Grosjean tops field on 1st day of IndyCar practice

Romain Grosjean paced IndyCar’s opening practice at Road America, where his Formula One teammate at Haas is making his series debut. The post Grosjean tops field on 1st day of IndyCar practice appeared first on Buy It At A Bargain – Deals And Reviews.

Preece wins first career NASCAR Truck Series start

Ryan Preece won the first NASCAR race at Nashville Superspeedway in a decade by scoring a victory in his first career Truck Series start. The post Preece wins first career NASCAR Truck Series start appeared first on Buy It At A Bargain – Deals And Reviews.

How to Open a Successful Business in the Digital Age

Are you looking to open a business but don’t know where to start? The digital age has changed the entire scope of doing business, from getting licenses, getting clients, and selling products or services, all of which happens online. Regardless of the type of business you wish to open, having a digital presence is the key to survival. Here are some tips on how to open a successful business in the digital age.

You Cannot Ignore Technology When Looking at How to Open a Successful Business

Even if you run a convenience store where people will find you no matter what, you still have to embrace the digital era. While opening a business may be a straightforward thing, not all are able to do it correctly.

You may have all the relevant tools and software to help run the business at your disposal, but still fail to get it right. So how does one become successful in this digital era? This post will take you through all that you need to know on how to open a successful business.

Things to Know About How to Open a Successful Business Before You Start

So, have you settled on starting a business? That’s great, but as you know, things have changed over the last couple of years. If you want a smooth entry, there are a few things that you ought to know beforehand about how to open a successful business.

Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.

Everything is Now on the InternetThe internet is much more important to how to open a successful business than it used to be. Approximately 53% of shoppers will research on Google to find more information regarding the product or services that they wish to purchase. This includes finding more about the vendor by looking for reviews online.

These numbers are a great eye-opener; hence, the need to have an online presence if you wish to be found by prospects.

The best way around this is to invest in a good website, have an active social media presence, and a good PR strategy.

There’s a crucial aspect you must consider when it comes to websites: Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is a way of making your website search engine-friendly, making it easier to be found online by ranking higher in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). There are many factors to consider when it comes to SEO, such as technical SEO, On-page SEO, and off-page SEO. In a nutshell, once you have a business website, you are not there yet. You still need to optimize it for search engines.

The other crucial thing to know is that almost everyone is now on social media, and you can leverage this platform to boost your business. Some of the ways to effectively utilize social media include:

Create brand awareness
Engage with your audience
Respond much faster to customer inquiries and concerns
Promote your products or services
Instil trust about your brand in your target audience.

You need to choose social media platform that resonates best with your business and invest more resources to help grow your audience and engage the current ones.

Digital PR involves getting reviews from third-party websites, independent reviewers, and get featured on local listings. This is a great way to boost your online visibility, and people will gain more trust in your business.

Getting Funding

Any business needs starting capital, regardless of how big or small the venture is. You need to conduct extensive research on your business to identify how much you need to be operational. Apart the materials and equipment required, you also need to factor in the labor cost and any unforeseeable miscellaneous expenditure.

Furthermore, depending on where you live, you may need certain licenses so as not to get into trouble with authorities.

Furthermore, you need to factor in a marketing budget. While creating a website and social media pages might not seem expensive, it can be costly. This is especially true when you get a professional to help you manage them. For instance, you may need to hire a web developer, an SEO specialist, and a social media manager who will increase your audience and engagement levels.

One way to reduce these is to learn the trade yourself. You can easily register with some of the best online learning platforms to increase your knowledge.

Once you know how much in total you may require for your project, the next step is to identify where to get the funding.

Some of the most effective ways of funding your business are:

Bootstrapping

According to Investopedia, bootstrapping is the act of starting a business with nothing else other than your personal savings. Before you start, have some money in your savings account to get you started. For this to happen, you may plan and save for a while.

Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.

Venture capitalists

Venture capitalists are individuals that invest in businesses that have potential. You need to reach out to them with a proposal of your venture, indicating the scope of business, the predicted results, and what you need to get the business up and running.

