Author: Higor Lacerda

Why do business planning

Posted on by Higor Lacerda

In the business world it is common to find ourselves with the urge to perform our tasks as soon as possible, so many people believe that planning is a waste of time.

However, the truth is just the opposite, by doing a planning you are valuing your time, which will not be spent performing tasks disorderly without knowing where you want to get.

There is a Chinese proverb that says: “If you want to cut down a tree in half the time, spend twice as much time grinding the axe. Next, understand how best to prepare by planning to ensure that your tasks are carried out in the best possible way.

What is planning business?

Planning is the definition of the steps that need to be taken to get from the current moment to a goal.

To do this, it is necessary to know exactly where you are and establish a plan of action with the necessary adjustments to get you where you want to be.

Why do planning business?

For an efficient administration, planning is essential, because based on it it is possible to outline goals and objectives that will serve as a basis for making decisions that can make a difference for the company’s success.

How to make a planning business?

To carry out planning it is necessary to define a starting point and conduct a market analysis, considering the position of your company and your competitors.

From there you must define a mission to achieve your purpose and the steps you must take. It is important to set deadlines for achieving your goals as well as a deadline for analyzing the results. 

Strategic planning

Strategic planning must be carried out by the leaders by formalizing the goals and objectives for the company’s growth.

To make strategic planning it is necessary to consider the external and internal conditions of the company, define the expected growth, as well as the effectiveness and survival.

Tactical planning

Communication is the key word in tactical planning, which works as an intermediary between strategic and operational planning.

In tactical planning the decisions of the superiors must be passed on in order to direct the planning towards action.

Operational planning

This is the point where things happen, that is, it actually reaches the productive sector where the operational workforce is.

Everything that was planned at the strategic and tactical levels is put into practice, thus making all sectors responsible for the company’s success.

Conclusion

Planning is useless if there is no action, so be careful to put your planning into practice and always have it in sight to make sure that your plans are being followed.

Put in the calendar the dates that each goal should be reached, as well as an end date to evaluate the results and consider re-planning.

The challenge of promoting innovation and productivity

Posted on by Higor Lacerda

Betting on a philosophy of innovation for your company can bring many benefits, among them the increase in productivity.

Innovative thinking is a management strategy generally adopted by new entrepreneurs, but that is teaching even the most traditional companies a lot.

The incentive to the new and the motivation of the teams to be more daring are characteristics of the innovative management model, which depends a lot on creativity.

Among the characteristics of the innovation model is the ability of the team to act with innovative thinking and take this goal forward to help productivity.

To better understand how the model that is revolutionizing companies and creating a new concept of productivity works, here are some of the characteristics of this movement.

What is innovation

Innovation consists of a new way of doing something that was previously done in a less objective or effective way.

In this way, innovation does not consist in just creating a new process, but rather in ensuring that by replacing one model with another, the benefits will be instantaneous.

What is productivity

Productivity consists of ensuring that the processes carried out in a company are performed in the shortest time and in the most efficient way possible. This is why this factor is so closely linked with innovation.

How to create an innovative environment

Creativity plays an important role in the innovation process. After all, it is from the proposal of a new model, which should work better than the previous one, that innovation is born, and this is only possible with creativity.

Proposing a change that can, in fact, be beneficial to productive processes requires a creative effort from the whole team, which must be encouraged by the leader through an administrative profile that favors the stimulation of creativity.

The encouragement of creativity in a team is essential for constant innovation, a practice that becomes possible from the deconstruction of traditional processes and the opening of new possibilities.

The solutions found in collaboration are enriched by the different points of view, facilitating the creation of an innovative process.

Innovation as a productivity enabler

The more innovative a company can be, the greater its productivity potential is, by offering more effective means of carrying out procedures.

Facilitating bureaucratic processes, opening up space for communication, and proposing to break down barriers are the main innovative actions that should be established in the quest to increase productivity.

Conclusion

Using proven methods can help your company go a long way. Simple decisions such as encouraging leaders and staff to think innovatively can bring short- and long-term benefits.

Traditional management models are increasingly being left behind and thoughts such as associating innovation with productivity are opening doors for companies in various sectors.

