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Have you considered setting up you own printing business?

January 29, 2021 /

Many people have set up a new business during the pandemic. It may be that they have found themselves out of work or that they simply have had the time to do something that they have wanted to for a long time.

As the shops are not open at presence, people are having to buy a number of products they would in store, online. This may include gifts for birthdays, cards or banners. It may be that you want to buy personalised items and gifts such as cake toppers, birthday banners or mugs. It is often hard to get personalised items in shops, especially when only essential shops are open. This is where online printing businesses come in. Setting up a business which allow you to make these products and post them out to people is in high demand at the moment but you need to move fast as it may be when every starts to return to normal, it dies down again. You may ant to have your won website created that allows people to order from you, or maybe you decide to sell through places such as Etsy or Facebook. Once you are up and trading you can then start to expand your reach and advertise in other places.

Is this a good time to set up a new business?

December 16, 2020 /

For many people thinking of setting up their own business now may seem like an unwise time to embark on what can be a risky venture anyway, but it really depends on what your business is as some companies are doing very well in these strange times.

If your business is mainly going to be online which means that it is unnecessary to lease a business premise, then the increase in online purchases in recent times is going to be advantageous to you. The overhead costs of leasing a business premises and employing staff eats away into the most successful businesses profits so not having to do these things could result in a more profitable business.

If you can find a demand for products or services that no other business is fulfilling, then a business in that sector could be successful. As non-essential shops are having to close periodically across the country a number of products are difficult to obtain, an example of this is greetings cards. During the first lockdown many supermarkets sold out of greetings cards as the independent card shops were forced to close. A business that designs and makes bespoke greetings cards would be an example of a potentially successful start-up company that could do well at this time.

Keeping your business hardware secure and up to date

November 16, 2020 /

Technology is great but it can also cause issues if it fails or if it falls into the wrong hands. Many businesses use lots of different types of hardware such as tablets, phones, computers, printers and servers. All of these items need to be looked after and maintained to prolong their life and ensure that data is protected. It may be that you store all your customers details on your in house server. It something happened to this server then you could potentially lose your entire database and if that data got stolen, you may be liable for compensation.

Devices such as tablets may be used by members of the sales team to enable them to go through things with customers on a screen. Without these devices the sales staff may find their job really hard or even impossible. It is important than you ensure all hardware is kept up to date in terms of software updates and that if it stores important data, it is backed up regularly.  You may do this yourself or if you have a lot of devices you may outsource it to a third party IT company.

Creating business cards and signage for your business

October 11, 2020 /

When it comes to marketing, advertising plays an important role. When setting up any business you should try and create a logo as soon as possible. This logo should be used on all advertising and across all platforms such as social media, signage, and stationery a long with printed adverts and of course your website.

Having a uniform logo and colourways across multiple platforms will help to build up brand awareness. Ideally you need to hire a graphic designer to make you a logo or you need to use one of the many websites out there that will create a logo for you for a small fee.

When it comes to print, you need to do your research on which company you will use. You may like to find a local printers who you can liaise with directly and go and look at samples etc if needs be or you may decided to use one of the larger companies online that allows you to upload your finished design or use one of their many templates to create your business cards etc. You may also want to think about uniform or signage. This can often be purchased from the same place and you may be able to save money if ordered all at the same time.

Replacing a laptop with a high-end smartphone-is it good idea?

September 21, 2020 /

As the majority of routine computer tasks can be completed on a smartphone whether it be reading and sending emails to doing online shopping many people are questioning whether to replace their bulky computer with a sophisticated mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet however there are applications that do not translate well from a computer to a mobile device so it is important to consider whether the applications that you use most frequently are amongst these.

As had previously been stated for most ordinary people’s needs a mobile device is fine but if you are a person who uses a computer to write more than an occasional letter perhaps because you work as an author or journalist then a smartphone just will not do. The frustration of trying to type on a small keyboard is one of the main problems as is the ability to organise your work and format it appropriately. In the same way If photography is your hobby and you like to manipulate the images you have captured; a computer makes this process much easier although simple changes to images can be made on modern smartphones.

The decision on whether to go along the route of replacing your laptop with a tablet or smartphone should not be taken lightly as high end smartphones are an expensive purchase but if you need to replace an old computer it is certainly worth considering.