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding has grown as a popular funding method for upcoming businesses. One can get assistance in various ways, such as getting a loan to start the business, investors, grants, or other people would assure you to purchase your product once ready, to give you enough money to take it to the larger market.

Have Financial Discipline

Many businesses fail within their first few months due to mismanagement. This is often a result of financial indiscipline. Before you start making any money, you should have a system in place that will help you take control of your finances and identify business trends. Accounting and bookkeeping are some of the most crucial parts of running a business. This shouldn’t be an afterthought.

With these three tips in mind, you are ready to open up your business. But under the current circumstances with the digital age, you are still not there yet. What’s missing? Here are a few pointers to help you navigate the ever-competitive digital market.

How to Open a Successful Business in the Digital Age

Research Your Market

The first thing to do is conduct market research to determine whether your business would make any financial sense. Are the people you wish to sell ready for your product? Have they shown any signs of interest in that particular service? What is the competition like? Are there any businesses of the same type in your area?

Before you settle on any business, you need to find out what other people have to say about it. Do not only rely on the responses of your friends and family. Talk to others also.

Identify Your Target Audience

Never get into the market hoping to attract the right people into your business without having pinpointed who you wish to target. What is your product or service? What type of people are likely to purchase more from you? Which group are you likely to convince to buy from you? That is what we call a target audience.

You need to point out the exact type of people you wish to target, as this will help you curate the right products or services. Furthermore, when it comes to digital marketing, you will save yourself a lot of resources when you target a specific group of people rather than generalized marketing. You have better chances at an increased return on investment (ROI) when you take on this route.

Conduct Competitor Analysis

Getting into the market without conducting an in-depth competitor analysis is simply gambling with your business. Find out what other companies like yours exist and how they are performing. If they’re doing well, identify their key strengths and see what you can bring to the market to outdo them.

Moreover, if your competition is struggling, find out what you can do differently to ensure that people come to you. Are the people getting valuable services from the competition? Are you willing to offer discounts as you start in a bid to lure more customers? How is the competition handling their online marketing strategies?

Always strive to be better.

Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.

Have a Business Plan

A business plan includes all the details necessary to help you run your business, incorporating every aspect of marketing, sales, and customer retention. You need to highlight what your objectives and goals are beforehand and work towards achieving them.

You also need to set up key performance indicators (KPIs) to help you understand the trends and identify if your business is headed in the right direction. This will help you tweak and change the strategies and your approach towards the business.

Embrace Technology

We have already talked about getting a website and an active social media presence to increase your brand visibility online. Still, there are many other ways to embrace technology that will make your operations seamless.

Business automation is the way to go in this digital era, and if you’re stuck handling most of your work manually, then you may sacrifice the revenue. Different businesses require different automation tools and software. Look for any manual tasks that could otherwise get automated to boost your work.

Final words

We hope that our complete guide on how to open a successful business in the digital age will help you get your venture on its feet. Remember that for you to succeed in the digital era, you need to be tech-savvy, understand who your audience is, know what your clients need, keep a close eye on the competition, and of course, have an online presence.

Lidia S. Hovhan is a part of Content and Marketing team at OmnicoreAgency. She contributes articles about how to integrate digital marketing strategy with traditional marketing to help business owners to meet their online goals. You can find really professional insights in her writings.

The post How to Open a Successful Business in the Digital Age appeared first on Credit Suite.

Ecommerce Startup Inventory Financing

How Can Ecommerce Business Startup Inventory Financing Help Your Business?

Selling goods online? Then you might need Ecommerce startup business inventory financing.

Our World Has Changed – and It’s Gone Even More Online

Ecommerce is where it’s at.

Not convinced?

While there was already a lot of online commerce, in March of 2020, due to COVID-19, a good 42% of Americans bought groceries online at least once per week. Orders for grocers from Amazon increased 50 fold!