What to do TODAY to grow professionally

Posted on by Higor Lacerda

It is common for people to think that professional growth means only getting promoted in a job. It is true that this is one way to grow professionally, but is it the only way?

To grow professionally in a real way, you have to be willing to develop yourself individually, invest in your own training, and put all this learning into practice in your day-to-day work.

By investing in your personal and professional development, you will have many benefits, including new career and business opportunities, as well as the possibility of taking on more prestigious roles.

But what can you do to achieve your dream professional growth? Check out some tips below.

Why grow professionally?

By expanding your skills, you will experience the possibility of standing out more in your workplace, but also have a greater demand from other employers. 

Professional growth leads to increased earning potential and provides you with a career path further away from stagnation. 

Investing in your personal and professional growth shows ambition and awareness. These qualities will help you get what you want, both in life and at work.

Growing professionally: What to do TODAY

The first step to professional growth is to SET A GOAL, after all, you will only know which path to follow if you know where you want to go and have the motivation to follow it.

Regardless of whether your goal is to get a promotion, get a position in a multinational company, or start your own business, there is something you must do if you want to achieve it: TAKE ACTION.

So, check out below some actions you should be ready to take if you want to have professional growth.

Define your goal

In order to achieve better results, you need to establish what your goal is, that is, where you want to get to, then chart your path to them through many short-term goals.

Set a schedule of actions

Life is made up of many things and distractions are everywhere, from your cell phone that invites you to have relaxing moments on social media to tasks that distract you from your focus.

Don’t leave the accomplishment of your main tasks aside, if you are in order to accomplish your projects, it is necessary to prepare a calendar, establish commitments and fulfill them, and do you know what is the best time to do that? TODAY!

Observe your weaknesses

Nobody is perfect, and knowing that you have both qualities and defects is essential, especially if you are willing to develop skills that don’t come naturally to you.

What you need is to learn from your mistakes, because in this way you will find the key to taking the next step towards your goals. So make a list today of what you need to improve.

New skills are always welcome

Even if you already speak three languages, if the opportunity arises to learn one more, accept it! And apply this rule to all the new skills you have the chance to learn.

Your professional growth should be accompanied by constant study and development of new skills, both in the sense of improving what you already know and developing new skills.

Understanding your customers

Posted on by Higor Lacerda

Marketing strategies become more and more sophisticated and necessary in the market. With the emergence of various media, the access to companies has become more and more diversified, and to make a customer choose your brand and not the competition has become a challenge.

Among the marketing strategies, some steps are essential, and those companies that can learn to value the importance of understanding their customers come out ahead.

Understanding the desires and needs of the public is essential for those who seek success, because only after this understanding is it possible to develop all the other steps of your marketing planning with efficiency to achieve better results.

If you are looking to improve your brand’s performance, be sure to follow this article to the end, here you will learn the importance of understanding your customers and the best way to achieve this.

Each consumer is unique

With the strong increase in consumption linked to technology, the consumer’s power of choice has become very large, and with this grows the need for companies to pay attention to serving their customers in a personalized way.

In the past, the concept of target audience was used to determine the direction of marketing campaigns, but nowadays this concept has fallen after verifying that it is not possible to generalize the consumer.

With this came the concept of persona, that is, it became more important to detect a complete profile of a potential consumer instead of a generalization of possible consumers.

When trying to determine a persona, it is necessary to gather the smallest details of the customer’s life, it is not enough to define an age range or a level of education, it is necessary to know what he thinks, how he consumes, his daily habits online and offline, his pains and preferences, this is the only way to identify a profile and get closer to your consumer.

Several tools can be used to capture relevant and current information about consumers, and this database is essential for understanding and determining your persona.

Through this well-designed strategy, you will be closer to achieving satisfactory results and saving money in your marketing strategy, avoiding wasting time on profiles that do not match your consumer.

Advantages of understand your costumer

Optimize your products

By knowing your consumer’s wants and needs, it is possible to identify the ideal moment to make a sale, as well as define more assertively which product or service to offer them in order to achieve a conversion.

Speaking your customer’s language

For each type of audience there is a “tone of voice” that you need to employ in your campaigns, understanding what is the appropriate language to talk to your consumer is an excellent way to captivate him so that he can identify with your brand.

