. This means that if your business were to run into any issues such as a lawsuit or bankruptcy, your personal funds would remain protected. After separating your bank accounts, you should also consider getting a credit card specifically for business expenses. This will help you build up credit for your business so if you ever need to apply for a loan or any type of funding, your business has its own credit history. 02. Decide on a bookkeeping system There’s more than one way to go about bookkeeping, so one of the first decisions you’ll need to make is deciding which system works best for your business. You have a few options on how you want to go about your bookkeeping: you can do it yourself either manually or with accounting software such as Quickbooks, you can go to an external professional bookkeeper, or you can even hire your own in-house bookkeeper. The option you choose will likely depend on where your business is at. If you’re just starting out, you’ll likely be fine with using DIY software and you can move on to an in-house bookkeeper when you grow. Aside from deciding how you’ll go about bookkeeping, you also need to decide on the method you’ll use. Generally, you can use either a single-entry or double-entry method. Single-entry bookkeeping: you record each transaction in your books one time. For example, if you made a sale and received payment, that would be noted in your books as one transaction. Double-entry bookkeeping: each transaction has its own credit and debit, so the same amount is noted twice in your book. Most professional bookkeepers and accounting software will use the double-entry method. In addition to your bookkeeping method, you’ll also need to decide on your accounting method. There are also two options for this: cash and accrual. Cash method: you note all transactions only when the money is received or paid. For example, if you invoice a customer today but don’t receive the money in your account for another week, then it would only be noted when your money enters your bank account. Accrual method: you note all transactions at the point when you invoice someone or receive a bill. With this method, you’ll need to track your accounts payable and receivable. For both bookkeeping and accounting methods, you’ll need to determine which is better for your business. In general, for smaller businesses it’s recommended to start with single-entry bookkeeping and cash accounting. 03. Categorize all transactions Once you’ve selected which bookkeeping system you’re going to use, you’ll need to start recording every transaction regularly. It’s smart to input transactions as they happen, since otherwise you might forget what it was for and thus won’t be tracked correctly. When categorizing your transactions, there are a few ways to break them down. For starters, each transaction should be noted as either a credit or a debit. A credit refers to money coming into an account, and a debit is the money going out of an account. In a double-entry bookkeeping system, you would have both a credit and debit for each transaction. Aside from debits and credits, you can further categorize where money is going to and from by referring to different accounts. Generally, there are five types of accounts: Assets: anything that your company owns, like equipment, cash, or inventory Liabilities: money owed to someone, such as a loan or payment to a vendor Equity: money that comes from the company owner, usually that won’t be paid back Revenue: money received as a result of sales or services performed Expenses: money you use to run your business 04. Decide how to store your documents Bills, invoices, expense reports, credit card statements… The paperwork adds up and it needs somewhere to be safely kept in. Not only is it important to keep documentation of your transactions for yourself, but occasionally the IRS (internal revenue service) might request to see the documentation as proof of expenses. That being said, you don’t need to start stacking shelves full of folders to store all your documents. You can invest in a way to store them digitally to keep all your transaction records in one place. Apps like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Shoeboxed help you store your receipts in one place so you never need to worry about losing, misplacing, or having the ink fade on a receipt from a client's lunch. 05. Balance your books If you’ve been recording all your transactions and noting them as credits and debits, then you’ll eventually need to balance your books. Whether you choose to do that at the end of every month, quarter, or each year is up to you. For many small business owners, balancing the books mainly means looking at your assets and liabilities using a simple equation to figure out your business equity. The equation should look like this: Equity = Total Assets - Total Liabilities It’s normal for there to be some mistakes while balancing your books. The original number you get from this equation is often referred to as your trial balance. After arriving at this balance, it's a regular procedure to go over all the data and make sure to correct errors in how transactions were recorded. If after correcting any mistakes and going through all the transactions and subtracting your liabilities from assets your assets still come out on top, then your business is going in the right direction. 06. Create bookkeeping reports Once your books are balanced, it’s time to create some reports on your business’s finances. You’ll likely already have a balance sheet from the previous step, which is a great report that analyzes the overall progress of your business. Some other types of reports you might want to use include: Profits and losses: similar to an income statement, this report allows you to compare revenue and expenses over a set period of time to ensure that your business is bringing in more money than it’s spending. Cash flow: this statement shows you where your business is earning and spending the most money, and how able it is to pay off its expenses. Accounts payable/receivable ageing: whether a customer has been taking a while to pay you or you haven’t yet paid a vendor, this will allow you to make sure you’re sending and receiving payments on time so that you can follow up. 07. Make a bookkeeping schedule Once you start getting into the flow of bookkeeping, make sure that you stick with it and update your books regularly to maintain a good level of organization. By turning bookkeeping into a habit, you’ll be able to ensure that nothing is forgotten and you can minimize accounting mistakes. Try and set a date each week to record all your weekly transactions, and then set another time each month or quarter to balance your books. It may seem like a chore, but you don’t want to let your bookkeeping fall through the cracks and then suddenly have months or even years of transactions to record and balance.