Statista says about 227.5 million Americans were buying online in 2020, so with 330.7 American citizens, that’s just under 69% of all Americans. They are buying a lot more than groceries online. And that’s only continuing in 2021.

What is Ecommerce Startup Inventory Financing?

According to Investopedia, “Inventory financing is a revolving line of credit or a short-term loan that is acquired by a company so it can purchase products for sale later. The products serve as the collateral for the loan.”

Why Can Ecommerce Startup Inventory Financing Work Right Now?

Online businesses are doing relatively well right now. You already have experience with doing all of your commerce online. With a lot of brick and mortar businesses closed right now, or only tentatively reopening, ecommerce businesses can continue to do well.

Consider Ecommerce Startup Inventory Financing

Use your existing inventory as collateral for business financing. You’ll need inventory valued at $300,000 or more. You can get approved for a line of credit for 50% of inventory value. Rates are usually 5 – 15% depending on type of inventory. Get funding within 3 weeks or less. It can’t be lumped together inventory, like office equipment.

But there may be restrictions on the type of inventory you can use. This can include not allowing cannabis, alcohol, firearms, etc., or perishable goods. There can be revenue requirements. There may also be minimum FICO score requirements.

Alternatives to Startup Inventory Financing

There are a number of other ways to get financing for your online business. Your business – and you – have assets beyond inventory. You can tap these assets as collateral. You can use: a 401(k) or IRA, accounts receivable, or stocks or bonds. The 401(k), stocks, or bonds don’t have to be yours. You can work with a partner with these kinds of assets.

Securities-Based Financing

Use existing stocks as leverage to get business financing. Borrow as much as 90% of their value. You continue to earn interest on the stocks pledged as collateral. Closing and funding takes less than 3 weeks.

Rates can be as low as 1.6%. This is a working capital line of credit. You will have challenged personal credit.

Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.

401(k) Financing

Use your existing 401(k), or IRA as collateral for business financing. This program uses IRS proven strategies. You will pay no tax penalties.

You still earn interest on your 401(k). pay low rates, often less than 5%. Close and fund in less than 3 weeks. You can usually get up to 100% of what’s “rollable” within your 401(k).

Follow these steps. A new corporation is formed; a retirement plan is created to allow for investment into the corporation; funds are rolled over into the new plan. Then the new plan purchases stock in corporation and holds it. The corporation becomes debt free and cash rich.

Accounts Receivable Financing

Use your outstanding account receivables for financing. Get as much as 80% of receivables advanced ongoing in less than 24 hours. The remainder of the accounts receivable are released once the invoice is paid in full. Closing takes 2 weeks or less. Factor rates as low as 1.33%. Accounts receivable credit line with rates of less than 1% with no consumer credit requirement

Receivables should be with the government or another business. If you also have purchase orders, you can get financing to have those filled. You won’t need to use your cash flow to do so.

Amazon Corporate Credit Line

Get revolving or pay in full. You can authorize multiple buyers on a single account and download order history reports and pay by purchase order.

With the pay in full credit line, you get net 55-day billing terms to pay in full with no interest. You can set up primary and secondary accounts for multiple purchasers. And you will get a Dedicated Account Manager.

For the revolving credit line, you can make minimum payments or pay in full monthly. Pay 12.99% purchase APR (the minimum interest charge is $1). You get an option to apply as a personal guarantor to build business credit. And enjoy 24/7 Customer Service.

Amazon Lines of Credit and Working Capital Loans

If your business is eligible, you will see funding options when you log into Seller Central. Currently, lines of credit are offered by Marcus by Goldman Sachs. Loans come from Amazon Lending – specific terms are tailored to the business. Get access to loan funds within 5 days.

Kickfurther

You can finance your next inventory purchase with financing from customers and brand supporters and fundraise directly to them. The way it works is, customers buy through what’s called a Consignment Opportunity. Customers own the products they helped fund until they are sold by the brand. As soon as the products sell, the customer earns payments. Kickfurther also offers an online store for businesses to market and sell their products.