Finding the gold mine

There are customers and customers, some may even consume your product but never return, while others may have a higher value for your business, consuming and disseminating your brand. Knowing how to identify them will be your great differential.

Fidelizing the client

As important as winning over a consumer is to keep on winning them over time. Having loyal customers who will ensure the longevity of your brand is fundamental to the future of your business.

How to understand your consumer

Now that you know all the advantages you will gain by understanding your customer, you need to know how to enter their world and capture information about their lives.

First it is important to know that the data will never be definitive, the research about your consumer’s profile is continuous and you need to keep it updated.

To capture this information it is necessary that you have conversation channels with your customers, either through surveys, registrations, or data collection through social networks.

From these tools it will be possible to define an elaborate profile of your customer and predict their behavior, this way your actions will be more easily converted into sales.

If you want to be successful and achieve increasingly satisfactory results with your company, it is important that you always pay due attention to market trends, only then you can be ahead of the competition.

Digital Marketing for business: why it’s important

Posted on by Higor Lacerda

Failing to invest in Digital Marketing for business is one of the mistakes your company cannot make these days. Digital presence is essential for the good development of your business and relationship with customers.

If what you are looking for are real results, read this text to the end. Here we will address the importance of Digital Marketing today, as well as the need to develop strategies and relate well with your customers to be rewarded for your investment.

Why invest in Digital Marketing for business?

Customers are increasingly connected, and reaching them through digital means can be more convincing and effective. Talking to your potential customers through digital means brings a proximity that increases the chances of conversion. 

With the Internet and social networks, consumers have gained the power to find information about the brands they consume, and the image created by these companies in this medium is essential in the purchase decision.

This type of concern was for a long time exclusive to large companies, now medium and small businesses also need to be aware of the news in this sector.

How to invest in Digital Marketing for business?

The relationship with the client starts with the production of content, either through blog articles, e-books, youtube videos, among other platforms. From there, clients are attracted, becoming leads that will need to be nurtured by other means, including email Marketing.

Marketing within the digital platforms is rapidly multiplied through the customers themselves, since they are also content producers and have the ability to impact their network through testimonials about their consumption experiences with your products.

Digital Marketing x Traditional Marketing

The biggest advantage of digital marketing is to build a qualified audience for your brand, that is, to impact those people who are most likely to consume your products or services. 

Because they are highly targeted, digital marketing costs are lower than traditional marketing, bringing more real and measurable results.

Advantages of Digital Marketing

The aspects achieved by Digital Marketing directly impact the growth, reach, and visibility, and can bring several benefits for the company to achieve better results:

  • Positioning itself in the market
  • Establish sales channels
  • Measure results
  • Increase return on investment

The best way to be effective in this process is to know your target audience in depth, and for this many tools can help, because there are already ways to cross data and obtain very important information about the profile of your consumers.

Which tools can be used in Digital Marketing for business?

Organic Traffic

One of the most efficient ways to attract your audience is through information, many people seek to solve their problems by reading blog texts, posts, ebooks, and infographics, offering quality content to your audience you create a relationship of trust.

For these contents to be more accessed it is necessary to use SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies, which define key words and make the site more relevant in search engines that will take your text to the hands of those who look for subjects related to your company.

Another strategy that also does not fail to be efficient is the sponsored link, from an ad on these sites your company can stand out in search results.

E-mail marketing

After conquering your future clients through organic traffic you need to maintain your good relationship with them, for this the e-mail marketing strategy will be your ally.

Email marketing has a high rate of return on your investment, it brings your company closer to the public, facilitating the disclosure of offers.

Through e-mail marketing it is also possible to measure your results effectively.

Social Media

Social networks cannot be forgotten as strong allies of your company’s Digital Marketing. 

In them you can share content and have the advantage of the high flow of information exchange, by which your own followers will replicate your ideas.

Conclusion:

To achieve positive results for your company with Digital Marketing, it is not enough to have a website and social networks, you must create a strategy to generate visibility, gain customers and monetize, for this it is essential to have a clear goal.

From the moment your objectives are well defined, reaching your customers will be easier than it seems. The dedication and responsibility with the content and ideas that your company will share will be the guarantee of success of your outreach process.