If you could be anything in the world, what would it be? If you ask me, I’d be an illustrator. Why? Simply put, artists have the unique ability to take the wildest thoughts that pop into their head and manifest that idea into a stunning work of art! …and meanwhile, I struggle drawing stick figures with even lengthened arms and legs ¯\_(ツ)__/¯. Being unbound by creative limits in the real world, I was curious to know, how does an illustrator create a website and what would it look like? Would the cold parameters of a computer screen harden the beauty of their works, or would the combined elements of digital and hand-drawn create a modern masterpiece, like in these Wix animation websites? Well, I won’t keep you in suspense much longer! Read on to discover nearly a dozen examples of illustrator websites – *spoiler alert, they’re absolutely stunning, web design and all. Ana Duje Originally from Argentina, Ana is now a proud Barcelona-based artist with a “less is more” approach to her work. This illustrator and graphic designer pairs strong colors with bold yet simple shapes to form her signature style on this illustrator Wix website example. Fans of Ana’s art can easily purchase prints off of her websites thanks to the incorporation of an online store. We love the graphic design websites inspiration we can pull from Ana's site. Annie Ryan Annie Ryan is a graphic image maker/illustrator who creates art using mixed media. For her website, Annie lets her art do most of the talking. For her illustration portfolio, she opted for a single-pager that stylishly showcases her work both in an image gallery and as the site’s background using a parallax scrolling effect. Bespoke Pets What would your pet look like if they got up for work like the rest of us? Would they put on a pair of work boots, or would they be more likely to wear a fine Chanel suit? Sarah Zimmer creates custom pet portraits for her clients that showcase just that. The gallery on her illustrator website beautifully showcases what Sparky and friends would look if they were a little lighter on the animal instincts – and maybe more business savvy. Espirro Lisbon-based illustrator, Espirro calls his artistic style “a combo of nonsense and common sense” – which just happen to be my favorite things, too. Not tied to one medium, Espirro showcases his drawings on anything you could think of, including clothing (for humans and dogs), home decor, and you can even schedule an appointment to get a tattoo of your favorite piece. Having so many promo options could have easily ended up an organizational nightmare, but Espirro does a great job keeping his website clean and easy to navigate by separating each project category with a drop-down menu. Olivia Mabrey Olivia may describe herself as an illustrator and “photograph taker,” but between you and me, I think she’s being modest. Her artist website proudly displays gorgeous pattern work, humourous graphic posters, prints, photography and mixed media work. All this and more is stylishly presented on slideshow galleries separated by category on her website. Travis Braun Love music? Prepare to be blown away by Travis Braun. This illustrator and educator creates music posters that are riddled with hidden meanings and Easter eggs that make them super fun for fans to experience. Anyone itching to learn more about Travis’s work can read all about what inspired him to create posters for some of the world’s biggest bands on his website’s blog. Ilpo Rybatzki-Tiensivu This Helsinki-based art educator mixes real world and fantasy by sprinkling fun drawings all throughout his illustrator website. A true artist, Ilpo’s website showcases an array of talent, including: design, illustrations, and even original music. Learn more about how to make a website with our extensive guide.