Shopify Capital

With Shopify Capital, you can get 12-month terms. Pay back with a percentage of daily sales. Borrow between $200 and $1 million. The total owed and daily repayment rate depend on risk profile.

OnDeck

OnDeck offers inventory loans and business lines of credit. Term loans runs $5,000 to $250,000, with 12-month terms paid back daily or weekly. Lines of credit run from $6,000 to $100,000. Pay back over 12 months, with automatic weekly payments.

Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.

Get to know Our Hybrid Credit Line Program for Startup Inventory Financing

Check out this form of unsecured funding. Unsecured funding does not require collateral, but the lender’s risk is mitigated by higher interest rates. Our credit line hybrid has an even better interest rate than a secured loan. Yet you can get the money faster and easier than any type of traditional funding. Get business funding without having to supply bank statements or credit stubs. You can get funding in a few days rather than weeks without supplying any collateral or documents.

You can get some of the highest loan amounts and credit lines for businesses. Get 0% business credit cards with stated income. No financials required. These report to business CRAs. You can build business credit at the same time. This will get you access to even more cash with no personal guarantee.

You can often get a loan of 5 times the amount of current highest revolving credit limit account. This is up to $150,000. Easily five times what you could get on your own when applying for cards. Get cash out on this program as well.

Advantages

There will be NO impact on your personal credit with this type of financing. You need a good credit score or a guarantor with good credit to get an approval. With good personal credit, get unsecured credit cards with a personal guarantee. And with good business credit, get unsecured credit cards without a personal guarantee.

Check out business credit. It should be your goal to build business credit, even if you can get funding elsewhere. Business credit will help your company for years to come. Business credit is credit linked to your EIN and not your SSN.

This credit is available without a personal guarantee. It is available regardless of personal credit. You can get business credit immediately. Business credit is the only way to get money for a business when you don’t have collateral, cash flow, good personal credit, or a guarantor.

Ecommerce Startup Inventory Financing: Takeaways

Due to current circumstances, online businesses are doing relatively well. You can get inventory financing for your ecommerce startup. Or use personal or business assets as collateral for business loans. Amazon and Kickfurther offer even more options. Our hybrid credit line is a stellar choice if you or a guarantor have good personal credit. And don’t forget to build business credit, for even more money for your ecommerce startup business.

Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.

The post Ecommerce Startup Inventory Financing appeared first on Credit Suite.

How to Use Google Discovery Ads

Google discovery ads are changing the game by implementing a more powerful AI to take a lot of the guesswork out of paid advertising on Google. Instead of manually optimizing your ads over time, Google AI will take care of it for you using its massive amounts of data.

How?

That’s what we’re going to cover in this article. If you’ve never tried Google discovery ads, now is the time to dive in with both feet and take them for a spin.

What Are Google Discovery Ads?

Discovery ads allow you to take advantage of the AI that Google has created to deliver the most accurate and interesting ads to the people who want them the most. It’s essentially a newsfeed on the Google app that is catered directly to the user’s search intent.

Google discovery ad example from The Office

In addition to being a standard “Google ad,” there’s also a visual aspect now. Instead of a title tag, meta description, and slug, you’re also getting a vibrant image at the top of the display to help draw the attention of the user.

There’s one major difference here.

Instead of the ads being driven by a query, they’re driven by Google AI. This means that the goal of the discovery ads page is to solve the user’s problem or answer their question before they even have to type anything into the search bar.

As the user engages more with the Google discovery page, the AI will pick up on their interests and provide a more accurate representation of what they want to know and what they’re looking for.

In the event that the discovery page isn’t accurate, you can toggle based on what you want or don’t want to see. You can even break it down to exact keywords that you want to see less of.

controlling your Google discovery ad results example

Using the show “The Office” as an example, you can tell Google that you’re not interested in the specific story. You can also say you’re not interested in anything to do with the keyword “The Office,” or you can ask Google to stop displaying content from the media source “NME.” Either way, it puts you in the driver’s seat so you can gradually optimize the newsfeed to see more and more of what you want.