5 Tips for starting an entrepreneur online

Posted on by Higor Lacerda

Everyone feels fear when it’s time to make your first venture, and fear is part of starting your own idea, entering a new and unknown world, so we organized 5 practices for you to better deal with this feeling that will leave you more focused and stimulated. 

1. Planning

No matter the market or field chosen, those who have investment intentions and wish to become entrepreneurs need to do a lot of planning. 

Invest in knowledge and attend courses, events, and lectures about your market and about entrepreneurship.

Part of this planning is the size of your willpower and your effectiveness in your efforts. 

Study hard your field of action, read books, websites, and specific magazines, study the existing market and your possible competitors. 

Talk to professionals and entrepreneurs who work in your field, these conversations are usually more open and provide information that is not in courses and books

Having focus and goals increases the chance that your venture will be successful.

2. Understand impacts and risks

It is essential to understand how the risks of starting a venture will affect your life and will never allow you to stop studying at any stage of your life. 

Always be up to date, an assessment is important to identify what the biggest risks will be, what can get out of control, analyze each impact you may experience on the journey and prioritize threats. 

Risks can be very high in the entrepreneurial world, but the more you risk the greater the possibility of growth.

3. Self-confidence

To kick things off, you need to have your head and chest up and your eye on the ball to hit the target you want. 

There is no way to make sales and win customers without confidence in your work.

Your self-confidence will be directly related to the confidence and credibility of your enterprise. 

Study, experience, and believing in yourself are all part of growing your self-confidence and overcoming your fears.

4. Seek honest validation from those you trust

At the beginning of a venture a common mistake is when feeling insecure, to seek approval, opinions, and validation from all possible means. 

The most appropriate way to master your fears and overcome your internal debates is to share your ideas with people you trust and who are honest enough to criticize you honestly and not only see the positive points of your project.

5. Do what you like

Having affinity with what you are doing will diminish your fears. 

It is important to know what the best business for you is before researching the market, to choose an investment in a job that is related to your personal tastes as well as your professional talents. 

Liking what you do certainly increases your focus and chance of effectiveness in your professional actions.

People always have good ideas, but few of them put them into practice, and you have an idea and see the opportunity, being afraid at the time of making your first venture is normal, and is part of the process, but you should not give up. 

Identify the factors that prevent you from overcoming the fear of entrepreneurship and starting your own business. Realizing the dream of owning your own business is the ability to make big steps and changes, and that is much bigger than any fear. Remember, instead of being afraid of entrepreneurship, to accept your obstacles and embrace your professional learning at this early stage!

How to do social media for business

Posted on by Higor Lacerda

Social networks are platforms for relationships between users that have become part of people’s daily lives and soon became very important as a working tool for companies. 

They are essential in the dissemination of services and products and also serve to bring the brand closer to its customers through engagement, so if your company is not yet present on social networks you need to consider putting it up right now!

Advantages of social media

There are several reasons for your business to be present on social networks, knowing some strategies and ways to use them will have many advantages in the mission to approach your audience and capture new customers.

Before starting your brand’s virtual presence you need to be aware of some factors, when posting content they need to be aligned with your company’s values, this way you will get closer to your audience showing what your organization’s goals are.

With the internet you considerably increase the communication channels and the interaction with your clients, from this you will create a bond with your public.

Through engagement, the ideas, products, services, and promotions that you offer begin to spread quickly, generating a viral effect, which is why it is so important that through your content you captivate your consumer. 

Another important feature that the Internet provides to your business is the ability to measure and analyze the company’s engagement in the networks, and thus know what is pleasing or displeasing your customers.

With exorbitant numbers of users, social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are essential fields for the work of advertising and marketing, knowing the best way to master these tools will put you ahead of the competition.

Optimizing the use of social networks

Being present on social media platforms is not enough, it is necessary that your company’s content is thought out in order to attract your customers in the most diverse ways, and for this you need knowledge and the use of techniques.

Know your audience

Having a clear understanding of who your consumers are and, above all, what their habits, way of thinking, and lifestyle are, is the first step to getting closer to them, so that you can create a voice for your brand that speaks the same language as theirs.

This voice needs to be carefully planned based on what generates likes and shares for your audience, that is, the way of communicating needs to be familiar to your audience. 