Benefits of Google Discovery Ads

Let’s shift gears now to an advertiser standpoint. You understand the benefits to the user, but what about advertisers on Google? The process of creating these ads is simple and effective. Plus, just like for the user, the advertiser can take advantage of Google AI as well.

Running this ad to test out a new product or spread awareness of something makes the most sense. The goal is for people to “discover” things they might not have known or seen before.

Since Google AI is deciding who to display the ad to, this is also great for retargeting. As users see more and more of your ads, they’ll become more familiar with your brand, and that will build trust.

Here are some of the benefits of this ad type:

Farther reach with one campaign: With one single campaign, you can reach up to three billion people per month. This is because Google discovery ads don’t stop at the Google app. You also advertise on the YouTube homepage, Watch Next, and the Gmail promotions and social tab.
Utilize more relevant advertising: Google is taking the need for user intent out of your hands and putting it into its own. The goal is to deliver the most meaningful and powerful content to the exact people who want it. You don’t need to do your own research anymore to determine what is most relevant because Google AI can take care of it for you.
Drive engagement with visually rich ads: The goal of Google discovery ads is for you to “discover” new things and take an interest in the information and content you find on Google. One great way to do this is with visuals to spark interest and create action. According to Google, 76 percent of people enjoy making unexpected discoveries while shopping. That sounds about right!
Use automated bidding: Choosing your bid is one of the most challenging aspects of managing your ad budget. Google takes this out of your hands with maximized conversion bidding and target CPA to help optimize your campaign. Many of us are putting a lot of trust in Google with this advertising, but what better person than Big G to handle it for us?
Advertise consistently: One of the greatest features of Google discovery campaigns is the fact that your ad will almost always align with the people you reach. There’s no more testing or guessing. Since 85 percent of people take action in 24 hours after discovering something, you’ll stay fresh in their mind if your ad continues to display.

3 Tips for Creating Great Google Discovery Ads

As with any type of digital marketing, be it SEO or paid ads, the right way and wrong way to do it aren’t so clear cut. However, here are some helpful tips to get you closer to the right side of the scale:

Use your best images: These are visual ads that demand high-quality photos and images. You can’t expect anyone to want to click on a low-quality image or an obvious stock photo. The image needs to also create interest and intrigue.
Limit text in images: The goal of these images is not to give it all away so the user never clicks through. By limiting text in the images and reserving all that space for imagery, you’re telling a story that will make them wonder what is happening on the other side.
Build trust right away: Remember that most of the people that see these ads have no idea who you are or what your business is. You’re meeting them for the first time, and like any other newsfeed, they can keep on scrolling pretty quickly. You need to build trust, so use the text space to qualify yourself and tell them why they should click through.

Examples of Google Discovery Ads

Take a look at the Google discovery ad example below.

You’ll see a really interesting headline paired with an interesting image as well. The image is of two men eating pizza while they both look at their laptops. Plus, the headline and body text are both very interesting.

If I were applying for jobs or trying to get the career of my dreams, I might want to know what makes me look like a narcissist in my resume.

That said, I’m not looking for a job, so this is actually a situation where the ad doesn’t apply to me. One great thing about Google discovery is that you can optimize it. Right above the image, it asks you if the card is useful. In this case, it’s not, so I would want to get rid of that ad and not see ones that are similar, even though it’s an interesting topic.

The next example is one from the YouTube homepage, advertising health supplements. My favorite thing about this ad is how direct and clear it is. There’s nothing hiding behind this image. It’s transparent, clear, and straight to the point, which is something that Google looks for in advertisers.

Once you tap through, you can shop for some of the new nootropics mentioned and enter the promo code. They even provide a bit of scarcity in the body text by telling you that the promotion runs out on Saturday.

How to Create Google Discovery Ads

Before we dive into the actual steps you’ll take, there are some things you’ll need to get together first. Make sure you have many different headlines, descriptions, images, and logos because Google AI will play around with these for you to determine what converts the best.

Be sure that the images are extremely high-quality and optimized properly for mobile use. You’ll also want to test out a variety of messaging based on whatever it is you’re selling.

Enabling sitewide tagging and conversion tracking are the final pieces. These make sure your ads are eligible for conversions and help you keep track of every hit you get.

1. Set Up the Campaign

To get started, sign in to your Google Ads account and click the Campaigns tab on the left. Click the Plus button and select a new campaign.

You’ll need to choose an objective such as website traffic, leads, or sales. You can also select “no goal,” but I recommend choosing one because it will give Google a better idea of what you want to accomplish.

Select the discovery campaign type of either a single image ad, carousel, or both, and then click continue. From there, you’ll choose your demographic and target language, as well as a variety of other audience information.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll set up your daily budget and bidding strategy. Save and continue.

2. Set Up Single-Image Ad

If you’re using a single-image ad like many of the examples featured above, you’ll want to go to your discovery ad and click “Ads and Extensions” from the left panel. Click the Plus button, choose the discovery ad, and then enter all the variable information.

Some of these include:

headline
description
images
business name
logos
URL
call-to-action text

None of this is out of the ordinary, but I have plenty of resources available to help you write the best headlines and descriptions.

3. Set Up Carousel Ad

If you’re using a carousel ad, you’ll follow a lot of the same steps by going to ads and extensions, but you’ll choose “discovery carousel ad” this time.

For this one, you’ll need to choose somewhere between two and ten different card images. They each have their own unique shape and size requirements, so you’ll want to pay attention when doing this. With carousel ads, you can also choose two different URLs: one for mobile and one for desktop.

4. Allow Ramp-Up Time

When you have all your assets and messaging together, you need to give the campaigns a little time. Set the budget for high volume but realize no matter what your budget is, it will take some time for Google to identify your ideal user. Be sure you have enough budget for at least two weeks and wait to see at least 40 conversions before making any adjustments.

The good news is, Google AI handles a lot of that for you here, and you shouldn’t often have to make adjustments unless you entirely missed the mark with your advertising copy and images.

5. Use Automatic Targeting

By choosing automatic targeting, you’re letting Google discovery decide for you how you want to display the ads and who you want them to go to.

To do this, you need to go into your discovery ads panel and choose audiences from the navigation menu. Click the pencil and choose Edit Ad Group Targeting. Here you can choose how far you want Google to expand your audience. When you’re satisfied, click Save.

Google Discovery Ads FAQs

I’ve answered the question, “What is Google Discovery?” Now, let’s take a look at some of the other most frequently asked questions.

How Much Do Google Discovery Ads Cost?

Google Discovery works with cost per view (CPV), so that’s how you’ll pay for your ads. A view is counted when someone interacts with your ad. In the case of a video ad, the view is counted when someone watches at least 30 seconds of your ad.

The average CPA for Google Ads discovery campaigns is about $12, so it’s a great way for businesses and marketers with small budgets to get started in paid advertising.

Where Do Google Discovery Ads Appear?

Google discovery ads appear on the Google app homepage, YouTube homepage, Watch Next feed, and Gmail promotions and social tabs.

What Does a Google Discovery Ad Look Like?

A Google discovery ad looks different based on its location. The example below is from the Google discovery newsfeed in the app. google discovery ads example

How Are Google Discovery Ads Different From Google’s Other Ad Types?

There are two main differences. First, Google AI takes control of a lot of things for you. The AI plays around with your headlines, images, and messaging to determine what converts the best. You don’t have to manually do it if you don’t want to.

Second, these ads are more visual than most Google ads. Instead of just having text, you can display a high-quality image to go along with it.

Google Discovery Conclusion: Discover Your Potential

Google discovery ads are a great way to take advantage of everything Google has to offer. It’s offered a way to make advertising even easier with the implementation of AI. I expect to see more of this happening with search ads as well as display ads.

Have you tested out Google discovery ads yet? What has your experience been?