Understand each platform

In each social network there is a profile to be followed and a more appropriate language to approach the consumer, so the way you will produce your content may be better suited to one network or another.

Therefore, understanding the proposal of each social network is essential to find out which one is more and less important for your business, and mainly, through which one you will be able to communicate better with your consumer.

Content X Advertising

Remember that only talking about your products or services is not the best way to attract your audience, it is important to understand the pains of your consumers and offer content that helps them.

In this way your customer will understand you as a friend and trust your speech, engagement is your main goal when placing your business on social networks, because it is from this that you will gain the affection and respect of your consumer.

If you still don’t have a page for your company, know that you are wasting your time. Take advantage of the tips you have just learned and start planning the best way to talk to your customers, so you increase your chances of closing new deals.

Brand positioning: how it can help you grow

Posted on by Higor Lacerda

Brand positioning, or branding, is how you want to be remembered and recognized by your customers. 

Your branding strategy or even rebranding should be the center of attention in your planning for you to sell more and build credibility and trust in the market.

This strategy enables you to win the admiration of your audience and fix the advantages of your service or product in the customer’s mind.

Brand positioning is simply the public’s perception of a brand.

These strategies are used by leading companies and can help you get clarity about your business and define how you want to be remembered in the marketplace.

How does brand positioning work?

Brand positioning is a branding strategy that focuses on your customers’ perception of your brand and not your products or services.

To secure an audience and carve out a unique space in your customers’ imagination, you need to know your target audience very well.

You need to have a clear image and decide what image you want your company to convey.

Create a real union between the proposed values and solutions and the personality of your brand, with the feelings and affective memories of the public. 

No matter what type of business or market your company is in, brand positioning is the place your brand occupies in the public’s mind, a place that will be preterested also by your competition.

If your brand does not stand out or present differences from the others, your customers may end up opting for the competitor.

How to find the strong and striking points of your business?

Map out some points that can help you understand your audience and your brand.

Know who your product is aimed at

You must know your target audience very well.

Create a persona, as if it were an ideal client.

Try to know your public’s gender, age, social class, where they live, consumption habits, pains, and dreams.

Understand what your audience’s greatest desire is.

The more you know about your audience, the more assertive your brand positioning will be.

Understand the problem your product or service solves

When it’s time to do your branding, it is essential to know what are the characteristics that differentiate your product.

It is essential that you understand what problems your business can solve for your customers. 

These advantages and benefits brought by your product or service need to be directly reflected in your brand positioning.

What differentiates you from your competition?

Besides knowing everything about your product and your audience, it is essential to always study and understand the context or market niche in which your company operates.

It is necessary to understand and know the behavior of the market, the audience, and your competitors. 

Start planning now how you want your brand to be positioned.

With good branding you will satisfy and retain more customers and attract more audience to your brand!

Starting a Business: What are the most common mistakes?

Posted on by Higor Lacerda

When starting a business it is common for the entrepreneur to fall into some traps. No matter how well prepared they may seem to be, many times situations arise that were not foreseen, and that’s when many end up getting lost.

To avoid this kind of surprise, it is important to know the mistakes that many have already made; after all, learning from the mistakes of others is the best way not to fall into the same trap.

If you are in the first steps of your company and want to avoid the most common mistakes made at the very beginning of a venture, follow this article until the end and be prepared when something unexpected comes your way.

Thinking starting a business will be easy

One of the biggest mistakes a new entrepreneur makes is to believe that they can build their business with minimal effort. 

It’s not something done consciously, but it unfolds from speeches we hear over and over again, such as: “you’re going to be your own boss” among other phrases that make the entrepreneur’s life seem easy.

However, the reality of a person who decides to own his or her own company is very different, especially in the beginning.

When working to start a business, it is necessary to understand that it will be necessary to invest a lot of time and money, and to do so, you will have to give up a lot of things at that moment.

Not everyone is prepared to face this reality, and being honest with yourself, evaluating if this is really what you want, is the best way not to make this mistake.

Forgetting the business plan

The first thing that should be done when starting a business is a business plan, a planning of the steps that need to be completed and the steps that need to be followed for the success of the business.

However, it is common that many entrepreneurs do this planning just for show and do not use it to guide their steps, thus putting everything at risk.

If all the planning was done so that your company would be successful, don’t make the mistake of thinking that it is there just for protocol, understand how the business plan works, and always put it into practice.

Underestimate the initial investment to starting a business

The initial investments of a company can be higher than you think. Although many businesses can start with very little, a whole structure is needed to make the company stand up.

Therefore, it is common for many people to think that they have enough capital to make the company work, and end up getting frustrated in the very first months when they face a very different scenario.

A company demands not only an initial investment, but also often takes time to start generating profits.

So it is necessary that your investment is sufficient not only to implement the business, but also to keep the company finances for some time.

No investing in digital marketing

Putting a company on the market is a challenge, but making it recognized and admired is undoubtedly the biggest one. 

Nowadays, winning customers is a task that goes beyond simple marketing actions. It is necessary to integrate the company’s values with the discourse passed to the customers in order to create a strong image.

There are several ways to invest in marketing, one of them is to ensure your online presence through digital marketing.

Even if you do not have much money to invest in promotion, it is important to set aside at least a part of your investment for this fundamental point.

Mixing company and personal accounts

From the moment your company starts to generate profits, you can celebrate, because it will start paying your personal bills. 

In this phase it is necessary to be careful, because if you do not know how to manage your company’s finances and your personal life, you may end up falling into a trap.

To avoid this kind of mistake, which can end up bankrupting your company, establish part of the profits as a salary for yourself, and use this amount for your personal expenses.

Forget your goals

Over time, when your business starts to move forward, it is easy to forget what your goals were at the beginning. 

So from the beginning, be very clear in your mind where you want to go and what you want to achieve with your efforts, so that it is easier to dedicate yourself day after day to make your business achieve what you have set for it.

Digital Marketing: when invest?

Posted on by Higor Lacerda

Communication through digital marketing is already part of the lives of millions of people and is undoubtedly one of the most effective ways to dictate trends and buying patterns.

People are increasingly mirroring the habits and lifestyles they find on social networks, dictating their way of consuming. 

With the endless possibilities within this digital environment, finding customers, strengthening your brand, and being present on the networks is practically indispensable for any company, regardless of their size.

Digital Marketing is already part of the sales strategies of millions of businesses and the results are really proven, so it is not a good idea to stay out of these strategies. 

For you to better understand the importance of applying this powerful tool in your business communication and to know what is the best time to start investing in digital marketing, we have prepared some valuable tips, check them out below:

The importance of Digital Marketing:

Digital Marketing starts by building an image for your brand on the networks and from there captivate and build loyalty among your audience. 

The relationship with the client starts with the production of content, through blog articles, e-books, youtube videos, among other platforms, and from there the clients are attracted, becoming leads (selected contacts) that will need to be nurtured by other means, including email Marketing.

Marketing within the digital platforms is rapidly multiplied through the customers themselves, since they are also content producers and have the ability to impact their networks through testimonials about their consumption experiences with your products.

A brand with a solid online image and that talks to its customers knowing how to use the best language is far ahead of its competitors.

When to Invest in Digital Marketing:

Now we come to the key question, “When should I invest in Digital Marketing?”

The answer to that question is simple: NOW! 

Taking your company communication to online platforms is just as important as any other offline marketing strategy, but with the advantage that you can measure results and calculate exactly the return that this effort will give you.

Some fears and uncertainties may stop you at the time of making this decision, for example, the fear of spending money for nothing, the fear of it not working out, the fear of it being too much work and disrupting your other functions, however they cannot paralyze you.

Many times the entrepreneur waits for some external factor, such as improving his product or service before launching to the networks. 

This is a big mistake, especially because the internet will not only boost your sales, but will also be an ally in measuring and receiving feedback about the acceptance of your business.

The financial issue may be another obstacle, but know that you don’t need to use all the strategies at once or invest more than what fits your budget, the important thing is to be present in the virtual world and strengthen your brand.

Therefore, start planning your company’s Digital Marketing as soon as possible. Choose a strategy, be very clear, what you want with it? And above all know that it is important to know your customer, this is the best way to identify what will be the right way to approach him virtually.

Read more: 5 Methods for generating ideas focused on content creation